Girl? I’ll show you girl, you smug, stupid son of a bitch.
I snort derisively while in complete disbelief. I’ve never been forced out of a meeting before.
“Araya is with me. The last time I checked, it was her interrogations which gave us every damn lead we had,” Hale asserts.
“She has no ranking, and we’ve had to tighten security per our fearless hybrid leader,” the full blood prick snarks.
“Watch your tone. The last I checked, I was a ranked official,” Hale growls.
“So am I,” Brazen interjects. “I’m also our advocate, and I’m saying stand down. We’ll need Araya’s input. She knows Cheyenne better than any of us.”
The snarling man he just pissed off scoffs before walking away from the table, and everyone else resumes looking over the feed. Brazen’s eyes catch mine again, and I look away as I see the underground footage they’ve acquired.
I watch in disbelief as the drone wanders through the corridors of the underground tunnels. I briefly glance at Brazen’s hand bearing the navigation remote before turning back to the familiar, dark tunnels.
“If you turn right, there’s a secret room,” I murmur softly while staring at the screen. “It’s all the way at the end of the hall. All you have to do is make the drone tap the wall three times.”
“How do you know that? The tunnels were meant for officers only,” a man mumbles.
“They were also meant to break strong hybrids,” I almost whisper. “It’s where they would take you to break the rules.”
As if the legal torture wasn’t bad enough.
Brazen and Hale both wince in unison at my confession, and Hale’s grip tightens on my hand while Brazen does as I asked. The drone taps the wall thrice, and then the old wall slowly starts to climb into hiding to allow for access.
“This is the only way we could get in. Our drone had to tunnel under the ground and through the floor where the metal wasn’t as reinforced,” Brazen says to answer my silent question.
The power isn’t running in the old, destroyed compound, and the dim light of the drone is all that casts a glow on the morbid memories etched in that room.
“There’s a stainless steel table in the middle of the room. Above it there’s a large light fixture. There’s an emergency solar switch on the back of it which will illuminate the whole room if you turn it on.”
“How much time did you spend there?” a man gushes.
“More than anyone else. Araya was one of the very few that ever had to be taken to that room. The rest of us prayed it was an urban legend,” Clay murmurs as he takes the spot beside me.
The table shuffles around as Brazen zooms in on the switch I spoke of, and then the drone raises it to shed light on the horrific torture room. I gasp when I realize there isn’t any dust in this room like the rest of the underground footage.
“Araya was right. This room is in operation. They’ve been going underground.”
It’s like a miniature lab on top of a torture room. There is blood on the ground that is less than a few days old, and chemicals that have been left are still fresh in color and stain.
“Shit. They were right under us. We should have fucking dug it up that day,” Brazen growls.
“Use the drone to see if you can find any weak spots to blast through. We’ll see what evidence they’ve left behind. Hale, come with me. I need to talk to you about some of this other,” Clay asserts, and Hale kisses my forehead before joining him.
The others slowly disperse, and I step over to stand beside Brazen in an effort to help him analyze the footage of the underground hell.
“I didn’t know about this part of your stay in Cheyenne,” Braze murmurs softly as we stand alone.
“That’s because I don’t exactly speak about it. Please don’t ask me to talk about it,” I strain out as my jaws clench.
“Not everything has to be said aloud,” he murmurs softly.
His hand moves across my back very comfortingly, and I stifle the tears that want to fall. He sighs as he continues to navigate the drone, and I quickly wipe away the few stray tears that have crept out. His eyes immediately flash over to my new ring, and I see a glistening stain of tears in his pale eyes.
“So you’re engaged… again,” he almost snarks.
“I’m sorry,” I sigh as my eyes steady solely on the footage in front of me instead of the brooding man.
