He looked at her and shook his head.
“How did Liam get in? I thought …”
“I don’t know yet.” He hit some buttons on his computer and was studying the screen so Kyla rounded the desk to see what he was doing and saw a series of camera views around the property. As he scanned through frame after frame she saw rooms in the cottages, hallways, corridors, and rooms in the guest suites.
Tristan had been absolutely right; there were cameras everywhere. She felt sick for a second, thinking about the sex they’d had since arriving. That thought took her to the staircase in the cottage and she didn’t let her brain stay there. She must’ve made a sound of disgust because Adrian glanced up for a second and gave her a warning look. She guessed it was something to the effect of a “not now” type of look. He knew she was connecting the dots.
“Security is important. Just because there are cameras doesn’t mean someone is always looking.”
She made a harrumph sound. The door was being banged on, making her freeze in fear and look up.
“That’s it!” he said and then rushed to open the door and then Tristan burst in. Tristan went right to her and enveloped her in his arms.
“He parachuted into the woods,” Adrian said to Tristan while keying something into his cell phone, “I spotted the parachute. I believe he found her first and then came here and got the dagger. The ID used belonged to cleaning staff. Functional staff members. He followed one in, using his print, and I have zero movement reports for his print since then. I have his print and have now disabled it from any level two or higher security zones. We should put you both in the lab. That’s level 3, top security. Keep you there until he’s found. He’s taken the dagger and probably went to lay low until he could find another opportunity to use it.”
“He doesn’t know what it is,” Kyla said.
The both looked at her with quizzical expressions.
“Tristan, he got into the cottage. He almost got me but we struggled, I got that cold gust through me, shoved him, he crashed out the window, and by the time he got back I had the dagger and threatened him. He asked what it was because he said Sam came at him with one. I told him to let me show him so you could kill him or something like that and he took off.”
“He had to have been watching me to know it was in the desk. He’s got to have had surveillance in here or hacked into my feeds somehow,” Adrian said, “And if he has, that is really not a good thing.”
~~~They were in that room off the lab, in the bed, curled up together.
“Don’t leave me alone in here. You do that, he finds me and this goes badly. For sure it goes badly!”
“Kyla, I can’t just leave this to them. I do not fuckin’ trust a single one of them. Did you see how freaked Adrian was? There’s something he hasn’t said. I don’t know where the fuck Claudio is. Sam’s missing, too.”
When they’d gotten into the lab Adrian had a bit of a meltdown because he said that something was missing. He was frantically searching through the plethora of bottles in his cabinets, searching through his computer, looking at security footage. They’d gone into the room with the bed in it and were watching him through the glass wall. He was in a state, alright!
Adrian burst back into the room they were in, “He’s hacked into my files,” Adrian told Tristan, “he’s got something and the something he has… it could be very bad.”
“What is it?”
Adrian closed his eyes and shook his head, “If he injects her with it, it’ll force her to go into a nectar cycle.”
“What?” Tristan’s hands went into his hair.
“I haven’t used it yet. I have it but I haven’t used it. It’s a hormone cocktail that will force menstruation. He’s been watching. He’s hacked my files. He has cameras in my lab and in my office. And one of Kyla’s blood vials is gone.”
Tristan had Adrian by the throat, “You fucking moron!”
Claude was there with Sam, in the lab. They could see them through the glass wall that separated the room they were in from that lab.
“Stay here,” Tristan told Kyla.
“No!” She screeched, “Do not fucking leave me alone. That’s how it’ll go bad…if we separate…”
“Not leaving, princess. Going into the lab to talk to them. Not leaving.” He kissed her forehead and he and Adrian stepped into the lab and Kyla watched as the four of them talked.
She was shaking like a leaf, sitting on that bed, holding the dagger. She started to say a prayer. This did not feel good.