As Cold As Ice (6 page)

He must come up here a lot.

Jessica wasn't at all surprised when Charles
was in the room. He wasn't standing behind a desk or anything. He
was still wearing his white lab coat, had one of the million
interchangeable clipboards in his hand, and he smiled pleasantly at
Jessica, a little sparkle in his eyes, when they entered.

He wasn't secretly Mark Layton, though,
disguising himself as a somewhat creepy scientist just to get away
from the public eye. That would've been too damned much for Jessica
to process.

No, the real man had a thick head of
jet-black hair that was slicked back with so much gel it actually
glistened in the lamplight above his head. He wore a suit that fit
his body so well it had to have been handmade by an expensive
Italian designer. His nose was a little on the crooked side, but
that did nothing to deter his good looks. Jessica hated this man,
but even she couldn't deny the confidence that floated around
him.

Weirdly enough, the room also had the
distinct scent of pine needles. That had to be an air freshener,
though, because there was no way a strong scent like that could be
coming from him.

Mark Layton looked kind of like a younger
Alan Rickman, or Severus Snape, who was made even more handsome by
the fact that he smiled confidently, styled his hair, and didn't
stink of potions and chemicals.

I need to stop with the Harry Potter
references.

She'd seen him before from time to time. On
the news, usually. It was different in person, though. He wasn't
speaking to them, didn't announce himself, even though he was
clearly right there. He just smiled, kept his hands behind his
back, and observed Charles, Soren, and Jessica. His eyes were on
Jessica for the most part, and even though he wasn't smiling, it
kind of looked like he was. At her.

She turned her face away from him, opting to
pay attention to what Soren and Charles were saying to each
other.

They were whispering heatedly. Work
involving the company. Charles wanted blood samples for something,
and he seemed angry that they were late. He also didn't seem to
appreciate the way Soren mouthed off to him.

"They wouldn't be late if
you'd stop
honoring
me with all your work."

Charles's neck immediately started bulging
with red and blue veins. Then he turned his head and saw Jessica
looking at the both of them.

Soren noticed it, too, and they stopped
talking and straightened up. Charles cleared his throat and
smoothed his collar. He smiled at Jessica brightly, as if they were
both still sort of coworkers, and he approached Layton's desk.

"Sir? This is Jessica Frost, the subject we
told you about."

‘
Subject’ wasn't a very
good way for Charles to endear himself to her, especially if he was
trying to trick her into thinking she was still on his
team.

Whatever.
She had no choice but to let it slide, so she
stood straight and put on her confident face when Layton turned his
attention to her.

This was going to be no
different than a job interview. It kind of
was
a job interview, and as she told
herself that, it became a little easier to believe it, to make
herself stop sweating and calm her heart.

Layton smiled at her. A businessman’s smile.
Not too bright, but definitely there and meant to show off that he
didn't have a Grinch face.

Layton held out a hand to her, his palm flat
as he pointed to one of the small leather chairs in front of his
massive glass desk.

"Yes, yes. Please, sit down. I've heard a
lot about you."

Jessica stepped forward. She was glad her
boots had been cleaned since she'd brought them in. Somehow,
getting mud all over the thick, expensive rug beneath his desk and
those chairs seemed like it wouldn't win her any brownie
points.

She took her seat, kept her spine straight,
and crossed her leg over her knee, knowing it would accent her
figure. Why wasn't Soren coming to sit down? There was only one
other chair and Charles took it, still grinning brightly, as if he
was on the verge of a big promotion.

Layton did not sit down. He picked up a
single sheet of paper, probably something that had a little bit of
Jessica's information on it.

"You've been the talk of the building ever
since you were called in. You froze a collector, and two office
clerks in the home of another collector?"

No point in lying about it. That was how
they'd found out about her, after all.

Jessica nodded. "Yes, I felt I had to in the
moment. Are they all right?"

If Layton knew their names, then it was only
because he'd had to learn them to make a public statement to the
press about the incident.

He didn't tell Jessica their names, though.
"All three are well, though one of the clerks is on stress leave.
The man you brought down, the collector, was a little more eager to
get back to work."

Jessica nodded. "That makes sense, given his
line of work protects the people."

Layton's eyes darted up, and though he'd
tried to hide it, she'd already seen the shocked calculation.

Maybe he hadn't expected her to say
something like that. Wasn't that why she was there?

Layton put down the piece of paper and
locked eyes with her. His eyes were blue, but not the same deep and
rich blue Soren had. His were cold, so cold and so pale that it
even made Jessica shiver, and considering what her powers were,
that was a feat in itself.

"If you believe that, then why did you
attack them?"

Jessica had thought about what she would say
long before Soren had come up with this idea. She'd always known
that the day would come when she'd get caught, and that her only
chance for not being locked up and having needles stuck into her
for the rest of her life would lie in her history of working for
Head Office.

"I did what I did because I was in love with
Jack Marilla. He was an ex-boyfriend, and I thought he needed
help."

Again, Layton’s brows lifted. He was getting
a little more honesty than he thought he would. Hopefully, that was
a good thing.

"I see. I was unaware there are tender
feelings between the two of you."

"Were," I corrected. "He and I had been done
for about a month before I was brought in. If you need records to
prove it, I can provide them."

"That would be helpful, and photographs
would also be beneficial toward your defense, though we did a scan
of your home. There were photos of him in there with you, but
nothing that seemed of the romantic sort."

"We were careful," Jessica said. "We didn't
want to risk our employment with fraternization, but we were still
a couple. We wrote each other emails through addresses you do not
have on file, for either of us."

Layton's eyes sparkled, as if he'd been
hoping to hear something like that.

