What?
Why?
With Bea still crying in my arms, I do my best to check her over. She seems unharmed, with no cuts or bruises aside from the nearly-healed cut on her forehead and the fading yellowish bruise around it. I run my hands down her arms and legs, and everything feels as it should be.
But something’s wrong. Obviously.
“What happened?” Rafe jogs into the apartment, with Tyler close on his heels. Unlike me, Webb, and Ace, they’re armed—not that we would normally be while inside HQ, but with a possible threat, of course they’d grab their weapons before coming.
“I don’t know,” I reply through a gritted jaw. “We were just heading back from the meeting and heard a scream. When we got in, she was in the kitchen, sobbing. And she hasn’t said anything since we got here.”
“Her implants were off,” Webb adds. “It looked like maybe she had thrown them. Or someone?—”
Everyone tenses. Suspicious looks dart around the living room.
“It’s clear,” Ace says. “We checked. Unless someone got in here, ripped her implants off, and then somehow escaped through a locked window…”
Now that I know Bea can’t hear me, I change my approach. Touching her chin with my finger, I lift her face so she has to look at me. “Bea.” I say, carefully enunciating my words. “I needyou to calm down. Tell me what happened. Was it a flashback? Did someone get in here?”
She stares at me for a few seconds, tears glazing her eyes.
Then she takes a shuddering breath. And another.
My four teammates close into a protective circle around us.
Tyler pulls out his phone and starts tapping at it. As he studies the screen, he says, “Everything’s clear. No breach at the perimeter fence. The radar system didn’t pick up any drone activity. I’m looking at all the cameras around the house. There’s nothing concerning.”
I grab one of Bea’s implants and hold it out to her. But the instant she sees it, she shakes her head vigorously and pushes it away. “No. I don’t want it.”
“Okay.” I set the implant back on the table. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Bea can read lips. I know she can, because she told me how she taught herself back in high school. But she must be out of practice, because it takes her a few seconds before she replies, “I heard… something.”
“In a flashback?” I ask. “Or did you remember something?”
“No.” She shakes her head again. “Neither.” Her gaze skitters around the room again. “No one… no one’s here?”
“No one is here.” I turn to Ace, then Webb. “Right? You checked everything?”
They both nod in unison. “All clear,” Ace affirms, looking at Bea as he says it. “It’s just us. No one else.”
Fresh tears fill her eyes. “I… Someone…”
I hug her closer. “It’s okay. Take your time.”
After another shaky exhale, Bea lifts her chin and sets her shoulders. She swipes the tears from her cheeks. “I was cooking. And I heard someone talking to me. He said…” Her brow wrinkles. “I was going to be sorry. I shouldn’t have run. And…”
A tremor shakes her body. “He… He said if I didn’t go back, my parents would die.”
“What?”
Rafe curses.
Webb spins around, searching the room again.
Ace strides over to the kitchen window and looks outside.
I swallow back my worry and anger to ask gently, “Was there anything else?”
