Free The Cure by Teyla Branton Page A

didn’t speak, he risked a glance. “It gets worse,” he said quietly.
    I bit the inside of my lip and looked at the next picture. Tom at an airport, kissing the cheek of a gorgeous brunette wearing a short, red mini skirt and a tight tank top that accentuated her bust line. She was obviously wearing one of her favorite push-up bras—probably padded. Being Unbounded didn’t necessarily mean well-endowed. Her tall heels made her only a few inches shorter than Tom, but she seemed dainty and fragile all the same. Even from the side, Tom looked happy.
    I’d known that wherever Tom was, Justine wouldn’t be far behind. Did he still believe she was the loyal sister who’d come to rescue him when he’d aged out of foster care seventeen years ago? Maybe she’d finally confessed the truth about being his mother. Whatever their real relationship, she probably controlled him as absolutely as before.
    Wherever Justine was, death and destruction were never far behind, however masked it would be in the pheromones that aided in her seductions. Last I’d known, she’d been sleeping with Stefan Carrington in her attempt to influence the Triad, but it hadn’t gotten her far.
    I took a slow breath before saying, “When was this taken?”
    “Three days ago. I did some research, and she was on her way to Mexico. I thought it odd for her to be leaving at the time, since I was investigating a possible threat to the senator, but now it makes sense.”
    I stood. “I’d better pass this along to Ava. Is there a place I can reach you in case we have questions?”
    “Tell Cort to post on that group we use and I’ll set up a time to talk. It’s as anonymous as anything.”
    “Okay. Thanks for the information.”
    He leaned back, peering up at me. “Thank you for the food.”
    He’d finished only half of it. I forced a smile, “Maybe next time we’ll have a whole dinner.”
    A grin spread across his face. “There’s going to be a next time? I’d like that—a lot. But maybe then you’ll introduce me to your brother instead of having him spy on us.”
    I laughed. I should have known he’d figure it out. “I don’t know. Jace has a bone to pick with you. The last time you two met, he ended up almost dying.”
    “That wasn’t my fault.”
    “Well, he might feel he has something to prove, especially after missing all the excitement earlier this evening.”
    “Excitement?” Keene’s brow furrowed.
    What would it hurt to tell him? “Run-in with Hunters. They’d been tracking one of our potentials, just like you said. But they were easy enough to deal with—this time.”
    Keene stood up so abruptly that his chair tipped backwards, clanking loudly on the travertine floor. In two steps he was by my side, one hand gripping my arm. “This evening?”
    “Yes. Why does that matter?”
    “Because the Emporium is monitoring the Hunters closely.”
    Before he’d finished the sentence, Jace materialized behind Keene, his rapid movement more astonishing to our neighboring diners than the fallen chair and Keene’s urgency.
    Keene stiffened but didn’t turn around. “If the Hunters called it in before they went for the pickup, the Emporium will know and come to make sure it’s not one of ours—theirs.” The slip of words made me wonder just how separated he really was from the Emporium.
    Jace met my eyes. “He means they could have followed you from the park.”
    My gut wrenched at the idea. I’d been careful on the return trip to the palace, but if they’d planned it beforehand, they might have used a tracking device on my Jeep—on all the vehicles at the park—and though the disrupters we had in place at the palace would prevent any transmitting from that location, they could have followed the Jeep far enough to make the point moot.
    “The children,” I said.
    Though Chris’s children were eighth generation and not likely to carry the active Unbounded gene, their sensing lineage made them targets for the Emporium