She angles her head. “Who?”
“Clarke White? He was the CEO of that research facility.”
Jenna’s face pales.
Her entire body locks up as her eyes widen at me.
She doesn’t say anything, and fear grips me that I might have unknowingly tipped her into a spiral. “Shit, are you okay? Do you need me—”
“No, no it’s okay.Youkilled Clarke?”
My head rears back. “Did you know him?”
I watch the physical shiver wrack Jenna’s body. “Oh, I knew him, evil fuck.”
I want to ask her, I really do, but instead, I let the silence fill the room.
Jenna stares down at her knotted hands, her shoulders softly moving as she taps her collarbone. When she looks at me, her eyes are hard. “Clarke ran trials on some of us.”
I balk. “What do you mean, trials?”
“They used to drug us, or at least offer it beforehand to our handlers. Depends what your taste is like.” She sneers, adjusting herself up the sofa. “The Omnia wanted to change the game. Clarke had researched some buried shit about control, wanted to mimic the effects to see if they could create a fleet of humans who would willingly act like dolls.”
The blood in my veins turns cold. “Can I ask how?”
“I don’t know the full ins and outs. He’d made a concoction of drugs, would test some girls to get them to be compliant. Done a range of shit, electro shocks, lobotomies.”
“Lobotomies?!” I shriek in absolute horror.
He owned a world-renowned research facility; how the fuck did he think that was ethical?
How the hell did no one step in to stop this?
“He was a sick son of a bitch, Indie, in some ways worse than Conrad and George. Where they hurt you physically, he liked to fuck with your mind.”
She drags in a breath, wiping her hands down her thighs. “He wanted some of us to be obedient. Those women you saw on stage? Not making a peep and looking like zombies? They were his most successful experiment.”
It feels like someone has stuck their hand down my throat, swirling the contents of my stomach to the point I feel like I might throw up.
Her eyes drop to her lap. “I was supposed to be next when I got back from this hire.”
My heart lurches, and the moment a tear leaks down Jenna’s cheek, I open my arms, offering her support.
She takes it, moving towards me nervously as she lays against my chest, body trembling.
A sob rips free from her the moment my arms wrap around her tiny frame, followed by a sad laugh. “Fuck, you still smell the same. I’ve missed it.”
My arms tighten around her like bands. I wish I could take every ounce of pain away from her.
Wipe it from her memory until there is nothing left but happy memories.
“He’s dead, Jenna, I made sure of it. I’ll make sure all of them fucking pay for what they did.”
She snuggles in closer, the tenseness in her muscles easing slightly as she settles against me. The next words she speaks raise the goosebumps over my skin, and the hair on the back ofmy neck. “Let’s just hope you guys find them before they find you.”
11
Saint
