“Use me as bait.” Harper shrugged and took a large gulp of water. That was the most logical thing she could think of. They wanted her. She wanted them. Let’s get together.

Rome was silent. A tiny muscle twitched in his jaw while he stared at her. She turned her full attention to him, wondering what would make the clear blue in his eyes storm so violently.

“No,” he whispered, and shook his head. Clearly the idea did not appeal to him.

“Why not?” she asked, ignoring his troubled look. “It’s me they want.”

“They’ll kill you.” He shook his head again. “We’ll find another way.”

“I’m already dead,” Harper said, wondering at his adamant caution. Regardless of her imminent demise, she didn’t think the faction wanted her dead as long as they thought they could squeeze the serum out of her. Maybe with Rome’s experience with this sort of thing, he sensed they were through trying.

But she still didn’t see the problem. Hadn’t he seen her moving rocks? Plus she could heal fast. She was near invincible.

Taking the last bite of her tasty sandwich, she glanced at their sketched map again. When she went to Bobby’s lab, she’d used his direct secret entrance. Yesterday she and Rome had used a back door.

But as she’d explained to Rome on their walk back from the creek a few hours ago, the one problem they were going to have was that her psionic powers didn’t work indoors.

Rome had protested, citing their first encounter together. Bobby’s lab was different, she’d clarified. He’d been impressed that her brother had crafted sunshine for them. And for the same reason the plants were able to draw strength from the lights, her powers had worked in there.

When in natural daylight, she flourished with vitality. So they needed to draw the faction outside to have a chance.

“Here,” she said, pointing at a spot on the map. She circled her finger around the front entrance, which, according to the layouts, as well as to what Rome knew, was a square, concrete walled area with two small depots bordering an open patio, a mix between a square and a U shape. Almost like a gladiator pit from a Roman coliseum. How fitting.

“What about it?” Rome asked, peering at the drawing while he chewed the last of his sandwich.

“Isn’t this a courtyard?” Harper tapped on the paper in the middle of the assumed structures, recalling the aerial maps they’d found on the Internet. “Let’s lure them here.”

She watched him focus intently on the map as he licked the crumbs off his fingertips. The spinning wheels in his mind were nearly visible in every flickering movement of his eyes.

He turned the map around several times, checking it out from different angles, and then sat back, raising his gaze to hers. Mimicking his pose, she leaned back in her bar stool as well, waiting for his competent assessment.

“It could work,” he finally said, though with obvious reluctance. He rubbed a hand over his head, clearly distressed about something. “If we could draw them out somehow, they would essentially be isolated.”

“And vulnerable,” she added, thinking about just how exposed they would be to her powerful psionic mind energy. In one crushing swoop, she could take care of all of them.

“Right,” he agreed, drawing out the word and giving her an odd look as he picked up a knife to cut the brownies in the pan. He handed one to her.

Holy cow, these brownies are good.

“Their only retreat would be back into the facility. The quad’s formation would work against them. But we need to get them there first.”

“So use me as bait,” she said again. Watching him chew his little piece of bliss, she caught the troubled look in his eyes. Was he scared for her? She had to reassure him. “I’m not afraid.”

“I am,” he said simply, his intense gaze burning into hers. “I’m afraid of losing you, Harper.”

Rome’s vulnerability touched a chord deep inside as no other words had before. His stark concern was both reassuring and disconcerting at the same time. But it wasn’t necessary.

“You won’t,” she insisted stubbornly. They would not lose each other. At least not this way. “I will not let them tear us apart like they did to Bobby and me.”

He just looked at her, his uneasy gaze still swirling, beseeching.

“I won’t let that happen to us.” She reached across the counter to clutch his chilled wrist with both of her hands. “I promise you, I will kill every single one of them before I let anything like that happen again.” She gazed squarely into his eyes and squeezed his hand in a silent vow, asking him to believe in her. “You won’t lose me.”

“I already have,” Rome said, sadness and frustration coloring his tone.

“What are you talking about?”

Rome lowered his gaze and looked away for a long moment. She sat there, just waiting. He finally turned to face her, his hand almost twitching in her grasp, as though he wanted to pull it away. She wouldn’t let him and tightened her grip.

“You’re losing yourself, Harper,” he said quietly. Well, that explained nothing. “You just want to go in there and wipe them out.”

“What’s wrong with that?” she asked, seriously wondering why he had a problem with the old eye for an eye. He should know much better than she did. This was his job, wasn’t it?

“Do you want justice or revenge?” he asked, yanking his hand out of her grasp and sliding off the stool to stand, his motions jerky and tense.

“What’s the difference?” She slipped from her stool as well to stand before him, nearly face-to-face. Anger simmered in the pit of her stomach, leaden and coarse. “I want retribution. I want each and every one of them to know just what they did to me. I want them to get what they deserve.”

He took a step away from her, shaking his head and clenching his jaw.

“Harper, listen to yourself,” he snapped, holding his arms out wide, his eyes demanding. “You’re consumed by your need for revenge. And frankly, it’s really creepy.” Taking a deep breath, he gestured at her in frustration. “And it’s not you.”

Harper was livid. More than livid. Heated anger raced in her blood, and she fought with all her might to keep it down. To keep from lashing out at the one person she thought for sure was on her side. She took a deep breath and two steps back, struggling to control her budding rage.

“How do you know me?” she asked in a calm, still voice, narrowing her eyes. “You don’t know anything about me.”

He looked as though she’d slapped him. She certainly felt like doing it, but his expression said she didn’t need to. Her words had done the trick, cutting deeper than any knife could. She winced inside with the knowledge that she’d hurt him.

“I know that a few weeks ago, my life was hollow.” His rich voice was quiet now, almost disenchanted. “I know that now you’ve become the center of my world. That’s all I need to know.”

“That’s all you need to know?” she asked incredulously, comforted by his words and at the same time, restless from their message. But she needed to set him straight. “You need to know that a few weeks ago I was an Olympic hopeful, training for my swimming trials. Excited to spend some downtime with my brother. Now my brother is dead and I’m a fallen rogue with superhero powers, a fugitive from a covert and ruthless government faction that wants to dissect me like some lab rat in hopes that they can create supercommandos from the serum I inadvertently injected inside my body.”

Breathing heavily from her long tirade, she just stood there staring at him. A blank expression covered his face, as if he had no idea what to say. Heck, she had no idea what she wanted him to say.

Harper shook her head slowly, calming her tangled nerves. She was tired. So tired of what her life had become. She wanted to end this once and for all so that she could begin to move on in what little time she had. Was that so wrong?