28. Raegan
Chapter twenty-eight
Raegan
Congressman Joe has gone into hiding.
It’s only been a day since we rescued the little girl—Isabel—from his home. It may be too early to make that call, but when I checked with his public schedule where he was supposed to be appearing, he never showed.
Does his sudden disappearance mean he’s gone to GE to regroup? Should I be more worried about what kidnap attempt he’ll try next? Will he involve other brainwashed gifted people the longer this drags on until he finally has me?
He knows who I am now. Any of my attempts at learning more about him risk me falling into one of his traps. But is there any other way right now? He’s my only lead, and he clearly has the ear of the board as a potential member.
Regardless, I have to find him first.
And I do have an idea. One that Portia, Kellan, and Jackson will hate, but it’ll work. I can set myself up as bait. He needs me as a step in his initiation process or whatever to become a board member, so I know he hasn’t stopped trying to find me as well. That means I’ll just need to make myself more readily…kidnappable.
My pen scribbles across the notepad with possible ideas and locations where I’d most likely be spotted and appear vulnerable. I add a note in the corner that Jackson and Kellan need to be distracted with something else.
I’ll also need a plan for how to get away once he has me and I have information that will guide me to other board members.
Loud scratching echoes from my apartment door. I pull my gun from its holster and aim it there while slowly approaching it.
I peek through the peephole.
No one's there.
My skin crawls, and I shudder. A ghost, perhaps? What if that invisible guy wasn’t dead?
No, he was dead.
There’s a small whine, and I look down through the hole as much as I can. A dog?
I open the door partway, gun still ready in one hand, and see that it really is a dog scratching at my door.
He’s only a foot and a half high, but his coloring is beautiful. Light gray with mottled black and white. His face and legs have tan and then a white chest.
“Wrong door, puppy. This isn’t your home.”
I check up and down the hallway to make sure no one will jump out and surprise me while I’m distracted and then squat down to hold out my hand for him to sniff. “Can I pet you? You look so soft.”
The dog woofs softly, then rushes between me and the door to hurry inside my apartment.
“Shit, hey!” I spin around and hunt for where he went. I catch him biting the throw blanket on the back of the couch and gasp. “Stop that! No! Bad dog!”
He gives me an odd look, and then he’s growing and changing. His limbs lengthen, snout sinks in, and the fur recedes. I stare open-mouthed at a naked Kit on my couch, the blanket barely covering him from his torso to his upper thighs.
“What the hell?”
He grins at me and pops up just enough from the couch to wrap the rest of the blanket around his ass before falling back into it. “Surprise!” he shouts with his hands out.
The dog toys in his apartment. The abundance of dog fur. His playful energy. And I hadn’t seen a dog while I was there. “You’re the dog,” I say aloud as it all clicks together.
“I’m a dog. Not sure I can count myself as the dog.”
“So, you’re a shifter, then.”
“Yup!”
“Well, that explains a lot.” I sigh and set my gun back on the counter. “Why did you show up as the dog? I could’ve shot you.”
He pouts. The resemblance smacks me in the face, and I can’t believe I didn’t realize it the first time I met him. “You’d shoot a doggy?”
“Of course not. Not on purpose, at least. I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
Kit stands, using one hand to hold the blanket in place while his other hand starts touching anything and everything in the room while he walks around. “It’s safer for me to travel as a dog. Less chance someone might recognize me. And people are nicer to me and give me pets and lovings.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize you were on the run. Who’s looking for you?” I lean my elbow back on the counter and follow him as he openly scopes out my apartment. Everything in it belongs to Elias and came with it, aside from the clothes I stole and a few personal items in the bedroom, so I’m not sure what he could be looking for.
He shrugs. “Oh, you know. Nefarious folks.”
His attention zeroes in on my notepad, and I slap my hand over it. He chuckles and keeps moving.
“So, why are you here?”
“That’s a bad idea.” He waves his finger behind him toward my notes. “Very, very bad. But I know we don’t know each other well enough for you to listen to me that easily. Oh!” His fist hits his open palm and the blanket drops to the ground. “I know what might convince you to wait!”
“Kit!” I slap my hand over my eyes before I accidentally see something I don’t want. “Blanket!”
“Oh. Whoops!” He hops back over to me. A quick check ensures that he’s covered again before I drop my hand. Kit leans against the back of the stool next to mine and grins playfully at me. “Guess what happy news I have?”
“What?”
“Guess! Guess! It’s part of the game.”
I roll my eyes, smiling. “Fine. You know where the congressman is.” His excitement turns to confusion. “What? That’s my main goal right now, so it’d be pretty happy news if you knew where he went.”
“You mean the guy Eli told you to pick up last week?”
