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"I felt what she’s feeling," Nathan yelled "She felt like her head was going to explode, like so inside her skull, but she bore it to reach out to ain Do you have any idea what they did to her the last time they had her?"

Resnick slowly shook his head, his face going paler by the second

"They beat her They tortured her For days she endured hell because she wouldn’t give them information about Grace After she escaped, she asked me for help She’d tried to do so before, but they kept her too drugged to maintain a pathway And now because you’re a stupid fuck, she’s back in their hands and she can’t give s that prevent her froged it through his hair "You have to know I didn’t intend for this to happen"

"I don’t know anything," Nathan snapped "You claiht be your sister Where the fuck do you get your idea of fa with you?"

"Save the insults, okay? I fucked up I just wanted to protect her I had no idea that you and she were involved I didn’t even kno the hell she ended up with KGI I thought I could re I wanted to protect her and Grace without anyone finding out about their abilities I still don’t kno she got involved with you or how she knew to ask you for help"

"Because she saved me," Nathan said in a fierce voice "She heard me out of all the other voices in the world and she answered We for before we ever met face-

to-face, and I’ll be damned if I let you or anyone else break it"

Joe slid his hand over Nathan’s shoulder again "No one’s going to do anything We’ll get Shea back"

Just hearing the conviction in his brother’s voice settled Nathan As he glanced around the room at his other brothers and Steele and his team members, he saw the same conviction in every one of their faces

Garrett turned to Resnick, his eyes so cold they’d freeze a polar bear "It’s ti We need every piece of information you have on this lab where you and Shea were conceived or created or whatever the fuck you want to call it We need naanizations, and we need to knoho’d have an interest in them now Or ould even know about them"

"Do you have their abilities?" Sam asked as he took a step closer to Resnick

Resnick shook his head His nostrils flared and his lips flattened into a thin line "I was a…failure A dropped experi board after I was born It wasn’t until many years later that Grace and then Shea were born"

"So what, you just hung around the lab? I’ my mind around this," Ethan said "It doesn’t add up and it damn sure doesn’t arette and blew out a cloud of s else to do with me I was the first They didn’t have a plan for what happened if I didn’t yield the results they were looking for After me, they adopted out babies that didn’t work out But they kept me"

"Who is they?" Nathan asked i time here I’m not interested in your life story"

"The project was started during the Cold War At first the US was primarily interested in psychic and telepathic powers They wanted a way into the heads of people in positions of power They wanted their secrets It sounds far-fetched, yes, but then a whole lot of secret research is pretty damn unbelievable

"There wasn’t any solid success until after the Cold War ended That’s when Grace and Shea were born At first there was a lot of exciteirls could communicate telepathically with each other But then when their ability to heal and take on pain was discovered, it ree turn in the possibilities"

"Okay, so who do we like for this?" Nathan deroup of the CIA ant to keep experiet the donors?" Donovan cut in "Shea said that according to herand sperm from donors who had remarkable abilities That doesn’t explain how they laid hands on these people Hardly so you can advertise for"

"I don’t know the answer to your question, Nathan," Resnick said in a low voice "But we’ll use whatever resources I have to find out I swear it" He turned to Donovan "That’s exactly what they did They studied each and every case of special abilities Some turned out to be hoaxes, but there were others who clearly displayed unique talents Years went into cataloging and searching out ifts They were tested extensively and then ses re certain profiles to see what the result would be"

"It all sounds fucking unreal," Ethan muttered

"I was a failure As werethat were created in the lab," Resnick continued "In fact, Grace and Shea were the only tho displayed ine the excitement they caused when it was discovered what they could do There were others with questionable abilities but nothing that was tangible, that was there in black and white, that could be proven, and most important, controlled and reproduced at will That is what they were looking for, and that’s why Grace and Shea aren’t safe They want them not only for what they can do, but for the possibilities their offspring would provide"

A chill went up Nathan’s spine, and fury gripped hi to spend her life being tortured and have her eggs taken to produceone or tho shared her reht ht occurred to Nathan and he aze "You were the one who helped the Petersons, weren’t you? When they on It’s how you knew about the house there and why you sent Phillips there to find Shea"

Resnick gave a resigned sigh "Yes I didn’t locate the Petersons or the girls until they were nearly adults The Petersons took the girls and ran when they were very young Just toddlers I was glad I hated seeing as done to the but watch while they were treated like objects

"They hy I pursued a job in the CIA and why I worked ence community I not only wanted to find and protect theround so I’d know if there was an effort to regroup or if anyone began digging around for inforirls