Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“I was factual with Creed out there. I’m not prepared to make any assessments. Let’s give it a few hours to shake out.” Her voice is stubbornly firm, and I don’t push.
Minutes later, she’s finished up. “I’ll leave you to get showered.” She sighs. “Now, to talk Creed into giving me more blood. Then maybe I can convince him he’s not a monster about to turn you into one.”
Somehow, I doubt that a blood test will convince Creed he isn’t a monster. I’m not sure anything will.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Creed
The tube Katie holds fills with my blood, the color red and normal when I almost expect it to be some crazy shade that declares me the freak of nature that I am.
With Caleb and Jensen sitting a few feet away in quiet conversation, I lower my voice to a murmur. “What did you tell Addie?”
Katie’s lashes lift, her green eyes alight with a knowing look that confirms she’d already seen something in my testing that I wasn’t going to like. “Nothing yet,” she replies, a clear warning in her voice. “Come see me when you get done here to talk about your test results.”
My results.
Not Addie’s.
A tight ball of dread knots in my gut.
I’d been selfish to touch Addie last night without those results.
Katie finishes up and pushes to her feet. “See you gentlemen later.” She glances at me. “See you soon.” She hurries to the door, disappearing outside.
Jensen gets right to business. “I checked out both hard drives, Brock’s and your mother’s. Not a single reference to Red Dart. And I can’t get into Taylor’s servers without you getting me into the facility.”
“We might as well take a full team in and be ready to sweep the place then,” I say. “The sooner, the better.”
“Tonight,” Caleb agrees.
“Today,” I counter. “My mother’s presently trying to remove the evidence.”
“That’s a risk without the cover of night,” Caleb counters.
“Something you should know,” Jensen adds. “I’ve already shared this with Caleb, but West manipulated and rerouted outgoing weapons shipments from the base to include Green Hornets, and those shipments never made it to their destination. I see no evidence that your mother sold them to Julian. Your mother may well be innocent. I think Brock might be the problem.”
“Which means any probe of Taylor Industries should include discretion,” Caleb injects. “And under the cover of night.”
I sit there a moment, allowing that to digest, a bark of bitter laughter escaping my lips. “Holy shit.” I scrub my clean-shaven jaw and let out a rough second cackle of laughter. They’ve been acting on edge and secretive this morning, and I thought it was over Addie. Now I know better. “This is what you two are walking on eggshells over? You think I’m going to have some emotional seizure over my mother, and you think I need my hand held? My mother is not innocent. If she’s not helping Julian, she’s helping Lawrence.”
“Maybe you were mistaken when you thought Lawrence was there last night,” Caleb suggests.
“I was not mistaken,” I bite out, “and you should know me well enough to know that as well.”
“There’s nothing wrong with selling weapons to the U.S. government for national security,” Caleb reminds me. “We have no proof she believes she is doing anything but that.”
He’s trying to protect me by protecting her. It’s so very Caleb of him. “Stop trying to save me,” I snap. “I don’t need saving. She is what she is, and I know better than anyone what that is. And if you want proof, I’ll give it to you. We have a stock of Green Hornets now. Leave Lawrence’s supply where it is and hook a satellite to the location. I guarantee you, now that my mother knows I know about them, they’ll be moved because she’s doing more than selling to Lawrence. She’s in bed with him in every possible way.”
Caleb’s cellphone rings, and he grimaces. “I need to take this.” He pushes to his feet and walks toward the door.
I turn my attention to Jensen. “Stop trying to save my mother. Look for ways she’s helping Lawrence and hurting us.”
The bathroom door swings open, and Addie appears in the crest of fluorescent light, her skin pale against the black T-shirt she wears with loose-fitted black jeans. Her face scrubbed clean of make-up, her eyes still black and shining like opals. Her hair damp.
Possessiveness rushes through me, arousing me with an unexpected jolt of pure, white-hot lust. How the fuck had I survived our time apart?
“I heard you talking through the door,” she announces before hesitating and then casting me a tormented look, the rest of the room fading as she speaks to me and me alone. “If my father has involved your mother in this, he’s manipulating her.” She folds her arms in front of her chest, and it’s then that Caleb steps back in the room, but she stays focused on me. “He knows everything about every soldier he involved in Project Zodius. He certainly knows everything about you. Your family owns a weapons manufacturing company that supplies the government. Of course, he knew that when he recruited you. And he knew who your mother was then, and certainly now. There is no coincidence here. I have no doubt that being with your mother is the icing on the cake—a message. You were in his world, with his daughter, holding a blade at his throat. Now, he’s holding a proverbial blade at your throat. He has your world in his hands. He has control, not you.” She swallows hard and deep. “I’m done convincing myself he’s not the man who would do such a thing. I’ve tried to justify all of his actions, and I won’t do it anymore. And I’m sorry for what he is doing to you and your mother.”