“Yeah. That one.”
He drums his fingers against the cool metal under his hands. “Nope. Thought you had him. Guess again.”
“I did, but…well, it’s complicated.”
Kit bounces impatiently. “Got it. Complicated. Now, guess!”
“Uh…”
“Eli’s on his way home!” he bursts out.
Relief washes through me, and I sink in my seat with an exhale. Have the two weeks passed already? Thank fuck.
“That’s…really good news. Great news.”
Yes . No more relying on Aiden or the guys for anything. He can help me find the congressman. And make sure I have a solid escape plan.
Finally, I can make progress on GE.
Excitement and relief mix in my chest. There’s a tinge of something else too, but I push it aside. This is for the best. For everyone.
“Right?!” he responds excitedly. “He should be here in the morning sometime.”
“In the morning? That fast?”
“He actually left, like, I think this morning or last night, but it’s a long flight and they have to stop and re-fuel and all that. But yeah.”
“Great. Great…” How quickly could he find the congressman? Would I be able to take down the board soon after that and finish this once and for all?
I lean back on the counter. “So, was that the news you came here to tell me?”
“Hm?”
“The reason why you’re here.”
“Oh! No, I just thought you’d like to know that.”
He looks pleased with himself and then smiles blankly at me while I stare at him expectantly. A minute passes.
“So….?” Still nothing. “Kit. What else did you have to tell me that you came here for?”
His mouth parts and then he scratches behind his ear. “Right. I heard about the attack at the Tower the other day and how some people like us were taken.”
It was four people last I’d heard, but they hadn’t been recovered yet. I wonder idly if Aiden has slept at all while searching for them.
“I’m a good tracker. Not just because I’m a dog. Well, maybe because of that, but I’ve been able to pick up scents before that others like me haven’t. I thought I’d give it a go and see what happened.”
“And? Did you find them?”
“I couldn’t tell. There was no way I could get close enough to the building. But I was able to follow a trail from someone that smelled…wrong.” He maneuvers around me to slide the notepad in front of him and writes an address. “I can’t guarantee they’re still there or not, but I would bet a peanut butter rawhide that they’d at least been there.”
I can’t put all of my hope that they haven’t been moved already, but there could be more clues inside. Or, if the building is cleared out, Kit could sniff for another trail.
Next comes the hard part .
Telling Aiden.
As much as I’d like to do this on my own to help others like me, there’s no way I can take on an entire building of GE goons. It’s likely to have a security system in place too. Even if I could take out a decent amount of them before the alarm is raised, I’d still be outmanned and outgunned if any of them have non-tactile gifts.
“Thank you for doing that.”
Kit grins at me and shrugs. “I’m glad I could help. Let me know if you need any more sniffing done. As long as there’s no fighting involved. I don’t do fighting. Just sniffing and pets.”
I laugh, feeling lighter from the good news he's brought me. “Got it. I’ll let you know.”
He shifts back and rubs against my shins and waits. I give him the pets he’s looking for with a smile. He’s not just soft. He’s like baby blanket soft that you want to rub your face in. I stroke his fur a few more times and then pull back. He licks my hand and trots to the door, which I open to let him out, and he runs out of view.
I head out immediately to give the news to the others. We may not be on the best of terms, but I’d never withhold information that could save people over personal grudges.
There’s an eerie quiet on the streets as I take the quickest shortcut I know to the safe house. It’s normal this time of night for the activity to have slowed down, but it’s never empty like this .
It feels like the city is holding its breath.
My hands fist as unease settles in my gut. I wore a hoodie before I left with the cooler chill in the air tonight. I’m grateful for the small temperature drop so I can tuck my hair back and pull the hood over my head.
I scan the street, checking around the corner before I move in case I’m being followed again.
I make it to the safe house without incident, which should tell me that I’m being paranoid, but I still can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. I head inside, using the combination Jackson gave me to gain access without having to knock and hope that they’ll let me in when they see it’s me.
I walk right in and close the door behind me.
A chair crashes against a desk as Dane rushes upright. He has a gun in his hand, which I’d take personally if their last home hadn’t just been attacked. I see when he realizes it’s just me. And when he still doesn’t drop the gun.
Okay. I take it personally now too.
“How did you get in here? You can’t just waltz in any time you fucking please.”
Aiden’s standing behind him in his little circle of monitors. His face is drawn in concentration as he studies the screens. At Dane’s reaction, he doesn’t even bother looking at me. It’s like he doesn’t register me as a threat worth watching. Even though I walked right into their current home.
I bristle at being ignored, but then his hand flies out and smacks Dane in the back of the head. “Quit whining and keep working, Dane,” he demands without breaking eye contact with the screens. “Raegan, if you’re here to tell me that you’ve reconsidered joining us, then this may be a bad time.”
