Relentless (Option Zero #2) - Christy Reece Page 0,65

and piled on top of a ripped-open mattress. The four-poster bed that she’d purchased right after she’d gotten her first paycheck from the one and only TV show she’d gotten a part in, had been sawed in two.

She turned and noted that her clothes from both the closet and her drawers were all in a pile in the middle of the floor. They were torn and ripped, and on top of that pile were her dolls. Her dad had given her one each year for her birthday. He’d gifted her the last one the week before he died. All twenty-one of them had been decapitated, their body parts broken and cracked.

Refusing to give in to the grief of that one sight, Aubrey straightened her shoulders. In an instant she reversed any indecision about continuing the project. No way were they going to stop her. Nothing and no one was going to defeat her. The perverted bastards would not win.

If they thought they could keep her from making her film, they were wrong.

Gideon stood at the bedroom door. “Your car…” he said.

She didn’t even wince. “I’m assuming it’s totaled?”

“That’d be my guess. Bastards took a sledgehammer to it.”

If she didn’t cry about her dolls, she refused to shed a tear over her ten-year-old Mazda RX-7. Yes she’d loved it but so what? Everything else she’d loved was gone, too.

“We’ll get someone in here to clean this mess up. Doubt they left fingerprints but you never know.”

“What about my gun?”

“What gun?”

She went back to the foyer. The table with the hidden compartment was turned over, but didn’t look broken. Stooping down, she turned it around, and was relieved to see the wood was intact. She pressed the hidden release button, and the compartment opened, revealing her handgun.

“That’s handy,” Eve said.

Standing, she held the gun steady in her hand, oddly comforted. Was it a coincidence that the only item undisturbed was a weapon? She didn’t think so.

She took one last look at the destruction. “I’ll need to call my insurance agent.”

“You can do that tomorrow.”

“All right.” Aubrey turned toward the front door. “Thank you.”

Without a backward glance, she went down the steps and back to the car. The contents of the duffle bag she’d carried to Montana and the gun in her hand were all she had left. That didn’t matter. She would replace what she needed. For now, she wanted to get someplace alone and lick her wounds.

And then, dammit, then she would get back up and go at these people full force. They thought they had defeated her. Little did they know they’d only made her more determined.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Montana

OZ Headquarters

Sitting in Ash’s office, Serena chewed on her bottom lip as they waited for Liam to arrive. She had come to Ash yesterday and presented her findings. He had been full of questions, and she had managed to answer most of them. Yes, there were still holes. And no, she wasn’t completely sure of her theory but there were way too many coincidences to ignore.

The conversation she’d had with Aubrey on the plane had given her the insight she’d needed to probe deeper. There’d been only small clues before, but that fifteen-minute discussion had created a framework for the puzzle. She had spent the last two days filling in those pieces. She wasn’t there yet, but it had been enough to come to Ash and tell him her theory.

He’d been surprised and more than a little intrigued.

Ash had placed a call to Kate and had gotten more information. That, with what she had, almost sealed the deal. Now, to present the information to Liam and let him decide what he wanted to do with it.

It infuriated her that she hadn’t picked up on this from the beginning. Years ago, when Liam had asked for her help in identifying the woman he’d known only as Cat, she had done her best. There hadn’t been much to work with. She had taken all the information he’d given her, optimistic that she would find her. She took pride in her ability to dig up intel no one else could find. She had been a star at her previous job. If there was a secret to be found, Serena was the one given the task. No one was her equal.

Leaving the State Department had been a little scary for her. There, she had been comfortable and secure in her value. But when Sean had told her about OZ and invited her to come over, she hadn’t