Page 118 of Hunted

“You’ve fucked up now, little bird⁠—”

Whatever else Sebastos Varco was going to say, the world would never know—thanks to Beck’s knife now lodged firmly in his thick-ass skull.

I stepped over Seb’s prone body, backtracking at the last second to retrieve Beck’s dagger for no other reason than I wanted it.

Thank fuck the doctor’s office was in the same building as the staff apartments. I figured I had, at most, ten minutes to retrieve what I needed and get where I needed to go.

And it was time to go.

[ 44 ]

BECK

SAXBY TWINS – WE LIT A MATCH

Three minutes into Debrief and I was already eager to cut it short. All I wanted to do today was collect my girl from her psych hold and spend the next several hours doing nothing but watching her, talking with her, holding her.

I was no better than an addict. I’d had one hit, one taste, of Adelaide Sinclair and I was hooked for life.

Which was a very dangerous position to be in for all involved.

“You have thirty seconds to explain to me why you didn’t lodge this report yourself,” Commander Varco growled, nostrils flaring, ready to sniff out a lie.

“Our asset was incapacitated during the mission. The mark wasn’t alone. His friends”—I barely restrained from spitting the venomous word—“took it upon themselves to subdue her.

Her kill method backfired, leaving her paralysed and on the threshold of cardiac arrest. If Rook Lockwood hadn’t performed CPR immediately, Blackwing would have lost another Swallow.”

Varco rocked back in his green leather desk chair. The muscles in his jaw ticked, and my usually easy impassivity was unusually hard to hold onto.

“That still doesn’t explain why you, Raven Beckett, her lead handler, failed to report to my office upon return to campus.”

“Our asset slid in and out of consciousness the entire night, and I didn’t want to report on her status before determining what, exactly, it was, Sir. By the time we knew she was stable, a report had already been filed by parties unknown, and we had received the debrief notification.”

Varco’s jaw shifted as he chewed on his ire. Or maybe his secrets.

Who the fuck had access to our field data, essentially in real time?

“Why didn’t you take her to the medlab?”

Fuck. We really should have, if only to cover our asses. But none of us were thinking straight after hearing the things they were doing to her… after seeing her in that state… after watching her die.

Because she did die. Her heart stopped right in front of me. And if Van hadn’t had the presence of mind—if his logic and reasoning went out the window like mine did—to restart it, then I may as well have cut my own out right then and there.

“There was no need to, Sir,” Van cut in. “I’m medically trained, as you’re well aware.” He gestured vaguely to Varco’s left shoulder where Van himself had patched up a bullet wound from a mission gone awry. “I had all the necessary supplies in our apartment. Plus, the asset recently underwent surgery,” he said, pointedly emphasising the recently, casting no doubt as to his professional opinion on the swiftness of Addie’s entrance into the field. “Studies have shown that when patients return to places they suffered significant trauma, there are equally significant adverse effects on their mental state.”

Varco’s eyes narrowed further.

“We wanted to prevent any additional psychological damage after her first Swallow mission didn’t go to plan.”

He didn’t believe Van for one second, but how could he refute him without hard evidence?

“What I’m hearing is that you collectively disregarded protocol in favour of vigilante bullshit,” Varco barked, the tether on his restraint effectively snapped. He picked up the phone on his desk from its cradle and dialled a single digit. “Mars. Get me Calper. Stat.”

He slammed it down and leaned back in his seat again, eyeing us like he wasn’t sure if he was about to lash out—or we were. Either way, we’d landed ourselves in hot shit already.

A few minutes later, three dainty raps on the door signalled the arrival of Dr. Scalper—the moniker earned from the way she routinely flayed minds open in her drive to find out what lay at their core. I hoped Addie had the fortitude to withstand her in session one.

“Get in here,” Varco ordered, and the pug-faced doctor entered the room.