CHAPTER TWENTY TWO


"You were set up." Jace remarked as he watched the distant forest, but the
trees weren't distant at all. They were in our face, smack dab in the middle and
almost glaring their breath on our noses.


He still watched the distant trees.


"I forgot." I murmured and crossed my arms.


Jace frowned and asked, "Forgot what?"


"Who you are." I said abruptly.


Of course I'd been set up. That's the world that we lived in. That's the
adversary that'd tear us down, each and every time. I shouldn't have ever
expected anything less.


Jace understand what I meant. He nodded in acceptance, but said anyway, "We
do have a few certain truths between us, don't we?"


"That we lie to each other."


"We set each other up."


"And we are the best manipulators in the world." I grinned briefly,
shallowly.


Jace nodded, jaw tight, and clenched hands. Even his shoulders were rigid. I
wondered at that, but I saw how his eyes narrowed briefly as he continued to
stare, enraptured, in the distance.


"That's pretty remarkable what you can do." I commented.


"What?" Jace broke away and glanced towards me, confused.


I gestured out the window, "You watch out there. You look in the distance and
yet, you don't miss what's in front of your face. It's almost like you absorb it
or something."


Jace narrowed his smoky greys and asked, "Are you talking about the forest or
are you talking…about something else?"


I laughed, but said ruefully, "I'll admit, I'm having a harder time than
usual swallowing the bitter pill. I had cared about those two men and you sent
me there to kill one of them."


"But you didn't."


"And I didn't kill Oscar either. So what are you doing? Are you just testing
me? To see if I would do it?"


I hadn't expected a response. It was a rhetorical ramble, but I wasn't taken
aback when Jace replied swiftly, honestly, "Yes."


It didn't make sense, but I had enough trust in Jace to know that he saw the
distance. He knew which steps to exactly take to ensure we landed at whatever
destination he had in his vision.


Jace continued, "I wasn't talking about me setting you up today. I meant…you
were set up to find me."


"What?" I narrowed my own eyes.


"I heard Gravon. He was dead on when he said that you're a wanderer. When you
accomplish what you've set out to do, you move on. And…you're smarter than most,
Maya. You seek out what you can't understand."


"This 'smarter than most' is clueless right now."


"I knew who you were when you found me at the cemetery, but you didn't find
me, Maya. I knew you were going there and I knew when you were going there. I'd
known for a month."


"Excuse me?" I straightened off my seat and leaned forward. Intent.


"You saw your brother five years after everything went down. And on that same
night, you see Ben, someone you wouldn't have your guard up against. It wasn't
coincidence that you saw him as you were leaving. You saw your brother. Everyone
knew you were there. Everyone knew that you were sticking around town to see
your brother. Someone set you up. They knew the right buttons to push and they
pushed them hard." Jace grimaced and shook his head. "I bet Krein even, what?,
put his hand on the window between the two of you. Open palm, right?"


"Maya." He choked out and placed his palm against the glass.


I wanted to whisper the words to shut up. I wanted to stop another bulldozer
over my last vestiges of freewill and integrity, but I couldn't.


My eyes hardened, but I listened to more.


Jace continued, "You're so fucking intelligent, Maya, but you got the same
weak knees that everyone else does. The problem is that I'm aware of my
weaknesses. I tried to raise Brian and instead he just hated me even more. I
loved his girlfriend. I was that guy. I was a dick and yet, when she came to me,
I couldn't say no to Taryn. I made love to her and I let her make the decision.
I should've been the one to say no. It should've been on me and you know what
she said to me the last time I saw her?" He choked out a harsh laugh, "
'..I'm sorry that I was never brave enough to choose… I think I ripped the
two of you apart…'"


"What's your point? I'm not interested in tripping down this memory
lane."


"That's funny." Jace bit out. "Because you're usually the one to throw it in
my face first."


I pointedly shut my mouth.


