Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) (46 page)

When his voice cracked, I pulled him close. His arms went around me and I just held him closer. “Shh. I’m here. I’m in one piece.” I didn’t say I was okay. I couldn’t say it again, because I wasn’t sure it was true, and I didn’t want to add more lies to everything else. Not where Linc was concerned. But I was here, I was in one piece. I felt his harsh breath at my ear and rubbed my hand up and down his back, like he’d done last night. I didn’t know how else to comfort him.

“You’re here.”

“I’m here,” I repeated.

He took my face in his hands and stared at me. His eyes were still dark and almost unrecognizable from their normal color. He leaned in and gave me a long, soft kiss. ”I’m probably going to do that a lot for a while.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I suppose I can suffer through it for now.”

Finally, he laughed. The sound lifted me up and made my heart feel lighter. “It will, so I guess you’ll to have suffer.” He kissed my forehead. “But for now, we better go see Greene, if you’re still up for it. Tasha and Chris will want to talk to you. They wanted to last night, but I asked them to wait. I wanted to see you first, and I didn’t want anyone asking you questions.”

“You haven’t asked any,” I said, realizing he hadn’t except for the one.

He shrugged. “You’ll tell me if and when you’re ready to. You’re back and that’s what matters most to me, so I can wait for the rest.”

“Thanks, Linc.”

He slid his fingers through mine again and just nodded. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Greene’s secretary, Mrs. Matthews, met us outside his office. Before either of us said anything, she rose from her chair and led us inside without bothering to knock.

Greene stood from his desk immediately and looked over our shoulders. “Thank you, Mrs. Matthews. Please make sure we’re not disturbed. Direct any calls to Mrs. Barnes.”

Mrs. Matthews nodded quickly, shot me a soft smile, and pulled the door shut behind her.

Gesturing for us to sit, Greene retook his seat. “Miss Hall.” He glanced at Linc. “Mr. Stone.”

“I’m not leaving,” Linc said in a raised voice.

Before we’d gotten here, I wasn’t actually sure I’d wanted him to stick around for the retelling. But now that we were here, I didn’t want him to go anywhere.

Greene merely smiled. “I wasn’t going to ask you to leave,” he said, glancing at me. “As long as you’re fine with his presence, that is, Miss Hall.”

Linc turned to me, as if to ask my permission, and grabbed my hand. “Your call.”

His eyes were partially narrowed, like he expected me to say no. I expected me to say no, or at least I had, but I couldn’t. It would be bad enough telling this story once, and even if I didn’t necessarily want to tell Linc today, I’d have to tell him eventually. “Stay.”

“First, I want to say, again, that I’m glad you’re back where you belong, Miss Hall.”

I nodded.

Greene let out a sigh. “I wanted to give you more time before I questioned you about what happened, but Miss Jones mentioned something. She asked that you be the one to tell me, because she was, I’m sure, afraid to break your confidence. I understand if you need more time. However, if you know anything that could potentially affect the CGE or the Prospects, I’d like to hear it.”

Linc dropped my hand and jumped to his feet. “She’s been back barely twelve hours and already you’re trying to guilt her into talking about what happened? Give her some damn time! Someone kidnapped her, for crying out loud, right under our noses. That doesn’t just affect the CGE or the Prospects—it affects her!”

I stared up at him. “Linc—”

Greene shook his head. “It’s fine. Mr. Stone has made his position very clear in your absence. And he’s not wrong, though I wish he were. I’m glad he’s upset by this, because he should be. We all should be. What transpired is something that has never happened before, and it should not have happened now. Outsiders should never have been able to get onto the property, let alone into any of the buildings. They should never have been able to leave with one of our people.”

“Yet they did,” was Linc’s steely comment.

“Yet they did,” Greene agreed. “It won’t happen again.”

“Great, but that’s not the only thing.” Linc glanced down at me and fire shone in his eyes. “You don’t have to do this. Not now. Not yet. It’s only been a few hours—”

“I don’t want to,” I said, looking from Linc to Greene, then back to Linc again. “But he—you both, I guess—need to know a few things.”

