Page 54 of Greed
She groaned. “Fine.”
An expression of accomplishment flittered over Parker. “Good. I think it’s clear to everyone that if this is another Syndicate stunt—and let’s be honest, blood sampling is their MO—then we’re in some deep shit. We’re getting stalked, photographed, and set up. We need to take the offensive while we still have the chance. We’ve lost a lot of advantage over the years we fell apart. Our identities are at stake, and if we’re exposed, then losing our freedom might not be the worst we have to face.”
“I hate to say it,” Mary added grimly, “but it could be the Hildegard Sisterhood.”
Flint frowned at his wife and lowered his voice, but they all heard him speak. “They’ve left you alone all this time. Why bother now?”
“Because we stole these children from them.”
“We stole them from the Syndicate. The Sisterhood were only another group trying to steal them.”
“Exactly.”
“No,” Parker added. “I don’t think it’s them. But we will remain wary. It’s the Syndicate who have us on their radar at the moment, and none of us are safe.”
Griffin looked at his plate, thinking on the ramifications of his brother’s words.
It was Evan who finished the train of thought. “The Syndicate tried to kidnap me once, now the attention is on Griffin so soon after he’s unlocked his DNA. That can’t be a coincidence. You have to protect Lilo at all costs. If they discover the link between her and you, she’s not safe.”
He was right. Griffin’s heart tripped, and although Lilo was angry at him for forbidding her to go to the meeting, he was convinced he did the right thing. She had to stay safe.
“They’re not done with us,” Evan continued. “And by the looks of it, they’re roping in more people to do their dirty work.”
I’m only after the greedy ones.
The memory slammed into Griffin. When dressed as the imposter, Doppenger mentioned he was hunting sinners of greed. At the time Griffin had been defiantly furious because greed was his sin, and he’d be damned if someone else thought they could hunt better than him. But he’d escaped the fact that no one else should have the capability to sense greed at all.
“Doppenger could sense greed, like me,” he said.
“That’s not possible,” Parker replied.
Mary added, “Nothing in the intel we sourced said anything about him being manufactured in a lab, like you all were. In fact, he led a very boring and mundane life until we all turned up in town and gave him something to write about.”
“Then how did he have the skill to sense greed?”
“Maybe it was a misnomer.”
“Maybe he’s working with the Syndicate.”
“They must have given him something, altered him somehow.”
Everyone spoke at once until Parker stood, towering over them all. The feral glint in his eye was enough to silence them all. “This is unacceptable. We’re elite specimens, manufactured soldiers, yet, somehow this organization has all this information about us and we have nothing on them. I want everyone on this. Your lives depend on it.”
Chapter Seventeen
After visiting her parents’ house, Lilo spent a few days keeping to herself, working quietly, and processing her feelings. It hadn’t been easy as Griffin always seemed near. He wandered past her desk, loitered in her periphery and tried to strike up conversations. Once, he’d given her a mug of hot coffee which she politely declined. Nevertheless, his relentless efforts of attention let her know he was there.
She looked at her hero vision board and remembered why she’d put it there in the first place—to remind herself there were good men out there. That there was hope.
I forbid it.
End of discussion.
Those had been Griffin’s unbending words.
Sitting at her desk and staring at her screen, she felt so stupid. She’d allowed herself to be taken in by him; she’d been blind to trust him completely. From the moment she collided with him in the break room, she’d been head over heels for his confidence, strong jaw, kissable lips…God!She slammed the heel of her palm into her eye socket and grimaced. She still couldn’t stop thinking about how attracted she was to him. Had she really been so desperate for affection that she’d not seen his stubborn and rigid personality for what it was? Controlling, possessive and the opposite of what she wanted in a partner. Donnie had given her plenty of that and it almost broke her. It still messed with her brain. The very thought of getting intimate with another man gave her heart palpitations, and not for a good reason.
You’ll never be fulfilled without me.
