Page 62 of You Only Love Twice
"Who's lying now?" Gemma whispered, as if she saw it all in his eyes.
"I assume that would be you," he grated out between his teeth as he stepped way from her, hastily buttoning himself back up. "It's always been you."
Her knowing eyes locked on him, as if she could see right through him.
And suddenly he couldn't stay here in the room with her. Obsidian strode toward the door, slamming it shut behind him.
Then he collapsed against the wood, his hands shaking and his stomach twisting with nausea, a sign he'd pushed the conditioning too far.
Who's lying now?
Indeed.
Obsidian lowered his hands away from his face, knowing he was about to collapse. Somehow he pushed away from the door—heading anywhere, as long as it was away from her—his heart thundering in his chest.
There would be no coming back from this.
Chapter 14
After several long, fruitless days, the tracking beacon finally ignited just as Ingrid and Byrnes crossed into Clerkenwell territory one evening.
Ingrid gasped as she felt the device pulse inside the pocket of her coat. "Byrnes!"
Her husband peered over her shoulder as she tugged the device free, watching the arrow spinning madly, round and round.
Malloryn had insisted all of them be implanted with a tracking beacon when they first started working for COR. The second Gemma went missing, he'd sent the pair of them out into the streets searching for her.
The tracking device had a limit of half a mile upon it, which meant they had to be close. Gemma was nearby.
Hopefully alive.
"Got her," he said.
Ingrid met her husband's eyes. "We need to fetch Malloryn. Now."
Because she'd seen the signs of a struggle in the museum and knew someone had taken Gemma by force. Instinct propelled her forward, driving her to wade into battle immediately, but Ingrid fought it down. They had no idea what—or who—they were facing.
"I'll run and fetch the others," Byrnes said, pointing to the tracking device. "Wait here for me."
The wild roused within her, prepared to go to war.
But Ingrid stifled the sensation. "Aye, aye, captain. But if you don't hurry, I'm going in."
* * *
Gemma wasnothing if not practical.
After a restless afternoon spent tossing on the bed—the one she lay alone within—she used the basin of warm water Obsidian brought her to remove the scent of sex from her skin. It had been delivered to the door with a swift knock, but there'd been no sign of the actual man himself when she opened it. He'd remembered her earlier request for scented soap—God knew where he'd found it—and by the time she dragged the itchy woolen blankets around her nude body, she smelled like a lavender farm.
"I want to erase you from my life."The words had cut her deep, though she should not have felt them at all.
"I have no memories of you, Gemma, because I asked them to remove them...."A knife to the chest.
"I wanted to forget you."
Only fragments remained of her heart. Utter fragments.
He saved your life yesterday,she countered.And presumably twice more.
