The Fracturing: Book 2 (The Culling Series)

by Tricia Wentworth

  “Okaaaaaay,” I say, now really confused. “Wait--Hadenfelt? Samson?”

  Does this have to do with Hadenfelt? Is Samson okay? Why is he being so darn vague?

  “No, everything is fine.” He shakes his head, reading my mind. “Just bear with me, please.” He’s pleading me and looking at me worried so I can’t help but comply.

  The ride there is a quiet one. I chat with Jamie because Lyncoln rests his eyes. I’m doubting it’s because he’s tired, rather I think it’s because he doesn’t want to talk much. He’s acting so weird. Why would he take me to DIA to meet Taggert in the middle of the night if it isn’t Hadenfelt related?

  What’s going on?

  I sit there trying to figure out the answer to that question, the same question I’ve been asking myself for over two weeks. I worry about Ashton and my family thinking it’s related to them, but Lyncoln would tell me. He would tell me right away if it were them.

  When we finally get there, I feel silly still being in my ball gown with Lyncoln’s jacket over it. We head for Taggert’s office and my heels clack all the way down the very long hallway. This definitely isn’t the normal attire for DIA.

  When Lyncoln opens the door to the command room of Taggert’s office, I see numerous people in the room looking at different screens against the front wall. I automatically look at the screens too.

  The different views on each screen are all of the interrogation rooms. Dozens of people are in the interrogation rooms! And they aren’t drifters either, I realize as I recognize a few of them, one being one of October’s old guards.

  These are our people.

  What the heck is this? Surely this isn’t the people they caught trying to bring in alcohol to the meet and greet? What is this?

  I look to Lyncoln confused. He’s telling someone to grab Taggert and then watches me intently. He looks… relieved? Why would he look relieved?

  “What is this?” I ask.

  Taggert interrupts before he can answer. “Ms. Scott. Looking lovely as usual tonight. Would you both join me in my office? Thank you for coming. I know coming to DIA this late is a hassle.”

  We quickly enter in and I sit down eager for an explanation of what I just saw. Why are there so many people in interrogation? Is this what Lyncoln has been working on?

  What. Is. This.

  Chapter 25

  What is going on?

  The answers to my questions just can’t come soon enough and my mind is working in overdrive trying to piece it all together.

  “I’m sure you’re a bit taken back by what you just saw.” Taggert pauses and I nod. “You told me to fix it. You told me to fix the Hadenfelt issue, and I am doing just that.” I can see in his eyes how much he feels like he has let everyone down, me included. Failure is not something this man is used to, and it definitely isn’t something he just accepts.

  As if reading my mind, he continues, “No, I haven’t found the vermin yet, but I have found and have been working on finding his men.” He smiles an evil smile.

  My mind, still working overdrive considering the late hour, is beginning to catch up. Oh, my, gosh. Those are all of Hadenfelt’s men on the inside. Then I immediately worry. We didn’t want to do something like this in our original meeting with Henry and the President because of the men he had on Ashton, Wyatt, and Olivia.

  I feel the blood drain from my face. What have they done? Hadenfelt is already missing, and now they just took his army out from under him. Of course he will find a way to go after our families now. Retaliation is a given.

  Taggert holds up a hand seeing my worried look. “Lyncoln personally took care of the men on your families as the first step. They were the priority.”

  I look to Lyncoln confused. “He did?”

  Lyncoln just nods and looks back at Taggert as if urging him to hurry up and finish explaining.

  “It isn’t everyone, but with the help of Jaden, it has given us a great start. Everyone else is running scared. And we are offering deals for dirt on the man. Some of those men are in deep and will do whatever they have to to get out of it, especially with Hadenfelt gone. But basically, we have the majority of Hadenfelt’s men in those rooms and are going to make damn sure although he isn’t here and we can’t find the bastard, no one will be doing his bidding. We didn’t cut the head off the snake, we instead snapped its tail off.”

  Holy crap.

