Chapter 22 EZRA
It was a nice distraction to have them all focusing in on whoever this Ashford person was.
Apparently they were someone Artemis and Donovan had done work for—or against—and had helped this other person, Maya Chen, in exposing one of the billionaires.
I knew of an Ashford family from Whitespire, but—fuck.
It was the same family. The more they spoke, the more I connected the dots.
Nina had bankrolled Maya’s efforts to destroy the Ashford family name, and now I guess she was hoping to do the same for the Pemberton name.
We were out of the car and rallied through a dank hallway tunnel, followed by a flight of stairs into an empty room where two people stood.
A woman with gray curls coiffed and stuck with shiny gilded pins, dressed in a pinstripe suit, was standing next to a towering woman in a dark red dress with a large puffy coat over her arm.
I was first into the room, almost thrust inside it with Jacques standing right behind me. My team were—I didn’t know, and if it hadn’t been for Jacques’s pretense, I might have panicked.
“I’m Maya Chen,” the woman in heels said. “This is my . . . employer, my boss, Nina.”
The older lady, Nina, extended a hand to me. Her nails were pearly claws. “Nina Ashford-Furst, or just Nina Furst.”
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Ezra Cross.”
“Cross,” Maya said. “I thought you would’ve had a—”
“My mom’s Korean, so it’s my dad’s last name, and I guess she didn’t want to give me a Korean name,” I said. It was the usual questioning I got, asking about my name and my heritage—or where I really came from, because people always said there was a hint of something in me.
“No time for chit-chat,” Nina said. “I’ve been searching for a way to put a dagger in Victor Pemberton’s side—and his family’s—for a while. I want to help you.”
Jacques placed a hand on my shoulder. “And what does that entail?” he asked. “He’s not being used as your scapegoat.”
“Oh gosh,” she chuckled. “Calm down, Jacques. That’s right, I know all about you.
I know you’ve worked for Sanctum for years, alongside other agencies.
You’ve also got quite the assets to your name.
It’s a shame I heard you got fake IDs. I like the name Jacques.
It’s very French. Do you speak the language? ”
His hand on my shoulder tightened. “No, I’m named after my grandfather who was French,” he said, and I felt awful for not knowing that, but that was probably just my body’s way of punishing me for putting it through this stress so early in the morning. “What terms are you helping us on?”
“Oh, you’re a package deal,” she chuckled.
“Where are—” Maya started, pressing her lips together, making them all glossy. “Donovan and Artemis.”
“They should be coming,” Jacques said. “These terms . . .” He continued to push.
Nina sighed. “The terms are, I offer you my resources, we fight this thing, we go dirty if we need to. I’ve got a legal team, they’re absolute bloodhounds. The team you’ve got are scrappy, I’ll give you that, but—”
“Only if my team can continue to work with yours,” I said. “They’ve done a lot of work, and I need to know they’ll be properly included in all of this. I know how big cases can really make people’s lives.”
“I can arrange for that,” she said. “Today, you’re going in to be put on the stand and questioned. If you change counsel now, I can have them request a continuance.”
I shook my head. “I want this over with. I want to—I want to give what I’ve got, and I want to go.”
“You know they’re going to drag this thing out,” she said. “My people can make it go away.”
There was a cool relief to the way she said it. I wanted it to all go away, I wanted it to all cease. I just wanted to be alone with Jacques and not have a pit open in my belly at the thought someone might try and kill me. “And what about the threats on my life?”
Nina gestured to me—or Jacques. More him, probably. “I have armed guards working here, they will not let any threat on your life through those doors. Even Victor is being frisked. He has money, sure, but I have more.”
“Nina isn’t one of the bad billionaires,” Maya jumped in with. “She’s—”
“I can speak for myself,” she said, now walking out in front of me.
“My family, the Ashford family have always inherited and abused wealth, forcing those without money to become slaves. Maya wrote an article on the topic. I, on the other hand, I had wealth. I was married—my late husband, Ronald Furst, died a couple of years ago, and I inherited it all. We have no children. And we’d always been philanthropic, but now I’m old, I just want to make the world a better place.
And if I can do that by taking out these families who sit on boards, in their penthouses, hoarding wealth, then I will. ”
She filled me with hope—but I didn’t know if I could trust her.
She was nice and sweet, like a typical old lady, but she was a billionaire, and I knew to be scared of those.
No ethical billionaires, and eat the rich.
All those slogans were right on the tip of my tongue.
And yet Jacques’s touch kept me grounded, kept me being me, or the me who I had been, which wasn’t pissed off and angry. I was soft and compassionate.
“What do you say?” she asked. “Let me help you, and we’ll bury the bastard.” A big smile formed across her face. She was practically glowing to cuss him out.
* * *
I’d never seen someone destroyed in a courtroom before. To see someone’s face crumble, and people use their words like they were knives, slashing away at flesh, all before they went in deep for the kill. That’s what I saw when Victor Pemberton took the stand to talk about his company, Nexovex.
I hadn’t wanted to be in the same room as him, but I was, and I was happier for it.
He’d been there when I’d taken the stand beside the judge, and the people asking questions had let me say entire sentences without interruptions—unlike the practice with Jacques.
And looking out and seeing Jacques standing at the door at the back of the room, acting as a guard, it was nice.
Lena and Dillon had enough material to go off that the thumb drive hiding inside Mr. Thimble wasn’t called upon until the last minute.
And by that point, I don’t think it mattered what Victor Pemberton had to say, he was as good as imprisoned for several counts of criminally negligent homicide.
