by Eva Chase
She didn’t ask outright, but I knew what she was thinking. I’d thought it myself. I didn’t want to believe that Carina might have folded under the pressure, decided to go back and make some kind of deal with Langdon, but… she’d had decent experiences with them until she’d met me. The understanding of just how awful these people were couldn’t run anywhere near as deep as it did for my family.
“I took precautions,” I said. “I didn’t even tell her where you were. She doesn’t know the family number. She has no idea where we’d be going next from here. I haven’t even told her that much about the family—other than me, she only knows about Jeremy and Liam.” There hadn’t been any need to tell her about my other brothers, and, well, I was too used to holding my tongue.
“We’re not questioning your judgment,” Dad said. “It’s a hard life. There aren’t many who’d choose it.”
But Grace had. And Carina’s life if she returned to Alpha Project might be so much worse. How likely was Langdon to ever trust her again? If she went back to him or if he caught her there… I found it hard to imagine he’d do anything other than toss her in the lab my parents had escaped from.
The thought left my gut in knots. But right now, all we could focus on was getting away to someplace safe.
It was the wee hours of the morning, maybe a half hour before we’d reach Zurich, when Liam rang me up again. “Hey,” he said when I answered, in a rough voice that suggested he hadn’t slept in quite a while. “I just wanted to give you a heads up. There’s a shit-ton of activity going on in the UK right now. Whatever you do, you don’t want to head back there.”
My pulse hiccupped. “Are you sure it’s Alpha Project?” I asked quietly. Mom and Dad were sleeping in the seats across from me, their heads tipped against each other’s, looking every bit the happy couple even after they’d just run for their lives.
“It’s hard to be sure of anything with those shifty bastards,” my younger brother said. “But I had one of my rare useful visions. I saw a whole troop of them arriving at Heathrow—and a guy who completely fits every description we’ve gotten of Langdon was there to meet them.”
Shit. And Carina was headed right back into that hornet’s nest. “Anything we need to worry about up here in Switzerland?” I asked.
“No, I think you’re on safe ground there. I’ll keep you all updated. I’m not leaving these screens for a second.”
“Don’t wear yourself too thin,” I said.
He snorted. “I’ll sleep when the Alpha Project assholes give us a little more breathing room.”
“What was that about?” Jeremy murmured beside me when I hung up. Grace had laid her head on his lap to try to get a little rest of her own. He stroked her hair fondly.
“More Alpha Project goons arriving in London,” I said, fighting to keep the tension from my voice. “Where Carina’s heading back to.” Could she have made it back already? She’d be there by the morning, anyway.
Jeremy studied my face. “You’re worried about her.”
“Of course I’m worried about her. You know what these assholes are like.”
“But you didn’t fight to stop her going back there.”
“I didn’t know it was going to be that much more dangerous. I wasn’t going to try to force her to come with me if she didn’t want to.”
Jeremy’s solemn gaze was inescapable. “But did you tell her how much you wanted her with you?”
No. No, I didn’t think I had. I looked down at my hands in my lap, my throat constricting. Because I’d been worried I couldn’t trust my feelings, just like I’d been worried I couldn’t completely trust her.
I could read so much about everything and everyone I touched, but my talent never gave me an answer quite that straight.
“Do you remember a few months back we were talking about risks?” Jeremy said. “Which ones were worth it? When I was trying to decide how long to hang in there for Grace. You told me that if I’d found something I really cared about, I should take a chance on it. That I shouldn’t just live my life worrying about what was best for everyone else.”
“Yeah?” I said. I did remember that.
“So, maybe you should take that advice too.” He nodded to the dark landscape outside the train. “We should probably split up again soon anyway. If you want to go after her, to fight for her… don’t hold yourself back because you’re worried about what it’ll mean for us.”
Something in my chest released. I hadn’t realized how many emotions I’d been squashing down until they all leapt free, so fast they almost choked me.
“I can’t abandon her to whatever Alpha Project wants to do to her,” I said, my voice gone ragged. “She doesn’t deserve that. She’s…” God, that moment after I’d returned the scarf, when her face had lit up with the possibilities of finding ways to make people a little happier… I could have looked at her all day, like that.
Across from me, Dad has opened his eyes. “I hope I’m hearing wrong,” he said. “Alpha Project is descending on London, and you’re thinking of going back there?”
My body tensed, but I didn’t hesitate with my answer. “I’m not asking anyone to come with me. I just have to do what I can. Carina gave me a chance. She trusted me. And I still didn’t trust her enough to completely let her in. Maybe that’s why she left.”
“Nick—”
“Dad,” I interrupted, my voice dropping even more. “How many times do you think about all the people you left behind in that lab, all the people you didn’t save from Langdon and his goons?”
Dad didn’t have to answer. The horror in his expression was enough of one. “More times than I can count,” he said after a moment. “And every single day.”
I sat up straighter as determination built inside me. “Then you should understand why I can’t stand by while the woman I’m falling for walks right into their trap. She wouldn’t betray us, but she doesn’t know them like we do. If there’s a chance I can get her out of there again, I have to try.”
