Defective (The Institute Series Book 3) (14 page)

I can’t help but laugh at Jenna, her eyes scanning over Drew’s body. She sees me laughing and stands up straighter, shaking her head. “Sorry.”

I shrug. “No need to be sorry. It’s a bit hard not to stare,” I whisper.

Jayce clears his throat, raising his eyebrows at me. “Oh really?”

“Eh. He’s alright,” I admit with a smile. Jayce just shakes his head, crossing his arms. “You want to get half undressed so I can perv on you, too?”

“Nah. I won’t torture you like that.” He smiles, nudging me with his elbow.

“We ready to go?” Drew asks, dressed and ready, seemingly oblivious to what the rest of us are talking about.

“I’m starting to think that maybe Jenna and Jayce should stay with the car,” I suggest.

“Why?” Jenna asks.

“Like Drew said, he can’t arm you guys. I don’t expect us to need to use our guns, but… I think I’d feel more comfortable if we didn’t have to watch your backs as well as our own.”

“Then why did we even come with you at all?” Jenna asks.

“I’m not saying you need to stay here the whole time. We’ll come back and get you once we’ve spoken to someone. I just don’t know how they’re going to handle our unexpected visit.”

Jayce grabs hold of my hand, dragging me across the road and away from the other two.

“Are you sure this is safe?” he asks me.

“I’m like ninety percent sure nothing will happen, but… okay, I know this might seem emasculating, but the last time I dragged someone I cared about into something like this, he was killed. I don’t want to be responsible for that again – even if there’s only a really small chance of it happening.”

Jayce half smiles. “I’ll stay with the car.” He pulls me in for an unexpected hug and kisses me on top of my head.

“That was easy.”

“You just admitted you care about me,” he says, still holding on to me. I can hear the smile in his voice.

“You’re not going to try to stop me from going?” I ask, pulling back surprised.

“If I thought for a minute you’d listen to me, I would. But I know you need to do this, and if you’d feel more confident with me staying behind, then I’ll stay behind.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, leaning in to hug him again. When we pull back, our eyes meet for a brief moment before both Drew and Jenna start to wolf-whistle and holler.

Jayce rolls his eyes and leads me back over to them. “We’re staying here,” he says to Jenna.

“But—”

“We’ll come get you as soon as we know it’ll be safe,” Drew cuts her off. He opens the front door and leans in, pulling something out from under the passenger seat. It’s a clear plastic box. He opens it, pulling out a tangle of wires. “Here,” he says, handing us all an earpiece that looks like a brown jellybean. I recognise it from when I was an agent with the Institute. “It’s so we can keep in contact with each other. We’ll take a microphone and receiver, and you guys will have one too, so you’ll be able to hear everything while we’re gone, and we’ll be able to hear you.” Jenna and Jayce nod, fitting their earpieces in.

“We’ll be an hour, tops. We’re about a twenty-minute walk outside the compound, and then we’ll try to borrow a car to come back out to you guys. If they’ll let us, anyway,” I say.

Parting ways feels weird and unnatural. I feel wrong without Jayce by my side, but shake my head at that insane notion. I guess I can’t say that it’s only a crush, it has gone way beyond that. Ever since that kiss in the supply closet, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. But I still don’t even know him all that well, even though he clearly seems to know me.

We walk for a few minutes before Drew tests the earpieces.

“Just doing an equipment check, can you guys hear me?”

“Yup, we can hear you,” Jenna says. “Are… almost… uh?” Static fills my ear.

“Can you repeat that?” I ask. Nothing. Dead silence. “Jenna?” Still nothing. “Do you think we should go back? Could something have happened to them?” I ask Drew.

“Nah, it’ll be the piece of crap Institute equipment. We’ll check again in a little while. We’re probably just in a bad spot.”

We make our way farther into the valley that leads to the back fields of the Resistance.

“Seeing as they can’t hear us, did you know?” I ask.

“Know what?”

“About the bet?”

“The bet about how long it’ll take for you and me to get back together?”

“Yup. That one,” I confirm through gritted teeth.

“I knew. I still think I have a pretty good chance at winning, too.”

My heart sinks. “You’re in on it?”

“Technically. I told them they were insane, and that we’re never getting back together, and they took that as my bet.”

“Really? You bet it would never happen?”

He raises his eyebrows at me. “What, you think it will?” he scoffs. “You know I haven’t looked at you like that in a long time, right? Just like you haven’t, me. And don’t lie, I know you haven’t,” he says, touching the side of his head.

“I know. I just… I don’t know. I guess I always thought that when I’d be ready for another relationship, I’d start seeing you like I used to – like that would be my indicator that I was ready. But it just never happened.”

“Because you know there’s nothing there anymore. You can’t blame everyone for thinking you’d come back to me once you got over Chad, especially if you even assumed it yourself.”

