Smoke & Mirrors

  death that were frightening, especially if Dylan was telling the truth, which Sloane was having a hard time not believing.

  “Good. I—” Dex held up a finger and tapped his earpiece. “Daley. Okay. We’ll be right down.”

  “What is it?”

  Dex stood. “That was Sparks. It’s time.”

  Chapter 7

  “ARE YOU sure you want to do this?” Sloane asked softly.

  Dex squeezed Sloane’s hand, taking comfort in his quiet strength and the warmth of his body as he stood beside Dex. Meeting with Shultzon might be a huge mistake, but it was one Dex was willing to make if it meant getting answers. Dex had to know why. He was tired of feeling tired. Tired of feeling scared, of worrying, of bouncing back and forth between wanting to know and not wanting to know. He wasn’t going to hide anymore. One way or another, he was going to get some answers from Shultzon.

  How could the man look him in the eye, smile, and act like everything was peachy? Like he’d never killed two innocent people? What kind of monster offered Dex coffee in his living room, behaving as if he were a friend, knowing what he’d done?

  “Dex?”

  Dex snapped himself out of it and wrapped his arms around Sloane’s waist. He gazed up at him, silently asking for a kiss. Sloane obliged, drawing Dex in close to brush his lips over Dex’s before deepening the kiss. It was crazy, kissing Sloane here. They had no idea where they were, other than it was a TIN facility. The room they were in was windowless, with nothing but a steel table and two chairs. Sloane said it resembled the one he’d been forced to wait in when Dex had been brought in for medical treatment. Yet Dex didn’t care. He had no idea what was in store for him when he saw Shultzon. If a kiss from Sloane helped ground him, then he’d take it.

  Sparks opened the door and gave Dex a nod. It was time. He took a step toward the door, then paused. He looked up at Sloane, his heart hammering in his chest.

  “Will you come with me?” Asking for help didn’t make him weak. He couldn’t do this alone, and as long as he had Sloane with him, loving him, supporting him, he didn’t have to face anything alone. Same applied to Sloane. Dex would be there for him no matter what.

  Sloane didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

  Dex followed Sparks from the room, Sloane close behind. They walked down a long corridor that was surprisingly bright. The walls were white, so was the floor. The mirrored windows didn’t allow them to see inside any of the rooms they passed. It was very clinical. Dex glanced up and noticed a slight discoloration on several sections of the ceiling. An almost plastic film. It was strange.

  “What is it?” Sloane whispered.

  “Something on the ceiling.”

  Sparks stopped and turned. “Is there a problem, Dex?”

  Dex cleared his throat and caught up. “No.” There was definitely something. Putting that aside for the time being, they turned down another long corridor until Sparks stopped in front of a white door.

  “Ready?”

  No. “Yes,” Dex replied.

  He took a deep breath as Sparks placed her hand to the door. It slid open, disappearing into grooves in the wall. As soon as they’d stepped inside, the door whooshed back out and locked into place. Dex didn’t so much as look at Shultzon. Instead he turned to Sloane, who took position to one side of the door. Sloane bent his head forward, murmuring quietly in Dex’s ear.

  “I’ll be right here.”

  Dex nodded. He rounded his shoulders and turned, his jaw clenched at the sight of Shultzon sitting serenely behind a white steel table, his hands lay flat on its surface, displaying the iron cuffs around his wrists. He looked healthy, exactly as he had the last time Dex had seen the guy. He was dressed in a white long-sleeved tunic and white pants. Why was there so much white around here? What had TIN been doing with Shultzon since they’d captured him? The man had dark circles under his eyes, but other than that, he didn’t look the least bit troubled. With a smile, Shultzon motioned to the white chair across the table from him.

  “Dexter, how lovely to see you again. Please, sit.”

  “No, thanks,” Dex replied, doing his best not to let his emotions get the better of him. He had to remain calm. Losing his shit wouldn’t get him anywhere, and he couldn’t blow this chance. It was too important. “Do you know why I’m here?”

  Shultzon smiled pleasantly. Dex wanted to smack the grin right off him.

  “Of course. What would you like to know?”

  Dex narrowed his eyes. “Just like that?”

  “I like you, Dex. You’ve been so good to my dear boy, Sloane.”

  Another psychopath telling him they liked him. Wasn’t he the popular guy? Shultzon’s gaze went to Sloane, his smile reaching his eyes.

  “You’re looking well. No more impromptu shifting?”

  Sloane didn’t reply, though Dex could see how hard it was for him.

