A Broken Jewel (Jade Book 1)

by Lucy Rains

  Pierce looked up from his computer, rubbing a hand over his face. “What are we worrying about?”

  “How we’re going to eliminate the test subjects,” Gavin explained.

  “You worry too much, Jade. It’ll be a walk in the park,” Alex jested confidently.

  “Pff,” I huffed. “Like Jurassic Park.”

  “We’ll discuss that later today.” Pierce sat down in front of a different computer monitor on the opposite side of the U shaped desk area.

  He began talking to Alex about entrance and exit strategies, Gavin asked Kyson questions about fire alarms and sprinkler systems. Rather then hanging around I went to put my bowl in the kitchen sink. There wasn’t much I could do in helping the guys, so I got to work loading the dishwasher.

  Cleaning the kitchen was a mindless task and only gave me more time to think. My thoughts went back to my jealous outburst yesterday at the dress shop and my mood sank once again. My hands slowed as the sensations I had experienced went through my head on replay. The overwhelming, uncontrollable anger, that could only be stilled by a touch to my chest. My chest, it seemed to be a source of energy that was controlled by our actions to each other. Be it positive or negative.

  As I loaded the last cups into the top rack and poured soap into the dishwasher, I laid a hand on my chest. The warm vibrations were always present, being around the guys, and I had become so accustomed to them over the week. But perhaps there was more to it. Our heightened abilities, strengths- the energy in our core had to be the source of that. Had we only touched the surface of our inner power?

  My mind kept turning around that train of thought as I opened the fridge. I began pulling out all questionable looking containers of take out and leftovers, piling them into the garbage can. Our inner energy reacted so positively to each other, like our energies were meant to mix. The thought sent chills up my arms. My body was beginning to crave their intimacy, and my control was slipping. Long gone were the days of discomfort and fear of their close proximities, their stares, their touches. But with everything good there was always an opposite.

  I took a warm washcloth and scrubbed the crusted food dried on the shelves of the fridge. The negative effects scared me, they were uncharted territory, strong and powerful I was on my knees staring at the vegetable bin when the idea struck me. This energy was built inside of us, was a complete part of us. Would there ever be an end? Did that mean I was bound to the guys forever? And them to me? Why was I just now realizing this? My eyes glazed over and my hand with the washcloth stilled. The emotions that filled me were powerful I realized I didn’t want it any other way.

  “Jade?”

  I looked up to see Gavin standing over me, looking at me with concern.

  I blinked, “Yeah.”

  He glanced over to the fridge, my washcloth, then back to my eyes. “You okay?”

  His light brown hair was loose, rather then styled back like normal. It hung around his face, framing his strong features. His hazel eyes looked at me with guarded feelings. I quickly thought back to our heated kiss in the park, his tongue in my mouth. Would Gavin want to be bounded to me at all, much less forever?

  Apparently I was taking to long to answer because he knelt down quickly by me and grabbed my face with both hands.

  “I’m okay!” I said quickly, trying to look away but he held firm. “Sorry.”

  I expected him to pull back away from me but he stayed. Holding my face, crouched on the floor, the fridge light illuminating his eyes so that they shown green.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked, still concerned.

  His sudden attentiveness was so unlike him and I didn’t know what to say. “I’m okay, I just...a lot on my mind.”

  His eyes roamed over my face and his eyes dilated. My breathing became shallow, my mind going back again to our kiss. Gavin’s emotions became full of desire and frustration.

  “Why don’t you tell me how you feel?” I whispered softly. “Because your actions are confusing me, and I don’t know what to think.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You are always so angry, so bitter. So quick to fire out a comment to contradict me. I don’t know how to talk to you, or if you even want me to.”

  Gavin’s eyes closed heavily and his hands dropped from my face. I pushed away from the fridge and closed the door.

  I continued, “I feel...that it would be easier for you if I wasn’t here.”

  “Don’t say that,” his voice low, almost pained.

