Chapter 81.
Alek knows she can’t stay out here much longer—they’re expected at the main house for dinner soon. If she doesn’t arrive with the others, one of the guards will surely come looking for her.
“I promised someone very important to me—and to all of us—that I wouldn’t tell anyone, even you guys, at least not yet,” Jimmy says.
“Who?”
“Someone who’s trying to keep you alive,” Jimmy says. “That’s all you need to know.”
He pauses and lowers his voice.
“I’ve got to wrap this up. There are people following me . . .” He lowers his voice even more. “Wait. I need to move farther out of sight.”
Alek straightens. “Jimmy—”
“Hold on,” he says. “I need to move.”
She hears muffled footsteps. Traffic. The hum of a city. His breathing.
When he resumes speaking to Alek after what feels to her like an agonizing few minutes, she can barely hear him over the traffic sounds in the background.
“Alek, there are more layers to this than I originally thought,” he says. “And we’re all facing even more of a threat than I imagined. We’re not just dealing with powerful people here. We really are dealing with ruthless ones, and a board with a completely different agenda.”
“Different how?” Alek asks.
There is such a long silence Alek once again thinks the call might have dropped. Then: “Nothing about saving the world,” Jimmy says. “That part was bait.”
Alek’s throat tightens. “Then what is it?”
“I can’t get into it. But I’m getting close to finding out who the real enemy is,” he says.
“It sounds ominous,” Alek says.
“It is.”
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” Alek says.
“They’ve already made one run at me,” Jimmy says.
Alek’s pulse spikes. “Where? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Jimmy says. “But I’m on their radar now. I’m sure they’re willing to do anything to stop me.”
He exhales sharply.
“And Alek—one more thing. I need to tell you what I learned about the chain of command—”
The next thing Alek hears is the roar of a car engine, and then the screech of tires. A horn. A hard impact—metal, maybe, or a body slamming a door. And then—
Nothing.
Alek freezes, staring into the trees like she can see London through them.
“Jimmy?” she whispers.
No answer.
Dead air.