Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
One Month Later
Parker
I buried myself in my work. Harder than I ever had. I’d do anything to get my mind off Paige. It almost worked. But then I’d see or hear something that reminded me of her, and the ache started all over again.
I hadn’t heard from her in a month. It was time I accepted that I’d never see her again. But that was the one thing I didn’t want to accept. All these years of building up walls and staying clear of relationships, and she knocked it all down the moment I saw her.
They say every single person in the world has a soulmate somewhere out there. I never believed it until my brothers found the loves of their lives, and I still didn’t fully believe it until Paige walked into my life. She was the breath of fresh air I didn’t know I needed.
I arrived back from court and told my secretary I didn’t want to be disturbed.
I hadn’t been in the best of moods for the last month, and everyone noticed.
But I didn’t care. I sat behind my desk and turned my chair, so I was staring at the city before me, thinking about Paige.
My office door flew open, and when I turned around, Julian stood there, looking panicked.
“Laurel is in labor, and I’m taking her to the hospital. I need my brothers there with me.”
“Let’s go.” I smiled, grabbing my suit coat.
As we sat in the waiting room, waiting for Julian to update us, Roman walked over and handed me a cup of coffee.
“Thanks.”
He placed his hand on my shoulder. “I know you’re hurt, but it’s time you accept the fact that she’s not coming back. You barely go out anymore. You’re hiding yourself, and we’re all worried about you, bro.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. That’s what I’m telling you.”
“What’s going on over here?” Our father walked over. “Roman, give me a minute with your brother.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. The last thing I needed was a lecture from my father.
“Paige is an extraordinary woman, son, but she’s broken in ways you can’t even imagine.”
“You don’t think I already know that,” I said. “How would you be if Love took off and you never saw her again?”
“It would break me.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“But you can’t spend the rest of your life wondering ‘what if.’ She’s gone, son. You need to realize that and move on.”
“What if I don’t want to move on, Dad?”
“You don’t have a choice.”
Suddenly, Julian popped into the room. “She’s here!” He wiped the tears from his eyes. “Brianna Rose Hamilton is here!”
We all walked over and hugged him tight.
“How’s Laurel?” I asked.
“She’s great. She was such a warrior. Come meet your niece.” He grinned.
Paige
“I think I’m ready, Gabriel,” I said as I stood in his office.
“Well, damn.” He smiled. “It’s only been a month.” His words were filled with sarcasm. “Are you sure about this, Paige? Because once you do this, there’s no turning back.”
“I know.”
He reached over and handed me a file folder. I opened it as my chest tightened, staring at the photographs.
“Christopher Healy and Henrick Schofield run a ‘mental health’ facility in California, which we know is a cover for Hearthstone and Project Nightfall. You need to shut it down. Not just for the innocent people they are hurting, but for yourself, so you can get the closure you desperately need.”
Two men. Ordinary faces. Expensive suits. Controlled expressions. Men who looked like they belonged in a boardroom or at a charity gala. Not behind the creation that stripped people down and rebuilt them into weapons.
“They worked for the CIA. I remember seeing them around a few times,” I said. “Watching.”
“They went off the grid for a few years after Hearthstone shut down,” Gabriel spoke. “But with my relentless digging, I was able to find them again.”
“Where in California?” I asked.
“Big Sur Mountains. It’s remote and very inaccessible. You must be more careful than you ever have been. It’s a six-hour drive from there to L.A. When you’re finished, go to Parker.” He smiled. “Make things right.”
From a distance, the facility looked less like a hospital and more like a private estate built for hiding people they never wanted found.
Nestled in the forest, without any other building or business in sight, there was no sign alerting anyone as to where they were.
High electric fences wrapped around the estate with a large black wrought iron gate at the entrance, a booth, and a guard, watching anything that moved.
Gabriel shut off the power to the building, and I had less than one minute to get inside.
I stepped in through a service door around the back, holding my gun up, and carefully making my way through the place without being noticed.
I turned the corner, and a woman in a white doctor’s coat walked a few feet in front of me.
Quietly stepping up behind her, I wrapped my arm around her neck, covered her mouth with my hand, and dragged her into a utility closet, where I put her to sleep.
I took her coat and put it on, clipped her badge to the front pocket, and turned it around so no one would notice her picture. Picking up the clipboard she was holding, I held it as I walked down the corridor and kept my head down.
“Make a right, Paige. Christopher Healey’s office is the third door on the right.”
“Got it.”
I approached the large wooden double doors, grabbed my gun from my back, and slowly opened them. The man sitting behind the large mahogany desk stared at me, his eyes wide.
“My God. It can’t be,” he said. “Victoria?” His brows furrowed.
I didn’t say a word as I stared him straight in the eyes.
“You’re dead.”
“You should be so lucky.” I pointed my gun at him. “Stand up. Hands where I can see them.”
“So, you went rogue,” he said.
“Something like that.”
I circled him, my gun never leaving the proximity of his head.
“You were our first. Our lab rat. I had doubts that the conditioning wouldn’t hold forever.”
“Conditioning?” I repeated. “That’s a nice word for what you did to us.”
“Oh, come on, Victoria. We helped you. We removed the weakness. Fear. Attachment. We made you extraordinary.”
“Extraordinary?” I circled him. “You stripped us of our humanity.”
“Now, now. That is not true.” He wiggled his finger. “We refined it.”
“You broke us,” I spat through gritted teeth.
“We rebuilt you. You were on death’s door when we found you in that accident. You never would have survived. We saved your life.”
“You turned us into weapons.” My jaw tightened.
“And yet you survived. You thrived. You became exactly what Hearthstone was built to do. You’re here for answers,” he said. “Or revenge. I imagine both.”
“I’m here because you took everything. My childhood. My ability to trust. My ability to feel.”
“And you think killing me will change what happened?” he asked.
“No. Nothing can ever change that.”
“Then why? Why have you come here?”
“Because monsters don’t get to keep pretending they're doctors.”
“You were our first, and our greatest success. The intelligence committee needed operatives who couldn’t be broken. Who couldn’t be manipulated by emotion. What we created was resilience. You won’t walk out of here, Victoria. This place was designed to contain threats.”
“And I was also designed to contain threats. You, Dr. Healey, are a threat to humanity. I’m going to dismantle this new version of Hearthstone brick by brick and make all those involved pay.”
“And what will that make you, my dear?”
“Free. And I can’t feel that until every single one of you is dead.”
“You won’t feel better. Trust me. I know.”
“I already know that,” I spat.
“I truly believed I was saving you,” he said. The shakiness of his voice confirmed his fear.
“And that right there is what makes you dangerous.” I fired my gun, and he instantly dropped to the ground.
I wasn’t about to have the same conversation with his colleague. I carefully opened his office door, stuck my gun in, and fired, shooting him between the eyes as he sat behind his desk.
I tapped my earpiece. “It’s done, Gabriel.”
“Excellent, Paige. Get out of there. Renae Caldwell and her team will be there within 20 minutes to blow the lid off this thing, as will the FBI.”
Renae Caldwell was an investigative reporter hungry for the story that would elevate her career. She didn’t know who Gabriel was. Only as an anonymous tip with a muffled voice.
I kept my head down as I walked through the corridors, not making eye contact with anyone passing by. I escaped through the back, ran through the forest, and made it to my car as I heard several sirens blaring in the distance.