Project: Rogue: Project: Series #2

By J.L. Beck

Maggie’s entire life has been a lie, right down to the day of her birth. With changes overtaking her body, and questions mounting, Maggie has to find a way back to her father, the only person who actually knows what is going on inside of her. 

Fear surrounds her daily as memories from a life she has never lived resurface. 
Faced with no other options, she is forced to join the Brotherhood. There, her connection with Killer grows deeper and deeper. 

Soon, lines are not only crossed but also blurred and she begins to wonder who the real enemies in all this are… 

Killer went through hell to get back to reality—to her. Now he’s on the verge of losing the one thing that stabilizes him most—Maggie. Through the chaos, the lies, and the revenge for blood, will the two of them be able to come out on the other side together, or were they always meant to be enemies. 

Sometimes you have to lose yourself in order to find your soul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.L. Beck
• Release date: Sep 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536572988

Book preview

Chapter One

Killer

Past

Blood surrounded me, the warmth of it coating my skin. The smell of copper filled the air, hitting the back of my throat as I took in a deep breath, my chest heaving with the effort it took to breathe.

What was wrong with me? I blinked my eyes open, but saw nothing but darkness as my fists clenched onto soft fabric.

Where was I? The question echoed loudly in my ears causing my head to ache.

"Killer! Killer!" I could hear her screams, but couldn’t move. She needed me, yet I couldn’t reach her, no matter how hard I tried.

Maggie! I screamed her name as loud as I could, but no words left my lips. Instead, her name and my voice bounced around inside of my head. Darkness plagued me as I continued to hear her cries, her pleas to be saved.

I swam through dark layers of my mind trying to find the slightest trace of light that I could hold on to.

Sweat clung to my brow as the memories resurfaced, confusion hitting me like a brick wall.

What had happened to us? As panic rose within me, more memories filtered through my mind.

Make it stop. Tell them to stop. Maggie’s voice was above a beg, whimpers left her throat, and I could feel myself growing hard. Hard for her, for the pain that she was enduring for me.

Killer, can you hear me? A voice asked. I shook my head trying to make it go away, I didn’t want to hear the voices anymore; I simply wanted to know what had happened to Maggie. Unable to speak, I grunted and growled showing them the animal that was created in me; my own anger begging to be let loose upon them.

He’s unresponsive, sir. I could hear shuffling of feet over the floor and a warm calloused hand against my wrist, yet try as I may to move my hands and legs−I couldn’t.

Brown. The word was said with so much authority, and suddenly I was being flung through a time portal. To a life that I had only remembered through memories, to a life I didn’t recall ever living.

Maggie stood before me, her dress bellowing in the wind. She was beautiful, her hair pinned back in an elegant way. As my eyes zoned in closer I realized it was a facade, it had to be. Maggie’s image tilted, before red started forming on her hands, and throat.

No! I screamed, running towards her. I needed to stop the bleeding in order to save her life, but with every step I took towards her I was flung further away. Blood poured from her, as she grabbed her hands staring at them in understanding.

It’s what they wanted, Killer. It’s what will happen. Her voice was so soft, like cashmere. My eyes grew wide in fear, her voice warming me and filling me with so much self-hate. This was my fault.

Maggie! I screamed her name once more, her face tilting sideways, as if she was trying to acknowledge me.

Revive him. The voice said again, pulling me from the past.

A course of electricity zinged through me, causing my heart to jolt in my chest. I could hear the loud thuds of it in my ear and the smell of burnt hair filtering in through my nostrils.

Confusion continued to overwhelm me. Was I dying?

Place him back under. The voice said again. Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to focus on the voice, on anything that could tell me where I was.

In the next instant I could feel my body clinging to the side of a pool. Dark water lied at each side of me. The water was so murky and cold that my lips quivered and my teeth chattered against one another loudly.

Maggie! I yelled her name, but heard nothing back. It was as if I was living in my own personal hell. She wasn’t here with me. This was all inside of my head. It had to be, what else could be happening?

Without warning my grip on the side of the pool went slack, and I sunk deeply into the water. I flailed against the cold water, attempting to swim back to the top, my attempts getting me nowhere.  Numbness was taking over my limbs as my body scrapped against the bottom of the pool and an image formed above me.

I blinked, focusing in on the man. Not understanding how I could see him crystal clear, as if there wasn’t black waters separating us.

