Chapter Thirty-seven
A ringing phone eventually broke the silence. Hargreaves’ phone.
For a split second, Nico’s entire body betrayed his tension before he forced himself to relax. It was enough for me to know he saw nothing good in the call. Hopefully, Hargreaves would be too busy driving.
“Hello.”
Too late.
A pause. “I see. No, I wasn’t aware.”
Nico was already moving, pushing his door open to reveal the tarmac rushing by at an alarming speed.“Your door,” he said.
I understood immediately. We were opening them before Hargreaves could engage the central lock and trap us inside.
But then what?
My stomach lurched at the obvious answer.
“On three,” Nico ordered. “Three… two.”
“I can’t.”
“One.”
I jumped, the tarmac rushing up to greet me at a dizzying speed.
That was nothing compared to the impact.
The air exploded from my lungs as I hit the ground.
For a few dizzying seconds, I could do nothing except stare up at the dome-covered sky and conduct a hurried inventory of my body.
Arms. Legs. Head. I still appeared to have everything attached.
I’d just concluded nothing was broken when a hand grabbed me. I instinctively batted it away.
Nico’s face appeared above me. “It’s me.” Relief flooded through me as I let him haul me upright.
“We need to get going,” he said.
I nodded, but my attention drifted to the car that had stopped roughly fifteen meters away. Hargreaves had climbed out and was talking on the phone while he watched us.
“We don’t even know what was being said,” I pointed out. “It might have been nothing.”
Nico brushed some dirt from the lapel of his suit jacket—the only sign he’d just jumped from a moving vehicle. The gesture made me want to laugh, but I was fairly certain if I started, I wouldn’t stop.
“I couldn’t take the risk,” he said.
My gaze remained fixed on Hargreaves, or more specifically, on the vehicle parked beside him. “There’s two of us. We could probably take him. A car would get us there much faster.”
“Hargreaves has a black belt in jujitsu.”
“Oh.” That put a different spin on things. “Maybe not then.”
After one last glance at the car, Nico headed toward a side street. I jogged to catch up with him, everything intact but aching. “See, I did what you said,” I pointed out. “Even though it involved jumping out of a moving vehicle.”
No response.
“And I’ll continue to do what you say.”
Still nothing.
“You had me convinced back in the courtroom that you didn’t give a damn about me. You wouldn’t even look at me. And Kellan said some stuff about you.”
That got a reaction, Nico throwing a sharp look my way. “I bet he did. And you believed him, of course.”
“I didn’t know what to believe.”
Nico took a sharp right turn, nearly leaving me behind.
I hurried after him. Again. “So you think they’ll send people after us?”
“I don’t know.”
“But it’s possible.”
“People don’t walk away from Queenie and Henry.”
“But you’re not just people. You’re family.” The word felt wrong the moment it left my mouth. The problem with categorizing him as family was that it could work both ways. Maybe they’d let him go because of it. Or maybe they’d be even more determined to make sure he stayed.
I went to check the time, my bare wrist reminding me I no longer owned a watch. “How close are we to the boat arriving?”
Nico checked his own watch. “An hour and a half.”
I grimaced. “That sounds too long.”
“We still have to get there.”
Someone stepped out from beneath the overhang of a building and planted himself directly in our path.
Tom Cheshire.
Still grinning.
“Now where would you two be going in such a hurry?” he asked.
“Not now, Tom,” Nico said.
“If not now, when? If not me, who?”
I pitied anyone who ever tried speaking in riddles around me once I got off this godforsaken island, because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold myself back. What did he do to deserve such an attack? Made deliberately ambiguous statements.
“Later,” Nico said. “And someone else.”
Good thing one of us spoke fluent Wonderland.
“The streets are saying you resigned.”
Nico came to an abrupt stop. “Who’s saying that?”
I understand his confusion, given that it had been less than half an hour since it happened.
Tom’s grin widened. “I told you. The streets.”
“What else are the streets saying?” Nico asked.
“If you were still employed, I’d have to tell you. But if you’ve really resigned, then you’re no longer in a position of power.”
Nico moved as if to pass him.
Tom immediately sped up his words, clearly afraid of losing his audience. “That the Harts aren’t very happy. That Queenie and Henry are understandably bereft at losing their adopted son. And then there’s Kellan.” His gaze drifted toward me.
“What about Kellan?” I asked.
“What was he like as a child?” he asked Nico.
Nico narrowed his eyes. “Get to the point. We have somewhere to be.”
