Chapter Thirteen. Eshe
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Eshe
I stare down at the burner phone Malachi loaned me since mine is still buried under a pile of rubble somewhere at Elysian.
Sighing, I sink down on top of the toilet lid in Malachi’s cavernous and surprisingly spotless bathroom.
One thing I’ve learned about Malachi—he’s clean, organized.
I assume it has more to do with a forensic mindset than a cleanliness next to godliness one, but I appreciate it, nonetheless.
Just one more thing that has me itching to do unclean things to him.
It’s easier to focus on my ever-present lust for him than what I have to do next.
Closing my eyes, I punch in the private number I know by heart, as it hasn’t changed in fifteen years.
“Yeah?” Tera answers, suspicion lacing her voice.
“It’s me,” I say.
“Eshe? What number are you calling from?” I can picture the frown that’s no doubt darkening her face.
“A burner. Listen, Tera.” I pause, swallowing past a throat gone tighter and tighter, a glass fist of guilt and shame gripping me. “I fucked up tonight.”
She goes quiet. “What happened, and what do you need me to do?”
No panic, no anger. No judgment. When I deserve so much judgment.
“I … I infiltrated the obodo tonight and went after Abena. I tried to take her out.”
I wait for the explosion—shit, bad choice of words—from Tera, and I don’t have long to wait.
“Gotdammit, Eshe,” she hisses. “What the hell were you thinking? Going in there without a plan? Without us? Anything could’ve happened.
Anything. You could’ve been captured. Killed.
Shit.” Her breath blasted in my ear. “We had a timeline. A fucking plan. Hell, we just discussed it. Why would you put your damn life on the line for some crazy-ass shit like that?”
“I know, I know.” There’s nothing else I can say but that. I fucked up. Bad. “Seeing Penn and then Sienna in that hospital hurt. Seeing Penn’s parents’ faces—the fear and pain there—that was all on me. And I couldn’t take it. I had to do something about it.”
“Nah, Eshe, that night was on the person who set that bomb, and it’s on Abena, not you. Same with Sienna being shot.”
“But she was after me. Everyone was hurt because Abena is after me.”
A beat of silence pulses over our connection so loud, it echoes in my head.
“Eshe, where are you? I’m on my way to come—”
“No.” I shake my head even though she can’t see the gesture. “I’m fine. I’m with … the Huntsman,” I admit on a murmur.
A long, loud beat of silence pulses in my ear.
“The Huntsman? What do you mean the Huntsman? Jesus be common sense the size of a gnat’s ass, Eshe, please tell me you didn’t just say what I think you just said?
” When I remain silent, she huffs out a string of inventive and long profanity.
“The fuuuuuuck. Are you crazy? Why? Just tell me why? Is he the one who convinced you to go on that stupid-ass mission? It sounds like something he’d do,” she mutters.
“No, Tera, it doesn’t, and he didn’t,” I snap, inexplicably irritated by her attack of Malachi.
Well, attack is a strong word, but I don’t like her denigrating him.
Inhaling a breath, I hold it, then slowly exhale, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“And yes, I am with him. Going after Abena? That was all me. As a matter of fact, he tried to stop me, and when I wouldn’t listen, he had my back.
Then later, when it all went to shit, he saved my life.
He returned for me when he could’ve left me. ”
I still don’t know why he did it. He was outta there, off scot-free. But he came back.
For me.
Tilting my head, I stare at the open doorway and the shadowed, empty bedroom beyond. Just when I believe I have that man nailed down, he does something selfless like rescue me or tells me to call him by the name he hates and had expressly forbidden me to even utter aloud.
Shaking my head, I refocus on Tera.
“Well, I’m thankful he didn’t let you take your stubborn, emotional ass into the obodo alone.
But as grateful as I might be, he’s the Huntsman, Eshe.
And that alone is good enough reason not to trust him.
The only thing we know for sure about him is he’s a killer.
No, two things for sure. He’s vowed to kill you and Abena.
Tonight was delayed, not denied.” She huffs out a breath, and I don’t need to be in front of her to imagine the clench of her jaw or dip of her eyebrows over her nose.
Of my Seven, Tera is the closest to me simply because she could be considered my second-in-command.
Therefore, she has more freedom to speak to me than the others do.
“You’re drawn to him. Fascinated by him.
