Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) (31 page)

“I know,” I barely managed, “but it is at the same time!” I tried to stop, because I really couldn’t figure out why it was so amusing (other than his facial expressions), but it didn’t work. I managed to stop for two seconds before I started again. “You didn’t have to go with him, you know.”

“I didn’t go with him. He followed me! And damnit, I forgot he had the stupid thing until…well, until.”

My eyes watered now. I took a few slow, deep breaths, and then nearly started over again seeing Linc’s face. Turning away, I faced the store window instead.

“Are you done yet?”

Another giggle escaped before I could stop it. I gave it a minute, and then another. “Okay. I think I’m good. Just don’t—don’t make any weird faces. Or, you know, talk,” I said as I started to turn. I did a quick double-take when, in the window’s glass, I caught the reflection of someone across the street. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but I’d seen him before.

“What is it?”

I turned back and put my arm through Linc’s. “Walk and I’ll tell you.” As we walked, I glanced in the store windows every few seconds. The guy had been standing there, like he was waiting for someone, but when we started to move again, so had he. ”We’re being followed. No, don’t look at him!” I hissed angrily at Linc as he’d started to turn around.

Linc looked in the glass instead. “Where’d you see him?”

“At the restaurant first.”

Linc frowned. “First?”

“Yeah. He was at the movies, too.”

“Do you know who he is?”

“No.” I shook my head. “He left the restaurant the same time we did, without even ordering, and he left the movie right after us, too.”

“Jade, it’s a movie.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know it’s a movie, so groups of people leave at the same time, but he stuck around outside, just watching us with Tasha and Chris—” Chris. John. My stomach dropped and I clutched Linc’s hand. “What if that’s John? What are the odds of two people following around CGE Prospects?”

Linc nodded. “Slim. Hey—where are you going?”

I’d started to walk away but stopped. “I want to see where he goes. He’s been following us around, and whether or not it’s the same guy, I want to find out who he is.”

Linc stared at me, and after a few seconds of silent deliberation, he let out a breath and nodded. “Okay.”

For some reason, I thought he’d argue, so it took a second for his words to actually sink in. “Well, good,” I said with a nod. “Let’s go.”

It took us two blocks to lose the guy. We ended up having to sneak into a restaurant, go out the back exit, and then circle back to get behind him. He searched for us for half a block, then walked around two more. On the third block, the guy glanced back, his gaze meeting mine. He shoved people aside and took off running. Without thinking, I went after him. Linc shouted after me, telling me to slow down and wait for him, but I kept going.

I had to figure out who this guy was. More importantly, I had to know why he’d been following us. What the hell did he want? Was it the same guy or someone else? Either way, it had to be related to the John guy.

With so many other questions in my life unanswered, I needed answers for these. And not just for myself, but Chris, too. Until Chris knew what was going on, I wasn’t sure he’d stop being paranoid.

The man was fast. Surprisingly, he was even faster than me and, since the first block, I’d been running as fast as I could. Up ahead, he knocked a couple over and turned a corner. As I rounded it a few seconds later—jumping over said couple—I heard the screech of tires. A black, four-door sedan sped away. I tried looking for a tag number the CGE could trace, but it didn’t have a license plate.

The car fishtailed into the next turn and vanished from sight.

“Damnit!” I paced a short line and then kicked the curb. I couldn’t believe he’d gotten away! I’d been so close to catching him.

“Never do that again,” Linc said, gasping for breath as he caught up with me a few minutes later.

I glanced at him. “Do what? We agreed to follow him.”

“We agreed to follow him, not chase him through downtown New Orlando!”

“Well, he got away, so it’s a moot point, isn’t it?”

“No, Jade, it’s not.”

I blinked at the harsh tone. “What’s your deal, Linc? That guy almost got Chris expelled, and now he’s following us around. I thought you wanted answers as much as I did.”

“I do, but not at your expense.”

“I’m fine. I just wanted—”

“I know what you wanted, but chasing him was stupid. Seriously, what were you thinking?”

I frowned now. “What are you so upset about?”

“That guy had a gun, Jade. Did you even notice that?”

