CHAPTER THIRTY SIX


"Where would he take him?" Jace instantly grilled me as he drove.


"Not anywhere I would know." I told him, hardened my jaw, and clenched my
hand around the gun's handle that was laid in my lap.


"Put the gun away." Jace ordered.


"No." I said quietly.


"Maya—"


"I'm not going to shoot myself. I'm not going to shoot the car so back, the
fuck, off while I hold a weapon because it's the only thing that's getting me
calm right now." I interrupted harshly.


Jace ignored me and pressed, ruthlessly, "Where would he take him?"


"I don't know."


"Think harder!" Jace cried out. "You know him. You know him inside and out.
You're the best analyst we have on him, so push the emotion aside and focus
where he'd take him."


"He's my family!"


"I know!" Jace yelled back, but kept driving proficiently and speedily.


"Screw the gun." I flipped the safety on, sheathed it, and withdrew my blade.
That felt better and I flipped it open and close, open, close, and repeated as I
thought.


"It's family." Jace said again.


"I know!" I cried out hotly, cursed underneath my breath, and then swore
again when I broke out, "It's not family—not for me. It's—he thinks Munsinger is
the father."


"What?"


Taryn and Tray had yet to speak.


"He threatened me. He said that he knew my friends, my nephew, about 'his
daddy'. He never said my brother. He never said my brother—he thinks Munsinger
is Gray's father." I rushed out, babbling as the words kept coming. "He would
never take Munsinger if he didn't think he was important in another matter, he
would've taken someone else—father. That's his angle with this one."


Jace thought it over and nodded, tightly. "God for Freedom. Father
for…what?"


"Father for Family." I choked out. "He's the Father, but he took a father and
he was going to take your Family."


Was it right? I could decipher a madman's sanity this quickly?


"He was God for Cassie's Freedom. He's the Father, he took a Father, for my
family." Jace swiftly cursed.


"And he wanted to hurt you." I said faintly.


Jace cast a sideways glance towards me, but flipped his phone open. He spoke
in code to someone on the other line, but I knew he was relaying what we'd just
talked about in hopes for anything to happen.


"Where would he take him, Maya?" Jace asked again, more softly, as he hung
up.


And I knew. I said, hollow, "To a Father's Household. He'd take him to a
church."


"In New York?"


"I don't know. I doubt it."


My hands were numb. My mind was growing numb. And I was fast watching the
scenery melt into one long waving line.


I never noticed that I cut my finger as my blade was flipped back and
forth.


Jace cursed and said promptly, "Taryn, there's dressings in the back. She's
going into shock."


And that's when I fell asleep.


When I woke back up, we were still driving, my hand was dressed, and it was
starting to get dark.


Jace was driving with a cup of coffee in the cupholder beside him. There was
a full cup next to me and I saw that Taryn and Tray were wide awake.


"Where are we going?" I asked and reached for my coffee.


"We're going somewhere that Marcus won't ever think to look." Jace only
said.


"We're going to North Dakota?" Taryn asked, sarcastically. "Oh fucking
joy."


"We're going back, aren't we?" I asked. To West Virginia, right to the heart
of the operation, where Marcus would never consider they'd go. And that's where
Marcus would go. I spoke, " West Virginia. He'd take him to a church in West
Virginia, as close to the compound as possible."


"What compound?" Tray asked sharply, quiet for too long.


"Yes, oh God that you are, when are you going to enlighten us onto why I'm
going to be missing one of my biggest meets in my career?" Taryn said hotly.


Jace met her eyes fiercely in the rear-view mirror and threw back, "Would you
like to live or swim?"


"Is that rhetorical?" She countered with a smart smile. "Because I've often
asked myself the same thing. We're in this because of you, Jace. I have a right
to be pissed off."


Jace laughed and retorted, "Trust me, Taryn, enough of your attitude and
you'd have your own enemies."


"Hasn't happened yet."


"Sure about that?" Jace clipped out with a tight smile.


"Seriously?" Tray now ventured. "Are you going to make us pull the respective
significant other cards and separate the two of you? Because I'm not caring
enough to murmur the right soothing tones."


"Tra—" Taryn started.


"Taryn." Tray ended her.


She closed her mouth with a snap.


"It'd have to have angel in it's title." I murmured.


"What?" Taryn snapped.


I ignored her and told Jace, "Munsinger kept saying angel on the machine. He
called me angel. He called Viiwa his angel. Marcus would use that and twist it.
Look for a church, near the compound, with angel in it's title."


Jace called it in.


When he was done, he nodded and then asked, "Okay…where's the book?"


Frustrated, I snarled, "We didn't get a clue. There's no riddle for us to
decipher."


"We did get a riddle. He took Munsinger and tried with Taryn for a reason.
That was our riddle. What does it mean?"


Bitterly, I laughed, "No pressure, right?"


"It's Father. That's the clue."


"I don't know. I can't think…"


"Maya, you can do this—"


"I don't need a peptalk!" I interrupted sharply.


"Thank god for that." Taryn muttered underneath her breath.


"Taryn." Tray reined her back. "You're not helping."


