Page 21

Chapter twenty-one

Raegan

Aiden slides a phone with a text conversation on the screen across the table that’s pushed up against the bars.

Harvey has a small table and chair on the other side where he sits and leans forward to read it.

“What does it mean?” Aiden asks after a minute passes and he says nothing.

I eat another spoonful of the soup Aiden had picked up on our way here from the kitchens, apparently having requested it at some point after I’d woken up.

I’m fucking grateful for it.

By the time we’d walked to where Harvey’s being held, a throbbing headache and body aches hit me all at once as an annoying reminder that I need to get back to bed.

I’d shivered one time, and Jackson had stuffed me in his hoodie while Aiden laid his jacket over my lap, tucking me in.

Kellan had insisted on bringing me back to the Loft, but I’d argued I needed to eat my soup anyway.

I have until the bottom of this bowl to listen in before I think he’ll drag me away whether I like it or not.

I’m sitting on Aiden’s right, while Reid is across from me, glaring hard at the phone.

I take another look at it, but it’s just a running line of numbers.

Harvey stares at it like it’s a death sentence.

“It’s my new assignment,” he says, fearful.

He drops his head into his hands, scrubbing through his blond hair and then dragging them down his face.

“I take it that’s a bad thing?” Kell quips while leaning an arm into the bars a couple feet behind Reid.

“That depends,” Reid answers instead, his eyes finally rising to watch Harvey.

“How many of you are there, again? Did I hear fourteen?”

“Ten left,” Harvey replies, still focusing hard on the table.

“And he knows the Guild now knows about you?”

Harvey jerks his head in affirmation.

Reid leans back in his seat, turning his head to Aiden.

“There’s a small chance it’s a new assignment. A bigger chance it’s Harvey’s grave.”

“Can someone explain the numbers first? I feel like we’re still twelve steps behind whatever conversation the two of you are having,” Dane says.

Reid looks to Harvey, but when he still looks torn between terror and nausea, he answers instead, “It’s a code. The first six digits are coordinates. Two more for the month. Two for the day. And four for the time.”

“And the last five?” Aiden prompts while eyeing the screen.

This time, Harvey replies, “The last numbers are code for letters, spelling out the name of the assignment. It can be any number of digits, depending on the length of the person’s name.”

“So, who is it?” Dane asks.

“Royce.” Harvey looks to Reid.

“I hear you know the old man pretty well. You think it’s a trap, too?”

Reid taps his fingers against the table.

“Yeah. You’ve become a liability for him with the Guild. He could easily assign you to someone else but Royce is an odd choice.”

Dane frowns.

“Because he already trusts him so much?”

“Clearly Charles isn’t above spying on anyone, particularly his allies. So, no, it’s not because of that. Since Royce’s gift is tied to souls, I wonder if that means he can see them,” Reid speculates.

Harvey groans, his head knocking against the table between his arms.

“Meaning…he might be able to see Harvey even if he’s invisible?” I guess, my headache growing stronger the more I learn about my father.

Reid nods. “It’s just a thought, but knowing him, he’ll believe you’ve been compromised and are no longer trustworthy enough to live. If there are still others who can be invisible spies for him, your value alive isn’t as strong as it is with your death.”

“Cold-hearted bastard,” I mutter, having another spoonful but still trying to drag out my meal.

“The coordinates lead to a coffee shop downtown,” Aiden tells us after plugging it into his phone.

Reid gives a curt nod.

“Where a portal will be waiting to take him anywhere in the world.”

“And the date is two weeks from now. 10:30 in the morning,” Aiden finishes.

“But he’s not going, right?” I look up from my soup to Aiden.

“If we know it’s a trap, then he should just stay here with us.”

“What happens if you don’t go?” Kellan directs to Harvey, who shifts his head to the side.

“Then he’ll know I’ve betrayed him, and he’ll hunt me down to kill me himself.”

Dane cocks his head.

“What’s the difference between that and willingly walking into a trap?”

“At least with that, there’s a chance he might believe I’ve stayed loyal to him, and he won’t have me killed. A teeny-tiny one.” Harvey holds his thumb and forefinger apart the barest amount as if to emphasize how small of a probability that is.

He chuckles humorlessly.

“So, I can take that chance and probably die by Royce, or I can go on the run until Dad finds and kills me.”

The room’s quiet.

“Don’t all rush to tell me you’ll miss me at once,” Harvey says mockingly.

He lifts his head to lean on his fist, looking at Reid.

