Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (31 page)

Still, I didn’t dislike Anya. If
anything, I respected her a great deal. When Erik introduced me as
his girlfriend the first time Anya and I met, she’d been visibly
shaken by the label. Physically, she was with Erik first, but his
heart was never hers. The girlfriend title was never hers. And yet,
when asked to put herself in danger to help me—the girl who had
both the guy and the label Anya coveted—she didn’t hesitate.
Helping me had been the right thing to do then, saving her was the
right thing to do now.

Regardless of their past, Erik was
more than just my current boyfriend. He was my heart, the other
half of my soul, my future. He cared about Anya, so I did,
too.

For Erik, there was nothing I couldn’t
stomach.

“
Tals, please.”

Erik’s heart was breaking. The tenuous
hold on both his control and his sanity was slipping. Different
factions of his mind were warring with each other. Concern for Anya
vied for dominance over the part of him that was willing to
sacrifice anything and anyone who threatened my happiness. Erik
worried that even asking me to save her might jeopardize our
relationship. That knowing he still cared about girl who had once
been so much more than a friend might rekindle my old jealousies
and drive a wedge between us.

Tears sprang to my eyes and I wiped
them away with the back of my hand. There were so many things I
wanted to say to Erik in that instant, but time was not a luxury we
had. Blocking him from my head, to hide those jealous feelings he
was so worried about, crossed my mind. But, if he got it together
enough to look, I wanted Erik to see that, yes, I was jealous. But
I wasn’t the insecure mess I’d been a few short months ago when
he’d first told me about Anya. A lot had changed since that day in
D.C. There was nothing, and no one, that held the power to break
the bond connecting me and Erik.

“
Listen to me,
Erik,”
I said, my voice backed by more
manipulation than I’d ever used with him.
“You trust me, right? Trust that I will rescue Anya. For you.
For me. For her. I owe her. And I want to repay that debt. Trust me
to handle this. You need to calm down.”

Authority laced every syllable I
spoke, allowing no question that Erik would comply. Manipulating
someone I loved unconditionally sucked, it was a violation of his
trust. But in that moment, it was also necessary. No matter the
number of times I told Victoria that Erik was in control, he
wasn’t. Not when strong emotions overshadowed his judgment, as they
were doing just then. He was on the verge of storming the auction
house doors and I couldn’t let that happen. It would end badly for
all of us.

“
Do you understand
me?”
I sent when Erik remained
silent.

“
Yes.”

His one word reply came out sounding
drugged, causing me to wonder if maybe I’d used too high a dose of
power.

“
Talia, we’re over a
million. Are you sure about this?” Frederick asked. “Only one
Talent is listed, she’s definitely not Created.”

Meeting Frederick’s wide brown gaze, I
prepared to use my Talents on him. But it wasn’t necessary.
Determination leaked from my pores, so strong that Frederick
obviously felt the emotions I was projecting. He sucked in air, as
if my force of will had stolen his breath.

“
Brand is screaming in my
ear, Tal. You better say something to him,” Frederick replied,
fingers flying to place another bid. “Agent Canary, too. I’ve never
heard her string so many words together.”

Turning my comm unit back on, I cut
off Brand mid-rant.

“
This one is on me. I’ll
take full responsibility with Victoria and the council. Just let it
go.”

“
Why?” Brand demanded,
undeterred by my orders.

“
You’re violating direct
orders,” Catherine added.

Expecting Erik to interject with a
tirade of his own, I remained silent. When he said nothing, I again
worried that the manipulation had been too strong. To Brand and my
other opponents, I said, “Because I said so. That’s why. I’m well
aware I’m violating orders, Agent Canary. I, and I alone, will deal
with the repercussions. Let. It. Go.”

Flawless logic, I know. But even if
time wasn’t an issue, there was no way I was sharing my personal
history with every listening ear. It was bad enough that all the
agents on my team, Catherine’s team, and the strike teams just
heard me admit to deliberately defying directs orders. Yeah,
Victoria bitching me out was the best case scenario. More likely,
I’d be hauled in front of the entire council and sanctioned for
insubordination.

“
Sold! For 1.7 million
globes to bidder 4513,” the auctioneer proclaimed.

Suddenly, Frederick’s image was on the
wallscreen. He smiled and waved sheepishly for the
cameras.

“
Thank you,” I said, once
the cameras panned out to show the crowd.

“
Don’t mention it. She’s my
friend, too. I’ll take the heat from Victoria with you.”

I scoffed.

“
Thanks, but I like you too
much to feed you to that she-wolf.”

As a preemptive strike, I considered
messaging Victoria right then to explain my actions before another
agent got the chance. It would give her time to be pissed and then
cool down, before I had to face her. I eyed my communicator
speculatively. The image of Ernest’s tattoo was still up on my
screen. I hit send. Maybe that would distract Victoria from any
tattletale messages surely bombarding her inbox.

That was when I noticed an unread
message in my own inbox. It was from Riley, a fully detailed report
on the Lady Lucinda room and the other matters I’d requested. I had
to hand it to the guy, he was a great emissary. He’d managed to get
all of the information I wanted, in record time. I forwarded the
report to Erik and the rest of the strike team, just in case things
went south and we needed to stage a mass rescue. That room would be
the mission target.

“
Oh man, not him, too.”
Henri’s voice in my ear brought my attention back to the
wallscreen.

