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“Your father was a dickhead,” Oz snaps, making me jump.
“Oz,” Zig reprimands him, but I huff out a laugh.
“No, he’s right. He told me later how much it would hurt my mother to find out the truth. That it was over, which, by the way, was a lie. When they argued about it again that night, he told my mom to just ask me. I’d be able to tell her the truth so she could stop attacking him for nothing.”
“That son of a bitch made you lie to your mom.”
“I should have just told the truth. It was a lesson I took to heart.”
“Evander says you work for a department in the government that locates missing kids.” Jagger changes the subject. “How did you get into that?”
“Coincidence, actually. I was in an all-girls group home, and as one of the older girls, I looked after the younger ones. Everyone who came in had a story, some worse than others, but they wouldn’t talk about it. Nobody likes to talk about the monsters in their nightmares. Anyway, along with being able to detect a lie, I’m also really good at getting people to talk to me and draw out the truth. One of the women that volunteered was impressed and said she knew a place that might be interested in someone like me. I thought she meant, like, in a counseling capacity, but it turned out to be so much more than that.”
“You liked what you did?”
“Like is the wrong word. You can’t look at that much horror and not carry it home with you. For every kid we saved, we lost two more. But bringing them home, giving them peace, putting their captors behind bars, and helping them heal a little? Yeah, it was worth every sleepless night. I interned for three years. I got hired full-time the day I met Creed.”
“You worked with gifted children?” Creed questions.
“Not back then. The department I worked in dealt with more sensitive situations. Like sexual predators with diplomatic immunity, for example. I didn’t change departments until Cooper took me back and told them that I was gifted.”
“Fucker ratted you out.”
“Are you sure they really didn’t know what you could do?”
“Yes. There were other people who could read people exceptionally well. It made it easy to blend in until Cooper revealed the truth.”
“And they just believed him?” Oz frowns.
“I was unconscious for a week after my return. So I missed a chunk of what went on, but it was clear when I woke up that Cooper and the Boss Man knew each other.”
“Boss Man?” Zig leans forward.
“He heads up the Division. Him and his right-hand man, Arthur Smith.”
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Oz asks, but I just shrug. How the heck am I supposed to know?
“Do you know a man named Penn Travis?”
“How do you know that name?”
“How about you tell us what you know first?” Slade speaks.
I flush and dip my head. Right. They don’t trust me.
“We just want to compare notes, Avery. That’s all,” Jagger soothes, but I can feel the humming over my skin.
I look at him and smile, but it feels brittle. “Lie.”
His face flushes this time.
I shake it off. What does it matter what they think of me? “Penn Travis isn’t a man.”
“Now who’s lying?” Slade questions.
I glare at him. “Penn Travis is many men.”
Zig’s eyes open wide. “Explain.”