Of course he was. He wanted to know anything
Jessica might've been holding back that would help him find Jack
and her brother.

"I see. I trust there will be no harm in you
giving me the address?"

Jessica nodded, and she listed the digital
addresses she and Jack had used back when they were sneaking around
after hours.

She repeated them when Layton grabbed a pen
and a fresh sheet of paper. He didn't write them down, of course;
instead, he pushed them forward, toward Charles, so he could do the
honors.

Charles wrote quickly, hanging onto her
every word.

It didn't matter if she gave the address to
Layton. It didn't matter if she gave it to anyone at all. Jack
would know not to try and contact her through those accounts. He
was smarter than that.

She hoped he was, anyway.

"Wonderful," Layton said. "I see we can have
this little mix-up cleared sooner than we'd planned."

Jessica smiled. "I hope so."

"Coffee?" Layton offered.

Jessica accepted, and Layton pressed a
button somewhere on his desk and ordered two cups. He didn't so
much as mention anything for Soren or Charles.

The rest of the meeting went by pretty well.
Jessica thought so, anyway, which in turn made her paranoid. What
if it was a trick by Layton to get her to lower her guard, when she
still needed to be watching out for anything and everything that
could land her in a basement cell for the rest of her life?

She tried not to let that bother her. She
tried not to think about it, though a trickle of sweat did bead at
the back of her neck, slowly sliding down centimeter by centimeter.
It made her neck itch, but she forced her lips to continue smiling,
showed off her white teeth, and continued to answer questions.

Soren told her to be honest, so she was as
honest as she could be about everything. The more truth she put
into her story, the less she would have to remember later.

She told Layton about how her parents had
thrown her and Ethan out of the house. Her for being dangerous, and
Ethan for not wanting her to go. She told them Ethan was a good
citizen and loyal to Layton's cause, and that it had actually been
his idea to work for Head Office, to prove that she, as a
paranormal, could be safe to be around and useful to the people who
needed the protection of the hunters.

If Ethan was ever caught, then he'd say the
same thing. They'd rehearsed this a time or two before.

The tricky part came when she had to explain
why Ethan was in hiding, and why he wouldn't try to come back and
turn himself in.

"That's my fault," Jessica said. "It's not
his fault, please don't blame him."

It was hard to say words like that with a
smile on her face when the last thing in the world she felt like
doing was smiling.

"Oh? Please explain then." Though Layton was
smiling, a slight twitch beside his eyes told her he didn't like
where this was going.

Jessica cleared her throat. She shifted in
her seat, only realizing she'd done it after it happened. Great,
she definitely looked like she was scared and trying to hide
something.

Maybe he didn't notice. Why wasn't Soren
beside her? Why did it have to be Charles?

"Ethan and I prepared for the day when I
might be found out. We agreed that if something ever happened, if I
ever wanted to confess, that I would stay behind and he would go.
It was one thing for me to want to turn myself in, since I'm a
paranormal, but he's just normal. There's nothing different about
him. I decided that the risk of him going to prison was too much.
If I ever turned myself in, then he was to run, and he wasn't to
tell me where he was going."

Layton's smile slowly slipped from his
mouth, his gaze turning into something that made Jessica twitch in
her seat again.

"That was before, though," she added
quickly. "I don't think...I guess what I'm trying to say is that
neither of us thought this through too well. Now that I'm here, and
I'm able to tell you what happened, I think it would be good for
him to come in."

"And, do you have a way of contacting
him?"

Jessica shook her head. "Not directly. I
don't know how he left or when, but that was another rule. No
phones. They're too easy to track. If he were to hear from me, or
even just know I'm still working for you, and that you believe I
can still be of use as a hunter, then he'll know to come back."

Okay, she'd kissed ass enough. It was time
to show her honesty and let Layton see she meant business.

Her eyes hardened on the man. Layton watched
her coolly. "After the time I spent locked in the basement, I'm
glad we decided on this, for him to wait before coming back. I
don't care what the law is, I would rather he run away than spend
almost a month locked downstairs like that."

She didn't mention the other paranormals who
were thrown into her cell. Nor did she discuss the shower she
almost never used, not until the smell of her own body got to be so
unbearable that she was unwilling to put up with it, even knowing
several men were watching from behind a camera, or a two-way
mirror.

She didn't mention any of that, because the
odds were better than perfect that he already knew about it. He
might've even watched a couple of those shower videos himself.

Her small outburst of sisterly affection,
showing off the need to protect her family, must've been real
enough to convince Layton, because his calm smile returned.

"That's more than fair. So, if Ethan Frost
sees you working the field, either on camera or through some other
source, then he'll know you are not being held against your will,
and he will return to work for us, as well."

Jessica nodded, even though that was the
furthest thing from the truth. "Yeah, that's about it."

Layton’s smile chilled her to the core,
frostier than her powers could have ever done.

It was a relief when he called Charles and
Soren forward to have a word with them, though somewhat irritating
when he acted like she wasn’t in the room.

The thing that was the most telling,
however, was when Layton nodded to Charles, and Charles backed off.
The man walked right up to Jessica and offered his hand, helping
her to her feet.

His palm was clammy, and she freed herself
from it as soon as possible. She turned to look back at Soren and
Layton, speaking so close, but that was all she could make out when
the door was shut, and the stormtrooper guard stood in her way,
blocking her from even looking in the crack between the two
doors.

Not that she would’ve done something like
that.

“
I didn’t know Soren and
Layton worked so closely together,” Jessica said. Her voice sounded
good and calm. Not quite casual, but there wasn’t anything remotely
casual about this experience, so she didn’t think she could be
blamed for that.