Page 12

12

Unarmed but Extremely Dangerous

Y ou’re late,” Fanny snapped at us the moment we stalked into the lobby of the admin building, where she’d obviously been pacing while waiting for us.

Gone was the “cool, fun aunt” she’d claimed to be just the day before. Pursing her lips, she scanned us with unabashed judgment. Apparently we were found wanting, though we’d had no choice but to wear the clothes they’d picked out for us. Most of them I might have chosen myself. It was eerie, realizing how closely they must have observed us to know even the insignificant details, like what shade of eyeliner and what brand of tampons I preferred. Had they rifled through our personal stuff? Probably. It’s not like there were lines they weren’t willing to cross. They’d made that much crystal freaking clear.

“We can’t actually be late,” Brady objected. “We’re only, like, a couple minutes behind you.”

Fanny narrowed her eyes at him before spinning on the sole of her Birks and powerwalking away, calling over her shoulder, “We talk while we walk. Follow me.”

“Ordering us around like we’re toddlers,” Layla grumbled under her breath, but when the rest of us trailed after Fanny, so did she.

We passed several large yet elegantly understated desks, all unmanned, before Fanny jabbed the button to call the elevator.

“I only agreed to let you take your own car instead of riding in the buggy with me,” she said, “because I thought you’d be coming straight here.”

As one unit, we bristled. But since this was at least a little bit about Bonnie, Brady spoke first.

“First off, we don’t need your permission or anyone else’s to drive our cars. And second, we literally only drove to the end of the road and then came straight here. So back off already, will ya?”

The elevator panel indicated the elevator was nearly at our floor.

“I know exactly what you did,” Fanny said as she inched toward the still closed doors, as if seconds really did matter. “You drove to the gate to see if you’d be able to drive on out of here.”

It was exactly what we’d done. We’d all piled into Bonnie, the only one of our cars that was currently operational, and driven to the exit to see what kind of security measures awaited us there.

Though much of the campus was currently empty, the gatehouse hadn’t been. And the guard inside had seemed aware we were heading his way. He’d been standing with a phone to his ear, most likely reporting our every move. The boom gate had remained down, but then we hadn’t pulled up beside him to ask him to raise it. We had, however, studied him as closely as he had us. He was no regular rent-a-cop guard. He wore tactical gear and was armed to the teeth.

The elevator doors whooshed open and Fanny all but jumped in, waving to hurry us along even though not a single one of us was particularly slow. We were all fully recovered from our injuries, even me. The bullet holes across my chest had shrunk. The scars now suggested I’d been shot with nothing more significant than a BB gun.

“Well,” Layla told Fanny as the doors shut, “can you blame us? We were gunned down at school , taken out of there in secret. We come to in private hospital rooms and then we’re transported to a secret campus. You don’t think we’ve got questions? That we’re entitled to have them? Fuck , to get some answers?”

Fanny hiked the omnipresent tablet she always carried farther up under her arm. She should wear some sort of carrier strapped to her chest if it was so freaking vital to her existence.

“Magnum will answer all your questions. He already told you he would.”

I snorted. “And we’re supposed to trust his word? Him, the man who ordered us all killed? Fanny, you’ve got some major Magnum worship going on, we can all see that, but you can’t be this dense.”

She bristled and whirled on me as the doors were about to open behind her. “You’re a bunch of children who don’t understand the gift you’ve been given. You’re too inexperienced to understand the long-reaching impact of your immortality. With Magnum’s guidance, you’ll change the world. The world ! ”

She stalked out, emerging into an unfamiliar, ample hallway. My anger simmered beneath my skin such that I almost didn’t follow her out. When my friends similarly hesitated, I knew she’d rubbed them the wrong way too.

But Fanny only kept talking as if we were on her heels—like good little children.

“With your immortality, Magnum will bring about a world without illness, without grief, without suffering.”

Again, I snorted, and Griffin clasped my hand and commented under his breath, “She’s really been chugging the Kool-Aid, hasn’t she?”

“Right,” Layla said. “Like Magnum’s only out to do this—whatever exactly this is—for others.” She laughed, and at the sound, Fanny spun toward us with a flare of her maxi skirt.

