by Selena Scott
“We don’t know his exact movements from the last year,” Diana said quietly. “All we know is that the cops think he’s the contact point for the Director. They have been investigating for a while now. There’ve been mysterious shifter disappearances for a while and they think they all are sourced back to the Director.”
“And to Quill?” Dawn heard the tremor in her voice but was unable to quell it. “He was responsible for the shifter disappearances too?”
“As far as they could tell,” Diana said, her eyes dark and frustrated, “you all were his first targets. He spent a good long time attempting to gain your trust so that the extraction would be as easy as possible. You all have firsthand experience of what happens when an agent tries to move too quickly.”
Understanding hit Dawn like a baseball bat. “You mean Watt?”
Phoenix nodded tightly. Earlier in the year, Phoenix’s good friend Watt had attempted to kidnap Ida in a ploy to get her out of the way. He’d wanted direct access to Phoenix and Phoenix’s girlfriend had made that much harder. He’d revealed himself to be working for some sort of larger group, but they’d never known what that meant, until now at least.
“When Watt came back and met up with you,” Dawn said, turning toward Orion, her voice not much more than a whisper, “he warned you. He told you—”
“Not to trust anyone,” Orion confirmed. “I didn’t know he was talking about Quill.”
“But Quill was there the night Watt took Ida,” Dawn said, desperate to understand. “He helped us get her back. If they were working together, then why would he have helped us?”
“One thing we know,” Diana said tightly, “is that he is an excellent actor whose only goal is to get what he wants. He fooled us all, Dawn.”
The expression on Diana’s face said that she was furious with herself for having missed the signs. She was a protector, just like Orion; it was part of why the two of them made such a good couple.
Dawn couldn’t keep looking at the conflicted expressions on the faces of the people she loved. Because sure, Quill had fooled them all. But no one more than Dawn herself. Not only had she believed him to be a good person, she’d actually started to…
God.
What kind of person could lie that well?
A waterfall of memories poured through her mind. Him driving them around Portland before she got her license. The little half-smile on his face when she said something funny. The way he listened to her when she really got going on some stray thought she had on whatever she was reading. Her brothers were caring, loving, but nobody listened to her the way Quill did. Like she was fascinating. Brilliant, even. Like she held all the world’s secrets and all he wanted was for her to let him in.
She’d thought that he’d been trying to get to know her because they had a genuine connection. But had all of that been because he’d been trying to figure out the best way to get her to this Director guy?
The thought made her stomach roil. The little sips of coffee she’d taken turned over in her gut.
“Look,” Orion said. “We need to eat some breakfast and talk all of this out. Dawn, out of all of us, you know Quill the best. So there's a chance that you have some information that you’ll have to bring to the police. They don’t have enough to arrest him outright, but maybe you know something that could give them cause.”
Inwardly, Dawn blanched. She was still getting used to the idea that he was the enemy. And now she was suddenly supposed to be part of the reason why he was arrested? It was too much.
“Why don’t we all just have some breakfast and talk some of this out,” Ida said gently, obviously sensing that this whole thing was moving way too fast for Dawn.
“All right,” Dawn agreed listlessly.
She sat at the table and stared at her cooling coffee as everyone else bustled around the kitchen. She choked down some food as they all sat together, postulating about Quill’s motives, piecing together the little bits of information they had.
“I need to rest,” she told the group eventually. “My head still hurts.”
That much was absolutely true. But it wasn’t the residual effects of the tranquilizer that were hurting her. No, it was the absolute heartbreak of betrayal. Phoenix pulled her into a tight hug before she left the room and she could feel Orion’s eyes on her back. It was clear that her brothers were exceedingly worried about how she was taking this news. She wished she could reassure them. But she just didn’t have it in her. She got all the way up to her room before she realized just how little she wanted to be there, alone.
Licking her wounds on her own was not what she needed right now.
No, what she needed was answers.
She pushed up her second-floor window and jumped out to the pine tree that grew alongside the house. She shimmied down far enough until she was comfortable jumping to the ground. Jogging alongside the house, she ducked underneath the window line and kept on going until she was down the hill at the bus stop. Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long for the bus because if she did, she might start thinking about the fact that she had just snuck out of the house, away from her brothers, to go see someone who had—apparently—no problem throwing her to the dogs.
For once, she didn’t get caught up in her thoughts. She let herself be led by this horrible racing in her chest. She got off the bus twenty minutes later and stood outside Quill’s apartment building. What was she doing? This was insane.
But she had to know. Orion wanted her to go to the police with any information she had about Quill. How could she do that without hearing the truth from him first? The odds were he wasn’t even there, but she had to try. She couldn’t handle not knowing, maybe never knowing.
Taking a deep breath, she slipped through his front door and opted for the stairs instead of the elevator.
She halted the second she stepped into the hallway that led to his apartment, because she could see from here that the door was slightly ajar. She could tell from his scent in the air that he’d just been in the hallway himself. In fact, his scent was so fresh that she could almost feel the heat of him in the air.