  “Tell me what you want,” I said desperately.

  He leaned backed and sat on his rear, rubbing a hand through his locks. He looked at his hands thoughtfully before responding in a quiet voice. “I don’t want to hurt anymore. I want to heal. I think you can help me do that.”

  “I don’t know how,” I shook my head.

  “Yes, you do.”

  I shook my head again.

  He grabbed my hand and put it on his chest. The vibrations in my chest pulsed in sync with his and the warmth brought a happy moan up to my lips.

  “You are breaking down my walls.” He put a hand on my chest, “You have to learn to trust me, Jade. I will never throw around jokes like Alex, or have the same ease as Kyson, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come to me whenever you want to.”

  My eyebrows came down as I soaked in his words. He was right, I didn’t feel comfortable approaching him. Since the day I got here he had done a good job making me feel that he was unapproachable. Gavin needed me to accept his quiet and harder personality despite that.

  “Showing me that you care for me despite my demons, helps to slowly heal me.”

  Could I do that? Could I look past the pain he had caused me over the past days? His sour attitude, and unconcern for my feelings? His attitudes had hardened my heart towards him but I couldn't deny the desire I felt to help him.

  I remained still, looking into his eyes. His dark unreadable eyes. Guarded to protect himself.

  His hand lifted from my chest and went to the back of my head. He opened his mouth to say something when footsteps sounded on the stairs. From our angle we could see out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

  Our eyes darted to the front entry way as Kyson rounded the stair banister to come towards the kitchen. Gavin looked back to me, snapped his mouth closed and stood up from the ground. He offered me a hand but I shook my head.

  “Need to finish in the fridge,” I explained.

  Gavin nodded and left me sitting on the floor while he began talking to Kyson, asking him about his progress.

  I continued cleaning the kitchen while the guys worked in the office. I scrubbed the fridge till it was shining, scoured pots and pans with crusted food, wiped down all the counters. Degreased the stove top and cleaned out the microwave. I took care of every surface in the kitchen as best as I could, then unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher. I was being helpful, and near the guys. I could hear their soft deep voices as they planned and worked, and it kept me sustained while I waited to discuss our next move.

  I busied myself with cleaning as long as my sleep deprived body would allow. Too many restless nights was beginning to take a heavy toll on me that I couldn’t fight anymore. After doing two loads of laundry, scrubbing the bathrooms, and sweeping the wooden entrance walkways, I collapsed on the couch in the living room. My heavy eyes closed on their own and I let myself become unconscious.

  I slept hard for a few hours, dead to the world. When I awoke my body was not how it was when I had fallen asleep. Instead of feeling nothing but couch under me, I was now swaddled up in a blanket with a pillow under my head. I blinked slowly and lifted my head, looking around. My mouth tasted like a cotton ball was shoved inside and left to dissolve. The light coming through the windows signaled that it was late afternoon.

  As I sat up slowly, Pierce walked into the room. “Oh good, just in time.”

  I moved my feet and he immediately took the spot on the couch w
here they use to be. He set a brown paper bag down on the coffee table and gave me a small smile. “I think you’ll like this,”

  I rubbed my eyes and leaned back into the couch cushion. I waited with sleepy interest.

  He pulled a few little white bags out and laid them on the coffee table. When I realized what he had brought me I couldn’t stop the smile that crept up my face.

  “Doughnuts?”

  He shrugged, “From what we know of your previous life, I would have to guess you didn’t get to eat these very often.”

  I leaned forward and grabbed the delicate pink frosted doughnut from the white tissue paper. “This is fabulous.” I sunk my teeth into the soft treat and let the sugar melt in my mouth. I moaned happily.

  When I looked at Pierce his eyes were centered on my mouth and I wasn’t naive enough to know my actions were lighting a fire in his blood.

  “What’s going on in here? Why is Jade moaning?” Alex barged into the room and sat on the love seat opposite of us. He eyed the doughnuts on the coffee table and in my hand. “Doughnuts? Really?”