“Hey,” Layla said, hands up for a second. “We’re just saying. Magnum’s sold you a tainted bag of goods, lady, and you’re buying it all up.”

“Yeah, you’re in like a cult,” Brady chimed in.

“You will treat Magnum with respect,” Fanny seethed, actually seethed, her teeth showing.

“We’ll do so if he ever earns it,” Hunt said, the statement cutting and as unapologetic as Fanny was being.

“He’s already earned it—”

Griffin led us toward her, lowering his head to her height to hold her stare. “Would you like us to kill you, see if you come back, and then ask you if you respect us? ’Cause we’ll do it.” He smiled, and I even found that cold, menacing grin of his sexy as fuck.

Brady shored up behind Griffin. “Fuck yeah we will. Unlike what you seem to think of us, we aren’t weak little children for any of you to toy around with.”

In fact, since the infamous Fischer House party, we’d all turned eighteen, but hadn’t been in the mood to celebrate much. Our birthdays were grouped close together, a fact I’d never before found suspicious since I’d never once guessed we were created as an elaborate lab experiment—go figure.

Fanny tilted up her chin to level a stare that swung between Griffin and Brady, as if the two of them were the only potential threats. Obviously, their research hadn’t taught them everything about us, then. “Don’t you dare threaten me.”

“We’re not,” Griffin said with another smile that didn’t light up his eyes. “Since you seem unable to conceive of what it’s like to be us, I was painting a picture for you.”

She scowled so intensely that marionette lines bracketed her chin. Without another word, she spun again, with another flare of her flowered skirt, and stomped down the hallway—like a petulant child, I couldn’t help but realize with a chuff.

Layla shook her head as she walked after her. “This shit’s nuts. Totally bonkers.”

I was silently agreeing with her while following. Griffin’s hand still linked with mine, we ambled down another long hallway. Offices lined it on both sides, all empty; the lighting in the building was apparently being kept dim until it had greater occupancy.

When we took the next left, Griffin and I nearly bumped into Layla, who stood stock still, staring at the spacious room straight ahead at the end of the hall. The walls were entirely glass, putting the occupants on full display.

Magnum was there, at the head—of course—of a long, oval, wooden table that was so highly polished it reflected the recessed lights overhead. Several other men and women sat at his end of the conference table, unknown faces except for Tracy, whom my brain still registered as “Mitzi Conway.”

And at the foot of the table, occupying every seat but the empty one at the end, were our lying, thieving, spying, manipulative, deceitful faux parents. Every single fucking one of them.

Griffin’s fingers squeezed and released mine, squeezed and released—I didn’t think he realized he was doing it. My jaw clenched so hard that I noticed, and when Brady and Hunt lined up behind me, I swore I could feel the tension radiating off their bodies. It felt so hot that it had to be more than their body heat.

I bent my head to either side, cracking my neck, wrestling with the urge to charge at these people who’d made us believe they were our families—though I wasn’t certain what I’d do once I reached them.

My mind and my heart still registered them immediately as “trustworthy.” How incredibly fucking wrong both were. I needed some major deprogramming, stat.

Fanny was taking a seat near Magnum when Brady’s breathing, close to my ear, accelerated and deepened until it reminded me of a bull about to attack.

“I see you’ve noticed: some old members of my team have joined us today,” Magnum called out through the open door. He leaned back in his leather chair, rested his elbows on the armrests, and steepled his fingers. “Please, come in, join us.”

When not one of us took so much as a baby step toward the bunch of scheming, conniving, murdering assholes, he added, “You’ll be completely safe, I give you my word.”

“Does that assurance only cover this meeting?” Griffin asked, sounding as bitter as I felt. “Or are you promising we’ll actually make it through the entire day without one of your lackeys shooting us?”

Several of the men and women who sat between Magnum and our faux parents winced. Magnum, Fanny, Tracy, and our liar parents did not. I guessed they either didn’t regret their methods, or they’d long ago come to terms with them.

Magnum smiled charismatically, his face politician-handsome, and I itched with the urge to rip his mouth from his face. “Let’s just go ahead and say the entire day, how about that?”

