Page 58 of Wicked Nightmare

"I don't know much," he said. "Just that it's big. Bigger than anything you've ever seen before. Chimera extends beyond anything. Anyone. There's no beginning and no end."

Lakey giggled, the sound sending a chill through the room. She was on the verge of fucking losing it. "Oh honey," she sighed. "You have no idea what we've seen."

Her eyes widened suddenly, that innocent look masking the vicious thoughts that were brewing.

"Wait a sec," she chirped, tapping a finger to her chin. "Didn't this dipshit mention something about Janine Almine having a foster kid?"

My ears perked up. Lakey's hunches were rarely wrong. "Yeah, he did. What're you thinking, babe?"

She sauntered over, her hips swaying in that hypnotic way. "Well," she said, tracing a finger down my chest, "what if it's not just any old foster situation? What if little Janine's playing mommy to some poor kid caught up in this Chimera bullshit? Considering I got shipped off to the nunnery, and you ended up in prison, is that so far fetched? I don't think so."

Human trafficking was one of the few things that could still get under my skin.

"You think it's a trafficking ring?" I asked.

"It would explain a lot, wouldn't it? The secrecy, the big money involved. I mean that lab was worth hundreds of thousands, and they just abandoned it without a care in the fucking world. Not to mention keeping that place a secret. Come on, Cam. Put the pieces together."

I nodded slowly, absorbing what she was putting out. "Fuck," I muttered. "If you're right, we're in deeper shit than we thought."

Skeeter laughed, but when I side eyed him, he stopped short and had a coughing fit. Asshole. I walked over and drove my fist into his face, hearing the crunch of his nose. Feeling satisfied, I stepped back, watching as blood poured from his nose.

Lakey giggled, clapping her hands. "Ooh, doesn't that just make you all tingly inside? The danger, the intrigue..."

I couldn't help but crack a smile. Only Lakey could find joy finding out we were involved in something to do with Chimera. Most people would run for the fucking hills. If the whispers about it were right, we were in for one fucking wild ride.

If we survived, that is.

"You're one sick puppy, you know that?" I said, pulling her close.

She nipped at my earlobe. "Takes one to know one, handsome."

I was about to respond when another choked laugh caught our attention. We both turned to look at Skeeter. His face was a mess of bruises and blood, but that didn't stop a twisted grin from spreading across his mug.

"Everything is connected," he wheezed out between bursts of laughter.

The sound grated on my nerves. Lakey tensed beside me, her earlier playfulness gone.

"Care to elaborate on that, chucklefuck?" she asked. It was the tone she used right before she got real nasty. I'd seen it reduce grown men to blubbering messes.

Skeeter just kept cackling, like he'd heard the world's funniest joke, and we weren't in on it.

Lakey's eyes narrowed. She slinked towards Skeeter.

"Listen here, you sniveling little shit," she hissed, leaning in close. "I've got a whole bag of tricks that'll make you sing like a fucking canary. So why don't you save us both the trouble and spill?"

She was beautiful, a goddamn force of nature wrapped in a cute package. And right now, she was ready to unleash hell on this poor bastard. I knew he was a disgusting fuck from day one, but I hadn't pieced it all together. It was looking a lot like he was some integral fucking part of this whole thing. Ironic since he was so nondescript. Just a little granny fucker. Honestly, I was kicking myself for not figuring it out sooner.

Skeeter's laughter intensified, his eyes wild and unhinged. "Oh, you kids think you're so clever, don't you?" he taunted, spittle flying from his bloodied lips. "But you don't know shit. You're just worms in a game much bigger than your little murder spree. You're so fucking stupid. Playing house while they watch. They're always watching. You think they just let you go? Think again. You were released."

The room went quiet. Not the dramatic kind. The real kind. The kind where your brain needs a second to catch up to what your ears just heard.

You were released.

Not freed. Not saved. Not lucky. Released. The way you release a dog into a yard to see what it does. The way you release a lab rat after the experiment to track its behavior in the wild.

Everything we'd done since leaving the system. Every kill. Every mark. Every body at the bottom of the ocean. Had they been watching? Tracking? Taking notes the way they took notes on Lydia's autopsy? Were we still the experiment, just running in a bigger cage?

Spider's voice echoed in my head. "Don't go looking for answers. Some doors, you open them, they don't close again."