Through The Veil (2 page)

One
of the flanking men raised his weapon toward her.

She
gave a sharp nod of her head as she raised her hands in supplication. “Hang on.
Calm down. My fiancé is the ES District Magistrate, Teddy Hale. Please let me
call him and find out what’s going on.”

As
the District Magistrate, Teddy was one of the most powerful men in this area of
the country. Normally she hated it when he used his rank to exert personal
power, but this circumstance was an exception.

The
detective’s smile turned downright evil as he handed over the paperwork
detailing Dominic’s indictment. She quickly scanned it and shock ricocheted
through her like she’d been punched in the gut. There at the bottom with the
order of death for treason was the signature of the man she was supposed to
marry—Teddy Hale.

Pain
sliced through her as her heart broke. She thought she could trust him. He knew
what Dominic meant to her. Why would he do this and not give her some sort of
warning?

“Now,
Ms.
Renshaw
, if you have no further arguments, take
us to Dominic Dupree.”

She
couldn’t let this happen. She’d deal with the pain of Teddy’s betrayal later.
Now she had to concentrate on saving Dominic.

Her power.
It might be Dominic’s only chance, but using it would expose
her. It would also completely knock her on her ass with no ability to protect
herself from the fall-out. Unless…

She
grabbed her dark glasses, and placed them on her face. At Detective Morris’s
questioning gaze, she said, “I’m sorry. I suffer from migraines when my stress
levels rise, and as you can imagine, I find this particularly stressful.” She
rubbed at her temple as if to soothe the pain.

The
need for glasses was a complete and total lie. Her eyes glowed when she used
her power, and if these men caught her in the act, it would earn her the same fate
as Dominic. Probable death or worse.

She
led the men down the corridor, her heart pounding with fear and adrenaline.
“Dominic’s office is on the second floor with the design studios, so we’ll take
the elevator down.” As manager and lead designer at Savvy Textiles, her office
occupied the top floor of the seven-story building.

The
men followed through the elevator doors, and she positioned herself near the
control panel. Grabbing hold of the railing around the edge of the elevator,
she centered herself. This would take some effort, especially since they
couldn’t know what she was doing. After they sank two and a half floors, she
concentrated her gift to rearrange the energy running through the circuitry.
The car shuddered to a rapid stop, sending a jolt of pure energy zinging and
sizzling with electricity through her neurons. Luckily, the men inside the
elevator were too concerned with the actual elevator halting to notice her
sudden mental jolt and she had time to recover before they glanced at her.

Now
to see how long she could hold the energy at bay and give Dominic a chance to
escape. “I’m sorry, gentlemen.” She managed to hide the strain from rippling
through in her voice. “It’s an old building. Let me call maintenance and see
what’s going on.” She lifted the phone out of the call box with her free hand
and ignored Detective Morris’s distinctly suspicious gaze.

Thirty
minutes later, her hands trembled, her heart raced, and sweat beaded under her
glasses. “Whew, it’s getting a little warm in here, isn’t it?”

The
men glared at her, but didn’t respond. They’d abandoned small talk minutes into
their entrapment which had been the only thing about the situation she could be
thankful for. Her energy almost completely depleted, she finally released the
field she’d been holding to keep the elevator trapped between floors.
Immediately upon her mental release, it chugged and groaned, crawling downward.

“Oh,
thank goodness.” She sighed, trying to act the part of someone simply
distressed about a non-working elevator and not completely and totally wrecked
with exhaustion.

When
the doors finally opened on the second floor, her maintenance man stood there
full of apologies and confusion. “I have no idea what was wrong with the
system, Ms.
Renshaw
.”

“Don’t
worry about it, Jerome. Call the elevator service guys to look at it and shut
it down for today so no one else gets trapped. For now, we have other issues
that need my attention, so we’ll leave you to it.”

She
led the men down the hall toward Dominic’s office, trying not to trip with her
fatigue and praying he’d escaped. Relief swamped her when she saw the lights
off in his office. She stopped one of the seamstresses walking past. “Do you
know where Dominic went?”

“Yes.”
She stopped and shuffled the bolts of fabric teetering in her arms. “His
girlfriend had an emergency at home so they left early, but I saw him clock
out, Ms.
Renshaw
, so his timecard should reflect
that.”

“Thank
you, Beatrice.” She shook her head ruefully at the men behind her. “I
apologize. If you’d like to go back up to my floor, I can get you both of their
addresses out of our files.”

One
of the officers blanched at the thought of getting into an elevator again.

“It’s
okay.” She reassured them. “We can use one of the other elevators or the stairs
if that would make you more comfortable.”

“No,
thank you, Ms.
Renshaw
,” Detective Morris gritted
out. “If you just give us the name of the girlfriend, we can find the address
in our system. But believe me, your
cooperation
will be notated in our
files.” Detective Morris’s sarcastic tone stated exactly what he thought of her
help. “I’m sure we’ll be talking again soon.”

The
three men strode off. As they rounded the corner to the stairwell, Lori
collapsed against the wall, trying to stave off the sleep that her body so
desperately demanded.

They’d
made it. Maria had gotten Dominic out of the building and maybe they would be
able to stay one step in front of the
ESIA
. Relief
flooded her even with the fear that it may just be a temporary reprieve for her
assistant. She knew he had family to the north where there were rumors of
rebellion. Maybe he could make it there and he’d have a better chance of
hiding.

She’d
done all she could and now she needed to get someplace where she could sleep.
She couldn’t cave into it yet or she would be next on the
ESIA’s
kill list.