“Dandy, just fucking dandy,” Layla said with as much sarcasm as I’d maybe ever heard her use. She prowled into the room, lightfooted in her Vans, and I thought maybe I’d never felt danger wafting off her quite so intensely either.

The rest of us didn’t hesitate to follow. Whatever it was, we’d never let her face it alone.

With unnecessary force, she yanked out one of the five empty chairs waiting for us, and wheeled it over to the interior wall of glass, where she parked her ass in it. Her message was clear: she wanted to be as far away from our scheming parents as possible. The four of us did the same, lining up our chairs next to hers. Then we waited.

“Very well,” Magnum said, but Monica-who-wasn’t-really-Monica stood and brought a hand to her chest.

She wagged her head in artful regret, real tears welling in her eyes. “We’re so glad to see you all doing well. We were so terribly worried …”

I blinked at her theatrics, my jaw only clenching harder. Griffin spun his chair slightly in my direction, though I wasn’t sure he even realized he constantly did these things to show me silent support.

“Sit down, Lynne,” Magnum ordered, and I felt my eyes widen despite my resolve not to reveal precisely how upsetting this entire situation was.

Griffin, Brady, Layla, and Hunt glanced at me. I pretended not to notice while I schooled my features into impassivity. Right then, in front of all these people—all strangers in the end—I didn’t want anyone to notice how much this revelation was rocking my world like a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. I was feeling shook to my foundations.

“You’re not here for that and you know it,” Magnum continued, stern in a way that suggested disobedience was a grave offense. “You’ll sit back down and remain quiet unless called on, or you’ll leave.”

“But Magnum,” Lynne protested. “These are our children . We worried they might actually be dead—”

“They are not your children.”

“We raised them! They’re as much our children as if—”

Magnum leaned forward and Lynne— fucking Lynne— trailed off. “What’s it gonna be, Lynne? Will you and your traitorous cohort be part of this meeting to discuss their futures or not? Nothing says you have to be a part of their futures at all.”

The liar, who’d droned on over the years about the importance of integrity and honesty, stared back at the man while her throat bobbed. But finally she sat, immediately pointing her chair so she could direct that stare at us.

Great, just freaking fabulous . I pinned my attention on Magnum just to avoid hers.

“As you can see,” he told us, “the men and women who pretended to be your parents after stealing my research have agreed to join us again, under strict conditions of course.”

I waited for him to share what those conditions were. He didn’t.

“Those present whom you have not yet met will be your instructors.”

“Should we choose to stay,” Hunt inserted.

Magnum leaned back in his chair to smile magnanimously. “Of course. I was hoping you’d already decided to make your new home here.”

“It’s not too late,” my faux dad said, his eyes blazing intently as he took in the five of us. “You can still come home.”

Magnum frowned, but before he could intervene again, I said, “Where you, whatever your real name is, and Lynne live isn’t my home. Apparently, it never was. Pretty sure my friends feel the same about their ‘homes.’ So drop it and let us focus on a real path forward. ’Cause it ain’t with any of you.”

“That’s right,” Layla added.

Brady said, “For sure.”

Griffin and Hunt looked ready to murder a faux parent or two and didn’t need to say a word.

Magnum narrowed his eyes at his former researchers. “Keep your mouths shut or you’ll be removed. You know I mean it.”

Apparently, they did. They sat back in their seats like obedient boys and girls.

What a total mindfuck.

Magnum turned his full attention toward us, anyone in the way ducking to one side or adjusting their chairs to give him a better view.

“You’ve indicated that you’d like to know exactly what’s expected of you before you agree to remain here on campus and participate in what I have lined up for you. So here’s what you need to know.

“There will be three main components to your time here, beyond your rest and relaxation time of course, during which you can do almost whatever you want. You’re adults, and I never intended to ‘parent’ you.

“Academics will pick up where you left off at Ridgemore High or, if you’d rather, you can undertake personally tailored academic study programs that will actually challenge you and teach you topics you find interesting and rewarding. Based on your testing, I doubt any one of you have been challenged at that school for a very long time.”

None of us denied it.

“The men and women sitting here at the table with us are, collectively, superb minds. Between them, I’m certain they can teach you a variety of topics that will fascinate you. If you want to learn something and no one here is qualified to teach you, I’ll recruit whomever you want. No one says no to me for long.”

