CHAPTER TWENTY THREE


"How many are there? Your team, whatever, how many are out there?" I asked
later that night. Jace had driven to a remote cabin and I wasn't even astounded
by the hidden list of resources he must've attached to his elbow. He just kept
pulling them out, but I knew he'd been hesitant when my ulterior motive had been
questionable.


I think he still kept a lot back, but he had relaxed slightly and allowed me
this glimpse into a cozy cabin that he must've kept as a back-up in case he
needed to torch his first hideout.


That had been littered with photographs, maps, building blueprints, and
weapons on every corner, nook, cranny, and shadow.


Jace moved the car into a rundown garage that looked like it had it's last
paint job a millennium ago. It would've had a quaint antique appeal had it not
also reeked of dead mice and everything they left behind.


The cabin looked a cute, but a foul twin to the garage, but I'd been
surprised to be welcomed with a pine aroma and no dead mice. The living room
consisted of two couches with quilts thrown over the end and many more piled
high in a wooden rocking chair in the back corner alongside a leftover Christmas
tree still decorated. Instead of a media entertainment center, we were greeted
with the mesmerizing flames of a fire as Jace tendered to it in a homemade rock
chimney that equaled it's hearth's captivating appeal.


It made me want to curl up with a blanket, a cuddle, and a mug of hot
chocolate after a hard day's work on the sledding hills beyond.


The old fashion of the living room went hand-in-hand with the kitchen, one
bathroom, and the two bedrooms up the creaky stairs. I hadn't even studied the
backdoor patio that wrapped around the entire cabin—yet.


The house had enough history to produce more than one ghost.


Jace was studying geographical maps while I stared at the fire when I asked
the question.


He looked up now, puzzled, and asked, "What?"


"Your team. You trained them, right? How many are there?"


He smiled a pure seductive smile and nearly purred, "How much would you like
to know?"


"Not enough for what's on your mind." I shot back, but relaxed a little—even
if that were nearly impossible as the tongues of flame warmed, relaxed, and
soothed all my tight limbs.


It warmed me right to the soul, but as I glimpsed a flicker of the flirting
and vivacious Jace that returned every now and then to the Jace Show, a part
that the fire hadn't reached melted away.


"You were at the top, right?" I asked again and curled on my side with my
tucked arms to pillow my head.


The flirting fell away as Jace grew somber, studied me, and remarked,
"Yeah."


"What happened back then? Why'd you come out from undercover? Your case
wasn't done."


"It was done because Galverson was dead."


"But Marcus is still running it."


"Yeah. I don't exactly know how that happened, but it makes sense if he moved
into the territory and took over."


"So your case isn't actually dead, because even though Galverson is dead, his
business is still going."


"Yeah. Should've shot the fucker a long time ago." Jace saw a ghost pass
through his mind, but he shook his thought free and commented, "Doesn't matter
now anyway. If I'm not in there, I have the next best weapon."


"What's that?"


His eyes smiled at me. "A woman's intuition on her lover."


The grey darkened and I noticed that during the day, in the sunlight, there
were specks of a light silver dusting, but if he grew serious or furious, the
light silver dusting turned into melted lead that could've coated his irises
from a pencil's tip.


"Is that I'm all good for you? Because I was really good in the sack?"


"That and your other gifts." Jace said casually as he went back to studying
the geographical maps on his lap.


"My other gifts?" I sat up and leaned against the couch with the blanket
still wrapped around and tucked behind my shoulders. I was safely cocooned with
no desire to break free.


"Just the way you work. Didn't mean anything by it."


"Excuse me?"


"You know, all that stuff you said to Rafe. You were right, you know."


"How do you know about that?"


Jace grinned wickedly, "I have my ways."


"Did she tell you?"


"Hell no." Jace snorted. "Rafe's not a sharing person, well…with words and
such. Her brother used to do that stuff to her and I know that he learned it
from their old man. I would've killed him too if he wasn't already dead."


"What took him in the end?"


"Rafe said it was old age, but I doubt that. The guy was forty two when he
died."


"So what's the plan?"


"What do you mean?"


"What are we waiting for? What are we doing now?"


"Right now, we're waiting for…" Just then a footstep sounded on the rusty
floorboards and the patio announced their arrival. Jace had lifted a finger and
pointed to the door as he remarked, smug, "That."


"Judging by the lack of gun, I'm guessing it's someone you're expecting." I
curled back down on the couch as Jace stood for the door.


Oscar seemed to materialize through the door as Jace held it open. He was
dressed in dark camouflage with a black stocking hat pulled over his head. As he
removed the hat and black gloves, he nodded solemnly and patted his leg, "The
leg's healing right true. Almost as good as new."