  I licked a dot of frosting off my thumb as I surveyed my treat in hand. I sank my teeth in for another bite of the delicious pastry and let myself enjoy that small moment of indulgence.

  “I needed this,” I sighed happily. After everything I had gone through that week, and had yet to deal with, a small moment of enjoying a doughnut was needed. “I think I like these better than slushies. Wherever we end up better have doughnuts,” I said while picking up a second one.

  “No promises,” said Kyson as he walked into the room. He brought in a stack of papers and dropped them onto the coffee table by the doughnuts. In the other hand he carried the stool from the office, setting it down by the coffee table. He began moving the papers around and pulling out photos.

  Gavin walked in with an apple and sat down beside me. The mood in the room shifted as we got ready to talk about what was next for us.

  I gazed over the papers that Kyson had brought in. There were blueprints, pictures of the lab. I leaned over, to get a better view of the black and white photos and the people that were in them. Young men, I assumed the other subjects. Adults in lab coats. Couples sitting in the waiting rooms. All the pictures had been taken at high angles, apparently screenshots from the security feed.

  Pierce spoke first. “The plan is to take care of the lab tomorrow night at midnight. This will give us the time we need to finish final preparations for both the lab as well as leaving the country.”

  “How soon will we leave after the lab?” I asked.

  “Right away.”

  I nodded. In less than 48 hours I would be on a plane to who knew where.

  “We need to be on a plane before the agency has time to get our photos to every airport in America in an effort to detain us. To be very clear,” Pierce continued, “the point of this mission is to not only destroy all information within the lab, but to also delay and distract the agency and PPQ long enough for us to disappear. We know its not possible to completely destroy the company entirely, but we have the power to cripple their efforts significantly.”

  “So, hurting the lab will also hurt Jason?” I asked.

  Kyson nodded, “Now that we know PPQ is supplying the agency with its product, Jason and his superiors are going to be very unhappy with our actions.”

  “Not as much as PPQ,” Gavin added, “they are definitely going to feel the hardest blow. Years of research and work will be terminated.” His voice held a heavy tone of satisfaction that I found disturbing.

  Pierce spoke again, “The main tasks of the mission tomorrow night are to destroy the clean room where all blood and DNA samples are kept; to destroy the remaining subjects, as well as confiscate items kept within the safes in each office of Dr. Petrov, Dr Quinn, and Dr. Parker.”

  “What do you think is in there?” I asked, looking over a couple pictures of the offices Pierce spoke of. A tall African American lady stood in one, and the other had a balding man with thin glasses sitting behind a desk.

  “Research journals, charts, things they obviously want kept safe.”

  “And the computers?” I continued, “What about those?”

  “I’m already trying to break into those,” Alex spoke. “Their firewall is giving me quite a fight. They seem to have upped the security on their network in the past 48 hours. Once I’m in though, I’ll be uploading a virus strong enough to eat through their mainframe within an hour.”

  “On the unlikely case that Alex isn’t able to destroy the information on the computers before tomorrow night,” Pierce said, “We will destroy the hard drives before leaving the building.”

  “What about my mother’s other office?”

  Gavin answered my question, “I haven’t been able to find anything. Her bank accounts aren’t giving me any clues, which makes me think she’s paying cash for her space. Possibly a cash advance.”

  “Could it be possible Charles was lying?” Pierce asked.

  “He wasn’t,” Alex said simply, rubbing his chin.

  “I’ll keep looking,” Gavin said. “But if I haven’t found anything by tomorrow night, we’re going to have to leave without the information you want.”

  I turned my head and saw Gavin was looking at me. I nodded in understanding and turned back to the coffee table that was covered in papers.

  “We also need to find the debilitating serum,” Kyson said. “Hopefully we can destroy what they have as well as the documents that contain the medical recipe to make it.”

  “My guess is it will be in the lab.” Pierce offered.

