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No. It was a young man. In such pain, so fierce and so determined to help them—
Liza stumbled from the bed, suddenly sick to her stomach, capping her hand over her mouth, terrified she would lose her pride and the lunch she had eaten earlier right there on the floor.
She wanted to hide.
She wanted to go away.
Oh God.
Oh God, she had to go away.
She had to escape and there was only one way to do it. There was only one place to hide. There was only that place so deep within herself that there was no chance of danger—
“Liza, stop. You’re safe. Listen to me, baby, you’re safe.”
Stygian had her. His hands were wrapped around her upper arms, holding her to her feet, his voice was calm, firm, insistent, holding her to the present when all she wanted to do was sink as deep inside herself as possible.
“You’re safe,” he said again. “You have time for a quick shower. Dog and his team are moving in and they’ll escort us to the hotel, along with Flint and Rule, where Claire and the team sent to collect her will meet us. Everything’s fine.”
She nodded slowly.
Everything was fine.
Everything but Liza. Because, in a few short minutes she had managed to lose her sense of her training, her independence and her certainty that not just Stygian but also Cullen and the team would be there to support her. For one horrifyingly dark moment, she was alone and facing almost certain death.
She couldn’t let this happen to her. She couldn’t lose herself this way every time something happened. She couldn’t let those dark, hidden memories that weren’t exactly memories, that she knew couldn’t belong to her, erode her control.
And she wouldn’t allow it to, she promised herself, not ever again.
Never would she be weak again.
CHAPTER 14
Claire was waiting with her parents, as well as Liza’s, in the Presidential Suite, sitting still and silent, her hands folded in her lap as she stared down at them.
Entering the room, Liza stared at the assembled Breeds and parents, their expressions quiet, savage or just emotionless.
“Good, we’re all here.” Jonas Wyatt moved to the center of the room as Liza sat slowly in the wingback loveseat next to the matching chair her friend had taken.
Glancing at her father, she was taken aback by the anger that glittered in his eyes, and the barely hidden fear in her mother’s.
“What’s going on?” she questioned the director.
She’d rather hear any bad news from someone she wasn’t certain she liked than to hear it from anyone else.
“Gideon Cross, the fourth member of the Brandenmore Omega experiments, has arrived in Window Rock, and he’s asking specifically about the two of you. What, Ms. Johnson, do you and Ms. Martinez have to do with all this?”
He wasn’t questioning her, he was interrogating her.
Liza shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t know why he’s asking about us, or what he wants, any more than we know why the Genetics Council has targeted us.”
But a part of her did know—
“Are you aware that the county health department was broken into several weeks ago and only your and Claire’s childhood files are missing?” Jonas asked then.
No, she hadn’t known that.
“Dad?” She turned to her father questioningly. “Did you know?”
