Harder Than Steel Read online

  Harder Than Steel

  Jacey Ward

  Chloe Fischer

  Praise for Jacey Ward & Chloe Fischer and the “HARDER” Series

  Incredible Sci-Fi romance that will curl your toes!! MUST-BUY!!

  Amazon Reviewer

  Fast paced and exciting book that I highly recommend!

  Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer

  Harder Than Stone: The Next Generation Of Power - 5 Stars!!

  Sharon R.

  Harder Than Steel

  She thinks she can run from me?

  That’s. Not. Happening.

  Roan, a second generation, engineered power-holder, fights to stay one step ahead of Oculus, the organization responsible for his astounding abilities.

  But while breaking into a warehouse that’s owned by Oculus, Roan comes across another…prettier…thief.

  Kimberly has her own reasons for hunting Oculus – and she’s not sharing those reasons with this overbearing, bossy, hulk of a guy who thinks he rescued her.

  He has no idea what she can do.

  She could kill him with the touch of a finger and he’d never know what hit him. In fact, even Kimberly doesn’t understand why her blood is deadly to anyone who touches it…but Oculus knows why.

  And she’s determined to find the answers to her black widow destiny.

  If she joins powers with Roan, will they really have a better chance of unlocking the secrets that Oculus is hiding? Or is Roan just another undercover agent sent to capture her?

  To trust, or not to trust…

  Or should she just destroy him first – before he gets another chance to destroy her?

  For sisters everywhere -

  even if you aren’t together, you’re…together.

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Chapter 1

  2. Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  THE ‘HARDER’ SERIES…

  The ‘Hard’ Series…

  ALSO BY JACEY WARD

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  Prologue

  “STOP! ROAN, STOP!”

  The panic in his father’s voice was enough to freeze anyone in his tracks but Roan continued to focus, his concentration unbroken despite Xavier’s cries.

  I’ve got this, Dad! Don’t…

  “Almost…there…” he breathed, feeling his body dissolving. He could feel his cells being displaced around the room, the molecules of life shifting about to float around him—

  “GODDAMMIT, ROAN!”

  The boy was physically wrenched back, Xavier’s strong hands whipping him into his full form as his father glowered over him.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” the older Conway choked, his hands trembling even though he kept a firm grip on his son’s upper arm. “I told you to stop!”

  “Aw come on, Dad,” eight-year-old Roan grumbled. “I almost had it!”

  Slowly, color began to return to Xavier’s face as he shook his head in disbelief.

  “You have no idea what you might have done to yourself,” he choked. “You’re too young to be practicing those abilities.”

  “It’s better he start now and harness those powers,” Drake boomed, strolling into the living room of their house, unannounced. “The earlier, the better. If he waits too long, he won’t have proper control.”

  “No one asked you, Dad,” Xavier shot back, fear for his son sharpening his tone.

  “Grandpa’s right,” Roan insisted. “I should be practicing, not hiding this away. Do you know that this is a physical impossibility? I read it online.”

  “Son, I hate to tell you this but our entire family is rife with physical impossibilities,” Xavier retorted dryly. “Which makes them all the more dangerous. You need to go slowly.”

  “Don’t discourage him, Xavier. He’s coming into his own,” Drake interjected. “Imagine where you’d be now if you had been diligently using your abilities when you were his age.”

  “Roan, I want you to listen to me very carefully,” Xavier said, disregarding his father. “That talent that you have, the one for disbursing energy, it’s not to be used on yourself. Do you understand me? In fact, don’t use it on people at all.”

  “Aw Dad!”

  “Really, Xavier, I think you’re being unreasonable,” Drake agreed. Roan did not miss the look of frustration his father gave his grandfather.

  “Some of us value human life more than others, Father,” Xavier growled before turning back to his son. “Do you understand me, Roan?”

  “Why though? If I wasn’t mean to have that ability, why would I be able to do it?” Roan protested. “Or almost do it…” he muttered under his breath.

  “Your abilities are not divine intervention, kid,” Xavier retorted. “So stop thinking they are.”

  Roan looked at his father pensively, the question ready to spring from his lips but Xavier shut him down before he could ask.

  What are they if they aren’t some gift from the gods?

  “That’s a conversation for another time,” Xavier growled. “For now, I need you to understand that if you ever disassemble atoms like that in a person, you could kill them and trust me, Roan, that is not something you want on your conscience.”

  “Look who’s talking about a conscience,” Drake interjected. Roan’s blue eyes widened. It wasn’t unusual for his dad and grandpa to go at it, but their tempers were especially hot today. He chalked it up to the quarters being too close on the compound some days. Roan knew even at the tender age of eight that if he listened closely enough, he’d learn bits and pieces about his mother’s and father’s juicy past.

