Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

was okay. Her guilt rose a notch each time Ben brushed off their concerns and didn’t mention what she had done to him. She didn’t understand how he could even be in the same room with her, let alone sit next to her after what she had done.
    “Jacqi, are you okay?”
    She smiled and nodded at Ben, not wanting to tell him what she was thinking. “It’s Jacqueline, by the way, not Jacqi.” Ben just waved off her comment and smirked. She had to fight to keep from rolling her eyes at the man. It seemed he refused to call her by her correct name.
    “What’s wrong? I smelled sadness and despair.”
    “You can smell that?” she asked in shock. “What else can you smell?”
    “Shifters have a very acute sense of smell. We can smell just about anything.” Ben frowned. “You don’t know very much about shifters, do you?”
    “All I know is what my father taught me—which wasn’t much because I tried to stay as far away from the man as possible—and what I observed for myself from his guards.” The group at the table were staring at her as though waiting for her to explain herself, and Jacqueline had a feeling lunch was over. Ben grabbed her hand and squeezed, and she accepted the comfort he was trying to give.
    “First off, I should tell you the drug that turns shifters rogue… that came from me. I created it.” Jacqueline waited for the fangs and claws to come out and for them to attack, but no one moved or said anything. No one looked angry or ready to kill her, so she continued. “For as long as I can remember, my father and I constantly moved around. One minute we would be somewhere, and without warning, we would pack up and move halfway around the world. Wherever we moved, my father always set up a lab when we got there. It was usually the first thing he did.
    “When I was about sixteen, I got curious about why it was so important to my father, so I went into the lab. I watched the guys working for hours and didn’t even know what they were doing, but I was fascinated. When they all left for the night, I snuck in and began messing around. Unfortunately, my father caught me. Needless to say, he was beyond angry, but after he eventually calmed down, he told me that if I was going to be there then I needed to be taught properly.”
    Jacqueline thought back on that day. She had been so eager to do anything to gain a few moments of her father’s attention and approval. For the longest time, she’d felt as though she had signed her soul over to the devil that day, and she didn’t even have a clue what she was selling it for.
    “For some insane reason, I excelled at chemistry. My father was so proud of me I didn’t even question him when he asked me to create a serum that would make shifters stronger. I would have done anything to continue receiving his praises rather than slaps across the face.” She didn’t even realize she was crying until Tessa handed her a tissue. After wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, Jacqueline continued. “With each test run, my father would send me back to the lab and demand me to make them even stronger, and I would go back and rework the formula. One night I overheard my father talking on the phone. He was telling someone about his plan to turn shifters rogue using my formula as soon as I perfected it. He was saying how he wanted them super strong but also mindless beasts that only answered to him.”
    “Wait.” Ben stopped her. “I don’t understand how you went from increased strength to mindless killing machines.”
    “After what I heard, I went back to the lab, and I worked day and night. I realized my father had been using me all along, so I decided to give him exactly what he wanted, but on my terms.”
    “What does that mean, on your terms?” Mitch asked.
    “I gave him the mindless beast he wanted. They answered only to him, but I made them docile. They weren’t the rogue killing machines he expected. I made them like dogs. They did his bidding, but they had to be trained. Instead of go fetch, they had to be trained to kill.”
    Ben doubled over laughing, which confused Jacqueline. The last thing she had expected when she told her story was laughter. The yelling and name-calling she could have handled, but laughing? She didn’t have a clue about how to handle that, so she waited patiently until he was finished.
    “Damn, I would have loved to see that little weasel’s face when he finally got his rogue serum. I bet it was priceless,” Ben said