Free Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor

entered the room.
    Anna groaned. “You’ve already asked me everything a hundred times,” she complained.
    Simon stopped halfway between the door and the bed. “I just came to tell you we’re cutting you loose. Joshua will arrange transport. On behalf of the Atlantis Watchmen, I’d like to apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort our investigation may have caused you,” he said stiltedly.
    Anna blinked at him. “You’re letting me go?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    Irritation flickered through her. It might be considered a courtesy to refer to her as ma’am, but it felt a hell of a lot more like a cold dismissal. They’d dragged her from her home in the middle of the night, in her nightgown, nearly drowned her, scared her half to death, and then grilled her almost non-stop for two days and that was all? ‘We’re cutting you loose, ma’am’? ‘Sorry for the inconvenience’?
    “That’s it?” she demanded in dawning anger.
    “Yes, ma’am.” He hesitated. “Unless you’d like to help further the investigation by giving us a description of Miles Cavendish and anyone else you might remember from the party.”
    She gave him a stony look. “I’m not sure how helpful I could be. My memory of it isn’t very clear after two days of interrogations and almost no damned sleep! To say nothing of having the pure piss scared out of me by having four men invade my house in the middle of the night and haul me off without even bothering to tell me they were cops!”
    “That’s what I thought,” he said grimly. “ You are your father’s daughter.”
    Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “And you, of course, aren’t a bigot for judging me by something I had no control of, but I’m a bigot because I think it would be better for everybody to focus on feeding people rather than tampering with their DNA!”
    “Nobody’s judging you!” Simon growled.
    “Like hell!” Anna snapped. “I’m sitting here, aren’t I?”
    Simon ground his teeth. “It was a lead we had to follow.”
    “Now I’m a lead? I’m not even a person?”
    “I didn’t come in here to argue with you!” Simon snarled.
    “Why did you come? Why didn’t you send one of the others?”
    “Because I’m High Guardian. It was my orders to take you, and it’s my job to explain and apologize!” he growled.
    “Well! You did that! And with such charm I feel better already!” Anna snapped sarcastically. “When do I leave?”
    “Not soon enough to suit me,” Simon muttered, turning on his heel and stalking toward the door.
    Spying a book on the table by the bed, Anna snatched it up and threw it at the door as Simon slammed it behind him.
    “That’s considered assaulting an officer of the law!” he growled from the corridor.
    “So arrest me and beat me up with your nightstick, asshole! You’ve already terrorized me, and manhandled me, and locked me up, and drilled me for hours and hours, and breathed for me!” She cringed when she realized that she’d accused him of drilling her. “I meant grilled!”
    “I’m going to be really pissed off if you broke my book!”
    Her shoulders slumped when she heard him stomp off down the hall. The urge to cry came out of nowhere. She sniffed, blinking at the stinging in her eyes, wondering why she felt so … thrown away … so afraid.
    It occurred to her with a force that dried up the urge to cry that she was afraid.
    She wasn’t relieved to discover they were going to haul her back to her place and dump her.
    Because Miles Cavendish had found her and she wasn’t nearly as convinced as they seemed to be that he’d given up on her and left for good. What if he came back for her? What if he sent someone to collect her?
    Beyond that, how was she going to live? Carry on her research? Her home, her research garden and everything in it belonged to Miles Cavendish! He owned her! She wasn’t even sure it would be safe to try to get another research grant. She hadn’t known he was behind the one she’d