Free Eden High Series 2 Book 3 by Jordan Silver

others work independently on others, that we wouldn’t put it together.
    How fucking stupid can you be? They hired me for my brain and yet didn’t think I was smart enough to use it. I have something for them too, fucking screw-ups. That nagging feeling hit me in the gut again and my mind flashed to Valerie.
    “Fuck!” That sixth sense I have where she’s concerned was zinging and I never go against my gut. I didn’t feel as if she was in imminent danger, but I knew there was something wrong, but what? She’s well protected, I know that, but without me there I can never be sure that things will go the way I want them to.
    Tonight was the big sleepover. She’d talked my ear off nonstop about it before I left. I know she would be safe there. I was sure Jace would keep an eye on her as I’d asked . So what was it that was putting a hole in my gut?
    If I’d thought like her dad that she was in any danger through her association with the others I would’ve nipped that shit in the bud no question, but I knew they were good for her. She didn’t have a lot of friends, I am all she has. Oh yeah, so why the fuck do you keep leaving her alone to come here with this shit?
    I didn’t have a choice, I reminded myself. I never thought that my intelligence could work against me, but it has been since the government got ahold of me. Bad enough the blood sucking vultures suck their citizens dry come tax time, now the fuckers think they have sole rights to anyone with a working brain.
    I should be home with my friends and family, enjoying my last year of high school. Instead these fucks keep interrupting my life to hide me away in their bunkers to do their dirty work. The only good thing about this set up is that it opens doors that would otherwise be closed. Still, at times like this I’d much rather be back in L.A.
    That Mandy bitch was fast working on my last nerve. I’d warned Jace about her, but he was as hardheaded as I am and I guess he needed to see for himself. Now she was causing trouble for him and everyone else it seemed and if Jace wasn’t careful she’d destroy him. I couldn’t let that happen.
    I should’ve taken care of her ass while I was home. Now she was headed home and from what I know about her she won’t stop until she got what she wanted. It was hell being here while so much was going on back there, but the government could give a fuck about the drama in my town.
    I wasn’t allowed to make calls, not unless it was an emergency, and even then someone else took care of it. I’d made a promise and I’m a man of my word. But the nagging fear that something was wrong had me questioning it.
    My first loyalty is to Valerie and always will be, so I had to find a way to reach out. For the first time since I’d been letting the government use me as a guinea pig, I decided to break protocol. I went in search of a secure phone to call my girl.

Chapter 11
    SIAN
    ***
     
    “D ammit she’s home, what are we going to do now?” I looked around my room at the girls who were laid out all over my bed and the floor. I only just learned that Mandy was back home when Cassie let it slip at dinner. Damn!
    “I guess we have to come up with a better plan. The hospital was a bit risky anyway.”
    “Shit Belle I just wanted to talk to her not finish her off.”
    I’d had the bright idea to go visit Mandy in the hospital where I could corner her and she had no way of getting away from me. I figured if she made a stink I could just pretend that I’d gone there to bury the hatchet. Now she was back home and I’d missed my chance. I wonder if Jace knew she was out. “Cassie how did you hear that anyway you never said.”
    She flinched like I’d hit her and I grew suspicious. I’m beginning to think that there was something more than the way Mandy was always picking on her bothering her. Did she know about her dad? I hope not. I’d been meaning to talk to her, to get the truth out of her without giving anything away,