Page 127 of Secret Gifts
“Shalon De La More.”
As soon as I know it’s safe, I slip out of the room and tiptoe down the hallway in my short pajamas. Every time a creak follows my footsteps, I cringe. I finally reach my destination, and I buzz the box on the outside of the door. It almost opens instantly to reveal my masked hero.
“Come on,” the familiar accent urges, and I dive in to see him in a white mask and hooded white sweatshirt.
The mask only covers his eyes and nose, offering me a glimpse of his smooth face and beautiful lips.
“Do you have a thing for matching your shirts and masks?” I muse while casually strutting behind him in the very soundproof suite.
He smirks lightly, and then his eyes cut toward the screens descending from the ceilings. I see the rubble that is now Seminole, and a shiver erupts.
Without thinking, I rush the stranger, and he stumbles backwards as my arms wrap around him in the embrace I hadn’t expected to offer. Very slowly he returns the affection, and his soft lips graze the top of my head.
“Thank you,” I strain out while holding back my tears.
“You’re welcome,” he murmurs gently while pulling back.
His dark jeans fit him too perfectly, and my hybrid stirs slightly. I sigh out for the foolish, lusty feelings I have to avoid, and I join him in the staring mission.
“What'd you find?”
“On the screen or at the underground facility?” he asks while studying the footage.
“Both.”
“Well, I found some videos locked down by an advanced firewall system. I’ve got some special decoding devices running scans on them now to break the password protection. I heard the captain telling you they wanted information about Seminole. I think they wanted the layout more than anything. Public access laws block anyone outside of ranked officials from entering certain parts of the compound. My question is, which part did they want? That’s why I’m looking at this footage, but I can’t find anything. Do you have any guesses?”
I swallow hard against the guilt-ridden knot in my throat. He’s so clever, but he has missed the obvious.
“Me.”
He turns to me, his eyes softening as he finds my guilt streaming out in the form of tears, and he pulls me to his body in a comforting hug that I wasn't expecting, but desperately needed.
“Not you. They knew you weren’t there. I promise this didn’t happen because they were looking for you,” he soothes, and I just cry that much harder while pushing my face into his chest.
“Then they wanted something to do with me,” I sob out. "They had to. This isn't a coincidence."
He sighs while shaking his head against mine.
“We don’t know what they wanted. I need to know everything that was going on in the restricted areas.”
I pull back, my eyes still dripping, and I look away, feeling useless.
“I can’t help you there. I’m just a tracker. I’m not a lead tracker or a high ranked official.”
He frowns slightly before turning back, and then I squeal when a new voice finds its way into the room.
“I have access to such information. What do you need to know?” Simone asks, and my masked hero takes a wary step back while finding her in the room.
“Damn it, Aria,” he whispers.
“I didn’t tell her, I swear.”
“She didn’t have to tell me. I found the phone you gave her when I went to check on her. I read the message. I know you’re the one who pulled us out. I can smell your scent from here just as I smelled it when you drug me into those fields. I’ll tell you anything you want to know if it’ll help us find out what they wanted and who they were.”
He sighs out a little smoother, and then he flips the screen off.
“I need to know what experiments went on in the labs, or if there were any especially gifted hybrids being kept secret. I need to know more than you’ll trust me with. I need to go,” he murmurs while walking over to grab a bag.
