“Something like that.” CJ rubbed the back of his neck and couldn’t look her in the eye.
Kendra folded her arms. “If there’s something so dangerous you don’t want me around, shouldn’t you be calling the cops?”
CJ shook his head. “It’s not necessarily dangerous to everybody, but I worry about you, and I don’t have evidence, not enough for the locals to get involved.”
“You have to give me something more to go off of.” Kendra sighed. “I’ve been hyping this race for a while. I can’t blow it off without a big backlash from my viewers. I don’t want them to think I’m just getting lazy, and I don’t get how something could be dangerous for me, but not for anyone else.”
“It’s complicated.” CJ sucked in a breath through his teeth. “I can’t really tell you.”
Kendra scoffed and put her hands on her hips. “Then I’m not leaving. I owe it to myself, Graham, my fans, and my sponsors to race unless I have a good reason otherwise. I’m healthy, relaxed, and ready to conquer the course.” She poked CJ in the chest. “I like you a lot, but that doesn’t mean I’ll do whatever you say without an explanation.”
CJ grumbled. “Okay, I’ve got something to tell you. I probably shouldn’t, but it’s the only way to make things clear.”
He stepped backward until he stood in the shadow of a tree near the fence. After looking around, he ducked behind a large trash bin off to the side.
“Is this the part where you kill me?” Kendra asked.
“This is the part where I show the truth. Come here. Once you see this, you’ll understand everything.”
Chapter Seventeen
Maybe it wasn’t the time nor the place to admit to being a hybrid, especially given they were in the middle of the mission. CJ knew that Julius didn’t agree with Kendra knowing the truth, but they’d gone from a theoretical to concrete threat. She needed to know to protect herself.
It was more than that. She deserved to know. If CJ wanted to have any sort of chance with her, he needed to stop with the bullshit rationalizations. He knew they were crap, and she would, too.
CJ stepped closer to her, his heart pounding. Kendra’s lips parted, and she stared into his eyes. He took a moment to listen and look around to make sure no one was close. Despite the cacophony all around, their small hidden spot provided a moment of peace and tranquility. He longed for what they could have when this was all over.
There were so many ways he could tell her the truth, so many ways he could prepare her with words, but her soul already had to know. They’d bonded, and she must already suspect his true nature on some level.
Dancing around the subject wouldn’t help. The best choice was the most obvious one. People didn’t believe words. They believed what they could see.
CJ reached up and pulled out one of his contacts to reveal his amber eyes. Kendra gasped and put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened.
He slipped the contact back in. The truth was out, but that didn’t mean safety wasn’t a concern. Ouroboros guards would know there were hybrids in the area, but the concentration of athletes meant there were a lot of large men around, both competitors and those cheering on their smaller friends. Two hybrids wouldn’t stand out in the crowd as long as they didn’t give anyone a reason to look closer.
“You’re a hybrid,” Kendra said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Whoa. That explains a lot. It explains more than a lot.” She blew out a breath and shook her head. “You know what? I should be more surprised, but somehow I’m not.”
“You suspected?” CJ asked, wanting her to confirm with her own words the connection he felt.
Kendra shook her head. “No, not really. It makes perfect sense now, but it never occurred to me you might be a hybrid. Does that make sense?” She rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s like a part of my subconscious knew that was the case, but I couldn’t put two and two together until you showed me that. I’ve seen stuff on the net about you all, but it’s not like I paid a lot of attention to it. Wow.”
“You’ve seen a lot on the net?” CJ scratched his cheek. That could move things along, provided she’d heard the right sort of things. “You’ve heard of Vestals, then?”
Kendra furrowed her brow. “Kind of. I don’t know a lot about it because I’ve heard different things, but isn’t that just a fancy name for a hybrid wife?”
Her understanding wasn’t the best, but at least she hadn’t bought into any lies about hybrids hypnotizing women and kidnapping them. He could work with that.
CJ shook his head. “It’s far deeper than that. Even my own kind debates what it truly means, but it’s a lot less about being a wife and something far deeper. The only word that really describes it is soulmate.”
He let the explanation hang there, waiting for her response without any further commentary. Walking the path of truth could be hard, but he wouldn’t run away now.
Her eyes widened. “Soulmate?”
“Yes.” CJ kept his voice low and checked around on occasion. He didn’t want to get surprised in the middle of such an important conversation. “I’m not going to dance around it. You’re my Vestal. I don’t know if it was fate or coincidence that brought us together. I honestly don’t care. We found each other, and that’s all that’s important.”
Kendra put her hand on her chest. “I’m your Vestal? I’m your soulmate? Are you serious?”
Despite her questions, and her tone of surprise, he didn’t sense any real doubt. That was the way things were supposed to work, but whatever Quinen had done to them always left room for slivers of skepticism.
CJ nodded. “I was strongly attracted to you from the beginning, which made me wonder if you could be my Vestal, but after sleeping with you, I now know. For me, we’re bonded now. I’ll never be satisfied with another woman, and if we’re not together, I’ll always feel empty. I think… I hope you feel the same way.”
