Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

thought it was sort of a date. But then, when we got there, he introduced me to Miles Cavendish and vanished and Miles spent most of the evening … flirting, I thought, and then he took me to his office and told me …. A pack of lies, I guess.”

“Humans for Humanity is the terrorist organization that Miles Cavendish started thirty years ago and built into a multi-national group, whose sole purpose is to eradicate mutants.”

Anna gaped at him. “That can’t be right! Everybody knows about the organization—I mean everybody! And most of the wealthy people in the U.S. are members. It’s an elite … social club, really, but they lobby against genetic … uh … altering the human race artificially. They believe humans should evolve naturally.”

“It’s a terrorist organization and well known as one—to lawmen worldwide,”

Simon said grimly.

Anna blinked at him. “Well! I don’t understand how they could get away with being so … public!”

“It’s because of that façade that they get away with it—that and the money behind it. As you say, the wealthiest people in the world, and most influential, are members.”

Anna pressed a hand to her chest. “But I’m not! I’m not wealthy or influential and I’m not a member!”

Simon pulled the papers out of the file he’d brought with him and tossed them onto the bed at her knees. “You didn’t write those?”

Anna stared down at the papers unhappily. To think that she’d been so pleased with herself when she’d been taken seriously enough to be published! “I have a right to my own opinion!” she said defensively. “Yes! I wrote them. That doesn’t make me a terrorist, damn it!”

“No, that just makes you a racist and a bigot. Helping your father build a bomb would make you a terrorist. Did you? Help him?”

Anna gaped at him for a moment in shock and then glared at him. “That’s completely untrue! I don’t hate anybody! I certainly don’t hate them because of what they felt like they had to do to survive! If you’d actually read the damned papers, you’d know that!”

“I read them,” Simon countered although the truth was he’d barely skimmed through them. He hadn’t had any interest in them beyond the fact that they seemed to support an affiliation with her father.

“Changing people into something else isn’t the answer to our problems!

Eventually, the imbalance causing the climate changes will right itself, but humans will still be forever altered into a different species altogether if they continue playing with our genetics! No one knows what the long range effects could be! We could completely split off and take different evolutionary paths! I’m against experimentation that might bring us grief in the long run. That doesn’t make me in favor of … killing people!”

“So … you’re saying you don’t agree with your father?”

“I don’t know the man. I don’t know what he thinks or what he does, but if that’s what he’s been doing, then, no! I don’t agree with him … at all!”

Simon nodded. “Have you ever been to New Atlanta before?”

Anna stared at him, trying to shift gears. “Is that where we are?”

“Answer the question, please.”

“No.”

“Tell me about your mother.”

“Tell you what?”

“You said she left your father before you were born.”

Anna glared at him. “I said my mother told me he died before I was born.”

“So … you met him when?”

“You’ve got a worse memory than I have!” Anna snapped irritably. “Paul took me to the party at his house about a week ago. And I don’t know that he is my father, damn it! My mother said my father died!”

“He is your father.”

Anna studied him unhappily. “You’re sure? There couldn’t be a mistake?”

“So your mother lied to you about her association with Miles Cavendish.”

Anna glared at him. “If you’re implying my mother was a liar …!”

“If she told you he was dead, that was a lie.”

She picked the pillow up off the bed and threw it at him. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother!”

Simon caught the pillow and dropped it on the floor. “What else did she tell you about your father?”

“Nothing,” Anna said sullenly.

Simon lifted his brows. “I find that hard to believe!”

Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “And I give a shit what you believe, you asshole! I want a damned lawyer! I’m not talking to you anymore!”

“You don’t have the right to an attorney. You’re being held as a suspected terrorist,” Simon said coolly. Getting up, he left the room, leaving her to stew over that for a while.

“That went well,” Ian said dryly.

“Bite me!” Simon snarled.

Ian grinned at his back, but wiped the smile off his face as he entered the room where their ‘terrorist’ was sulking.

* * * *

Anna hated it, but she was desperate. Moving to the door, she rapped on it with her fist. “Hello? Is anybody there? I need to … go!”

Hearing footsteps outside, she stepped back from the door. It opened and Caleb stuck his head in, his expression questioning.

“I have to go. There’s no bathroom in here.”

“The door wasn’t locked.” He stepped out. “Joshua is using the shower in this bath. There’s another bathroom on the other side of the living area.”

Red faced, Anna merely nodded and followed the direction he’d pointed out, feeling the beginnings of anger on top of her embarrassment. To think she’d been doing the pee-pee dance for a damned hour and the fucking door wasn’t even locked! How was she supposed have known