  “When? How? When did this happen?” I ask, finally finding my voice while trying to keep up. This was not at all what I was expecting to hear. I had no idea.

  “Well, the arrests all happened last night with one team with Lyncoln in Omaha, and three teams here with Becker, West, and myself,” Taggert explains. “But the planning for this mission started even before Red Hawk thanks to your fiancé here who basically came up with the whole damn thing.”

  I turn to Lyncoln. “The secrets?”

  He nods.

  This was what he was keeping from me?

  “And you didn’t tell me…” I say thinking out loud, trying to understand.

  “Because if for some reason we failed, we wanted to protect you and your family by your having not known anything,” Lyncoln says as he downright scalds me with those eyes and then they get softer as he smiles. “And I knew you would be freaking out for the last two weeks if you really knew what was going on and what we were planning on doing.”

  I feel a flood of relief before I remember that he went on a mission and didn’t even tell me. He was trying to protect my family though, so that has to count for something? And he is partially wrong. I was freaking out the whole time anyway, but would I have been freaking out more had I known what was really going on?

  Definitely, yes. Yep. A different kind of freak-out, but yes.

  “So you saw my family?”

  He smirks. “Mostly just Ashton. He was helpful, really. I barely had to do a thing.”

  I can’t help but feel proud of my brother and whatever part he took in this. This is a lot of information though. The majority of Hadenfelt’s followers are in custody? As I remember the screens from the other room, it dawns on me that even some cabinet members are being detained. They were absent at tonight’s results and now I guess I know why.

  Is Hadenfelt really going down? Is his power really gone? Do we have all his minions? Is it really over?

  “I still have work to do,” Taggert says, back to the task at hand like usual. “I won’t stop until I find him.”

  “Well this is a great start,” I smile at him warmly.

  “Thank you, my dear. Thank you. But, with our doing this, make sure you keep your guards on you at all times. When Hadenfelt gets wind of this, if he hasn’t already, he will be desperate and angry. Mad as a hornet. Don’t get in his crosshairs if you don’t have to. That goes for the both of you,” he says firmly, looking from one of us to the other, clearly concerned.

  “Our families though?” I ask. “And what about the tape of Olivia?”

  Lyncoln chips in, “West’s team worked with Jaden to find all of the dirt he had on people. We have a safe from his home but haven’t been able to open it yet. His hard drive has been wiped and it had a whole slew of information on it. Of course, there is always the possibility he has a hard copy of it all wherever he is, but we’ve wiped as much as we can.” He pauses and then adds, “And all of our families are safe with new guards handpicked by Taggert.”

  Lyncoln is standing, pulling me up with him, signaling our leave. It’s well past midnight and we have a full day tomorrow of more voting results. Now that this news is out, I notice he looks absolutely exhausted. Did he sleep at all last night when this was all going down?

  Before we leave, I turn back, unwanted tears springing to my eyes due to feeling overwhelmed with the day’s events. “Taggert?”

  “Yes, m’dear?” he asks, looking down at me with his reading glasses perched on his nose.

  Not sure of what words to say to portray my thanks, I instead move towards him, throwing my
arms around the man and completely take him by surprise with a hug.

  “Thank you,” I whisper, not trusting my voice right now.

  He seems uncomfortable but pats the back of my head before responding. “You’re welcome, but I’m just doing my job.”

  Lyncoln scoffs and I pull back from my hug with Taggert to see him rolling his eyes. “Funny. That’s something she would say.”

  This makes everyone laugh, guards included. Taggert just winks at me.

  ****

  The way back to Mile High I have no words to say. I’m speechless for once. Lyncoln went on a mission. To save my family. He came up with a plan to corner Hadenfelt and cut off his army. He worked on it for weeks, keeping me in the dark to protect me. Now, not only are all of our families safe, but most of Hadenfelt’s men are behind bars.

  That’s a whole heck of a lot of information for a girl to take in this late at night. What Lyncoln was up to has haunted me the last few weeks, but never in all my suspicions did I think he was up to something so… valiant.