“But—”

His laugh was cold. “No, you didn’t notice, because you saw him and you thought it’d be a good idea to just go after him without backup.”

“Alright, I didn’t see a gun.”

“Even if he hadn’t had one, he could have had other people with him. For crying out loud, he could have grabbed you!”

“Okay, I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking. I just—”

“That’s the problem. You didn’t think,” he snapped. He walked off before I could respond, which I decided was probably for the best because my response wouldn’t have been nice.

I let out an angry breath and followed him. He didn’t talk to me at all as we went back to the bus. But he didn’t have to. His silence was worse than being yelled at. And now, every few minutes, he glanced behind him, like he was making sure I was still there. After the third time, I finally snapped. “What? Do you think I’m going to run off? Because I haven’t, and I’m not going to.”

“Not sure I’d put it past you,” was his reply.

I glared at him, but he’d already turned around and missed it.

Great, so he was annoyed and now
I
was even more annoyed. What was his deal? He was pretending there weren’t bigger issues at hand, like the fact we had been followed in the first place. Likely being followed by the same guy who’d snuck onto the CGE property and gotten Chris into trouble. But did Linc care about that? No. He was pissed because I wanted answers.

Admittedly, it’d been stupid, especially if Linc was right and the guy’d had a gun. I wouldn’t have gone after him if I’d known that. I might’ve acted reckless—I could admit to that—but even I wasn’t dumb enough to knowingly chase after an armed man. It hadn’t even been my plan to chase him in the first place. I’d seen him run and my instincts and adrenalin had kicked in, telling me to go after him. To stop him, to get answers.

When we finally made it back to the bus, Linc tracked down Adam and told him about Mystery Man. He had, thankfully, left out the part about us following him.

Like Linc, Adam didn’t doubt what I’d seen. In fact, he didn’t seem surprised at all. Instead, he asked for a description of the guy, told us to wait on the bus, and then went off to call someone—Greene, probably. He came back a few minutes later and took a seat at the front of us. Adam peered at us, eyebrows raised, obviously noticing that we were sitting apart and neither of us were looking at each other. “Anything else I need to know about?” he asked.

“No,” Linc said.

I shook my head.

He had to know we were lying, but he didn’t comment. “Either of you remember seeing the guy before today? Anywhere else beside the theater and restaurant?”

I thought about it for a minute. “No. I don’t think so.”

“What about you, Linc?”

Linc shook his head, too. “No, but I didn’t get a good look at—”

“Oh! I just remembered something.”

“What is it, Jade?”

“The guy came in a few people behind us when we were at the theater. He was on his cell and I saw his hand. He had a red tattoo of a…crap. What are those things called? The things reapers carry? Sc…”

“Scythes?” Adam asked.

“Yeah. He had one of those on the back of his hand. And there were these little dots running down his fingers.”

Adam’s hand twitched at my words and his face went completely expressionless. Well, almost. His jaw tightened and he tried for an easy smile. “Oh, yeah?” His tone was too calm. “How many of his fingers had the dots?”

“Three,” I said slowly, “with some going down a fourth.”

His eyes widened slightly. “Stay here.”

As Adam jumped to his feet, Linc stood and started to follow. “Where are you—”

“Stay here. On the bus,” Adam repeated, his tone harsh now. He stormed away without another word, jumped down the steps, and went straight to Dale. I had no idea what he’d told him, but Adam pointed at us and said something that had Dale looking worried.

“Okay, what was
that
all about?” I said.

Linc’s eyes landed on me and he stared at me for a second, still glaring, like he was torn between talking to me or ignoring me. But he finally said, “No idea. Just hearing about that tattoo had him freaking out. And when you said those dots went down three fingers and part of a fourth? That was fear in his eyes.”

I hated the fact that we had some weird guy following us around. But more than that, I hated that the tattoo I’d seen on him—whatever it meant—had Adam and Dale worried.

*~*~*

Linc and I didn’t get a chance to talk anymore (not that he would’ve talked to me anyway), because Adam had everyone piling on the bus. I tried pulling him aside, all but begging and pleading with him to tell us what was going on and what the tattoo meant, but he refused to say another word about it and said we’d have to ask Greene.

