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Poppy could feel her heart racing, fear burning inside her as she stared at the man she loved.
“What have you done?” she whispered, a sob tearing at her throat.
He’d been lying to her, working to find whatever he’d found here. And he would bathe in their blood because they were threatening her.
Her gaze turned to the mute woman then, seeing the slightest difference in the tilt of her head, the way the woman watched her almost curiously.
“She’s an artificially intelligent human-replica assassin, from what I understand,” Saige stated as though such a thing were a common object. “Programmed to take out a preprogrammed target or targets before going into hiding and shutting down until she’s needed again.”
The AI’s eyes shifted to Saige just barely, just enough that Poppy wasn’t certain that was what she’d seen, until that cool gaze slid back to Poppy. And gave a barely perceptible wink.
A wink?
Poppy felt like shaking her head to force reality back into her brain.
“She can’t be deactivated or disassembled once she’s been hooked into the programming you see now.” The satisfaction in Caine’s voice as he stepped into the room broke her heart. “Nanotech and quantum programming have made her almost indestructible.”
He was her brother’s friend, he and his sister had eaten at her parents’ table, he’d looked out for her when she was a girl, until Jack had taken over.
“You know,” Caine said as he stepped to Saige’s side. “The night Wayne Trencher attacked you, he was supposed to kill you.” He slid his hands into his pockets and watched her with a faint smile. “How did you get away from him? How did you escape?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied, not looking in Jack’s direction. “I haven’t seen Wayne Trencher since the year I graduated.”
Caine nodded. “Interesting.” He grinned, but seemed a little confused. “He disappeared after the party when he was supposed to dispose of you. I assumed Jack killed him when you were seen coming home in his truck that night.”
She shook her head. “Someone lied to you. I wasn’t with Jack that night. I met Mac in the parking area and he drove me home that night. You’ll have to ask him who he was with.” She shot Jack a furious glance.
Because she was furious. She was so pissed that he’d kept her in the dark she couldn’t stand it.
“Jack?” Caine asked without glancing at him.
“Fuck if I remember,” Jack grunted. “You remember every woman you ever fucked?”
Poppy fought but failed to hold back the sob that escaped, though she kept a second one from escaping. A tear fell, but that was deliberate.
She was going to kill Jack. God help him if she survived this because she was going to hurt him.
God help her if she’d been wrong about Jack…
No, she wasn’t wrong. She couldn’t be wrong.
“Why did you do this?” she yelled at all of them, straining at the ropes. “Why?”
Caine shook his head. “It appears I was wrong about you, Jack,” he drawled. “I thought she meant something to you. Your woman and all that.” He seemed to be mocking Jack.
“I wanted to maintain a semblance of respectability when I returned here, Crossfield, and I have to say, you haven’t just shot my chances, but you’ve exploded them to hell and back.” He sounded like he’d sounded the night Wayne attacked her. Like an enraged animal, just quieter.
More dangerous.
And Caine and Saige had no idea…
“River…” she whispered. “He was helping you…?”
Saige laughed at that. “He and Sasha have been too busy fucking like minks and trying to keep Caine from realizing it to know anything. He’s so predictable.”
River was anything but predictable, but Poppy knew he’d been distracted for a while.
“Good ole Wayne,” Caine sighed. “I didn’t suspect he would have run with the money I’d given him, but I guess that’s what he did. I’ll have to be certain to be watching for him.”
