CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
Tray and Taryn found me before I decided on any course of action.
"Jace wants you with him. We're watching the back, you guys keep to the
front." Tray said shortly and lifted me from my position.
Taryn pushed something small and metallic in my hands. "Here." She said. "I
brought an extra."
"What?"
"It's a taser." She explained impatiently. "You can electrocute them. They're
not expensive, $40 on Ebay."
"Taryn!" Tray hissed.
"Oh. Go to Jace. He's in your bedroom." And with those instructions spoken,
she knelt beside Tray and I saw that they had their own arsenal.
I left, crossed the living room, and the door blew open.
One man was framed in the middle of the doorway, five hundred feet from the
door, but I stopped, aimed, and shot him down.
I kept to the ground and crawled to Jace's side. He was on the ground with
his gun through one tiny hole.
He had flipped the bed-frame to block the shattered window and moved the
dressers to block the other window.
"Don't stand by the wall." Jace instructed.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I need a shooter at the top." He shot again.
"Okay."
"You take this place, I'll go up and shoot and when they break our perimeter,
we'll switch places. Okay?" He didn't wait for my nod of comprehension. He
jumped lightly to his feet and was gone from the room before I'd fitted my own
gun to the small hole.
As I bent where his head had been, I saw a wider vantage view of the woods
and opened fire as the targets came into view.
It didn't take long until I heard an even barrage of pops break out. Since
the house wasn't getting hit, I assumed it was Jace.
Glass broke behind me, I whirled, saw someone who wasn't Tray, Taryn, or Jace
in my doorway and braced myself, flat on my back, and shot with my left hand as
my right hand never left the gun in the hole.
He went down and I knew that I'd just shot my first execution. It was a shot
to the forehead, dead center, and only used with cold efficiency.
I held my ground, but my back kept itching. I knew they could get through the
front door and I wanted to leave my post to check the back, but I couldn't. Jace
ordered me to stay and so I stayed. It seemed like hours, but it was probably
mere minutes when the shots died down.
My phone rang then. Jace had left it beside me on the ground.
"Yeah?"
It was Jace.
"Remember what I told you?" He asked, cold. His voice would've sent shivers
down my back, but I was used to it by now. And I was used to surviving.
"Yeah."
Stay and we'll switch places when they break our perimeter.
"Good. Let's meet in the southend. There's a spot that they haven't covered
yet. We can escape from there."
Not what he had told me.
"Um…"
"This was our plan, Maya. Just do it!" And he hung up.
It was a code. I had hesitated, but I understood it and hunkered down for
another round of shooting. Jace wanted to draw them in. He wanted them to think
we'd make an escape.
And a moment later, I saw that they'd bought it.
I waited until Jace shot first and it stretched my nerves to their breaking
point.
I counted eleven and they were close. They were almost to the house. One
reached for the door and that's when Jace started shooting.
He had moved from his sniper's position and met them head-on.
I took out the ones from my angle and before long, it was Jace against the
four they had left.
I waited, my heart pounded rapidly, and silence settled over the house.
Suddenly, Jace was in the doorway.
I didn't have time to express my relief before he said curtly, "Let's
go."
"Where are we going?"
Taryn and Tray were just behind him.
"They have another round moving in. You guys are staying in the basement.
There's a tunnel behind the living room. It's small, but you can crawl out from
it. It goes to the boatshed. There should be a car in there."
"How do we know if we should go?" I asked.
"You'll know." Jace told me, his eyes glanced to Taryn's, but he ordered,
"Go. Now."
Tray pushed us ahead. Under normal situations, I would've been continuously
amazed at the cozy basement, complete with a bar that would've made any
nightclub owner impressed. But this wasn't a normal situation and the fireplace
wasn't a normal fireplace.
Tray positioned us behind the counter with a clear exit to the fireplace, if
we needed it.
"I don't like this, Tray." Taryn spoke up. "He's up there. We're down here.
Since when do we fucking hide from fights?"
