She was barely recognizable as she stood on stage, her hair hanging limp and dull over her shoulders. Shoulders slouched, thin; the notches of bone prominent. I clenched my jaw, the rage rising as my eyes traveled down her bruised, barely-clothed body.
Her head was lowered, eyes downcast just like every other girl brought before the camera. Submission, and I’d expected it, but expecting and seeing were completely different, and I wasn’t prepared to see her broken.
My brave scientist ruined.
They’d ruined her.
She’d been fuckin’ perfect. She was brave and cute and caring and fuckin’ perfect, and they’d ruined everything she was.
I snapped.
Ernie saw it coming and was on me, but it was too late. My fist went through the television and then he was hauling me back.
“Boss, let’s go. She has to be in one of the rooms.”
London. Fuck, she was here. So close I could feel her. Blood dripped from my hand that now held my knife. “It’s been too long.” I kept thinking of her on the TV, a girl I no longer recognized. “It’s been too fuckin’ long.”
“Boss.” Ernie had the door open, his gun out, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking down the corridor. “Fuck. Deck.”
I ran to the door and just as I careened around the corner, I saw Deck glance over his shoulder at me. What the fuck? Why was he…?
But then I knew.
One of his men, Vic, came out of a room to the right with a body over his shoulder. A girl. My fuckin’ girl.
Deck and his men were here for my fuckin’ girl.
I started toward them, blood dripping off my fingertip leaving a trail of blood.
Ernie was right behind me and I heard his gun cock.
I stopped ten feet away from Deck. He was dressed in combat gear as were his men. I knew of them, Vic, Tyler, Josh, because I knew everyone associated with Deck.
Deck had his hand on his gun at his hip, but he hadn’t withdrawn it—yet.
My eyes went to Vic who stood with London’s limp body over his shoulder, unmoving. Not fighting.
I stiffened. “Jacob and Alfonzo had her?”
“Yes,” he replied. Deck said something to Vic who turned and jogged down the corridor then disappeared around the corner. With London. And yet, I didn’t move.
“Boss?” Ernie questioned.
But I couldn’t do it. Deck wasn’t like me. He had morals. He was good and he was here because he was getting London out probably because Sculpt or his girl had told him about her.
He was getting her out.
My vicious, cruel strings were tied to London and I had to break them. I had to make her valuable to Mother and Vault then stay the hell away from her. It was the only way for her to stay safe and alive.
I had to let her go.
I nodded to Deck, then turned and walked away.
France
“HOW COME DR. Westbrook’s daughter is in Toronto, Mother?”
This was how I had to play it. Like I hadn’t found London in Germany and seen Deck get her out. Any suspicion of me having an attachment to London had to end today. The second Deck took London back to New York, Mother would know about it because I’d have to tell her. It was much more productive to tell her before the fact.
“She is?” She straightened, scissors in one hand and three roses in the other. I’d found her outside in her garden, an area of land that had more bushes than actual flowers.
Mother looked surprised and that gave me an advantage. “Yes. Chaos called me.” And she had. Told me Deck had a girl, Raven, staying with her. “Said her name was Raven, but I checked into it and it’s London Westbrook.” The lies were becoming easier.
Mother’s thin brows rose. “Deck is resourceful, isn’t he?”
“Deck is good at what he does and one day we may be able to use that.” She nodded with a slight shift in weight. She liked that idea, just like I had to make her like my next idea. “And we can use her.”
Her eyes narrowed and any hint of a smile faded. “I don’t see how. She’s a weak, pathetic—”
“Scientist,” I interrupted. “She’s brilliant and knows how her father works.” All of that was true, but Mother’s face was tense and I knew she still wasn’t convinced, so I threw in, “We can send her to the farm until we need her.” No way in hell I’d let that happen, but Mother didn’t know that.
She turned back to the rose bush and snipped off another bud. A drop of blood dripped down the pad of her finger from a thorn, but she hadn’t even flinched at the prick. She sifted through the flowers, ignoring the scratches to her hands as she cut more and more. She wasn’t even collecting them now. Instead, she merely cut the red flowers and let them fall to the ground.
Killing them for no reason.
She continued, ignoring me until the rose bush was bare of all buds then she slipped the scissors into her pants pocket. “Dr. Westbrook got the message.” The message being his daughter disappearing for two fuckin’ years. “Maybe he will be more productive if we allow his daughter to return. The drug needs some adjustments.”