22
Carina
When I arrived at the building where I usually met with Frederick, it was just late enough in the morning that the doorman was there, ready to let in those getting an early start on the day. Way too early for anyone from Alpha Project to be on site, I hoped. I’d once turned up a smidge before a nine a.m. meeting and had to wait in the hall for Frederick to show up.
This time I wasn’t doing any waiting. This time I was counting on him not being there.
On the fifth floor, I paused outside the main door to the Alpha Project offices. It locked with a code you had to enter under the doorknob. I stepped to the side and detached myself from the present, sliding back to the morning before when Frederick had arrived—looking harried and grim. He punched in the code, and I followed the movement of his finger. Bingo!
I tapped the same numbers, and the lock clicked over. With a shove, the door opened for me. I hurried inside and shut it behind me.
Where was the best place to do my questing into the past? Frederick’s office, I guessed. Langdon didn’t have one of his own, he stopped by so seldom. If they’d talked, chances were it’d been in there.
The back of my neck prickled as I stepped inside. I flicked on the light. With the blinds drawn, no one was likely to notice it from outside. I positioned myself by Frederick’s desk and delved back into the past.
I didn’t need to go far. If they’d been talking about my escape from London, that’d have been yesterday. Thankfully that made it easier to focus my mind on the right moment.
There was Frederick typing angrily on his laptop. There he was shuffling through some files. That wasn’t what I needed. My ears ringing, I nudged just a little farther back.
Langdon stood on the other side of the desk, his smooth salt-and-pepper hair drifting as if he’d just come to a stop. “This is unacceptable. How could you not have seen the signs earlier?”
“What do you mean?” Frederick said from where he’d gotten up from his cha
ir. “You’ve known her a lot longer than I have, and you didn’t realize until it was too late.” He swiped his hand across his mouth. “I don’t know why we got her involved anyway. We can’t trust these freaks to think about anyone but themselves.”
“Don’t talk about them like that,” Langdon said, so sharply I startled and almost lost my hold on that past moment. My hands clenched as I trained my attention on his voice. “Their talents are useful to us. Her talent was useful.”
“I suppose,” Frederick said. “Not that it got us very far. She’d have been a hell of a lot more useful if she’d had a stronger one. Wasn’t that the whole point of your ‘program’?”
My shoulders tensed at that hint at my origins, but Langdon waved his hand dismissively. “To create strong talents, we need to start with stronger talents. It’s a step in the right direction. Unlike the Keanes, she won’t stay on the run very long. Our people are already following the beacon implant.”
Beacon implant? My body turned cold. They’d put an implant in me? I couldn’t even imagine when—maybe some supposed medical test when I’d been a kid, too young to question much?
“Well, that’ll be one good thing that could come out of this mess,” Frederick muttered. “Maybe she’ll lead us right to the Keanes.”
I brought my hand to my mouth with surge of emotion so intense the vision shuddered away. I was looking at only the empty office again, but I hardly saw it.
Of course. That was how they’d known to come after us in Amsterdam. It hadn’t been anything to do with Nick. It’d all been me. Me, underestimating just how far Alpha Project would have gone to control me, even after everything I’d learned about them.
They must already know I was back in London. I stared down at my arms, my chest. Where had they put the implant? Could I get it out of me? My stomach turned.
First, now that I knew this, I had to get out of here. If they could track me, I had to stay on the move, not give them time to close in. Stick to places with lots of exits, lots of room to flee.
Come on, Carina. You can do this.
I went down the stairs instead of the elevator, my ears perked to any sounds from below. How closely were they monitoring my movements? How exactly could they pinpoint my location? Would Langdon know I’d come right here to this building?
What would he think I’d found out?
I darted out of the building and down the street, scanning both sidewalks as I went. London never completely slept, and at seven-thirty in the morning, the traffic was already picking up. Businesspeople strode past me without a second glance. No one looked threatening. Yet.
I hugged myself, my heart thudding faster. Why the hell had I come back? I was alone here. Totally alone.
But then, if I’d stayed with Nick, I would have been leading the enemy straight to him and his family.
His family. Maybe his genius younger brother knew something about electronic implants.
An ache filled my chest. I didn’t have any way to reach out to Nick now. We’d tossed our phones when we’d left London. He hadn’t trusted me with his other number.
Maybe that was for the better. After all, if Alpha Project did catch me…
I shook that thought away. What had Nick said about getting in touch? We’re Facebook friends, right?
I rambled through the city, trying not to jump at every shadow that moved, until a public library branch opened. I could have taken another train out of London, but what the hell good would that have done me? Alpha Project would just follow me somewhere else, somewhere I didn’t know at all. That part of my reasoning in coming back, at least, was sound.
Was Nick even okay? What if he hadn’t managed to get his parents out of wherever they’d been after all? Langdon might have them all in custody right now. And if he didn’t, what business did I have drawing Nick back into the danger zone with my troubles?
My chin wobbled. I closed my eyes and sucked in a slow breath. Nick had wanted me with him. Nick had pulled out the stops trying to save me. I had to trust him—that he knew what he was doing, that if I asked too much, he’d tell me that.