A grin tugged at his lips, but he remarked, "My point is that I'm the classic
asshole brother who made some girl feel bad that she didn't make the decision
that she was never the one to make. It was my decision to make. I should've
stopped it before it spiraled how it went, but that's my weakness. It's not
rocket science and no matter how I pretty up the work the surface or how complex
my job can be, there are some basic human weaknesses that we all have. Those
were mine."


"You're going to have to pretend that I don't speak English. Use hand
gestures. Charades even." I clipped out.


"You're a little sister. You don't have hang-ups with guys or hang-ups with
your father figure or mother's rejection. Your issue is that you're a little
sister and you were looking for a big brother to save you and he didn't. They
knew that and they used that to get you here."


"It's a weak argument."


"It's not and you know it. You're a con, Maya. It doesn't take a genius to
figure it out. Cons know what people will do, what they feel and act and think.
Cons or psychologists, I don't know the difference half the time, but that's
your hang-up. You don't like other people seeing inside you, like you see inside
them. Good god, why do you think therapists become therapists? It's because
they're screwed up, but they have such control issues, they can't handle not
being in control of getting helped. They have to become therapists to fix
themselves because they won't let anyone else do it. It's the same thing. You're
a con because you want to one-up anyone who might see inside of you, but your
mistake was thinking that you were immune to everyone else. Whoever set you up,
knew the right buttons to push, and you ended up here. It's all very
psychological, but that stuff's true."


"So you're saying that they knew I'd find Carter, they knew I'd get to Chance
Evans, and that I'd ask Lily where you were—"


"No." Jace said quickly. "I'm saying that they chose you because you're
connected to everyone. They picked you because this whole fucking maze goes
around in circles and you are the one who was smart enough to figure out how to
get to me. That's why you were set up. They probably had no idea about Carter,
Chance, or Lily, but they were very smart in figuring out that you knew a way to
follow the maze to me."


"It's not a maze."


"Yeah, it is." Jace said quickly, immediately. "Life's a fucking maze, but
you were just smart enough to realize what connected to what."


"So why did you 'let me' find you?"


"Because I knew that you'd screwed Marcus Mallon for five years and that he
was looking for you."


Ever wonder what it's like to feel like a child?


"I considered letting you just look for me. I really did, but I decided in
the end to use you."


"Well, thanks for that." I laughed, hollow.


"Just listen to me."


"Fine."


"I was saying that I thought about it and I thought I could use you because I
thought you were just trying to use me. I thought Marcus sent you to find me.
You were the tempting vixen to play spy on the ultimate spy."


"Vixen?"


Jace ignored that, "No one makes a play in this game that no one else sees.
It's just the facts and rules of the world I live in. We know everyone's
players. We know exactly what moves they're going to move and we still play
fucking chess, hoping someone will screw up and we can get enough evidence to
send their asses to an exile that's not even an exile anymore. When that doesn't
work, we send in assassins because at the end of the day, we'd rather sell our
soul than let a mass murdering psychotic walk free in this world because rules
make him untouchable."


"I wasn't set up."


"You were and you know it." Jace sighed as he watched me.


I felt stripped, vulnerable, and naked as a child must feel when they're
given a bath at the family's Christmas party as everyone else is laughing and
eating in the next room.


"I'm not working for Marcus." I said. I felt an old emotion creeping up…


"I don't think you are, but I needed to know." Jace took a deep breath and
admitted, "I was testing you, with Oscar, Gravon, even Rafe. Most of that was to
see what you'd do."


"I liked Gravon." I murmured.


"I know, but…he wasn't a good guy."


Did it matter?


"I liked him." I echoed again. "And everyone thought you weren't a good guy
all those years when you were actually working for the DEA."


Jace clenched his jaw again, bit back what words he'd been about to say, and
said instead, "Yeah, well…people I care about are dead too." He didn't respond
to my argument.


"I'm not angry that you set me up." I relented.


Jace waited.


