Blindsided (26 page)

John swallowed, looking around frantically for some sort of savior. His gaze caught the expanse of drones working outside his office and he relaxed somewhat, seeming to take courage from their nearby presence. Probably figured Teigan wouldn’t kill him with witnesses. He was
probably
right.

Teigan pushed off the frame and crossed the room to lean with his hip on the desk beside John. His fingers trailed over the panel, sorting through the rest of the files on the chip. Report cards, extracurricular successes, medical records—everything a good parent kept on file regarding their child. “This wasn’t in the stuff Aria gave us.”

“Um, no.” John gestured toward the piles of chips and gave a shrug. “Part of the deal for letting Miss Idyllis out on good behavior.”

“I see.” Teigan worked hard to control his inner rage. He’d bet a year’s worth of credits they hadn’t told her what the rest of the deal was. That was his job, to manipulate her into cooperating.

When hell freezes over.
 

He bent closer to John, his mouth mere centimeters from the tech’s ear, his tone dropped so low that he knew the feeds in the room—if they were engaged to record—wouldn’t pick up his next words. “Just so you know. The only reason I’m not going to tear you limb from limb and feed you to the dogs is because I believe you
thought
you were doing the right thing. But I promise you, if you ever betray my trust again, what I want to do to you now won’t even compare.”

Whoops, so much for controlling that inner rage.

John jerked, spinning his chair further away to put distance between them. “Teigan I—”

“Save it.” Teigan cut him off. “Now that we’ve cleared the air, we can get down to business. Right?”

John nodded his head emphatically.

“Alright.”
 
Teigan folded his arms across his chest—which was definitely the more prudent alternative to following through on his threat. “Now, despite our recent issues, Whitesman still
thinks
you’re the best man to head up the technical side of our team. What do
you
think, John, can you be a team player? Can we put aside our differences and get the job done?”

“I can do that, if
you
can,” John said, if a bit hesitantly.
 

“Good.” Teigan slapped his hand on John’s shoulder, giving him a fake smile. “Then I guess all we need to know now, John, is if I can
trust
you.”

***

Freedom. Aria had heard it said that you could taste it, like it was some delicacy that could be bought with hard earned cash. Freedom. She’d heard it said that you could feel it in the sting of the wind whipping across your face, as if the fact that the air you breathed was fresh meant you weren’t shut away. But she knew: Freedom was a state of existence. One she’d lost.
 

At least I’m not in that cell anymore.

The thought was cold comfort. She lifted her face to the sky, trying to drink in the warmth of the sun above her. Hoping to drive the memory of the cold, hard cell from her mind, she’d had Willis stop here on the way home from the Agency. Two hours she’d sat drifting in thought, the hard Yule Marble of the Lincoln Memorial’s upper steps cool on her thighs through her thin pant suit, the highly chlorinated scent of the nearby Reflecting Pool tickling her nose.

The crowds were growing, hard heels striking, rubber soles squeaking past, up and down as they came in groups or alone on their pilgrimage. Two days ago, she might have been mistaken as just another citizen, paying her homage to The Great Emancipator. Not anymore.

She rubbed the back of her hand near her wrist. Tagged. Though there was no discernable bump, her skin felt warmer there, causing her to want to scratch and pry at the imagined itch. A small price to pay for being allowed to roam the streets, but the autonomy she’d lost in exchange? Priceless. To her at least.

She could feel Willis’ steady presence before her, standing guard against the hordes of tourists and invisible demons alike. His utter silence did more than anything to tell her that he was doing his best to contain his own rage bubbling under the surface.

“Stop scratching it,” Willis growled after another minute. “Your luck, you’ll break the damn thing and they’ll send out the troops to find you and drag you in.”

She was pretty sure she heard a muttered “bastards” tagged onto the end. For some inane reason, that made her smile.

“It’s hot under my skin,” she explained, then yelped when Willis swooped down and grabbed her hand into his own. His wizened fingers probed the top of her hand, worrying the bones, turned it over, pressed on the palm.

“Maybe a touch warmer.” Lighter, his fingers returned to the spot just below her wrist bones on the top. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”

Which confirmed that he had been, worried that is. “It’s just an annoyance.”

Willis harrumphed.

Behind them, a throat cleared. Willis dropped her hand and spun around, his soles grinding fine dirt against the marble.

“Sorry to startle you.”

Teigan
. Even if she hadn’t recognized his voice, she would’ve noticed his scent. Her breath caught, her heart rate accelerating. She’d wondered if she’d ever see him again. It wasn’t like he needed anything more from her. He had his information now, more than she would’ve given if she hadn’t been under duress.

“I was hoping to talk to Miss Idyllis.”

She sat up straighter, concentrating on keeping her breathing even, her heart rate steady.
 

“So your boss didn’t skin you,” Willis said in a tone far warmer than Aria would’ve expected. She wondered why; unless her release didn’t have as much to do with her complete cooperation and more to do with something Teigan had done.

“Nope,” Teigan replied to Willis’ comment. “Guess Whitesman didn’t really consider me a replacement for the bear skin rug.”

Willis made a sound that actually sounded like a chuckle. He shifted, his voice coming clearer as he spoke to her. “Aria? Do you want me to go or stay?”

Aria’s head twisted toward Willis. What? He wasn’t going to growl at Teigan for tracking her down? He wasn’t going to resist being excluded, stomp off like a sullen five-year-old? He was going to leave her
alone
, with Teigan?

She folded her hands together, cringing when she noticed they were sweaty. Wouldn’t the drones in the Agency monitoring her biorhythms find this interesting? No doubt they were pulling up The Memorial’s security feeds, zooming in on her location to see why she was nervous. “I’ll be alright.”

