Forever (Linear Tactical) by Janie Crouch

Author:Janie Crouch [Crouch, Janie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Calamittie Jane Publishing
Published: 2021-06-30T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Jess

“She’s asleep,” I said. “Is this a good time to talk? About everything?”

Ethan and I both leaned against opposite sides of the doorframe, so close and yet so distant it felt like agony.

My fault.

He looked at me, and I felt the full weight of that stare. Ethan had the ability to look at you in a way no one else could. He could pin you to the spot or make you feel completely full of life, and all it took was one glance.

Right now, I was pinned. Not what I wanted.

“Does everything include the research that’s missing from the Vandercroft biotech lab?” he asked. “Because I definitely have some questions about that.”

My heart threw itself against my ribs. “How do you know about that?”

Ethan smiled a little. “It’s how we got a team here so quickly—there’s pressure from pretty high up to make sure that research doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“Oh.”

“Somebody would have come for you anyway, with three of the four of you having high-profile parents. But Vandercroft realized some top secret data had been taken, research co-funded by Uncle Sam, and that it looked like one of the American kids had done it.”

Shit. Now telling him what I’d done might look like I was covering my own tracks.

How had I not calculated this? It seemed obvious now that given the nature of the research, the military and government would already be tracking it.

The kinds of things my team had been developing at Vandercroft, the strides we’d made in biotechnology over the past two years . . . they were primed to change the world. Or potentially end it if that information got into the wrong hands. It made sense that the heads of the fellowship program would have taken their knowledge of the theft to someone higher up the chain.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my fingers, trying to ease some of the tension there. Sometimes, I got way too far into my own head. I thought I was the only one who could fix something because I had obviously thought of everything, and all I did was end up making things worse.

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could, he slid closer. He was so close to me now that I could feel his body heat, though he still wasn’t touching me. I couldn’t breathe with him this close. After months of distance and tension, all I wanted was to sink into his arms and let him hold me. Touch me. Everything.

“I need the answer to one question, Jess,” he whispered. “And it has to be the truth.”

“Anything,” I said. I never lied to Ethan. I left things out on occasion, but I could never stomach lying to him. He’d been able to see through me since we were kids.

“Once we get out of this country, do I need to take you somewhere no one will find us?”

He hadn’t asked if I’d done it or why. He’d asked if he had to take me somewhere to keep from getting arrested for treason.

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