Defective (The Institute Series Book 3) (22 page)

“What can I say – I just couldn’t stay away,” he says, smiling at me. “Is this really necessary anyway? We’re not the bad guys here. Allira and Drew just saved my life, in case you were wondering.”

“You still wearing the wire I gave you?” she asks in a hushed tone, like she doesn’t want her co-workers to hear he has it.

“Yeah. Still wearing it.”

“This should be easy to sort out, then. We’ll need you all to come down to the station, answer a few questions, give statements.” She looks over to me. “Is that okay?”

I nod. “Drew might need to go to the hospital though. He’s been beaten pretty badly.”

“I’m fine,” Drew disagrees on the other side of me.

“Can you tell me if Tate and Paxton are okay?” I ask, my voice breaking.

“There’s no news yet,” Jenna responds quietly. “Nothing they have told us anyway. We’ll get your statements down quick, and get you to the hospital as soon as we can, okay?”

“Okay,” I reply barely above a whisper.

I don’t know what I’m going to do if Tate isn’t okay. I don’t want Shilah to go through what I went through. I don’t want Nuka to lose her father either, even if I could kill Paxton myself right now.

The officer fastening my cuffs turns me around to face Jenna when he’s done.

“You don’t seem surprised to see me here,” she states, confusion written all over her face.

“Allira worked it out,” Jayce answers for me.

“Oh,” Jenna mutters.

“I tried to come and see you, numerous times. But since Paxton and I got engaged, he’s kind of had me on a short leash, and I couldn’t get away.”

“Why did you want to come see me?” she asks.

“I wanted to help with your investigation. Not to mention I wanted answers.”

She narrows her eyes. “And who do you think it is that we were investigating?” she asks, glancing at Drew.

“I assumed it was Paxton. I’ve learnt a lot about him this last week – more than I ever thought he was capable of.”

She nods. “We’ll talk at the station.”

As we’re escorted outside, the tension between Jenna and Drew becomes palpable. Before we’re put in a police van, Licia comes running over to us from her hiding spot. Other officers are quick to come after her, but she’s fast.

“You’re okay?” she says, reaching Drew and throwing her arms around him.

“You did good, kiddo,” he says proudly.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, you did,” I say, winking at her.

“And you got the cops here,” Drew adds. “And you listened when I said I didn’t want you in harm’s way.” He kisses her on the cheek in an overprotective, brotherly way.

I can’t help giggling at the pang of jealousy coming out of Jenna. Drew feels it too and has a giant smirk on his face.

We’re loaded into the van, Licia included, and taken to the police station. We’re each led to a different interrogation room, mine eerily similar to the one I had when I was first arrested and sent to the Institute. This one is cleaner, at least.

My arresting officer un-cuffs me and tells me to sit. He leaves the room and I’m left to ponder what they’re going to do to me.

I watch two hours go by, according to the clock on the wall. It’s 6:00AM now. That means Zac only had us captive for a few hours. It felt so much longer than that. Finally Jenna comes in, no longer in tactical protective gear, but a business suit, her long wavy blonde hair resting below her shoulders.

“We listened to the tape… well enough of it anyway,” she says.

“So we can go then?” I ask.

“We just need to go over a few things first.”

“Okay…”

“What did Jayce mean when he asked if you could become one person again?”

I look down, guiltily. “I may have been borrowing a Defective ability,” I admit. There’s no point in hiding it.

“We’re not going to press charges, if that’s what you’re worried about – you used it in self-defence, and anyone would clearly be able to hear that if they heard that tape. I was just kind of curious. You said you wanted to help our investigation?” she asks, changing the subject.

I nod. “I will if I can, but to be honest, I don’t know all that much. Paxton has been manipulating me for almost two years – ever since I met him. I don’t even know what’s real about him and what isn’t.”

“He isn’t our target,” she states. “Brookfield is.”

My heart beats loudly in my ears. “B… Brookfield?” I stutter, suddenly feeling faint.

“Are you okay? Do you want a glass of water or something?” she asks, and I nod. She doesn’t even move, but an officer comes in with a glass of water. Clearly this interview is being watched. “Brookfield’s been our target from the beginning, but you’re right about Paxton, too. It’s odd that Brookfield was able to just disappear like that. No money, no means of living. How do you suppose he’s managed to stay hidden for so long?”

“His wife?” I suggest, not liking where this is going.

Jenna shakes her head, “We’ve been on her for the last eighteen months. She wants nothing to do with him.”

“Are you saying that Paxton’s behind it?”

“Paxton makes a deposit to a side bank account every month. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s enough to live comfortably. Do you know who he would be sending money to?”

My eyes widen when I realise what she means. “No. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t be funding Brookfield’s life. Why? Why would he do it? Why wouldn’t he just turn him over? Brookfield tried to kill me. Paxton wouldn’t be giving him money. The money is probably for his ex-wife or something.” I know I’m borderline ranting, but I can’t help it.

“It could be. We haven’t been able to locate her. Have you ever met her?”

“No, but she abandoned Nuka when she was a year old. I don’t expect she would come back for her. Could it just be a savings account for Nuka?”

She shakes her head. “The money is always withdrawn within a couple of days, always at a different ATM, always in a different part of the city.”

“Don’t those things have cameras?”

She sighs. “You don’t think we’ve checked that out? All we know is it’s a man, and he always has his face hidden. Big sunglasses, baseball cap, hooded jackets, sometimes facial hair, sometimes not. That’s why we don’t think it’s his ex-wife – unless she’s getting her boyfriend or someone to get the money for her. But why hide his identity if that were the case?”

“You’re sure it’s Brookfield?”