"Since we're outnumbered and an agent, who can kick my brother's ass, gives
orders. That's when."
I saw a pink taser in Taryn's hand and asked, "Pink? Really?"
"I'm woman-enough to admit that I like pink." Taryn shrugged. "I used to hate
it."
A crash was heard from above, and somewhere glass, that must've endured the
first battle, shattered and a series of thumps, pops, and crashes were
heard.
"Fuck this." Taryn muttered and tried to stand up.
Tried and failed.
Tray kicked out her feet and ordered, grimly, "You stay."
She glared. But stayed.
Another series of crashes were heard.
"Holy shit. There's gotta be, like, eighteen of them up there." Taryn
murmured.
I closed my eyes, reminded myself of Jace's mission. Tried to tell myself
that this was for me. Marcus wanted me. I could save those kids. I could figure
out where they were, where Munsinger was, and then—I heard a shot, followed
behind a choked gasp—that was Jace.
I hurled myself up and over the counter.
Tray cursed, but clamped down on Taryn's followed mutiny and I was scrambling
up the stairs.
I flattened myself against the wall as I tiptoed up the stairs and then the
door burst open.
I paused, once, saw someone who wasn't Jace and blew him away.
I threw myself out into the living room, saw Jace sharing blows with a man,
and tucked my head to the ground, rolled to a stand just behind him, and swept
out with my hand.
As I pulled my hand away, my blade was kept firmly in grasp, and the man was
finished with a quick chop to his neck.
Jace met my gaze, fiercely, and promised his punishment for a disobeyed
order.
And then he threw me to the ground, shot over me, as I shot behind him.
I saw another pair fighting in the foyer.
And in the kitchen, with a low grunt, someone large threw his weight around
and hurled two men out the door, unconscious as they landed in the snow.
When the man turned back, I grinned in surreal enjoyment. It was Oscar and
his baldness really did gleam in all it's majesty.
Jace yanked me up, shoved me in a doorway, and that was when I saw Jace fight
hand-to-hand for the first time.
He ducked, weaved, and spun where he shouldn't have even been. But he was
there and the three he fought were on the ground within an instant.
One man stepped towards me, his gun raised. Jace saw him, placed an arm in
the air as the man walked into it and Jace merely fitted his other hand behind
the man's neck, used his arm as a brace, and spun the man out and away.
The neck snapped instantly and Jace moved ahead, for his next target.
It happened too quick. If I hadn't been watching with it right in front of
me, I would've never seen the entire sequence occur at all.
Jace was cool, calm, and a professional.
He was just doing his job and I saw why he was a legend among the Civvies and
Deep Cuts.
Jace tore down what he saw.
Suddenly, it was done. Abrupt and final.
And three agents approached to stand before Jace, waiting for his orders. The
two that I didn't know wore black face masks. Oscar had taken his off. Jace had
never worn one.
I should've felt more than what I did, but all I felt was expectance. We'd
move. We'd continue our fight. And Marcus would have an answer for every hand we
played.
I'd killed, enough for me to pause and wonder about the amount, but not
enough to stop and dwell.
It was us or them.
I chose them.
I was brought back to Jace's conversation when I heard a feminine voice say,
"These weren't Mallon's men."
"He used to hire out mercenaries." I spoke up. I met Jace's eyes and said,
"These were mercenaries."
"We know, but we don't know who sent them."
"The SmokeScreen?" The third agent suggested.
Suddenly, Jace whirled to the basement door and ordered, "Don't let them
up."
Oscar grinned and leaned his weight against the door.
I heard a muffle curse on the opposite side and realized that Taryn and Tray
had tentatively walked up the stairs.
Jace had heard their approach. No one else had, but Jace said now, "Bring the
bodies in. Clean up the snow. I don't want any traces left."
"What's the order?" The female asked. She'd yet to take off her black
mask.
"Just do what I say." Jace clipped out and grasped my elbow to lead me into
the bedroom.
He wasted no time with blistering rants and lectures. Jace simply bent,
grabbed our bags, and started packing.