I had to try. Because if I didn’t, I was already lost.
I timed my arrival perfectly. A librarian was just unlocking the front doors. I ducked in and slipped away to the side room with the public computers.
Just log in, send him a quick PM, log out, and get the hell out of dodge. Check in again at a different library after a few hours, when he might have had time to notice my message. That was the plan, but the second I logged in, I found a message already waiting for me. My heart seemed to soar and drop at the same time.
Carina, I’m sorry about the way we left things. You’re not safe there. I’ll meet you at the place with the cushions this afternoon, if you see this.
Fuck. He was already on his way back here. I could have hugged the computer, but I’d choked up too.
YOU’RE not safe here either. There’s more you don’t know. I need to talk to you. I picked up a new burner phone. Call me.
I sent the number and got out of there.
A half hour of rambling later, the phone rang. I practically tore apart my purse getting it out. It had to be Nick. No one else had that number.
“Hey, lovely,” he said in that warm voice that sent an eager shiver through me. I gripped the phone tight.
“It’s good to hear your voice. Where are you?”
“On yet another train. More than halfway there. I can get off and meet you somewhere along the way if you think you can make it out without being noticed.”
“No,” I said. “That’s the problem. I went back to the Alpha Project offices to listen in, to find out what they were talking about yesterday… They have a tracker on me, Nick. In me, somewhere. Anywhere I go, they’ll know to follow me.”
His breath stuttered. “Shit.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“All right,” he said, so calmly my nerves started to settle. “Then we know what we have to do. We get it out.”
Five hours later, I was standing outside the park’s public restroom when Nick came into view. My pulse fluttered at the sight of him, as if it’d been months and not just a day. He was carrying a drugstore bag, I guessed with supplies. My spine tensed.
This wasn’t as happy a reunion as I’d have wanted it to be.
I wasn’t sure how he’d react, but he didn’t hesitate. He walked right up to me and wrapped his arms around me. I sagged a little into his solid frame, his warm citrusy smell filling my nose and unexpected tears springing into my eyes. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed him in the short time we’d been apart until right now.
“I’m sorry I made you come back here,” I said. “Maybe it was a stupid idea, me coming at all. But I had to see if I could make some kind of difference that would actually help.”
He hugged me tighter. “It’s okay. You didn’t make me—I wanted to come. And it’s obviously a good thing you returned. If you’d stayed with us, not knowing you were being tracked, that could have been a total catastrophe.”
The confidence in his words reassured me. I straightened up. “All right. So, let’s get this thing out of me before we have a total catastrophe anyway.”
The dank smell of the bathroom made me wrinkle my nose, but we didn’t have a whole lot of choice in setting. It wasn’t as if we could go back to either of our apartments at this point. Nick locked the door and spread his supplies on top of the bag on the counter by the sink.
“The first trick is obviously going to be finding it,” he said. “Do you have any idea where I should start?”
I shook my head. “The conversation I saw, they didn’t mention anything about where it is. I don’t even know when they put it in. Probably when I was a kid.”
His mouth tightened. He set his hands gently on my face, his gaze going a bit distant as he must have been absorbing impressions from me. I held myself as still as I could, my heart beating in my throat.
Nick’s fingers traced over m
y scalp with a caress that would have started heat building between my legs if I hadn’t known what he was searching for. He eased them down the sides of my neck, over my shoulders, and down my arms.
“Turn around?” he said.
When I did, he slid his hands up under my shirt, easing over the bare skin of my back. They stopped by my shoulder blades. He sucked in a breath.
My muscles tensed. “What?”
“I got a fragment from when they put it in,” he said. “You were definitely young. It’s right… here.” He pressed his thumb against a spot just to the right of my spine, between my shoulder blades.
“Where there’s basically no way I could ever have felt it,” I said with a grimace. “Can you get it out?”
His voice roughened. “I don’t think it’s too deep, but… it’s going to hurt.”
“It’ll hurt a lot more if they catch me. Let’s just get it over with.”
I rolled up my shirt so he had full access while he sterilized the small knife he’d bought. He rubbed alcohol over my skin and a cream that was supposed to be numbing. I resisted the urge to shiver in nervous anticipation. My fingers curled around the edge of the counter.
“Here I go,” Nick said. His voice was outright ragged now. “I’ll try to make it quick.”
I gave him a jerk of a nod. Then he dug in the knife, and pain shot through my nerves.
I cried out and clamped my teeth to try to hold back another gasp. Fuck, that was brutal. The pain seared all the way down my back as Nick dug the knife deeper. My arms twitched; my knuckles whitened where I was gripping the counter.
“Almost,” Nick said. “There!”
The pain dampened just slightly as he pressed a gauze pad to the wound. He taped it down and then tossed another slip of gauze onto the counter. A metal pellet about the size of a pen cap lay in its bloody midst.
I shuddered as I looked at it. “Do you think it still works now that it’s out of me?”
“I don’t see why not,” Nick said. “You want to lead them on a wild goose chase?”