“I guess we can’t all be daddy’s favorite now, can we?” He grins at Reid’s scowl before his gaze catches on Aiden’s unamused frown.

“What? Can’t a dying man say what’s on his mind?”

“You’re not dying yet,” Aiden chastises him.

Harvey grabs the bars between us and him.

“What’s the plan, Master? You always have one. I’ll do anything, just please. Don’t let this be the end for me. I still have to make it up to everyone at the Guild. To my friends.”

“I didn’t realize you had any friends,” Dane mutters, and I shoot him a look.

“Don’t be mean, Dane. He thinks he’s going to die.”

“Thank you, dear sister.” Harvey holds his hands together, smiling at me.

“I knew you were the best of us.”

“Don’t talk about her like you know her,” Dane snaps.

Aiden sighs, pocketing his phone.

“If the dramatics are finished, I’ll tell you the plan.”

Harvey leans over the table, his pale blue eyes focused solely on Aiden, and he nods eagerly.

“We’re going to give Charles a reason to keep you alive and around the Guild. It’s the best way for us to still keep an eye on you and avoid either of the death scenarios you mentioned.”

“How?”

Jackson hums and then speaks up for the first time since we’d entered the room, immediately picking up on Aiden’s plan.

“Immortality.”

Aiden nods.

“You’re going to message Charles that you have good intel to share. Ask if he’ll be there at your next assignment so you can speak with him about it privately.”

Harvey shares a confused look between Aiden and Jack.

“And…what is that intel? What immortality?”

“You’ll let him know that we’re searching for someone with the gift of immortality. That we’ve found a lead, and you think we’re getting close,” Aiden explains.

“He’ll want you to stick around in case we do find that person so he can be the first to know about it.”

Dane frowns, crossing his arms defensively.

“I thought you said we shouldn’t go looking—”

“We won’t,” Jackson answers instead.

“It’s a ruse.”

“A red herring…” Reid murmurs thoughtfully.

The headache pounds more insistently in my head, beginning to drown out their words.

I rest my head on my arm on the table, trying my best to keep following this conversation even as my body aches for sleep.

“You’ll need to convince him that your cover is still secure for this to work,” Aiden adds.

Harvey’s voice is tight.

“He saw Kellan confront me. It was pretty obvious I was discovered.”

“You were discovered at the scene of the crime, but you could come up with a wild excuse for being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Aiden reasons.

“Did you interact with your father in front of Kellan?” A short pause, then, “Did you ever say or do anything in front of Charles while he was here to admit you were with him?”

“No…”

“Good. And how are your acting skills?” Aiden asks.

“When you meet with him, you’re going to need to act like your life depends on it. Because it will.”

That’s the last thing I remember before exhaustion wins out, and I fall asleep.

While Dane and Kellan are occupied training Guild members and Aiden’s downstairs working in his office, I decide I can’t stay in the Loft another whole day.

I can’t train yet, but I have enough energy to find Reid and learn more about my half-brother.

Popping my head out of the already-open door to the balcony, I tell Jack, “I'm going to visit Reid in the infirmary.”

The words are ripped from my lips as a gust of wind whips around him and throws my hair in every direction. The planters are hovering off to the side while glass panes ripple and hum from the pressure. His dark blue gaze swings to me, and the wind stops abruptly, freeing my hair to fall haphazardly around me. I realize I’m panting as I claw my way free of the tangled hair in my face, the air now feeling fuller than it had a moment ago.

“What was that?” I gasp.

Jackson lowers the planters to where they belong, then closes the distance between us. He smirks at the rat’s nest I’m sure my hair is, pinching a small clump sticking out to one side. “My new move.”

I knock his hand away and try finger-combing the strands back to normalcy. “What’s it do?”

“It gathers surrounding air, strengthens it, then sends it back as sharp cuts.”

“How do you make it stronger?”

He cocks his head, his expression turning thoughtful as if trying to think of the right word. “I compress it.” When I give him a look of confusion, he smiles and elaborates, “I take in all the air and force it to a thinner shape like blades. It’s the same amount of force contained in a more precise attack.”

I pause, wondering if I could apply that technique to my gift somehow and what it might do. Jackson gently untangles hair beneath my ear, the coolness of his fingertips and the leather on his fingerless gloves grazing my neck and inducing a heady shiver that breaks my train of thought.

“Reid’s not in the infirmary anymore. I’ll take you to his new apartment,” he murmurs while still focused on his task. He trails his fingers through my hair as if to show it’s been fixed, then pinches a section to bring to his lips while his eyes lock on mine.