  At receiving no response from Sloane, Shultzon turned his attention back to Dex, his smile never leaving his face. “What can I do for you, Dex?”

  Stay calm. Whatever you do, stay calm.

  “Why did you have my parents murdered?”

  “Your mother—has anyone told you how much you look like her? Same blond hair, soft lips, and beautiful eyes.” He let out a soft laugh. “She used to get that indignant look as well. Oh, and her smile. Radiant. Brightened the room the moment she stepped into it. Stunning woman.”

  Dex folded his arms over his chest and slowly paced. He couldn’t let Shultzon get to him. It was what the man did—he picked and scratched at the scab, tearing off a little more each time before he viciously yanked it off, leaving a bleeding, gaping wound behind. All with a smile on his face.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Dex stated.

  “Ah, yes. Well, your mother’s most admirable qualities were what sadly led to her downfall. Certain plans were put into motion. Plans I had hoped to make her a part of. She was incredibly sharp, tenacious, and so very clever. Such a strong woman. I was eager to have her at my side at the facility, and I will admit it clouded my judgment. I fed her morsels of information. My error in judgment was swiftly revealed, and it became clear she would need to be removed from the equation.”

  Removed from the equation. To a five-year-old Dex, his world had come crashing down around him. To the man before him, he’d simply eliminated a problem.

  Dex swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “Keep going.”

  “Gina decided to investigate. Techniques I assume she learned from her husband. Not only was she an excellent medical officer but very talented at reconnaissance and collecting intel. This fierce sense of justice appears to be a Daley trait. Both your parents were painfully righteous. Your father was a pioneer of Therian rights. As you can imagine, that didn’t sit well with many at the HPF, but still, they loved him. It was his sense of humor and his passion. They would have been so proud of you.”

  Don’t you fucking dare, you piece of shit. “You said she was collecting intel. You’re talking about the file.”

  Shultzon nodded. “I had her under constant surveillance, her phone calls intercepted, her office tapped. She was exceptionally careful. Never spoke a word to anyone in public. Not even her husband. I informed my superiors, who foolishly underestimated her. That’s what their sexism got them.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “It wasn’t until information began to get misplaced that they became anxious, and one evening there was a breach in security at the office. A file I’d locked away was stolen. It was scheduled for pickup, so I believed it was retrieved. When the special agent arrived the next morning, I knew that wasn’t the case. Something had to be done.”

  “What was in the file?”

  “Enough to incriminate a good number of high-ranking government officials. The First Gen Research Facility, along with several other proposed projects, might have been my creation, but their conception and everything associated with them were signed off on by those with far greater influence than myself. After all, the fund
ing had to come from somewhere. There were also recordings. Sessions including several high-ranking officials with names and voices clearly documented. I kept everything on record. When dealing with such potentially volatile projects, there was no telling what the results would be. I’ve worked with the government for most of my life. I wasn’t going to be anyone’s scapegoat. Nothing was executed without authorization, and I made sure to document it.”

  Shit. So his mom collected information on whatever was really going down with Shultzon at the CDC Registration Office, along with whatever was in the works. Shultzon said she kept it from everyone, but would she have really kept something like that from his dad?

  “And you just left this information out there for anyone to find?”

  Shultzon stared at Dex before letting out a bark of laughter. “Out there? My boy, do you honestly believe I simply left this file lying on top of my desk? In a flimsy filing cabinet or on a bookshelf? Tapes filed in my desk drawer? The CDC Registration Office has a hidden room with a vault. It’s not on any of the floor plans. Several security measures were put in place to secure a room that technically didn’t exist.”

  Shultzon leaned forward, his eyes bright, as if he was excited. Dex flexed his fingers at his sides.

  “Your mother not only found that room, she managed to disable all of our security measures. She even broke into the safe. No one suspected a thing. She took everything.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” Dex shook his head. His mom had been a highly accomplished medical officer. She’d been clever, resourceful, but skilled enough to do everything Shultzon just said? “She was good, but you make her sound like she was some kind of secret spy or something.”

  Shultzon’s gaze went to Sparks before darting away.

  “What was that?” Dex looked from Shultzon to Sparks and back. “What was that? You looked at her. Why did you look at her?”

  “Dex,” Sparks warned, “continue the questioning.”

  Dex rounded on Sparks. “No. I want to know why, when I said she was some kind of secret spy, he looked at you?”

  “That isn’t relevant.”

