Gale Force Read online

  Gale Force

  Cyborg Force 2

  By

  Cara Bristol

  Gale Force (Cyborg Force 2)

  Copyright © July 2022 by Cara Bristol

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  eISBN: 978-1-947203-46-4

  Editor: Kate Richards

  Copy Editor: Nanette Sipe

  Cover Artist: Croco Designs

  Formatting by Wizards in Publishing

  Published in the United States of America

  Cara Bristol Website: http://carabristol.com

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Other Titles by Cara Bristol

  About Cara Bristol

  Acknowledgements

  They loved so passionately, and then their marriage ended. Will a dangerous assignment give them a second chance or bring a permanent end to their love and lives?

  Gayle Chambers always dreamed of studying alien life. But now that she’s on a sandblasted desert planet, the dream seems more like a nightmare. Dangerous, corrupt officials would just as soon see her dead as allow her research to come to light. If that’s not bad enough, her bodyguard turns out to be her ex-husband who broke her heart and trust when he chose Cyborg Force over her. She’s never forgotten or forgiven the rejection. Now she’s stuck with him while she investigates the secrets of an alien intelligence. Will she be able to complete her mission, or will her life and heart come under siege?

  As a young man, Axel Vander had wanted to become a cyborg and save the world. Then he met and married the love of his life, the brilliant, ambitious Dr. Gayle Chambers. He never fathomed joining C-Force would destroy their marriage. He only wanted to become a husband she could be proud of. Instead, she walked out, divorcing him and shattering his heart. He’s never gotten over the betrayal, but he’ll perform his duty and keep her safe. But how will he protect his wounded heart?

  Braving fierce dust storms and deadly government machinations, they’ll race against the clock to save an alien intelligence. But can Axel and Gayle regain the love they once had before time runs out?

  Gale Force is a heart-tugging, steamy, suspenseful second book in the Cyborg Force science fiction romance series.

  Author’s Note

  Gale Force is a work of romantic fiction set on an imaginary planet at some undetermined future date. It envisions and projects what might occur based on research of present-day trends.

  Chapter One

  Gayle

  I maintained a calm demeanor until the door closed on the Geo-Tech director’s office, and then I stomped down the hall. Of all the luck! How could this have happened? Like they always said—if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. My dream job had come with a nasty surprise.

  “You’re headed the wrong way,” the object of my animus said.

  “You have no idea where I’m headed,” I snapped.

  “Neither do you.” Axel smirked, pointing in the opposite direction. “The lab is that way. You want to see it, don’t you?”

  Damn him for being right. I had an urge to deny it and insist on going to my new apartment, but, as my bodyguard, Axel would follow me there, too. As much as I disliked Axel Vander, I wouldn’t allow personal animosity or history to undermine my professionalism.

  “Fine.” I gritted my teeth. “Lead the way.”

  He pivoted and strutted down the corridor.

  This was a nightmare! Okay, nightmare might be slightly hyperbolic. The scary part was the possibility certain people might go to extreme lengths to suppress the project I’d be working on, so I’d been assigned a bodyguard.

  But why did the bodyguard have to be my ex-husband?

  Axel sauntered to the elevator. Of course, we had to wait for it. The director’s office sat on the top floor of the six-story Geo-Tech building; the astrobiology lab and my office were in the basement.

  I focused on the lighted buttons. The elevator appeared to be stuck on floor two. Great. Just great. “Have you been on Sajave long?” I asked, not caring, but maybe a little chitchat would ease the tension.

  “No.”

  I’d considered it a welcoming gesture when Breeze O’Day, my new boss, had informed me an escort would accompany me from Earth to Sajave. I’d been so excited to come to another planet. I was an astrobiologist, but, until now, I’d always been stuck in the lab; I’d never been off Earth. Then Axel showed up at my apartment and announced he’d be escorting me. A big red flag, but I was still thrilled I’d be working on Sajave.

  Until I saw the planet. My first impression hadn’t been a good one. After entering the atmosphere, the spacecraft had skimmed over the planet’s surface before landing near Città, the westernmost city. Everyone knew Sajave was covered with sand; I hadn’t realized that meant only sand. The most arid desert had some plant and animal life. Not Sajave. At one point, we’d flown over some massive ugly solar and wind farms, but, other than that, nothing broke up the monotony of the endless white sand.

  That’s when buyer’s remorse had set in. But I’d made a professional commitment and signed a contract. So I faked an I’m-so-happy-to-be-here face when I met with Breeze, my new boss. Then she informed me the sand was alive, possibly intelligent, and I had been hired to prove or disprove the intelligence hypothesis. Now, that was worth coming to Sajave for! If only Axel wasn’t involved.

  “Did you know?” I tapped my foot as we waited for the glacially slow elevator.

  “Did I know what?”

