20. Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Jensen
I ’m losing my fucking mind over Layla.
After a good three hours of searching the Area 51 desert terrain for Layla with no luck, I decide she must have hitchhiked out of here, and I have to assume she’s in Vegas. That’s the best scenario, and if I let my mind go too wild, I can think of plenty of worse scenarios, that’s for fucking sure.
In need of reinforcements, I windwalk to the Nevada mountains and the underground headquarters for the Renegades, Sunrise City, with murder on my mind—Maddox’s, to be precise. And why the fuck was no one there to help me save Layla? I charge through the facility and straight for the war room—the Renegades operation center.
Kicking the door open, I find Maddox sitting at the conference table with Caleb and Creed on either side of him, along with four other high-ranking Renegades. One look in my direction, and the room crackles with anticipation. No one dare says, “welcome home,” and Caleb motions for them all to leave. Everyone stands to comply, except for Creed, who considers himself Caleb’s personal bodyguard, which is fine with me. My issue is not with Creed.
Me and Creed butt heads, but at our core, we’re friends. Creed and Caleb are about the only two people I’d trust if my life depended on it, and it does right now. There was a time not so long ago when Maddox would have been included on that short list.
I step inside the room and allow the rest of the group the space to exit. Three men pass, and when Maddox follows, I’m having no part of it. The instant Maddox is within reach, I grab him and slam him on top of the conference table.
Maddox is on his back on top of the table. “What the fuck?”
Creed arches a dark brow. “Bad mood, Jensen?”
“Bad mood doesn’t even begin to describe it,” I say.
“What the fuck, man?” Maddox repeats, rolling to face me and intending to stand.
I’m in front of him in a heartbeat, but Caleb and Creed are there on either side of us, each with a hand on us both, holding us apart. “What the hell is going on?” Caleb demands.
“That’s what I want to know,” Maddox snaps. “What is this?”
“You fake, Mr. All-American, do everything by the book, piece-of-shit traitor, with your GI Joe haircut and morals of steel,” I grind out. “You gave her up. You gave me up. You handed her over to Tad.”
“You handed her over to Tad. I tried to stop it from happening, but they had five men for every one of us.”
I lunge at Maddox. “You lying sack of shit.”
Creed curses and holds me back, stepping between me and Maddox. “Take a breath, man. Let’s figure this out.”
“He’s Zodius,” I seethe, enunciating every word tightly. “And you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t make such an accusation if I wasn’t dead certain.”
“I was there,” Creed replies. “I got there at the end of it all, too late. Maddox had taken so many bullets, he was bleeding out and still trying to fight. I don’t know what you think you saw, but I don’t believe Maddox is dirty.”
“Give him some room, Creed,” Caleb orders.
Creed grimaces. “Hear him out before you attack again.” He steps aside, and I’m staring straight at Maddox, forced to control myself when I want to beat him to a pulp. “I know what you did,” I all but growl.
“This is insane,” Maddox mumbles furiously, talking to Caleb, whose hand is pressed to his shoulder, holding him immobile. “He’s crazy. He was hurt and delirious, and I’m not taking the fall for his stupid, daredevil mistakes that got that woman killed.” He glares at me. “Stop trying to prove you’re as GTECH as the rest of us before you get someone else killed.”
Fury explodes inside me at the reference to my limited windwalking ability and a few other shortfalls in the superhuman skills department that only a handful of people know exist. This time when I lunge, it’s with enough fury and speed that I plant a fist on Maddox’s jaw before Creed and Caleb pull us apart again.
Creed growls at Maddox. “Why did you go there, man? Seriously, why?” He shifts his attention to me. “That shit he just said doesn’t matter,” he says, understanding in his gaze. The feeling of being an outcast is one he knows well, but he’s living with the opposite problem. Creed is more powerful than any of us, to the point of it scaring others. “You’re both pissed and saying things you don’t mean,” he adds, “and it’s getting us nowhere.”
“Oh yeah, I’m pissed,” I say coldly. “I have never risked anyone’s life but my own, and I’ve damn sure saved a hell of a lot more than him.”
“Oh jeezus, Jensen,” Maddox snaps. “Why don’t we get out our dicks and measure them, too?”
My gaze locks on Creed. “Maybe you should remind him I’m as good at taking lives as I am at saving them.”
“I said meet me at the upstairs window,” Maddox yells. “Why the hell did you go out the backdoor? And why the hell did you hand her over to the Zodius without a fight?”
“Oh, that’s priceless,” I choke out in the midst of a bitter laugh. “You were at the window. You think I don’t remember that? And we both know you were on the back porch and that I handed Layla to you .”
“You came out the backdoor before I ever made it to the window.”
“Your lies are going to get you nice and dead, Maddox.”
“I am not working for Julian,” he insists vehemently, his chin lifting in Creed’s direction. “You were undercover inside Zodius until only a few months ago. If I was working for Julian, wouldn’t you know?”
“He’s not one of them,” Creed states with absoluteness. “And we thought you were dead.”
“I need a word alone with Jensen,” Caleb states.
Creed shoots me a warning look before releasing Maddox and shoving him toward the door. “She’s not dead,” I call after Maddox. “But I can promise you this. If anything happens to her, I will kill you.”
Maddox glances back at me, and then, without a word, exits the room with Creed on his heels.
“He’s not lying,” Caleb says softly as the door shuts.
“The hell he’s not,” I say. “I saw him hand her over. I don’t care what your damn Spidey senses tell you.”
“I know you believe that,” he says. “I know you’re not lying, and I wouldn’t need my ‘Spidey’ senses to know that, because I know you. But I can tell you without any question, you both believe what you’re saying is the one hundred percent truth.”
I narrow my eyes in surprise. “He’s not lying?”
“You know I’d know.”
I do , I think. Caleb senses other people’s emotions—their truths and their lies. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. You could have been delirious.”
“No. No, I wasn’t.”
“Then you were tricked in some way, which we might as well call Zodius magic. They did something to fool you.” He pauses a beat. “He really thought you were dead, too. I really thought you were dead. I was not okay. None of us were.”
I run a hand through my hair and sit on the edge of the table. “Yeah, well, I should be, and she will be if I don’t find her and find her fast.”
“Tell me everything.”
I recount the past few days, including Layla’s ICE addiction, and end with the details of our escape. “I have no idea what happened in that section of Zodius City, but Layla and I were the only ones who were conscious.”
“Were they dead or knocked out?”
“No clue, and there wasn’t time to spare to find out. And it can’t be a toxin, or Layla and I would have been affected. But why were we immune?”
“It must have been poison or a drug that they were given and you were not, but to what end?”
“I don’t think so. The Zodius soldiers were afraid to come after us. We were able to walk right out of the facility. I need to find her, man. I’ve been looking for her for hours.”
He studies me a moment that becomes three. “She’s personal to you.” It’s not a question, but rather his senses at work, his head tilting slightly as he adds, “And not just because you have a history. This is not obligation to you or even duty.”
“It’s those things and more,” I say. “She’s personal.” I don’t offer more because I don’t even know what that more is. I’ve always been drawn to Layla. I was then. I am now. And at present, I could easily say Layla matters to me more than anything has in a very long time. Perhaps illogically, but I don’t seem to care. It is what it is. Nothing can change how much I need to find her and keep her alive.
“We’ll find her,” Caleb promises.
But will we find her before it’s too late to save her?