Page 71 of Raze
“We have been working on ways to deprogram anyone we’ve saved from GE, but they usually aren’t children. She was an exception, and it was one kid. Any others we found we planned for. We erased any documentation or GE people who knew about them before returning them to a family member. That was how we worked as a team. But Jack isn’t doing any of that. He’s doing all the killing and getting the kids away and then moving on without the follow-through that Dane and I would do.”
“Then do it for these kids.”
We pull into a parking space at a standalone bar downtown and park. Aiden’s hands tighten on the wheel as he looks directly at me. “He’s dropping off kids daily when we used to have two to three a month. Even if I knew who he took them from or if they told anyone about these kids, I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain that GE doesn’t still know about them to try kidnapping them again.”
I chew anxiously on my lip when I realize how messed up this isnow. The Guild has a bunch of missing children on them that they can’t just return home. And he said they don’t have the resources to keep them either.
Aiden turns the car off and unbuckles himself. “Now, you see the problem. If you see Jackson again” – he gives me a look that tells me he doesn’t believe my previous lie for a second – “then tell him we all need to talk. If he’s working on some sort of plan, we all need to be in on it. You and Dane already learned why going rogue is off the table at this point. Now, it’s Jackson’s turn.”
I follow him out of the car. “Well, if you say it likethat, he’s not going to listen,” I mutter aloud.
He shoots me a look, and I shrug. It’s the truth.
We take the secret entrance in the bar to the tunnels that will lead us to the bunker. Something was definitely different with Jackson, but it wasn’t wrong. He was still him. More like he’s been letting more of the real him out lately.
The only reason I can think of that would have triggered the change is Thorne.
Is he hunting him down? Trying to draw him out? If so, I hope he would come to us to help him so he’s not facing that terrifying man alone.
Once we’re inside, I keep on Aiden’s heels to make sure I don’t get lost. We stop in front of a solid door that’s within a wall of glass to expose the interior of the room. It looks like a bedroom. Could this be where Reid or Tinsley are staying? I thought we would interview them later.
Aiden pulls his phone out and types in a number, then the lockclicks loudly. He pushes the door in and waits for me to enter first. It would seem gentlemanly, if we weren’t walking into a prisoner’s cell where the first one in could be attacked. I glance through the doorway into the room and frown when I don’t see anyone. There are a couple of doors in the room, so maybe they’re in one of those?
I walk in slowly, everything on alert to listen for someone else.
The door closes and locks behind us, which I’m sure is a security protocol, so the prisoner doesn’t try to escape while we’re in here, but then a steel wall comes down in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass wall.
For privacy during the interview, I try to reassure myself, but my gut pinches in disagreement. There’s another beep behind me, and I look up to see the lights turning off on the security cameras in the ceiling. Aiden finishes pushing all the buttons on his phone and pockets it in the inside of his suit jacket.
I swallow my nerves and step away from him so my back is to the wall, and I can see him and the rest of the room. “What’s going on?” My voice comes out thinly, probably because my heart rate and breathing have both picked up.
Aiden slowly pulls out the cuff congressman Joe had put on me, that I’d stolen and brought to my room in Old Red but forgot about since then, out of his jacket. There’s a new chain and cuff attached to the other end of it. “Put these on first.”
I give him a sarcastic, if breathy, laugh. “You’re joking.” He stares at me. “Why would I do that?”
“This is me asking nicely, Raegan. Just like last time. Do what I’m telling you, or don’t complain about how I make it happen anyway,”he coos. I shiver. Not in response to the cool threat of his words, but the smoothness of his voice as he says them.
“What do you want, Aiden? Stop threatening me and just tell me,” I snap angrily.
He holds the cuffs out to me on one finger, his other hand casually tucked into his slacks pocket. “I want you to put these on so we can have a conversation without you trying to destroy me or this room to run away. I want you todo what I sayfor once in your life, so this isn’t more difficult than it needs to be.”
I stare at him. At the cuffs. Him.
Does he really think I’d use my gift on him or this room to avoid some questions? I just won’t answer them. Or is this a test? To see if I can ever listen to him or if he’ll never be able to trust me.
My hand slowly extends out to his. I wrap my fingers around the cuff, waiting for him to drop it and then bring it in front of me. He watches me closely, but he doesn’t rush me. Maybe this is just a test. If it is, I hate that he’s using these. Anything but these. It feels…wrong…when my gift is muted. Like I’m missing a limb, and I’m no longer fully balanced.
I flip them over in my hands. “You found this in my room.” It’s not a question.
“I did,” he agrees anyway.
“What were you doing in there?”
His lips thin, and he looks away. “I was retrieving my stolen shirts.”
Hm. I’m not sure I believe him on that but let it go for now. I open one of the cuffs further in preparation to put one of my wrists insideand then stop. “There’s no key for these,” I say when I remember I hadn’t grabbed them off Joe before leaving.
Aiden holds up a small key between his thumb and forefinger. “I made a new one. That’s how they’re open now.”