  “Oh, it is very fucking relevant!” Dex marched up to her, his anger boiling up. “Why did he look at you?” Dex didn’t care who Sparks was or who she worked for. He wanted some goddamn answers. “I’m getting really fucking tired of being dicked around. Answer the question!”

  “Dex, calm down.”

  “Was my mother a spy?”

  Sparks met his gaze, her expression stern. “No.”

  Dex eyed her warily. “Is that the truth?”

  Sparks’s steel-gray eyes were penetrating. “Your mother was not a spy, Dex.” She took hold of his arm and pulled him to one side. “He’s toying with you. It’s what he does. Your mother was a very resourceful woman. If she didn’t have the information she needed, do you really believe she wouldn’t have found a way to get it? With your father’s connections? Don’t let him push your buttons.”

  Dex nodded. She was right. He was playing right into Shultzon’s hands. His father had been a detective for the HPF. He’d likely had all kinds of connections. From the sounds of it, his mom had set her sights on Shultzon and whatever it was his superiors were up to. The Daleys weren’t easily dissuaded. It wouldn’t surprise him if she’d learned certain techniques from his dad and used them to find a way to get into the secure room. Why, he had no idea. Sloane came up beside him, his hand to the small of Dex’s back, and all at once, Dex felt himself calm.

  “You want to keep going?”

  “Yeah.” He gave Sloane a small smile. “I’m good.”

  Sloane returned to his post by the door, and Dex faced Shultzon. “Tell me about the hit.”

  “The order came from my superiors. I couldn’t tell you who. I was never privy to that kind of information. Very few people were. We discovered Gina was meeting someone at a specific location one evening, and the decision was made to intercept.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Kill her and collect whatever she had on her. Your father being there was unexpected. Once the orders were carried out, we were informed she had nothing on her. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find the file. After a certain amount of time, we had to accept she’d taken our secrets to the grave with her.”

  “And the list? Tell me about this First Gens list.”

  “It contained the names of First Gen Therians with certain anomalies in their blood.”

  “What kind of anomalies?”

  “We never got that far in our research. You have to keep in mind that First Generation Therians were only children at the time. We could study them, run certain tests, but the real research couldn’t start until they reached adulthood. By the time that happened, we had no list to go on.”

  “So there was only ever one copy?” Dex asked dubiously.

  Shultzon nodded. “I couldn’t risk the information falling into the wrong hands. There was no telling what these anomalies meant. After the file went missing, along with the list, I only had a few names to go on. When these children reached maturity, we began conducting the necessary tests. We were about to move them to a secure facility, falsify their deaths, when—as if they’d known—the THIRDS swooped in and removed our most promising candidates. I still believe we had a leak in our facility. The THIRDS couldn’t have known what we were doing off the books, and certainly not about the intended transport of several youths.” Shultzon turned to study Sloane. “She could have saved you, you know. You and the Keeler boys.”

  Sloane frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Do you remember when you were nine years old and your parents brought you to the CDC Registration Office? You were so small and frightened. You clung to your mother the entire time, all through the examination. One conducted by a beautiful blonde doctor with stunning blue eyes and a smile that could rival the sun.”

  Dex’s heart lurched, and instinctively he turned to Sloane, who looked just as stricken.

  “She smiled at you and told you everything was going to be all right. But it wasn’t all right, was it, Sloane?”

  “Stop,” Sloane said through his teeth.

  “She knew what was going to happen to you. It was all documented. She knew your classification, how lethal you were. You were due to shift at any moment, and then you’d be taken from your family. Your name was at the top of that list, a list she herself had seen. Yet she said nothing. Too concerned with saving the world, she left you to the wolves.”

  “I said stop.”

  “She knew you would be the first to be taken. How does it feel, knowing your lover’s mother did nothing to stop your impending years of torture? You’re barely forty. God knows what effects those experiments will let loose in a few years’ time.”

  Sloane stormed over to the table and slammed his hands against the surface. “Shut up, or I’ll make you shut up!”

  Dex put his hand to Sloane’s back, feeling his muscles tense under his fingers. “Don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to manipulate you.”

  “I’m simply presenting the facts,” Shultzon assured them gently.

  “Yeah, the ones which conveniently take the focus off you and what you did. If even half of what you’re saying is true and my mother didn’t say anything, there was a reason.”

  Shultzon shrugged. “I threatened to dismiss her, but surely the lives of all those children were worth more than a paycheck.”

  “Isn’t it just so damned handy that you can trivialize her actions since she’s not here to give her side of the story,” Dex ground out. “And why is that? Right. Because you had her killed! She’s not the villain here. You are.”

