“Jordan.” Trey Roberts stepped forward. “Reel it back a little.”
“Keep out of this,” the guy spat. “I got this job because you’re too soft.”
“Fuck you.” Trey took another step closer. “I just don’t think the heavy-handed approach is necessary. I doubt Tim would either if he were here.”
“I was assigned to handle her interrogation and I’m in charge. Stop interfering.” He leaned in even closer, glaring at Jeanie. “I want answers, Ms. Shiver.”
Jordan’s hand hurt where it squeezed her jaw. “I understand. Please let go.” She reached up to grip his wrists with both hands in an attempt to free her face. The blanket she kept around her shoulders dropped to spill over the back of the chair and drape across her lap.
The one who’d threatened to make her scream grabbed her wrists, yanking her back in her seat until her spine pressed against the metal chair. She hadn’t seen or heard him come up behind her from the darkness. Pain stabbed through her wounded side at the sharp movements when her arms were held behind her. They didn’t handcuff her again but they weren’t needed with his tight grip. She twisted her head and stared at him. The uniform with NSO on it obviously meant he was another task force member.
“Eyes on me,” Jordan harshly demanded. “I’m in no mood for games, Ms. Shiver. I won’t play them.”
She looked at him, confused. “I—”
“That wasn’t a question. It was me laying down the law. Perhaps you don’t understand your situation so allow me to fill you in.” He bent, glaring at her. “Your ass belongs to the NSO now. You don’t get a lawyer, or a jury of your peers, or any legal rights. You’re going to truthfully answer my damn questions or I’m going to make you do it. One way is going to be painless but the alternative won’t be if I decide you’re lying.” He crouched, gripped her seat at the sides again to balance his weight, and got close to her face until they were eye level. “I don’t give a shit if you have breasts. You’re no better than a terrorist to me.”
Jeanie knew her mouth dropped open. A terrorist? What the hell was going on? She was too stunned to form words, probably a good thing since the man making threats looked as if he wanted to hit her.
“I like New Species. I call some of them my best friends.” He leaned even closer until she could identify the odor of mint on his breath. “Every day I’m willing to die in the line of duty to protect them.” He glanced down at her chest with a sneer before holding her gaze. “I’d like nothing better than to gut all the assholes who tormented them and treated them like shit. It pisses me off and makes me see red. That means I won’t hesitate to draw some blood if you don’t stop screwing with me. What the hell was on the mainframe computer that you were protecting?” He took a breath. “Answer me.”
“I was protecting the New Species. There really are gas dispensers hidden inside the fire alarms in all the cells.” Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. “Have someone check. They’ll find them. I don’t know what kind of poison they used but tell them to be careful.”
One of his hands lifted and he gently cupped her side. His thumb pressed against her bandage, rubbing it through the gown. “Do you know how much it will hurt if I apply pressure? It will tear the wound open. I checked your chart and they removed the staples. Do you want to need them again?”
“Fuck, Jordan,” Trey Roberts grumbled. “Reel it back, damn it.”
“I said stay out of it, Trey. You don’t have this job because you have lines you won’t cross. The information is all that matters and we don’t have time to for your good-ole-boy charm to get it out of her. Either shut the hell up or I’ll have you escorted out. You’re not my team leader today and have no authority to tell me how to handle this situation.” He glowered at Jeanie. “Nobody is going to save you.”
“Oh my god.” She was terrified when it sank in that he somehow didn’t know what she’d done for the NSO. He treated her as if she were a criminal instead of an informant. He meant the threat. “You need to find Agent Terry Brice. I contacted the NSO last year when I was assigned to the lower floors at Drackwood and saw they had New Species there. I left a message and a phone number on the tip line I saw on the NSO website about any information anyone had about missing New Species or people being sought for crimes against them. The next day I got a call back from that agent.”
She was talking fast but fear motivated her toward babbling. They needed to believe her. “He flew in that night and I met him. I shared information and smuggled out evidence to help him get a warrant so the building could be searched.”
Jordan cocked his head. “Really? Tell me more.”
He wasn’t hurting her. That had to be a sign of getting through to him. “Agent Brice told me that was how I could help the most. He said they’d know I was telling them the truth and they could get their search warrant for the New Mexico facility if I gathered evidence. I finally got enough proof that he was able to get them freed. I did that at Cornas Research too. He sent me there.”
“How did he know about Cornas?”
“He had an informant already stationed inside but she was too afraid to smuggle out anything. I don’t know her name. He said he couldn’t tell me that because she’d be in danger. He worried I might accidentally blow her cover.”
“What kind of information and evidence did you give to this agent?”
“He wanted pictures but that was impossible. They take our purses and do a pat down when we go in and out of the building. They have a no-cell-phone policy so anything that could take pictures or record images was kept at the front desk where we had no access to it during our shifts. I’d sometimes stain my clothes with New Species blood I had drawn so I could give it to him for testing.” She relaxed a little. “Sometimes it would be saliva samples from one of New Species or hair samples. I also swiped some test pills, which I smuggled out by hiding them inside my bra.”
“Hair?”
“Yes. I’d cut a lock of hair from somewhere it wouldn’t be noticed. It was difficult to do but occasionally they’d have an injured one drugged unconscious so I could get close enough to them when we were left alone. I wore my hair in a ponytail a lot. It was easy to tuck some of their hair in with mine if it closely resembled my color. The guards never checked that. They’d just run a scanner over my head.”
“So you’d sneak up on some knocked-out bastard and defile his body?”
Jeanie wasn’t sure how to answer that. It sounded awful when he put it that way. “Agent Brice said they could do DNA testing with blood and saliva. Hair samples can be used to test for drugs and chemicals. He needed those to prove New Species were there. I never hurt any of them. Ever. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Fuck,” Chris swore from behind her, his hold tightening on her wrists. “Do we even want to ask where she took it from? You sick bitch. Were you molesting them too when they couldn’t fight back?”
Jeanie twisted her head, staring up at him, aghast. “No! I took it from their heads near the base of their skulls. What is wrong with you? I said I tucked it in with my own hair. Ewww! I didn’t take pubic hair. New Species don’t even have any.”
Jordan gripped her jaw again and painfully jerked her head to face him. His fingers dug into her skin enough to make her cry out. “Shut it, Chris. How do you know that, Ms. Shiver?”
She glared at him, beyond fear. “You’re hurting me.”
“Too damn bad. Answer the question. How do you know they don’t have pubes if you weren’t molesting New Species?”
“Everyone knew that. They also have fanglike teeth and some calluses on their palms and fingertips.”
“You can see that with their clothes on.”
“I was in and out of the treatment center where they kept some of the injured New Species. I’ve tended to them and changed bedding when they were heavily drugged. I didn’t molest them or do anything sick. I wouldn’t be here if I had. They would have killed me.”