“I’m sorry that I can’t give you more time. Part of me wants to, on a personal level, Miss Hall—Jade,” he corrected softly. “And part of me, for the very same reasons, can’t afford to do that. I’m torn between protecting one Prospect—even one of our best—and looking after the whole of the CGE, which includes everyone who works for us. I hope you understand if there was another way around this, I would take it and give you the time I’m sure you need. I don’t want to question you about something you can’t be ready to discuss yet.” Greene’s eyes flickered to Linc. “But it wasn’t my intention to guilt you into anything. I believe you both know that.”

With his eyes still blazing, Linc sat back down and gripped my hand again. It shook slightly in mine. The only other time I’d seen him so mad was last Phase, when he’d been fighting off the demon that’d killed his sister. Linc didn’t lose his cool very often.

“I do have one more difficult request to make. If your answer is no, that is completely acceptable and I’ll understand. There is absolutely no pressure to say yes, so if you’re uncomfortable with it, say no.”

“Yeah?” I said, trying to mask my wariness.

“Mr. Holt would like to be present for this conversation.”

“Oh.” The last thing I wanted was more people around for this, but Peter was a good guy. Since he’d been the one to rescue me, I guess it was only fair he knew what, exactly, he’d been rescuing me from. “Yeah.” I nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you. As head of security, I—”

“What?” I blinked. “Peter’s head of security? When did that happen?”

“This morning. Our previous head of security stepped down hours after your disappearance, and until I find a suitable replacement, Mr. Holt has agreed to fill the position. Before he joined the CGE, he was a police officer and a member of the New Orlando SWAT team.”

Using the intercom on his desk, Greene had his secretary call for Peter and we all waited quietly. My mind wandered. In my head, I’d been gone a day, maybe, but it’d actually been five. So much had changed in that time. New security measures, Peter as head of security. What was next? Actually, I was sure I didn’t want to know.

Someone knocked on the door a few minutes later. Peter peeked around the door before coming in. He walked to the side of my chair and laid a hand on my shoulder. “I know this won’t be easy for you, but I appreciate you letting me be here.” He squeezed my shoulder briefly and took a seat on the edge of Greene’s desk in front of me.

I nodded and, sensing it was time for The Talk, let out a deep breath. Linc took my hand again and linked his fingers with mine. I met his gaze, stared at him for a minute, for support, for courage. He had a stony expression on his face, like he didn’t want to hear what I was about to say. ”You don’t have to stay,” I whispered.

He just nodded.

I looked away, unable to hold his gaze, and stared at Greene’s desk. “They didn’t hurt me,” I said first, and then I told them the rest.

Greene sat, wearing the same expression the entire time, this almost calm but not quite look. Peter’s jaw twitched a few times, especially when I reached the end of the story, about the fire and how they’d started it on purpose. But Linc…he didn’t show much change at all, at least none I could see. Though that might’ve been because as soon as I’d gotten to the actual being-taken-away part, his jaw and spine went taut, and he looked away. His hand tightened around mine mercilessly though, like he didn’t want to let go.

I left out a few things, like the deserved and well-placed low-blows and the mention of Project Faith. The first wasn’t important to the story. The second… That one I wasn’t sure about, but I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t mentioning it. Why a voice in the back of my head told me
not
to mention it. I also left out the fact that I’d promised to hunt Creeper down. What I did when that happened…I honestly didn’t know, but it would happen.

No one questioned me or commented on what I said. I almost wished they had, because it was odd talking non-stop without anyone else saying anything. I was recapping only a few hours of time. On one hand, it seemed to go on forever, like so much had happened, yet on the other hand, it seemed like no time had passed at all.

By the time I finished, I would have preferred writing out a detailed report instead of the talk-it-out thing.

“You know the rest,” I said lamely, shooting a quick look to Peter.

And then it was quiet.

Finally, Greene was the one to break the silence. “You said they were aware you’d survived a vampire bite?”

“Yeah. They seemed to know everything.” Again, I had the opportunity to bring up Project Faith, because they seemed related (at least in Crazy Lady’s mind), but again, I found myself holding back. “My name, my room number. The security here, obviously,” I added.

“I see,” was Greene’s dark reply. Now his eyes flashed. Now he looked angry.

“The guy behind…everything. He was the guy from New Orlando. He set Chris up, so that means he’s off the hook now, right?”

