2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Grey
I'm fast.
Probably faster than most people my age. Ever since I was young, speed has always been on my side. It's what came in handy whenever my father had one of his episodes. It's also the reason I learned to be able to move around without making a single sound.
But that doesn't matter right now. I couldn't give two shits who hears me.
My footsteps thunder down the hallway as we head to Elsher's office. It's echoed by Theo behind me who, impressively, manages to keep pace rather well. I have no idea if Damon is following, but I would assume he's still with Jillian.
FUCK!
We should have seen this coming. I promised myself and Avery that I would keep her safe. Did we get too complacent? We knew that cuntface was potentially on the verge of making a move, but I thought we had him blocked. Alexander should have been the tipping point, giving us an indication that they were coming after us. But I told myself that things were different this time.
Six months ago, we missed the signs. We didn't have the technology and power available to us to fully stop it until it was too late. We upped our game—but Arthur did too. He led us to believe we were one step ahead, letting us think we had absolute control.
It might not be too late.
I try to convince myself that it's fine. I just need to reach Avery before they do. Once I have her, I can tie us together. If they want her, they'll have to go through me first. Besides, she's in session. They wouldn't make a move right now. It's not their style—too many witnesses and obstacles to jump through.
Rounding the doorway, I skid to a halt in Elsher's office. My eyes scan the empty room wildly, heart thumping in my chest.
"Where is she?" Theo snaps behind me, shoving past me to look around.
I can't move. I can't breathe. For the first time in my life, I'm completely paralyzed in place as it dawns on me. Bile threatens to spill out of my body as red-hot rage builds inside.
She's gone.
They fucking have Avery.
Theo does a lap around the desk, pausing to look at me with dark eyes. "Grey!" he shouts.
It snaps me out of my trance, my body moving on its own accord. I pick up the patient chair from against the wall, flinging it across the room. It narrowly misses Theo who doesn't budge an inch, shattering the barred glass window behind him.
Immediately, an alarm starts to sound from somewhere, but it's faded in my ears by the rushing of blood.
I'm going to kill them all.
One by one, I'm going to hunt them down and rip every single organ out of their bodies with my bare hands.
"Grey," Damon's voice floats into the room from behind me. "We have to go—now."
I swing my head around to find him standing in the doorway, looking composed somehow.
How?
Does she really mean that little to him that he's not even bothered by this? Avery is missing and he just looks completely unfazed. It makes me want to put my fist through his face.
"No," I finally speak, firmly glaring at him. "I'm going to search for her."
I start to move past him but he swings his arm out, blocking my path. "Grey—"
"Get the fuck out of my way," I warn him, ready to throw hands, even if he is my best friend. "Theo?"
"I'm coming too," he answers.
Damon's gaze flicks between us. "We will find her, Grey. I promise you that. But right now, we need to be smart about this. The guards are on their way and we can't help her if we're taken to solitary confinement or arrested. You know that will be their plan."
His words stop me in my tracks, the irrational monster inside screaming that he doesn't give a fuck and he should pay. Hell, he needs to move out of the way before I bulldoze through him. He's eerily calm and it makes me angry.
That's what happened last time.
That's why she's dead.
I shake my head slowly, not voicing my thoughts. But Damon's face softens slightly, and I know he can read me easily. He steps forward, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Let's get back to the rooms and make a plan. They will be expecting us to go in with guns blazing. All we can do at the moment is go against their plan—it's the only way."
Theo appears beside me, glaring daggers at Damon. "You better start fucking explaining or else I'll shove your plan into your chest cavity and do what I want."
"Calm the fuck down, Ashwood. This is for your benefit too. Do not threaten me," Damon says coldly, lowering his hand from my shoulder as he turns and silently orders us to follow.
I take two deep breaths before my feet move, going against the urge to run in the opposite direction to find Avery and slaughter Arthur on his expensive wooden desk.
We quickly head back to Damon's room, the three of us barreling inside and locking the door behind us. Jillian and Byrone are already here, sitting on the bed as they smash their fingers down on the keys of their laptops.
"Well?" Damon demands, leaning against his desk. "Anything?"
Jillian looks up, shaking her head slowly. "They've installed new firewall software. The encryption is hard to break through…"
"But?" I snap, sensing her hesitation.
Byrone sighs, putting his hand on Jillian's knee at my outburst. "We can see one file."
"What's the file?" I ask quickly.
They fall silent, the small flicker of hope in my chest starting to be smothered out. Damon breaks the silence, laughing dryly as he hisses angrily.
"Those motherfuckers."
I whip my attention over to him, watching as he rubs his hand over his face. "What?"
"It's our file, isn't it?" he asks Byrone in a knowing tone.
The two of them nod slowly. "It's a collection of our saved recordings from the cameras," Byrone confirms.
