Page 36 of So Savage

Before she could think of the larger implications of that thought, Turk trotted into the breakroom and nudged her.“What is it, boy?”

He turned and walked away.Faith followed him back into Marcus’s office.He sat in front of the computer and looked up at the screen.

Faith smiled.“Good boy.”

The algorithm had worked.She had a name.Dr.Nathan Hayes.

She sat behind the desk and did a quick background on Mr.Hayes.What she found was promising.

Hayes worked for Lake Pharmaceuticals.The company’s primary business was manufacturing drugs formulated by the larger pharma businesses, but they did have a few proprietary products.

One of those products was a synthetic hormone that caused increase absorption of certain sedatives for use in veterinary settings.

“Well, well, well.What have we here?”

She read further and discovered that Dr.Hayes had once been a U.S.Army veterinarian but had retired after a long failed campaign to reform K9 deployment protocols.He claimed that the current standards were too dangerous for the dogs and were, therefore, unethical.

Pulling on that thread a little further, she looked up the case and read the documents.The specific data was expunged, but the names of the handlers assigned to the dogs Hayes mentioned were left in.Master Sergeant Thomas Reeves, Staff Sergeant Kevin Walsh and Technical Sergeant Maria Delgado.She hadn’t lost a dog in combat, but one of her animals had suffered a career-ending injury in training.

She looked at the time.Nine o’clock.Dr.Hayes should be in the office by now.

“Come on, boy,” she said, standing and grabbing her coat.“Let’s take a little trip.”

She had a bounce in her step as she left the office, but there was an undercurrent of desperation in her expression.This lead was no stronger than the others they’d followed, and those had led to dead ends.

Please let this one pan out, she prayed.Please don’t let anyone else die.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Lillian Martin had lost her virginity after senior prom, like most teenagers in America.Back then, her “extracurricular” activities were limited to a neighbor’s cat and the variety of wild vermin that wandered the forests of West Virginia, so she didn’t feel a need to sequester herself from people the way she did now.

The boy she was going with wasn’t particularly handsome, but that didn’t matter.That wasn’t what this was about, anyway.This was just something that needed to be done.It was a part of growing up.

Still, Lillian remembered the nervous anticipation she felt.She knew Curt was going to try something, and unless he did something really stupid or some unforeseen disaster struck, she was going to let him.So, like many people before their first time, she stressed out terribly over her outfit and makeup, teasing her hair until it was curled just right, tweezing off every bit of hair that wasn’t growing from her scalp and carefully applying her makeup to highlight her eyes and her lips—her best features to this day.

It had worked, although now, fifteen years later, she realized that she could have attended the dance in sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt and gotten laid.It was easy when the guy in question was seventeen and also a virgin.

But she felt the same nervous anticipation today.She was going to see Franklin West in person for the first time.

So she woke at three-thirty in the morning and spent four hours showering, blow drying and styling her hair, applying makeup, ironing her clothes and agonizing over how many buttons to leave open, polishing her shoes, whitening her teeth, looking at her reflection in the mirror and practicing her smile and a whole host of other little anxieties that she had to get through to make the big day.

But now she was here.Now she was going to see him.She couldn’t wait.

It would be a nice reprieve from the extraordinarily frustrating last two months.When she killed Grant Monroe, she expected Faith to immediately pop out of the woodwork and come for her like a hawk after a snake.

Instead, the bitch had vanished.Run off with her tail between her legs like… like… Well, like a bitch.

Of course, she would turn coward now.When it was Lillian chasing her and not Trammell or West.She supposed she should be flattered that Faith feared her so much, but it was just really irritating.She wanted to get Faith for West, wanted him to see her and know that she had avenged him.Not just avenged him but surpassed him, done what he couldn't.She knew he wouldn't be jealous.He would admire her.He would want to possess her, possess the creature that had killed the deepest thorn in his side.

And for Franklin West, Lillian would absolutely be possessed.

But Faith was gone, and Lillian hadn’t been able to find her.Maybe if she had more resources, she could, but there was only so much Google could tell her about someone who wasn’t getting paid to show as much ass as possible while lip-syncing to someone else’s music or to flip around on a green screen while a pimple-faced animator added in monsters that looked like they walked off of a five-year-old’s drawing.It turned out Faith wasn’t nearly as much of a celebrity as Lillian thought she was.

And she couldn’t wait anymore.She needed to see him.She needed him to see her.She and Curt hadn’t lasted, obviously, but she still enjoyed remembering the look in his eyes when they were finally alone and he realized she was going to say yes.She needed to see West look at her the same way.

She could only hope that he’d understand about Faith.After all, he’d tried for years and eventually lost.He’d give her more time?Right?

“All rise for the Honorable Judge Peter Holland.”

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