It turned out that Sebastian was taking me to the Neurovance campus, and I’m not sure why I was surprised.
Once I’d gotten a handle on my panic attack, Sebastian had told me he’d seen the footage of Melanie’s execution and had rushed to find me the moment he realized I’d been abducted.
As Neurovance owned Synapse Springs, its security teams had been notified as soon as there had been a breach.
I’d done my best to keep it together as I explained my mother was missing, and despite my reservations about saying too much about the fact that my kidnapper/stalker had instructed me to infiltrate Neurovance, I couldn’t avoid talking about him completely.
When I’d mentioned that my abductor had told me he had my mother hostage, Sebastian had pursed his lips in concern.
He did that weird thing again where he looked like he wanted to reach out to touch my hand or something, but stopped midway.
“Don’t worry, Milo. We’ll find your mother,” Seb said as the car pulled up to the campus gates.
As we approached the forty-foot, white stucco wall that surrounded the campus, Sebastian rolled his window down and slipped his arm out, swiping his wrist against a black security scanner. The scanner flashed green, and the large, ornate wrought-iron gates swung slowly open to let our vehicle through.
I was frowning down at Sebastian’s suit-clad arm, wondering if he had some sort of security key sewn into his jacket, when he turned that dazzling white smile back at me.
“Listen, Milo. I know you’ve been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours, and I don’t want to put too much pressure on you, but I wasn’t exaggerating when I said we’ve all been hoping Melanie would be able to convince you to work here. Since our Chief Memory Therapy Officer took a leave of absence, our MTR department has been desperately in need of leadership.
“We’re on an aggressive deadline for completing the NeuroManipulator 1.5, and wereallyneed someone with your level of out-of-the-box thinking to take over for Jay.”
“I-I’m not anywherenearas smart asJay Reynolds…”I stammered. After basically being called a clumsy idiot by my peers for my entire life, I was having a hard time believing that this stupidly hot man in his insanely expensive suit wanted to just hire me off the street to lead one of the country’s leading MTR departments.
Sebastian gave me a‘be serious’look and shook his head at my dismissal.
“Enough, Milo. Don’t be ridiculous. Do I look like someone who makes business decisions like this lightly?” He gestured toward his pristine suit that probably cost more than my entire condo.
I shook my head, biting my lip.
“N-no…”
“Then believe me when I say I think you’re just the man to lead this project… besides, look at it as a…symbioticrelationship. If you take this job, you’ll be helping me out a great deal, but I can help you, too. You can stay on campus, where I canassureyou this man who’s been tormenting you will never be able to reach you. We can keep you safe while we look for your mother. We have the means to conduct a much more thorough search for her than the police ever could…”
A thrill rolled through me at the thought of this man using his considerable influence to find my mother.
“Whenwe find her, we can move her here to live on campus with you, where I can assure you she will be kept safe as well… What do you say?”
Chewing on my bottom lip, I knew I was going to agree.
One, this was what my mother’s kidnapper wanted me to do, and two… maybe it would all work out, and this drop-dead gorgeous,powerfulman would find my mother first and put that psycho murderer away where he belonged.
“Okay. I accept,” I said, hating the way my cheeks burned in horror as I realized what I’d done.
I was going to need to be aleader…aboss,of an entire department.
I could barely get a cup of coffee without tripping over my own laces half the time.
Sebastian’s warm, vibrant smile wasn’t as encouraging as it should have been. There was a sick, churning sensation in my gut that felt like a warning.
“Great. I was hoping you would say that. Daniel? The employment contract, if you would be so kind,” Sebastian beamed, turning to face the distinguished attorney who had been sitting quietly answering emails on his N-phone.
“Of course, Mr. Stevens,” the attorney hummed before pulling out a tablet from his expensive briefcase.
“Initial where it prompts you, please.” He handed me the tablet, which I took with shaking fingers.
Both men watched me carefully as I tapped through the prompts, adding my digital signature to the places Donovan had pre-programmed into the software.
Once I was finished, I swallowed and glanced up to find that warm, perfect smile still tilted on Sebastian’s perfect lips.