No one in the entire room attempted to deny that. Though we were the newest to the dastardly ways of billionaire mastermind Magnum Chase, the fact that he got his way was already abundantly evident.

“Each one of you can already test out of high school and receive the equivalent of a high school diploma, however much good that will do you. What I’m offering is advanced university-level studies.”

I snuck a glance at Hunt, whose eyes glittered with his restrained excitement. Dude loved to learn, even more than the rest of us, and we were all closet nerds.

“That includes fine art and mechanics,” Magnum added, eyeing Layla and Brady especially.

“Next is the physical aspect of your time here. As much as you work your minds, you’ll be expected to work your bodies. I believe you all share a love for martial arts and the like?”

Reluctantly, I joined my friends in nodding, doing my best to subdue my enthusiasm at the idea of finally getting to progress our fighting skills to the next level.

“I’ve assembled three of the finest instructors and sensei of martial arts and ‘ninja skills’ in the world.”

My cheek twitched at his use of the phrase “ninja skills.” That was how my friends and I discussed our abilities and goals when we believed we were alone and speaking in privacy.

Unable to help myself, I glanced at Lynne and whoever-dad. Lynne’s face was guilt free, but my faux dad’s was laden with it. I could see the truth of it there: Magnum had access to every transcript of every “private” conversation my friends and I had ever shared near one of their hidden wiretaps.

Magnum looked to two men and one woman who sat in a row along the opposite side of the table from us. Though they looked remarkably different in appearance from one another, and they sat at complete ease, I suspected each of them could kill everyone in this room without breaking a sweat. They put off that vibe—unarmed but extremely dangerous. Their bodies were lethal weapons.

Instantly, I wanted to train with them. Griffin also sat up straighter. Magnum sure knew how to lure us in, the observant cocksucker. First the mansion and the cars, now the badass ninja teachers? I was practically swooning on the inside.

“Finally, there’s the study of your immortality, both by yourselves and by us. I’ll expect you to learn everything there is to discover about your power, including if there’s more of it, and I’ll expect my team and I to learn about it right along with you.”

“Meaning?” Brady asked.

“Meaning, we’ll test your limits and together we’ll learn all there is to know about what you can and can’t do.”

“Does that mean you’re planning on killing us to see how we come back?” Hunt asked, and a foreboding shiver raced up my spine.

Magnum didn’t shy away from Hunt’s accusing stare. “Yes.”

I gulped.

“But you’ll have every possible support,” Magnum added. “Of all kinds. I’ll have the best medical personnel on standby to aid you and make the process as seamless and painless as possible.”

“The process of us dying and coming back to life, repeatedly,” Layla deadpanned.

“Yes.” The devil we know held our murderous stares without flinching. “But this isn’t about causing you pain. In fact, I’d very much prefer it if you didn’t experience pain.”

“You can’t be serious,” faux Porter Rafferty exclaimed. “They’re children!”

“They’re eighteen years old, all of them,” Magnum said with a calm I wasn’t experiencing. “They never were your children to begin with, and now they are adults.”

He snapped his fingers. I was looking around, trying to figure out at what or whom he was snapping, when Jaggar, Raynar, and two other soldiers outfitted in paramilitary gear jogged in.

Wordlessly, they lined up beside our faux parents, the lot of whom stood, some with shoulders slumped in defeat, others glaring at Magnum and the soldiers. Faux Alexis was looking longingly at Hunt, her eyes wide and pleading. The soldiers led them from the room without incident, as if everyone there knew how pointless it would be to resist.

Their easy acquiescence only made the fight inside me brew more insistently.

Magnum continued as if there’d been no interruption. “We’ll test your immortality and I’ll expect you to submit to regular physical checkups so we can track your progress.”

“How long do you expect us to stay here?” Hunt asked.

“To start, the rest of what would have been your final school year at Ridgemore High. You’ll live in luxury, with your every need and desire met.”

“So long as we die on the regular,” Layla said with a snort. “Right.”

“Right. It’s not ideal, I understand that. But the gift you all possess is extraordinary, beyond extraordinary. And so are each and every one of you. I intend to draw out and examine every bit of that uniqueness you each possess, to marvel at it, to bow at its feet.”

