The Beasts of Juarez, R.B. Schow [books to read for self improvement .txt] 📗

“Bingo,” she said, looking right at him.

He flinched as if punched.

“Are you a fighter, Mr. Wentworth?” Savannah asked. “I know you’re not, but let’s see what you say.” There was something unusual about her eyes, something fiery and unreal. He was used to challenges, but he didn’t like this one. Not one bit.

“I came for Kiera,” he said.

“To save some girls, I’m sure,” she replied. “Buy one to save many, is that it?”

“What’s your problem?” Leopold asked.

The insides of her purple eyes seemed to glow orange for just the slightest moment. Then his heart began to overheat, causing him to fold forward against a slight but searing pain.

“Savannah,” Dr. Holland warned.

She broke her stare for one moment, glancing over at the doctor. The heat then dissipated rather quickly.

“What the hell?” Leopold asked.

Savannah breezed out of the room like a furnace—turbulent and untouchable.

Isabelle looked right at him and said, “She killed you a hundred times in her mind before you even realized you were in danger.”

“How is someone like her even possible?” Leopold asked, his heart still having trouble returning to its original rhythm.

“Genetics,” Holland replied, his German accent now more noticeable.

After what just happened, he wanted no part of these people. “Kiera, it’s time to get your things.”

“I have one more shot to administer,” Holland said. “It will only take a few minutes. After that, she is all yours.”

Kiera walked past them, no acknowledgment of them at all. Leopold turned and watched the girl walk down the hallway with Holland in tow.

“She’s even more robotic than ever,” Leopold said. “At some point, we’re going to have to socialize her whether you want to or not.”

“When she’s ready,” Isabelle said.

“Well, I’m ready.”

“You’re not a killing machine, Leopold. You’re a little man with big dreams and a decent enough bank account to finance them.”

“My account was never considered decent, except maybe in college. But even then, it was a work in progress.”

Waving a dismissive hand, which she was good at, Isabelle said, “You happened to come at the right time, Leopold. The push for peace by the last administration damn near destroyed our business. The world, however, is entering another war phase, as you are seeing in Syria, North Korea, and China. We have paying clients once more, men and women of distinction who command hundreds of billions of dollars, trillions even. So when you come in here thinking you’ve got a nine-inch cock because your account boasts nine whole figures, you need to understand that, comparatively, a dick that small would never get past the front door, let alone in front of someone like me, Dr. Holland, or even someone as skilled as Savannah Swann. You are in the heart of a lion’s den that pumps out world destroyers, so please consider your presence in this facility a mighty gift from God, or whatever other entity you people worship these days.”

“I am humbled by this place for—”

“Be quiet, Mr. Wentworth,” she said. “No one cares about your opinion, your wants and desires, or even your interests here. No one but me. And I only care barely, and only to the extent required by our contract.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Isabelle,” he said without expression. He was working hard to still the anger inside of him, but the woman had just triggered his adrenals.

“Well, with me, it will get you nowhere,” she replied. “If you’ll kindly return to the front of the facility, I will have Kiera meet you there. I trust you know your way back.”

“Actually, I don’t.”

She was drawing an irritated breath when Savannah suddenly appeared. “I can take him from here, Mrs. Norwood.”

“Be nice,” Isabelle told her.

“I’ll be nicer than you were,” she said as if she cared very little for the woman. “Let’s go, Mr. Wentworth.”

Leopold said goodbye to Isabelle who was already walking away and paying him no mind. Catching up to Savannah, he wanted to say so many things, but there was no time and he didn’t know where to begin. And, truthfully, he was scared of her—not only of what she was but of what she could do to him.

“Just ask,” she finally said.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Just ask the question burning a hole in your mind, Leopold Wentworth.”

“And what question is that?” he challenged.

She glanced over her shoulder at him and said, “What am I?”

Nodding, he replied, “Okay, what exactly are you?”

“Something you wouldn’t understand,” she said. “This is one facility of many like it. I was born into this clandestine world in the foothills of northern California. This isn’t my world anymore, but it is a world Kiera is moving into. There is something special about her.”

“How so?” he asked.

“She will never be like me, but of all the girls in here, she has the best chance.”

“Because of her genetics?” he asked.

“Yes. And other things. But those are things I cannot discuss with you due to the NDAs that I signed.”

“Again…what are you?” he asked.

She stopped and looked at him. Her eyes bored so deeply into his that he thought he felt her crawling through his mind, seeing him, knowing him, understanding all the little things that made Leopold Wentworth the man he was and would one day become. And then that feeling dissipated and her gaze went from hypnotic to congenial inside of a split second.

“I am what this universe never wanted, something untouchable and mean, and yet there is a heartbeat in my soul that yearns for some sense of normalcy, which is a life I gave up long ago. I cannot change who I am, nor would I, but I can help people like Kiera come into her own. She has a chance at normalcy.”

“That’s both intriguing and noble,” he said, nearly speechless.

“I wanted to be