Chapter Four
Astrid
The feel of his mouth…
Like, how did he know how to do all that? The stuff with his tongue? The flutter thing and the sucking and--
Wham!
“What the hell, dude!” she shouts, stumbling backward from the punch that just landed on her arm. She manages not to fall on her ass in the ring, which would have been embarrassing in front of everyone in the gym. As it is, only a few people glance over from their workouts.
Owen holds up his glove-covered hands. “I’m sorry! Are you okay? I thought you were with me!”
“I was,” she snaps. But no, she wasn’t. She can’t stop thinking about Quinn and his magic tongue from the night before. He promised to make her forget. He did not warn her about seeing stars.
Sweet, merciful...
“Astrid!” Owen’s voice slams into her consciousness again. “Are you okay? Because if you’re still upset, we can take a break today.”
“What?” Man, she needs to get her head together. “Sorry, I’m fine.”
He makes a disbelieving face.
“Seriously. Totally fine.” She shakes it off and looks at her student. Owen isn’t a bad fighter. He’s got the accentuated skills enhanced by the project, but he needs to work on his accuracy and form. She lifts her hands to spar with him again when a figure catches her eye at the front door. “Crap. It’s Jensen. Get out of sight.”
He’s tossed up a false shield, an image concealing him from Jensen’s eyes, before she even gets her gloves off.
Her mentor’s former partner strolls through the gym. He’s older, mid-fifties with graying hair, and fit from his work with the FBI. If her mentor was a father figure, then Jensen was his serious older brother. He and Atticus developed the Elite gym and a program to recruit and train highly skilled men and women for specialized government missions. Astrid took over training the recruits when she turned twenty-one. Soon after, Atticus started letting her out in the field to do her own work—off the record. Jensen knows Astrid, and now Quinn, help protect the city. He doesn’t know about Project 12, the group home, or the other survivors.
She hops out of the ring and he opens his arms, giving her a big hug. Abruptly, he pulls back and looks her over. “Are you okay? I heard you and Quinn were at the fire last night.”
“Yeah, we’re okay. It was pretty intense, though.”
“At no point did we agree you could head into a blaze like that. It’s too dangerous.”
“We saved lives, Jensen. You can’t make me feel bad about that decision.”
“You risked yours. What would Atticus think?” He looks apologetic as soon as he brings up her former mentor. “Astrid, I just want you to be safe.”
“And I just want to do my job. We are being safe.” She sighs, knowing they’re at a standoff, and waves him toward her office at the back of the gym. “Did you stop by to tell me something? Is Rowe causing you problems? Because I told you he was a hot-head and may not be a good fit for the program.”
Rowe was one of the top recruits from the last session. He’s a massive physical threat. Skilled in martial arts, hand-to-hand, as well as with a variety of weapons. But he has an awful attitude and may be a sociopath.
“No, Rowe’s okay. A little rough around the edges, but he’ll be a good fit for a few assignments we’ve got lined up.” She pauses at the office door, fussing with the handle to give Owen time to scram if he came in. One look says the room is clear, and she enters with Jensen following. “Is it wrong for me to just come and check in on you?”
“No,” she says, sitting behind the desk. “But you’re busy and the bags under your eyes tell me you haven’t been sleeping much, so I doubt this is a social call.”
He chuckles. “You’re starting to be a good detective.”
She shrugs.
“Heard anything from our missing guy? Owen Parsons?”
Jensen won’t let this one go.
She shakes her head and lies through her teeth. “No. Should I have?”
“Not particularly. He vanished after the scene at the chemistry lab. I guess he skipped town.”
“Smart. If the Pixie Dust trade is really over, then there was no reason for him to stick around.” She does her best to keep her expression neutral. That becomes even harder when the air behind Jensen ripples and Owen appears for a brief second. Dammit. Sneaky bastard.
“Well, if you think he’s gone, then I’m going to close up that case. No reason to spend manpower on it.”
“What about WIND-E?”
“What about it?” he asks.
“James said the Pixie Dust was her business and that she had a much bigger plan to take down the city. He didn’t even mention this Owen guy. Why are you worried about him?”
“Ballistics came back on Atticus’s shooting. The evidence ties his death with a cold case tied to Owen Parsons’s house—another murder. At the very least, I need to talk to him about it. He could be a suspect or just a witness. This guy had his hands in a lot of pots.”
Jensen’s talking about Owen’s mentor, or his “aunt,” as he thought of her. She was shot dead in their kitchen and evidence led him to believe the Pixie Dust dealers were involved. Quinn and Astrid were convinced the deaths were related—now they have proof. All three of the mentors that took them in after the Project 12 program imploded are dead.
Someone is hunting the survivors, their group, and it’s possible they’re next.
Unfortunately, Jensen doesn’t know about the project or Astrid’s connection to these people. He also doesn’t know that she saw him go into a meeting with one of Demetria’s men, and maybe Demetria herself, after James told them the truth about her plans.
“James was a desperate man. High on drugs and power. You saw how he flipped out at the end.”
He didn’t flip out. Owen mind-tricked him and Jensen killed him, before they could ask any more questions about Demetria and her plans. She’s kept her opinions on this to herself, tied up with confusion. Jensen has always stuck by her side. Atticus trusted him unconditionally, but now their worlds are colliding—Owen and Demetria—and it’s getting harder to pretend.
He’s hiding something, and it cuts Astrid to the bone, but she also understands. She’s got her secrets, too.