Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) by Jen Rasmussen Read Free Book Online Page B

remember what happened,” Nero said. “But if they were really targeting people, the hex might have just been a cover.”
    “So you think they deployed the hex, then sent people like this Bates guy in to kill their targets while all the confusion was going on?” Thea asked. “That’s an awfully elaborate plan.”
    Nero shrugged. “Makes some sense, though. Bates was in his car. Maybe he was actually just arriving on the scene.” He gestured at Flannery as she came back in from the kitchen. “Babe, you recognize this woman?”
    He showed her Wanda Randall’s picture, while Thea tried not to let her distaste over the word babe show. Pete caught her eye, clearly read her mind, and grinned.
    “No,” Flannery said.
    “She was never at the lab?” Nero asked.
    “Not unless she had her head shaved, too,” said Flannery.
    “Then why would she be one of the targets?” Pete asked.
    “Maybe Lex talked too much,” said Thea. “Maybe the point was to shut people up about the superhex. Kill whoever knew about it.”
    “But why?” Flannery asked. “They’re doing demonstrations for potential clients. They’re marketing this thing. I could see wanting to shut people up if some kind of authority was about to come down on top of them or something, but otherwise, what’s the harm in a little buzz?”
    “Buzz is all well and good, as long as it’s hitting the right ears,” Thea said. “But I doubt it’d help their business much for the average person to know they’re making weapons of mass destruction. It practically makes them terrorists.”
    “Nobody likes a terrorist,” Pete interjected.
    “Exactly,” said Thea. “Would you go someplace like that to buy a hex?”
    Nero was giving Thea a look that was, for laid-back Nero, downright alarmed. “If they want to keep it quiet, then Flannery is in danger, too.”
    Aunt Bridget gave her daughter a worried look. “I don’t like the sound of that. You don’t think they’d bring that superhex here ?”
    “Calm down,” Thea said. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’re putting guesses on top of guesses on top of guesses.”
    “All right then, Miss Investigator,” said Nero. “Find us some facts, why don’t you?”
    “That,” said Thea, “is a hell of an idea.”
    The next day she requested a meeting with both Alecto and Lee, her department head.
    “I’d like permission to work on a special project,” she told them over lunch in the dining hall, the only time they all had available. “It would take me away from my regular duties. And I’d need to use not only my own time, but some company resources. Human illusions, tech. No hexes, as far as I know.”
    She sighed inwardly as she asked. Of course she wanted to get to the bottom of this, but in the seven months or so since she’d completed her transformation, she’d spent too little time doing the job she’d actually chosen. First she’d been briefly expelled from the colony, along with Alecto. Then she’d been assigned to lead a special team to find Megaira’s new colony. When she’d finished that, Thea thought she would finally be able to settle into her new life. But it seemed not.
    Or maybe it seemed so. Alecto was already shaking her head.
    “Thea, we appreciate what you’ve done up to this point. You did a great job finding my sister. But now that you’ve located her, how we deal with her is up to the board. It’s a leadership decision and you’re just not at that level yet.”
    Thea frowned at Alecto. With so much going on, she hadn’t even been thinking of the big picture. “How are you going to deal with her? Fury Unlimited needs to be closed down, surely you can see that. They’re jeopardizing our business more than their own. I didn’t hear about any protests outside their gates.”
    “When we have something to share with the colony, we will do so,” Alecto said.
    Thea sighed, then shook her head. “That’s not what this is about, anyway. Boyd Lexington, the guy