Dane sends me another death glare warning and then sets his gun down within reach on the desk. He returns to his seat and the keyboard and starts clicking through cameras around the city. He has apparently tapped into every store, ATM, and even traffic light camera in this city for his personal viewing.
The monitors all shift with each click, each displaying a different camera and moving across the screens as he works through them.
I should just hand them the address and leave. Because I’m not joining them.
But curiosity gets the better of my pride.
“What’s going on?”
Aiden’s dark brown eyes finally deign to flick my way, then return to the screen nearest him when a new camera view appears. “Is that a yes? That you’ve changed your mind? That you’ll take orders from me without complaint?”
I snort and walk over to the tech corner to see it for myself. “Of course not. I have a possible location for where your people were taken and thought you’d like to check it out.”
That gets their attention, and they both turn around to look at me.
“And what makes you think they're there? Do you even know what any of them look like?” Aiden questions derisively.
“I have a…” I hesitate to say the word ‘friend’. The only person I would call that is Portia. She’s the only one I’ve opened up to. Well, more than anyone else lately. She still doesn’t know the darkest parts of me, but she’s the closest I’ve let anyone get in a long time. “An ally. He’s a shifter and he tracked one of their scents to this place.”
Aiden sighs and straightens, running his hand through his finger-length brown hair. It makes the hairs stick up in funny angles that should look stupid and lazy. I bite my inner cheek in annoyance when it only makes him look sexier.
Ugh.
“Do you think we haven’t already thought of that? We have shifters in the Guild. They’re the most common type of gifted out there right now.”
I imagine what it might be like to shift into a giant bear or wolf and take a bite out of Aiden. The picture makes me smirk.
His eyes narrow at me.
“All right then.” I shrug nonchalantly. “I’ll just throw the address out and wish you luck on your search.”
I walk back to the door. The feel of his stare on my back makes my skin prickle. I reach for the door handle and grab it.
I’m expecting Aiden to stop me. But Dane’s voice calls out to me. “Just give me the damn address.” He’s pushed his chair back and has his hand out expectantly.
I look over my shoulder at him. “Really?”
Dane scoffs and Aiden shakes his head before returning to scanning the camera views.
“You think we’re actually going to ignore a possible lead to our Guild mates? Aiden’s just being a dick.”
“When isn’t he? ”
Dane’s lips twitch at the corners, and I might be about to glimpse a smile from him, but then his face drops like a sack of potatoes. He jerks his fingers back to bring my attention to his still empty hand. “Let’s see it, then.”
“Tell me what’s going on that has you eyeballing every camera in the city.”
“Now, who’s being the dick?” Aiden croons.
I roll my eyes and stalk over to them. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t give you the address unless you told me. I’m just curious. I noticed something was off on my way over and seeing you two like this has me wondering if I need my knives out when I leave.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“You mean, people? Not really. Maybe two or three. I know it’s late, but the city isn’t usually this dead.”
Dane and Aiden share a look. Then Dane taps on the keyboard and a live feed from another camera flips on in the monitor above his. Kellan’s fighting three people in black in an alley somewhere. The view changes to another street, where Jackson’s floating a body behind him.
My hand reaches instinctively to my gun. “Are you guys being attacked again?”
“No. But Gifted Enterprise is scattered around the city for something tonight. Kellan and Jackson went out to get some answers. And lessen their forces just in case,” Aiden replies.
I frown and look more closely at each of the monitors around us. There are people in the same black get up in nearly half of the screens. I don’t know the city well enough to tell where most are, but I recognize a few.
“Isn’t that girl your friend?” Dane points out.
I spin around to the one he’s pointing at on one of the higher monitors behind us. “Shit,” I mutter and pull out my phone to call her.
“Move this to the bigger screen and add any other cameras in the area,” Aiden tells Dane. He moves it within a couple keystrokes, and I have to turn around to follow it. The rest of the street appears in different angles and heights, and I actually see her walk from one monitor to the next before the phone picks up.
“Hey, Rae! How’s the hunt?” Portia’s clear and sweet tone carries through my speaker. It’s loud enough that Dane’s eyes darken when he looks between my phone and the scantily clad girl walking across his monitors.
Aiden’s eyeing me too, probably hoping his look can drill me for answers on what ‘hunt’ I’m on. Portia knows that I’m trying to take care of Congressman Joe once and for all. And that he’s been AWOL for about thirty-six hours now.
“It’s slow progress. What are you doing out?”
She’s been careful for two weeks to keep inside Hype between her apartment and the club. The only time she’s been out was with Kellan and I to save Isabel. But it’s…I check the time on my phone and frown. I hadn’t realized how late it actually was.