* * *

An
hour later, Lori arrived home, practically crying with relief and exhaustion.
Teddy’s defection had shocked her and she wasn’t sure how she should proceed
anymore. Her entire body shook with a mix of fear and adrenaline, shock and
disbelief. As she dragged herself inside, she saw the note from Teddy on the
kitchen counter.

Working late tonight. Don’t wait up. –T

Oh,
thank God. He wouldn’t be around tonight. After this afternoon, she needed a
few hours to recuperate and come up with a plan. Obviously she couldn’t trust
him. His betrayal devastated her, but she couldn’t dwell on her broken heart.
Now she had to figure out how to stay alive. Damn, why had she told him about
her power last week? If he could order the death of her best friend, would he
do the same to her?

She’d
been weak, wanting a family—a place to belong—so badly that she’d been willing
to accept a man that she knew in her heart wasn’t her soul-mate. But he’d been
kind and sweet and thoughtful in their two year relationship. Yes, maybe he was
a little too focused on his political aspirations, but she’d accepted that
because his devotion to his job seemed to mean good things for the ES. What an
idiot she’d been. She curled her arms around her waist as if that would help
hold the pain inside, a pain that warred with anger. That anger pulsed within
her like a flash-fire, lashing out over her own stupidity and at Teddy for his
duplicity.

She’d
managed to keep her gift hidden for so many years, but if she could trust
anyone, it should have been him.
 
They
were getting married. At the time she told him the truth, of course he’d been
shocked, but he immediately promised to hide her secret. She would be an idiot
to believe that now.

Dark
spots edged her vision warning her that she was minutes away from passing out.
She couldn’t think it all through logically now though with her brain flowing
like sludge. After a few hours of sleep, she could make more sense of her
options. She barely managed to peel off her suit and crawl onto the bed in her
panties before she slipped into an exhausted sleep.

* * *

Several
hours later, voices seeped into her subconscious.

“If
my girlfriend had an ass that looked like that, I sure as hell wouldn’t be
sending her off somewhere else.”

Lori
tried to open her eyes, but it was like they were glued together. She attempted
to move, wiggle her fingers, anything. Panic caused her heart rate to pick up,
but even with the surge of adrenaline, she still couldn’t make her muscles
respond. What was wrong with her?

“You
got that right.” The other voice lowered with lust. “Too damn bad. I’d have her
on her knees every night.” A rough hand grabbed her ass fingering the lace edge
of her panties before he turned her over to her back. She wanted to bat his
groping hands away, but couldn’t. All she could do was flop.

“How
much sedative did you have in that thing? She wasn’t supposed to be
unconscious, just unable to fight back. The magistrate won’t like it if she’s
carried out of here looking like this. He wants a show for the cameras, so you
need to juice her up so she doesn’t appear like a victim.”

Oh,
God. Who were they talking about? What kind of show?

“We’re
fucking dragging her out of her bed that she shared with him in the middle of
the night,” a third voice muttered with compassion. “She
is
a fucking victim.” A
pinprick of pain jolted in her neck, and suddenly Lori could open her eyes.

“Holy
shit!” The man, who just seconds before had been expounding her victimized
status, now backed away from her, his eyes wide in fear.

All
three of the men wore ES Enforcer uniforms, the same expression of horror
etched on their faces.

“No
one said she was an Other,” one whispered in a shocked and horrified voice.

Her
eyes must be glowing, either from the leftover energy from using her power this
afternoon or the new adrenaline shooting through her system. She glanced down
to hide the glow, an instinct from years of hiding her Other status. It was way
too late for that now.

She
needed to take advantage of their shock and fear, but her muscles refused to
cooperate.
Dammit
. Her eyes filled with tears.
Weak.
She couldn’t even fight
back. She scanned the bed, desperately searching for a weapon as her fingers
began to tingle. Feeling slowly crept back into her limbs. Frantic, she had to
move before they realized how truly helpless she was right now.

“What’s
the hold-up in here?” a voice she recognized growled from the doorway.

She
raised her gaze and looked directly to the man who’d made her day miserable—Detective
Morris. Fuck.

His
scowl quickly morphed to a smile full of evil intent that had nothing to do
with happiness. “Ms.
Renshaw
,” he cooed. “Now, isn’t
this a surprise. What goes around comes around, eh? We didn’t get Mr. Dupree,
but I think I can be okay with that since we have now contained a dangerous
Other. We will so enjoy having you in our custody.”

Terror
liquefied her stomach and she tried to stifle the pure panic running through
her. She had to stay in control if she had any hope of getting out of this
alive.

“You
have thirty seconds to get her dressed and downstairs,” the detective
instructed. “Let’s make this a good show for the magistrate.”

They
dressed her, dragged her into the hallway, and hauled her down the outside
stairs of her apartment building. Blue, red, and yellow flashed in pulses of
light in front of her as they dragged her into the onslaught of people gawking
on the street.

In
the middle of it all stood Teddy looking toward the crowd and photographers as
they surged forward. For a brief moment, she nurtured a trickle of hope, but
when that oily politician’s smile lit up his expression as he faced the crowd,
her stomach sank. He didn’t even man-up enough to meet her eyes.

“Rest
assured.” His voice carried out over the melee. “The government in the ES will
do everything in our power to eradicate threats to your safety.” He waved a
hand at her.

Shock
stunned her. What kind of threat could she possibly pose? She designed and
manufactured clothing for their people. He’d always praised the fact that she
worked in such a necessary part of their new society. They all needed clothes
and she’d taken the reins to get one of the largest manufacturing plants up and
running again. In the years after the Veil fell, their society as they knew it
had to readjust. Everyone was scared, but she’d stepped up and helped
re-establish a vital part of their supply line.