Page 64 of Scar Tissue

“It wasn’t to hide it from you…” I say. “It was to keep it safe until the moment I would need it. I didn’t want anyone else taking it from me.”

He chuckles softly, letting me go completely this time, and I tumble backward onto the couch as I watch him round his desk and turn on his computer. “Needed it? Claire, do you think I’m foolish? There’s nothing on this little stick for you to need, is there? Nothing you could possibly use for yourself. But you already know that, don’t you?”

I force my head down, hiding the flicker of satisfaction I feel at his words. “I-I just?—”

“Don’t lie,” he interrupts. “The only reason you would need it…is to use it againstme.

Admit it, Claire. That’s why you’ve risked everything, walked by the one place you knew I’d be at, in the colors I prefer, playing the part I trained you into.”

“I didn’t use it,” I blurt out, trying to save myself and everyone else I’ve brought into this. I need to keep him on my side or this will all have been for nothing. “I didn’t use it,” I repeat. “I wanted you to know that I could have, but I didn’t. I wanted you to know that even if I could have, Iwouldn’t.Not because I can’t, but because I still care what you think. Because I wanted to choose you, even when I had another option.” It’s weak, but it’s the only avenue I have left. And as seconds turn to minutes between us while he thinks about what I said, my panic begins to rise once more.

“Well, I guess we will see what level of truth you’re speaking soon enough.” And he plugs the USB in.

Chapter

Thirty-Seven

NATHAN

Our entry into his office required less planning than our previous exploit. Mainly because this one was all about timing. Claire had done the hard part for us, drawing him out, letting herself be seen and be caught. All we had to do was be in the right place at the right time. The car ride over had been quiet. Thea sat beside me, fingers drumming against her knee, eyes locked on the streetlights passing by in a blur. Fletcher was driving and Dylan was in the passenger seat. We were able to secure a city taxi as our entry and exit this time by whatever magic Dyer had worked, so we would be much more discreet. Neither of us spoke much, but words would have been useless anyway. Every second was already mapped in our heads, rehearsed hundreds of times over.

“You think she’s okay?” Thea’s voice cuts through the silence, laced with tension.

I glance at her, reading the anxiety in her posture, feeling the distance that has been inadvertently placed between us the last several days. “She’s fine. She knows what she’s doing.” But even I don’t believe myself as I say the words. It’s not that I think she’sincompetent. It’s that I know better than to underestimate men like Harrison Clark. “She’s bait. And he doesn’t know it yet. That’s why this works.”

Her brow furrows. “I just hate leaving her in there, even for a minute.” I know how she feels, because she’s feeling how I did when we were captured and had to listen to her screams through the doorway. It’d been longer than a minute since Harrison had entered his office with Claire, but we’re barely approaching the hour mark now, which means we’re right on time with what we planned.

It’s after closing time at the mayor’s office, but it only takes a brief moment to incapacitate the security guard at the front to gain entry. We monitored this location as one of the possible ones he would take Claire to, and I have to admit, it’s clever. He’s hiding an illicit operation in one of the least likely spots anyone would expect him to do it. “She’s not alone,” I remind Thea as we slip inside. Dylan and Fletcher enter behind us, heading to the security room to disable the rest of the system and any cameras that others might have an eye on. If Harrison is willing to bring Claire here, his men have to know about it, too.

When Dylan and Fletcher re-emerge, we rush to the stairs and head up to the fourth floor. The building itself isn’t large, but by the time we reach the last stretch of hallway, it’s like all life has been sucked out from the air around us. The door to Harrison’s office looms ahead and we can make out the faint sound of electronics humming inside along with conversation. I don’t usually believe in luck, but right now I’m feeling pretty damn lucky that timing has been on our side. If there’s conversation, that means Claire’s alive. “Ready?” I whisper.

Thea, Dylan, and Fletcher all dip their heads once. I count under my breath, three seconds, and then push the door open. But the scene before me is very different from the one I had just imagined in my head seconds ago. Harrison is leaned over his computer, clicking through files, seemingly unaware of our presence even though Claireclocked us the moment we walked in. Thea and Dylan are already beside her while Fletcher and I have our weapons aimed at Harrison. “What…what is this?” Whatever smirk he was wearing just a moment ago vanishes, replaced by confusion, and then thinly veiled panic.

Chapter

Thirty-Eight

CLAIRE

Feeling bolstered with my new family at my side, I let a small smile curl at the edges of my lips. “I just wanted a chance to survive,” I say. This time without any hesitancy or trembling in my voice.

“What have you done?” he screams, voice raw. “What is happening?” His eyes are wide and his jaw is open as he attempts to stop whatever is going on on the computer. I let him rage, let his hands flail over the keyboard, trying so desperately to stop the files transferring. I’ve never seen him like this. Not even in his most violent moments. His entire world, everything he thought was untouchable, is unraveling before his eyes. A bead of sweat runs down his temple and he slams a fist onto his desk. “No! No! This can’t—” His voice breaks, panic slicing through the arrogance he always wore so confidently.

“You made me think I was trapped. But the truth is, I’ve never been yours. Not really.” There’s no haze now as I speak to him.

He stumbles back, as though he is only now registering everyone else in the room with us. “You—no. This isn’t possible. That USB…”

“Is still the USB I stole from you, just upgraded a bit, courtesy ofthe FBI,” I interrupt. “Consider this a gift for welcoming me home one last time. Everything you’ve built, everything you thought you owned…it’s already being taken apart. And every last one of you is going down with it.” I take a step closer, watching him realize he’s been outplayed. “You wanted me obedient, dependent, and scared. But fear isn’t control. Knowledge is. And you taught me exactly how to use it.”

He collapses back against the desk, chest heaving, eyes darting to the USB, but it’s too late. The files have already gone, the trap is complete, and we now have even more evidence of his operations than we did before. And for the first time in years, he’s powerless. “You feel it now, don’t you? That helpless, crawling panic…The way it eats at you when there’s nothing you do can stop it. That’s what it’s been like for me. For all of those other children. For all these years. And now…you know.”

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

THEA

The public has been up in arms since the news started publishing their tabloids and word got out about Harrison Clark’s secret underbelly operation. It’s gotten so bad that people have resorted to rioting and protesting in the streets outside the mayor’s office, demanding that every appointed official in the city be investigated. I can’t really say that I blame them. If I found out that the highest ranking official in my city was a child molesting piece of shit, I wouldn’t exactly trust anyone else who works for him to be on the straight and narrow. The families of the children that were rescued have been at the head of these protests.