The Chosen: A Resurrected Series Novel Page 3
“You haven’t called the police, have you?” he finally asked.
“Of course not!” I cried.
We all knew it was far too dangerous for everyone to involve the police, even if one of us had been victimized by violent crime.
“Good,” Mr. Schultz sighed. “Let me check their reports to see if there were any bodies found last night. If so, we’ll need to retrieve it right away.”
A loud, ugly sob escaped my lips and I covered my mouth, afraid of what else would erupt.
Mr. Schultz sighed again. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Any time something like this happens, it’s a huge concern for the entire community. It potentially endangers us all. I didn’t mean to be… callous.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.
The human Mason had changed, but I did love him. He was a good man, one who hadn’t wanted to abandon me and had held onto the same irrational hope that somehow, we could learn to navigate this new life together. He talked to me about Liam sometimes, and the life this young man had led before he died. He’d been a good man, too.
I had no way of knowing then that may have been why Liam and Mason had been chosen.
“I’ll call you as soon as I know something,” Mr. Schultz promised.
“Ok,” I whispered through my fingers. I heard him hang up and stared blankly at the screen on my cell phone for a few seconds. He can’t be dead. He can’t be dead. He can’t be dead.
I turned the news back on and grabbed my laptop to search, once again, for any reports of fatal automobile accidents. Unlike me, Mason had gotten a license – a fake one, of course, created by someone who worked for Mr. Schultz – and a car. I had no interest in driving. The traffic in Atlanta worried me.
When I couldn’t find any news reports of fatal accidents, I resisted the temptation to throw my laptop across the room. I settled for the remote instead. It broke against the apartment wall and fell to the floor in fragments of black plastic. The batteries rolled on our laminate wood floors and finally thunked against the opposite wall.
I began to accept Mr. Schultz would be calling me back with the devastating news: he couldn’t find Mason because Mason had left me.
But Mr. Schultz didn’t call me back. That evening, still clutching my cell phone in my hand, unwilling to part myself from it for even a moment, a sharp knock on my door startled me and I almost dropped the phone. I looked through the peephole and held my breath.
My nervous fingers turned the locks and I slowly opened the door. Mr. Schultz, still in his suit and tie, his thin brown hair combed back and his golden brown eyes bloodshot, looked me over quickly then he entered my apartment without an invitation. I was too surprised to object.
“My associate in New York called me about an hour ago. Someone spotted his car there. Why the hell is Mason in New York?”
“New York?” I repeated. I shook my head. I couldn’t think of any reason he would have gone to New York, other than hoping the size of the city would allow him to disappear from everyone.
“Don’t lie to me, Bella,” he warned.
“I’m not lying!” I protested. “If I knew he were in New York, why would I have called you!”
Mr. Schultz grunted a reluctant affirmation and rubbed his hand over his high forehead. “Who do you know there?”
“No one,” I answered truthfully.
Mr. Schultz took two steps toward me and I shrank away from him, my back hitting the wall. I grimaced as the corner of a picture frame bit into my shoulder.
“Have you told anyone he’s gone? What about that human friend of yours?”
“No,” I whispered. I extended my hand and held out my cell phone. “You can check my calls.”
Mr. Schultz snatched the phone from my hand and stuffed it into a pocket. I stared disbelievingly at the pocket my phone had disappeared into. “Did Mason ever mention anything strange about his new body? His new life here?”
My mouth fell open slightly and I lifted my eyes to meet his. Recognition that I was hiding something flashed through those golden brown eyes and he grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm painfully, bringing me within inches of his face.
“Goddamn it, Bella!” he yelled. “Level with me!”
“It’s strange for all of us,” I whimpered. Tears stung my eyes, both from fear and the physical pain of his iron grip.
“What did he say?” he growled.
They’re going to kill him. He’s defective and they’re going to kill him.
“He regretted coming here, ok?” I shouted.
“Bullshit,” Mr. Schultz hissed in my face. “I know his file. This was his idea and he ran away with you for a reason.” He stepped back so his eyes could rake over my body again. “And you can’t tell me he doesn’t approve of the way you turned out.”
My fingers curled into fists, indignation and disgust almost replacing my fear. “Apparently,” I hissed back at him, “I can.”
Mr. Schultz’s fingers tightened around my wrist even more until I thought he was going to break my arm. I yelped from the pain and his other hand swiftly rose and struck me across the cheek. My head hit the wall and I blinked as the room darkened with bright white spots obscuring his features even though he was right in front of my eyes.
“Don’t even think of running,” he warned me. “We always find out the truth.”
He pushed me down then opened my apartment door, tugging on his jacket before stepping outside and slamming the door behind him. I squeezed my eyes shut and begged the nausea in my stomach to go away, to at least spare me from having to relive my earliest moments on this planet. My body didn’t listen.
And neither did I.
I pulled myself to my feet and stumbled into my bedroom where I grabbed a single bag that I hurriedly packed.
And then I ran.
Chapter 4
Six Years Later
“Jo, order up!” Jim barked.