“He was never on it, but yes, we’ll make sure he understands that.”

“What do you mean? You guys blamed him for the break-in thing.”

“He means we were right all along, Jade,” Linc said. “They knew it wasn’t him. They knew there was more to it than what Chris said.”

“Then why? Why did you let him and everyone else think he was in trouble?”

Greene sighed. “Because we have a leak, Jade. I’m relatively positive none of the Prospects are to blame for this, which means it was someone else. A hunter, a guard, a scientist. Someone else informed that man about you, about your DNA, about everything. There is no other way he could know as much as he obviously does without inside help.”

Peter nodded. ”It has to be someone here, at the facility, or—”

“Or one of the people I spoke with last year when I got more funding, yes. I mentioned one of our Prospects had survived a vampire bite.” He looked at me. “I never mentioned you by name or gave any identifying details except to say the Prospect in question—you—were female.”

“Then how?” Linc studied their faces. ”How did they know who to take if she was never mentioned by name?”

Peter rose from the desk. “The leak.”

Greene nodded. “It may have been done unknowingly. Someone may have figured it out and mentioned it to someone else, someone connected to the people who took her.” He paused. “It seems unlikely that it was one of our supporters. They aren’t involved in our research. They benefit from it, but they aren’t directly involved. They know the projects we’re undertaking and a few minor details, but, to be blunt, they’re mainly involved to make a profit.”

“So figure out who did it!” Linc demanded, jumping to his feet again.

I laid a hand on his arm. “They know who did it.”

“We do.” Peter sighed. “It’s a matter of figuring out how they learned about Jade in the first place and who told them our security details, counter measures, etcetera.”

“They didn’t know about the second silent alarm,” I told them.

“That’s something at least,” Peter said. He glanced at Greene. “We need to know if they’ll try again.”

I almost said they would. It was on the tip of my tongue, but then, seeing Linc’s face, I stopped myself. He looked how I felt: pissed, scared, and…helpless. He looked worried enough as it was and I really didn’t want to add to it. If Peter and Greene believed Creeper and his lot would try again, then they would have to worry enough for the both of us.

Not that I wouldn’t worry. Not that Linc wouldn’t, either. Sooner or later, he’d suspect the same thing. But right now, he wasn’t thinking that far ahead and I didn’t want him to.

“What’s the plan, then?” Linc asked.

Peter looked grim. ”We’re going to find out who leaked the information in the first place and why. In the meantime, Jade, I don’t think it’s a good idea if you go into New Orlando on class trips. Not now.”

Greene nodded. “I agree.”

I didn’t go on that many as it was, but still, I did like getting out of the CGE sometimes, just to go out and do semi-normal things. ”Look, I’m not trying to be difficult, and I don’t go often now, but I can’t stop leaving the CGE indefinitely. For now, I…I have no problem sticking close. I’m not in any hurry to leave.” Everything I needed was here and anything I couldn’t live without (like the girly essentials) Tasha would pick up for me.

“Legally, you are an adult now, Jade, and even though I tried not to do it before, I can’t dictate what you can or can’t do. I can only make requests. This, ultimately, is your decision. However,” he added in his directory-I-mean-business tone, “because you are now an adult and considered an actual paid employee, I can make certain conditions and stipulations. For the foreseeable future, when you leave the property, you will be escorted. That’s non-negotiable.”

I nodded. “I can agree to those terms.”

I didn’t like the idea of being followed around, but I’d take the CGE watchdogs over Creeper and his Creep Patrol.

*~*~*

Greene and Peter had a few more things to say and asked more questions. They suggested a therapist and I quickly turned down the idea. I’d already dealt with one therapist and that was one too many as far as I was concerned. Greene and Peter assured me—and Linc, since he seemed to need some reassurance, too—that next year there would be no problems. That next year, I’d have nothing to worry about except my usual stuff.

I wanted to believe them, I really did, and I did believe they meant it. But…they couldn’t guarantee that. Before, I never would have thought this could happen. Ever. Not here, not at the CGE. But it had. Demon escapes and demon problems, those I could see. When you worked so close to a bunch of demons, there was bound to be trouble. But human trouble? Even when Greene had mentioned people having tried to break into the CGE before, to steal research, I never expected it to happen while I was here.