malakai
The woman behind the clinic desk checked the authorization twice before looking at me again.
Camille’s family owned the place, but the clinic operated under enough Quorum agreements that Hunter’s name carried more weight than whatever instructions Camille had issued yesterday, and Ronan had already made sure the paperwork reflected the current situation.
Nichlas Mercer was no longer protected. He was medically cleared to leave, and the authorization transferring him into my custody sat right there on the receptionist’s tablet whether she liked the idea or not.
“He’s still heavily medicated,” she said, keeping one hand around the tablet instead of giving it back.
“The physician signed the discharge because Mr. Vale confirmed someone would remain with him, but he shouldn’t be alone tonight.
His balance is poor, he’s been drifting in and out, and we’ve had to wake him for several of the neurological checks. ”
“I’ll make sure someone stays very close to him.” I smiled when her expression tightened, then took the tablet once she finally released it and signed where Ronan had marked. “You can also tell the doctor we appreciate him keeping everything functional. That was important.”
She did not ask why.
An orderly wheeled Nichlas out ten minutes later with a folder tucked against his chest and a plastic bag containing whatever remained of the clothes Echo had ruined.
He was slumped far enough to one side that the orderly had a hand braced behind his shoulder, his swollen face slack beneath the medication.
Fresh bandages covered both hands, his injured thigh had been wrapped beneath loose clinic pants, and the cuts Echo had opened across his upper body disappeared beneath a clean shirt.
He looked considerably less entertaining without the blood, but at least the doctor had put him back together well enough to move.
His eyes opened when I stepped in front of the wheelchair. Recognition took a few seconds to work through whatever they had given him, then his gaze sharpened enough for fear to show through the haze.
“Malakai?” His voice scraped badly, and he looked past me toward the reception area before trying to straighten. “Where’s Hunter? I need Hunter.”
“He’s not coming.” I took the discharge folder from the orderly and tucked it beneath my arm while Nichlas struggled to keep his eyes open. “You’re leaving with me. Save the rest until the drugs wear off enough that you’ll remember the answers.”
The orderly helped get him into the SUV because Nichlas could barely manage his injured leg, and I made sure his seat belt was secure before circling to the driver’s side.
Hurting him on the way to the property would have been wasteful.
Echo had already waited years for this, and if I was going to give her a proper gift, I wanted it delivered in usable condition.
Nichlas was asleep before I left the clinic parking lot.
The drive east gave me almost half an hour without having to listen to him.
Campus disappeared behind us first, then most of the city, until the roads widened and the houses started sitting farther apart behind stretches of trees.
The east property was exactly where I wanted it: distant enough that screaming would not bring anyone curious, large enough to let Nichlas run without immediately reaching a boundary, and familiar enough that he would understand exactly how much land sat around him once he realized where we were going.
Ronan had been there since morning. He had texted me twice with camera updates and once to complain that the north side of the creek had worse coverage than the original property maps suggested, which meant he had probably been having a wonderful time.
Hunter had used the house for the end-of-year party last spring, but nobody was staying there now, the regular grounds crew was not due back for several days, and the nearest occupied property sat far enough away that nobody would notice what Echo did unless she set the forest on fire.
Nichlas woke when I turned onto the county road.
He shifted against the seat belt and winced when the movement pulled at his thigh.
For a minute he only stared through the windshield, blinking at the trees and trying to put himself back together.
Then he looked toward the road signs we had already passed, turned toward me, and became noticeably more awake.
“This isn’t the way back to campus.” His bandaged hand closed awkwardly around the seat belt as he looked through the side window again. “Where are you taking me?”
“Echo wants you dead, and I want to watch her perform.” I kept my eyes on the road while the silence beside me changed completely.
“I considered the warehouse on Seventh because it would’ve been easy.
Concrete floors, no neighbors worth worrying about, plenty of room inside.
Then I realized I’d be giving her a restrained man in another building after she already spent hours playing with you in a chair. That seemed insulting.”
Nichlas twisted toward me as far as his injuries allowed. His breathing had started speeding up, but the medication kept his movements slow enough that even his panic looked delayed.
“The east property is better,” I continued.
“You remember it. Hunter had the end-of-year party there last spring. A few hundred acres once you include the wooded section, old trails behind the house, creek on the north side and enough uneven ground to make things interesting. Nobody’s using it right now. I checked.”
“You’re taking me there for her?” Nichlas stared at me long enough that I could feel it without looking over. “Hunter promised I was protected. You can’t just drive me into the woods because she wants to kill me.”
“Hunter ended your protection before I signed you out. Ronan cleared the paperwork, and there isn’t an active order left that says anyone has to keep Echo away from you.
” I took the turn toward the private road and finally glanced at him.
“If it makes you feel any better, we’re not driving you into the woods. You’re going to do that part yourself.”
His hand moved toward the door before he remembered we were still traveling fast enough to make opening it a poor option. He dragged it back into his lap and stared ahead, swallowing several times before trying another angle.
“Desmond protected me before. Hunter doesn’t get to decide all of this on his own, and you know it.” His voice strengthened as he spoke, as though saying Desmond’s name gave him something solid to hold. “If you do this and Desmond finds out, this becomes a Quorum issue.”
“Then I suppose you should hope Desmond gets personally invested very quickly.” I settled deeper into the seat, comfortable enough that the difference between us seemed to bother him more. “Because right now, you’re betting on a man who isn’t here against a woman who is already on her way.”
Nichlas stopped talking for several miles.
That gave me time to think about Echo again.
I had gone back through the Primrose material after Hunter found her fathers, partly because Hunter’s version had been painfully efficient and partly because I wanted the details.
Her family was fascinating. Hunters, killers, men who had spent years being very good at locating people who had devoted equal effort to disappearing.
Echo had grown up inside that family, trained around people who treated violence like a skill instead of a moral emergency, and I had still only seen her operate in cramped spaces where somebody else controlled the boundaries.
A campus hallway. A lounge. A room with a chair.
Today she got land.
“Her fathers are fascinating,” I said after a while, and Nichlas turned toward me slowly.
“I’ve been reading about them. Hunters. Killers.
People who know how to find someone who doesn’t want to be found, and Echo grew up with that around her.
I keep wondering what she looks like when she doesn’t have walls getting in her way. ”
Nichlas stared at me as if the medication had worn off just enough for him to finally understand who was driving. “You don’t know her the way you think you do. She enjoys this. She enjoyed what she did to me, and she’ll do the same thing to you eventually if you give her a reason.”
“I know she enjoyed it.” I could still picture Echo in Hunter’s lounge with Nichlas’s blood dried over her clothes, entirely unashamed of what she had done. “That’s part of why I want to see more.”
“You think that makes her safe?”
“I’ve never wanted her safe.”
The answer shut him up again, and I let the silence stretch while the trees thickened around the road.
Nichlas kept looking through the windows, measuring distance now, probably trying to determine where we were and whether there was anything close enough to matter if he managed to get out of the car.
He eventually asked why I was helping her, and that question interested me enough to give him the real answer.
“Because you don’t matter, Nichlas. Whether you make it through tonight matters to you and probably no one else in this car.
Echo matters to me. She wants something, and for once it happens to be something I’m very good at giving her. ”
His face tightened. “So this is what, some kind of gift?”
“Courting gift, actually.” I turned onto the long private drive while the main house appeared between the trees ahead.
“Flowers die, jewelry is boring, and buying Echo something expensive would probably end with her asking what I wanted in return. You already belong to her. Giving her the right place to enjoy you seemed more thoughtful.”
Nichlas looked sick.
I liked that expression better than the drugged one.