It had been his call to put the products out even though he’d known death was a side effect—and there was no warning of it on any of the products—which just seemed irresponsible.
Nina’s legal team had also come in at the last minute and requested my name be written out of any public court documentation—it was a bunch of legal jargon, but it was granted.
I couldn’t believe it. I almost went running right to Jacques, but I didn’t.
Artemis and Donovan had found uniforms too, so I had an entire team of people there for me.
For the first time in months, I could relax. I could be me, and I could probably go to my apartment again and water my plants. Oh god, my plants were either taking over or dead.
* * *
I cried happy tears, sobbing and laughing as we went back to the car. I had Mr. Thimble, who weighed a little less, and was without the hardness of the thumb drive inside him.
“What do you want to do first?” Jacques asked.
“I want to go home,” I said, wiping my tears. “I just—I wanna go home and I want to sleep in my bed.”
At the underground parking garage, a car pulled up in front of us.
Nina appeared in the rolled down window.
“You did a great job in there,” she told me.
“This doesn’t seem over, so if anything happens, here’s a number you can call.
” She handed me a weighty card with a phone number embossed and gilded.
“And, if anyone asks, keep my name out of it. I still have a lot of good work to do.” She winked at me then her car drove off.
Jacques hugged me tight as another car pulled up. It looked like ours—but so had the last one.
Inside, there was a woman sitting in the center seat. Jacques held his arm out, blocking me from getting inside. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Haven’t you heard?” she asked. “I’m—”
“Unless this is an apology, Mercy, I don’t want to hear it.”
She smacked her lips, leaning forward into the light. “After much research, I am apologizing for this mistake. I would like you back at Sanctum.”
He looked at me. I didn’t have an answer. I’d barely been put together enough to have answers for the lawyers today. “Hi,” I said.
“You must be Ezra,” she said to me, holding out a hand. “You’re the reason one of my best agents went AWOL.”
“I couldn’t go AWOL, because you’re not an official agency in that capacity,” he growled at her. I suppose he was mad because he’d actually served in the armed forces. “You were given a reason, and I do not require permission to leave.”
She laughed. “Come on, Reaper, I’m joking,” she said. “I apologize, I do, profusely. I get requests for you constantly. People want Reaper. More so now that you’ve gained a little bit of infamy. They’re willing to pay a lot of money for you.”
He wrapped an arm around me and shook his head. “I made a promise,” he said. “You’ve got Donovan and Artemis back, use them. I’m taking my boyfriend on a trip. And we’re not to be disturbed.”
“You can work if you need to,” I offered in a squeak through the silence.
Jacques continued to shake his head. “I’m not going to work,” he said. “We’re going away on vacation, and we’re not to be disturbed.”
Mercy nodded. “I give it three months before you’re back at Sanctum, asking for work.”
“And when that happens, I expect the door to be open,” he said. “And I will be in touch about transferring my funds.”
“Please, go somewhere warm, and send me a postcard,” she said before sliding the door shut.
Jacques held me tight. “Looks like we’re finally free.”
I was somewhat numb now. I didn’t know what we were going to be. Part of me wondered if we were going to be heading to Sugar Bay, and another part of me wondered if we would end up in Thailand as I’d suggested. I actually didn’t care, I just wanted to be with him.
Another car pulled up. Now this one was ours.
As the door opened. Two men in masks grabbed me, pulling me inside.
It happened so fast. Jacques shot them—three bangs, like a backfire. One in each guy, a third in the driver. The noise had disoriented me, and I stared at Jacques, my body filled with a fuzzy tingle as he stood in front of me with the bodies writhing and moaning from their wounds.
He pulled me out by the arm and sat me on the small stoop, where the exit from the courthouse was. Donovan and Artemis appeared behind me with Maya. My vision continued to blur in and out of focus with the ringing in my ears.
“Last ditch attempt,” Jacques said.
Donovan and Artemis scrambled, taking the men from the car and unmasking them.
Maya sat beside me, patting my back and asking if I was okay.
Looking down at myself, my hands, I had blood on me.
I wasn’t okay at all. I think that was the closest I’d ever been to gunfire and being shot—shot at by my own boyfriend.
Jacques came up and cuddled me, apologizing for shooting so close to me.
I was actually more impressed with his aim, and how he’d managed to grab his gun so quickly.
It gave some context to his name, and while I didn’t think the three men were dead yet, so no additional numbers to his death count, he’d been so quick with it.
“I think he needs some sugar,” Maya said. “The first time I was almost killed and had a gun shot at me, I binged on pancakes, waffles, and drank so much maple syrup, and like two jugs of sweet tea—extra sugar.”
My stomach rumbled. “I think I could go for that.” They were my first words after processing what happened.
All three men were handcuffed, thanks to the guards uniforms they all wore and were equipped with. Donovan and Artemis were pleased as they presented the three men, unmasked for me, like they were wriggling trophies.
“They work for Pemberton,” Artemis said, and he kicked one of them. “He wouldn’t speak, but we found his card in his pocket, and a very nice checking receipt.”
“Amateur hour,” Donovan grumbled.
“What are you gonna do with them?” I asked.
Jacques continued to hug me to his side. He kissed my forehead. “What do you want me to do with them?”
It was my call? Oh god. “I—”
“Two options,” Artemis said. “Because it’s overwhelming. One, we take them out. Or two, we keep them here, and maybe they bleed out. Maybe they get arrested. Maybe this next car reports them.”
The flash of headlights from the car approaching were forcing me to decide. I couldn’t decide to kill them. “Leave them here,” I said. “I just wanna go home.”