‘He’s got youtrapped,Jules.’
‘My name is Kade.’
‘He’s fucked with your head making you think you have a condition when actually, it’s the Hush Line I created and didn’t stoop low enough to use.’
‘Shut up!’
‘You’re his prisoner.He just gave you a job so you wouldn’t be bored.’
Kade punches him.
The punch cracks across Lachlan’s mouth hard enough to split his lip.He goes quiet instantly, barely even rocked by the impact, blood trailing briefly down his chin before the wound seals itself shut again.Breathing hard, Kade shakes his hand, knuckles sore, but he doesn’t care.
‘If youeversay anything like that again—’
‘Ask him, then.’Lachlan swallows his own blood.‘Go ask him about theHush Line.Ask him how you got that metal plate in your head and how you came to be here seven years ago and why you don’t remember anything.’
‘There’s plenty of people here who have memory loss!It’s not uncommon, even Luca doesn’t remember a lot of his childhood!’
‘Ask your boss who you really are!’
‘Don’t you dare tell me what to do, you fucking piece of shit!I’m not the one who locked those kids up and let them die!’
Lachlan tongues the healed split and looks away.‘Fine, I’ll prove it then.’
‘How?’
‘Tonight.Be here when it’s dark.I’ll switch it off andshowyou what it really has been all this time.’Lachlan walks away, goes past the point Kade never has, notthatway.Every time he’s gone into the city has been in a car with Riley, and it was Kade’s responsibility to keep him safe every single time.His magnetic field isRiley,and he never left it.
‘Where are you going?’
Lachlan doesn’t answer.
?
Kade is headed for Riley’s floor when he runs into Seth
‘Hey, man.’
‘Hey, I was looking for you,’ Seth says, eyeing Kade carefully.They’d sparred earlier, the two of them.Kade took every bad hit Seth had to give, kept the pads high and then dropped them when only skin on skin would do.He can’t imagine losing a sibling, let alone a twin, but Seth, like everyone in Iron Star, is a professional.Whatever he’s feeling, work comes first.‘You good?’
‘Uh, yeah, yeah sure.Actually no, I’m not.I need to see the boss.’
‘You were with the Paranatural, right?’
‘It’s fine, I just—’
‘You can’t let him fuck with your head,’ Seth says, quietly insistent.‘That’s what they do, the other types too.They poison you from the inside out.I know the boss has a…’ Seth drops his voice all the way down into a harsh whisper, ‘asoft spotfor them but he’s not out there on the streets.He doesn’t see what I see.He doesn’t know what I know.These fucking things aren’t natural.My dad used to write letters to us when we were kids.He told me they make you feel things you wouldn’t otherwise.They’re all just—’
‘Seth,’ Kade says, a little sharp.‘I need to see the boss.’
It works.Seth reels at first but then settles into neutral acceptance, jaw working.He steps away.‘Sure.We’ll talk later.’
Kade takes the service stairs to the fifth floor and when he enters the Watch,he stops dead.Riley, Cole, and Finn are inside, but someone unexpected.
‘Lee.’
Three pairs of eyes swivel onto him, but her sharp greens take their time.