“Did you bug me or something?” Her head swivels back and forth to look around her, and she laughs.
“Of course not. Dane saw you on his cameras and alerted me.”
“Oh? Is Dane stalking me, then?” I should laugh at the joke, but my heart trips when I see him watching her steadily on his screen.
Dane scoffs and keeps eyeing the monitors. “I’m trying to reduce her casualties by association,” he answers caustically.
The jab stakes me in the heart and leaves me winded. Portia’s attitude sings through the phone back to me, and I try to remind myself that I do have at least one person on my side who’s not an asshole. “Um, wow. He sounds better with his mouth closed.”
I laugh at her insult to play off that what he said didn’t affect me.
“Ignore him,” she continues. Yup. She didn’t believe me. “I’m picking up some food and then heading right back to my apartment at the club. I’ll call you as soon as I’m back.”
“Okay. Please be safe, Portia. I’ve seen some goons tonight, so I don’t want them to stumble across you while you’re out. Food and then straight back.”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” she cheers and then hangs up.
I stare at her on the screen as she enters one of the twenty-four-hour restaurants we have in the city.
How far away is that from here? Would I make it there in good time? But it’s a solid forty-five-minute walk from here to Hype, and that restaurant is in the opposite direction. I’m an hour away on foot.
It’d be better to watch her here to make sure she’s okay than try to head over there now.
“She shouldn’t be out alone right now,” Dane mutters under his breath while looking back to the other screens now that she’s inside a building and out of sight.
It feels like I’m being chastised as a bad friend. Probably because that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s reminding me that I’m the bad guy. I may try to be good or fool myself that I’m on the side of good, but I’m the catalyst for disaster.
Their group of brotherhood is falling apart because of me.
Their Guild has been running for years, but suddenly I show up and they’ve been found and attacked.
People are always dying around me.
The criticism hits home. “I’m not her keeper. She can do whatever and go wherever she wants. She knows the risks right now.”
I’m not her prison guard. I’m her friend. If she wants to go out, then she has every right to do that. It’s just my responsibility now to make sure she’s safe.
I pull the address from my pocket and slap it on the desk next to him. “Here.”
Dane pulls the address up on his computer and then Aiden lifts the piece of paper in his hand to peer at it more closely.
“This isn’t a place we’ve looked at already. Who is this ally of yours?” he asks coolly. Aiden’s trying to act unbothered, but I can tell he doesn’t like that I have people helping me out that he doesn’t know about.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
He pins me with a look. “Yes. I would. That’s why I asked.”
I shrug and check back on the screen to see Portia heading back to the club. I smirk back at him and pretend to zip my lips closed. “Sorry. My lips are sealed.”
“We should send a scouting team to this location now. If they have as many personnel out wandering the city tonight, it might be less guarded,” Dane interrupts us and circles to face us in his gaming chair.
Aiden nods. “I’ll call in whoever’s available. The last group didn’t get in that long ago and needs to sleep or they’ll just be putting themselves at risk.”
“I can offer my services as a helping hand this once. Just to help rescue the people taken because of Joe.”
“Who the fuck is Joe?” Dane snarls.
“No,” Aiden answers at the same time as Dane. “I can’t trust you in the field yet until I can see you’re able to follow my command.” Then he answers Dane, “He’s the congressman that Raegan cozied up to and who’s currently got GE on the attack after us.”
Dane’s expression turns murderous, and I shoot a glare at them. “What you meant to say, asshole, is that he’s the guy you let walk after you and Kellan broke into his home to question him. So, he’s out for revenge on you two for your fuckup.”
Aiden’s eyes narrow. “At least I didn’t try to fuck him for the information.”
Oh.
Oh.
My vision blurs to red, and I hear the crack of my hand sweeping across his face. My hand pulses and tingles at the contact as blood rushes to my palm.
Fury and pain blend in a toxic combination. My gift hisses and spits in my gut, and then it begins to fade and fall out of my reach. It’s still there, but it’s like a clear, steel wall has been erected around it. I feel hollow and empty without it, and panic begins to backfill that void.
I blink out of my head to find Dane’s grabbed my upper arm and his hand is emitting white light between us. He’s blocking my gift.
Aiden’s hands are balled into fists, and a red mark is blooming on his cheek.
“Fuck. You,” I utter darkly with as much venom and hatred as possible. I step back and then glare at Dane when he doesn’t let go. We’re both trapped in a stare-off of wills and unspoken threats.
Me being around them is like a ticking time bomb.
All I bring with me is chaos and destruction.
I am the villain in this story.
He finally releases me, and I storm out.