only just met me. What would you’ve done if I’d walked up to you and announced I knew your real name and oh, by the way, you’re a Vital and this asshole is your Variant?”
“Yeah, fair point, I would’ve disappeared.”
“No, you would’ve tried. I was never letting you out of my sight again,” Alec declared, and because I’m just a little fucked up, I felt warm and fuzzy at his stalkerish declaration.
“Plus”—Charlie shrugged—“much as I wanted to give Alec a push, there was a good reason he was keeping it all a secret. I may have meddled a little, but once you were in the same place, it was up to you.”
Alec and I both scoffed. If it wasn’t for Charlie “pushing things,” who knows where we would’ve ended up?
Before we could continue the conversation, both their phones went off. They glanced at the screens and got up.
“What’s going on?” I slung my backpack over my shoulder.
“We’re being summoned.” Alec took my hand and pulled me in the direction of the admin building. “The team in Australia has checked in with an update.”
The anxiety Alec and Charlie had so expertly distracted me from flooded back, and I picked up the pace, leading the way to Tyler’s office.
Eight
It was unseasonably warm for April, warm enough to be outside in shorts and a tank top while Ethan grilled hamburgers for lunch. Ed, Josh, Tyler, and Charlie played some fast-paced card game on the patio table that had them shouting and laughing while half the cards ended up on the ground.
Dot and I sat by the pool. She flipped through the latest edition of Modern Variant while I perused Josh’s copy of God is Dead by Nietzsche—a welcome break from the complex scientific theories I usually read. It’d been a long, taxing week.
Alec and his team were at work. Zara had landed at a secure private airstrip the day before, and they’d been tasked with getting her safely to Melior Group HQ. Another two teams had assisted, along with Dana. With Dana there, Zara would be as harmless as any other twenty-year-old college student, but they weren’t taking any chances.
Alec had checked in a few hours earlier; everything had gone off without a hitch. Zara was secure in a specially built cell, protecting her from abilities outside of it and protecting everyone else from her. Alec wanted to be present for her questioning that afternoon.
I wasn’t sure if I was more worried about him or her.
Josh’s, Ethan’s, and my clearance hadn’t come though yet, so he couldn’t give us too many details. I suspected Victor was dragging the process out—just to show me he was in charge. I’d mentioned it to Lucian over breakfast, and after raising his brows in surprise, he’d grumbled, “Leave it to me,” then disappeared once more behind his newspaper.
I had a feeling the clearance would be sorted out quickly.
But ultimately it didn’t matter. Alec would tell me whatever I wanted to know, right after he crawled into my bed in the middle of the night and we had sex. Again. Since our first time together, hardly a day had gone by that I didn’t have him inside me.
Even though the intimacy levels with the others remained the same, I still wanted him. I wanted them all. I was insatiable, as if we were making up for lost time—playing catch-up on all the sex we could’ve been having if it wasn’t for the secrets and the pain and the holding back.
“Do you think Zara did it on purpose?” Dot’s voice was sad, her eyes downcast but not focused on the magazine.
“What do you mean? It’s not like she tripped and accidentally nudged me into a van with people who wanted to kidnap me.”
“No, I know.” She turned her almost too big eyes on me, and the scowl on my face melted away. “It’s just . . . I don’t even know what I’m saying. Forget it.”
She waved her hand and turned back to the magazine, but she wasn’t even remotely reading it. It was upside down.
“Dot. What’s going on? Talk to me.”
“I know she didn’t do anything to me directly.” She stared at her lap. “She didn’t shove me into a van or stand by while I was experimented on. But after Beth died, I felt like I was getting her back as a friend, you know? Like the three of us were getting really close. It felt almost like old times. It just hurts to know it was