Chapter Four
It was the usual tonight, just Rollo alone with his thoughts, scrubbing off the scuff marks on the floor and emptying out trash so more assholes could make more scuff marks and trash the next day. The job never ended, which he supposed was a good thing if you were looking for job security.
In Rollo’s case, it’d at least provided him a way to infiltrate the federal building and a chance to be alone to carry out his mission.
He supposed he wasn't totally alone. There was the night guard Nick, but he'd never really clicked with Nick in the same way he had with James. Something about the guy just rubbed him the wrong way, and so he didn’t make a point of chatting with him.
Rollo snorted to himself as he pushed the scrubber down the hall. It was funny to think that he might like one human over another, especially considering he'd never been a fan of humans to begin with. After all, they had been the ones to create his people and try to use them as nothing more than slaves and test subjects. But the truth was staring him in the face, especially now that he lived among them: not all of the humans were the same.
There were people like James and his wife, and a few of his other coworkers who made him realize they were all just trying to get by, just like the hybrids. Not everyone was a powerful asshole like Woods or an insane Horatius Group scientist. A lot of them just got up each morning and went to work, hoping they could go home without anything shitty happening to them.
Rollo’s mind wandered to Titus and the rest of his people. If Woods got his way, the hybrids would be prisoners again. All the fancy speeches about protecting them wouldn’t mean shit. The US government, Russian government, or the Horatius Group would treat them like property. They’d suffer and die.
His hands tightened around the handles of the scrubber so much the plastic creaked. He loosened his grip. It wasn’t like he was surprised at the turn of events. He’d expected it.
Hell, it been something that he and Titus had talked about before he left, including the fact that some day they might need to find a safer space. If the bill went through, then they’d need not just a safe place, but a hidden place.
The reach of Woods was far and could prove to be far more difficult to escape than they hoped. Whether he was a pawn or an eager conspirator, he obviously had some connection to the Horatius Group. Rollo grunted at the thought.
One bright spot fought off the dark thoughts. Rollo’s own recent endeavor had proved one important thing. If need be, the hybrids could hide in plain sight. It might be difficult, but it might be the only solution they were left with in the end.
Rollo checked his watch. Ten minutes.
He had the time this carefully. There was only one shot every three days when the night tapes had to be changed over. It took exactly five minutes for the tapes to be rewound and placed on the shelf, then another five minutes for a recycled tape to be placed in the machine.
He could only be thankful for the fact that the government and all its red tape had prevented any sort of advancement in that process. If they’d only applied a little bit more advanced technology, then he would not have had any chance at all.
His watch beeped, and he quickly raced over to the door at the end of the hall. His target had a first-floor office because he was a lazy and arrogant douchebag who didn’t want to be inconvenienced. That made things easier.
Rollo briefly stared at the sign on the door: SENATOR WOODS. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
Each time he came in, Rollo moved his attention to a new quadrant of the room. When he'd first come in nearly a month ago, he placed the bug in the room, but nothing of interest ever came from it. Whatever the sneaky bastard was doing, he wasn't doing it in his office. Rollo could only hope that his arrogance would result in him leaving some small paper trail that the hybrid could trace back to the corrupt people backing Woods.
Rollo shuffled through the papers in the filing cabinet against the wall. Another potential victory because of arrogance and stubbornness. That was the problem with people sitting in congress for decades. All these senators and all the technology in the world, yet many like Woods still chose to do everything by paper. It was just another sign of their age.
The snooping hybrid paused as he came across another proposal from a lobbyist group arguing for loosening of some import and export restrictions on a list of various products. The list of products was all over the place, everything from fruits and vegetables to high technology. Maybe he just didn’t understand trade enough, but he didn’t understand the relationship between all the products mentioned.
This was the fourth proposal like this that he'd seen. All of them with the same focus. He knew it had to be something important but was not really certain where it all led. He slid the paper back into the filing cabinet and continued to leaf through.