I looked up at the line order cook who scowled back at me and wondered how many times he’d called for me to pick up my plates and deliver them. I glanced over my shoulder at the hungry diners who had a full view of their spacy waitress and the angry cook and were probably hoping I’d get fired.
I pulled the plates from the window and brought them to the counter, but I caught the manager watching me in my peripheral vision, his arms crossed over his thin chest. I glanced at him and his equally thin brown mustache twitched. I thought I might have wrinkled my nose at him and hoped I’d only imagined that.
At least he waited until my shift was over to fire me.
I clocked out for the last time and pulled my purse over my shoulder to leave. I wasn’t ready to move from the city yet, which meant I’d have to look for another job here. And getting a job with no references was almost like playing the lottery.
I didn’t even see him in the parking lot at first. For the past six years, I’d been an expert at monitoring my surroundings. I had to be. They were always looking for me, always after me. The fact that he’d been able to hide from me should have been my first clue this was no ordinary man.
“Bella,” he said.
I stopped, ice filling my veins as I spun around toward the sound of his voice. I didn’t recognize this voice, but he knew my name. My real name. He had to be one of them.
“No,” I stuttered. “You have the wrong person. My name’s Joanna.”
A figure stepped out from the shadows by the street. Beneath the yellow incandescent light of the street lamp, I was able to make out his light brown hair, his tall, muscular build, the perfect curvatures of his face. God, he was beautiful.
I blushed and backed away from the man they’d sent to kill me.
What the hell is wrong with you, Bella? Sane people aren’t attracted to their assassins!
He smiled at me and shrugged. “You’ve been Joanna for about seven months. You’ve gone by quite a few different names, and I’ll call you whatever you like. You think I’m with this company, but I’m not and I’m not here to
hurt you. I do need to talk to you though, and if you want to keep running from them, I’ll leave you alone. But my boss sent me looking for you specifically.”
“Why?” I whispered. “Who are you?”
The man looked over his shoulder at the street and watched a car pass then faced me again. “Look. I was born here, Bella. I know you had no way of knowing Baton Rouge was the last city you should be in if you’re trying to escape these assholes, but you moved here seven months ago after the last time they found you and you’ve got two choices now: get the hell out of this city tonight or consider joining us. My boss is impressed as hell you’ve survived this long and he would like for you to join them though.”
That was the point I lost my patience with this stranger. I put a hand on a hip and glared at him. “Who the hell are you?” I shouted.
“Sh!” he hissed. He ran his fingers through his hair, which left little spikes of soft brown hair sticking up at the front. I found myself wanting to run my own fingers through it and smooth it back down and quickly admonished myself.
Goddamn it, woman, get ahold of yourself!
He took a step closer to me and in a much quieter voice than I’d used, told me, “My name is Aiden. And that’s all I’m telling you while we’re standing in a parking lot at a Waffle House. Although if you hadn’t just gotten fired, I wouldn’t object to having pancakes first.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and asked, “Is that supposed to be funny?”
“Uh… apparently not.”
I rolled my eyes and looked around the parking lot. “There’s no one else out here. You want me to just take off with you, but I haven’t survived this long because I’m stupid.”
“No, you’re not. None of you are. Unfortunately.” He sighed and glanced at the street again and I began to suspect there was someone else out there watching us both. “I told them sending a woman would be a better idea,” he muttered.
I still thought he worked for the company that wanted me dead and had murdered my husband. I straightened and tried to see whatever he kept looking at across the street, but I didn’t see anything except darkness. “You know women like me?”
I’d never met any other women who’d crossed over. For the past six years, I’d kept my identity a secret, but they’d told me so few women ever crossed. Part of me thought I was the only one, just one more way to feel completely alone and isolated in this world I hadn’t chosen and had only come to for a man it had killed.
Aiden nodded. “Yeah, I know two. One’s married to my boss, the other to one of my colleagues.”
“I knew it!” I yelled at him. “You’re a terrible liar, asshole!”
Aiden blinked at me. “What?”
“They’re women,” I hissed. “You said you were born here and presumably work with people who were born here, which means they married normal men. How the hell did they get here if they were single? It’s impossible!”
Aiden threw his arms in the air and exhaled loudly. “How the fuck should I know?”
I blinked at him. His surprise and exasperation seemed so genuine. Voices in the parking lot startled me and we both turned to watch a couple of diners get into their car and drive away. He didn’t speak to me again until their taillights were no longer visible.
“Maybe you should just get out of Louisiana,” Aiden offered. “Avoid the cities you already know aren’t safe. We’ll try to keep an eye on you. We’re pretty sure we know why they killed Mason, and that makes you important to some awfully damn important people.” Aiden shook his head and flashed a crooked grin at me. “That came out wrong. Makes it sound like you shouldn’t be important otherwise. I just meant…”
“Ok,” I interrupted.
“Ok…” he repeated.
“I’ll go with you,” I said, wondering if I’d finally lost my mind or if pheromones were really that powerful because the sane Bella would have tried to disappear by now. The rational Bella would have run and fought him if he tried to grab me, even if he did look like he could snap me in half.
