Caution was the only thing keeping the hybrids from being locked away again. Without it, there was no telling where they would be. The US government might not be as ruthless as the Horatius Group, but they were more than capable of killing all the hybrids.
“Well,” Titus said from the door to his office. “You look like a barrel of laughs.”
The scowl on Cyrus’s face only deepened. He was in no mood for jokes.
“Some asshole keeps giving me paperwork to do,” he said. He waved a hand at the stack of paper as he huffed.
Titus ignored his irritation and sat in the chair across from him.
“Well, someone had to make sure you didn’t get back on the field and rip some poor rookie a new one. I need you on your A-game, and thinking straight.”
His face flamed at bit. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Titus was right. If he had gone back to the field to train, his men would have paid the price. That wasn’t fair.
Cyrus scrubbed a hand over his stubbled face. When was the last time he shaved? Must have been three days given the growth. He felt like hell and likely looked like it as well.
Titus tossed the file he’d been holding on his desk. Cyrus frowned. More fucking paperwork.
“Your woman turned in her report,” Titus said with a raised brow. “Thought you might want to take a look.”
Cyrus looked down at the offending file. “She’s not my woman.”
Titus only sighed. “Just look at the fucking file.”
Not really wanting to look but unable to not, Cyrus opened the file. He frowned as he read the first paragraph. He spent a few minutes skimming over the report and then looked up to Titus.
He was no expert on government reports, but from what he could tell, it wasn’t a hatchet job discussing dangerous hybrids at all.
“What’s this mean?” he said.
Titus stretched. “It means she did her job, but also made sure it was known we weren’t at fault. She even did it in a way that the government can’t complain she left out any details or was otherwise biased. She’s good.”
Cyrus’s stomach clenched. He cursed himself silently.
Wrong. He’d been so wrong.
Titus shifted in his seat. “Thanks to April, the committee voted last night to perform another evaluation in six months. They are still working out the terms, but this is good,” he said. “This will give us enough time to prepare.”
“In what way?”
“A lot of ways.” The leader’s face hardened for a moment. “There’s a reason Sol and I have been busy lately. You don’t need to know the details for now, but just that getting this six months may have been key to saving our people. Your woman has saved us all.”
Cyrus swallowed. It felt like the room shifted, and he struggled to hang on. He’d been so fucking wrong.
Titus nodded. “She’s still here.”
Cyrus looked up to him.
“You should go to her.”
He shook his head. “How can I ever make this up to her?”
Titus shrugged and stood. “Don’t know, but I’m sure you’ll find a way. She’s your Vestal.”
Cyrus stood and nodded. He’d find a way. He had to.
* * *
“And furthermore,” Major General West said, “do you understand how damaging this report will be to the reputations of the people involved in this?”
April clenched her fingers over her shirt as she folded it into her suitcase. On top of everything, she was now being subjected to the rantings of a cry-baby. She didn’t understand how such a man could rise to such a high rank.
“I did my job,” she said and stuffed the next shirt in without folding. “That’s all I was asked to do, and that’s exactly what I did. That’s what I was hired to do, remember? Provide an objective analysis of the situation here.”
She let out a yelp as West jerked her around. Now face to face, he narrowed his eyes and glared at her. His grip wasn’t quite hard enough to hurt her, but it was enough to show her that he could. She struggled in his grasp, but still he held firm.
“You know damn well what you were hired for,” he hissed. “You think you’re going to get away with this? Do you know who I am?”
April slammed the ball of her foot hard on top of his. The general cursed loudly and let go.
“I did my damn job, and you’d do well to remember I’m not one of your soldiers,” she shouted. “Maybe you should watch it if you don’t want a lawsuit on your hands.”
He rounded on her, and for a moment, she wondered just how much he was willing to risk for revenge. Her heart pounded. She was almost more scared of the general than she’d been of the crazy man from town.
“I think it’s time for you to go,” a deep voice said from the door. Cyrus.
Relief spread through her at the sound of the familiar voice, followed by irritation.
For days, she hoped he would stop by, apologize, allowing them to go on like they had before. And for days she had been left on her own to feel terrible.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” the general said, pointing at Cyrus.
Cyrus smirked. “Maybe not, but do you really want to test me?”
“You think you could touch me without consequences?”
“No, but it might be fun.” Cyrus raised a brow.