“Fairly certain,” she replies, reaching her hand out, placing it on top of mine.

“But why?” I whisper, more to myself than her. Why would Paxton do this?

“The AFP weren’t aware of the hostile takeover until you told me about it last week. That was a major cover up on Paxton’s behalf. The only theory we can come up with as to why Paxton is abetting Brookfield is that he doesn’t want Brookfield’s side of the story to come out. Before that, we had no idea what his motivation would’ve been.”

“Paxton should want Brookfield captured just as much as me. He tried to kill me!” 

“So did Zac, evidently. He’s going away for a very long time. So will Brookfield when we get him. Okay?”

I nod. With Cyrus telling me Paxton orchestrated the whole takeover, Zac telling me Paxton organised the torturing of Tate and the escape of Brookfield, and now Jenna telling me Paxton has been funding Brookfield’s freedom, all I can wonder is how I was dumb enough not to see it earlier: Paxton is a sociopath and a pathological liar. For him to hide this, especially around Tate and me… he must even believe his lies himself, or we would’ve heard his deceit in his thoughts.

My revelation floors me.

“I just need to get your written statement of the events of what happened last night and this morning, and then we can get you to the hospital to be checked out, and you can visit your family,” she says, placing a pen and paper in front of me.

“Are… Is…”

“They’re not telling us anything at this point. All we’ve been told is they’re both still in critical condition.”

She gets up and goes to walk out, but I can’t stop myself from asking. “Did you… was Jayce…” I don’t want to ask the question.

“Was Jayce helping us?” she asks. I shyly nod. “No. In fact he’s been driving me crazy. He wouldn’t even tell me if you’d mentioned
anything
that could help my case. Not until you were willing to tell it all yourself.”

“When we went to the Institute?”

She nods.

I can’t help smiling. I understand now why he wanted me to go to Jenna with all of this. He knew she could help, but he wasn’t going to betray me or his sister by outing either of us.

“Tina was a confidential informant of mine from another case. The AFP put her up in our building in a safe-house type situation. Jayce didn’t know that – he just thought she was a new neighbour. It was my job to make sure nothing happened to her. I was out one night, and he found her beaten. When he got home from taking her to the clinic, he told me about the hot reception girl. We’d been surveying you for a while, and I was really hoping he meant that Ebbodine girl and not you because of how involved you were with Paxton. I told him to stay away.” She shakes her head, “He didn’t listen of course, and next thing I knew he was volunteering and spending every day with you. He didn’t even want to cover for me with the fake journalist crap, but he knew if he didn’t, and he was to expose me, I could’ve lost my job, and he could’ve been charged. He never wanted to lie to you. He didn’t even want to wear the wire last night. I told him I wouldn’t give him the press pass if he didn’t wear it.”

I try to hide my ever increasing smile, but fail miserably. “How did you fake the news article? And the press pass?” I ask, remembering the article by Jenna Harrison – the one about the clinic.

She looks at me condescendingly. “We’re special ops. We have the ability to use public media to our advantage. I have a connection to the editor of the Daily News. We needed to put focus on the clinic and your aunt to draw Brookfield out. We figured he wouldn’t be happy to know that the Institute was funding such a cause. It was a long shot, but we’re getting desperate to find him.” She comes close to me and whispers, “I also figured that even if it didn’t help our case, it would’ve helped your clinic. Jayce was right – people need to know what you’re trying to accomplish there.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh!” she says her smile unwavering. “I heard your negotiation with Zac on the wire. You could make a career as a negotiator. Unlike my stupid brother who backed himself into a corner by making the target realise he had no other options, you played to his ego and managed to distract him for eight more minutes. Do you know how critical those eight extra minutes are in tactical situations? Jayce is going to make a great psychologist one day, but I think he’s more suited to sorting out the messed-up problems of soccer mums than actual psychotics like Zac and Brookfield.”

“Thanks,” I say, managing a smile. She goes to leave but my stupid mouth keeps talking. “Have you spoken to Drew? Was he part of your investigation, too?”

She sighs and turns back around to face me, “He was in the beginning, but from what I’ve found out about him – apart from him being a total workaholic – he has nothing to do with the shady money deals that Paxton was involved in while he was the director of the Institute.”
Shady money deals, too?
She breathes in again and holds it. “I haven’t seen him. I don’t think he’ll want to talk to me.”

“I don’t know about that. Even if he is pissed off at you, just remember that’s how Drew and I met, and I’ve forgiven him. It took a while, but we’ve never been closer.”

“I’m not exactly hoping to
only
be his friend, Allira.” She walks out before I can stop her again.

I fill out my statement, providing as much detail as possible, and then sit and wait to be released. I put my head down on the desk in front of me for what feels like a minute, but when I hear the door click open, and I jump up startled, I’m wiping drool from my mouth. Maybe I fell asleep.

Jayce enters the room, and I’m out of my seat and in his arms before he can even say anything.

I feel his breath on my neck, his strong arms around me, and I can’t be any more thankful that he’s okay.

“I didn’t think you’d ever talk to me again when you found out about Jenna. Especially after that night we… you know,” he says, relief filling his voice.

“I have a confession to make,” I say, pulling away, but remaining close to him. “I knew you were lying to me before we slept together.”

“What?” he asks stunned, taking a step back.

“You know how we couldn’t hear you, but you heard everything we were saying through the earpieces that day?”

He nods.

“We overheard you and Jenna right before we came back into contact. You said you couldn’t lie to me anymore, and she told you to keep your mouth shut.”

“That explains why you were so pissed off after we left. Why didn’t you just talk to me about it?”

“I didn’t want to know the truth. I was worried about what it could be, and I figured ignorance is better than finding out what it was.”