I packed the rest and a moment later, Jace led me out the door and into the
snow.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
Jace ignored me and we bypassed our vehicle, the bodies underneath the trees,
and kept going until we found their own vehicles. Jace ducked inside one and
yanked out their radio dispatcher. After that, we walked to another car that had
been hidden underneath tree branches, foliage, and the brush around it.
"Who's car is this?"
"Coolay's." Jace said. "Get in. I'm going back to sweep the bodies down and
get their weapons."
"Jace." I stopped him.
"What?" He turned back.
"I should feel…"
"No. You shouldn't. This is just the beginning, Maya. We have to go, quickly.
You can feel all you want later, when we're safe." It was just a statement that
came out of him. A mere statement that could've been about the weather, how a
storm was coming, but he was gone before I processed my last thought.
And I was alone, amongst the soulful trees that proved their truth that
night.
A lot of souls had died, now laid to rest on their roots.
I stayed in the car as the bodies were searched, professionally stripped, and
moved into the house. Taryn and Tray were blindfolded and led by an agent,
possibly Coolay, to his car.
Taryn and Tray got inside, but it was a somber mood that now settled over us.
No one spoke.
It took another ten minutes before Jace returned to take the driver's side.
As he reversed and left, I saw a glaze explode and the sky had been lighted.
Jace met my gaze.
He'd burned down what he couldn't explain.
A lot of things had just happened.
A DEA safehouse had been tipped off to Marcus. He sent men to an exact
location and he sent enough to ensure a bloodbath, but it hadn't been ours.
Those men were mercenaries, but I saw that Jace wasn't a normal agent. He was
a machine, a predator, and ruthless. He was also a leader and he had trained
those three to their fullest potential and beyond.
Jace took out the front line, pulled in the middle line, and fought until his
reinforcements had swept out the last line. They met in the house and that's
where the final show-down had occurred.
Not many could boast a feat like that, but I knew that no one would ever hear
of it.
Jace set fire to the safehouse and I knew it was to buy him time. When it
would be found, they'd have to shift through all the bodies and never identify
any of them, even ours.
A mind would have to wonder if we'd survived or if we'd died.
Jace gave them a mindgame in return. And he drove us to another safehouse,
another spot before we could take back our game and finish it with the Key and
Master in our hands.
I asked, suddenly exhausted, "Where are we going?"
"To a snitch's hidey-hole." Jace murmured and drove.
"You're kidding me." I exclaimed.
"Nope."
We were going to Rafe's.
"Why?" I asked. "Just tell me why."
"Where are we going?" Taryn asked. "Why am I not liking Maya's tone of
voice?"
She sounded her normal impatient and sarcastic self, but I caught a slight
inflection of emotion on her last word. Taryn felt, but she'd feel in the
privacy of Tray's arms.
I sighed, resigned, and murmured, "We can't keep doing this."
Jace pressed harder on the accelerator.
"We're just hiding and biding our time. Marcus is just going to find us and
hunt us down. He's going to win in the end. We can't keep—"
"Then tell me where the fuck the Key is! Tell me where the Master is and we
can end this. I can find him and I can execute him, but I can't until we have
those two books. So tell me where they are and I can end this!" Jace
snapped.
"You're putting this on me?!" I seethed.
Jace shook his head, his eyes glittering from rage, and he quickly reached
and grabbed my blade from my pant's waistband.
"Hey."
"No. You're not dicing me again." Jace said grimly and tucked it in his
pant's pocket, away from me.
I choked back my words, remembered that we had guests, and kept my mouth
clamped together until we pulled into Rafe's driveway. Her house was ablaze, but
no other vehicles were outside.
Jace got out and disappeared inside while we stayed outside.
"So, who's this chick?" Taryn asked, surprisingly inclined to the
inevitable.
"She's…you'll have to meet her to see. I can't even begin to describe
her."
"You guys were here before." Taryn murmured.
