Regeneration

Chapter 27 - The Truth

We sat there for a moment after he turned the car off, frozen in the stillness. He was the first to break the silence by unlocking the door and exiting.

I followed him...

Romero picked the lock of the back door and did his routine checks, returning after a moment, "It's clear."

Shifting his body to the side, he allowed me to enter first. As I did so, I tripped, not seeing that the floor was raised in the dark.

In an instant, his hand grabbed my arm, steadying me.

"I don't need your help," I spat at him as I yanked away.

For a fleeting moment, there was a flicker of hurt in his eyes, but it was soon masked. His warm brown eyes had turned dark. He closed the door behind him slowly, prolonging the moment of facing me.

"Hailey..." He began as his eyes bore into mine.

"What Romero?" I snapped at him, "What the hell was that back there? Why are they after you?"

Tremors of fear and anger rippled through me, I couldn't contain my emotions. I was scared.

"Look, I'm not the bad guy here; I need you to trust me when I say that."

"Trust you? How can I trust you when you're keeping secrets?" I shot back at him.

"It's complicated," he stated.

"What's complicated?"

He remained silent, a muscle in his jaw clenching.

"I felt the heat of a bullet fly past my face," I stood completely still, a tear threatening to slip from my eye.

He cautiously closed the distance between us, "I'm sorry."

I pushed him away.

"I want to trust you. I really do, but I want the truth," I said firmly.

He walked past me, leaning against the back of an old sofa. Fixing his gaze on me, he folded his arms. The old house was utterly dark apart from the moonlight that washed through the bare windows. The silvery glow illuminated only half of Romero's face, giving him a daunting image.

"I work for Spanish intelligence. I was assigned a mission to investigate kidnappings," he paused for a moment, reading my expression.

"My agency raided a warehouse where the victims were thought to be murdered but instead we found them being experimented on."

"The hunters..." I said softly.

He nodded, "Enzo, the man responsible, unexpectedly released them as a diversion so he could get away, we were caught off guard, most of my team died that night."

His words were a lot to digest.

"The agency cleaned up the place, killing what were the first hunters. We caught him off guard that night too after the place was cleared, we found that he left some things behind," He held up the device from earlier tonight but it didn't emit a blue light now.

I just stared at him taking in his words.

"I'm guessing that Enzo wants what he left behind." He looked at the device in his hands.

"I can't help but feel I am responsible for unleashing hell on earth... It was my mission, if only I had done things differently, smarter, faster maybe... maybe we would have been able to stop this. I failed."

He slammed his fist against the wall, making me jump. His eyes were fire, every muscle in his body tense, consumed by rage.

"That's why I have to fix this."