"Well, excuse me, but my life's just been overhauled—I am a little tired of
being a pawn for Jace's 'unsavory' life." Taryn snorted.


"This isn't about you and me, Taryn." Tray took point on calming his
girlfriend down. "Someone's been taken, like Grayley…remember that? It's not
about you and me."


"The police should be notified." I murmured. "A missing person's report
should be—"


Jace was gentle when he said, "We know who took him. The police will only
interfere and Marcus has men on the force anyway. The people who need to know
are already on it, Maya."


His phone rang and after a quick conversation, Jace informed me, "They found
a church. They're moving in."


"Who's moving in?"


It was very important. I wanted to know who, how many, and if it would be
enough.


I added, "Marcus is going to have his best men there. He's going to have
Petrie, he's going to have Stirley—maybe Stirley could—"


"Stirley's still in the hospital." Jace told me. At my started glance, he
explained, "I had to make it real."


God.


"And he's not going to have Petrie with Munsinger. He's going to keep Petrie
with him, wherever Marcus is."


"Who's going into the church?"


"Oscar and a few others."


"That I haven't met." I said faintly.


"That you haven't met." Jace affirmed with a tight nod. He reached for his
coffee, sighed, and leaned back to continue driving.


The night surrounded us with neon lights that raced past. It was as if the
world was moving around us while he sat still, in our car, and drank our coffee.
Helpless, vulnerable, and isolated.


I took my blade out again.


"Can you not? I just cleaned your other wound." Taryn piped from the
back.


I flipped the blade open and whirled around the seat.


Taryn sat stock still, startled at the quickness, but her gaze moved from my
eyes to my hand. She saw how the blade was positioned, tight between two white
knuckles, and ready for some street stabbing.


I didn't think it was what she saw in my eyes, but the way I'd maneuvered the
knife. That's what had her saying softly, as she explained, "I'm just saying.
Enough blood has already been shed."


"You met me before when I was feeling nice. I'm not feeling that anymore and
your constant comments are making my hands itch."


I caught a ghost of a smile flash over Jace's face, but he didn't say
anything.


Tray, the surprising mediator, soothed, "Okay…go back to your seats. Taryn,
this girl saved our lives—remember that. And you," He directed towards me. "I
feel bad for your friend, but Taryn's got some fangs too."


Taryn sat back, crossed her arms, and said scathingly, "You got yourself a
winner, Jace. All cool and sophisticated at banquets, but when she's backed to a
corner the rabid animal comes out. Nice."


She was watching the entire time as she spoke. She wanted me to lunge. She
was waiting for her bait to be taken.


So I took it, but not how she wanted.


I leaned over, turned off the engine.


Jace cried out, "Maya!"


As he wrestled to steer the car towards the shoulder, I switched the blade
into my left arm, leaned across the barrier, and as Tray quickly positioned
himself to block me off, my left arm swept around the seat and pierced his
unprotected right-side. I quickly tossed my blade, invisible to their eyes, and
caught it in my right hand.


"Holy shit!" Tray cried out and retracted to check his wound.


Taryn gasped and surged forward, automatically, and that's when I placed my
blade against her throat.


I grabbed her arm and held it, laid across the barrier. She was held immobile
as I flattened myself as much as possible against the dashboard with only my
right hand extended to her neck.


Jace braked the car suddenly, took one sweeping appraisal, and quickly
wrenched me out of the car. He dragged me through his door and shoved me against
the side of the car, in full view of Taryn and Tray.


Instead of waiting for his recriminations, I pushed him away.


Jace wrestled with me and trapped me, helpless, against the car. He leaned in
and whispered, "Look, I'm not going to lecture you. Okay? It was a smooth move.
Bloody brilliant, actually, but I'm asking you to ignore Taryn. Give her some
breathing space."


"She asks for what she just got." I replied, calm and deadly.


"I know." Jace sighed against me. "And I should plead her case, tell you that
I care about her and she fights before she thinks. And that it's not fair that
Tray got sliced for what Taryn dished out, but…."


"Are you kidding me?" I asked. "Every word has weight. She has
responsibilities for what throws around and she doesn't take that into
account."


"I said I should, but I actually wasn't going to go there. Instead, I was
going to say that she's scared. Taryn's stared death in the face before, but
this last time—she didn't ask for it. She didn't go looking for it, like she did
before. She's trying to be calm because that's how all three of us are handling
it, but she's not programmed how we are. Taryn's the animal that she said was
backed into a corner. She fights when she's scared, but she's trying not to
because she really does listen to Evans. She's not thinking all right, right
now. But you know that, Maya, you see what others can't."


"What do you want from me?" I asked and pushed him back, just an inch.


Jace breathed in and out. He shifted and cupped the hidden cheek from
eyesight and rubbed his thumb in a comforting motion. He rested his forehead
against mine and swept a hand down my arm to take my other hand in his. "I'm
sorry about your friend. I truly am."


I wanted to burrow against his chest. I wanted to faint again, leave for
unconsciousness, but I couldn't.


No matter how Taryn painted me, I had survived harsher elements. Friends had
mysteriously, or not so mysterious when you put them into context, gone missing
before. Normally those friends had missed payment for their drugs a few too many
times.


