Page 31 of Broken Surrender
“But I’m not going to let that happen again.” He cleared his throat. “Being busy isn’t an option anymore.”
We walked to my house in complete silence. Had he been through something like this in the past? He seemed so controlled, but even the most powerful had their weak spots. In my bedroom, he put a wet washcloth on my head, then laid me down in his lap. He combed my hair through his fingers.
“What’s your real name?” he asked.
“You mean you haven’t looked it up already?” I asked, smirking. “I assumed a rich person like you would have known everything about me by now.”
“Why is that?”
“More fuel to use against me.”
A smile flitted across his lips. “You’re right, but I haven’t read the file. I wanted to hear it from you first.”
My heart palpitated, tension surging in my chest. “Milena,” I whispered. “Milena Devin.”
He nodded. “Close enough to Lena, then.”
“Some people called me ‘Lena’ before. Some called me ‘Milly.’” He stopped stroking my hair at the word ‘Milly,’ but then resumed his steady pace, as if nothing had happened. The Marked Blooms Syndicate popped into my mind; I had sworn to never speak about that part of my identity ever again. There were consequences in place if they found out. “But please don’t tell anyone. That’s who I was. I’m Lena Dalton now.”
“Right,” he said, his voice reluctant. “Mrs. Dalton.”
CHAPTER 10
Desmond
The silky strands of her golden-brown hair twisted through my fingers as Lena fell asleep. Her lips quivered, but she was calm, lying in her bed, waiting in my arms. And though I seemed as present and relaxed—inside, I was seeing red. How had this happened when I was this close to my goal? I had an army of men surrounding the Dalton House, which was unacceptable. I was showing too much affection for her.
But Lena needed to feel safe. Making her comfortable was part of the plan.
Once her chest rose and fell with steady breaths, I gently laid her on the pillow and nestled her inside of the comforter. I exited the room quietly, acknowledged one of my guards posted outside the door, then walked down the empty hallway.
Whoever had attacked Lena had been looking for something. And when Lena didn’t have it, they had let her go, for now. I peeked inside of the rooms. A guest room. A media room. Another guest room. An exercise room. An empty, generic nursery. Whatever they were searching for, they thought she or John had it.
It would be easy to have John’s body excavated and examined while the rest of the house was scoured, but that wasn’t necessary yet. I could care less about what this intruder and his bodyguards were after, but Iwascurious about what it had to do with John Dalton’s company, Shin & Co Inc.
But the entire house seemed undisturbed, ready for an interrogation like mine. Had Lena made adjustments?
Then I found the office.
A white bookshelf covered the back wall with decorations every few shelves; a miniature globe, an award enclosed in a shadow box, an oversized microscope slide. I scanned through the book titles, but they were as general as you’d expect. What kinds of things did Dalton keep hidden? What was Shin & Co Inc cooking up this time?
I sat in his leather chair. Another thick award sat on the corner of the desk. I pulled on the drawer’s handles, but they didn’t budge. I lifted the desk mat under his keyboard and found a key. I unlocked the first drawer. A clear vial laid on top, unlabeled and empty. Shin & Co Inc had been into some strange experimental products, so it wasn’t surprising that the latest owner of the company had taken a product home to use. If you were the boss, why not indulge?
But Shin & Co Inc focused on women’s health. Had Dalton brought it home for Lena?
That seemed ludicrous. He might have been a low-life, but Lena was his wife. He couldn’t have used unregulated, experimental products on her.
But then my stomach sank. Based on how Lena described her relationship with Dalton, perhaps hehaddone that to her. But there was no proof. And what happened to Lena wasn’t my concern right then. My focus was figuring out Shin & Co Inc’s plans.
The second drawer was filled with files, most of which were seemingly irrelevant, but I stopped overDevin, Milena.I opened it:Patient exhibits optimal health, an excellent uterus. Prime for child-rearing.Then the next page had a list of medications, each of which I recognized: antidepressants, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, SSRIs, a list of dates next to each. I imagined he had found a new blank prescription pad to fill her with every possible medication to quiet her down. And what choice did she have, when he had given her a new life? When medication was part of his career?
No wonder she had waited so long to fight back. He had drowned her under a sea of silence.
As I slid the file back into the drawer, a silver flash drive caught my eye. Buried underneath the hanging folders. I turned on the computer, sliding the flash drive into the port. Once the drive popped up, I double-clicked the first file, labeled with a series of numbers, ending inTest A.A box popped up:Access Code.I called in one of my guards, a man who was skilled with computers. After a few minutes, the box disappeared, the guard left, and I played the video.
On the screen, a cement-walled laboratory filled the frame, the camera swinging around, until finally, the lens landed on a man in a lab coat.
We will proceed with Test A,the scientist said.For the awakening.