  “Say something,” Lyncoln pleads while holding my hand, rubbing circles on my thumb.

  “Just let me think it all through for a minute, okay?” I know we are almost back to Mile High and am glad. This conversation needs to be had in private. I mean, I don’t want to throw myself at him in front of any extra eyeballs.

  All those doubts. All those questions I had about what he was working on. I never once considered he loved me so much he was hurting me so he could protect me and save my family. Sure, I had a valid reason to be mad, but I didn’t have to be so… childish. I should have given him the benefit of the doubt.

  Soon enough, we are back to my room. I kick off my shoes and slump down on my couch with Lyncoln’s jacket still around my shoulders. I feel a little numb. I knew something big was going on, but this is huge. HUGE. I still just can’t believe it. The level of relief I feel is astounding.

  “So you went to Omaha?” I ask.

  He nods and his blue-brown eyes look at me concerned and hesitant.

  “When exactly?”

  He sits down beside me but gives me space and takes only my hand in his. “I left yesterday around 1600 hours. Was back later last night and then helped with some of the other arrests into the morning.”

  “You didn’t see my parents?” I ask surprised.

  “Briefly,” he explains while looking at our hands. It makes me wonder what happened when he showed up out of the blue at my house.

  “Ashton is fine?”

  He nods. “More than fine. All I did was show up. Ashton knocked the guy out then helped me tie him up. I didn’t even have to use my gun, Regs.”

  I nod. This is good to hear.

  He shakes his head smirking. “It took longer to explain everything in enough detail for your mother than it did to take care of Hadenfelt’s man.”

  I smile, imagining how that conversation went. “And this was all your idea?” I ask incredulously.

  He nods and runs his free hand through his hair. “Yes. Mine and West’s. I knew there had to be a way. And there was. While I was in Omaha with your family, my family was here with Taggert in a meeting while Taggert’s guards took the guard working for Hadenfelt into custody. At the same exact time, Olivia, Henry, and Natasha were visiting their father in his private office, and Becker had a team there to take care of the guards working for Hadenfelt within the Presidential Family. So all three of those things happened at precisely the same time. We took no risks when it came to our families.

  “The next phase was the arresting of Hadenfelt’s guys. Jaden piloted this, and in the two weeks we worked on it, we had a rather long list. It was pretty intense though, as we had to arrest some of our own. Only one gun was pulled though. It was pretty chaotic and there was a lot of confusion at DIA last night and this morning when all those arrests were made. More people were dirty than we even knew. It’s a mess.

  “Then the last phase of the plan was the cabinet members, or at least the ones in deep with Hadenfelt, which we had to go door to door early this morning to arrest. It all had to happen on the same night as close to the same time as possible so that no one could get wind of it. And, of course, part of the plan initially was to arrest Hadenfelt at the same time we got his men on our families. Since he’s gone, that obviously didn’t happen. His disappearance pushed back the original timeframe of the plan, but the rest of it was too valuable to not carry through with. We were supposed to do all this days ago. I wanted this taken care of so I could tell you, but Hadenfelt going missing put a major kink in things.”

  I nod, sitting there thinking some more. He drops to his knees in front of me while rubbing my legs, which brings to my attention that they’re freezing again.

  “Regs, I wanted to tell you. I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you every single day. I was a jerk. And I stayed away because I knew my being a jerk was hurting you, and I couldn’t stand it.” He stops only to take a deep breath. “I knew it hurt you keeping the truth from you, but it was the only way I knew how to keep you safe and keep your family safe at the same time. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. If I would have failed or if the mission would have been compromised before we could carry it out, we could have blamed it on me or the military or Taggert. I didn’t want you involved. I will always do whatever I have to, to protect you.” He places a hand around the back of my neck and looks me over, waiting for my reaction.