"Yeah. It was…I broke a guy's finger and ended up pulling a gun on Rafe."
"Oh." Taryn sat back. "So this might be fun."
I glanced back, saw a suppressed storm, and met Tray's stoic eyes.
He'd been holding her back, but Taryn was nearing combustion.
Jace had more than one battle in his near future.
And he was nearing us with a quick gesture towards the house. I got out,
grabbed our two bags that had been reduced from four. We had half a bag for
clothes and amenities and the rest was used for weapons, Jace's papers, and the
Decoder.
"Is he here?" I asked Jace.
"No."
Glean wasn't there, but that meant Scott wasn't either.
Rafe greeted us with an icy glare, perched on the couch with a gun at her
elbow.
Taryn commented to me, "I can see why you did what you did."
"You're upstairs and in the right bedroom." Jace instructed Taryn.
"What?" I arched an eyebrow at Rafe. "No pizza this time?"
Rafe scrambled to her feet, but Jace shut the door and she stopped—reminded
that he controlled her house, not her, so she better play nice.
"We're here the night. That's all." Jace told Rafe.
"Glean's showing up tomorrow so you better be out of here."
Jace nodded and Rafe walked stiffly up the stairs and disappeared in her
bedroom. The lights upstairs were flipped off and that left us in the living
room, alone.
Jace reached and switched off the remaining light so not it was us, the
moonlight, and the couches.
"Taryn is furious." I commented and dropped where Rafe had left warm.
Jace muttered, "Are there not dull women out there?"
I smiled, held out my hand, and informed him, "I'll take my blade now."
"My point's been proven." But he handed it over.
I ignored it and asked, "Was that Marcus out there or was that the
SmokeScreen?"
"I don't know, Maya." Jace surrendered. I wasn't the only one fatigued. "My
guess: the SmokeScreen. Marcus would've wanted you alive, not dead, and those
men didn't care to ask before shooting."
"So the SmokeScreen has contacts with the DEA."
Jace was quiet.
"What?" I asked, now alarmed.
"Coolay told me that a call was made from the house three hours before the
attack."
"What does that mean? You were—"
"Yes, Maya! I was. I had all the calls monitored, just in case that you
actually did call Marcus."
"You took my phone."
"You're resourceful. If you set your mind to it, you would've called him. I
wanted to make sure to catch it and maybe…"
"Maybe what?" I stepped closer, listening to what he hadn't said. "You were
going to use me again, weren't you? You were going to use me as bait,
again!"
"No, but I was going to listen where he would've inevitably told you to go
and then I was going to tie you up and lock you in a padded cell."
"I cannot believe you—I can't—," I stopped talking, heard myself, and
exclaimed on a stricken note, "I can. What am I thinking? It's what I'd do if I
were in your shoes. I'd do exactly what you were thinking about. And…that's not
even important."
"I think Tray called his brother."
"What does that mean?"
"That means that…," Jace sat beside me. "That either Chance is on it, Lily
overheard and tipped her brother off, or the SmokeScreen is monitoring Chance's
phoneline."
Tray had made the dumbest mistake in the world, but something was off.
"Tray's not stupid." I murmured.
"I know."
"He wouldn't have called, told them where we were, and not thought about a
tapped phoneline."
"I know." Jace stated.
"So what does that mean?"
"That means that something happened, somewhere and somehow that I can't
explain right now."
Jace couldn't explain it and Jace could explain nearly everything.
I looked at him, really looked at him, and summed it up, "The SmokeScreen can
get to the DEA. He wants us dead. Marcus has Munsinger. He wants me. He wants
you dead. And he wants Taryn to make you suffer. What do we do?"
Jace laughed harshly, shortly, and turned the tables on me, "You really want
to know?"
"I have to know."
"We go to Pedlam."
We go where Jace could never show his face again. And that's exactly where
they'll never look, right in their backyard.
I sat on a torn couch, with Jace beside me, decorated with guns, the moon
beaming it's hello on us, and I never felt so small as I did then.
