Steele by Sherri L. King Read Free Book Online Page A

reached out and snatched the gun from his hand, crunching it in his fists. Marla watched with disbelief.
    Daniel suddenly screamed and clutched his head. He fell to the floor, writhing in agony. “Stop it,” he shrieked. “Stop it Marla!”
    Marla looked at Steele and shook her head. She had no idea what she was doing, if she was indeed doing anything at all.
    Daniel choked out a scream, grasping his head in his fisted hands. Steele walked over to him, bent down and pried open one of Daniel’s eyelids. “He’s not faking,” Steele said, looking back at Marla.
    “Of course I’m not faking,” Daniel spat unevenly, groaning.
    Steele lifted him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out onto the front lawn. Once there, Daniel seemed to ease, but the moment Marla stepped out onto her porch, he clutched at his head again with another agonized scream. Steele took Daniel’s head in his own hands and carefully looked through his hair.
    Steele pinched something off Daniel’s scalp and held it up to the moonlight. Immediately Daniel eased, shuddering quietly on the ground.
    “What is it?” Marla had to ask.
    “It looks like a microchip,” Steele said. “You must have interfered with it somehow. No wonder Siren wants you so badly.” He grabbed Daniel’s collar again and put his face close to the weakened man’s. “What is this thing for?”
    Daniel spat in his face.
    Steele shook him. “You’ll tell me what this is for one way or another. Choose wisely.”
    Daniel sobbed for breath. “It’s top secret. You can’t have the technology.”
    “I don’t want the technology. But you’ll tell me what it’s for and quit stalling.”
    “It’s a cerebral enhancing chip,” Daniel said at last. “It’s meant to improve motor skills and brain power.”
    “How does it work? It’s not surgically implanted—how can it work?”
    “It doesn’t need to be implanted surgically.”
    “So what do you do, just plant them on people willy-nilly?” Marla asked, incredulous.
    “Absolutely. We can put them on anyone,” Daniel said with a smug smile.
    “And you’re testing this thing on humans? On yourself? Do your financial backers in the White House know what you’re up to?”
    “We’ve gone beyond testing. We have outfitted over a dozen men and women with the chip. And as for the government, they’re on a need-to-know basis only, you know that from your own work at Sterling,” he said slyly. He turned to look at Marla. “Did you know that the big guy here is a vigilante? He goes out almost every night to find the so-called bad guys and dispose of them one way or another.”
    Marla looked at Steele for confirmation of this shocking news.
    “I’ve never killed anyone,” Steele said softly. “And everyone I’ve helped to put behind bars richly deserved it, believe me. All I do is aid the police a little, whether they know it or not. I help them catch criminals red-handed.”
    Daniel smirked. “How noble you make it sound, when you’re nothing more than hired muscle.”
    A car drove slowly down the road and Daniel leapt to his feet and bolted. Steele followed him easily, his long legs eating up the distance that Daniel’s head start had given him. The car swerved as if the driver intended to run Steele down.
    A split second before the car struck him, Steele brought his fist down on the hood. The car halted abruptly and nearly flipped over. Steele took his fist off the car, leaving an incredible dent behind. The driver got out of the car and ran down the street as fast as his legs would carry him. With one last murderous look at Steele, Daniel turned to follow his friend at a sprint.
    Steele looked back at Marla. “I’m sorry,” he said.
    “Why?” she asked shakily.
    “I didn’t want you to ever have to see that.”
    “What, Siren?”
    “No. My…uh…” He gestured to the smoking wreck of a car in the middle of the road. “My gifts. My curse.”
    Marla smiled and ran to him, throwing herself