A quiet tap, tap, tap reached his ears. The soft sound was just barely audible above the noise of the scrubber outside the door.
Rollo pulled the gun out from the back waistband of his pants. This was exactly why he brought the damn thing. Not that he wanted to shoot someone, but he would do what needed to be done to keep his people safe.
He glanced around the room searching for some other way out. It wasn’t like he could hide his huge frame in an office. The only option was to go out the window, but the minute he opened one, the alarm would blare.
There was no choice. He would have to face whoever was in the hall.
The door handle turned, and he held the gun at the ready. If he could get the drop on them, he could disarm them and tie them up without killing them. No one had to die that day.
The door opened, and his jaw dropped. He lowered his gun. "Jill?"
Jill stared at the Rollo, the memory of him from the fire again returning to the forefront of her thoughts.
She took a shaky step forward. Her legs still burned from her time cramped over the small toilet. Next time she decided to hide in a building for hours, she’d need to think of a better solution.
"Well, hello… Dave,” Jill said with a grin, peering at his nametag. "Seriously, Dave? That’s the name you went with? Anyway, fancy meeting a hybrid in the senator’s office after hours."
Rollo growled slightly and stormed forward. Her heart kicked up. For a moment, she wondered if she'd made a horrible mistake. Maybe he'd gone rogue and was planning on taking her out, along with anyone else who got in the way of his plan.
Instead, the hybrid brushed past her and shut the door to the office. He whirled around and narrowed his eyes on her.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing here?" Rollo said.
Her heart hammered in her chest. She tried to tell herself it was from fear, but deep down she knew the whole thing excited her. Not just sneaking around a federal building but being so close to a hybrid like Rollo.
Still, she couldn’t let the muscle-bound beefcake in front of her know that. As soon as a man knew you were into him, you lost any leverage you might have.
Jill crossed her arms over her chest, anything to help put on a front.
"I think I should be asking you the same thing," she said.
He shook his head and pointed to the door. "You need to leave," he said. "You told Titus you are on our side. If you want to be on our side, then you need to get the hell out of here immediately.”
Anger shot through her. She had done nothing but work to help the hybrids, and now she was being told to leave when she was doing her job? Oh, hell no.
Jill stepped closer to the hybrid until there was just an inch between the two of them. He stared down at her, his face harsh with irritation.
"In case you didn't know," she said sharply, her eyes narrowed. "Snooping is kind of my job. So maybe you should drop the act, and we can help each other out. Considering whose office you’re in, and what Senator Assmunch is trying to push, it’s obvious there’s a story here that I can use to help your people once I get to the bottom of it.”
Something flickered behind Rollo’s eyes, a soft sort of haloed glow just behind his brown eyes.
Not eyes, contacts. Jill had to remind herself that his eyes should be amber. He was wearing contacts to disguise their color, just like they had done in the beginning, before their secret was revealed.
"I don't work with people I can't trust," Rollo said firmly.
Jill frowned. This guy might be a ten on the hotness scale, but he was a major asshole. Why did the good-looking ones always have to have such an ego?
She jabbed a finger into his chest. "Now listen here, dickhead—"
Jill stopped talking as a large finger pressed against her lips. She watched as the hybrid tilted his head, intensely listening to something.
"Fuck," Rollo grumbled. "Someone's coming."
She glanced back at the door. There was no way they would be able to leave without being seen.
Jill turned around and was surprised to find the hybrid had raised his gun again and was watching the door.
This wasn't the way to handle things. Reverend John might have had it coming, but not necessarily some poor guard wandering the federal building. There had to be something better they could do.
Jill grinned as inspiration struck. She mussed up her hair and unbuttoned the first four buttons on her blouse. She then hiked up her pencil skirt.
When she glanced up, she found Rollo staring at her in confusion.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
"Just follow my lead," Jill whispered.
Not allowing Rollo the opportunity to back away, she reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him down for a searing kiss.