always be in my thoughts, my dear friend. I love you. Sydney.
P.S. Attached are some papers I took from the file I told you about. You may want to burn them soon after they’re read; otherwise, you might be implicated in this conspiracy as well .
“Dammit, Sydney, you should have come to me, and then we could have run together!” Holly exclaimed to no one at all.
To her horror, she’d woken up to see Sydney’s face plastered all over the news as a thief. Holly had known something had gone terribly wrong. She should have tried harder to convince her friend to quit that awful job the moment Sydney had begun to voice her doubts. But she hadn’t wanted to come off as pushy. It was what had driven Bella away in the first place and she didn’t want to make that same mistake again. Too bad she hadn’t listened to her first instinct. It might have caused Sydney to turn her back on her as well, but at least her friend would be out of danger’s way.
Holly had called in sick to work after watching the bulletins on television, still unable to get over what had happened. To her dismay, a breaking story later came on to
- 48 -
say Syd had been captured, but then escaped with a mysterious man who was said to be the leader of a “terrorist” organization.
That had at least given Holly some hope, but were the renegades any better than the Cyrellians?
With shaking hands, she glanced over the papers her friend had taken from the GXT file. Holly had known those bastards were probably capable of anything, but this?
Slowly poisoning everyone? And using their hapless victims as food?
Her stomach rolled at the thought. She’d tried one of their products once. It had made her sick. Thank goodness she’d never sampled the meats or else she would have spent the day vomiting the contents from her belly.
Despite Sydney’s advice, there was no way she could destroy this valuable evidence. She needed to somehow get it to the masses. But how could she without finding herself wanted as well? And would people label her as crazy for speaking out against their benefactors?
She knew for a fact that the Cyrellians could do no wrong in most people’s opinions. What if she left the city to find the outlaws? But then what? Holly never felt more helpless in her life.
First Bella, and now Sydney.
She slammed her fist against the wall in her frustration. “I’ll make those aliens pay. I swear it,” she vowed.
Chapter Six
The compound wasn’t what she’d expected. Sydney wasn’t sure exactly what she had imagined it would look like, maybe some old abandoned military base, but this mansion wasn’t it. The estate was ancient and the exterior was crumbling around them from neglect, but surprisingly the structure seemed sturdy. This reminded her of the antebellum houses in the south part of the United States she’d read about in her history books.
There was a man-made fence made of mortared rock and barbed wire around it, stealing the natural beauty of the place.
“Come on,” Jack growled.
Sydney didn’t know what his problem was, but after their encounter a mile or so back, he had been acting like she’d done him wrong for some reason. What was his deal? Weren’t most men only interested in a quick fuck with no strings attached? The sex with Jack was hot. No. It was mind-blowing, more so than with any other guy. For the first time in her thirty years of life, she’d experienced an orgasm with a partner, of the likes her girlfriends used to speak.
Yet she wasn’t ready to throw declarations of love at him. Surely he hadn’t expected that. She could probably grow to care for him a little more than she should, but a man like Jack was definitely the love-’em and leave-’em type. She wasn’t willing to give her heart to any man she couldn’t trust to give his back. And she had no faith in Jack as far as his capabilities to commit. What other man would go around randomly kissing women he barely knew?
Sure she’d
P.S. Attached are some papers I took from the file I told you about. You may want to burn them soon after they’re read; otherwise, you might be implicated in this conspiracy as well .
“Dammit, Sydney, you should have come to me, and then we could have run together!” Holly exclaimed to no one at all.
To her horror, she’d woken up to see Sydney’s face plastered all over the news as a thief. Holly had known something had gone terribly wrong. She should have tried harder to convince her friend to quit that awful job the moment Sydney had begun to voice her doubts. But she hadn’t wanted to come off as pushy. It was what had driven Bella away in the first place and she didn’t want to make that same mistake again. Too bad she hadn’t listened to her first instinct. It might have caused Sydney to turn her back on her as well, but at least her friend would be out of danger’s way.
Holly had called in sick to work after watching the bulletins on television, still unable to get over what had happened. To her dismay, a breaking story later came on to
- 48 -
say Syd had been captured, but then escaped with a mysterious man who was said to be the leader of a “terrorist” organization.
That had at least given Holly some hope, but were the renegades any better than the Cyrellians?
With shaking hands, she glanced over the papers her friend had taken from the GXT file. Holly had known those bastards were probably capable of anything, but this?
Slowly poisoning everyone? And using their hapless victims as food?
Her stomach rolled at the thought. She’d tried one of their products once. It had made her sick. Thank goodness she’d never sampled the meats or else she would have spent the day vomiting the contents from her belly.
Despite Sydney’s advice, there was no way she could destroy this valuable evidence. She needed to somehow get it to the masses. But how could she without finding herself wanted as well? And would people label her as crazy for speaking out against their benefactors?
She knew for a fact that the Cyrellians could do no wrong in most people’s opinions. What if she left the city to find the outlaws? But then what? Holly never felt more helpless in her life.
First Bella, and now Sydney.
She slammed her fist against the wall in her frustration. “I’ll make those aliens pay. I swear it,” she vowed.
Chapter Six
The compound wasn’t what she’d expected. Sydney wasn’t sure exactly what she had imagined it would look like, maybe some old abandoned military base, but this mansion wasn’t it. The estate was ancient and the exterior was crumbling around them from neglect, but surprisingly the structure seemed sturdy. This reminded her of the antebellum houses in the south part of the United States she’d read about in her history books.
There was a man-made fence made of mortared rock and barbed wire around it, stealing the natural beauty of the place.
“Come on,” Jack growled.
Sydney didn’t know what his problem was, but after their encounter a mile or so back, he had been acting like she’d done him wrong for some reason. What was his deal? Weren’t most men only interested in a quick fuck with no strings attached? The sex with Jack was hot. No. It was mind-blowing, more so than with any other guy. For the first time in her thirty years of life, she’d experienced an orgasm with a partner, of the likes her girlfriends used to speak.
Yet she wasn’t ready to throw declarations of love at him. Surely he hadn’t expected that. She could probably grow to care for him a little more than she should, but a man like Jack was definitely the love-’em and leave-’em type. She wasn’t willing to give her heart to any man she couldn’t trust to give his back. And she had no faith in Jack as far as his capabilities to commit. What other man would go around randomly kissing women he barely knew?
Sure she’d
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