Cassius by Stevens, Madison (chromebook ebook reader txt) 📕

way, which means you didn’t bond. This is just you getting overly excited about some hot internet star. I wouldn’t have expected it from you, but I guess all that shit with Maximus has everyone not thinking straight.”

“But I…” CJ stared at the wall, trying to separate what his brain and body were telling him. “I feel something. More than before, a pull. I did from the beginning, but it’s even more intense. Not as overwhelming as what I’ve heard about Vestals, but you’re right, I didn’t fully bond, but this isn’t like anything I’ve experienced before.”

Julius shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“How the hell doesn’t it matter?” CJ snapped. “She could be my Vestal!”

“You don’t know that for certain. You just told me so.” Julius shrugged, a disinterested look on his face. “You might just be a guy who really needed to get laid. And even if she is your Vestal, it doesn’t change anything for our job.”

“It damned well does.” CJ growled. “How can you say it doesn’t?”

“Because we have a duty to Alpha Squad and all the other hybrids out there that the existence of Ouroboros threatens.” Julius gave him a cold look. “We have a job to do, so we’ll do it. And you need to keep your focus on the job. I don’t give a shit if banging your little climbing hottie will make you feel better, or if she follows us around and points out anything weird at the race, but our mission always comes first.”

“She could be in danger. They might be targeting her because she’s a Vestal. Our mission is to investigate and stop Ouroboros, and you’re acting like a Vestal showing up isn’t a big deal!”

“Coincidences happen,” Julius replied. “Ouroboros wasn’t hunting Selena when Maximus ran into her.”

“Coincidences or fate?” CJ asked.

Julius snorted. “I don’t care if it’s all some secret alien plot. We don’t get to decide how the universe works. We only get to decide how we’ll react to it. But, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think she’s in any immediate danger.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t, but you can’t be sure she even is a Vestal.” Julius shrugged. “Think about it for five seconds. She’s constantly in public, and they haven’t grabbed her already. It would be easy to snatch her from her motel if grabbing her is what this is about, and there was no reason to wait until she went on a well-advertised trip that’s being filmed half the time.” He shook his head. “Nothing’s going to happen right away. That gives us a little room to maneuver and figure out what they’re really up to here.”

CJ hopped up, the nervous energy making his hands twitch. He wanted to punch something, but trashing the room wouldn’t help. “I won’t risk her getting hurt. We can protect her and still pull off the mission. You’re right. If it’s not about just grabbing her, then Ouroboros might be planning something big at the race, after all.”

“If they’re here of course they’re planning something, and Maximus wouldn’t be happy if we let Ouroboros cause trouble, Vestal or no.” Julius stood, eyeing CJ with a frown. “That’s why we’re here, but we also need to make sure we don’t make the situation worse, or end up exposing ourselves unless it’s absolutely necessary. That’ll only increase risk to all hybrids and Vestals going forward.”

CJ gave a slight nod. Julius wasn’t wrong. Charging after Kendra without intel or a plan was too risky. He needed to stop and think.

“Then what do we do?” CJ asked.

“We have an advantage,” Julius replied. “And we need to make sure we exploit it to our maximum ability.”

“Kendra?”

Julius scoffed. “Not the woman. If anything, she’s a liability.”

CJ frowned, but didn’t say anything. At least Julius wasn’t feeding him lines about not seeing her again or spending the entire conversation trying to convince him she wasn’t his Vestal. That might be annoying, only if because CJ wasn’t a hundred percent sure.

“They don’t want to be exposed anymore than we do,” Julius said. “We’ve known that from the beginning based on what we saw in Hawaii and how they went out of their way to keep anyone away from their base, including messing with permits.” He shrugged. “With that in mind, we know this won’t be a terrorist attack or high-profile assassination, and from what Maximus told us, the government is content to leave most of the Ouroboros hunting to us because they’re not convinced it’s a significant organization on par with the Horatius Group. If Ouroboros does anything to change that opinion, then they won’t last long.”

“That makes sense.” CJ nodded. Knowing Kendra wouldn’t be targeted would help him concentrate more. “Then what’s this about?”

Julius shrugged. “We still don’t know. We’ll need your race bunny’s help in the meantime. I’m still betting on nothing fancier than money laundering. I think after what happened in Hawaii, they’re trying to be more careful and not stand out. I could be wrong, but as long as we’re both there and monitoring things, we can mess up whatever they have planned.”

“And you’re convinced they’re here?”

“Yes. There’s enough evidence for that.”

“And you still don’t think it’s odd this happens to conveniently be where a probable Vestal is?” CJ replied with incredulity in his voice, the concern over Kendra creeping back in.

He thought about lying to her and saying he’d found evidence of a terrorist attack, but that wouldn’t work. She’d tell the cops, and they’d cancel the race. The trail of the enemy would go cold, and Julius was right there was no evidence of a violent threat.

“First of all, again, we don’t know she’s a Vestal.” Julius pointed to his nose. “That little problem with our nose changes everything, and you going halfway with her muddies the water, but if she’s a Vestal, then trying to grab her anytime during or before the race is a terrible idea. She spends a good chunk of her time walking