  Although how he knew it was juicy, he couldn’t say. For as long as he’d been alive, he’d only known the confines of the vast compound which he had lived with his family, his parents, aunts, cousins and grandfather. The reasons they’d lived in relative seclusion remained a mystery to young Roan but each day, he seemed to learn more and more about the secrets of the past.

  One day, he thought with some youthful glee. I’ll know everything.

  Of course he was too young to understand that their alienation from the world was for their own safety and that with great knowledge came great burden also. All he knew was that the older members of the Conway family were able to come and go as they pleased and one day, he would do the same.

  It was something he often discussed with his younger cousin, his uncle Ryder’s son and his best friend.

  Coy and I are going to get the hell out of here and see the world one day. We’ll be able to use our powers any way we want and no one will tell us otherwise.

  “Dad, what are you even doing here?” Xavier demanded, exasperation coloring his words as he moved his eyes toward Drake. “Don’t you have something better to do than be here?”

  “I needed to have a word with you in private when you’re done suffocating my grandson,” Drake said with underlying anger and Roan’s father’s eyes narrowed into little slits.

  Uh oh, Roan thought. Now he’s pissed off Dad.

  “Wait outside,” Xavier snapped. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “We don’t have many of those,” Drake replied but he did turn to wander out the sliding glass doors again, leaving the younger generation alone.

  With a heavy sigh, Xavier again turned back to his son.

  “Roan, again, I can’t stress how important it is that you listen to me in this. That power…it’s lethal.”

  “Aw, Dad,
okay but what’s the big deal? We all have stuff that can be dangerous, don’t we?”

  “Some of us more than others,” Xavier replied, gritting his teeth. “And you’ve…you’ve got a lot going on, Roan. More than you even realize yet.”

  Contrary to his father’s intentions, the words filled Roan with a heady thrill, one which almost took his breath away.

  What else can I do? What does Dad know about me that I don’t know about myself?

  It was pointless to press his father on the issue, especially when Drake was outside, pacing back and forth, tapping on his watch impatiently.

  I bet he’s going on another secret mission!

  “We’ll talk about this more later,” Xavier promised and Roan had to accept that as his answer.

  “Okay, Dad,” Roan agreed begrudgingly. “Talk later.”

  Xavier ruffled his mop of unruly blonde curls and turned toward the backyard, leaving Roan to watch after him.

  “Roan?”

  He turned around as his father and grandfather disappeared out of view, their heads close as though they were discussing something very private.

  “Hey Mom.”

  Danica Conway eyed him questioningly.

  “What are you doing?”

  He shrugged.

  “Not much now,” he replied with some sullenness, remembering his promise to his father.

  “You weren’t…” Danica took a deep breath and exhaled in a whoosh. “Roan ... were you using your abilities again?”

  Roan scowled.

  Why were his parents always on him about that? What was the purpose of having the abilities if he couldn’t use them?

  “No, Mom,” he lied. “I wasn’t.”

  He could see she didn’t believe him in the least. Her jaw tightened and she muttered something he couldn’t quite hear, her eyes flashing.

  “What, Mom?” he demanded, expecting to hear yet another lecture, but Danica’s frown only deepened.

  “I’m worried, honey,” she sighed. “And frustrated that we need to keep reminding you to stay out of trouble with your powers.”

  “But…Mom,” he mumbled. “I don’t understand why I have these abilities if I can’t use them?”

  “I know,” she replied. “I get that you’re frustrated too, son, but it’s just the way it has to be – the chance of someone getting hurt is just too high.”

  A wave of hurt washed over him as he realized that even his mother didn’t trust him to be able to control his abilities.

  Why does everyone think I’m going to hurt someone?

  “Fine,” he muttered bitterly. “Don’t trust me then. I don’t care.”

  “Roan, it’s not about trust. It’s about you not treating these things like they’re toys. They’re not things to be played with — they’re dangerous.” Danica said firmly, folding her arms over her chest.

  Her tired gaze avoided that of her only son.

  Is she mad at me? What did I do?

  “I-I wasn’t using them,” Roan muttered, staring at her pleadingly. “I wasn’t!”

  “I hope not, son,” Danica murmured, turning away from him quickly, but not before Roan noticed that she didn’t meet his eye again. “Let’s go have lunch.”

  His mother turned away but Roan didn’t immediately follow, his pulse quickening as he stared after her for a long moment.

  Why did she look at me like that?

  For the first time in his young life, Roan thought he saw something in Danica that he had never noticed before, and it hurt to think it ...

  His mother was afraid of him.

  Chapter 1

  A Couple Decades Later…

  Cabin Ten was just like the other dozen cabins sitting among the thick pines of the Washington woods. Sparsely decorated with a plaid couch and double bed, it was meant to function as little more than a hunting cottage for the sporting man. But that wasn’t why it appealed to Roan.