“That somewhere being a boat, I presume. Unless the Hart’s have it stopped. It does, after all, only take one very brief phone call.”
Fuck. Was it really that simple? Because if so, it didn’t exactly fill me full of optimism..
“Did you ever take his toys as a child?” Tom asked Nico.
“Once when I was seven.”
“And what did he do?”
Nico tugged up the sleeve of his suit jacket, then rolled up his shirt cuff.
A thin scar stretched almost the entire length of his forearm.
I’d never noticed it before, hidden as it was on the underside.
To be fair, when Nico was naked, there were far more interesting things to look at than his forearm.
“Kitchen knife,” he said. “Not even that sharp. It was quite impressive how much force he could use when he was younger than me.” He let the sleeve fall back into place. “I learned my lesson.”
“You say that,” Tom replied, his gaze returning to me, “but have you? He has far more things at his disposal these days than a kitchen knife. I heard he got hold of a gun. Did you hear that? You must have. You know more than I do. Or at least you used to before you resigned.”
Cold settled in my stomach, spreading slowly upward.
Nico grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”
I didn’t argue.
“He’s coming,” Tom shouted after us. “Better not dally. I’ll get something to wear to a funeral just in case.”
Neither of us responded.
We didn’t speak again for the rest of the journey.
Partly because I had a feeling we were both reflecting on Tom’s warning—I certainly was—and partly because Nico had increased the pace enough that I needed to conserve my breath.
I wanted to ask whether he was afraid of Kellan, but I wasn’t sure it would be an answer I wanted to hear.
When Nico finally stopped, it was between two buildings with a clear view of the gallery across the street.
“Let me guess,” I said. “We have to go through there.”
“Unless you’d rather take on security?”
I leaned against the cold brick. I’d had no desire to see Percy and Lola again after our first encounter.
That feeling had only intensified after they’d stood in court and twisted the knife.
The prospect of seeing them for a third time was about as appealing as removing my own balls with a rusty pair of scissors. Still, I’d promised Nico obedience.
“Fine,” I said. The word sounded anything but. “Just keep that pair of freaks away from me.”
I stepped off the curb.
Nico immediately grabbed my wrist and yanked me back. “You really have all the survival instincts of a lemming, don’t you?”
“I thought—”
“More like you didn’t.”
“I’m sorry I’m so inept.”
“So am I.” He almost smiled before he wrested it under control. “But I suppose if you weren’t, I wouldn’t get to keep rescuing you.”
“Your armor is decidedly tarnished. And your white horse kicks like a mule.”
“Finally, he learns.” He almost sounded amused.
“What are we waiting for, then?”
“We’ve just been told Kellan is on our heels. We’re looking for signs he got here before we did.”
“And are there any?”
“No.”
“Which is good, right?”
Nico shrugged. Apparently, he wasn’t ready to commit to that level of optimism.
“You believed Tom, then?”
“Tom is many things. A shit-stirrer, someone who’d sell his own grandmother for the right price, and an opportunist.” He paused. “But he’s not a liar.”
“Good to know.”
The street was as busy as ever, which made observation difficult. Nico repeatedly had to lean out to see around passing pedestrians. He needed another five minutes to be satisfied.
One minute later, we were across the street and inside the gallery. I hadn’t missed it. The exhibits hit differently now that I knew how they got there. Especially knowing I’d nearly become one myself.
“Would you have rescued me from here?” I whispered once we’d passed through the first X-rated gallery and were in the second.
“I don’t know.”
At least I could never accuse Nico of dishonesty. Or of painting himself in a flattering light.
Still, the answer stung. “You would have,” I said. “Eventually.” Nico glanced my way. “You would have missed me too much.”
The look he shot me was sharp, but I took comfort from him not denying it.
The statue room came next, the light even dimmer than before. I did my best not to look at the exhibits as we wound our way between them. Like last time, the room was empty. Apparently, most people found it too unsettling to linger.
Nico pulled out a bunch of keys as we neared the door at the back.
“They really should have confiscated those when you resigned,” I muttered.
“Why do you think I got out of there so fast?”
He located the correct key with impressive speed, considering none were labeled and there were at least twenty on the ring. A moment later, we were stepping into the familiar white corridors of processing.
“What are the chances of getting all the way through here without running into Percy and Lola?”
“Not high.”
We barely managed a few more steps before a door opened farther down the corridor, and two familiar figures stepped out to prove Nico’s prediction as correct.