Chapter 23
Shane
Iwas transfixed by the video on the screen.
The hospital security camera showed Cass, embraced by Halliwell, their heads almost touching.
He was smiling as he squeezed her close.
Her lips were moving. Then came that part I hated.
When they both stared up at the camera with the same tight, fake smile that said, fuck you all. Chumps.
“No,” Kat said. “It’s impossible. I saw the way she was with Reggie.
I had a little sister myself. I can’t be fooled.
There’s no way Cass would ever hurt that girl.
Or abandon her. That’s what you’re implying, right?
That Cass would deliberately poison Reggie to manipulate us, and dump her as soon as she got what she wanted?
No way! Her love for that girl is genuine.
I felt it on my skin. She was for real!”
“So’s the worm that ate SmokeScreen,” Ethan said grimly. “Maybe we all just saw and felt what we wanted to see and feel.” He shook his head. “Shane has an excuse for being tricked, after what he went through—”
“Do not treat me like a goddamn invalid,” I snarled.
“The woman was pretty fucking convincing,” Remy said.
“The backstory was as tight as a drum. The mom really did die of Varen’s.
We checked, and found death records for Laurel Clark, deceased two years and four months ago, survived by two daughters, Cassandra and Regina, yada yada.
That’s all real, or else an unbelievably well-constructed scam.
It’s too many random details that check out in perfect order for it not to be real.
All of them put in place long before our story even began. ”
“But why work for that prick at all?” Amos said.
“She was doing fine on her own with Red Queen. Landing multimillion dollar contracts left and right. There were fifteen people on her payroll, all of whom loved her. At least until she laid off the whole staff three months ago to put Reggie into that clinic and go work for Halliwell.”
“You think that Reggie and the clinic was a fabrication? That she knowingly let him make Reggie sick, just to make us sympathetic to her? That makes no sense.” Kat shuddered. “Halliwell is a gaslighting prick. Don’t fall for his bullshit!”
“Too late,” Ethan said quietly. “We already did. The game has already been played, and he won, babe. By a lot.”
But Kat kept stubbornly shaking her head. “No. Not in a million years.”
“I want to talk to that doctor who interrupted our phone call,” I said.
“I overheard him talking to Cass,” Amos said.
“He knew about us finding the file before Demiguel did. No one had even called Demiguel when that guy came to collect Cass. He knew about the formula Rose was looking into, and all the details, but Demiguel had never seen this guy. No one has. He isn’t employed here. ”
“Which means that one of Halliwell’s men got within inches of Holly and Kat,” Ethan said. “While everyone was celebrating and kissing and high-fiving.”
Amos looked guilty and pained. “I’m really sorry about that, man.”
“We were all excited,” Jed said grimly. “I would have done the same.”
“It’s my responsibility to deal with him now,” I said.
“I let this cat out of the bag in the first place a year ago, and I let him get his hands on SmokeScreen now. I’m the one who has to fix it.
I’ll take him out and wipe that place off the map.
You guys keep your noses clean, for Holly’s sake. Plausible deniability.”
Ethan gave him a look. “Right. Like I’d let you go after him on your own.”
“But I’m the one who—”
“Shut up, Shane. Don’t waste our time. Halliwell won’t be able to use SmokeScreen right way.
It’s heavy and complex, and even he will have a learning curve when he gets into it.
Plus, he’ll have to beef up even his own huge server capacity by orders of magnitude.
But we have a short window. We have to end him fast.”
“I’m the one who did this,” I said. “I’m the one who got snared by a honeypot, not any of you guys.”
“Cass is no honeypot, damn it!” Kat hissed. “Get it through your heads!”
“Whatever Cass is or isn’t, we’re not leaving your ass out in the wind again,” Jed said. “So fucking forget it, buddy. The helicopter’s waiting. Six minutes, ten at the max, and we’re airborne. We can go and take care of business.”
I turned back to the screen. I felt blank. Locked behind a six-inch wall of glass again. Like Kat, I couldn’t believe it. The data just would not go into my head.
“Play it again,” I said to the nervous-looking young security guy at the desk, who looked like he was trying desperately not to overhear our conversation.