  The seclusion was a benefit, the nondescript structure nestled among the trees, overlooking Lake Wenatchee. But it was the proximity to Route 207 which was most attractive to him. It was why Roan had chosen it. In fact, he’d had to delay his quest for an extra day to ensure that he got Cabin Ten, because some off-season tourist had booked it for a week.

  It has to be perfect. If Coy was right about this, I can’t afford a screw-up. It’ll be the only chance I have to get into the warehouse. The second they’re alerted to a breach, the place will be shut down harder than Fort Knox and I’ll never get another opportunity to get back in.

  His cousin had given him as much intel as he could, but there was still so much to be learned about what the warehouse held.

  Is it Oculus or is it something else?

  Roan had every right to question the information. He was no stranger to disappointment and being misled. Oculus was always too far ahead of him, of all the Conways, to trust any bit of data they received.

  But Roan knew there was no other way to find out what he needed to know but to go forth and find out.

  Half the fun is not knowing, he reasoned although he wasn’t sure how true that was anymore.

  When Roan had been old enough to learn about the secrets of the Conway bloodline, the excitement had been enough to drive him for years but as Roan neared thirty, his childlike wonder for danger was certainly lessening.

  Silently, he wished that Coy had come with him but his cousin was off following up something else in the Andes with Audrey and Jameson.

  I don’t really need him, Roan reasoned,but as much as he loathed to admit it, the quiet was unnerving him in the cabin.

  Even in his youth, in the solitude of the complex, he’d never gotten used to silence. There was nothing calming about it no matter what anyone said.

  The only time dead quiet was necessary was when there was just that—death.

  But Roan did not have the time nor the attention to waste on his discomfort.

  He’d been there for a day, plotting his approach to the target, a splay of maps laid out before him over the scarred coffee table as he pondered the best way to enter the warehouse undetected.

  Try as he might, there was not a blueprint of the building anywhere that he could find, as if the warehouse had simply been dropped out of the sky and placed in the middle of the woods overnight.

  Last night, he’d taken a trip to the secured area, noting with deep disappointment that there were armed guards on the premises.

  If that isn’t confirmation that Oculus has something worth hiding in there, nothing is, he thought grimly. That, coupled with the idea that anyone would bother to arm a warehouse which was inconspicuously built in the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest screamed warnings at him.

  Even if it’s not them, something fishy is going on behind those walls, Roan concluded, rising from his spot. His ass cheeks had gone numb and his stomach growled slightly as he realized he hadn’t eaten anything since the previous night. Dusk was still a little ways off and Roan knew he wasn’t making his move without the cloak of darkness.

  There was time enough to stop at the sleepy diner he’d passed on the way in before coming back to prepare.

  Again, his belly rumbled and Roan grunted at himself.

  “Yeah, I heard you,” he muttered, the sound of his own voice nearly surprising him. It had been a long while since he’d heard any kind of noise.

  Who the hell wants to live like this? He wondered, not for the first time. While hell might be other people, solitude had to be purgatory in Roan’s opinion.

  Of course, he knew that his upbringing had a lot to do with the way he currently lived his life. Hunting trips, camping, remote getaways were not his thing. They were only reminders of survival training, not pleasure trips.

  I can’t wait to get back to Seattle. I’m planning a trip to Vegas after this, he vowed, grabbing his key to the cabin and wallet from the rickety side table before making his way out to the silver Range Rover waiting in the mud.

  “Oh, my precious angel,” he sighed, noting the
filth on the side of the doors. “I will make this up to you, I promise.”

  He stroked the hood of the dirty vehicle lovingly before climbing inside and pulling out of the laneway, passing the other cottages as he did.

  There didn’t seem to be many other people around but Roan’s inherent sense of caution kept his eyes honed for signs of movement, just in case.

  Not that he had seen any real danger in years.

  All that training for nothing, he thought, navigating his way through the backroads, a hint of jealousy touching him as he thought about what Audrey had been through a few years prior. He had only been twenty-one at the time but he could still remember the rush of it all.

  His grandfather remained convinced that Oculus was staying off the radar but still very much alive yet Roan wasn’t sure he believed it.

  He peered at the burner phone on the seat beside him as he pulled into the diner’s lot. It was more a dirt pit than a parking area but gauging by the cars nearby, he suspected he was in the right place to park.

  “I am so sorry,” he mumbled to the car again and sighed, patting the steering wheel.

  Nowhere to take Suzy in for a detail before we get home. I hope she forgives me.

  He stuck a heavy, steel-toed boot onto the mud and pulled his six-foot-four frame out of the SUV, gazing around instinctively.

  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but then again, why would it be? No one knew he was there except for Coy and maybe Audrey if his cousin had mentioned it to her.

  You’re turning into Grandpa, looking both ways crossing a one-way street, he chuckled to himself, making his way up the rotting wooden steps toward the trailer-style diner.