Page 28 of Resolve
“We should have killed her sooner,” Reid remarks, his tone bitter.
Dane stands abruptly. I start to rise, too, but he’s already walking across the room without slowing down.
“Give him a minute,” Kell murmurs just for me, his hand guiding me to sink back onto the couch.
“He shouldn’t be alone,” I argue.
“Jack’s in the Loft. He won’t be completely alone.”
I nod, still worried, but look back to the others and catch Tinsley smacking Reid’s chest.
“That’s still his sister, Reid. Have some compassion. Ortact. Besides, she was trying to do good when I was with her last.” Tinsley wraps her hand around his. “She fixed me.”
“There would have been nothing to fix if not for her,” he replies coldly.
Tinsley stands, bringing him with her by his hand. She smiles apologetically to the rest of us, waving goodbye. “Sorry about that! We’re going to call it a night.”
The rest of us don’t say a word until the elevator doors close.
It’s Silas who speaks up first. “So, what got fixed?”
The others give varying sounds and gestures of having no idea before looking at Aiden, who takes another drink. “No.”
“No, you don’t know, or no, you won’t say?” Silas questions.
“What kinds of blood samples does GE have?” Evie asks, redirecting the conversation.
I chime in, “Anyone who was on an island or captured by them, and anyone who works for them. At minimum. But Vera and Tinsley said they’d tried destroying as many of the samples as they could, like ours.”
“With all those samples, Daddy Psycho could have had his pick of gifts,” Kellan drawls.
“Unlikely,” Aiden says. “Based on what Reid’s said and what we know about him, I think he has to get it directly from the source. Otherwise, he could have had your gift a long time ago.”
Kellan shrugs. “Or he didn’t know about me until he saw me. Maybe I don’t look as good on paper.”
“Regardless, we need to add finding and destroying that machine to the list. Even if we kill Charles, that gives too much power to any other agents who have access to it,” Aiden adds.
As if our list isn’t already big enough. But he has a point. We’re taking down the board members to avoid someone else picking up GE and running with it. The scientists and agents are too separated from the management level to know the first thing about leading the shadow organization. But with the ability to mass produce gift-blocking cuffs or other gift-imbued objects, it would only be a matter of time before things spiral out of control.
We continue discussing other possible gifts and how they couldbe—or might not be—applied to objects. Jackson’s gift, for example. He controls air, but could an object with no brain or real body be able to control air? Or is it only property-based gifts that could be used?
After it feels like we debate it for an hour and there’s still no sign of Dane, I decide to say goodnight and return to the Loft.
Jackson’s there waiting at the door when I open it. He gives me an enigmatic smile. “Here for Dane?”
“Yeah. Is he in his room?”
Jack nods. “Don’t stay up late. We’re training in the morning.”
Oof. It’s already after midnight. Maybe Dane went straight to bed, and I’ll just go snuggle in his arms.
But I hope he’s awake. I want to know what was on his mind after the funeral and what Reid said. He didn’t and hasn’t sounded like he blames me at all, but... I have to know.
“Good night,” I whisper, pushing to my toes to give him a kiss, but he somehow sneaks around me to kiss my cheek instead.
He chuckles softly. “If you kiss me now, little one, I won’t stop. Go.”
Oh.
