Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(78)
Her sister didn’t answer, but the next question hung in the air between them. This one, too, was a familiar one. But for how long?
“And we’re less than an hour out of Seattle, so if there’s any dire emergency, we could both drive in for the day, if you feel up to it—probably with an escort. But overall, I’ve realized I need to restructure the way I’ve been managing the company anyway. I’ll adjust my work schedule accordingly so we can stay here as long as you need.”
Maylin paused. Considering. “An-mei. You mean everything to me. Whatever the next steps are, I’ll adjust to what you need. Don’t worry about the catering company.”
An-mei reached out to her then, her fingertips touching the back of Maylin’s hand in a brief moment of contact. “I don’t want you to give up the catering company.”
“I would, if you needed me.” Maylin was absolutely sincere on this point.
“And that’s all I needed to hear. It means a lot.” An-mei smiled. “ But I don’t want you to actually do it. There’s a lot of next steps after this and it’d be more than enough if you were there with me.”
Maylin smiled in return. “I will be. Huān yíng huí jiā. Welcome home, mèi mèi.”
An-mei laughed, finally sounding more like the little sister Maylin knew. “So I think there’s a robe on the wall over there. If you can grab it, we can make a break for it, and you can tell me how you met that incredibly hot man and what’s going on between the two of you while we find ourselves some food.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“How’s the family reunion going?” Harte leaned against the far wall of the hallway, out of range but near enough by for his presence to be a sort of brotherly comfort to Gabe. Hard to explain, but there it was.
Gabe had retreated to the hallway to give the sisters space. Left alone, Gabe had to admit he’d probably be slamming his fists into the wall until something broke. Didn’t matter if it was the wall or his knuckles.
Truth be told, the walls had survived a lot of Centurions so it’d probably be his knuckles.
“Fine. More than fine.” Seeing the damage in An-mei’s eyes, knowing from experience what that meant and how much therapy the girl would probably need before she could sleep through a night or take a bite of food without wondering if it was drugged, had been the final straw to ignite his temper in a slow-burning rage. It’d already been prepped and ready when he’d gotten a good look at the lump on Maylin’s head after her encounter with Jewel.
“Those two have each other back. It’s just going to take a metric shit-ton of time for them to recover. No thanks to Jewel and Edict and f*cking Phoenix Biotech.” Gabe finished on a growl and clamped his mouth shut, grinding his teeth.
“From what Maylin told us and what she will undoubtedly repeat to you, Jewel could have done a lot worse. I’m thinking there’s more going on there.”
Gabe spit out a low curse, careful to keep his voice down. Just in case Maylin woke up. Or her sister, who was in the hospital bed next to her. “I’ve got no f*cks to give about Jewel’s reasons for stabbing us in the back.”
“Or shooting you in the back, as the case may be.”
Gabe waved a hand, dismissing the interjection. “She made her choice and joined Edict. Not a whole lot in the world to excuse it.”
Harte stepped away from the wall. “See. She knows that. I’m thinking she might’ve even been okay with never telling us her reasons, either. But things are changing pretty rapidly and what we saw at that location was a lot more than one little biotech company could’ve funded on its own.”
Now might not be the best time to be thinking of a bigger picture. But it was Harte’s job and Gabe might be damned for slowing down, but part of what he did best was finding the puzzle pieces for Harte to put together. So he let himself pace, but his mind tracked back to the things he’d seen. Things the cameras might not’ve caught.
“Their training was standard, not the higher level we’re used to seeing from Edict or similar teams. The contingent guarding that facility was complacent and used to being there.”
Harte nodded. “They had an evacuation plan, but they moved a lot of equipment before they decommissioned the facility.”
“If you want to call blowing the place up decommissioning.” Gabe snorted. “It might’ve been Jewel’s work, though. The explosions were controlled, kept perimeter damage to a minimum.”
“Based on satellite surveillance, it looked like they got all of the personnel out along with the equipment.” Harte began his own pacing, on a path perpendicular to Gabe’s. “But we were more concerned with keeping eyes on your escape route to be sure you didn’t have any unwelcome pursuit, so we lost them when their paths split up and scattered. Even if they’re still in the state currently, they won’t be for too long.”
Course not. If it’d been Gabe, he’d have scattered his resources and sent them out by various modes of transportation too. Whoever had governance over that site had plans in place and those people were following them.
“So there’s a sponsor behind this Phoenix Biotech.” Gabe didn’t like it, and the words tasted bitter in his mouth. “Somebody into projects like the genetics they were trying to make An-mei research.”