Chapter 26 #3
Peter opened his mouth to stay something to Soren, likely one of his many statements that dealing with pain through humor was not healthy, but stopped before sound ever left his mouth.
I considered making fun of him for looking like a gaping fish, but my own words were stolen when I saw genuine fear enter Peter’s eyes. Not an expression I was used to, which made it made it much, much scarier.
“What is it?” I asked, nearly jumping out of my seat.
Peter slowly—too slowly—rose form his desk and walked into the corner of his office, where there was an L-shaped filing cabinet. Opening up the top drawer on the left, he reached inside and pressed the button I knew lived in the crease of the wood.
The left side of the cabinet popped open, swinging outward to reveal a safe right behind it. Only four people beside Peter’s Match knew that safe existed.
Peter’s highest ranking officers—me and Ford—and the next step down—Soren and….Carson.
“Oh, shit,” Soren cursed under his breath. Then, our eyes swung together, thinking the exact same thing.
There was one aspect of the paranima Bond we never quite advertised, mostly from fear that it would get back to our own government and we’d turn into a science experiment.
Something Carson had been there to witness. At the edges of it, intentionally kept in the dark, but enough to know that there was something that was being hidden from him.
Enough that he might know to—
“Motherfucker.”
Soren popped up, forgetting Bellamy had her arm wrapped around his and jerking her to stand with him. He paused for a second, looking at a little crazed. He turned around, running his hands down her arms, squeezing her hands, then flipping back around to Peter.
“Let me see it,” Soren said, holding out his hand just in time for Peter to pass him the folder, his head still hanging between his shoulders.
“I—I should have thought about that,” I stuttered out, trying to wrap my head around how I could have missed this. Maybe it was intentional, keeping Carson away from Salona. I would have thought of this if he’d been there.
Soren scoffed out a laugh, spinning the folder into Bellamy’s waiting hands as he turned to run his hands down his face.
“Can someone please explain what is going on here?” Freya said, an odd note in her voice and a frown on her face.
There was a sudden gut punch brought on by that expression, leading me to quickly clarify, “I believe Carson stole evidence relating to my rescue of Ford.”
Freya looked back to Peter, who was still rummaging through the safe. “Oh, well, that wasn’t very nice of him.”
Ford snorted a laugh beside me, a sharp distinction from the way his hand was gripping my thigh with barely controlled rage.
It was Soren who said, “He didn’t steal. Asshole is too smart for that, or thought he was.”
Freya jumped up in her seat, snapping her fingers together. “The seal thingy!”
I realized then that her frown was most certainly due to the fact that she’d been kept in the dark. I didn’t think I’d put two and two together—that Freya hadn’t been aware of the safe—until it was put right in front of me.
“Yes, the seal,” Peter said, finally turning away from the safe.
“Smart as he was, he clearly did not remember what that seal looked like. Probably was too distracted by how excited he was to be pulling a fast one on us.”
Soren thumbed the seal in question, popping it easily off the papers it held together.
It was older technology, a special kind of wax that wouldn’t stick back down to anything once it was removed from its original resting place.
You could melt down the wax again, but it would only give a momentary appearance of tackiness before popping right off a few minutes later.
Bellamy shook her head, eyes firing back and forth as she turned something over in her head.
“I don’t know, this feels wrong. They hardly brought up Matches in negotiations, just saying that we’d leave that to our religious leaders to discuss.
Share whatever knowledge they wanted. You’d think they’d be a little more… ”
“Nosy?” Soren supplied.
“Nosy,” Bellamy agreed, “if they thought the Bond gave you…well, shit, supernatural abilities of healing and strength.”
“Maybe it’s fear. Maybe Carson thought he was stealing something useful, but they aren’t going to do anything with it.” Soren was playing the other side of the argument, but I didn’t buy it.
“Or,” Peter said, shaking his head as his hands rose to his hips. “They now know exactly who are the most dangerous members of our unit.” Another deep inhale, one that looked nearly painful. “And how to eliminate them.”
I cursed under my breath.
Elijah likely had no idea how close he was to committing a two-fold murder of Royal darlings, had his arrow to Bellamy’s thigh drawn just a bit more blood.
“You are all dialing it way back,” Peter said, tone offering no room for disagreement. Even trending towards threatening. “I’m putting a protective detail on you,” this, with a two-fingered point in Bellamy and Soren’s direction, “at the very least—no, I don’t want to hear it, Soren.”