The air catches in my lungs beneath his intense stare, my heart skipping as it picks up speed. Jack lowers his hand, leaning in, and my mouth parts automatically. His lips curve to a dangerous smirk. He stops a breath before mine and I feel the slow slide of his hand curving around my neck.

“Jack,” I pant into his lips, my heart jumping again when they touch for the barest of seconds. I’m not sure if I’m admonishing him for the tease or because I told him I was leaving and he’s distracting me.

“Just a taste, little one,” he whispers darkly and then presses his mouth to mine, setting my heart on fire.

I throw my arms around his neck, clutching him closer as I kiss him back with everything I have, my body tingling and hot where we touch and aching where we don’t. I could lose myself in his kiss, forgetting all our troubles as I give in to his dark demand. I almost do, bathing in his affection and letting it sink beneath my skin, filling me up with warmth.

Until he ends it far too quickly and pulls away, leaving me winded and bereft.

He slips his hand to the small of my back and directs me toward the door, his breath feathering the back of my ear. “I’ll devour the rest of you later. Let’s go talk to your half-brother.”

Fuck.

Why was I in such a rush to leave earlier?

I huff, walking through the apartment to the door and then elevator before muttering under my breath, “Tease.”

Jackson steps in after me, his dimple piercing his cheek. “Good things come to those who wait.”

I sure fucking hope so.

Jackson halts before one of the many apartment doors on this floor, shifting to the side for me to knock. It’s quiet on the other side of the door, no reply to acknowledge my knock or movement that I can hear. Could he be in the Guild Hall?

“He’s here,” Jack reassures me.

The door finally opens. Reid looks between the two of us, his gaze assessing. “Come in,” he offers at last, stepping out of the way for us to enter. We’re in a small hallway with two doors before it opens to a kitchenette. There’s a small round table for four and a living area across from the kitchen and what looks like a sliding door to a balcony. Reid strides into the kitchen, pulling three glasses down. “I’m assuming you’re here to ask me about our past?”

I nod, and he proceeds to fill the glasses with ice and water from the refrigerator, then passes them out. Reid sits in one of the upholstered chairs, setting his glass on the low table at the center of the couches and chairs. “I’ll admit…I wasn’t sure you’d come. Or care.”

Am I overthinking things if I think he sounds a bit like Charles now that I know their relation? He’d been short and direct most times we’d interacted, but when he’s been speaking more freely or explaining things…there’s that formal tone. How much of how he talks and acts is because of that man?

Does it matter?

Jack and I sit on the couch, and once I’ve released my drink to the table, I weave my hands together and squeeze. Fuck. Why am I so nervous all of a sudden? My heart’s pounding as I look at him, at his familiar blue eyes that regard me with a guarded stare that tell me nothing about what he thinks or feels.

Half-brother.

“Do you remember my mother?”

“I do, though I can’t say much about her.”

“Why not?”

“I was just a child, and we didn’t talk much.”

“Oh. Right.” I tighten my hands.

A crinkling sound draws my gaze to Jackson, who unwraps a lollipop and sticks it in his mouth. After a firm suck, he pops it out. “How do you know Raegan? How did you meet?” His posture is relaxed and casual, but he eyes Reid with a dark and calculating look.

“It was right around the time when Charles started taking me along with him. I was five, so I didn’t understand much of what I saw, but we would visit Merina when Raegan was maybe six or seven months old. He wanted me to play with you so he could talk to her,” Reid explains to me, his eyes softening. “I didn’t really know much about playing, so I tried anything to see what you’d do. What might make you laugh or smile. Merina and Charles were both happy when they saw us, and I was sent back regularly after that.

“I learned how to change your diaper, feed you, do everything you might need so Merina could go back to training. That went on for almost four years before she ran with you.” He pauses, hesitating.

“What is it?” I press, now at the edge of the seat cushion as I hang on his every word.

His eyes flick to mine. “It was…hard…for me…when you were gone. I’d still followed Charles and learned his business while I’d been your playmate and babysitter. I attended meetings, negotiations, politics. Even the torture and killings he carried out himself. Or witnessed. We visited labs with dying or restrained gifted most often. And when I turned eight, Charles pressured me to participate in small ways with whatever he was doing or needed done.

“But when I was tasked to look after you…it was a breath of fresh air. You were so…sweet. And pure. You were the happiest thing in my life, and I wanted to protect you from whatever plan he had for you. I fought to stay in his good graces so I would be in a position to shelter you from the horrible things our father did. So, when you were gone without warning…I didn’t take it well. I heard Merina died fighting off agents, and I thought you’d been with her.” He stops to drink his water.