“Whoa. That’s a lot to put on a girl.” Kendra scraped the toe of her shoe along the pavement. “I… I don’t even know how to react, but I guess… I just don’t know.”
He still didn’t hear doubt more than confusion. It wasn’t a mistake to tell the truth, no matter what happened.
“I’m not asking you to make any decisions now,” CJ replied. “I get this is a lot to drop on you, and I wish I didn’t have to do it right before the competition, but you deserve to know, because it might relate to why I came here to begin with. As much as I’d love to say I came here for you, finding you was a lucky bonus.”
Kendra grimaced. “That’s right. The PI thing. That’s nothing more than a cover story, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” CJ glanced at the crowd in the distance. “My people got some information suggesting a dangerous organization might be involved in this race, and so we’re checking it out.”
“But the Horatius Group got taken out. There were all those hearings and stuff.” Kendra furrowed her brow and looked around with suspicion as if a Glycon would jump out any minute and attack her.
“I’m not a Luna hybrid,” CJ replied. “And the Horatius Group isn’t the only threat out there. Another organization is involved. We don’t know why or what they’re doing, so that’s why my team was sent to check things out. We thought it was just money laundering, but there’s too many things not adding up. It’s enough to make me think a lot more is going on.”
“Like what?” Kendra asked.
“For starters, you being a Vestal.” CJ stared into her dark eyes trying not to get lost in them and crush his mouth against hers. “Although some of us believe fate guides hybrids to their Vestals, we also know this evil organization, Ouroboros, is hunting them for their own purposes. We can’t be sure you’re being targeted. They could have kidnapped you from your house or the airport or something if that’s all this is about, but it’s enough to make me worried for you.”
Kendra crouched and rubbed her temples. “Oh, man. This is getting both weirder and more logical by the second.”
“What do
you mean?” CJ knelt and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Please tell me. I’ll do everything I can to help you understand.”
“I believe you about the Vestal thing even if I don’t understand all of it,” Kendra replied. “I didn’t understand why I was so completely into you when we first met and why I was falling for you. It wasn’t like me, but now it all makes sense.” She managed a smile. “And it’s not a bad thing having a superhuman significant other, but all this other stuff doesn’t make sense. There’s no way some evil conspiracy is here at the race. It’s too crazy.”
CJ shook his head and followed Kendra as she stood. “The thing is we already know they are. My partner and I were doing some recon the other night, and two guards came after us. They were expecting hybrids. There was also a weird device we found on one of the obstacles. We think it’s some sort of transmitter, but we didn’t get a chance to check out the other obstacles. Standing and fighting other than to escape would have made a big mess and brought too much attention.”
“It could just be something to coordinate with drones and wireless cameras.” Kendra shrugged. “There’s a lot of that kind of thing at these kinds of competitions.”
“It wasn’t there earlier in the day,” CJ replied.
Kendra tugged on her ponytail and cast a nervous glance toward the burgeoning crowd. “If you’re right, shouldn’t we tell the police or security? Bad guys are messing around. We can’t let them do what they want.”
“We don’t want to let them do what they want, but we also can’t be sure if Ouroboros doesn’t have some control over the local police who are at the event. If the Horatius Group could corrupt the Army, no one’s safe.” CJ frowned. “And we know for certain that security’s compromised. That complicates things.”
“But what if they’re going to like send a missile or something?” Panic filtered into Kendra’s voice.
CJ shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about that, but it doesn’t make sense. My partner’s made that clear, too, and he’s smarter about this kind of thing. Whatever this is, it’s not about just hurting a lot of people, which would attract attention, and everybody knows governments are aching to hunt down remnants of the Horatius Group, and even if these guys are different people, the government will treat them the same.”
“Maybe they want to assassinate some hybrids?”
“Nope.” CJ shrugged. “They might have worried about us showing up, but they didn’t know for certain until last night. That much was clear. Whatever they were doing was set up before that.”
Kendra sighed. “Then what should we do? It can’t be that we’re supposed to act like nothing’s going on.”
“I don’t think you should run the course,” CJ said. He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. “I can’t take the chance they’re targeting you somehow. You running and jumping around means there are plenty of places where things can go wrong that are less obvious.”
“You think they want to kill me?” Kendra sounded more offended than afraid. “I’m just a normal woman.”
“I don’t know, and that’s what’s got me worried. And you’re not a normal woman. You’re my Vestal.” CJ growled, trying to resist the urge to scoop her up and run with Kendra until he was back in Maine. “The guards the other night came from the direction of the main sportsplex building. I’ve noticed more people going in and out of it now that the race is about to start. My partner and I need to check it out.” He averted his eyes. “And you need to stay off the course. I know this could hurt your channel, but I can’t protect you if you’re on the course. I don’t know what they’ve done to it.”
Kendra nuzzled his chest. “You don’t have to justify anything. I know you only want the right thing for me.”
“You believe me, then?” CJ asked. He hoped she couldn’t hear any desperation in his voice.