I stared at the man for a long time. He looked very familiar, but at the same time unrecognizable. His presence alone had caused my heartbeat to start pounding in my ears again. Who was this man? A rush of anger zinged through me, and just as I opened my mouth to yell, to say something−anything, I could feel the warmth of light grabbing me, and the darkness fading away again.

Stable, sir. The voice was back; the memory being interrupted before I could get an answer.

Good. Now, I want you to contact them. The man’s voice grew colder with each word that was spoken. I had never wished for my voice to work so much in my entire fucking life. To ask questions, to get answers. To threaten lives if it came down to that.

I will let them know, sir. Do you want me to let them know that we have the girl also? Without hesitation, my eyes popped open at the mention of a girl.

The girl? Who was the girl? I could feel the anger I had towards them bringing up the girl, but didn’t understand the meaning behind it.

Rage surged through my veins. I took everything in as fast as I could, as I tried to get my body to catch up with my brain. My eyes zeroed in on every single object in the room. I needed to take in as much as I could before they forced my body back under.

I was lying on a bed, the walls before me was a stark white color, spotless and uncontaminated. I drifted my attention to the three men closest to my bed, they held clip boards and wore lab coats that mirrored that of the walls in color, their faces frozen in shock as I ripped the cords they had placed in my body out.

Where am I? My voice was hoarse and raw. Why had I stopped to ask questions? I should’ve been destroying anything and everyone to get to her. Yet, I felt that I needed answers, that I needed something to tell me all of this wasn’t a dream. I lifted my nose to the air to see if I could get her scent, anything that would point me in the right direction, but instead all I could smell was the disgusting scent of antiseptic and bleach.

You’re being treated for your injuries. One of the men in a lab coat said, his voice startled. I stared at him blankly, knowing that he was being deceitful. I could practically see the lies written on his face.

The second man looked between me and his partner, something untruthful passing between the two and in that moment I knew he was about to lie as well. I stepped off the bed, my fists clenched as I felt the urge to release the inner beast in me on them.

They lie! All humans lie!!  I growled loudly, causing them to take a few steps back.

Why don’t you sit back down on the bed and we’ll help you figure everything out. The third man stated calmly, but I could hear the fear and panic rising in his voice with each word.

Shaking my head in irritation, I decided I would give these people one more chance to explain things to me. Otherwise, they were as good as dead.

Tell. Me. Where. I. Am. I screamed each word, making sure they understood my demand. I was on the verge of crumbling, my vision going black. I had one urge, and one urge only, and that was the need to make them answer me.

I... Lab coat wearer number one stumbled over his words, while the other two seemed to have pulled their balls out of their assholes. This caused a bubble of hysterical laughter to form inside of me as I watched them take a stance of dominance. If they weren’t shaking in their fucking boots now, then they would be the second I wrapped my hands around their throats.

Killer? If that’s even what you would like to be referred to as... Number two spoke to me directly, as if he was trying to give me control over one simple thing as a name. My muscles ached with built up tension, control was not given to me. I took it.

You won’t have enough time to say my name, let alone remember it once I rip your body apart. Of course I’ll start with your throat, I hate it when my prey screams as I pull their limbs from their bodies. I sneered, trying not to lose focus on the important things here. Things like the girl, and finding out where I was.

The man smirked, still seeming nonetheless unphased by my anger, I’ll just call you Killer since we have no paperwork on who you are. He stepped closer to me and I forced my fingers to move backwards, to grip the sheets in fury. My body was still in some sort of penalization.

You’re a killer, right? You were made to create death, is this correct? His eyes narrowed, in them a hate that mirrored my own lingered.

To rip people to shreds, to kill, and not care that you’re doing so? To be relentless by nature, to rip life from those that you seek unfit of living? He was mind-fucking me. Trying to get me to spill something, a secret, an answer, anything. Did I not just tell him I would rip him from limb to limb?

My mind, and body told me to lock everything up, that I needed to hide inside myself, but I had never been a runner, a person to hide from the dark that lingered around every corner.

I don’t think you know who I am at all. My teeth grinded together, and somehow I had managed to bite the inside of my cheek. The taste of blood filling my mouth caused a haze to fall over my mind.

Because if you did know who I was, you would’ve been running for the hills already. I whispered to him, making sure he understood the final-ness in my voice. I would end him and his pathetic life the second I could get my body to react. My hands wouldn’t move pass gripping the sheets, but my legs, my legs had lifted me from a laying position to a standing one. If only I could get the blood to move to other places.

I’m not scared of you, Killer. A smile formed on his face. No one is. He finished, and I could feel his voice drifting off in my head, the darkness gripping at me.