I sigh. “I guess that’s true. Still pisses me off.”

“They were only kidding around. I don’t think money ever exchanged hands or anything.”

“That doesn’t make me feel much better.”

“I’ve always known we’d never end up together. There’ve been times where I’ve wondered about the ‘what-ifs’. What if I’d told you who I was from the start? What if I managed to escape Brookfield and ran away with you when we were planning to leave with Shilah? Ultimately it always comes down to me thinking we wouldn’t have worked out anyway. You don’t look at me like you look at him. You never have, even when we were dating… if you could even call it that.”

“Looked,” I correct him.

“What?”

“You said ‘the way I
look
at him’. It should have been ‘
looked
’.”

Drew shakes his head, “I wasn’t talking about Chad. I was talking about Jayce. Although, it is a similar look.”

“I still don’t know if I can trust him. I keep getting the feeling he’s hiding something from me.”

“I’m so sorry for that,” he says quietly. “I think I damaged you.”

“It’s not just you, though. Everyone I’ve ever known has lied to me in some way or another. Some lies were just as bad as what you did to me.”

“Sometimes it’s necessary,” he states. “For what it’s worth, I can’t sense anything but the best intentions towards you. Surely you felt it too?”

“Sometimes I don’t even know if I can trust myself, even when I’m borrowing your ability. I keep thinking that I just sense what I want to sense, and not the truth.”

We continue to walk. I know we’ll be reaching the compound soon. My ear starts to fill with static again – we’re coming back into range. I open my mouth to check in, but Jayce’s voice cuts me off.

“I hate that I have to keep this from her,” he says. “You heard her, she’s already had so many people betray her. I can’t keep doing it, Jenna.”

“Well if you just stayed away from her like I told you to, you wouldn’t have to lie to her. You want to keep her unharmed? Keep your mouth shut.” Jenna’s tone is cold and authoritative – not at all like the girl I’ve spent the last twelve hours with. Was her kindness all an act?

I look over at Drew, tears filling my eyes, but I refuse to let them spill over.
I was right.
The funny thing is, I’m not even surprised; the other shoe just dropped. Shaking my head, I let out a sigh in defeat.

“I’m sorry,” Drew mouths, before trying to check in again.

“Jayce, Jenna? Can you hear me?” Drew asks. There’s silence again, but a different kind of silence – it’s a startled silence. There’s no doubt in my mind they just heard Drew. I wonder if they know that we heard them. “Jenna? Jayce?”

“We can hear you,” Jayce answers.

“Finally,” Drew says. “We’ve had nothing since we pretty much left you guys. How you holding up?”

“Uh… yeah, we’re good. We’re still at the car. No one’s come by,” Jayce says.

“Okay, we’re approaching the back of the compound now. Hopefully we won’t cut out again.”

We don’t get far before I hear the distinct sound of a gun being cocked behind us.

“Well, well, well, it seems Allira’s up to her old tricks.” Cyrus’s voice is still as creepy as ever.

Chapter Thirteen

My hand reflexively goes for the gun on my hip as we turn to face Cyrus. He isn’t alone, he’s got a man on either side of him, all three are armed.

“Nah-uh. Hands up,” Cyrus instructs. We do as he says.

I hear Jayce’s voice in my ear, “Allira? Who’s that? What’s happening?”

I ignore him.

“Why are you here?” Cyrus asks.

“I missed you, Cyrus,” I say sarcastically. Drew nudges me with his elbow, making me sigh. “We need to talk,” I say, more conciliatory.

Cyrus lowers his gun. “Okay.” His two henchmen lower their guns, too.

“Okay?” I ask, surprised.

“Anything for the director. We’ll go up to the town hall, and don’t worry, someone’s already picking up your friends.”

Jenna’s voice comes through the earpiece. “Yeah. There’s a car approaching, what do we do?”

“Just go along with it,” I try to say quietly.

“What was that?” Cyrus asks.

“I was just wondering how you knew we were here?” I say, trying to cover.

“New security system installed by one of the newbies. Thanks to you two, we don’t need to recruit any more. We have people coming to us.”

My stomach churns. They’re still growing in numbers, and power. 

“You don’t have to look so tense, Allira. You never did believe in what we’re doing here. We’re doing everything we can to stay out of the mess you guys have made, but we also need to be able to defend ourselves if we need to. All we want is to be completely independent from the rest of the country. We’re striving on our own. And with more numbers, the more independent we become.”

“You know, you need to advise the Institute of any sort of security systems,” Drew says, cutting me off from yelling about how power-greedy and arrogant Cyrus is.

“Well here you go, Mr. Director, sir, we have a new security system.”

I’m beginning to wonder if anybody actually takes Drew seriously as the Director of the Institute. I know I tease him a lot about it, but after hearing Cyrus do it, I’m starting to think maybe I shouldn’t. He’s doing an excellent job, better than Brookfield and Paxton combined, probably.

