Dead Drop (The Guild #2)(50)
He scoffed a laugh. “Sounds like a daytime soap opera.”
“Does that satisfy your jealousy, Marx? Carlos and I are just friends, nothing more. He’s like… family or something. Not that I really know what that feels like.”
“Trust me, it’s not all it’s made out to be,” he murmured. “Thank you for sharing that story with me.” There was an odd tone to his voice, like he was confused about something. Maybe confused that I’d been so willing to open up? It was easier over the phone, though. Without the temptation to put my hands all over him or to pick a fight, I felt closer to him than ever.
“Tell me how you met Layla,” I suggested, rolling onto my side to get comfy with the phone to my ear. I was enjoying this.
He was still driving, based on the background sounds, but otherwise seemed totally at ease chatting with me. “Layla and I met in training,” he told me with a small sigh. “We were sixteen, and I thought I was totally in love with her. She’s the only person I ever confided in, the only person I ever really cared about. If it wasn’t for her, I probably would have been diagnosed with psychopathy.”
There was a distinct loneliness to his voice whenever he spoke about his past, and it wasn’t hard to guess he hadn’t grown up in a loving home.
“She was a lot like you,” he murmured after a beat. “Not… not in appearance or personality, but there’s a similarity in you. Maybe because you both grew up under the Guild’s thumb, you went through the same conditioning bullshit.”
I sat up slightly on the bed. “Layla was an orphan too?”
“Now she would be, I guess.” He was silent for a moment, but I guessed he was thinking over what to tell me, and I didn’t interrupt. “Layla was part of an old Guild experiment called Project Remus. It was when the Guild would—”
“I know what it is,” I cut him off, barely daring to breathe as I sat up straighter. “Layla was an experimental baby? That’s how far back it goes?”
Leon clicked his tongue. “I’m curious how you know about Project Remus, mon cœur, but it’s only fair I answer your questions first. It’s a project that was started about eighty years ago and ended roughly fifteen years ago. And yes, Layla was the product of the Guild playing God. They chose her genetic donors from their extensive catalog of samples and volunteers, then once she was born, her mother got paid to hand her over and never look back.”
Bile twisted in my stomach, thinking of how broken Mo looked when she spoke of her baby being stolen. Also, Leon thought the project had ended fifteen years ago but Mo was targeted ten years ago. Did he not know? Or was the Timothy thing something else entirely?
It made me question, had my own mother been like Mo? Or like the woman who carried Layla?
Why did I even care? It didn’t matter now.
“How did Layla die?” I asked when I was sure my voice wouldn’t crack. “You said it was on a job?”
Leon grunted an angry sound. “It was. But I suspect it was more to do with what she’d been doing in the lead-up to her death.”
Somehow, I got the feeling this was going to provide some missing pieces in my puzzle. “Are you gonna tell me what that was or leave me in suspense?”
“Tempting,” he murmured. “But you told me about Carlos, so fair’s fair. After Project Remus was shut down, the Guild enacted a little bit of a cleanup. Labs destroyed, data wiped, that kind of thing. Before Layla died, she’d been tracking down other Project Remus babies, warning them that there was a target on their backs. Someone was taking it a step further in covering the project up, killing not only the doctors involved, but everyone involved. Whether they knew or not.”
I blew out a long breath. That definitely seemed like the kind of anti-Guild behavior that would get a mercenary killed. For sure. “Do you think that’s why Blanchet wants me dead?”
Leon was quiet a moment, considering my question. “No… Or I don’t think so. For one, Blanchet was never involved in Remus. For another, you weren’t a Remus baby.”
That made my brows rise in surprise. “I wasn’t? But… I grew up in l’abattoir.” It wasn’t the official name of the group home I’d been raised in, but it was a hell of a lot more fitting than its actual name, Bright Starts.
“Lots of kids grew up in Guild-owned homes,” Leon murmured, “but that doesn’t mean they’re all Remus babies. I’ve looked through the original documentation; I would have remembered if you were listed.”
I sank back into the pillows. “Oh. That’s a good thing, I guess.”
“Unless somehow Blanchet caught wind of Remus and decided to just kill anyone he suspected to be linked to it,” Leon pondered aloud. “That could explain the target on your back. It’s something I can look into, but I’d rather find Layla’s data cache.”
“Her what?”
“Apparently, Layla had been compiling evidence and information on Remus. Shit she hadn’t shared with me for whatever reason… and she stashed it somewhere not long before her death.” He sounded annoyed as hell, and I didn’t blame him. He’d thought they were in love, but clearly she hadn’t trusted him. That had to sting.
I drew a slow breath, mulling it over. “Are you sure she’s dead?”