Deviation (Clone Chronicles #2)
Heather Hildenbrand
Chapter One
A post-modern skyscraper in the epicenter of uptown isn’t the sort of place you suspect houses a torture chamber. And to those very same unsuspecting socialites, scientist-prodigy Titus Rogen doesn’t seem the type capable of an evil so large he could use it to furnish every room of his not-wanting-for-anything penthouse apartment. But both of those things are so true that even something as inarguable as the earth being round pales in comparison. The only difference? The earth’s shape isn’t a lie I’m forced to tell to every single person I’ve met since taking up residence in Rogen Tower.
My name is Raven Rogen.
I’m the closest thing to human Titus Rogen is capable of creating. I’m also the closest thing that passes for his daughter. I imitate both. I am grateful for neither.
In the weeks since being brought from my secret home in Twig City to pose in the glittering spotlight as Raven Rogen, I’ve been beaten, threatened, chased, and betrayed. I’ve been photographed, gossiped about, touched against my will, attacked, and belittled.
I will endure every single one of those if it means one day defeating Titus Rogen.
That is my purpose. It is the thing that keeps me from hurling myself off the roof during personal training sprints. It is the thing that allows me to cope with the tyranny and oppression that comes with living under the same roof as Titus Rogen. It is the thing that keeps the utter hopelessness of my pointless existence and inevitable death at bay.
I will have my freedom. But to achieve that, Titus Rogen can’t be allowed to keep his.
I have no idea how I will do it. I’m up against the most powerful man in the city. And I am, by far, the weakest. No one even knows what I am. That I exist. And so, I watch, and wait. For a chink in the armor that is my prison. A wormhole out of here, into a new life.
Fear is a coating in my mouth as I wait for someone to come for me. I am terrified of death but, more, I am terrified of who will be used to hurt me if I am caught. Lonnie and Ida, my two friends back in Twig City, are safe despite being prisoners in an underground city the world doesn’t know exists. They are fed and clothed and cared for. They know nothing of the dangers of the outside world. I would do anything to keep it that way.
Obadiah Whitcomb is sensitive and vulnerable and adorable and sweet. He is the exact copy of Ida in a male’s body. I still don’t know how or why—but I love him just the same. I would do anything to protect him.
Linc Crawford is the kindest, gentlest, deepest Authentic I have ever met. I am more in love with him than I thought my DNA capable. I would do anything to keep him safe.
And Titus Rogen knows it. If I am found working against him, I have no doubt one or more of these people will suffer in my place. The only thing keeping it from being me is my promise to Titus. If I help him locate his missing Imitations, his products, he will let me live.
But if he finds out I’ve agreed to this only to use it against him. If he finds out I do, in fact, know where his precious products are hiding, he will surely reduce my list of loved ones. I cannot let him find out, but I also can’t do nothing.
Allowing myself to be locked inside a room with Daniel Ryan is not nothing.
I check my reflection in the mirror again. My creased black slacks are a little long but the heels bring the hem up enough to keep me from tripping. My blouse is heavy. I’m already sweating from the nerves, but I don’t dare change to something lighter. Something more suggestive of my skin underneath. It doesn’t take much to encourage Daniel, although that’s exactly what Titus is hoping to do by putting us together. He wants information. He doesn’t much care how he gets it.
I go back to fidgeting with my hair.
Maria, the maid, enters in a whirlwind of frowns and barked instructions. “No, no, outfit wrong,” she says in a slight Spanish accent. She hustles into the closet and back out again. A thin piece of fabric hangs from the hanger in her hand.
“Mr. Titus says you will wear this.” She shoves the dress at me. “And hair down,” she adds.
My heart sinks as I take in the minimal fabric that is just this side of transparent. “Fine,” I mumble, knowing there’s no other choice.
It is three more hours before Titus sends someone to bring me to the cells on the lower floor. Linc’s shift in the surveillance tower has already begun. There is no reason to ask for him to accompany me, anyway. Or none Titus will allow. Our time together has become more and more limited as the weeks have passed. I know if I had something for Titus, some piece of information to give, that would change. I would be rewarded. But I have nothing. A lie is too risky. I am on my own as I follow the silent security guard down the tunneled stairway.
There is no elevator here. The stairwell is the only way in or out. It makes escape next to impossible, I realize as we wind our way downward. It’s not only frustrating, it’s terrifying to be reminded that I am about to come face to face with someone I promised to do this very thing for.
I still have no idea how to fulfill my oath of freedom to Melanie. Our deal was her staged death in exchange for the location of the Imitations she kept hidden. She’d already made good on her end. Four weeks into her captivity and I still had no idea how to make good on mine. Linc either didn’t know how to help or didn’t want to. We’ve had little time alone to talk about it.