“Just make sure you fill in a form at your next monthly meeting. Unless you want your new security system confiscated.”

“Speaking of confiscating – how about you give us those guns of yours. You have to understand we can’t take the risk. The last time you two were armed among a group of people, we lost some of our best guys. Belle lost her son.”

I wince.

“We’re not going to just hand over our weapons,” Drew states, again stopping me from yelling at Cyrus. “They’re Institute property.”

“Oh calm down, Director Jacobs. You’ll get them back before you leave.”

Drew hands over his two guns, then glares at me, encouraging me to do the same.

“Fine,” I mumble, handing them over.

As we walk past farmers in the fields where Drew used to work, I feel eyes burning into me. They only get worse the farther into the compound we get. We reach the door to the town hall, Cyrus stopping us before we enter. Jayce and Jenna arrive behind us, guarded by more Resistance members. We’ve been hearing them in our earpieces as we’ve walked along, but they haven’t said much and haven’t addressed us once.

I avert my eyes from Jayce, the fresh bitterness of betrayal hitting me. But what I see when I look across the narrow dirt road is worse. Brayden. I didn’t know a thirteen-year-old could intimidate me so much. I’ve only met him once, but I’ve never been able to forget him. His older brother Hayden was part of our takeover plan. He was one of the ones who didn’t make it out alive. It’s my fault Brayden’s brother is dead, and by the look in his wet, glassy eyes, and the angered scowl on his face, he believes it’s my fault too.

I’m relieved when we’re dragged away from the street and led down to the front row of the town hall. We file in, Jenna, then Jayce, me, then Drew, and we sit patiently.

“Alert the others,” Cyrus instructs his men.

“Is this normal?” Jayce whispers to me, making our earpieces ring a high pitch noise and making all four of us jump. Drew reaches over me for Jayce’s receiver to turn it off.

Pissed off doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling about Jayce right now. He’s hiding something from me, and I’ve been nothing but upfront with him – well mostly. I was right about him, and I’m so angry that I still allowed myself to fall for it, for him. I shake my head and look down at my hands as my knee bounces uncontrollably.

“Allira?” he asks, reaching for my hand.

I recoil at his touch. “Everything will be fine,” I say curtly. “We’re just going to ask them what they know and then leave.”

He removes his hand, a look of confusion mixed with worry crosses his face.
Good, let him squirm
.

Drew leans over, whispering in my ear, “Don’t jump to conclusions. You don’t know what it is yet.”

I think I’ve already jumped to the worst conclusions. What Jenna said is repeating in my head – to keep me unharmed, Jayce has to keep their secret from me. It makes no sense, how does that keep me safe? I don’t even know if that’s what she meant by ‘unharmed’. Maybe she meant it threateningly – he needs to keep his mouth shut, or else? Is she even his sister? Is anything he told me the truth?

I’m brought out of my thoughts by voices coming through the doors. Drew and I stand up as we watch the council members walk down the aisle towards their table at the front of the room. Jenna and Jayce follow our lead by standing and wait until the council is assembled. Interestingly enough, there are still eight council members, only four of whom I’m familiar with; Cyrus, his second wife Marlo, Connor the old guy, and lastly, Chad’s mum Belle.

Belle seems to have aged ten years in the last eighteen months. I haven’t seen her since Chad’s memorial service they had out here, where she told me that his death was my fault and if she never saw me again, it would be too soon. I’m guessing it’s still too soon.

“You can sit down,” Cyrus says, and we obey. “So what is this visit all about?”

“Straight to the point, as usual,” Drew says.

“We don’t really have the time or patience for pleasantries with you two. You understand, right?” Cyrus replies.

“We understand,” I say. “We came here to ask you to get whoever it is you’ve got following me, to stop.”

Belle scoffs, “You think we care to send one of our men – who would be much more useful here – to the city just so we can keep an eye on you? Why would we want to do that?” Her tone is even icier than ever, if that’s even possible.

“Why would you send me threatening notes? It’s obvious you still blame me for his death.” I can’t even bring myself to say his name to her. “Are you doing this to torture me? You don’t think I do that enough myself, without your help? You think that by threatening Paxton and me you’ll get some sort of revenge for what we did?”

Belle sighs, almost like she’s defeated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looks up and down the line of council members, all of them shaking their heads and looking confused. “None of us know what you’re talking about. I don’t exactly know what you came looking for, but we can’t give you the answers you want.” Her words aren’t laced with hatred like they normally are. I don’t know what changed in the last thirty seconds.

Drew unfolds his arms, giving the council a short nod. They start to get up to leave.

“So that’s it?” I ask Drew, whispering. “We’re not going to question them any further? They just got here!”

“You know Belle. They’re not going to tell us anything.”

“Then why did we even bother coming?” I ask a little louder.