“Oh,” Aiden responded, sounding completely surprised even though he’d shown up here to convince me to go somewhere private to talk to him. “Um… if anyone ever asks, can we pretend I was a lot more persuasive and didn’t just wear you down from sheer stubbornness?”
I snorted and gestured toward the street. “You didn’t wear me down. I’ve been running from guys in this company for six years and none of them act like you. You’re not arrogant enough to work for them. And what’s out there?”
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you.”
I’m embarrassed to admit it, but part of me entertained fantasies of exactly what he intended to show me.
And that same part of me was terribly disappointed when we stopped in front of a Grand Caravan and he slid the door open, revealing two guys inside who smiled and waved at me like we knew each other and they’d been waiting on me to show up so we could hit the clubs.
They weren’t even dressed in all black and the van wasn’t filled with cool super-secret-spy equipment. One of the guys was wearing a t-shirt with Mario from the Super Mario Bros. game on it, for God’s sake.
I climbed in because I couldn’t imagine anyone who worked for Mr. Schultz being caught dead in a Mario t-shirt.
Aiden climbed in after me and pulled the door closed and the driver immediately turned back around and started the engine. As soon as the door clicked into place, he took off. My heart accelerated with the engine.
Maybe I’d made a mistake in trusting him. Maybe my ridiculous human hormones had gotten the better of me. I’d just climbed into a van with three strange men. Sure, one of them was gorgeous and if I were going to die, what a way to go, but I hadn’t exactly planned on dying that night.
Aiden picked up a tablet on the seat beside him and turned it on. He pulled up a screen and handed it to me. “Mason woke up with Liam Carmichael’s memories and personality, didn’t he?”
I looked down at the screen and Mason’s handsome face smiled back up at me. No, that’s not right. Liam’s handsome face smiled back up at me. I swallowed a painful burning in my throat and nodded.
“He’s not the only one, you know,” Aiden continued.
I almost dropped the tablet. “What?” I whispered.
I wondered if our entire conversation for the night would just be a series of questions back and forth. If either of us hoped to actually learn anything from the other, it wasn’t boding well for us so far.
“There have been plenty of others,” Aiden explained. “And there’s currently someone else like him. This is what they do when someone is…” Aiden bit his lip and glanced at the man with the Mario t-shirt. The man just shrugged at him then went back to doing something on his phone.
“Resurrected,” Aiden finished.
“But…” I stammered, “Liam wasn’t. Not exactly. Mason was still himself, too.”
Aiden nodded as if he already knew this. How did they know so much about him when we’d never told anyone? Some naïve hope sparked within me that he was still alive, even though Aiden had mentioned his murder twice already.
Aiden nodded toward the tablet in my hands and said, “His body and personality and everything that made him him was brought back to life when your boyfriend took over his body. It’s rare but it happens. As far as we can tell, there’s ever only one person like that in the world at a time, but we still don’t know why. Honestly, this is still really new to us all. Well, maybe not so much Dietrich, but…”
“Who?” I interrupted.
“My boss. Our boss,” he corrected himself and waved toward the two other men in the van. The guy in the Mario shirt barely looked up at me and offered me a quick smile.
“Your boss for what? You still haven’t explained who you work for other than some guy with a weird name.”
“It’s not weird,” Aiden argued. “It’s German. He’s weird, but if you ever meet him, don’t tell him I said that. He scares the shit out of all of us.”
“So you work for a scary German,” I said slowly. “I may be relatively new here, but I read. I study. And I don’t like where this is going.”
Mario snorted and finally looked at Aiden. “I like her.”
“Shut up,” Aiden sighed. “He’s American now, Bella. Has been for years. And he works for our government just like we do. Believe me: we’re the good guys.”
“You work for the government,” I repeated then immediately felt like an imbecile. Of course they did. That’s how they knew so much about Mason and me. I folded my arms angrily and glared at Aiden. “FBI?”
Aiden actually wrinkled his nose and scoffed at me. “God, Bella, say that again and we’ll leave you here on South Foster Drive.”
I glanced out the window and saw that we were, indeed, on South Foster Drive. “Not funny. Where are we going?”
“Just driving until you decide if you want to stick with us or have us bring you somewhere,” the driver announced.
Not FBI. There were multiple government agencies, but to be here, to be involved with me and the company I’d been running from for six years, they had to belong to one of two other agencies. And something told me I wasn’t sitting across from a couple of guys in Homeland Security.
“When did they find him?” I asked quietly. “Was it quick? His death?”
Aiden watched me carefully and as we stopped at a red light beneath a brightly lit street corner, I noticed for the first time that he had blue eyes rimmed with an unusual hazel green. Damn, he was so breathtaking.
“All we know about it is that they detained him for a while in New York. The man who ordered his murder is dead. As for Mason… Bella, knowing all the details won’t help you.”
The light turned green and I closed my eyes as the driver accelerated through the intersection. “Just tell me,” I pleaded.
“We didn’t get involved in any of this until recently. We went through all of Abram Mirowski’s files and that’s how we discovered there had been a huge manhunt for this young man who seemed completely harmless.”