She took a silent, cautious step forward, carefully sniffing the air, attempting to tell if there was anyone in his apartment with him. But as far as she could tell, he was the only person who’d been in the hallway in hours. Not that surprising considering that it was barely 6 a.m. His neighbors hadn’t even left for work yet.
She kept her slow pace to his front door and then peeked through the open crack. She could only see a slice of his kitchen. She heard his footsteps, the sound of drawers opening and shutting. She let herself in.
Something told her that sneaking up on him, cornering him, was going to be the only way she could keep him from fleeing. She could smell his adrenaline from here and though they were on the second floor, she wouldn’t put it past him to jump out of the window in his bedroom to get away from her. She’d once seen a deer leap from a cliff to get away from Orion as he’d chased it down for dinner. She knew what an animal would do to survive. And Quill was definitely in survival mode right now.
She continued her silent steps through the apartment until she stood in the doorway of his bedroom, watching him as he shoved things into a duffel bag.
He didn’t have the sense of smell that Dawn and her brothers had, but he was a shifter—he knew when he wasn’t alone. Quill stiffened and turned his head, gifting her with his profile.
She swallowed down the sound that tried to claw its way out of her throat. Did he have to be so beautiful? It used to be a joy to look at his sharp, crooked face. Now it was just painful.
Both of the other times she’d shown up at his apartment, Quill had asked her why she’d come. This time he said nothing, but the ghost of his former question danced on the air between them. He still didn’t turn all the way around to see her and for a moment Dawn wondered if looking at her would be as painful for him as looking at him was for her.
Silence stretched between them for ten long seco
nds until Dawn realized that she was going to have to be the one to break it.
“Is it true?” her voice rasped, low and broken. There was no hiding her emotions. His betrayal was raw and slicing through her throat, sounding in every breath she took.
He inflated, his chin coming high, still giving her nothing but his profile. “Which part?”
“Quill,” she whispered. “Look at me.”
He didn’t. He turned back to his duffel bag and continued stuffing clothes and toiletries into it.
“Quill.”
Dawn took two steps into his room. His scent was so strong in here, it enveloped her, almost like a blanket. She shivered. The longer he was turned away from her, the more and more true Diana’s story seemed. Why else would he refuse to face her? She looked down at the duffel on his bed. Why else would he be running?
“Quill,” she said one more time. She was close enough to lay a hand on his shoulder, so she did just that. He was impossibly warm, even through his T-shirt. He jolted under her touch and seeing her slender fingers against his thickly muscled shoulder almost—but not quite—shook last night’s dream loose inside of her.
“Don’t.” His word was bitten off and bitter.
She didn’t take her hand away so he shook her off, finally turning to face her.
“What do you want to know, Dawn?”
His eyes, a clear blue, seared her and though she’d wanted nothing more than his eye contact when she’d stepped into the room, she dropped her eyes now. It was too intense.
When she didn’t say anything, couldn’t find the words, he scoffed and turned back to his bag. “You shouldn’t be here,” he told her. “This is the last place you should be. Go back home to your brothers, all right?”
She blinked. “My brothers? What do my brothers have to do with anything?”
“They’ll protect you, Dawn. And yeah, you’re gonna need it.”
She bristled. “Exactly what will I need protecting from, Quill? What?” She was mad now. Mad that he was implying that she needed her brothers’ protection. Mad at herself for passively accepting that protection for all these years. Mad that he wasn’t answering her questions. Mad that he was most likely a dirty rotten traitor. Mad that even now, he was still treating her like a child. Patting her on the head and sending her on her way.
“What?” Quill demanded, turning to face her again and taking two menacing steps toward her, bullying her backward. “I would have thought Diana would have figured it all out by now. You really need me to spell it out for you?”
Oh, he wanted to play the game that way? First he was insulting her ability to take care of herself and now he was insulting her intellect? She’d had about enough. She planted a firm hand on his chest and shoved him back out of her space. His eyes widened in surprise, as it wasn’t her habit to touch him at all, and it definitely wasn’t her habit to shove him. “I’m not here asking you for answers because I’m too dumb to figure it out on my own, Quill. I’m here because heretofore, I’ve given you something called “the benefit of the doubt”. It doesn’t make me dumb to assume the best of my friends. It doesn’t make me dumb to hope that you haven’t completely betrayed me and my family. To hope that you didn’t sell us for profit, you selfish, condescending ass.”
His eyes narrowed and his mouth opened. For a moment, he looked confused. He looked like he might argue with her, maybe even defend himself. A little flame of hope flickered in Dawn’s chest. But then his eyes shuttered down and he turned back to his bag. Dawn’s hope flickered out. “I don’t have time for this, Dawn. You need to get back to your brothers, to safety, before you get your ass killed. Or abducted again. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I ever met you.”
She stepped back from him like he’d just tried to knife her. He was sorry he’d ever even met her? She felt like he’d just dumped ice water all over her.
