Harrison
The iron clinked sharp in the air, magnifying each tap of my pen against the stark metal table. Restraint thinned my mouth as I paused, eyeing the stack of data pages with Dane beside me. His presence like a military drill sergeant. Cold. Unyielding. This particular attempt at synthesizing a serum had ended, yet again, in disaster. Full-blooded shifter DNA produced only further setbacks. My father’s voice gnawed at me over the phone, demanding to know why the serum hadn’t been finished months ago, why this girl, my fiancé, the one I’d lost, held so much damn importance. I’d finally hung up. “He doesn’t understand the scientific process,” I said to Dane, leaning back in my chair. “Failures happen more than successes.” My knuckles whitened around the pen as the tension of dealing with my father forced a thick knot to the surface.
“The fucker acts like all of this,” I waved my hands around the state-of-the-art lab, “just sprung up out of the jungle by magic. He has no ideawhyit took well over a year to make this part happen. And the setbacks in testing are to be expected. We’re moving in the right direction.”
Dane was silent beside me, taking in the pages without so much as a twitch. Even I couldn’t tell what he was thinking sometimes. His certainty an infuriating and yet valuable quality. But Ididn’t doubt his willingness to go further than any of the others on this. A pulse of satisfaction settled as he nodded, acknowledging the results like the calculated setbacks they were.
“You’ll work it out.” His voice was smooth, confident.
I stilled at the optimism, my eyes going hard as I pushed back from the table. Stark chairs and bright fluorescents felt clinical and precise, like every motion Dane and I made in this room. “The girl’s blood is the key. We know this.”
“It’s taking longer than you expected.”
“Time is of no consequence if we succeed,” I said, turning back to the data. My father was less patient, and he’d made his threats clear enough the last time we spoke. But Dane and I, we were strategists. The victory would be ours alone if it happened. “He can wait.”
The white walls echoed my words back at me, sterile and unfeeling, and my father’s complaints echoed in my mind. I shut them out, focusing on the next step. Dane stayed where he was, an anchor against the disappointment I refused to voice.
“We’ll need to take another approach with Juliet’s family,” I said, sharp and firm. “The only other viable candidate is her mother. But the risk of involving Jules Bettencourt… he could betray us.”
“He might have information.”
I shook my head, conviction as rigid as steel. “He’s more useful believing the girl’s hiding from him. We can hold him off. Let him think she’s run from her life with him and her heartless mother rather than from me. And there’s no way Juliet would be in contact with her parents any more than she’d contactme. They gave her to me without a thought about what she wanted. She understands their position in all of this.”
“So we take the mother.” Dane’s voice was quick, knowing.
I met his steady eyes. It was a risk, but not the kind my father thought. My father believed in strong-arming to get what he wanted, not strategy. The longer Juliet remained out of his grasp,the more he would demand action over sense. I’d let him bark at shadows if it meant I could move without interference. That’s why he’d not be privy to my plans. And why I’ll claim ignorance when the news of Renda Bettencourt’s disappearance hits.
Dane waited for my response, his calm like a lure for weakness. I let the silence stretch, not giving him what he hoped for. But his face remained impassive, knowing he’d touched a nerve. He was as loyal as they come, but even he couldn’t predict how much pressure my father would apply when the time came.
“We will take the mother,” I confirmed, my voice a calculated plan in itself. “She’s the closest we have until we locate Juliet. We’ll leave her disappearance just messy enough to flush the girl out. While we’re waiting for Juliet, we use her mother’s hybrid blood. It’s possible it will work as well or better than Juliet’s. It won’t stop Juliet from paying for her sins, however.”
Dane inclined his head, a silent approval. We worked like this, all intention, every move playing into the next.
The room pressed in around me, and I imagined it was not so different from the space Juliet would find herself in once I had her. I hadn’t been ready to use her blood when she slipped away. But losing her was a failure, and I didn’t do failure. I shoved the memory aside, letting it fall into place among the other recent fuck-ups. I needed her blood, yes, but I wanted to punish her more.
“Whatever happens with her mother, it’s a chance we’ll take,” I said, fixing my eyes back on the data. “I’ll not have any more delays.”
“Understood,” Dane said, taking his cue to fall silent once more.
I felt the heat of my resolve, the precision that drove every damn decision. Juliet Bettencourt was now an obsession. The one gamble that mattered. I’d let my father think she was just a piece in our strategy. Let him threaten and push from afar. But I knewwhat Bettencourt blood was worth. Her family’s blood ran with dollar signs. No one truly knew the value except for me. Not yet.
“We know the driver they use in the city,” I said. “Set the team to follow him. Keep it tight.”
Dane gave a crisp nod, accepting the order. I’d made a mistake in thinking Juliet would never run. I’d thought she was too weak to try to leave. We hadn’t expected how damn fast and far she could run. “And when we have the mother?”
“Straight to the lab. We’ll work fast, get what we need and make it loud. The headlines will bring Juliet to us.”
“And your father?”
My mouth tightened, but my voice remained controlled. “Fuck him. He’s got no actual power. He’s one voice on the board of directors and no more. He didn’t think of the consequences when he stepped down and gave me power. When we succeed, it won’t matter. He’s waiting for results. We’ll give him more than that. And so help me God, if he even tries to get in my way, he won’t live to see those results.”
Dane seemed satisfied with my response. He leaned back in his chair, watchful. Trustworthy. He was everything my father wasn’t.
“Move quick,” I added. “Have her in Costa Rica before week's end.”
Dane stood and turned to go. He stopped at the door, hand on the knob. “This is a sound plan, Harrison. Juliet will be in your hands soon.”
The words weren’t consolation. Not between us. We knew better than to soften the truth with hope. We worked with clarity, with precision, with ruthless demand. And yet, there was a weight to what he said. I kept my expression unflinching until he’d left the room; the door shut with a firm click behind him.