Tray and Taryn found me before I decided on any course of action.
"Jace wants you with him. We're watching the back, you guys keep to the
front." Tray said shortly and lifted me from my position.
Taryn pushed something small and metallic in my hands. "Here." She said. "I
brought an extra."
"What?"
"It's a taser." She explained impatiently. "You can electrocute them. They're
not expensive, $40 on Ebay."
"Taryn!" Tray hissed.
"Oh. Go to Jace. He's in your bedroom." And with those instructions spoken,
she knelt beside Tray and I saw that they had their own arsenal.
I left, crossed the living room, and the door blew open.
One man was framed in the middle of the doorway, five hundred feet from the
door, but I stopped, aimed, and shot him down.
I kept to the ground and crawled to Jace's side. He was on the ground with
his gun through one tiny hole.
He had flipped the bed-frame to block the shattered window and moved the
dressers to block the other window.
"Don't stand by the wall." Jace instructed.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I need a shooter at the top." He shot again.
"Okay."
"You take this place, I'll go up and shoot and when they break our perimeter,
we'll switch places. Okay?" He didn't wait for my nod of comprehension. He
jumped lightly to his feet and was gone from the room before I'd fitted my own
gun to the small hole.
As I bent where his head had been, I saw a wider vantage view of the woods
and opened fire as the targets came into view.
It didn't take long until I heard an even barrage of pops break out. Since
the house wasn't getting hit, I assumed it was Jace.
Glass broke behind me, I whirled, saw someone who wasn't Tray, Taryn, or Jace
in my doorway and braced myself, flat on my back, and shot with my left hand as
my right hand never left the gun in the hole.
He went down and I knew that I'd just shot my first execution. It was a shot
to the forehead, dead center, and only used with cold efficiency.
I held my ground, but my back kept itching. I knew they could get through the
front door and I wanted to leave my post to check the back, but I couldn't. Jace
ordered me to stay and so I stayed. It seemed like hours, but it was probably
mere minutes when the shots died down.
My phone rang then. Jace had left it beside me on the ground.
"Yeah?"
It was Jace.
"Remember what I told you?" He asked, cold. His voice would've sent shivers
down my back, but I was used to it by now. And I was used to surviving.
"Yeah."
Stay and we'll switch places when they break our perimeter.
"Good. Let's meet in the southend. There's a spot that they haven't covered
yet. We can escape from there."
Not what he had told me.
"Um…"
"This was our plan, Maya. Just do it!" And he hung up.
It was a code. I had hesitated, but I understood it and hunkered down for
another round of shooting. Jace wanted to draw them in. He wanted them to think
we'd make an escape.
And a moment later, I saw that they'd bought it.
I waited until Jace shot first and it stretched my nerves to their breaking
point.
I counted eleven and they were close. They were almost to the house. One
reached for the door and that's when Jace started shooting.
He had moved from his sniper's position and met them head-on.
I took out the ones from my angle and before long, it was Jace against the
four they had left.
I waited, my heart pounded rapidly, and silence settled over the house.
Suddenly, Jace was in the doorway.
I didn't have time to express my relief before he said curtly, "Let's
go."
"Where are we going?"
Taryn and Tray were just behind him.
"They have another round moving in. You guys are staying in the basement.
There's a tunnel behind the living room. It's small, but you can crawl out from
it. It goes to the boatshed. There should be a car in there."
"How do we know if we should go?" I asked.
"You'll know." Jace told me, his eyes glanced to Taryn's, but he ordered,
"Go. Now."
Tray pushed us ahead. Under normal situations, I would've been continuously
amazed at the cozy basement, complete with a bar that would've made any
nightclub owner impressed. But this wasn't a normal situation and the fireplace
wasn't a normal fireplace.
Tray positioned us behind the counter with a clear exit to the fireplace, if
we needed it.
"I don't like this, Tray." Taryn spoke up. "He's up there. We're down here.
Since when do we fucking hide from fights?"
