Page 60 of Never Quiet

Nodding, her aunt said, “You’re right. I’ll take care of it.”

“Grandma…”

“I already have a team on her.” She reached up and held the side of Amanda’s neck. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you’re trying to protect me, shelter me, but it’s too late and too much has happened. I have to be part of my own rescue.” Lifting her hand, she placed it over Noel’s. “I know none of this is what you want for me…”

“Morgan will launch you, manage you?” Amanda nodded. “He’ll guard you fiercely and has an incredible reputation in the industry. I wanted you to do what you loved.”

“I like science and I’m good at it. I don’t love it the way I love my family, my friends. If the only thing I’ve lost in ten years is being sequestered in some lab analyzing soil samples, I’ll consider that a win.” She shrugged. “I’ll still be a nerd. That’s never going to change.”

“You can’t go to Washington, Amanda.”

“Noel…”

“I need you to listen to me. Whatever training you need will be done here. Chaz, Dakota, and I will personally train you for six months.”

Amanda frowned. “Why? Explain it to me.”

“There are two reasons. The first is that when you train under Elijah or Hayden, you end up with scars. Look.”

Noel pulled her tank top over her head and stood in her bra. She pointed to patches of skin on her shoulder, her belly, and turned to point out an area on her back.

Putting her top back on, she said, “In comparison to scars from missions, my training scars aren’t too bad…but I have them, Amanda. If you’re serious about taking the modeling route, you can’t afford scars. The three of us can train you without leaving a single permanent mark.” She smiled. “So you go into your career as flawless as you are right now.”

Nodding, Amanda said, “Understood. The other reason?”

Noel stared into her eyes for a long moment. “The person who put the original bounty on you has a massive compound in Washington. An army of mercenaries very different from me, from Rick, protects him. To the last man, they’re sociopaths and psychotics who would gut a baby without one second of hesitation if Winston Winters ordered them to do it.”

Closing her eyes, Amanda took several deep breaths. When she opened them, she asked, “Where does he make the most money? This person with a blackened inner core?”

“His two biggest ways of making money are drugs and people. He buys and sells men, women, and children in twenty-eight countries. They’re taken from everywhere.”

“You know him well.”

“I do. The woman I protected in Africa was the product of this man’s rape of his younger sister. The hired gun instructed to dispose of her did not. He was the last man to disobey a direct order. She’s spent her entire life in one form of isolation or another. I didn’t want that life for you.”

“That won’t be my life.” She hugged Noel tightly and leaned back to say, “I’ll listen to anything you have to say but you have to talk to me, No-No. To see me as a grown woman because I am. Chronologically as well as mentally.”

“I hate that I didn’t kill Jessica. I hate that I can’t stop all this. I hate that your life has been completely sidelined. I feel powerless and I hate that more than anything.”

“We can’t stop them all so we have to make me less marketable.” She winked. “I have some things in mind.” Noel laughed as she let her go. “If I’m going to train here, I need a house and my own team. I refuse to endanger my friends.”

She wanted a place near the Hardings but not with them. Her father and Rick offered to find her something that would work.

Everyone separated to get things done.

Lowering into a chair in the corner, Amanda removed her phone. She had half a dozen messages from Hayden. She explained what had happened and that she now knew what everyone had been hiding from her.

I’m sorry, Amanda. They wanted you to have a regular life and I so hoped it would be possible.

Inhaling deeply, she replied.

Now the plan is changed. Noel and the Hardings are going to train me here. Morgan is going to launch me as his protégé.

Almost instantly, he sent several texts rapidly.

Modeling? You’re going to be a model? Are you okay with this, Amanda? You’re so private, so careful, with how much of your physical self you expose.

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