Chapter 38

 

RENEE’S PRESENCE HAD shaken me. I was trying not to let it show as I took a seat on the side of Jäger’s desk. Unlike when she had talked to me, when she had been so strange and awkward. I’d felt her watching me. I’d felt her and Nan. When I’d met her eyes, I’d seen warmth. I’d seen every ounce of care, of love, and concern shine from her.

You can do this. I believe you can.

I was sure she as good as whispered it in my ear. Was it my imagination or was she trying to show me something? I sighed. I needed my burdens back. I needed to be me. I needed to figure out how I could bug Jäger’s office and not get caught.

“Your group is making people talk.” Jäger strolled around to his side and slunk into a large leather desk chair. His computer sat to the side but he didn’t look like the academic sort.

“What people?” I tried keeping my voice level but I was rattled. My whole brain seemed content to try and figure out Renee.

“Buyers.” He smiled that leery smile of his. “I don’t think most gave them a chance.”

“If Owens had her way, they wouldn’t.” Bitter, angry, and fed up, I couldn’t forget the flash of the Rolex, of her wine glass on the table in Renee’s place.

“She’s a stickler for standards, very true.” He pulled a decanter from in front of him, filled up a whiskey glass, and offered it to me.

I shook my head. No way was I drinking paint stripper. “She’ll get a stick shoved somewhere if she even thinks about touching my group.” I flashed him a charming smile. “If I put work in, it pays off or someone gets hurt.”

My mood certainly worked with the cover. I might have believed myself.

“She told me you threatened her,” Jäger said with pride in his eyes.

Oh great, it was an endearing trait. “Good. Did it work?”

He sipped on his whiskey. He didn’t take ice like Frei, I wondered why. “Suitably scared. I told her it was wise to listen to you.”

The irony that I had more backup from him than Renee jarred me. Then Renee’s words filtered in and seemed to launch the anger out of the park. Did she believe in me, really?

Jäger was watching me. I knew I needed to account for the frown making my forehead ache. “Not swayed by the professor’s good looks?”

He laughed but it didn’t sound genuine, it sounded, and felt . . . off. “If there’s one thing I avoid, it’s a woman who has her brain wired the wrong way.”

My forehead ached more as I tried figuring out his meaning. “Wrong way?”

He waved it off. “Don’t you worry yourself about it. You’re not one of them.”

It sounded good natured but the hairs on my arms prickled. I could feel how dominant he thought he was. His eyes held an unyielding glint. He was enjoying the challenge . . . of what I wasn’t sure but I wanted to climb through the window.

I flicked my gaze around his office, not knowing how to respond. It was huge and dark. Deep dark wood, dark muddy-colored walls, and a large rug of some kind under the desk and chairs over the tiles. Oh, and dim lights. You’d think that he could have afforded better lighting. He either was making a statement about all the white walls in the academy or he liked scaring visitors with his decor. His words had felt like a question or an accusation but I couldn’t figure out what that meant.

“You good at martial arts, huh?” I nodded to a trophy of some kind in a glass box. Jäger strolled over to it and ran his hands over the glass, his back to me.

“My first,” he purred to it. Guess he had a thing for brass.

I fumbled the device out of my pocket and slid it under the desk. I had to hold it to make it stick.

“Competition?” I leaned onto my knee with the other hand as if I was intrigued.

“Something like that.” He laughed.

I let the device go. It dropped away and I just managed to catch it. What was wrong with the stupid thing? “Tell me about it. It sounds important to you.”

Jäger glanced at me as I clamped my fist shut to hide the device. “You don’t want to hear my war stories.”

“You’re a lot more interesting than Owens.”

His eyes flickered with amusement and he turned back to the trophy. “I was a boy. My father sent me over there despite the fact I was too young . . .”

I felt the device heating up and opened my hand. It was the alarm one, not the one I needed to plant. I bit my lip as it tried searing my fingers off and dropped it on the floor. I shoved my foot over it but my fingers were red raw. There went any chance of Frei riding to my rescue.

“It took years of course . . . years of their brutal training . . .” Jäger continued to babble on. I fished in my pocket, with my good hand, for the right device, hoping it wasn’t going to scorch my skin.

I fumbled with it and it dropped and slid under the desk. I wanted to cry. “Did you hear that?”

Jäger turned, pausing mid flow to frown at me. “What?”

“In the hall. Sounded like somebody smashing glass.” I turned as if I could hear something.

“There is?” He pulled his radio off his belt, demanding answers as he strode over to the door. “Wait there,” he shot my way. It didn’t sound much like a request, and he disappeared outside. 

I dove under the desk, grabbed the device, shoved it up against the underside, and scrambled to stick the melted one back in my pocket.

Click.

I breathed out a breath, let the device go, and tried extracting myself from underneath the desk, smacking my head on the way out.

I closed my eyes. I needed help. I had no escape. Who was going to get me out of the office now? “Nan, I know you’re mad at me but I really need your help.”

“Shorty?”

I turned. I’d never been happier to hear Nan than I was right then. “Thank God.”

“You got yourself in a pickle?”