Quiet mumbling between the council members becomes louder as they get closer. They’re complaining about how much of a waste of time this was, and wondering what the hell is wrong with me. I hang my head as they walk by.

“I don’t blame you for his death,” Belle’s voice comes quiet. I lift my head to find her and Cyrus standing in front of us. “I did once, but I’ve since realised that you lost someone too, and you wouldn’t have just let it happen. I know you tried to save him, I know you loved him.” She’s fighting tears. I’ve never seen her look weak before. Seeing it causes my eyes to water, but I refuse to cry here. “Do I still think you were reckless? Of course. But that doesn’t mean it was your fault. You were eighteen years old, and easily swayed under someone else’s influence. We didn’t help the matter by trying to force you to… well, let’s just not talk about it anymore, okay?”

All I manage to do is nod, acknowledging what she’s said. I think I’m in shock. Of all the things I was expecting today, Belle being nice to me wasn’t one of them. She starts to walk off, but turns back at the last second. “Give my love to your parents and that gorgeous little boy.” She walks out, leaving me surprised.

I didn’t even realise she and my mother were still in contact. It makes sense though. Mum worked alongside Belle for almost nine years. They were really good friends until I came along.

Cyrus is still standing in front of us. He’s studying my face, and I can’t help but shift in my seat uncomfortably.

“Maybe you should all stay for lunch. We’ll talk,” Cyrus says.

We don’t confer with each other, just follow him to the cafeteria shed and sit where he tells us to. It’s mid-afternoon, so it’s practically deserted except for us and the rest of the council members at one of the other tables.

Cyrus goes to the kitchen and brings out trays of food for us. “So why did you think we were following you?” he asks, sitting down at our table and helping himself to some food.

I pick at some fruit on the platter and am reminded of how much I miss fresh farm food. It was an adjustment, but I was finally used to the laboratory-grown food. I’d almost forgotten what this was like. I hear myself moan embarrassingly.

“Sorry, what?” I ask, a mouth full of mango. “Oh right, the notes. They seemed to be blaming Paxton and me for Chad’s death. We figured you guys would be the only ones who’d be concerned with that.”

“There were notes?” he asks. “What did they say?”

Drew speaks up. “Are you actually interested in helping, or are you just asking for the sake of it?”

“I’ll help if I can. Just start from the beginning.”

We fill Cyrus in on everything – the notes, the photos, the fact the bleached blond haired man called me Lia. He listens intently, and doesn’t comment until we’re done.

“You said the photo of Chad was old?” he asks.

“Yeah. It looked like a yearbook photo or something. Probably from Eminent Falls High,” I say.

“And you didn’t think that if it was us, we would’ve sent a more recent photo?”

Drew and I look at each other, a little embarrassed that we hadn’t thought of that.

Cyrus shakes his head with a smirk. “I thought you two were agents?”

“We may have overlooked that,” Drew admits. “But we just want to get to the bottom of this. We have to follow any possible leads.”

“I know this might sound like it’s coming out of left field, but have you given any thought to Paxton being behind this?” Cyrus says.

I narrow my eyes. “Why would he threaten himself?”

“I don’t really see any threats being made from what you’ve told me. I see someone wanting to scare you. Perhaps Paxton was hoping you would turn to him if you were scared, instead of turning to Drew.”

“But what would be the point? Why would he do it?”

“Because he wants to marry you,” Drew says. “He could offer you ultimate protection.”

“That’s so wrong,” Cyrus says. For a minute I think he means because of the manipulation, but then he adds, “You with a ‘normal’ person?” He shakes his head. “Such a waste.”

Not this again. Jayce scowls, giving me the urge to reassure him that Cyrus’s words aren’t bothering me. But then I think better of it. I can’t care about his feelings, I’ll only get hurt.

“All I’m saying is, you wouldn’t be the first one to be burned by Paxton’s manipulative ways,” Cyrus says.

“How did he burn you?” Jayce speaks up for the first time, slight anger to his tone.

Cyrus eyes Jayce and Jenna up and down. “What do you two have to do with all of this?”

“Nothing,” Jayce says, shrugging. “We’re concerned for Allira, that’s all. I personally don’t like Paxton
at all,
or have any respect for him. I was just wondering why you felt the same.”

That’s news to me. I knew he wasn’t exactly thrilled with Paxton’s and my relationship, but to say he doesn’t like him at all, that he doesn’t respect him?

“I like him already,” Cyrus says to me, nodding in Jayce’s direction. “Allira here once accused me of being power-hungry,” he explains to Jayce. “She didn’t seem to notice that it was actually Paxton who was the greedy one. Still is by the look of it. Running for President? You wouldn’t call that power-hungry, Allira?”

“He wants to make a difference in the world,” I say, rather pathetically.

Cyrus lets out a tiny laugh. “And you thought
we
were trying to brainwash you.”