Page 117 of Soul Sucker

“Because I’m not feeling entirely rational.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m drunk, and I’m missing you.”

“Why are you drunk?”

“Why do you think?”

“Because I agreed to Spencer’s plan?” She realized she was scowling at the phone. “You’ve given up on me, then?”

“Ella…” He sounded weary and she felt unaccustomed tears crowd her throat. “Isn’t that what you wanted? Me to back off and let you make your own decisions?”

“You know, you’re right. I shouldn’t have bothered you.” She tried to sound brisk and professional. “I’ll certainly bring this up at the meeting in the morning and see what everyone else thinks. Night, Morosov, sweet dreams.”

“Ella, fuck this. Don’t?—”

She turned her phone off and took it out into the kitchen to hide in her backpack. He was right. She couldn’t jerk him around like that. She’d told him to back off, and he’d done exactly what she’d asked him. Okay, she now thought she might have made a mistake, but she couldn’t tell him that. If she survived the Siren, there would be plenty of time to put things right between them.

Plenty of time.

If she survived.

And if Vadim stayed around to find out she’d had a change of heart.

19

“I gotthis through internal mail yesterday.” Ella waved the photograph to get everyone’s attention. “Does anyone know anything about it?”

“What is it?” Feehan asked, after a nervous glance at Drew Spencer who had decided to “sit in” on the morning meeting.

“It’s a picture of my incoming class at college.”

“So what?” Alexei said. He seemed even sulkier than Vadim, which was quite a feat seeing as her erstwhile mate hadn’t said a word to her yet and had closed down his shields so she had no clue as to his feelings.

“It shows fourteen of us.”

Liz sat up. “But only ten of you graduated, correct?”

“It made me wonder what happened to the others.”

She looked around the attentive faces. “Did we ever get that information from Perry at the college, Liz?”

“I thought we did.” Liz turned to Sam. “Didn’t I give it to you?”

“Oh shit.” Sam’s face turned red and he opened his file and began rummaging through it. “I have it here somewhere. I forgot to pass it on to Ella and the rest of you guys.”

Ella held out her hand. “Can I see it now?”

Sam found the letter and passed it across. “I’m sorry, Ella. I suck.”

“It’s okay. It might be nothing.”

Drew Spencer cleared his throat. “Ms. Walsh, if we’re going to trap the Siren anyway, is this really necessary?”

Ella met his irritated gaze. “Before I offer myself up as the ultimate sacrifice, I believe we should investigate every available avenue, don’t you?”

His eyes narrowed. “Why? Don’t you think the entire resources of the SBLE can keep you safe?”

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