บททั้งหมดของ Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele: บทที่ 371 - บทที่ 380

[Cordelia]The man drew closer and I realized my mistake immediately."You're not Atlas," my accusing finger hovers below his chin. He is maybe two inches taller than Atlas, and I'm not used to looking up at such a familiar face. "Close, but not quite."The gentleman laughs. "Right there, Lil Miss," his voice has a strong, rugged-sounding accent. "Or should I say," he takes my passport and squints at the picture, "Ms Ortega. A pleasure to meet you, I'm Wally." "Wally?" I blink up at the stranger with an overeager smile. The longer I look at him the less he looks like my Atlas. While he does have the same chiseled features and a similar muscular build, everything from how he holds himself to how he speaks is so very different. This man is hot on the surface in the ways that Atlas is cold and aloof. My husband shares his smiles sparingly and they are almost never so wide and toothy. But when Atlas smiles at you, really smiles, you know it is genuine. I'm not sure I can trust a thing t

[Clark]Clicking open, I wait for the video feed to load. The file is large, much larger than I would normally expect for 15 minutes of video recording. "What did you capture, little drone?" I wonder glad that my new server upgrade is designed to detect trojan-style viruses before they could infect my system. Although Magnus has never shown any technical savvy, it wouldn't be beyond him to hire professionals who could slice my systems into ribbons with a few simple keystrokes. Better safe than sorry. He won't trick me twice. "That's assuming he tricked me the first time," I say aloud to nobody in particular. "You're just assuming it's Magnus, it could be someone new." Shaking that thought from my head, I press play. The recording starts with Magnus exiting the car. The footage is grainy, enhanced by infra-red to help the dragonfly drone see in the dark, but shows him kissing his fiance and saying goodnight to his daughter and Angelica. As programmed, the drone sticks with its init

[Cordelia]I've never been this exhausted before. Slumping forward, my hand on my son's car seat, I almost fall asleep even as the Land Rover hits another bump. "Sorry, Cousin Cordy, that was a big un!" Wally hollers from the front seat. His Aussie accent, which at first sounded charming, is now grating, jarring me from my almost-sleep. Baby Saphira mews in her baby seat and I place my other hand on her tummy. My stomach is churning as well. Normally I don't have motion sickness, but even I have my limits, especially while almost 5 months pregnant, and a 2-hour drive from Sydney into the rainforests of Queensland. "Hang in there!" Wally smiles annoyingly from his perch. "We're almost there!"Making a sudden turn, the rover goes off the main path onto a small trail barely big enough for the vehicle to navigate. Tall shrubs and luscious vines brush against us, the foliage scraping the paint as we make our way deeper into the jungle. I look out the back window and all I see is a solid

[Cordelia] Nothing has changed. I'm imagining things. Just like last time. It was only a coincidence that her body went into shock. It couldn't have been me. No matter what the Fisher Institute tried to prove. I can't heal with my touch. Or hurt. It's all in my mind. Shaking my head I go back to the story. "Sorry, Tilly," my finger runs along the page, "Ah, here we are. Every night the princesses would go to bed early, and every morning they'd wake up exhausted asking for new slippers. Hmmm. What do you think, Tilly, were they dancing in their dreams?" The line on the heart monitor jumps in the corner of my vision. Is she trying to communicate with me? Flipping my hair out of the way, I watch for a moment more, raising the book higher so that I can watch the monitor and read at the same time. Still no change. I must be imagining things. I return to the story, reading from the book until my eyelids grow heavy and my body leans forward. The sheets on her bed are so soft. They

[Clark]Delilah's finger presses play. For several minutes, the screen is black, and the sound of her footsteps is the only thing recorded. "I was opening the lab. Sorry. I couldn't have any screen interference. It was hard enough figuring out how to get past his bioscanning. I knew if I tried more than once, he'd be alerted.""How do you know he..." I start to ask. The screen changes and we all focus our attention on the bright center. "I don't," she admits and something in the back of my mind snaps awake. Isn't it a bit convenient that she was able to break in with one go? If I were Magnus, my kid wouldn't be able to find their way into my secret lab without me knowing exactly what she was up to. "I'm hoping he was too distracted to notice or care," she squeezes Sasha's hand. He's been very quiet this entire time, his eyes haunted and lost. With all that has happened, who knows what he's seen? He was Magnus' special guest for several months, he knows what the monster is capable o