She held her breath as she waited.
Major General West turned to her after a moment. “I’ll be waiting in the car,” he said and stormed off.
Her gaze slid over to Cyrus once the other man was gone.
“April…” he began.
With the threat gone, her full emotional pain returned. She returned to her packing. Just looking at him made her chest hurt.
“I’ve still got some packing to do if you’re here to make sure I’m gone. It won’t be long.”
“April…”
“I’m sure you have loads of other things to do.” She didn’t dare look at him. She couldn’t take it.
She could hear him shuffle into the room and already the tears were pooled in her eyes.
“Turn around,” he said softly.
April stopped the sloppy folding she had been doing but stayed still. “I’m not one of his soldiers, and I’m not one of your trainees either. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“I’m not telling. I’m asking. Please turn around.”
April whirled around to face him. He was just a foot away from her now. Growth covered his face, and she could see the deep circles under his eyes that likely echoed her own.
“You look like hell,” she said flatly.
He gave a sad laugh. “I deserve that.”
She raised a brow and tried to keep the tears from dripping down her cheeks. It was hard to be angry when she was feeling so sad.
“You think?”
He stared at her now, his amber eyes searching her face for something. “I read the report.”
Her heart twisted. He hadn’t come over because he realized his errors. He’d come over because he saw what she wrote.
“And?”
“And I’m a fucking idiot.”
She gawked at him in surprise. April had thought he might apologize but hadn’t expected him to say that.
“I knew I was being an idiot. I was trying to run from how crazy you make me.”
“I make you what?” she snapped.
Cyrus held up his hands in defense. “Not like that,” he said quickly. “I’m always in control. I know what I need to do, and I do that. When I’m with you, it’s different. I have no idea what’s coming next, and that scares the fuck out of me. All my life I’ve had to depend on what I could count on, and now I can’t even count on myself.”
All the anger drained out of her. She had come in and changed everything he knew.
“Well, you aren’t the only one confused,” she said. “I do things by the book. It’s how I was raised. Mingling while on the job isn’t really by the book. Hell, nothing about this is by the book. Otherw
ise I wouldn’t be feeling this way after such a short time.”
April clamped her mouth shut the instant it came out.
Cyrus stepped forward. “And just what is it you’re feeling?”
She felt her head spin a little having him so close, her body responding to him in the most primal of ways.
“I feel…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. It was crazy.
Cyrus brushed a piece of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. She closed her eyes as he cupped her face.
“How about I tell you how I feel?” he said softly.
April nodded and opened her eyes to stare at him. “I feel like the life I had before was just waiting for you to come into it,” he said. “And without you, I have no meaning.”
The tears she had been holding slipped down into his palm. Cyrus leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against her lips.
“I’m an asshole sometimes. And controlling. And more than a tad possessive,” he said with a smile. “I’m not saying I won’t make mistakes again. I’m stubborn. But I will love you with everything I have. You aren’t just some legend or fairy tale to me. You are the other half of my heart.”
April leaned forward and kissed him hard. She wrapped her arms around his body and pulled him into her.
Love. He loved her.
She could barely wrap her mind around the whole thing, and yet the more she said it in her head, the more it made sense.
After a moment, she pulled away and stared at him. “I love you too,” she said softly. She glanced down shyly and nibbled her lip. “And maybe sometimes a little control isn’t such a bad thing.”
When she glanced back up, his eyes were glowing brightly. “Maybe we should put that to practice.”
A shiver ran through her.
The shrill ring of the phone cut through the air. Cyrus cursed while searching in his pocket.
“Fucking cockblock,” he mumbled. “Yeah,” he said when he found the phone. His gaze landed on her, and she could see that all the merriment from before had shifted away. “Right.”
Cyrus pressed the phone and stuffed it back in his pocket. “Titus is calling a meeting, and he’d like us to be there.”
Chapter Twenty-one
April hadn’t been all that surprised when they stepped outside and found the general had already left. With the way he was acting, she was just glad she wouldn’t have to have another confrontation.
They quickly made their way over to the central office building and toward the meeting rooms. Ava, the woman at the front desk, nodded at them as they made their way into a large meeting room.
When they stepped inside, instantly she knew that things were about to go south.
Cyrus held her hand firmly as she spotted West pacing the room. Titus watched him with a detached look. The general cut them both a venomous look and went back to his pacing. Next to him stood an older man in a dress uniform. A quick glance at his rank insignia indicated he was a four-star general.