I'd wondered about that, not me slicing and dicing, but the ramifications of
Jace's tests. I wasn't mincing words as I rushed to an apology for throwing my
blade around. I'd done it before and was always ready to do it, but the fault
didn't lay on my shoulders. They laid on Jace's, but he didn't seem to care.


I'd been ready to pull a gun's trigger on more than a few occasions. I'd
gripped my blade, my arm ready to strike a few more than a few occasions, and
I'd broken a man's finger.


Jace wasn't just testing me. He was studying me, but I didn't want to know
what for and if I were completely honest, I wasn't ready to admit that I could
possibly speculate his reasons.


"How's Abagail?" Jace asked as he bypassed him to return to his maps.


Oscar harrumphed and sat beside him. They both bent over the maps and I was
the only one who seemed to remember the lie that was suddenly exposed.


They didn't talk again for thirty minutes. Each of them just studied, pointed
at a spot, and the other either shook their head or nodded in their agreement.
They were attuned to the others' thoughts and I was the outsider in the
room.


It was a world that they lived in that I only felt a camaraderie with the
sense of survival that is imprinted and brought to a continuous chant in the
back of a person's mind.


They hunted together. Planned together. Survived together. And I saw that
they even thought together. Hell, they sacrificed together and for each other.
Oscar had sacrificed for Jace. I saw that Scott had been willing and Stirley was
in constant danger as he must've continued his life under Marcus' reign.


There were others. There must've been others.


Jace had thought it all out to a point of perfection.


It was a puzzle with all it's pieces mobile. The few that I knew of, Jace
managed to get them in each encampment.


Stirley was in Marcus' encampment.


Oscar guarded where the bodies washed up.


Scott was in Glean's encampment.


I asked, "Where does Glean fit into this?"


Oscar didn't move from the maps, but Jace answered, "Glean sometimes takes
independent jobs for whoever's paying. If a big shipment needs extra security or
someone needs a raid done, they contract out Glean."


"So Glean could work for Marcus, Broozer, or the Smokescreen."


"Something like that. Yeah." Jace murmured, distracted.


"So Glean really knows all of the major players. He'd be a free-lancer. He
knows everything then."


"He knows a lot, but he doesn't know it from the inside." Jace leaned back
and studied me.


He saw my wheels spinning.


I spoke, "But being on the outside adds perspective or objectivity. When
you're on the inside, you lose that. You go blind."


"Yeah, but you don't know the inside rules. You need to know the inside
rules. That's why we have Stirley."


Oscar grunted, "Let's hope he lasts longer than the Ritz."


Jace shot him a warning glance and Oscar shut up immediately.


"Don't you know the rules?" I taunted. "You don't talk about what Jace hasn't
decided I should know, yet."


"Yet?" Jace grinned.


"What's with the maps?"


Oscar chanced a look underneath his eyelids, but he pointedly said
nothing.


Jace chewed on the idea and finally remarked, "We think something is being
smuggled into the mountains. Mallon is either helping them smuggle whatever it
is or helping them smuggle it out to their buyers or to the distributors."


"Something? Like what?"


"We don't know yet." Jace lied through his teeth.


"You lied to me."


"I'll lie again. You don't need to know that."


I threw my legs to the floor and pushed myself to a sitting stance. I needed
all the leverage when I went head-to-head with Jace and now was one of those
times.


"I won't help you with Marcus if you don't tell me what it is."


"I'm not telling you because we're not 100 percent sure."


"But—"


"That's final." Jace interrupted me with ice in his eyes. His eyes were
pewter now.


I closed my mouth, read the tiniest bit of sympathy in Oscar's deep brown
eyes, and stood for my bedroom.


I took the largest room, put the lights off, opened the door a few inches,
and curled underneath my blankets.


My eyelids stayed open as I waited and it took nearly an hour before I heard
Oscar's deep baritone murmur, "You're not going to tell her?"


"No." Jace shut him down swiftly.


"She should know what she's getting into. I mean, this is some—this could
scar her."


"She's tough, Crio. She'll be fine." Jace clipped out and I heard the maps
being rustled. "You think this is the line that they're using?"


"Yeah. It's the most dense, but it's still workable. I'm sure they're using
sleds, snowmobiles, or something else. Cars or trucks can't cover that."


"What about dogs?"


"I'm sure they got their own. And if we take our own dogs in, theirs will
just go crazy."


"Not if we use a different distraction that they won't think twice
about."


"Like what? Deer? Get a whole herd to run through their camp and their dogs
will scatter."


"No, no. That's too messy and too much work. There's something else. How many
dogs do you think they have?"