Oh-kay then.

“And after the school year is up?” Griffin asked. “Come June?”

“You can leave. But I’ll be doing my very best to convince you to stay. I’ll make you an offer that will be very difficult to refuse.”

That sounded like both a promise and a threat.

“And if we decide to leave now?” I asked, though he’d already told us the answer to this question. I just didn’t like it—not one bit.

“I’m not prepared to let that happen.”

“Which means you’ll order your goons to shoot us again,” Brady said.

“Most likely.”

“Basically you’re saying our options as you see them are death, or death, or more death,” I said.

“Yes.”

I dragged my attention across every other person sitting at that table. A few of them twitched with discomfort at hearing our situation distilled so succinctly, but not many. Whatever Magnum had done to buy their loyalty, he’d succeeded.

“In all the wide world we live in,” Magnum said, his eyes becoming a tad dreamy, “there’s not one other like the five of you.”

“What about the other students you said would be coming?” Brady asked.

“None exactly like you, none as wholly remarkable. Most are young adults like yourselves with a variety of abilities that defy logic and the laws of science. Many of them are extremely resistant to death. Still very useful, but not the same. I have some of my best people out scouting, tracking rumors and legends, chasing down leads. So while there will be other students, for the foreseeable future you’ll be my superstars. And if others with your particular skills arrive”—his eyes glittered with greed—“then it will only enhance our ability to comprehend your immortality. The more data we have, the faster we’ll advance.”

He leaned his elbows onto the table and watched us. “So? What do you say? Are you in?”

My friends and I exchanged long, loaded looks. On their faces I saw reflected my own panic at being trapped in the situation as effectively as if our prison were walled in with bars. I wasn’t deluded into thinking police of any sort would help when Magnum probably could erase any problem with sufficient bribes and violence. But in my friends I also recognized the excitement that was building inside me.

If we stayed here, one way or another we’d get answers. Yes, the way we got them would majorly suck and would likely be extremely terrifying. I for sure wasn’t ready to face down death as a regular occurrence.

But I needed to know .

I needed to understand myself and the four other people I loved most in this world.

I needed answers more than I needed safety, something we wouldn’t have even if we told Magnum to fuck the hell off right now. He’d hunt us, as he was hunting these other kids with desirable science-bending abilities, until he had us back in his clutches again. He wasn’t even denying it.

I needed to understand what I was fighting for, and how hard we actually needed to fight to survive this hellish situation.

I needed to know what we were capable of—and what we weren’t.

“So you’re decided?” Magnum asked.

After another look at the others, I saw that we were, and that Magnum was a fucking ace at reading us. Fewer advantages for him, not more, please .

“For now,” Griffin said. “But we’ll only agree to take it one day at a time.”

From beside him, I nodded.

“These four people mean the world to me,” he added. “They’re everything. There’s no one I won’t murder to protect them, and I do mean no one . If I were you, I’d keep that in mind. We’re agreeing, but only so long as it suits us. We don’t like something you do or how you do it, we’ll let you know, and you may not like how we choose to do the informing.”

Given our hands were almost literally tied, it was a bit of hot air. But I knew Griff—and the rest of us—well enough to know it wasn’t entirely posturing. Yes, we were up Shit Creek—big time—and we’d never had a paddle to begin with. That didn’t mean we couldn’t find a way to forge a better path for ourselves, one and all, no matter how much blood-spilling it required.

Magnum’s smile was victorious, as if Griffin hadn’t just threatened his life. “Excellent. Then we’ll begin getting you set up tomorrow. Think of it as orientation. Actual classes will begin the day after that. And Joss, you’ll find Bobo waiting for you at home.”

At the thought of bringing my sweet pittie into this fray, my stomach dropped. But then again, there were no better options. He wouldn’t be better off without me; our bond was too strong.

Before Magnum could tie this meeting up in a neat bow or dismiss us as if we were his underlings, I stood. My friends did too, and as one unit we stalked from the room.

I wasn’t able to pull in a full breath till we were all squarely inside Bonnie with the doors locked—as if that would do a damn thing to keep out the monster in a suit with enough money to act like a god.