"Since we're outnumbered and an agent, who can kick my brother's ass, gives
orders. That's when."
I saw a pink taser in Taryn's hand and asked, "Pink? Really?"
"I'm woman-enough to admit that I like pink." Taryn shrugged. "I used to hate
it."
A crash was heard from above, and somewhere glass, that must've endured the
first battle, shattered and a series of thumps, pops, and crashes were
heard.
"Fuck this." Taryn muttered and tried to stand up.
Tried and failed.
Tray kicked out her feet and ordered, grimly, "You stay."
She glared. But stayed.
Another series of crashes were heard.
"Holy shit. There's gotta be, like, eighteen of them up there." Taryn
murmured.
I closed my eyes, reminded myself of Jace's mission. Tried to tell myself
that this was for me. Marcus wanted me. I could save those kids. I could figure
out where they were, where Munsinger was, and then—I heard a shot, followed
behind a choked gasp—that was Jace.
I hurled myself up and over the counter.
Tray cursed, but clamped down on Taryn's followed mutiny and I was scrambling
up the stairs.
I flattened myself against the wall as I tiptoed up the stairs and then the
door burst open.
I paused, once, saw someone who wasn't Jace and blew him away.
I threw myself out into the living room, saw Jace sharing blows with a man,
and tucked my head to the ground, rolled to a stand just behind him, and swept
out with my hand.
As I pulled my hand away, my blade was kept firmly in grasp, and the man was
finished with a quick chop to his neck.
Jace met my gaze, fiercely, and promised his punishment for a disobeyed
order.
And then he threw me to the ground, shot over me, as I shot behind him.
I saw another pair fighting in the foyer.
And in the kitchen, with a low grunt, someone large threw his weight around
and hurled two men out the door, unconscious as they landed in the snow.
When the man turned back, I grinned in surreal enjoyment. It was Oscar and
his baldness really did gleam in all it's majesty.
Jace yanked me up, shoved me in a doorway, and that was when I saw Jace fight
hand-to-hand for the first time.
He ducked, weaved, and spun where he shouldn't have even been. But he was
there and the three he fought were on the ground within an instant.
One man stepped towards me, his gun raised. Jace saw him, placed an arm in
the air as the man walked into it and Jace merely fitted his other hand behind
the man's neck, used his arm as a brace, and spun the man out and away.
The neck snapped instantly and Jace moved ahead, for his next target.
It happened too quick. If I hadn't been watching with it right in front of
me, I would've never seen the entire sequence occur at all.
Jace was cool, calm, and a professional.
He was just doing his job and I saw why he was a legend among the Civvies and
Deep Cuts.
Jace tore down what he saw.
Suddenly, it was done. Abrupt and final.
And three agents approached to stand before Jace, waiting for his orders. The
two that I didn't know wore black face masks. Oscar had taken his off. Jace had
never worn one.
I should've felt more than what I did, but all I felt was expectance. We'd
move. We'd continue our fight. And Marcus would have an answer for every hand we
played.
I'd killed, enough for me to pause and wonder about the amount, but not
enough to stop and dwell.
It was us or them.
I chose them.
I was brought back to Jace's conversation when I heard a feminine voice say,
"These weren't Mallon's men."
"He used to hire out mercenaries." I spoke up. I met Jace's eyes and said,
"These were mercenaries."
"We know, but we don't know who sent them."
"The SmokeScreen?" The third agent suggested.
Suddenly, Jace whirled to the basement door and ordered, "Don't let them
up."
Oscar grinned and leaned his weight against the door.
I heard a muffle curse on the opposite side and realized that Taryn and Tray
had tentatively walked up the stairs.
Jace had heard their approach. No one else had, but Jace said now, "Bring the
bodies in. Clean up the snow. I don't want any traces left."
"What's the order?" The female asked. She'd yet to take off her black
mask.
"Just do what I say." Jace clipped out and grasped my elbow to lead me into
the bedroom.
He wasted no time with blistering rants and lectures. Jace simply bent,
grabbed our bags, and started packing.