Willis moved off, leaving them alone—except for the continuing hustle of bi-standards.

“Want to take a walk?” Teigan asked, then contradictorily sat down beside her. His shoulder bumped into hers—a lick of fire; his thigh came in contact with her own—burn.

Oh yeah, they must be
loving
this. Would they think she was afraid of the big bad agent? Or would they understand that she was aroused by Teigan’s presence?

“If you wanted to walk, why’d you sit down?” she asked, rubbing the back of her wrist hard enough that she thought she could have broken the damn chip.
 

Teigan took her hand, his fingers lightly trailing over the implant and up her arm. “If it makes you feel better, I’ve been told this new model of chip is programmed to learn your typical biorhythms and geographical routine, and only comes fully online if you stray from the norm.”

“Or if someone at the office decides they want to check on me,” she pointed out.

The tantalizing trail of his fingers over her hand, up her arm, back down to her wrist stopped. He removed his hand and shifted his body away. The lack of his heat alongside her left her feeling bereft.

“How about that walk?” he asked from above her.

“Sure.”

She stood and brushed off her slacks. Before she could unhook the baton from her belt, he took her arm, looping it through his elbow, and then proceeded to lead her down the steps. They fell into an easy pace, walking along the path edging the reflecting pool. There were others walking the same stretch of sidewalk, but they kept their distance—probably Teigan was glaring at anyone who came too close. She imagined he could be imposing to the average person.

She wished she could see his face. Just once, before he left her life forever. She tightened her arm on his, for once grateful for the blindness that gave her the excuse to do so.
 

“Thank you for springing me,” she hazarded the guess.

“Willis is the one who did that. I just set things up.”

“Well then, thank you for setting things up. Whatever those
things
were.” She tipped her head to the side, taking a sidelong glance at him. The bright sun cast his outline in dark shadow. Imposing. Strong. Her hand tightened over the muscling of his arm. And sexy as hell.

“Ah, yes...” he cleared his throat, his unease palpable in the air.

She dragged her feet to a halt, forcing him to stop and look at her. “What did you two do?”

“Ever hear of a firebreak?”

“Fighting fire with fire. I don’t see what that has—” she trailed off, horror constricting her windpipes and knocking the breath right out of her. He wouldn’t, would he?
 

Why not?
The little voice in her mind asked.

Shock gave way to fury, she gasped in a breath, somehow managed to push it back out of her lungs in a coherent thought. “What did you do?”

“Let’s just say that the V-10 are no longer such a big secret.”

The V-10 weren’t a secret anymore
. Her knees about buckled. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Given the public’s outrage with Viadal’s experiments, she couldn’t imagine it was good. But then again, given the kind of life—none—those soldiers were forced to lead…
 

“And me? Did you tell them about me? Did you say I was a Viadal child?” she squeaked.

“Willis. Not me.”

If that wasn’t splitting hairs...

“Did he tell them?” Her voice was becoming shrill. She didn’t care.

“Calm down, Aria.” His voice was pitched low and soothing, in precise contradiction to her elevating hysteria. “Would Willis tell them anything he thought might cause you more harm?”

More harm. Yeah, that’s right. The damage had already been done. She’d been in a cell. Her rights, her liberty taken away. Willis and Teigan had done what they thought they needed to do to get her a
slice
of freedom. But at what cost?
 

She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her middle. The cold chill that had fled when he’d sat beside her reclaimed her, settling into her bones. No one would treat her the same now. She’d be the freak in the room.
 

Leper
.

“I can’t believe you did that,” she whispered, her voice all but lost on the slight breeze.

“Willis only mentioned the elimination of the hereditary illness.”
 

She threw her arms wide. “You think there won’t be speculation?”

“Oh, I imagine there will be. You were quite the celebrity already, and this is media candy.”

The bastard had the gall to sound amused! She jerked her head around, taking in the things she hadn’t been paying much attention to before. There was quite the crowd milling around them, the steady rhythm of footfalls faltering as they came near, almost halting as if they were trying to take an unobtrusive look, then slowly picking up pace again as they passed by. In the distance she could hear the distinctive pitch of a woman talking over background noise. She was far enough that only a couple words here and there were clear, but what she was saying…

Aria backed up, her one thought to turn and flee. Find Willis and get out of there. Her foot found nothing. Oh shit! Her arms flailed madly as she tried to recapture her balance to avoid falling into the twenty-five-and-a-half million liter pool, then Teigan grabbed her, one hand latching onto her upper arm and the other encircling her waist as he pulled her against him. “Careful, Aria. You about took a dip.”

All thoughts of flight were quenched under the blanket of his body holding her against him, the pervasive buzz of the mobile audience phasing out into the background. God he felt good. Tall with powerful musculature, yet not so much that he was overwhelming. He wasn’t a V-10, but his stature was enough to make a woman, even one with her enhanced strength, feel dainty and fragile. And his smell: A crisp woodsy serenade mixed with salty sweat, musk, and man. One deep inhale through her nose and she started to tingle in places she shouldn’t be tingling in.
Pheromones,
she reminded herself. But even knowing what was causing the reaction, she didn’t care. She wanted to rub her body against his. She wanted to pull his head down and claim the kiss that she’d craved for far too long now. She wanted to drag him down right here on the path and…
 

Oh God! What was she thinking? This was impossible. They were impossible. She raised her hand, palm against his chest and half-heartedly tried to push him away. “You’re too close.”

“Really?” he asked in that low sexy tone that drove her so nuts. “I was thinking we weren’t close enough.”