You have been for a while, that’s no secret.
And I kind of get the appeal. But don’t let your pussy get you caught up.
How do we know he isn’t working with this Poison woman—”
“Tera.” I softly but firmly cut her off, and she immediately goes quiet. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” Tera says without hesitation.
“Then trust my judgment when it comes to the Huntsman. He’s not in league with Poison.
He doesn’t need her help in coming for me, and he’s had plenty of opportunities before now to finish what she started if they were partners.
” Like when I was unconscious for hours on his pullout couch.
Only more proof that his vow to kill me is a little suspect.
“Yeah, he … interests me. Probably more than is healthy. But I’m not dickmatized, Tera.
Far from it. If anything, I see him too clearly.
And this isn’t about him. It’s about me.
About my actions and the danger they’ve now put you and the others in. ”
“No.” There’s a thud like a fist or another body part connecting with an object. “I know what you’re about to say and fuck no. So don’t bother,” she grits out.
“I will bother and I will say it,” I murmur.
“When she can’t get to me, Abena will come after the next-best thing.
She’ll go after the ones under my protection, the ones I care about, to draw me out.
And after what happened tonight, all the gloves will be off.
I humiliated her. I exposed a weakness in her armor by infiltrating the obodo and getting so close to her.
She’s coming for blood, and if she can’t get mine, she’ll settle for yours to make an example of you to others who would dare to sympathize with me. You know that, Tera.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she states firmly, stubbornly.
“Yes, you are. And that’s not a suggestion, that’s an order from your olori.
” It’s not often when I have to pull rank on the women who aren’t just my kapteni but my sisters.
But we haven’t faced times like these either.
“I need you to get in touch with Nef, Kenya, Doc, and Maura and let them know what’s up.
Tell them it’s code white.” It’s our signal that the shit has hit the fan and we need to separate and go to ground.
It’s a DEFCON 1 situation. “I’ll call Penn’s parents and tell them to get her moved to one of my safe houses, where I’ll have a full medical staff waiting on her. Same with Sienna.”
“Eshe…”
“Got it, Tera?”
A long pause that seethes with anger and frustration. I hate that she’s angry with me. But I’d hate it more if Abena or Ekon hurt her—or worse—because of me.
I’d turn into a bloodthirsty, vicious creature they’d have to put down … but not before I took out half of fucking Boston with me.
And if it were Malachi?
These streets would run red, the gutters overflowing with a sea of crimson.
That’s how I’m coming behind mine.
“Got it,” Tera finally says. Then: “How can I reach you? On this phone?”
“Probably not.” I sink my teeth into my bottom lip, loneliness already creeping inside a chest cavity cracked wide by despair. For a long moment, I let the chasm pour in, allow myself to choke and gasp on that dark sense of isolation. “I’ll find you.”
Her breath is heavy, deep, as if she’s trying to control the air pushing in and out of her lungs—and failing.
“Three days, olori. Three days before we come find you. We’re having that meeting next week. And we’re finishing this. Together. So: Three. Days,” Tera vows, and then she hangs up.
I lower the phone, sightlessly staring at the black casing. A heaviness, like a huge black boot, presses down on my sternum. I grind the knuckles of my free hand between my breasts as if the twisting motion can unlock my chest wall so I can reach inside and snatch this pain away.
My aim in storming the obodo was to protect my sisters from any more harm. And in my recklessness, I placed them in even more danger. I fucked up. And now … I know only one way to shield them, to draw fire away from them.
My mother once told me that to be oba meant to walk alone.
I now know what she meant.
Deliberately, I shove past the ache and dial Nef to get Penn’s parents’ number.
Twenty minutes later, I have their promise to move Penn and Sierra out of Mass General and Nef’s assurance she can loop the security cameras to conceal their movements.
Kenya and Maura are going to guard them until they’re underway to the safe houses and then get ghost themselves.
“You finish checking on your people?”
I glance up, meeting his bright blue eyes, then lower to the acres and acres of taut golden skin stretched over wide shoulders, deep chest, and corrugated ladder of abs. And that V just above his hips calls to me, begging for my lips and tongue to map all that delicious territory …
Shit, my body might be exhausted and bruised, and my spirit and pride are in tattered pieces, but I’m conscious. And as long as my brain has activity, I’ll want this man.