I packed the rest and a moment later, Jace led me out the door and into the
snow.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
Jace ignored me and we bypassed our vehicle, the bodies underneath the trees,
and kept going until we found their own vehicles. Jace ducked inside one and
yanked out their radio dispatcher. After that, we walked to another car that had
been hidden underneath tree branches, foliage, and the brush around it.
"Who's car is this?"
"Coolay's." Jace said. "Get in. I'm going back to sweep the bodies down and
get their weapons."
"Jace." I stopped him.
"What?" He turned back.
"I should feel…"
"No. You shouldn't. This is just the beginning, Maya. We have to go, quickly.
You can feel all you want later, when we're safe." It was just a statement that
came out of him. A mere statement that could've been about the weather, how a
storm was coming, but he was gone before I processed my last thought.
And I was alone, amongst the soulful trees that proved their truth that
night.
A lot of souls had died, now laid to rest on their roots.
I stayed in the car as the bodies were searched, professionally stripped, and
moved into the house. Taryn and Tray were blindfolded and led by an agent,
possibly Coolay, to his car.
Taryn and Tray got inside, but it was a somber mood that now settled over us.
No one spoke.
It took another ten minutes before Jace returned to take the driver's side.
As he reversed and left, I saw a glaze explode and the sky had been lighted.
Jace met my gaze.
He'd burned down what he couldn't explain.
A lot of things had just happened.
A DEA safehouse had been tipped off to Marcus. He sent men to an exact
location and he sent enough to ensure a bloodbath, but it hadn't been ours.
Those men were mercenaries, but I saw that Jace wasn't a normal agent. He was
a machine, a predator, and ruthless. He was also a leader and he had trained
those three to their fullest potential and beyond.
Jace took out the front line, pulled in the middle line, and fought until his
reinforcements had swept out the last line. They met in the house and that's
where the final show-down had occurred.
Not many could boast a feat like that, but I knew that no one would ever hear
of it.
Jace set fire to the safehouse and I knew it was to buy him time. When it
would be found, they'd have to shift through all the bodies and never identify
any of them, even ours.
A mind would have to wonder if we'd survived or if we'd died.
Jace gave them a mindgame in return. And he drove us to another safehouse,
another spot before we could take back our game and finish it with the Key and
Master in our hands.
I asked, suddenly exhausted, "Where are we going?"
"To a snitch's hidey-hole." Jace murmured and drove.
"You're kidding me." I exclaimed.
"Nope."
We were going to Rafe's.
"Why?" I asked. "Just tell me why."
"Where are we going?" Taryn asked. "Why am I not liking Maya's tone of
voice?"
She sounded her normal impatient and sarcastic self, but I caught a slight
inflection of emotion on her last word. Taryn felt, but she'd feel in the
privacy of Tray's arms.
I sighed, resigned, and murmured, "We can't keep doing this."
Jace pressed harder on the accelerator.
"We're just hiding and biding our time. Marcus is just going to find us and
hunt us down. He's going to win in the end. We can't keep—"
"Then tell me where the fuck the Key is! Tell me where the Master is and we
can end this. I can find him and I can execute him, but I can't until we have
those two books. So tell me where they are and I can end this!" Jace
snapped.
"You're putting this on me?!" I seethed.
Jace shook his head, his eyes glittering from rage, and he quickly reached
and grabbed my blade from my pant's waistband.
"Hey."
"No. You're not dicing me again." Jace said grimly and tucked it in his
pant's pocket, away from me.
I choked back my words, remembered that we had guests, and kept my mouth
clamped together until we pulled into Rafe's driveway. Her house was ablaze, but
no other vehicles were outside.
Jace got out and disappeared inside while we stayed outside.
"So, who's this chick?" Taryn asked, surprisingly inclined to the
inevitable.
"She's…you'll have to meet her to see. I can't even begin to describe
her."
"You guys were here before." Taryn murmured.
