The Girl Who Dared to Think 2: The Girl Who Dared to Stand (The Girl Who Dared #2)(8)

Tian blinked back her tears and sniffed a few times. We all waited patiently for her to speak.

“Really?” she squeaked hopefully, her tears beginning to dry up. She took a few steps forward, perched on the tips of her toes, and then paused, clutching Commander Cuddles to her chest and resting her chin on his head.

“It’s true,” Zoe chimed in. “He’s the best damned bear surgeon in the Tower. I give you my word of honor.”

Tian looked at me for confirmation, and I gave her a confident nod, even though I had no idea what skill Eric possessed that could help her.

“Do you sew?” Lacey asked, echoing my thoughts.

Eric’s smile faded as she addressed him directly, and just like that, the tiny spell that Tian had cast upon her arrival popped, and we all came back to reality. Current reality being that our potential captor was asking us a question after having us kidnapped, black bagged, and shoved in a tight water closet with no means of escape—and with no clue about what was coming next.

Tension crept up my spine as I nodded at Eric, signaling that it was okay to answer.

“I have one sister, four female cousins, and I’m the youngest,” he replied carefully. He didn’t say any more, and I didn’t let her ask him anything else.

“Tian, there’s one other person who’s happy to see you.”

Tian smiled, her eyes going misty. “I know,” she whispered, her eyes already locked on Maddox. “My Doxy?”

Maddox smiled, tears coming to her own eyes, and she nodded. “My Tian,” she replied, and within seconds the young girl had raced over to Maddox, leapt into her arms, and wrapped herself around the bigger girl.

I moved forward, worried about Maddox’s leg, but she caught Tian easily and hugged her back. I watched them for a moment, relieved that I had been able to keep my promise to Tian and Maddox both, and then turned my back to them. Lacey had broken the rules of our engagement, and hurt my friends. This wasn’t the time for sentimentality; it was the time for questions. Namely mine.

“How did you know where to find us?” I asked, stepping closer to Lacey and Strum and dropping my voice low. “And what gave you the right to go after my people? That wasn’t part of the agreement.”

Strum and Lacey exchanged looks, and to my surprise, Strum was the one who spoke first. “We never anticipated that you would move so quickly on this,” he said, his voice still surprisingly deep for such a slender man. “I know we said if you did it within twenty-four hours we would take that as a yes, but you moved even faster than that. We assumed you would want more discussions, perhaps his schedule or routine and possible schematics first—but you didn’t. I’m glad we had the foresight to have a failsafe in place. Otherwise, our plan might have been jeopardized. Considering we had to collect you all before anyone else found you.”

He tried to hide it, but I could tell he was impressed. That told me a few things: for one thing, they thought this was our plan from the get-go. They believed that my team and myself were highly coordinated and fast acting, which had earned us a modicum of respect. It meant a more even playing field.

I considered that for a long moment, and decided to keep back the fact that Devon’s murder had been completely accidental. I had no idea what they had in store yet, but if they thought we were that good, maybe it would make them think twice about trying to hurt us in any way. And maybe it would ensure that they held up their part of the deal.

“Well, I assumed you gave us all the relevant information at the first meeting. And if you had told me you needed everyone in one place for your plan to be effective, I would’ve just had us all meet you there,” I replied sarcastically, giving him a withering glance that I hoped looked moderately annoyed. “But again, I ask: how did you know where to find us?”

Lacey coughed, and I saw a flash of a smile before it disappeared behind her hand. I studied her; she’d changed her hair since yesterday when we’d met, and it was now braided tightly against her scalp in tiny, narrow braids that twisted into an intricate pattern along the crown. The rest of her hair stood out around the back of her head, in a poof that seemed to ripple like water when her head moved. I eyed it enviously, my own hair feeling like grease and dirt had just gone ahead and decided to raise a family right there on my scalp.

I wouldn’t say I would kill for a shower, but it would be tempting at this point.

“We infected you and your friend with a designer bacteria,” she admitted. “We needed to be sure that we could grab you when you were ready to move.”

“A designer bacteria?” I asked, my eyebrows drawing together. “Quess, you ever hear of a designer bacteria?”

“Oh yeah, we experimented with them all the time in the Medica,” Quess called back. “Not all bacteria are bad, you see, and—”

“Thank you, Quess,” I called, not wanting him to reveal too much of his backstory in front of Lacey and Strum. I didn’t think they would use it against him, but the less they knew, the better. “Tell me more about it later.” I had broken eye contact with Lacey while I talked to Quess, and now that we were finished, I could sense that she was waiting. Impatiently. I turned back to her. “What is it? What does it do? How did you do it? And why do it in the first place? You asked me to help you, so why risk an already fragile trust by doing something so invasive?”