"I'm annoyed, but I understand it. And I'm not going to cry tears over Gravon
or Tim. I knew who they were. I knew what they did and who they worked for,
but…I liked them. They were kind to me when I was with them." I sighed. "I just
wanted to say that."


Jace nodded. He spoke on the other matter, "You're handling it a lot better
than I thought you would."


I knew what he meant. I wasn't going to play the game of not understanding. I
nodded and remarked, as a strange calmness entered my bones—once again, "You're
right. I have little sister issues and yes, maybe I was set up. Maybe I jumped
on the first wagon that passed me and my 'thirst' for understanding brought me
here."


Jace was going to say something, but he changed his mind and said instead,
"You're just human. We all are."


Except cons. And psychologists.


I felt like I was a child again. Like I was being patted on the head for
sitting obediently. And it pissed me off.


I felt like my dolls had been taken away, tossed in the corner, and I was
forced to sit, smile, and be pretty or the dolls would suffer an indisputable
end. And to top it all off, I felt like if I'd spoken for the doll's behalf, the
inevitable destructible intent would've been denied and lied about to my face
with an erstwhile smile all the while.


"I'm not someone's bitch, Jace." I remarked.


Jace narrowed his eyes, studying me.


"I'm not your bitch and I'm not this other person's bitch. You need to be
reminded of that." I said softly.


"You think I don't know that?"


"I don't know what you know and what you don't, because, apparently, you know
a lot more about me than I feel comfortable that you know."


"That's because you're a con." Jace smirked. Sighed. And then climbed from
the car.


I followed and an eerie calm in the air, the eye of the storm or the
forewarning humidity that precedes any great storm of vast proportions.


"A storm is coming." I murmured. "So who is this other party that 'set me
up'?"


I could actually hear Jace's breath from relief. He drawled in response as he
kicked at a stone, "I have my suspicions, but it's not Marcus."


"But you want Marcus."


"Yes."


"And this other party?"
"That's my job."


I remembered his exact words, "Business and personal, right?"


Jace nodded, mute.


"So what's the angle with all those bodies that are washing up on Oscar's
land?"


"That's in the distance and I can't see that, yet, but I will and I'm almost
there."


"You mean there's some angle here that you don't know forwards and
backwards?" I remarked, sarcastically.


"If I did, I wouldn't have chanced it and brought you on board." He shot
back, smooth.


"Touche." I sent with a raised eyebrow.


"You got any more questions?"


I did, but I also had my own theories. This was Jace's background. He'd
probably lived this case for a few years. I had no qualm admitting that he saw
what I couldn't, including how I might've been set up, if that was true or not.
So I asked instead, "Why'd you 'let me' find you?"


"Like I said, you were either a gift from God or the poisoned apple. You
might be my ticket to get somewhere I can't or…you're going to be the death of
me."


"Because of my relationship with Marcus?"


"Someone is orchestrating this entire thing behind a smokescreen, but I can't
see who it is. Galverson is dead, but Galverson's empire is still running and
Mallon is running it. I don't know how that happened."


"What about Broozer? Where does he fit in because my friend Zara said that
he's still working from prison."


"Broozer's still working, but he's not as powerful. He's mainly competition
for Mallon or…I'm guessing. You say that your friend Zara knew he was
working?"


I nodded.


Jace pursed his lips, considering me a moment, and asked, "And this is the
same friend that knew I wasn't in the Witness program?"


I nodded.


"And she sold you to Marcus."


"And he killed her."


Jace shook his head, "Who'd she work for?"


"Some guy she said was Roobie. She was narcing for him. She said that she
just passed the messages."


"I'd like to know what messages she was passing along."


"I thought she was working the streets again." I commented. "She wanted to
save up enough money to open a coffee shop. She seemed to really believe in
herself when I talked to her. She always used to play that when we were kids…she
was going to be the head barista."


Jace grunted.


"What?" I asked.


