Page 79 of Dangerous Deviance
“She didn’t try anything that whole time,” I said.
“No, but anything could happen. Another trigger word. A hidden command.” His jaw relaxed. “Another reason to kill us.”
I stared at him. Axe’s eyes were darker than mine or Derek’s, almost as if his pupils blended in with his irises. He had always distanced himself from us but never strayed far enough to leave our family for good. He had his work, and he kept to himself that way.
Axe usually brought up one solution. A final one. An option that I would never allow for Ellie.
“At least,” he repeated, reminding me that there were alternatives.
“Mercia helped her,” I said. Axe visibly pulled back, as if the name shocked him. “Ellie hasn’t had headaches or the voice in a while.” It might have been a day or just a few hours, but that was better than nothing.
“Do you have proof?” Axe asked.
Proof that she was cured. I gave a subtle shake of my head and turned back toward the car.
“I’ll talk to Derek,” Axe said. I closed my fist. That meant that Axe was set on the final outcome, what he thought would best protect our family. He wanted Ellie and the rest of the women gone for good.
But I would never allow it.
At the penthouse, Ellie went to the rooftop and I dialed Mercia from my office. I turned on a tablet and watched Ellie on the surveillance footage, her legs tucked beside her as she stared at the cityscape. But peace was written on her face this time, an expression she hardly had when she was up there. She usually looked distant. Distraught.
But she was calm, somehow. How could I destroy that?
“Wil?” Merica asked. “What can I help you with?”
“I need proof that your methods worked,” I said. Damn. That hadn’t come out as eloquently as I had hoped. “Ellie hasn’t been having headaches. Or hearing voices.”
“But you don’t believe her,” Mercia said, trying to understand. “You want proof.”
“Sure.”
What ‘proof’ was I looking for? It wouldn’t comfort Axe; he’d still want to kill her and the rest of them, to be done with it so that we could take care of the next problem: the camp itself. To Axe, they weren’t worth saving; no one was. But I couldn’t let her go. It was already bad enough that Ellie had to go through the brainwashing that the Skyline Shift put her through. I couldn’t become her enemy too.
But perhaps I had always been her enemy. Who could blame her for hating me when I had held her captive and trained her for my own selfish desires?
“Wil, I apologize for this, but I can’t provide you with proof,” Merica said, her voice resolute. I sighed. I knew that answer was coming. “The truth is that I could do an in-person examination of her. Try some other methods to see if I could stir up any hidden aspects of her training. But it won’t change the situation. It wouldn’t be definitive proof.” The phone crinkled as she adjusted, then Mercia continued, “You have to trust her.”
My phone beeped; I checked the screen. This time, it was Derek calling. My jaw twitched. What was going on now?
“I gotta go. But thanks,” I huffed. “We might have some other patients for you.”
And by some, I meant at least five. Derek could have been calling to add to that situation.
“Looking forward to it,” Mercia said.
I clicked over to Derek, scratching my chin. “Yeah?” I asked.
“Another one showed up,” he said, out of breath. Just like I had expected. “The bitch nearly killed me.”
That wasn’t good. “You didn’t say our name, did you?” I asked.
“I’m not stupid,” he said. “She attacked me, screaming that she knew I was the Adler who had killed her mother.”
So now they were attacking us based on something else, not just a trigger word. Fuck. Fuck.Fuck.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Knocked her out. Cuffed her,” he said. “Might have to transfer her to the Dahlia District in a cage. I’m not kidding; she was fucking feral. Didn’t act all innocent like the others did.”
