Harrington sneered down at the wounds he’d created. “Clean her up.”
The nurse hurried forward to clean and bandage the wounds. She elevated Reyna’s arms to help clotting, but Reyna ignored her, still staring after Harrington. He’d moved to the sink and was sterilizing his hands as if that one drop of blood he’d gotten on his finger was contagious in some way. He was adamant in his cleanliness.
Her arms throbbed. She couldn’t believe she’d lost her cool. This meant that she’d probably need to have another venom IV to replenish the blood. Reyna had to close her eyes and breathe deeply at that thought. She couldn’t handle this another time. She couldn’t handle being here another day. She was clinging to survival, and she felt like she was finally cracking under the weight of it all.
“Let’s go,” Harrington said.
“Go?” Reyna asked, opening her dark eyes to stare up at him.
“Yes. Now. I have something to show you.”
Reyna stood on shaky legs. She hated to let Harrington see her fear, but it was all over her. Oozing out of her pores and filling the room.
She straightened her spine and forced herself to walk toward him. She might fear him, but she wouldn’t cower. She only had her defiance left to hold on to.
“I’m ready,” she said with all the power still left in her body.
Harrington opened the sliding door. She took one last look over her shoulder. The nurse’s face was a mask, but Reyna saw her own terror mirrored in the nurse’s eyes. It was reassuring in a way she hadn’t expected. Maybe she didn’t want to be working here any more than Reyna did.
Reyna had decided to work for Visage out of necessity. Her brothers had been working doubles at the factory in the Warehouse District an hour outside of the city. She couldn’t get a job without a college degree, and she couldn’t go to college because they didn’t have any money. So, she had been just another helpless mouth to feed. In desperation, she had joined Visage to help her brothers.
When she had started, she’d expected it to be more like…well, this. Degrading, humiliating work that she should be ashamed of. Instead, she’d gotten Beckham.
She closed her eyes for a second as the name crushed her heart. No, she couldn’t think about him right now. She needed to be on. Harrington was offering her an opportunity. He just didn’t know it yet.
With her head held high, Reyna exited the sterile room and followed on Harrington’s heels. She marked every turn they made through the winding corridors. She had no clue where she was exactly. Until now, she’d only seen the two rooms in the entire facility, and she couldn’t have even guessed that it was this sprawling. But the space must have been the size of several large warehouses. What else did he keep here?
Harrington stopped in front of a giant steel door. He held one hand behind his back as he swung that insufferable cane in a circle with the other. His suit was crisp and presentable—he had taken some care with his appearance today. What could be happening in the outside world to have him dress up?
“Here we are,” he said, clomping the cane down noisily. “This is a special ward. I like to keep interesting projects here.”
Interesting. Projects. Oh no. This wasn’t going to be good.
“Would you like to see my project?”
Of course she didn’t want to see his project. But he expected her to say no. So she couldn’t.
He laughed when he saw the indecision written on her face. “Ah, my little queen, it’s not a trick question.” Her nickname was back in the building. “Let’s take a look.”
Harrington entered a fifteen-digit code in a blur, then put his eye to a retinal scanner, pressed his fingerprint onto a pad, and had to be identified with facial recognition software before the door opened. Talk about secure.
Beyond was a long hallway, and lights flickered on one at a time down the row. Reyna entered after Harrington, and the door closed with a soft metallicsnickbehind them. He stepped up to the first door on the right and typed in a different sequence. The opaque wall suddenly turned into a window.
“Tinted one-way glass,” Harrington explained. “We can see in, but she can’t see out.”
“She?” Reyna whispered.
“Meet B,” Harrington said.
Reyna’s saw a woman facing the window as she stood in the corner of the room, staring up at the ceiling. She was tall—very tall for a woman. Her hair was short and black, chopped haphazardly with no care for appearance. She wore a black bodysuit that showed off her fit physique. Her hands were at her sides, and she was talking to herself.
“Is…something wrong with her?”
“Why don’t we find out?” he asked with that cruel smile of his.
“Oh no…I don’t think…”
But he was already pressing a button. “B.”