Oscar yawned, but thought about it. "Uh…probably five or six, judging from
the tracks I've seen."


"Okay. Think on it. I'll think on it. And you try to continue to pinpoint
their exact camp location."


"Jace." The couch creaked. Oscar must've stood up because his voice was a
little clearer and a little closer. It still traveled the distance and wound
it's way around the stairs and into my opened bedroom.


"I'm not talking about it anymore." Jace ordered. "Now go find me the bad
guys."


He must've stood, but his voice sounded the same. I wasn't even
surprised.


"I'm trying, boss, but I don't have the mind for this. You do. If you were
smuggling—you know—into some mountains, where'd you hide the product?"


Jace didn't waste any moment in responding. He answered quickly, "I wouldn't
hide anything. It's too risky and that's why I'm different than Mallon and the
Smokescreen. I'd work the system from the get-go, as soon as the product stepped
off the boat and onto U.S. soil, I'd have the distributors there and ready."


"There's gotta be a reason why they're doing what they're doing." Oscar
mused.


"There is."


"Something's itching me that you know what it is."


"I'm hoping that I don't." Jace said softly. "Go and be my hunting dog. Roust
me up some pheasant, Crio."


"Listen…" I had to give him some heart. Oscar had tried and he was trying
again. I heard it signal in his voice. "I fed her. I brought her into my home. I
had Abagail meet her. I told her to give up on this, but she wouldn't. She
deserves to know what her boyfriend is a part of."


"No—"


"She stabbed me for you." Oscar whispered fiercely. "You put her through the
trials. She's not going anywhere. Tell her. No one's on the team with blinders.
That was your first rule, remember?"


"She's not on the team." Jace bit out. "And you're out of line."


"I may be, but I'm a father too. If that were my daughter up there—"


"But she's not!" Jace struck back, harshly. "And if you started to feel a
paternal tug towards her, I'd strongly encourage you to remember that you're on
this team for a reason. I picked you and I trained you. I can cut you free,
Oscar."


The tension filtered upwards and I felt it kick me in the stomach.


I dared to breathe, but a second later, the door opened and closed.


Jace waited until the fire had lingered low enough before he started up the
stairs. He moved silently and if I hadn't felt his approach, I never would've
known. The lights in the entire cabin were shut off, but I felt him at the
doorway. He stood just outside my door. He didn't touch the door, he didn't move
inside, but he stayed there.


"This isn't a battle that I'm going to waste time with you." Jace's voice was
shrill against the night's quiet. "This has taken me five years to work up to
this point and even get this close. If you can't play by this rule, you can go
back to Pedlam."


I shot out of bed and yanked the door open.


"I can't go back there! Marcus knows who I am. Zara ratted me out, remember?
He knows my friends, he knows my family now. Where am I supposed to go?"


"You don't have to go, but if you cross me on this—you will be going. I will
personally wrap you in a nice naughty bow and hand deliver you to Marcus'
doorstep."


"And you'll have a sniper's sights on him the whole time, won't you?" I
seethed.


"Yeah." He didn't back down, squelch, or hesitate. He invaded my space and
leaned close. "Why are you fighting this point?"


"Because you told me I couldn't know and something's telling me that I should
know."


Jace snorted in disbelief. " 'Something's'? Oscar's telling you!"


"Does it really matter?"


"We don't tell each other the truth. You respect that. You're not a team
player, Maya. You never have been." Jace replied, not budging an inch. I felt
his breath on my skin, against my lips, and I lifted a curled hand to push him
away.


"Neither are you." I remarked. I was shaky. I liked him where he was and that
made me shaky. And it infuriated me.


We were the same. I knew the truth in that thought as it rang through my
head.


"I can be both. That's the difference. I can step back, but this is my team
and my word goes. On this, it's solid."


"What if I don't agree?"


"You walk. That's my ultimatum."


"Maybe I can bring Taryn down here." I threatened a repeated threat.


Jace laughed, but it was cut short as he said, his eyes fierce and promising
as they bore into my own. "You won't do that. You would've before, but you won't
do it anymore."


"How do you figure?"


"You've been holding back since my fake-out with Oscar. You're not a killer,
Maya, and you came at me with fighting words that night, but I haven't seen that
Maya since. You've come out, at times, but you always retreat back to your
shell. You're almost pathetic to the Maya I met that night."


"Are you kidding me?"


"No."


"I broke Glean's finger. I pointed a gun in Rafe's face and I was going to
kill Gravon—for you!"