"Yeah. It was…I broke a guy's finger and ended up pulling a gun on Rafe."
"Oh." Taryn sat back. "So this might be fun."
I glanced back, saw a suppressed storm, and met Tray's stoic eyes.
He'd been holding her back, but Taryn was nearing combustion.
Jace had more than one battle in his near future.
And he was nearing us with a quick gesture towards the house. I got out,
grabbed our two bags that had been reduced from four. We had half a bag for
clothes and amenities and the rest was used for weapons, Jace's papers, and the
Decoder.
"Is he here?" I asked Jace.
"No."
Glean wasn't there, but that meant Scott wasn't either.
Rafe greeted us with an icy glare, perched on the couch with a gun at her
elbow.
Taryn commented to me, "I can see why you did what you did."
"You're upstairs and in the right bedroom." Jace instructed Taryn.
"What?" I arched an eyebrow at Rafe. "No pizza this time?"
Rafe scrambled to her feet, but Jace shut the door and she stopped—reminded
that he controlled her house, not her, so she better play nice.
"We're here the night. That's all." Jace told Rafe.
"Glean's showing up tomorrow so you better be out of here."
Jace nodded and Rafe walked stiffly up the stairs and disappeared in her
bedroom. The lights upstairs were flipped off and that left us in the living
room, alone.
Jace reached and switched off the remaining light so not it was us, the
moonlight, and the couches.
"Taryn is furious." I commented and dropped where Rafe had left warm.
Jace muttered, "Are there not dull women out there?"
I smiled, held out my hand, and informed him, "I'll take my blade now."
"My point's been proven." But he handed it over.
I ignored it and asked, "Was that Marcus out there or was that the
SmokeScreen?"
"I don't know, Maya." Jace surrendered. I wasn't the only one fatigued. "My
guess: the SmokeScreen. Marcus would've wanted you alive, not dead, and those
men didn't care to ask before shooting."
"So the SmokeScreen has contacts with the DEA."
Jace was quiet.
"What?" I asked, now alarmed.
"Coolay told me that a call was made from the house three hours before the
attack."
"What does that mean? You were—"
"Yes, Maya! I was. I had all the calls monitored, just in case that you
actually did call Marcus."
"You took my phone."
"You're resourceful. If you set your mind to it, you would've called him. I
wanted to make sure to catch it and maybe…"
"Maybe what?" I stepped closer, listening to what he hadn't said. "You were
going to use me again, weren't you? You were going to use me as bait,
again!"
"No, but I was going to listen where he would've inevitably told you to go
and then I was going to tie you up and lock you in a padded cell."
"I cannot believe you—I can't—," I stopped talking, heard myself, and
exclaimed on a stricken note, "I can. What am I thinking? It's what I'd do if I
were in your shoes. I'd do exactly what you were thinking about. And…that's not
even important."
"I think Tray called his brother."
"What does that mean?"
"That means that…," Jace sat beside me. "That either Chance is on it, Lily
overheard and tipped her brother off, or the SmokeScreen is monitoring Chance's
phoneline."
Tray had made the dumbest mistake in the world, but something was off.
"Tray's not stupid." I murmured.
"I know."
"He wouldn't have called, told them where we were, and not thought about a
tapped phoneline."
"I know." Jace stated.
"So what does that mean?"
"That means that something happened, somewhere and somehow that I can't
explain right now."
Jace couldn't explain it and Jace could explain nearly everything.
I looked at him, really looked at him, and summed it up, "The SmokeScreen can
get to the DEA. He wants us dead. Marcus has Munsinger. He wants me. He wants
you dead. And he wants Taryn to make you suffer. What do we do?"
Jace laughed harshly, shortly, and turned the tables on me, "You really want
to know?"
"I have to know."
"We go to Pedlam."
We go where Jace could never show his face again. And that's exactly where
they'll never look, right in their backyard.
I sat on a torn couch, with Jace beside me, decorated with guns, the moon
beaming it's hello on us, and I never felt so small as I did then.