The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

103. Michael's Call p.2

RILEY

HAD IT NOT BEEN for Lauren and Raymond bordering on a quiet wrestling match over the phone, he wouldn't have abandoned the call to her. I watched her rip it out from under him and march to the sink.

Amid our restrained, twitchy gazes, she hopped on the reflective surface. She lifted the speaker to her face.

"Bold of you to contact us like this, don't you think? It wasn't on my bingo card for today." Lauren's eyes flashed ahead once. "And I've had a day."

"There was no question you'd be anywhere else," Michael replied, not without a certain whittle of triumph. "NIO's tearing places apart in search for you, sparing few expenses. At the current moment, they're cold."

Raymond mouthed vivid suggestions to her, but she swatted a hand in the air to dismiss it. As if she decided just now that it was worth the effort, she straightened, taking on a frosty scowl. "Fine. Speak before I change my mind."

"They changed your status."

I held my thoughts awaiting her answer. Cold fridge handles dug between my shoulder blades. Raymond was one giant ball of nervous energy filling the room. With a desperate grunt, he skulked off to wear a path around the dining table. 

Lauren's head angled crosswise, an apathetic brow inching up. "To what?"

"To belligerent. Had you really not anticipated such a measure after the wrecks you famously produced? Take a wild guess of the cost."

What formed as a pull at the corner of the lips grew into a renegade smirk. She leaned back, playing with a wisp of hair. "Private military isn't so pathetic as to be impacted by minor displays. They never had a problem sending me to do the wreckage outside their yard."

The older man sighed, and I couldn't believe what the hell I was hearing. Belligerent as in disobedient mutants? I couldn't square up another meaning that fit the context. I shivered. Static tickled my shoulders and scattered down to my fingertips.

"Focus on the matter at hand. If you're considered a belligerent, then even Caldwell can't save you once partners reach a consensus. They don't mess around with this. You're being more trouble than you're worth."

"Am I, now?"

"Yes," Michael affirmed, and a cabinet door closed in the background. "You are because they know there's another one like you they may have better chances with."

The veiled remark fell through the cracks of her severe composure. Lauren glanced up from her nails. While it was me her eyes landed upon, the distance in it stretched beyond the kitchen. 

I could hardly contain myself at the implication he'd thrown out there. Nausea sank its fangs into my stomach. I frantically caught Luc standing sentry by the windows, head spinning until it became a conscious stress to keep on two legs. He listened on with tight shoulders.

"Is that why you called? To lecture me like I can reverse it or because you're suddenly concerned?" 

"You can spin this around if you care about the people you're dragging into this," he started, and her shape bristled. "If you turn back and convince them you're done, the deal will return on the table. But if you don't, anyone who enables you remain targets. You know that yet you still ran off with them. I'm warning you—you're in over your head."

Raymond whipped around. Hands dropped on the back of a chair. "Tell him he can shove his head up his ass!"

He heard that, of course. "You have no idea what dangers you're courting. Lauren does. She's recklessly putting all of you in harm's way."