“Come on,” Adam said, making Linc and I get off the bus first when we got back to the CGE. “Director Greene wants to talk to you two immediately.”

Linc glanced at me but said nothing as Adam led us to Greene’s office. He knocked twice and, without waiting for an invitation, opened the door.

Behind his desk, Greene always looked more formidable. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but somehow, he always seemed more director-y in here. And when he looked concerned—liked now—it was even worse. He looked up as we came in. “Thank you for escorting them, Mr. Easton.”

Adam nodded to Greene, waved to us, then left.

“I understand you had someone following you in New Orlando,” Greene said, his tone mild despite the hard glint in his eyes.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“I see. And you only saw the one man?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if there was anyone else, but I don’t think so. It’s possible, I guess.” I glanced at Linc.

“I didn’t see anyone else, either.” His eyes were hard, like Greene’s. “But I didn’t notice the guy until Jade pointed him out.”

“You have a good idea who it is, don’t you?” I asked. I didn’t mention the fact that it’d been obvious Adam knew who the guy was, or was at least familiar with his tattoo. I didn’t want to risk getting him into trouble. Plus, I wanted to see if Greene would be honest about it.

“Right now, our best people are working to answer that very question.” He held up a hand before Linc or I could comment, probably because he knew one of us would. “I know you two want answers, and I wish I had them to give you. Unfortunately, at this moment, I don’t have them.” He paused and leaned forward in his seat, and his expression was grimmer than ever. “What I do have are two Prospects who were followed for unknown reasons by an unknown person or persons. I dislike the situation we’re currently in. I dislike not having the answers I want. Until we figure this out, I need both of you to be on guard, to take note of your surroundings and those around you. Pay special attention to details.”

“We will,” Linc answered before I could.

“I’m also going to ask you not to discuss any of this with the Prospects. I’m sure you’ll tell Miss Monroe and Mr. Stevens, regardless of what I say, but I want you to make it clear to them that I don’t want this discussed further.”

I gaped at him. “You’re not going to tell everyone?”

“What, exactly, do I have
to
tell them? They’ll have questions I can’t answer, doubts I can’t ease. If I could tell the P3s and P4s without it getting out to the P1s and P2s, I would. But you know that wouldn’t work. It would only cause undue panic or, in some cases, undue risk.” He shook his head. “No. I don’t want them knowing anyone was followed. I don’t want them to live with that knowledge. Do either of you believe you’ll sleep easy tonight knowing what you know? Do you think the P1s would? The P4s will have their treatments soon. It’s an important time for them, when their emotions will be running rampant. I mentioned the risks with them already. Hearing you two were followed would, I fear, only give them more reason to test their boundaries.”

He had a point, I supposed. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t like the situation anymore than he did, either.

“I won’t have my Prospects followed,” he continued. “That is unacceptable, so I assure you, I will get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. You have my word on that. And the moment I have something concrete to share, I will. Truth is the source of power, but speculation is the source of havoc.”

“You have some idea what this is about. You have some idea who this guy is.” It came out sounding like an accusation, though I hadn’t meant it to be…not exactly.

Greene sighed heavily. “I won’t lie and say I have no theories. It’s my job to have them. Theories, however, are not facts, and until I have facts, until I know more, that’s all I’m saying on the subject. I hope you’ll both understand and respect that and my wishes to keep this information as contained as possible.”

“But—”

“That’s all. Thank you, Miss Hall, Mr. Stone.”

The dismissal, however mildly delivered, was still just that. It had me sighing as I rose from my chair and followed Linc out into the main hall. “What do you think he’s not telling—” I broke off as Linc walked away without a word and muttered a violent curse under my breath.

What was everyone’s problem? I had one person keeping things from me, one who apparently wasn’t speaking to me at all, and another who was following people around and trying to get them into trouble.

Today sucked. The trip to New Orlando was supposed to have been fun. Instead, it turned out to be anything but.

C
HAPTER 15