  I feel tears prick my eyes. “I’m not mad at you anymore, Lync. I mean, I think I could have handled it if you would have told me what was up. I maybe even could have somehow helped, but I’m not mad at you for keeping it from me.”

  He seems confused by that as his eyebrows furrow. “You aren’t mad?

  I shake my head. “On the off chance you failed, you wanted me safe. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I get it. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same for you.”

  “If you aren’t mad, then what are you?” he asks curious.

  Good question. Confused? Appreciative? Relieved? Dumbfounded? Exhausted? What am I?

  He catches a lone tear on his thumb as it rolls down my cheek.

  “Mostly, I think I’m in awe of you. You singlehandedly came up with a plan to get rid of the grip that man has had on this city for the last thirty years. Then you actually did it, too. You knew what had to be done, and you did it. Even if that meant lying to me or even hurting me.”

  He half-smiles with relief before resting his forehead on mine. “I would do anything to keep you safe. Anything. I hate hurting you. But I’d hate it even more if something ever happened to you.”

  I release a breath I think I’ve been holding since meeting Hadenfelt. “Thank you. For all of us. For Denver. Thank you. I just can’t believe Hadenfelt and his guys are finally gone. It’s over.”

  “It won’t really be over until he’s dead, but it’s a start,” Lyncoln offers.

  I shake my head, still trying to get rid of the tears. “I thought it was something worse than this. I’m sorry I didn’t have more faith in you. I was a brat to you, meanwhile you were working behind the scenes trying to save my family because you knew how much they mattered to me.”

  He puts a finger to my lips to stop me. “But I was a jerk to you. Staying away from you was hell.”

  “It’s over,” I whisper, “It’s finally all over.”

  We sit there in each other’s arms for a long time, content to just be, both too exhausted for anything else. Now the secrets are out and everything is right again in the world.

  Until tomorrow anyway.

  ****

  The day of the final two results has finally arrived. This is the day we will finally know if we get to bring my family to Denver. The make or break to my happily ever after.

  I think back on my short time in the Culling. When I arrived in Denver, it was early September. Now it’s halfway through December. What a lot can happen in a short time! In that time I made friends for life, I made enemies, I received my firs
t kiss, I dated two-- not one but two-- boys, I lost a friend, I took a life, I got engaged… and here we are.

  I think back on those first few days of the Culling and how nervous I was. There’s no way then I truly thought I could be where I am now. I’m not even the same person. And overall, I think that’s a good thing, even with all the bad that has come along with the good. The Culling has been life on steroids. I’ve gone through more in the last three months than I have in the last three years.

  Lyncoln and I enjoy a quiet lunch and break in my room before the craziness of the evening. I remind myself yet again how blessed I am to be sitting by this man beside me. No, he isn’t perfect, but somehow his imperfections have made him even stronger throughout the years. Yes, he just kept something from me for almost three weeks. He had a good reason though. He was protecting both me and my family. I don’t know if I agree with his decision to keep it from me, but I can’t change it. And being mad at him for caring so much about me seems really bratty considering what he accomplished.

  Lyncoln is telling me about this evening and saying something about Frank, but I’m not really paying attention and he calls me on it. “Regs,” he smirks.

  Before I can get shy and second guess myself, I crawl onto his lap. I just can’t be close enough to him today.

  He leans his muscular back against the couch in surprise and looks at me puzzled. “What’s this?”

  “Just shut up and kiss me.” I try to be bossy but get a little shy by the time I’m done.

  His eyes go dangerous right before we are crashing into one another.

  Sometime later, he pulls back. I find I’m somewhat underneath of him on the couch. I’m on my back while he’s lying on his side. And I don’t even remember that particular change of scenery. I’m also having a hard time breathing normally.

  Typical smooch fest ramifications.

  He stops and looks at me with pure lust. Seeing that look in his eyes and knowing I caused it makes me feel so… woman. His hair is slightly messed up and I have his v-neck shirt gripped in my hands like I am about to tear it to shreds. That actually doesn’t sound half-bad at the moment.