  “The nature of the…project.” I had to be careful what I said. We couldn’t talk in unsecured areas like hallways. Nobody—not even other Geo-Tech employees or company higher-ups—could find out about the suspected intelligence until it had been proven. Breeze had been adamant. The cloak-and-dagger stuff seemed over the top, not to mention an unnecessary hindrance, but I’d been on Sajave all of four hours, and it wasn’t my place to tell the western director of Geo-Tech she was overreacting.

  The government had contracted with Geo-Tech to find a way to mitigate the pervasive intrusion of the sand because it interfered with colonization. Of course, the discovery of intelligent life would scuttle development, and the government would try to discredit our conclusions.

  “My project is to protect you,” Axel said. The elevator arrived, and we got on. “You’ll need to use your badge. The basement itself isn’t a locked area
, but entries and exits are recorded. Your lab, however, is secure.”

  I swiped my badge over the reader, and the elevator descended.

  “Yes, I knew,” he said. “The C-Force team assigned to this detail was briefed.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Even with the shortcut through the wormhole, the trip had taken two days, and Axel had stuck to me like space junk trapped in orbit. I couldn’t go to the mess hall or the observation deck without him tagging along. He’d had plenty of opportunity to clue me in.

  “Not my job. You didn’t have a need-to-know yet. You hadn’t signed the nondisclosure agreement. Once you saw Sajave, you might have decided to go home.”

  I had considered it. And my logical mind conceded he had a point. Until I’d met with Breeze and been briefed, I wasn’t officially on the project, so he didn’t have the authority to reveal sensitive information. But, due to our history, I wasn’t inclined to cut him any slack. “Yeah, you’re good at keeping secrets, aren’t you?”

  His face tightened.

  “Was it worth it, Axel?” I asked. Was it worth sacrificing our marriage? Sacrificing me?

  The elevator opened, and I shot off. Fortunately, I could turn only one way, so I didn’t embarrass myself with another stupid mistake.

  “Yes,” he bit out.

  We’d had a tempestuous marriage—we’d loved deeply, furiously. I’d never imagined we wouldn’t grow old together—until Axel had chosen C-Force over me. He’d enlisted without telling me, deciding on his own to undergo the physical and cellular modifications to become a cyborg. I’d felt betrayed. How could he have undertaken a life-changing decision without checking with me?

  I hadn’t signed up to become a “C-Force widow,” which was how people referred to wives of cyborgs because of the long tours of duty—not to mention the perils, which turned some wives into actual widows.

  I wondered if he’d remarried. My Geo-Tech contract committed me to a year on Sajave. Axel would be with me the entire time. Did he have a wife who might object to him spending so much time with another woman?

  She had nothing to fear from me. I didn’t steal other women’s husbands, even if he had been mine first. I had no feelings for Axel—other than residual animosity.

  “Did you ever remarry?” I asked.

  “Curious, are you?”

  “No. I don’t care. I wish to avoid any…complications.”

  “Like a jealous spouse?” Like you would have been was what he meant.

  Affairs almost always started out as innocent friendships until a spark ignited passions and judgment went up in flames. During our marriage, I’d never worried Axel would cheat on me, but why throw temptation in a man’s path? Some wives would worry about that.

  Axel had blindsided me. Could someone be loyal in one way but not in another? If I couldn’t trust him with my heart, could I trust him with my life? I was going to find out. Fortunately, I highly doubted it would come to that.

  “You don’t need to worry about a jealous spouse,” he said.

  Did that mean his wife wasn’t the jealous type or that he wasn’t married? “You didn’t used to be so obtuse.” Couldn’t he answer a simple question?

  “How do you know? You never knew me.” His bitter tone pissed me off. I was the wronged party, not him, but I had no retort because the words themselves were true. He wasn’t the man I’d believed he was. The man I’d thought I’d married wouldn’t have enlisted in C-Force.

  “Can’t argue with that.” I swiped my badge over the reader outside a door marked BIOLOGY LABORATORY, and we entered a clean, white office space. DR. GAYLE CHAMBERS read the plaque on a door to my left. Straight ahead behind a glass panel was the lab itself. From this first glimpse, Geo-Tech appeared to have spared no expense. I spotted top-of-the-line electronic and fluorescence microscopes, centrifuges, DNA sequencers, incubators, balances—everything an astrobiologist needed to study a living organism. As with most research projects, the government, aka the lowly taxpayer busting his ass working at a convenience store or waiting tables, picked up the tab, so money wasn’t an issue.

  “No, I never remarried,” Axel finally admitted.

  Yeah, well. I didn’t care anymore. If he couldn’t answer the question when I’d asked, I didn’t care. I’d moved on.

  “You haven’t remarried, either,” Axel stated.

  That caught my attention. “How do you know?”

  “I read your dossier.”

  “What dossier?”