I nodded. “I’m trying to do the right thing. I am trying to help the students get out but I’m stuck. It’s all messed up.”

I felt a breeze tickle me as Nan breezed over to my side. I’d missed her being around. “Shorty, he ain’t the kind of guy you should fool around with.”

“You think?” She was more distant than usual, her presence was fading fast. “What do I do?”

“You got the tools already, use ’em.” She faded further. “You’re doing great. Your grandpa says hi.”

She vanished.

I glared into thin air. What kinda help was that?

“Tools?” Frei always talked about tools.

“You have great hearing.” Jäger strode back in, shutting the door, locking it, and heading back to his chair. “One of your group, the boy with balance issues, seems to have put his foot through a glass panel.”

“Ian?” I tensed. He was always falling into things. “Is he alright?”

Jäger raised an eyebrow. “You sound like you care.”

“I do.” I fixed him with a glare. “He is worth money to me.”

His eyes twinkled. “The panel is broken but he’s fine. It’s safety glass. It costs.”

I waved that off, thankful that Ian was okay.

“As I said, impeccable hearing . . . he was in the boys’ dorm.” Jäger was looking to me for an explanation.

“I didn’t hear that.” I hadn’t heard anything, I’d made it up. Only, now I wasn’t sure if I had. “Sure there was nothin’ nearby?”

Jäger shook his head. “Nervous about something?”

I didn’t like that tone. It sent every hair on the back of my neck into a frenzy. Tools. What tools? Did he know I’d planted the device?

“Why would I be?” I smiled. “I was enjoying hearing about the tournament.” I stood up. “I should go check on Ian. Figure out how I can make him worth more than the panel.”

Jäger moved around the desk and blocked my path to the door. “Why waste your time on slaves?”

“They make money.” I went to move around but he blocked me again.

“But you haven’t heard my proposition yet.” Some women would find his charming smile disarming but all it did was remind me of Sam.

“So shoot.” I looked at him like my mind was on Ian. Like money was my focus, like my hands weren’t soaked through with panic.

“A woman like you deserves a lot more than what a slave can buy you.” He took my hand. Instead of feeling comforted, a creeping sense of unease prickled up and down my arms.

Turn the conversation so the one negotiating thinks there is only one option.

“They can buy me plenty.” I squeezed his hand, trying to tug it free. “I just gotta assess the damage.”

“He’s nothing. Forget him.” I got a warning ripple from him so acute I shuddered with it.

“He’s worth something.” I meant that in every sense. “I don’t want to lose none of them.”

“You work too hard. Why not relax, let Harrison deal with it.” His eyes trailed over my face and his smile made me think of sharks once more.

Tools. Think. Only one option. Anything. Speak. “Wires crossed.”

I didn’t know what my mouth was saying again but I was going with it.

Jäger narrowed his eyes. “What?”

Hope ignited. Wires crossed. He said that about Owens. What wires? She was a bit neurotic sure, clingy, in fact she reminded me of a few of the girls in Serenity.

My heart pounded.

That was it.

He thought she was crazy. It had to be. 

“I was in a mental institution over a decade. What did you expect?”

“So you had no choice. It’s not the same thing.” He moved toward me. “It happens. They make you think that way.”

He was kinda right there. Even the sanest people lost a few screws in those places. The staff proved that, they’d been crazier than us inmates.

“Professor Worthington confirmed it for me.” Renee had. I was institutionalized.

“Worthington?” He folded his arms. “She’s better than that.”

She said she’d taken classes in college. Renee could pull that cover off.

“You seen her, she finds any excuse to talk to me.” I shrugged. “She can’t help herself. I’m fascinating.”

All psychiatrists were alike in my eyes. I was speaking the truth. They’d stick folks in specimen bottles if they could.

“You keep finding her too.” Jäger studied me.

“I like the attention, what can I say?” She was crazy, I was crazy. I didn’t like to add that I was fast coming to the conclusion that it might be a female thing.

“Explains why you’re so . . . unavailable.” He pulled his hand free. 

“That’s what she said.” And it hurt. Did I have it written across my forehead?

He folded his arms. “Will you keep your distance from her?” He fixed me with his searching gaze. “Can you?”

Renee? Not really, not even if I’d wanted to. We had to work together. Why that was a problem, I didn’t understand. Maybe he was mad that I needed help.

“I like her attention. She’s fun to tease.” I let a cocky grin through because there was no way I could avoid Renee. 

“I need to think about it.” He motioned to the doorway. “Leave.”

I didn’t need asking twice, I stumbled around him to the doorway and yanked at the handle. He’d locked it. I took a long breath and turned the lock with a trembling hand.

“There’s nothing I enjoy doing more than extracting the truth if I feel there’s a need.” His threat rippled through me and twisted my gut into a knot.

I stumbled out, shut the door behind me, and stared up at the ceiling. My heart clattered in my chest, my knees were wobbling—my whole body was wobbling.

There was something real off about that guy. Real wrong. I did my best to be controlled as I walked past Harrison’s office and out into the increasing wind.

I’d done it.

I’d planted the device and got out.

Task accomplished . . . somehow.