"Broozer had a low lieutenant in New York by the name of Roobie. Roobie
Millyas. He was in charge of ship dates, like shipping docks."


"That doesn't sound like Zara."


"No, but she had good cover if she approached the guys as a prostitute."


She'd gone to rehab, done her stint, and had hopes for something better.


"Maya." Jace breathed out. "I don't think your friend was killed because she
was a loose end. I think your friend was killed because she worked for Broozer,
pretty low down, but she did and she knew where you were going. If I was Marcus
and if by luck, I had some lower than low minion of my competition give me that
message, I'd kill her too. Mallon didn't want Broozer to know that Zara knew
you. I think that's why he killed her."


The storm was coming. I felt it in my bones like I had before.


"She still died because of me."


I turned towards the tree, lifted my chin, and gazed through them. I saw the
sun as it filtered between the trees. Beams highlighted here and there, but the
trees blanketed the ground and the sun only hit where it was allowed.


I felt sorry for the sun. The trees depleted it's power.


Jace was studying me now. I felt his gaze, the full weight, and something
unfolded inside of me.


"I need Marcus. I need him to lead me to whoever's behind the
smokescreen."


"You helped yourself. Marcus will come here because he'll come to finish the
deal and he'll come to find out who killed Gravon."


"He'll find that Broozer killed him."


At my questioning glance, Jace answered, "Stirley is very good at his
job."


"That's right. So how many others? Did you train him?"


"I did. My first year after I left Pedlam. I trained Stirley and a bunch of
others."


"Who else? Scott? Rafe? Even…Oscar?"


Jace was quiet for a heartbeat, but a small smile spread slowly as he
relented, dryly, "A few of them, yes."


"Rafe's really just a snitch?"


"Rafe's really a snitch." He acknowledged and moved around the car to lean
beside me.


So much intensity, intelligence, and raw power stirred underneath his calm
exterior. Lean muscles, bedroom grey eyes, and his knee-buckling voice couldn't
give justice to the danger that rung from within him.


He was a magnificent beast that only those who fully knew all shadowed
corners within him were able to appreciate just how rare and raw he was as a
human being.


"So Oscar's alive?" I mused as I pulled my eyes from him to the trees that
surrounded us.


"Oscar's the one who told me about Gravon's meeting today and his future
one."


"The reason that you killed him."


"It was self defense."


"That's bullshit. You needed a reason to kill him so you sent me up there.
Two birds with one stone, right?"


"Three, but this afternoon didn't go down how I thought it would. For your
record, I wasn't intending to kill him or even have you kill him. I meant to
pull you out and use you as bait for Marcus. I needed Gravon to tell Marcus that
you were still here because then he'd come. That's how I really wanted today to
go down and then I was going to follow him to a meeting that he was scheduled to
attend today."


"Wouldn't that lead you to your smokescreen?"


"Doubtful. I don't think the mastermind is even here." Jace sighed and rubbed
a hand over his jaw.


"But of everyone, Marcus would be the one to meet him face to face."


"Or know who he is." Jace supplied.


The adult threatened to destroy my dolls if I didn't sit politely and quietly
as a child should never have to sit. I was that child and I had to watch my
dolls lay alone and abandoned in the corner as I sat on the designated couch. It
wasn't natural and it wasn't humane to keep a child from their toys.


I'd rather let the dolls be destroyed then to succumb to someone's
unrealistic request for peace and quiet.


I wasn't supposed to sit on that couch.


"None of this is making sense to me." I admitted to Jace.


He nodded and confessed, "I know, but I've had a few years to decipher
everything. It's all connected, somehow. I just have to find where this maze
goes."


I felt like that child now. I didn't understand the adult's request. I didn't
want my dolls to be hurt, but I knew that I shouldn't have to sit on that
couch.


I just knew that something wasn't right and I had an elemental decision to
make.


Either leave the couch or have the dolls destroyed.