  “Or the training rooms,” Alex spoke up.

  “Or the surgery rooms.” I added.

  “Let’s make sure we’re thorough then.” Pierce stated. He looked over to Gavin, “Do we have the necessary tools for the safes?”

  “Yes,” Gavin replied quickly. “Leftover from the assignment I did 6 months ago at the Pentagon.”

  I blinked quickly, “You guys broke into the Pentagon?”

  “Just me,” Gavin said and I detected a hint of smugness.

  “That will be your assignment while in the lab,” Pierce directed, still looking at Gavin. “Work on the safe. It’s going to take a while so make sure that’s your main focus.”

  “Understood,” Gavin replied.

  “So,” I said softly, picking at a loose thread on the couch seam. “What about the other test subjects at the lab?”

  The mood in the room went still. Everyone suddenly found their denim covered knees extremely interesting.

  “There are others, aren’t there? Children?”

  Still no answer from anyone.

  I let out a heavy sigh, “I’ll take that as a yes.” I nodded in understanding. “And you want to eliminate all of them?” I turned to look at Pierce.

  “We have to, Jade.” Pierce said insisted.

  “How many other then the four we saw?”

  Pierce looked up to Alex for the answer.

  Alex ran a hand through his messy hair and answered without looking at me. “Two infants, and three others between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”

  I shook my head, closing my eyes. A wall closing around my mind at the idea. I couldn’t do this.

  “Jade,” Pierce started.

  “There has to be another way,” my voice came out strangled.

  “We can’t take them with us,” Kyson said.

  “I know that. But there has to be another way then ending their innocent lives. I understand that the older ones have had their mind tampered with and are beyond repair. But the babies? And the children?” I shook my head. “There is still hope for them, right?”

  “What would we do?” Kyson asked. “We can’t hide them, we don’t have time to drop them off anywhere far enough away from the agency’s reach and hide ourselves before Jason comes looking for us. The agency has state of the art methods of finding people and they will be able to track us down if we aren’t extremely efficient and fast.�
�

  “We have to think about us, Jade.” Gavin jumped in.

  “And even if we tried to rehome them,” Kyson continued, “drop them off at a shelter or hospital, PPQ would find them, and quickly. And even if they didn’t, these children are going to have superior abilities to grow up with. Who knows what sorts of problems that could create, what kinds of attention or trouble they might cause.”

  “I did okay.” I grumbled.

  “Yes, but that was different and you know it. These are all scenarios that have to be considered.”

  “It will be done with no pain to them,” Pierce stated. “They won’t suffer.”

  I ran a hand over my messy ponytail and sighed heavily. “What is my role in all of this?”

  “Help Kyson in the clean room to destroy samples.”

  “And the cameras around the facility?” I asked.

  “The security feed is sent to an offsite company on the other side of Baltimore,” Alex answered. “I have to make it look like all is well on their end by tampering with the video feed that they are seeing, without raising any alarms or suspicion.”

  “And you?” I asked, looking at Pierce.

  “I’ll check over the other rooms for the serum, or any other documents. I’ll take care of the hard drives if needed.”

  “And the subjects?” I asked with a tight voice.

  Pierce bowed his head slightly, “I’ll take care of the younger ones. I’ll need Gavin’s help for the older ones.”

  “Why Gavin?”

  “His ability to persuade.” Pierce explained. “He will prevent them from becoming hostile so that I can get into the room to take them out.”

  “Will he be able to talk to them through the doors? Those looked pretty solid on the feed.”

  Pierce cleared his throat and glanced at Gavin. I looked over to Gavin whose expression was stony as usual.

  “What?” I asked. I looked to Alex and Kyson but they were also looking at Gavin in confusion.

  Gavin spoke up, “My persuasion ability has became a bit more enhanced.”

  “What does that even mean?” Alex asked.

  “Well, like yours,” he nodded towards Alex and then Pierce, “and his, how your abilities have become stronger or morphed into something more, so has mine.”