"You were backed into a corner. That's the only time you fight, when I see
what kept you alive all those years away from your mommy. Not a lot of
twelve-year-olds survive the street, especially in Pedlam. I know because I
preyed on them, but you did. You might not be a killer, but I don't doubt that
you've had to kill. You come out fighting, but lately it's only when it's either
do or die."


His words hit the right button and I snarled, "I'm tired of being your bitch.
I'm tired of being someone else's bitch. Stop pushing my buttons."


"Stop letting me." Jace actually smiled, nearly pressed against me. And he
smiled.


It was the seductive, husky, laugh that did me in.


I reached for my blade, but Jace saw it coming. He caught my wrist with his
own and bent it to force my release, but instead of fighting the hold, I twisted
my other arm around my back, switched the blade and rammed it into his open
side.


Jace didn't cry out. He didn't grab for the puncture wound.


No. He laughed and he pulled my blade out of his side, twirled it in his
hands, and said, "That's the girl I want."


"You want me?" I asked, strong and lethal. I stood straight, shoulders firm,
and hands ready for his next move.


Jace nodded and lifted the bloodied blade in the moonlight, right between
us.


"You can't have me." I promised, softly.


"I took your blade." Jace taunted as he slid the blunt edge down my cheek.
"Are you going to take it back? Try again? What are you going to do, Maya?"


I felt it near the curve of my lips and as he slipped it just inside my lips,
I flicked my eyelids up and met his gaze, full-force and head-on.


Jace smiled again and my throat dried.


He was an angel that had been denied the gift of mercy.


I stepped closer, ran a hand down his lean stomach, felt his muscles ripple
under my touch and when he sucked in his breath, the slightest bit, I kneed him
as fast as possible.


Jace blocked my aim to his groin, but my hand flashed up and I grabbed my
blade back again.


It was a battle between us. Who won. Who was better, but it wasn't physical.
Jace wasn't taking his own hits, he was just blocking mine. It was mental. It
was the same war that had waged between us from the beginning.


We were two peas cohabiting the same position in the same pod that was too
tight for the both of us.


It was a typical battle of who was the alpha, but in our particular case, it
was the battle of who relented out of the mind first. Who was the ultimate
mastermind and who wasn't.


I held my blade now and my hand paused, just beside his groin, it's own
threat imminent and prominent to bring Jace to a stilled stance.


"Do you dare?" Jace drawled as he leaned close once again. He didn't touch
me, but if either of us shifted a fraction of a centimeter, we would've been
pressed against the other.


"Why'd you come up and press that point? It wasn't an issue until you made it
one." I said.


Jace didn't insult me. He answered immediately, no hesitation, "Because in a
few hours, I'm going to get a call about a meeting that's going to take place.
I'll need you there with me and I'll need this Maya beside me."


"Marcus."


"Or someone else. I'm hoping someone else. Someone you won't know."


"Why?"


He hadn't moved back. Neither had I.


He never twitched. His voice didn't quake. He never showed any reaction and I
had to give him his due—again.


"Because that someone is going to have something on them. I need you to take
it from them and give it to me."


"And if I'm caught?"


"If you're caught, you fight like hell and I come to save you."


I took a breath, a calming breath, and said what he already knew, "If Marcus
is there, you'll still want me to go, won't you?"


"Yes."


A lamb to the slaughter.


I hadn't realized I'd spoken those words outloud, until Jace murmured, "But
you're not a lamb. You're a fighter."


"Is this how you trained your 'team'? Did you brainwash them like this?
'Fight and I'll save you.'" I mocked, sadistically.


I never moved, but Jace shifted away.


He saw a different Maya this time.


"No one saves me, Jace. Don't you know the lessonplan? Didn't you read the
syllabus. No one saves me."


He moved another step back and a wall slammed in his eyes, but he whispered,
full of promises, "I'm not your brother, Maya. Don't confuse me with him."


"But that's the thing. That's what brought me to you. You are my brother. You
took him in, trained him, you made him what he is today. Without you—"


"Without me, Krein would either be in prison or he'd be doing the same exact
same stuff he was doing for me. That was his path."


"You created him."


"No. Your mom and dad created him. And they sent him my way. Krein has a
heart of an asshole, but he was good at times. In the end, he deserves to be
where he is and you know that."


I did know that. I had even said the exact same words, but that wasn't my
fury.


"I'll do what you want me to do, but don't treat me like a little girl that's
found her way into your bed. I deserve better than that."


"Fine." Jace gritted out and leaned against the wall. Even lounging back, he
looked dangerous and his allure was more evident than ever. "But if something
does happen to you, I will come and save you. You can take that or leave that. I
don't really give a damn anymore."


"Let's not kid ourselves." I laughed, bitterly. "I'm being thrown to the
lions. You can't pretty that up."