My heart breaks at how much he’d cared about me. How my disappearance had hurt him. And how guilty I now feel for not remembering any of it .

Jackson slips his hand in mine, tracing his thumb along the back of it.

“Reid, I…”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for,” he interjects matter-of-factly, his glass knocking against the table when he sets it down. Reid glances to Jackson. “So? What’s your verdict?”

Verdict?

Jackson’s smirk sharpens, the stick of his lollipop still trapped between his lips. “How many board members did you meet?”

Reid frowns, suddenly wary. “All of them.”

I sit up straighter. “Wait. You know all of GE’s Board members?” We could move on them as soon as everyone’s trained. Dane wouldn’t be stuck searching for them all day and night after training.

“Not all the current ones, no. I probably know more dead than alive.”

“What about electees?” I prompt, undeterred from that minor setback.

Reid shakes his head. “I never met those. Just the ones who met regularly with Charles.”

Swinging my hopeful gaze to Jackson, he adds one more question, “How many that you met are still alive?”

“Four.”

Four. If they overlap with the two members we’re already close to, then it’s still two more and confirmation on the original ones. If not, we’d be halfway there.

Jackson nods. “You’ll need to share everything about them with Dane and Aiden. ”

“Why?”

“Talk to Aiden,” Jack reiterates, then looks at me with a single raised brow.

I snap my attention back to Reid. “Can you tell me more about Tinsley? You guys showed up together, and it’s clear you care about her, but I’m not sure where she fits in if you were with Charles up until you left.”

“She was one of the people in a special training program of older subjects I was assigned to monitor and report back to Charles on. The scientists still ran the program, but I was monitoring them as well as the gifted subjects.” He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, a tiny smile threatening the corner of his mouth. “She was a fighter. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t break her spirit. Her inner strength won against them time and again, and I don’t think I even had a choice when I fell for her. I tried to hide it, but Charles found out. He tried to convince me to breed her for offspring, thinking I’d get over her as soon as I had her. I helped her escape instead, and he punished me for it. Tinsley returned and pleaded for my life, which started a year of torture for the both of us.”

Reid clears his throat. “Anyway, that’s the gist of it. I heard when you’d been found and when you’d escaped the island again, but I hadn’t been able to find you. And then I saw you that night you fought the congressman, and I knew it was you. When Kellan offered us a way out with the Guild—where you were, and safe—I took Tinsley and ran. We stayed hidden for a while so Charles wouldn’t suspect we’d gone to you. And then we filled out the application. ”

Wow. Everything he’s been through…fuck. And I thought my life was crazy.

“I swear, we’ll get her back,” I promise, meaning every word. “Aiden told you what she said?”

He huffs irritably. “He did. I’m pissed about it but not surprised. If she says she’s safe, I believe she is, but that doesn’t mean her circumstances won’t change. We still need to find her and get her back before that happens. And before Charles has produced enough gift-blocking accessories to control every gifted person in the world.”

My stomach drops. “You mean the cuff? Are you saying there’s more? It’s not just a prototype?”

“A prototype? They’ve been making things like that by the thousands every year for the last five years. Collars, chokers, bracelets, cuffs, anklets, shackles, rings…bejeweled or plain and in various sizes. Then selling them off to the highest bidder. It’s not just GE with those things now. There are tens or hundreds of thousands out in the world now with terrible people using them on people like us.”

Wait. Collars. Like the ones in that business room with Thorne that captured me and Jack dodged. And the one I’d worn on the island with Gordon. How hadn’t I realized there would be more of them?

“How? How do they have enough of Dane’s blood for that many?” I demand.

“You were on the island for eight years, right? One blood draw a week? What do you think they did with that blood?”

“I don’t know. Ran tests on it?”

Reid nods. “At first, maybe. But most gets stored away until they can find the best use for it. And once Vera learned how to put his gift into objects that can turn it on and off with specific frequencies programmed into it, they’ve been making them ever since.”

“You mean the blood they’d taken from Dane on the island lasted them five years?”

“They still have some but it was starting to run low when I left. That means they’re not in an immediate rush to get Dane, but there’s a running clock. I expect that’s why Charles hasn’t shown up here to take him yet. He’s biding his time. But you can be sure when they’re down to their last batch, he won’t waste time with sending agents out for his prize. He’ll come for Dane and kill anyone who tries to stop him.”