I’ve been drugged.
Ice trails down my spine.
My drink. Luke said he thought I’d already come back from the restroom, but I hadn’t. My brain flips in my skull, like your stomach when you drive over a hill. I need to pull over but I’m pretty sure the car is following me and if I stop now, I’ll be defenseless.Dammit, why did I have to put my phone under my seat?Think, Freya, think.
I’ve got a bike that I won’t be able to ride for much longer, I can’t reach my phone and I don’t have my gun.Assets don’t get weapons, I think bitterly,they get trackers.
The tracker.
I only have a five-mile radius. If I go outside of it, River gets sent an alert. I try to picture the boundary map he sent me but my brain’s all foggy. My house is straight ahead, and I knowthat’s inside the limits.Screw it.I take a chance at the next turn and swerve left.
The car follows me.
Gravity tugs at my limbs and my breathing feels sluggish. I keep having to open my eyes again. I need to stop before I pass out and crash, but I don’t think I’m over the boundary yet.
My boot slips from the foot peg and bounces off the tarmac. I try to pick it up, but I can’t. I’m not going to last much longer. The road ahead of me is clear. I make a split-second decision and roll the throttle, accelerating as fast as I can, only easing off when my vision goes spotty. I misjudged though, I don’t have time to fully stop before I lose control of the bike, my fingers slipping from the handles.
Metal screeches through the padding of my helmet and the world flips as I skid across the road. The impact shakes my bones, but I don’t feel the pain. I roll across the tarmac before coming to a stop on my stomach. Cold air filters through my helmet and I realize the visor’s smashed.
I can’t move.
Hands touch my body and my stomach lurches. I’m on my back now. The stars, big white blurs in the sky. A figure leans over me. Ginger hair, like mine. I can’t hear what they’re saying.
Everything is muddled. I don’t think I’m safe. I need them to leave. My eyes flutter closed but I manage to say one word. “Tracker.”
The figure disappears. I’m trying to float away but something’s tugging on my boot. After a second it lets me go and then nothing’s holding on to me. I don’t float though. I sink. Down into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Oz
JEEZ LOUISE. I lean back in my chair and sneak a look at my phone as Jude and Eli descend into another argument. Still no reply from Freya. I messaged her earlier this evening, before River came back in a huff and ordered a team meeting in the living room. It’s been going on for over an hour now. An hour which I could have spent trying to track Maxwell.
We work well as a group, it’s why we have such a high closure rate but adding Freya to the mix is like introducing a computer virus. The thing is viruses don’t have to be bad. Sure, most people design them to do harm but there’s nothing to say they can’t be designed to do good, like an encryption virus that automatically attaches to files and protects your data.
The issue with any virus, even the hypothetically good ones, is that once they’ve been released, they’re uncontrollable.
Freya is a wildcard. I wasn’t lying earlier when I told her to consider me neutral ground. Part of me wonders if she might be good for us. We’re all getting a little jaded, darkened by the things we deal with every day. Freya’s sparking emotions we haven’t felt in a long time.
On the other hand, if we can’t get them under control, those emotions could wreck us.
Jude pushes himself up off the sofa and I zone back into the conversation.
He glares at Eli. “You are judging her based on her father’s actions,” he says. “You know that’s not right; you know we don’t do that.” Jude’s eyes flick to River whose jaw tightens. River’s past goes unspoken most of the time, but Freya’s not the only one to be born to a criminal. There’s a reason he’s a stickler for the rules.
“Enough,” River snaps. “Sit down.”
Jude does as he’s told, and I tuck my phone away.
“Whether we can trust Freya or not doesn’t matter right now. I called this meeting to talk about boundaries. Boundaries which have clearly already been crossed.” He locks eyes with Jude which doesn’t surprise me but when he turns to Eli my curiosity is peaked.Interesting.I wonder what’s going on there.
“Freya is an asset,” River continues, “any form of sexual relationship with her is highly inappropriate.”
Jude lifts his chin. “In the eyes of the world she’s just a detective consulting with us on a case. It’s not against the rules to have a relationship with a colleague.”
River pins him with a cool stare. “It is now. I am not having my team fall apart fighting over a woman.”
Eli scoffs. “I want nothing to do with her. If Jude wants her, he can fucking have her.”