  “You still don’t get it, do you, Dexter?”

  “That you’re out of your fucking mind? Yeah, I got the memo about that a while ago.”

  “Do you truly believe Therians and Humans will simply accept each other and move on? Humans believe Therians are a threat to them, and Therians believe Humans have had their
day as the dominant species. It’s a volcano waiting to erupt, and when it does, the casualties will be vast. Gina and John Daley were casualties of a war they had yet to understand, and you, my dear boy, are here to finish what they started.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Shultzon smiled wickedly. “Everything will be revealed in time.”

  “No.” Dex shook his head and thrust a finger at Shultzon. “You’re hiding something. I know it.”

  “Fate has placed you on this path, Dexter. Your parents’ death set off a chain of events that is still in play, with you at its center. Nothing is as it seems, and everything is as it should be.”

  Dex lunged forward, only to have a TIN operative grab him, haul him off his feet, and drop him by the door near Sparks. Dex was livid. With a growl he pushed himself away from the mountainesque bear Therian.

  “Get off me.” He turned to Sparks. “I’m not done here.”

  Sparks grabbed his arm and dragged him outside the room. “Go home and get some rest. I need to verify some intel. This is as far as we can go today.”

  “Fuck that. He knows way more than he’s letting on.” Dex paced the white hall outside the interrogation room. “Fuck him and his cryptic messages. All he’s given me is more questions, and that’s what he wants, to jerk me around. He’s fucking with us, and I’m going to put a stop to it.” Dex made to move past her when two TIN operatives blocked his path. Were they fucking serious?

  “Dex, go home,” Sparks ordered. “I’ll notify you the moment I have more information.”

  “Fine. Then I’m going to find that damned file, and I’m going to ask my dad.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? If anyone knows anything about where that file might be, it’s Tony.”

  Sparks’s expression turned hard, her voice clipped. “Make the necessary inquiries without alerting Sergeant Maddock. Find the file yourself. You are an agent after all, aren’t you, Agent Daley? Or are you incapable of completing this task without running to daddy?”

  Dex threw his arms up in frustration. “That’s ridiculous. We have a lead, and you want me to go around my ass to get to my elbow?”

  Sparks arched an eyebrow at him. “I see you’ve been having dinner with Darla and Calvin Summers. I hear Darla’s pecan pie is transcendent.”

  “What?”

  “That expression. It’s Southern. Calvin learned it from his mother.”

  Dex opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. When had his life become so fucking unbelievable? There was no point in arguing further. Sparks had made her decision, and the golems were planted firmly at the door. It was over. For today anyway.

  THE SILENCE was deafening.

  They were driven home by Sparks’s operatives, and during the entire ride, neither Sloane nor Dex said a word, each of them lost in his own thoughts. When they got in, Sloane walked to the kitchen, intent on getting something to drink, but he never made it to the fridge. Shultzon’s words rang in his head, and he stopped at the counter. He felt sick to his stomach, but he did his best to push away the nausea. For years he’d tried to bury his past, foolishly thinking he’d succeeded, believing he’d left it behind when he met Gabe. His life spiraled out of control after Gabe’s death, but again he managed to wade through the grime and toxic pain. His life changed when he met Dex. He’d changed.

  What if Gina Daley had tried to get through to his parents? Told them he was about to shift? Even if she had, there was no guarantee they would have accepted him. In fact he was certain his father would have been just as disgusted, but at least his mother might still be alive.

  Then there was the facility. What if he and Ash could have been spared that hell? Ash…. What if the timeline had been skewed and Arlo had lived?

  “Sloane?”

  Dex’s soft voice made Sloane flinch, and he hated his reaction. He loved Dex. God, he loved him so much it scared him.

  Swallowing hard, Sloane turned to face Dex, his heart hurting at the sight of those pale blue eyes. Sloane remembered her so clearly now. His mind was his worst enemy at times. He could recall Gina Daley as if he were looking at a picture of her. Dex was a spitting image. The same eyes, same pouting lips, smooth skin, and captivating smile. His dirty-blond hair was the same shade as Gina’s. Sloane had felt safe with her. He’d trusted her even though he’d only known her for minutes. She’d been kind, gentle, and so beautiful. Dex was most certainly her son.

  “Please talk to me.”

  Dex took a step forward, and Sloane took one back before he could stop himself. It was as if he’d punched Dex in the gut, and judging by his partner’s expression, doing so would probably have hurt less. Sloane closed his eyes to gather his courage before he faced Dex again.