22. Nash
NASH
I read the cards. I knew what they said.
Even so, it felt impossible.
But what else could Blade’s text mean?
Security room. Now. Found ID.
Blade
If she was nobody, she would have texted the name so our contacts could get to work on a background check.
We wouldn’t need one if it was her.
I left our captive upstairs, told her to behave before stepping out of the apartment and walking down to the security office in the basement.
When I pushed open the heavy, metal door, Cyrus was leaning against the steel table on the far wall. Her arms were crossed over her chest, those hulking, blacked-out forearms straining against her anxiety.
“What is this about?” Cyrus grumbled.
Shrugging, I let the door close behind me. “No idea.” I watched the dozens of monitors over Cyrus’s head — Blade bounding through the park from one screen to the next as she got closer.
Before Cyrus could ask me anything else — a question about my intuition that I wanted to avoid until I heard Blade’s disclosure — the metal door slammed open.
Out of breath, Blade’s chest heaved as she threw down an open wallet. It slammed on the metal island at the center of the room.
“It’s really her.” Blade was breathless.
Cyrus and I moved forward, but I could only catch a glimpse of the name on the ID before Cyrus snatched it up.
Te…
“I fucking knew it.” Cyrus slammed her fist down, a loud ring bouncing off the concrete walls.
Every emotion ran across her face, recognition, sadness, anger. Fury.
When she looked up, I grabbed the wallet from her hand. Looking down at the picture, my heart sank. How did I not recognize her? I should have known her voice, felt her presence.
But I had. I just didn’t know for certain.
Tess Montgomery. Age 23. Eyes: blue. Hair: Brown. An address somewhere on the outskirts of Valemont.
The picture made it so much clearer who she was. The bleach blonde and blue tips had thrown me off. But seeing the brunette in the picture, a little younger than she was now, I could have pointed her out in a room of millions.
Tess. My Tess.
“FUCK!” Cyrus screamed as rage flowed through her.
Biting her lip, Blade was still for once. “She can’t know, right?”
Cyrus was quick to answer, shaking her head. “Of course not. She can’t know who we are. She’ll run.”
“What happens if she wins?” My jaw tightened, the thought of her leaving us already making me body heavy. The prophecy promised she’d come back, but I always assumed she’d stay.
A deep growl emanated from Cyrus’ chest. “We won’t let her.”
There was a possession to Cyrus’ voice now. Just knowing that she was our Tess was enough to set her soul on fire.
She’d always believed. More than Blade or I.
And from the look in her dark eyes, I knew that Cyrus intended to exact the revenge that the cards had promised.
In her soul, she believed that Tess had stumbled into Feverpoint for Cyrus to finally make her pay for what she’d done to us. For what she did to Cyrus.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I stared at the ID.
It was one interpretation of the card. One word in a pamphlet left in the dust to rot.
Revenge.
But the Three of Swords was many things. Pain. Sorrow. Grief. A release even.
That was my choice of analysis, on the days that I believed the prophecy or my intuition were even real.
We’d found the cards when we got to Feverpoint. The bright yellow card case drawing our eyes in the dusty ruins of the amusement park we’d loved through our childhoods. Even as we were pushed from home to home, all of us had always been drawn to the towering peaks of the coasters that lived here.
The Three of Swords was the first card we pulled when we decided to shuffle the deck. It had only been a few days since we left the group home, forced to run to save Cyrus. Because of what Tess did.
Shaking my head, it was hard to believe that my Sweet Lamb would do something so horrible.
She was a child.
That was my reading. Three of Swords. She’d return, we’d have our reckoning with the adult woman who could reflect on what position she’d put Cyrus in. We’d move on, go back to being friends.
But Cyrus clung to revenge.
Seething in rage, her knuckles white, I knew Cyrus wasn’t going to relent.
I met Blade’s eyes, both of us afraid of what Cyrus would do to her now.
Gritting her teeth, Cyrus stood straight and moved toward the door. “I’ll give her my retribution. On Fright Night.”
She would follow the rules. Unwilling to break the decorum of getting Justice. There was a way to do these things.
“Fate will decide when it’s time. And when it does, I won’t hold back.” Cyrus sucked in a deep breath before disappearing out of the security room.
In the silence, Blade’s finger started to tap on the steel table. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “We can’t set her free.”
“No, she might rat.” Blade’s laugh was more of a scoff. “Blow up our spot again.”
Though I huffed out a laugh of my own, I struggled to believe it.
She was a kid. She didn’t know what would happen if she lied to Pastor Harris about Cyrus. Would the adult Tess, the one who stripped for a living, the one who’d let us hunt her, would she really turn us in?
Maybe she doesn’t deserve whatever Cyrus has planned.
Whether I believed that or not, didn’t really matter. I wouldn’t lose her, couldn’t risk setting her loose into a world full of assholes. Men like the ones who’d chased her in here were everywhere. That’s why we disposed of so many of them.
My stomach ached at the thought of her in danger again.
I could protect her here. From the monsters out there and the vengeful beast in Feverpoint who went by the name Cyrus.
Nodding, I met Blade’s bright green eyes. “We have to find her. Every hunt.”
Blade’s pierced lips lifted into a smile, thinking about having more nights with our captive. “Then Cyrus can’t exact her revenge. And we get more time with our plaything.”
“Asshole.” I nudged Blade as I made my way back to the door. We needed to retrieve her from the apartment before Cyrus did. “We can’t let Cyrus have her way. We don’t even know what she has planned. So we’ll win. Every time.”
The deal was sealed in that basement.
It was the only way we could keep Tess safe. And I refused to let anything happen to her now.