36. Delilah
Chapter thirty-six
By the time the rest of the team are assembled in the med bay, I’m dressed and mostly composed, sitting cross-legged on the bed, my eyes in my lap.
I’ve pulled my hair up as much as I could, but it’s so thick that it hurts to keep it up in its messy bun.
The stares of everyone in the room feel like entitled touches, and I swallow hard.
“So let’s get it out,” Joker says, once the door closes behind Siren, the last to join us.
“It’s not that easy, Jokes. We don’t know what’ll happen when we do,” Phantom chides, the voice of reason for now.
“That’s why I’m here,” Siren says, approaching the hospital bed and dragging a wheeled table with them.
I glance out of the corner of my eye, seeing the computer setup they’ve brought, trying to follow the wires just to calm the racing thoughts in my mind.
I can’t stop thinking about who could have put in the tracker, and why, and when.
I can’t remember if the facility did it when I was first admitted, but that wouldn’t make sense.
Joker would have been stuck with one if that was their policy.
“Hey, you still with us, cupcake?”
I look up to find Siren leaning over me, their blue-green eyes bright with concern, the most emotion I’ve seen from them so far. I flush and nod, looking down again. I don’t know what I would even say, let alone if I could trust my voice right now.
“I’m going to scan it and it’ll send a signal to my laptop. With any luck, it’ll show us who this thing is registered to,” Siren explains.
“Like a fucking chip they put into dogs?” Bones snarls, words garbled with a growl.
I flinch away instinctively, and to my surprise, he stops, clearing his throat and pacing away slightly. I choose not to read too far into that right now, already too overwhelmed with emotions.
When Siren raises the scanner, I remain perfectly still, not even daring to breathe until the device beeps, a successful reading achieved.
Once they pull away, I slump forward and undo my hair, letting it cascade around my shoulders and torso in a heavy curtain.
I scoot back toward the head of the bed, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them.
“The good news is there is information linked to the chip,” Siren starts heavily.
“It sounds like there’s some bad news attached to that,” Cross mutters seriously, moving to look over Siren’s shoulder as they type.
“Yeah, it’s all encrypted. I might be able to hack it, but it’s going to take time,” Siren replies, voice low and distant in concentration.
“But is it, like, rigged to blow Lilah’s brains out if we remove it?” Joker asks, words bursting out of him as if he couldn’t keep them in a moment longer.
I look up at the use of the diminutive, my head tilted slightly. It’s been so long since I’ve had someone call me that, not since my old pack. But in Joker’s accent, there’s something…delightfully comforting to the sound of those syllables. Joker glances at me, but I look away with a hot flush.
“What part of encrypted don’t you understand?” Siren snaps, but it lacks any real heat.
“Everything between the “en” part and the “ted” thing,” Joker replies, not missing a beat.
I smother a little giggle against my knees, keeping my eyes down to avoid eye contact. Siren lets out a heavy sigh but doesn’t engage with the other omega’s antics.
“How long will it take for you to have an answer?” Bones asks into the silence, back to his usual no-nonsense tone.
“Well, depending on how deep this goes, it could be anything between a few hours and a few days,” Siren says heavily.
I glance at the wall clock, letting out a long breath. It’s almost time for me to start dinner. I start to get up, moving quietly as Bones and Siren talk, but I don’t get very far before a sharp corrective noise stops me in my tracks.
“Where do you think you’re going, baby doll?” Phantom asks.
I turn slightly, looking at the clock again, and hug my arms around my stomach. “To make dinner?” I say, more of a question than an answer.
There’s a beat of silence, and I look up to find everyone else exchanging meaningful glances, a silent conversation I’m not privy to. But it doesn’t take long for Cross to look at me with a soft smile.
“Not tonight, honey. I’ve got this. You should go get some rest. It’s been a long day,” he says warmly.
My eyes go wide and I look to Bones automatically, my heart kicking hard in my chest. But, as a second surprise in the last hour, Bones locks eyes with me over his mask and nods.
“Go sleep. You look exhausted,” he says simply, not a command but definitely more than a suggestion.
“Yes, Alpha,” I mutter, dropping my gaze and scurrying out of the med bay back toward the house.
I don’t stop to figure out if anyone follows me, heading right down the hallway toward the spare room, my room.
I don’t turn on the lights after I close the door, preferring the darkness.
I navigate the carefully arranged path toward the back of the room before I curl up in my pathetic attempt at a nest and pull the thin blanket up over my head.
The way I have everything arranged allows me to fully blend in with the rest of the scraps and rags I’ve managed to gather, something that’s allowed me to hide from this team more than once since I came to be here.
And when I close my eyes, I’m pulled under into unconsciousness almost immediately.
The smell of cedar and my pack fills my nose as I fold the laundry, still warm in my hands.
A breeze brings in the sound of Isaac’s radio through the open kitchen window from the driveway, along with the occasional cuss word.
He’s working on his latest pet project while we wait for Roman and Alex to come home from work for the weekend.
It’s going to be a rare two days where we’re all together with nothing else to interrupt.
Car tires in the driveway pull my head up, a small smile lifting the corners of my lips. I set the towel back in the basket before getting to my feet to check the front window. But before I can get there, I hear shouting from the driveway.
“We told you not to come here unannounced—”
A sharp, phantom pain cuts through my head, distracting me from whatever Isaac said. I hiss and stumble backward, landing hard on my ass in front of the door. There’s another voice, but it’s like I’m hearing it from the other end of a pipe full of water.
“After the stunt you pulled, you’re damn lucky we don’t call the cops,” Isaac shouts, voice closer this time.
A response from the other person outside, just as undecipherable as before. My head pounds, my heart races. Something is wrong, desperately wrong. I need to get out there. To stop…something? Why can’t I remember?
But, before I can figure it out, the door bursts open.
I look up from the floor to a face I’ve only seen in my worst nightmares, one pulled from the depths of my subconscious against my will. His face.
My throat refuses to work as I scramble backward, but my hands slip on something warm and sticky. When I pull my hand up, it’s covered in blood. I’m sitting in a pool of blood, still warm as it soaks through my clothes.
“I told you to forget my face, little rabbit. But you were always the brat, weren’t you?”
The voice is clear now, a tenor rasp that makes my blood freeze in my veins. I can’t move as he stalks toward me, pulling up his dark jeans as he crouches to be eye level with me.
“I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson again, aren’t I? And we’ll make sure this one sticks for good.”
My voice finally comes loose, and I let out a blood-curdling scream of pure terror, not stopping until my voice fails me.