Page 101 of Ordinary Secrets

I still don’t like the sound of that. “Did the tests on the other Immunes come up with anything?”

“No, and we couldn’t find any matches in their DNA either. That’s why we need her here to perform more tests.”

“What kinds of tests?”

“Nothin’ too fancy. Physical, mental, intellectual.”

Ireallydon’t like the sound of that. “You can’t just send those tests to me, and I can do them with her myself?”

Victor clears his throat impatiently. “We have an entire team of people here to perform the tests and to monitor her health during the process because we need to be extremely careful with this one. We can’t lose her too.”

I stop pacing. “What?”

“The other two couldn’t handle the pressure of the physical tests. Sadly, we lost them.”

What?I was already having trouble breathing during this conversation. Now I’m suffocating. The other two Immunes aredead? And it’s ZIRDA’s fault? Since when do we ever put Ordinaries in danger? ZIRDA has a history of taking measures to the extreme for a greater cause, but killing innocent Ordinaries?

“It didn’t happen on purpose,” Victor says defensively. “How are we supposed to know how much they can handle until they can’t handle any more? Besides, losing two Ordinaries to save the other billions of people will be worth it. Once we’ve got the upper hand over the Royals...”

The man keeps going, but I stop listening. I don’t care what he’s got to say, because nothing—I repeat,nothing—justifies killing innocent people. The anti-Royals department was created to helpsaveOrdinaries, not hurt them. I thought that’s whyVictor came up with this grand plan for our agents to date the Immunes to learn about them without causing any harm. Now he’s performing deadly tests on them?Is he fucking serious?

Victor refuses to let me off the phone until I agree to have Arella at Shadow Ridge within a week. I agree without any intention of ever doing so. If there’s a chance that Victor’s brutal tests will harm my sweet girl, fuck that. I don’t care if the results from those tests are the key to taking down the Royals. I cannot and will not allow anyone to hurt my girl.

That’s when it hits me.

It’s over.

My mission is over.

If finding out what makes Arella immune puts her life at risk, I’d rather never know at all. Keeping Arella safe is more important to me than defeating the Royals. Yes, I still want to see them gone, but that’s somebody else’s job now. As for me, I’m shifting my focus from understanding Arella’s immunity to protecting it.

31

TREY

The next morning,Arella and I arrive backstage at the Soul House fifteen minutes late. It took her a while to orgasm, and I refused to let her leave my bed until she did.

The entire band and our manager are all crowded around the sectional. I sense the heartwarming energy before I hear the synchronizedaws. Once my eyes land on the photographer from our photo shoot at the park, I get a good feeling that I know what everyone’s looking at.

“This one’s my favorite!” Emmy says, handing a 4x6 print to Arella.

I glance over my girl’s shoulder at the breathtaking photo. There I am, holding the most precious woman in the world, kissing her cheek. I get lost in Arella’s sweet smile as I recall all the fuzzy feelings I got during that shoot.

Emmy had convinced Arella and me to take couples photos after she and Marcus did theirs. I’m amazed by how good the pictures turned out.Do Arella and I always look that happy together?

“I like this one the most,” Liz says, handing Arella another 4x6 print.

I agree. It was one of our last shots, where Arella and I had our faces in each other’s hands, looking deep into the other’s eyes. The photo looks like it belongs on the cover of a sappy romance novel. With anyone else, I might have gagged and made jokes. Because it’s Arella, I can’t stop staring. The knot in my chest tightens. Any day now, I could lose all this.

When did things get so fucking complicated?This mission was supposed to be simple: Find out what makes this Ordinary immune, duplicate it, and move on. I knew I was gonna fuck this up. I just didn’t think it’d be because I fell for my assignment.

“Could I get a copy of this picture?” I ask the photographer, pointing to the photo in Arella’s hands.

“Sure,” she says. “You can take that one, or I have a wallet size here.”

I accept the wallet size. “Thank you.”

“Could I get a wallet size too?” Arella asks.

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