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As the door clicks shut behind me, I laugh. “You are a crude bitch sometimes, you know that?”
She walks over to her desk and sits down, swiveling the chair to face me. “I’m Australian. Duh.”
We both share a moment of laughter, the first in a while for her and me. As we’re planning this mission and betrayal of all the people who love us, I can slowly feel the tension between Sammi and me fading. I’m not even sure if I’m really angry at her anymore.
You’d think after Hayato’s betrayal, getting stabbed by psycho-bitch, hooking up with Dresden, losing Jameson and Samuel, and finding out about the possibility of Jax being a double agent, nothing would bother me anymore.
Sammi’s betrayal was so different though. She did it for all the right reasons, and none of them had to do with personal gain.
“So, what’s in the box?” I say pulling a chair up beside her.
She opens the flaps and pulls out a small pill bottle and a medium-sized glass bottle. “Two forms of Midazolam. We can crush the pills and give them to them or spike their drinks with the liquid form. You’re choice.”
“Which do you think will work faster?” I take both bottles from her hand and study them.
Blake is going to kill me.
“Liquid, most likely.”
“Well, we’ll plan with that then.” I hand the bottles back to her.
She opens the bottom drawer of her desk, reaches in and, after a series of beeps, opens the lid to a lockbox. After she places the medicine inside and closes it, she pulls a large folder out of the box that the medicine came from.
“This was in here for you as well.”
“What is it,” I say as I take it from her hands.
She shakes her head, and my chest tightens. Opening the folder, my eyes land on a picture of a young, dark ebony man in a rebel uniform. He’s Nigerian, maybe twenty-five, twenty-six years old. I stare at his face, and it hits me like a collapsing building.
Jax.
Behind that one are dozens of photographs as he ages. The last set breaks my heart— Jax in a procession line, carrying a flag with a flaming blue Taurus symbol on it, him inspecting a line of young women, and him branding a young light-skinned girl.
It’s like all the air is sucked out of the room. This is the proof I never wanted. Undeniable proof that Jax— the man who raised me, saved me, called me his daughter— is in fact, a member of the Taurus.
I huff out a breath and set the folder in my lap. Sammi stares at me with sympathy and pity. Someone looking at me like that used to piss me off. It doesn’t anymore. So much has changed and the person I was seems like another lifetime altogether.
“What are you thinking, Lily?” She leans forward and rests her fingertips on my knee.
“What happens if I can’t kill him, Sammi? Maybe he’s undercover in the Taurus. What if we have this all wrong?”
“Well,” she says as she sits back and runs her hand through her hair. “You’re the only person who can find that out. And if he really is working for the Taurus, he may not give you a choice about killing him.”
My emotions are a tidal wave sized mess and it sucks.
“Go get some sleep, Viper. We have a plan. Nothing else we can figure out right now. Go spend some time with your fiancé. You need a reprieve before all this goes down.”
The lump in my throat won’t let words pass, but I nod. Handing the folder back to Sammi, I stand and head back to my bedroom. She doesn’t follow me, and I’m glad. Tears well in my eyes with each step and as I stop outside my bedroom door, they finally fall down my face.
†††
Blake was asleep by the time I came back last night, but today is just he and I. The media room has been tagged off-limits to anyone but us, and I’ve got enough movies to take up the next twenty-four hours. It’s just past seven in the morning, and he probably won’t be up for a while.
Teresa was up when I finally came back to the kitchen. She was sweet enough to make a breakfast spread for us and bring it to the media room in warming dishes. Blake pays her very well, but once we get to a normal life, she deserves a raise.
I’m in the mood for something light-hearted, so of course, in honor of the first time Blake and I watched movies together, I pop in a kid’s animated movie. I smile at the screen as the advertisements play.
“What’s all this?”