“No,” he said, reading her expression. “That’s not what I—”
Again, his expression shuttered down and he turned back to his bag. He zipped it up and the sound sliced the air. It was almost like he was zippering off the connection she used to think they had.
She was mad and dejected and rejected and part of her still couldn’t believe that he’d freaking sold them out like that. That she’d meant so little to him that he’d practically sold her off for parts.
And now he was just leaving?
“Where are you going?”
“Where do you think I’m going?” He tossed the duffel onto his shoulder and scowled. She’d never seen him so agitated before.
Her stomach dropped and she stepped into the doorway, barring his way. “You’re—” She had to gasp through the words, she found this thought so abhorrent. “You’re headed off to find some other suckers to sell to the government? You’re off to do this to someone else?”
He reeled back from her. And for just a flash of a moment, she saw that he found that idea as disgusting as she did.
“No,” he answered immediately. “I’m not doing this to anyone else, Dawn. I’m going to turn myself the fuck in. All right? I failed. Now I’m going to beg for my fucking life. The end. Now, get out of my way before they track me here and kill us both.”
God. Two simple words and he’d all but confessed. I failed. Wasn’t that as good as admitting that he’d tried?
“You—you—” She couldn’t think of a word bad enough for him. “It’s true. You were going to let them take me. They tranqed me, Quill.”
He glowered at her, his expression going blank. “And they would’ve done a lot worse than that if the plan had succeeded. So, count your blessings, Dawn, and get the hell out of here before they come for you!” He shoved past her and took two steps into his living room before he paused and gave her his profile again. “In fact, if you’re smart, you and your brothers will get out of Portland for a while. Lie low.”
See, this was what was so confusing to Dawn. He’d sold her off to the government yet here he was, warning her to stay safe. Something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t clicking.
“We’re not leaving Portland,” she told him. “Phoenix has Ida and Orion has Diana. They’d never leave them behind.”
Quill laughed hollowly. “I’m not going to stick around to convince you otherwise. But in my opinion, there’s nothing worth what they’ve got planned for your family. Not even true love. They’d be doing their women a bigger favor by leaving them behind.”
His words were a sucker punch. “What do you mean, ‘what they’ve got planned’?”
Again, she got in his way, kept him from leaving. He tried to duck around her but she shoved him back again. “Tell me!”
He dropped the bag to the ground and bodily moved her to one side. “I mean that they’ve got their eye on you and your siblings because they want your sense of smell. They want to study it and take it apart and weaponize it. And after they’ve shown you their dirty little laboratories, they don’t exactly set you free. So, if you three are smart at all, you’ll get gone and stay gone.”
She lowered herself down onto his couch, her fingers and toes freezing cold with shock. Diana hadn’t explained about that. None of them had guessed that it could be so bad. They were coming for her family.
“Quill,” she whispered.
He turned in the doorway of his apartment, waiting for her to speak.
“Will they ever stop looking for us?” she asked him. “Will we have to run forever?”
The look on his face said it all.
He looked like he wanted to say more, but instead, he turned and closed the door behind him.
Dawn blinked blearily around at his apartment. There were black and white photographs framed on the wall, fruit in the bowl, copper pots arranged by size and hanging from hooks underneath the cabinets. All he’d taken was a single duffel bag. Just like that, he was leaving his entire life behind. He was leaving everything so that he could find these people and beg for his life.
And that’s how she knew he wasn’t lyi
ng. That’s how she knew just how serious this whole thing was. That’s how she knew that her family was in imminent danger.
She saw only one way to protect her family.
In the end, it wasn’t a choice, really. It was natural for her body to stand up and leave his apartment, to chase him down the stairs and into the parking lot. She saw his car, reversing out of his parking space, and she sprinted toward him, skirting around the back of the car and around to the passenger’s side. Before he could speed away, she flung the door open and slid into the seat, buckling in.
“Dawn!” he shouted in exasperation, turning off the car. “I don’t think I can make this any clearer. Get back to your brothers now!”
“Don’t you shout at me!” she shouted at him. “In fact, don’t even speak to me. Don’t say another word.” She slammed the lock down on her door and stared out the front windshield. “I’m coming with you.”
CHAPTER TWO
Dawn braced herself for what was certainly going to be an argument. She could tell by the quirk of his full mouth, the narrowing of those icy eyes.
But his mouth snapped shut as he focused on something over her shoulder. His dark, wavy hair tumbled down his forehead as he leaned forward to peer out the window behind her.
“What—waaa!” she squawked as Quill planted a palm on top of her head and shoved her down below the window line. The two of them ducked down.
“Why are we—”
“Hush.” He was slouched too, his hand still forcing her down. He leaned up and peeked out the window.
He suddenly started the car, screeched out of the parking spot, and burned rubber onto the street, staring into the rearview mirror. He didn’t even seem to breathe until they’d merged onto the highway.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked, more bemused than angry at this point.
He glanced over at her, his jaw clenched. The adrenaline was a cloud of metallic panic between them. She put the windows down to let in the piney scent of the hills they were driving into.