"They accessed our files?" I ask Damon.
He shakes his head. "They were watching us the whole time. They waited to boot us out of the system. It makes sense—Arthur fired the old IT people months ago. The new ones must have gotten through our security and been lurking until they were given the go ahead."
"Someone better start giving me some answers because my patience is wearing fucking thin," Theo growls from the corner near the doorway.
Jillian and Byrone look over, slightly alarmed at his temper. Damon gives him a curt nod, slumping slightly in his place.
"Arthur has been desperate to resume testing for quite some time. We initially overrode their IT systems so we could see who was being admitted to the facility and keep tabs on the cameras. They led us to believe they didn't have access, but clearly they did. Christopher said Avery has been on their radar for a while, which we also assumed. That's why we kept her close to the society."
"But you used her," I mutter angrily under my breath, glancing over to him. "You dangled her right in front of their faces like prey."
Damon raises an eyebrow at me. "I used their own tactics against them. They were trying to get information from Avery about us, so I returned the favor. It was the smart choice, even you agreed—despite your motives being different to mine."
"What the fuck does that mean?" I snap, louder.
"You fucking fell in love with her," he retorts, frustrated. "Your focus became cloudy and went off-track. You had no problem supporting me because it meant you could stay close to her. The goal was to keep everyone in the facility safe, not just her."
"Don't you dare talk to me about getting close to her," I warn, noticing Jillian and Byrone shift awkwardly on the bed at our rising voices. "You're one to judge, Damon. And so much for keeping her safe. Look how well that turned out!"
He raises his hand, taking a sharp breath in frustration. "Enough, Grey! This is not the time nor the place to discuss anything other than our plan. We don't have much time. Two patients are now missing. Arthur has already told everyone that Capello is dead. He's likely going to run with the same story for Avery. We all need to be focused and stay in control. You can't lose your shit right now."
I lean against the wall, falling into deep thought. "What do we do then? They've never done it during the day before. We need to go underground."
"To the closed rooms?" Theo interjects. "Is that where she will be?" There's an edge to his tone, threatening to leave this room right now to go hunting. Damon senses it too, choosing his words carefully.
"Possibly," he says slowly. "But they also know that we know the locations of those rooms. Besides being heavily guarded, I wouldn't put it past them to have relocated."
Byrone nods. "A trap."
"Precisely. They want us to go down there. They will be waiting and ready."
Sighing, I look at Theo, noticing the same pained expression behind his eyes as mine. "We'll get her back," I tell him. "We have to."
He glances over at me. "How much time do we have?"
Damon kicks off from the desk, crossing the room over to Byrone. He holds out his hand, reaching for the laptop that Byrone offers. "A few days, likely."
"I'm not leaving her down there for a few days," Theo snaps.
Putting the laptop on the desk, Damon throws him a quick look. "I'm not suggesting we do." Tapping a few keys and clicking the keyboard, a document pops up on the screen. "According to our previous calculations, they generally have a testing time of four to seven days maximum. It depends on variables."
"What do they do with the patients afterwards?" Theo asks.
"That's the variable," Damon murmurs quietly. "Sometimes they come back—particularly if Arthur announces them as merely missing. They are usually miraculously found. Or sometimes we are told they were in solitary confinement."
Theo narrows his eyes. "And if he announces that they are dead?"
He's a quick learner, I'll give him that.
"They don't come back," Damon answers coldly.
The room falls silent, Theo's face rapidly changing as he processes the information.
"What do they do with them afterwards?" he asks dangerously.
Damon straightens up. "We don't know," he answers honestly. "All we know is they aren't seen again."
"I'm not going to let that happen to her," Theo promises. "I'll do this with or without you."
"With us," I say quickly, making them all look toward me. "We're in this together—for Avery."
Theo nods at me. "What do you need me to do?"
This time, I look to Damon for direction. I might be mad at him, but this is still his call. This is what we planned for, what we trained for—this is our sole purpose. If we have any hope of getting her back, it's because of him. Damon isn't just in Cirque des Morts …
He is Cirque des Morts.
The society is everything to him and right now, he's our only chance. And that's why I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.
"I need you all to go to classes as usual. We wait for Arthur to make his announcement so we know what timeframe to follow. In the meantime, we wait a few hours until we make our move. Let them lower their guard down and get cocky. Keep a listen out for information—see if anyone saw anything, if the staff or guards know anything. Gather anything and everything possible. Jillian and Byrone, keep working on the decryption coding. Grey, go and find Leighton and Jemison. Get them to go over the blueprints to see where a relocation could have been moved to. We meet in the library after dark—spread the word."
I nod slowly, fighting the frustration of having to wait to get my girl back. "What else do we need?"
Damon looks at me with a serious expression. "It's time to break out the gear, Grey."