Several hybrids sat around a large table in the center of the room watching the events unfold.
“Sir, I just don’t understand,” West said.
The older man shook his head. “Now calm down, Richard,” the older general said. “No one pissed in your cereal. You’ve got other things to handle.”
West stopped his pacing. “But, sir, this is critical for me.”
The general crossed his arms. “Maybe you should make your men critical for you, instead of your damn political career. You’re dismissed.”
“Sir!”
“I said you’re dismissed.” The man nodded to the door. It was more than clear he’d heard quite enough. April had seen that same look from her father.
West straightened and gave a firm salute before stepping quickly out of the room.
The other man turned and a gave a nod to Titus. “Pleasure meeting with you. Colonel Maria Hall will be in contact soon.”
Her ears perked up at the mention of the colonel.
Titus nodded. A moment later, the general stepped out of the room.
“What the hell was that all about?” a small blond woman asked from the table.
Titus sighed and took his seat at the end of the table. “The committee has convened with the final stipulations,” he said. “We now have a military oversight division.”
Sol snorted loudly. “Because that worked out well the first time.”
From what April had read, the hybrids had resisted further military oversight after some troops had gone rogue and aided a Horatius Group attack on Luna Lodge.
Cyrus shook his head. “I thought we had six months.”
“Not getting another formal evaluation for six months, but even with this, there’s some good and bad,” Titus said as several other people spoke up at the same time. The room grew quiet as they watched their leader. “Woods and West were able to convince the committee that they needed some input, but thanks to April,” he smiled at her, “the damage isn’t as bad as it could be. This is not formal control, but similar to what we had before. They’ll have a presence, but we’ll still call the shots for ourselves.”
The men looked at one another. April could see the fear in their eyes.
“West was the man Woods picked. They went higher up and got General Hicks. He’s a fair man and will give us a fair shake.”
April nodded. “I’ve heard a lot of good about him, and Colonel Hall is a good woman. She served under my father. I had the privilege of meeting her at his funeral.”
Titus nodded. “I did some research in the short time we’ve had. It could be worse.”
Cyrus wrapped his arm around her, and she sighed under his weight. They had just gotten things sorted out for the two of them, and now everything was going to change.
“So what does that mean for us?” Cyrus asked.
Titus stood and looked at each person in the room. “Woods and his people aren’t going to back down. The Horatius Group has been known to use whatever methods they can, but keep in mind that based on what we’ve seen from them, they may have splintered, and their efforts may be unfocused. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous. If anything, it’s the opposite.”
He glanced over at her for a second. She sensed there were more details than anyone knew, but she was fine not knowing about them for the moment.
A shiver swept over her. She’d read the reports about the Group. They were monsters who thought nothing of playing God and discarding lives without any sort of morals.
“For now, we play their game,” Titus said, looking at the men. “Dot our i’s and cross our t’s. I’ve had a few select men working on a plan B for some time now. Trust me on this. I will not let us be taken again. We will be free. Our children will be free. And if we have to fight for it, so be it.”
April let out the breath she had been holding. She continued to listen as Titus gave instructions about the incoming changes and return of the military. There were so many logistical things they needed to do, and she was surprised by all the skills the people of the Lodge had.
When it was all over, she stood by the window, watching the bare trees outside shake in the wind. She tried to process the eventful week.
She smiled when strong warm hands wrapped around her middle and pulled her against a solid chest.
“You regretting the decision to be with me?” Cyrus mumbled in her ear.
April turned in his arms. “Never. I’m trying to think of how I can help.”
A small smile spread across his face. “Daughter of a general, always ready for battle.”
She smiled back. “Might need to practice with a little hand to hand later.”
The worry slipped from his face as he grinned back at her. “I think we can work that in.”
April leaned up and placed a soft kiss on his lips. The thought of war might worry her, but the thought of living without Cyrus was one she never wanted to know.
For now, they would live each day as it came and ready themselves for the
oncoming storm.
A Note from Madison
Thank you for reading Cyrus. If you enjoyed this book, please consider reviewing it. We authors live and die by reviews.
Please keep an eye out for the next book in the series, Kyros.
You can join my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/OX9r5
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Cyrus: #11 (Luna Lodge) Page 10