Sometimes the shocking was the most obvious, but they were watched with the
invisible eyes that the 'them' passed by everyday, as their subconscious slammed
blinders over their wish to see the ugly around us all.


"He got out and he was doing what he wanted." I murmured and straightened to
stand tall with the car to my back. Jace's hands fell away, but he didn't move
back. I added and met his eyes, "Munsinger didn't deserve what happened. I
should've plunged a knife in Marcus' heart when I had a chance, but I fucked him
instead. How poetic is that?" My voice faded for a moment, but it came back
stronger, "Munsinger would've appreciated that ironic injustice."


Jace didn't say the inevitable words. And I spoke them, "You haven't told me
that we'll get him back."


I saw it was true, but Jace never hid the truth when I said it. He didn't
apologize for it either.


I nodded, jerkily, and said hoarsely, "I thought I was out, but I won't ever
be. I'm not like Taryn. I'm not in this because of you or because of my brother.
I'm in this because of me. And I pulled Munsinger in because of me."


"Evans was right. This is our fight, not theirs."


"What are you going to do with them?" I glanced at them and saw their intent
eyes on us.


Taryn seem more reserved, but I saw a calculating intent in her depths. She
meant for paybacks.


Taryn was taller, a little bit more meat to her, and she had some of her own
experience at fighting.


But she hadn't survived what I had although she'd gone through her own
hell.


Jace brought me back to our conversation when he said, "I'm going to pack 'em
away in a nice safehouse. That's all. You and I are going elsewhere."


Where there wouldn't be unnecessary drama.


I grinned faintly and remarked, "This has to really piss you off."


Jace waited.


"Drama. Ex-girlfriends. New…whatever. A con with her conned." I noted.


"Maybe that was Marcus' whole intent. Maybe he wanted me distracted by this
emotional bullshit and he'd parade in his newest shipment while my back is
turned, contending with squabbles."


"And smartass comments." I referred to Taryn.


"Yeah." Jace acknowledged. "She's got those in bulk."


"We can go." I breathed out.


Jace hooked a foot around my ankle and toed me back in place.


"What?" I asked.


"It was a good move. Taryn won't underestimate you now, in fact; she should
give you some space because you're not predictable to her. You don't fight how
she fights."


"Thanks, my own decoder." I shoved him lightly back and moved around the car
to my door.


"How come that feels like foreplay when you do that?" Jace called over the
car's hood.


I smiled, remembered our plight, and it was wiped clean. But as I opened the
door, I remarked to Jace, "Thank you."


"For what?" He started the car.


"For trying to be funny."


Jace smiled, drove ahead before pulling back onto the interstate. "I've told
you this before. I am a funny man."


"Not particularly." I said dryly and buckled myself in.


"We can revisit our previous conversation about—" Farts.


"No." I interrupted quickly. "We're not."


Jace chuckled, relaxed in his seat, and cast a wary eye to the backseat. "Now
play nice, Taryn. I've leashed the 'rabid animal', but I can unleash her anytime
I want."


Taryn rolled her eyes, but only said, darkly, "Whatever."


I caught a small look shared between the two lovers in the backseat and
wondered, briefly, what words of wisdom that Tray had whispered in a fighter
just buzzing for a fight.


It had worked. Taryn and I kept our distance, or to be more exact, Taryn
clamped down on her riddling comments, and I didn't have to cover my own
back.


As we continued our drive, I was surprised to note the respect that passed
between the two men. However, it made sense. They both thought ahead, they were
both intelligent, and they each knew their differences and noted them with
introspective respect.


What else surprised me was the lack of communication from Taryn to Jace or
Jace to Taryn.


After two gas stations and a quick meal through a drive-in, the dawn was
peeking when I saw the looming shadows of the mountains far ahead. It'd be
another two hours until we'd be amongst them, but I was further surprised among
all the surprises to realize that the trees were starting to grow their own
familiarity.


"'They're right comforting if you let them know who you are.'" Oscar
had said.


They weren't comforting, but I was becoming more comfortable with the edge
that always sat right with me as I stood beneath them.


It was just a sense that something else was surrounding them. Perhaps Oscar
was right when he called them 'soulful trees.' Perhaps they had their own souls
and they talked what we couldn't understand. Perhaps, but I didn't believe in
the supernatural. That thought didn't help contend against that edge which found
me, every time, and it was starting to settle back in place once more.


Thankfully—I noted the irony—Taryn jarred me from my thoughts when she asked,
"Can we stop for breakfast? I'm getting tired of biting my tongue and being
imprisoned in this vehicle."


No one replied, but no one had to as Jace turned onto an exit ramp and it
wasn't long before we had found a twentyfour/seven diner that had booths for our
seats.


As we parked, Taryn rushed inside with Tray following it a sedate pace,
Jace's phone rang again.


We both lingered outside while he answered.


He hung up, seconds later, and looked at me, emotionless.


I read him anyway and said flatly, "He wasn't there, was he?"


Jace didn't have to affirm my comment.


I knew Munsinger wouldn't be that church. Marcus may have had him there, but
he wouldn't keep him there, not for long.


"He's gone." I murmured to myself.