Ethan sighed. “We’ve seen it twelve times, Shane. It’s not going to—”
“Play it again,” I said again.
The guy’s trembling fingers clattered over the keyboard. He scooted his chair back, making himself small as we all shifted closer to the screen to watch.
First, the smiling, excited Cass, bright-eyed and chatting energetically with the balding doctor that Darius, Amos, Kat and Holly had all seen, but who Demiguel and the rest of the hospital staff could not identify.
The doctor opened the door for her with a courtly gesture, closed the door smartly behind her, and walked away.
“Demiguel said that examining room was out of use because of an electrical problem,” Remy said. “Halliwell must have known that. God knows how.”
The video played on. The door opened. Halliwell came out, smiling, pulling Cass behind him, throwing his arm over her shoulder, squeezing her to himself as he said something.
And then, that smile, from both of them.
It looked weirdly similar, and it did not reach their eyes. They strode out of range.
“He told her to smile.”
We jumped at the sound of Holly’s voice. She’d slipped into the room unnoticed and had been watching us from behind. “What the hell are you doing here?” Shane said sharply. “You’re supposed to be upstairs with Darius and Reggie!”
“I needed to see it,” Holly said haughtily. “Because I don’t believe it. Cass is good. And that Halliwell guy is fooling all of you.”
“Holly, you need to do as we tell you,” Ethan said grimly.
“Play it again,” Holly commanded the rabbit-like guy cowering in the corner.
The man recognized the whip-crack of authority in Holly’s voice, young though she was, and scooted forward, promptly setting the clip to play again. It was a torture to watch, every time. Torture I deserved.
There it was, the moment when the doctor ushered Cass into the room. A long pause followed… and then came the moment that she came out with Halliwell. The arm. The squeeze. The hideous fake smiles.
“Stop,” Holly said.
The security guy stopped the video, freezing the video right on the creepy-eyed stare up at the camera, their eerily similar grimaces.
“What do you see, baby?” Kat asked.
“Halliwell’s mouth,” Holly said. “Look at the shape. He’s saying, ‘smile.’ He’s telling her to smile. He’s making her do it. It’s not her fault. She’s pretending.”
“Run that back,” I said. “I want to see it again.”
We watched it, again, and another three more times, for good measure. Sure enough, now that Holly had said it, we all saw Halliwell’s lips form the word. Smile.
Ethan let out a sigh. “Babe,” he said gently. “You have a good eye, and it was right to call that out. But what you saw in itself does not prove that she’s not in on it. He could be reminding her to smile even if she’s willingly working with him.”
“What I want to know is why we’re talking about this stuff with you to begin with,” Amos bitched. “You’re ten, kid.”
“I won’t let you cut me out. I care about Reggie. And Cass.”
The door opened, and Darius leaned into the room, very relieved to see Holly. “Oh, thank God.” He frowned fiercely at Holly. “Really, Holls? You think this is the time to run off alone in a public building, where Halliwell and his goons running around loose? You practically gave me a heart attack!”
“I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I just had to see this video, and I knew you wouldn’t let me go. And besides, you should still be up there guarding Reggie.”
Darius’s eyebrows rose. “We still think that Reggie needs guarding? Why?”
“Lots of reasons.” Holly’s voice rang with conviction. “She definitely needs it!”
“At least until we know more,” I conceded, hedging my bets.
Darius let out a huff of air. “Back I go, then. Oh, it looks like she’s conscious again, by the way. She was talking to the nurse when I was leaving. Asking about her sister.” He shot a tight-lipped glance at me. “Think I might just sit that one out.”
Everyone’s eyes slid away from mine, as I realized that it was my job to inflict heartbreak on an innocent little kid.
That’s what I got, for unleashing this hell on my family.
I’d brought this poor little girl here, and I’d let her into our inner sanctum.
If someone was going to crush her hopes, it had to be me.
“I’ll, ah… go talk to her,” I said heavily.
Surprise, surprise. Nobody followed me on my way back to Reggie’s room.
I’d been such a boneheaded idiot. Thinking with my dick. Dazzled with Cass’s beauty and nerve and brilliance. And breaking Reggie’s heart was my punishment.
I’d rather have someone break both my legs.