“I’m your Vestal, right?” Kendra looked up with a smile. “Yes, it’s crazy, and I already all but got called crazy by Graham for admitting I fell for you, but I know what my heart says, and I know that being with you feels right.” She tugged out of his arms, her smile twitching into a frown. “But I don’t know if I like the idea of you risking your life anymore than you want me risking mine.”
“I’m one of the few people here who can do anything about it.” CJ offered her a cocky smile. “And I’m a hybrid. The risks aren’t the same.”
“In obstacle courses, especially the ones influenced by ASTC, you see a lot of good athletes screw up, and it’s just them against the course, not other people.” Kendra shook her head. “It doesn’t matter how well-trained you are or how fit you are. Things can always go wrong.”
CJ considered her words. He’d like to lie and tell her nothing could possibly go wrong, but she was right. Taking anything for granted at this point was the first step toward getting surprised and killed.
“Then you can help me.” He gestured toward the top of a climbing wall peeking out above the temporary structures. “You’re still the person most likely to spot something that doesn’t belong at an event like this.” He smiled, as much as for his own benefit as hers. “Try and keep an eye out for anything strange. You can call me if you come across anything that feels wrong, just don’t use the words Ouroboros or hybrid. Until then, I need to meet up with my partner and figure out our next move. But whatever else you do, you need to pull out of the race.”
Kendra nodded. “I’m going to take one last spin around the obstacles, then go to the registration table and withdraw from the race.” She placed a hand on his arm. “But remember what I said. I want you to be careful.”
CJ pulled out his phone to text Julius. “I will, and now I can concentrate on the job without worrying about you.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, CJ and Julius stood on the far side of the course, closer to the main building. They were crouched past stacked boxes of water bottles and Gatorade.
CJ couldn’t get Kendra off his mind. They needed to finish up this mission as soon as possible and eliminate any possible risk to her. He didn’t care how many Ouroboros mercenaries he needed to tear through. But before then, he needed to make sure his partner understood the situation. The last thing either of them needed was more surprises.
“I told her,” CJ said after they’d finished verifying no one else was nearby with one last visual sweep.
Julius scoffed. “Of course you did.”
“She took it well.” CJ shrugged. “She accepted it without much question. And she agreed to not race.”
“Well, that’s done and over.” Julius furrowed his brow. “But it doesn’t help us figure out our mission. I can’t get close to any of the obstacles now, but I’ve spotted more of those devices. They’re not at every obstacle from what I can tell, but knowing they are there doesn’t do anything about answering why they are there.”
“Maybe we should have tried better to smuggle our guns in,” CJ said. “Or hopped the fence. They don’t have total coverage. This is a race, not a military base.”
Julius shook his head. “They were funneling people through the metal detectors, and I’ve already seen people escorted out of the race who didn’t have the entry bracelets. It’s not worth the trouble for recon. This is a well-secured event, and they’re probably on heightened alert after what happened the other night.”
“But this might not just be recon anymore.” CJ frowned. “And that means we need to take more chances.”
Julius chuckled. “Don’t worry. Your Vestal isn’t doing the race anymore, which means whatever those devices are won’t bother her, and they won’t make a big scene in public. As annoyed as I am about you telling her, you might have messed up their plan by getting her to pull out of the race.”
CJ looked over his shoulder and then craned his neck upward, Kendra’s earlier missile comment bothering him. He didn’t doubt Julius’s logic. Making a big public show of hurting innocent people would doom Ouroboros in a way that twelve angry hybrids working mostly alone
couldn’t.
But they weren’t there to take in a race. The devices could be nothing, or they could be key to the plan. Too many unknowns remained.
“We need to get into the main building and check things out,” CJ said. “We can’t poke around the edges and figure this out.”
Julius nodded. “Agreed. The building isn’t choked with thousands of innocent people, either. It’ll make it easier if we need to bust some heads.”
CJ stood and made his way around stacks of boxes. “The best bet is to wait until the competition starts. Everyone’s attention will be focused on the race.”
“Huh. That’s actually a good plan.” Julius looked surprised.
“I’m not a complete meathead.”
“Not a complete one, sure.” Julius chuckled. “Okay, then we’ll hit up the building once the race begins. Until then, we keep our heads down and look for anything else suspicious.”
CJ pulled out his phone. “I’m just going to check on Kendra.”
Julius rolled his eyes. “You should probably send her back to her hotel. It’ll be better if you don’t have any distractions once we hit the target.”
CJ eyed his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. “I’ll give her a little more time and then bother her. Don’t want to seem needy.”
“Too late. For now, let’s head back toward the front gate. We don’t want anyone to spot us lurking around the building.”
Chapter Eighteen
The heavy revelations should have upset Kendra, but she found herself relieved. She couldn’t stop smiling.
Everything made sense now, her longing, her instant attraction. At the end of the rainbow, there really was something for her. Most people went their whole lives without knowing if they’d found their soulmate, but she’d bumped into hers at the park.
Was that fate? She wasn’t sure before, but now she found it hard to not believe. Of all the people in the world, she’d found her hybrid. The world was a kind place.
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