Page 32 of Craved

My fault?

The words swirl around in my head, but I have no idea what he’s accusing me of. I can worry about that later, though, and I toss the question aside as I hurry to where I saw that little glint, terrified that it’s disappeared into a crack in the floor, or that it isn’t my earring at all.

But there it is. The small, fake diamond stud that’s really an emergency contact beacon.

I pick it up, use my thumb to pry off the post, then use one end of the now-free post to puncture the fake gem through one of the facets. For a split second, there’s a tiny flash of blue light to indicate the signal was sent, and then I drop the stone and the stem. They’re useless now. Nothing but a broken piece of costume jewelry.

I draw in a breath, then exhale noisily. By now, Zane Parker should have received the notification of an incoming distress message. With luck, he’ll be zeroed in on my position within the next minute, and I’ll be extracted within the next fifteen.

I pace the room, anxious to be free, Maxim’s words swirling in my head. On your traitorous shoulders.

Traitorous…

My knees go weak as the realization hits me—Maxim thinks that I helped Killion Lambert. He believes that I’m a traitor.

And the only reason that would bother him is if he’s not.

I realize I’m braiding my hair, and I toss it back over my shoulder as the inescapable conclusion hits me: Maxim is undercover.

My heart leaps. Our chances of stopping Killion have just increased exponentially.

But only if I can get him to believe the truth about me.

Why, why, why does Maxim think I’m a traitor? Have I been framed? I don’t understand what he’s talking about. I have no idea what the keystone refers to, and I’ve never done any mission that centers around genetic research, so how—”

Except I have.

Only tangentially, but when I was with the SOC, we ran a top secret op in conjunction with FBI agents who were undercover at the CDC. I was still young and green, and because of that, my role in the mission was miniscule. All I did, in fact, was test security for an off-book division of the CDC that focused on next-gen research. And even then, my role was limited to entering and exiting the Q-wing of the facility using various key cards so that the tech team could tweak the access programs.

There was nothing sexy about it, and I never had direct access to any biological material. But there was some very sexy information stored in the Q-wing. Information on genomes and gene modification and CRISPR-Cas9 tech, and I don’t know what else.

Still, it was only two days of work, and the work consisted of me walking back and forth through the entrance. Hardly national security. After all, the keycard never left my person unless it was being locked in the safe.

I shake my head, still baffled. And even more confused by Maxim’s suggestion that I’ve had any contact with my dad since we ran. Hell, he should know I haven’t, because how do you contact a dead man?

When I was seventeen, I decided to look him up. I don’t know why—some masochistic need for closure, maybe. But I’d called the college where he’d taught, and they told me that Professor Gregory Green had killed himself. He’d taken a boat out into the Atlantic, left a suicide note, then jumped into the water.

Surely Maxim remembered that, because it was one of the happiest days of my life.

“He wanted to kill the fucking lions?” Maxim had sneered that day. “All he killed was a sniveling, cowardly worm of a man. And a shit father, too.”

But had he?

I realize I’ve been pacing, as if I’m racing to catch up with the nascent idea trying to hatch in my mind. Something about my father. About his duplicitous nature. His overbearing belief that he was the only person who mattered on Earth. That the lambs and the lions should be struck down so that he—

Oh, shit.

Killion. Kill. Lion.

Lambert. Lamb.

He hadn’t committed suicide at all. My father had faked his own death.

He’d become Killion Lambert.

He’d changed his appearance. He’d watched me.

Somehow he must have gotten close enough to clone the CDC card key.