  “The one I received on you as a client of C-Force.”

  What the fuck? My life was an open book. I had nothing to hide, but that didn’t mean I wanted my ex digging into my life. I fumed. “If there’s something you want to know, ask me.”

  He raised his hands. “Before you blow a gasket—it’s standard operating procedure for C-Force to run background checks on clients to identify potential vulnerabilities and threats. Besides, Breeze asked us to vet applicants as part of the hiring process.”

  I planted my hands on my hips. “So, what’s in my dossier?”

  “The basics. Name, age, marital status. You never had kids. You have PhDs in astrobiology and chemistry. And a BA in music. And you adopted a shelter cat.” He scowled a little. Axel and Lucy hadn’t gotten along.

  “You needed a dossier to tell you that?”

  “The music degree was news to me.”

  To keep from moping after the divorce, I’d gone back to college. I could have gotten an advanced degree in a related professional field, but I’d needed a diversion to take my mind off the debacle of my marriage. I’d always enjoyed music.

  “Nor did the dossier prepare me for the demon.” He rubbed his hand where Lucy had scratched him a little.

  “Lucy is not a demon. She got scared!”

  “Lucy? Is that short for Lucifer?”

  “You were rough when you yanked her out of the air duct.”

  “She was gouging the hell out of me!”

  It had been my cat’s first space flight, so she’d crawled into a vent. Fortunately, she’d suffered no lasting ill effects—and neither had Axel. The scratches had healed overnight, vanished like they’d never been. However, Lucy had drawn blood, and I’d felt bad until Axel had acted like an asshole about the whole thing.

  “Do you still play the piano?” he asked. “And the flute?”

  “Yes. I didn’t bring the piano for obvious reasons, but I did bring my flute.” I would miss my baby grand, but maybe I could rent an upright. Music lifted my spirits no matter what my mood. I’d play when I was happy, sad, excited, or stressed, and the music would carry me away. Music had healed many ills—except my marriage. It hadn’t been able to fix that.

  “I used to love listening to you play,” he said, and then scowled as if he regretted admitting he’d enjoyed anything about me.

  I never could have fathomed our marriage would end in such rancor. But I never imagined Axel would choose C-Force over me. We had loved so passionately. But obviously, the passion had been one-sided. I had loved Axel to the depths of my being; he had loved C-Force.

  The door opened, and a young woman entered the bio lab. She sported purple hair and a nose ring, but her brown-eyed gaze was direct and her handshake brisk. “Dr. Chambers! I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to meet you when you arrived. I’m Kaylee Hartmann, your assistant.”

  “Yes! Kaylee! It’s so nice to meet you.” I pumped her hand, grateful for a buffer. Breeze had told me I’d have a lab/personal assistant. I hadn’t realized she’d already been hired. I snuck a glance at the coding on the badge clipped to her lab coat. She had a top-level security clearance. At this point, she probably knew more about the project than I did. I couldn’t wait to pick her brain.

  “Have you met Axel Vander?” I felt obligated to introduce them.

  “No, no I haven’t.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” he said, and treated her to a warm grin instead of the smirks he’d g
iven me. My stomach tightened. It was me he didn’t like.

  “Mr. Vander is my bodyguard.” I tried not to choke on the word.

  Kaylee’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second. “Bodyguard?” She glanced between me and Axel but recovered her poise. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you,” she said. Her gaze shifted to me again. “Do you need to settle into your office, or would you like to see the lab? I can go over procedures and equipment with you.”

  “Oh, the lab, please.” I smiled.

  “This way, then.” She badged into the lab. I followed. To my relief, Axel remained outside.

  Chapter Two

  Axel

  Gayle and her assistant entered the lab and, moments later, the security glass turned opaque. When it didn’t lighten again, I suspected my ex-wife had asked that it remain dark so she could shut me out.

  No harm could befall her, so I flung myself into a chair to wait. My ass would be keeping this seat warm for months to come.

  When the C-Force director had forwarded the dossier on my new protectee, I’d about shit my pants. I hadn’t seen my ex-wife in nineteen years and had hoped to go another nineteen. She’d pretty much ripped my heart out when she left me.

  My ex had accused me of keeping secrets by joining C-Force without her knowledge when the truth was I had told her it was my big dream. I’d expressed my admiration for C-Force all the time. Ever since encountering a cyborg as a kid, I’d wanted to join C-Force. I’d been on the verge of applying right after high school, but my dad died, so my goal got put on hold while I helped my mom.

  Then Gayle and I met. We fell in love and married. Being a newlywed, I postponed my application again. Then her career as an astrobiologist took off while I bounced from job to job, unable to settle into an occupation because the dream wouldn’t let go. Like a steady drumbeat, it reminded me I’d become a drifter, and, if I didn’t get my shit together, my rising star wife would find somebody much better than me.