“You risked a lot.” True didn’t appear happy as he spoke. “You were lucky.”

She decided to change the subject quickly because she didn’t like the look in his eyes as he stared at her. She had a sinking feeling he planned to give her a little hell later for the danger she’d put herself in. “Agent Brice came to visit me right after Drackwood was taken down to tell me he had an informant in another location but she was too afraid to smuggle out evidence. He had a way to get me employed there so I agreed to go. There were New Species who needed help.”

“You were sent to the facility rigged with bombs?” Luna frowned.

“No,” Query answered for her. “She’s talking about Cornas Research.”

Jeanie went into more details about working at Cornas and finally paused. “I told Agent Brice I’d stay home the day of a raid. I even borrowed a neighbor’s car that morning to take to work in case the police were looking for me. I made it to Cornas and made sure they couldn’t gas the New Species.” She shared all the details right up until she woke at Homeland. “That’s when I found out Agent Brice really doesn’t work for the NSO and that he’d been using me all that time.”

“You left out an important detail.” True shot her a pointed stare.

She stared back him, clueless as to what he referred to. “I think I covered it all.”

“Tell them what happened to you at Drackwood and what you endured.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. “That’s irrelevant.”

“They should know all you’ve suffered trying to get us freed, Jeanie.” His stern expression brooked no argument. “Tell them what Polanitis did to you.”

She lowered her voice. “It’s not necessary.”

“It is.” True stood so fast his chair fell over, crashing to the floor with a bang. “Polanitis threatened to have me killed if Jeanie didn’t submit to taking breeding drugs.” He bent forward, flattening his hands on the surface of the table. “She agreed and I’m alive.” He slowly examined the male faces around the table. “I want to know if any of you mounted her while she was drugged since she wouldn’t remember. I’ll even allow you to live long enough to try to explain to me how any of you could hurt her that way.”

“Shit.” Query rose to his feet a lot slower, his gaze locked on True. “Are you serious?”

“Did you mount her? She was drugged and helpless. She retains no memory of it.”

“Fuck no!” He shook his head in denial. “I never touched her and you must be mistaken. They wouldn’t give that shit to a human.”

True snarled. “Don’t look at her that way. They did, and I want to know if any of you touched her.”

“Me too,” Luna spat, her tone harsh. “A male would have to have agreed to mount her without drugs in his system since she’s still with us. She wouldn’t have survived otherwise. I could barely withstand an out-of-control male in that state and that’s only because I was clear-headed enough not to struggle. The pain she would have endured from the breeding drug alone would have her thrashing around and that would have incited more rage aggression from him.” She looked around the table. “Which one of you agreed to mount her?”

No one spoke.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t stated that you were going to kill them,” Flirt quietly announced, “they might be more willing to confess.”

True’s upper lip lifted, showing his sharp canines. “I will allow them to apologize to her and explain why they’d hurt Jeanie before I use my bare hands to deal out justice. She was helpless. You know what that drug does and there is no given will. She didn’t agree to be mounted.”

“True, please,” Jeanie pleaded. “It doesn’t matter.”

He whipped his head down, his eyes wide. “It does. How can you say that?”

Tears filled her eyes as she rose to her feet. She rapidly blinked to clear her vision. Her legs wobbled but her knees didn’t buckle. She couldn’t look at anyone but him, feeling embarrassed and horrified at the same time.

“I told you that I’m pretty sure I would have known if anyone had done something to me, okay?”

“You can’t know for sure if your body was used but they do. They’d only give you the drug to use in a breeding experiment. They would need a male—these males—and I want to know who mounted you.”

More tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She reached up and wiped them away, still staring at him. “If there is one thing we all know in this room, it’s that Drackwood was a nightmare for us all.” Her voice broke and she had to swallow before continuing. “I don’t want to know, True. I care about everyone in this room and it would be easier to think it was similar to the situation I experienced when Polanitis came after me—everyone had to agree to do what he wanted. I made a deal with that devil to save you, True. I never regretted it and I can live with it because you’re standing right in front of me. The bottom line is that I’m alive too. Maybe things went down that I don’t remember but it doesn’t matter. We survived and that’s what counts.”

“It matters.” True’s eyes seemed suspiciously wet as he rapidly blinked and reached out to grip her shoulder with gentle fingers.

“Maybe they did it to save me. If it even happened.” She forced herself to look at the faces around the table as she struggled to pull herself together. She rested her hand over True’s. Just touching him helped her find strength. “It doesn’t matter. I’d forgive someone if they were given an unfathomable choice and we all agree that I’d have been killed if they’d drugged up someone else while I was injected with that shit. We’re here to talk about Agent Brice and try to figure out how to find the son of a bitch.” It got easier to breathe as she calmed, instead focusing on the anger she felt over being used to extort money from the NSO. “Let’s deal with that.”

“I never touched you,” one of the males stated.

She looked at him, seeing sincerity in his dark-green gaze. “Let’s drop it.”

“I didn’t either.” Another male cleared his throat, giving True a wary look. “But I would have agreed to take her to my mat if given a choice between killing her and making sure she’d survive.”

Jeanie winced, glancing up at True to see his reaction. He appeared unusually pale and still angry. His chest expanded as he sucked in a deep breath and slowly blew it out.

“Anyone, just speak now if Polanitis offered you Jeanie. I won’t seek retribution.”

Silence reigned and Jeanie closed her eyes, relief so overwhelming she nearly choked up again. She was pretty sure no one had sexually molested her but she was certain someone would confess if there was anything to tell.

True squeezed her shoulder before pulling his hand away. She let him go but he quickly wrapped his fingers around hers instead, keeping hold of her hand as he righted his chair with the other one and sat. She opened her eyes as he motioned with his head for her to take her seat too. She gratefully collapsed into the chair.

“Tell us about this agent,” Query urged. “Give us a detailed description. We have access to the out world’s databases. We can try to find him through DMV records. Did he drive a car? Did he have an accent that might indicate what state he lived in? We can pull all the photos that match his description for you to look at, until we find the right face.”

The tension in the room seemed to dissipate. “He is a Caucasian male in his mid-to-late fifties. Approximately five foot eight with a heavy build. He wore glasses, had light-brown eyes, I think, since the lenses were tinted, and he had a mole on his face.” She pointed to her cheek to show them where it was located. “He was balding on the top of his head. His hair was brown with a lot of gray. He drove a rental car to our meetings. They had stickers on them so it was easy to figure that out but he used different companies.”

“Heavy as in muscular?”

She glanced at Flirt. He’d pulled out his phone to text the information she gave or take notes. “No, he was out of shape and kind of huffed if he moved too fast.”