I turn my head to look away, but suddenly, Cross is turning me away, moving behind me, one hand gathering my hair to lift it out of the way as he presses hard into something on the back of my neck, so hard that I hiss in pain.
“Got you,” Cross says, two of his fingers pinching something under my skin.
“What—”
And then I feel it. A small, capsule-shaped lump rolling under my skin as Cross gently moves his fingers back and forth. I stay still as Cross moves away for a moment, returning with some sort of reader, and holding it over the back of my neck until a sharp beep fills the air.
My blood runs cold, and I swallow the bile rising in the back of my throat. A tracker. Someone put a tracker inside me. And I have no idea when it happened or who did it.
Chapter thirty-six
Bythetimetherest of the team are assembled in the med bay, I’m dressed and mostly composed, sitting cross-legged on the bed, my eyes in my lap. I’ve pulled my hair up as much as I could, but it’s so thick that it hurts to keep it up in its messy bun. The stares of everyone in the room feel like entitled touches, and I swallow hard.
“So let’s get it out,” Joker says, once the door closes behind Siren, the last to join us.
“It’s not that easy, Jokes. We don’t know what’ll happen when we do,” Phantom chides, the voice ofreason for now.
“That’s why I’m here,” Siren says, approaching the hospital bed and dragging a wheeled table with them.
I glance out of the corner of my eye, seeing the computer setup they’ve brought, trying to follow the wires just to calm the racing thoughts in my mind. I can’t stop thinking about who could have put in the tracker, and why, and when. I can’t remember if the facility did it when I was first admitted, but that wouldn’t make sense. Joker would have been stuck with one if that was their policy.
“Hey, you still with us, cupcake?”
I look up to find Siren leaning over me, their blue-green eyes bright with concern, the most emotion I’ve seen from them so far. I flush and nod, looking down again. I don’t know what I would even say, let alone if I could trust my voice right now.
“I’m going to scan it and it’ll send a signal to my laptop. With any luck, it’ll show us who this thing is registered to,” Siren explains.
“Like a fucking chip they put into dogs?” Bones snarls, words garbled with a growl.
I flinch away instinctively, and to my surprise, he stops, clearing his throat and pacing away slightly. I choose not to read too far into that right now, already too overwhelmed with emotions.
When Siren raises the scanner, I remain perfectly still, not even daring to breathe until the device beeps, a successful reading achieved. Once they pull away, I slump forward and undo my hair, letting it cascade around my shoulders and torso in a heavy curtain. I scoot back toward the head of the bed, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them.
“The good news is there is information linked to the chip,” Siren starts heavily.
“It sounds like there’s some bad news attached to that,” Cross mutters seriously, moving to look over Siren’s shoulder as they type.
“Yeah, it’s all encrypted. I might be able to hack it, but it’s going to take time,” Siren replies, voice low and distant in concentration.
“But is it, like, rigged to blow Lilah’s brains out if we remove it?” Joker asks, words bursting out of him as if he couldn’t keep them in a moment longer.
I look up at the use of the diminutive, my head tilted slightly. It’s been so long since I’ve had someone call me that, not since my old pack. But in Joker’s accent,there’s something…delightfully comforting to the sound of those syllables. Joker glances at me, but I look away with a hot flush.
“What part of encrypted don’t you understand?” Siren snaps, but it lacks any real heat.
“Everything between the “en” part and the “ted” thing,” Joker replies, not missing a beat.
I smother a little giggle against my knees, keeping my eyes down to avoid eye contact. Siren lets out a heavy sigh but doesn’t engage with the other omega’s antics.
“How long will it take for you to have an answer?” Bones asks into the silence, back to his usual no-nonsense tone.
“Well, depending on how deep this goes, it could be anything between a few hours and a few days,” Siren says heavily.
I glance at the wall clock, letting out a long breath. It’s almost time for me to start dinner. I start to get up, moving quietly as Bones and Siren talk, but I don’t get very far before a sharp corrective noise stops me in my tracks.
“Where do you think you’re going, baby doll?” Phantom asks.
I turn slightly, looking at the clock again, and hug my arms around my stomach. “To make dinner?” I say, more of a question than an answer.