Dread as thick as the London fog
caused my eyes to squeeze shut, before finally allowing myself to
process who I was seeing. My thoughts echoed Henri’s words. Arden
Greis. He’d been Donavon’s team leader during his time with the
Hunters. We’d been friendly without really being friends. Arden and
Henri were around the same age, and had probably pledged the
Hunters together. Arden was once our coworker—mine, Penny’s,
Erik’s, and Henri’s.

“
How the hell did they get
so many of us?” I groaned, unaware I’d spoken aloud until Frederick
pulled me in for a hug.

“
I don’t know, Talia. I
just don’t know.”

Unable to watch another of my brethren
humiliated by this public spectacle, I focused on the communicator
clutched in my white-knuckled hands. It buzzed with another
incoming comm. Figuring it was a response from Victoria about
Ernest’s tattoo, I tapped to view it.

Somehow, with everything else in play,
the words still managed to bring a whole new wave of terror
crashing over me.

*
Hello, Natalia. It’s nice to see you again.*

“
THERE’S
AN EXIT
door at the end of the
hallway with the Lady Lucinda room,” I said, pointing to the
holographic blueprints projecting from the heli-hover’s dash.
“We’ll be able to enter directly through that door and get the
captives out without drawing attention.”

“
Look, I know you have a
friend in there—” Miles began.

Even in my enraged state, I knew
hitting the control panel again was a bad idea. Metal groaned as my
fist flew into the door instead, leaving a small dent in its
wake.

“
Erik,” Janelle soothed,
“we have to be smart here. The strike teams are only for backup.
We’re under strict orders—”

“
Screw orders,” I growled.
“I want Anya out of there now.”

“
Our people bought her,”
Janelle reasoned. “Which means she will be out soon. With us. Once
the auction ends, Talia and the others can go pickup
their…um…winnings? Regardless, it won’t be much longer
now.”

A total of six UNITED agents were
assembled in our helicopter, but only Miles and Janelle weighed in
on my desired plan change. Everyone else was too nervous to cross
me, worried speaking up might draw my ire in their
direction.

Rescuing the captives now was risky,
and, yes, maybe a little rash. But I wasn’t about to leave Anya
there a second longer. That girl had been through hell because of
me. Endured psychological torture because of me. Anya was the
reason McDonough’s entire Created initiative or whatever was
discovered. She was the one who’d tested Talia’s blood after the
infusion from Donavon, and learned that she somehow had two Talent
Signatures. From there, Anya had deduced that Talia was infected
with the Creation drug, the only way a second Talent Signature
could just suddenly appear. That key piece of information had blown
open TOXIC’s operation. It was the driving force behind Talia,
Cadence, and I running away from the agency and taking Alex with
us.

Unwilling to leave my family behind to
serve as whipping boys in my stead, I’d attempted to rescue them.
The rescue, technically, was a success. It was the getaway that
failed fantastically. I’d been captured and thrown in jail on
trumped up charges of kidnapping and just about every other offense
Danbury McDonough could imagine on short notice. Really, though, he
just wanted me at his mercy, so his henchmen could extract their
pound of flesh every time I refused to divulge Talia and Alex’s
whereabouts. When that hadn’t yielded the desired results,
McDonough had struck the lowest blow of all: imprisoning and
torturing Anya to force me to talk.

Between the drugs I’d been given and
my stint as a punching bag, the details were a little fuzzy. I
remembered them bringing Anya into my cell at Tramblewood. I
remembered her screaming and sobbing and begging. But not once had
Anya begged me for help. Not once had she asked me to give in, to
tell them what they wanted to know and save her. No, she’d begged
me to stay strong, to keep my mouth shut, and never to lose sight
of the bigger picture. She knew better than I did the importance of
keeping Talia and Alex away from TOXIC.

After the battle in D.C., I’d,
regrettably, given little thought to Anya and what had become of
her. With TOXIC defeated and so many of the operatives on the lam,
it seemed reasonable that she was too. I’d never imagined this fate
for her. At that moment, I felt responsible for my ex-girlfriend,
who’d thrown her allegiance with me and my current girlfriend, even
knowing it was a death sentence.

“
I don’t want to wait,” I
snapped. “Anya…she doesn’t deserve this. You don’t
understand.”

Janelle rested her hand on my
shoulder.

“
I understand better than
you think, Erik. We all do. Talia just took a huge risk in there
for Anya. Victoria is going to have her head for paying over a
million globes for a girl who isn’t even Created. Do you understand
that?”

She huffed in exasperation, her
patience with what she perceived as a drama queen act waning. But
when she spoke again, Janelle’s voice was calm.

“
Please don’t make the
situation worse. I am begging you. For Talia’s sake, please don’t
make it any worse. When Talia’s ass is in the fire, you aren’t
going to be able to help her if you’re on Victoria’s shit list too.
The councilwoman loves you, and when you turn on that charm she is
so found of, she’ll let your girlfriend go with a slap on the
wrist. As long as you are still her favorite little
Created.”

My anger receded from the wrathful
zone, hovering closer to just truly pissed-off. Once again, I was
between a rock and hard place. Choosing between Talia and Anya. At
least this decision was not life-or-death, but it still
sucked.

“
Guys? We have another
problem.”

Henri’s pronouncement broke the tense
silence in the small craft.

“
Are you serious? How many
problems can there possibly be? What now?” I snapped in
response.