Chapter 44
Reeve
“Hayes?” The knife almost slips from my fingers as I lurch to my feet. “Holy fuck.” I don’t know what volume of voice I’m using.
I scan Quinn from head to toe, taking in the red streak on her jaw and crimson splotches on her fingers that poke out of a jacket that swallows half her five-foot nothing body.
“Are you hurt? Whose blood—”
“It’s p-paint,” she stammers, the whole of her shaking. “M-Mostly. Some of it is bl-blood.” She must catch the flash of rage in my eyes, because she hurries to add, “Not mine!”
“Whose?”
“Dad’s. I think… I think I k-k-killed him, Reeve.”
Barely daring to believe this is real, I drag her into my body and smooth a hand down her long, blonde hair. “Did anyone follow you?”
“I don’t think so.”
I want to ask her to walk me through the events that led her here, but paranoia has me pulling away. “Toss anything electronic. Ring, watch—anything.”
“I don’t have anything,” she croaks, wiping her nose.
“Whose jacket are you wearing?”
“D-Dad’s.”
“Off. Now.”
She tries to unzip it, but her hands are too unsteady. I push them aside and yank on the zipper, then pry the waxed canvas jacket off her. My vision narrows when I spot the scarlet web marring her bare arms. May all of it be her asshole father’s.
I’m about to toss the jacket when she says, “Wait. In the p-pocket…”
I fish out a knife—her father’s.
“They’re going to kn-know…” She takes the blood-soaked weapon from me. “They’re going to c-c-come. I just wanted to see you one last time be-before—”
I close my switchblade and pocket it. “Get in the footwell.” I jerk my head toward the backseat. “And lie flat.”
I consider reversing my car to hitch my camper to it, but I wouldn’t be able to go fast. And I’m going to need to drive fast.
The same urgency rules out unlocking it to grab supplies. I have enough cash to grab the basics from a gas station along the way.
Even though it pains me to abandon my lone connection to Electra, I stash my cell phone in the wheel well of the camper, then vault back inside the Volvo and tear out of the parking lot.
For ten blocks, I don’t speak. I barely dare breathe. Even my heart locks down, minimizing its beats so no outside noise escapes me.
It’s only once we reach the access ramp of I-93 that my pin-straight spine curves into the backrest. Which isn’t to say I’m relaxed. I won’t be until I’ve put a hundred miles between Quinn and the Holy Hunters.
“Hayes? You’re good?” I ask, my voice barely louder than the cold air wheezing out of the AC vents.
“C-Can I sit up?”
“Let’s get a few more miles in first. Are you cold?” I’m already fiddling with the dials to turn the fan down.
“No. J-Just the adrenaline wearing off.”
Gripping the wheel with one hand, I use the other to pull off my hoodie. After readjusting my glasses, I dangle the sweatshirt over the center console. “Put this on.”
“I’m not c-cold, Reeve. I swear.”
“Then ball it up under your head. Just take it.” Once I feel her tug on the sweater, I say, “Now, walk me through what happened.”
The car’s so quiet without the hiss from the vents that I can now hear her teeth chatter.
“The s-supplies you sent me. I used them to escape.”
I glance into my rearview mirror, but she’s lying on the floor, out of my vantage point.
“I m-made a vase with the clay. Then smeared red paint onto my stomach to make myself look injured and sobbed until D-Dad finally stopped yelling at me through the door and came in to see what I’d hurt myself on.
I b-bashed his head with the vase, then grabbed that knife he always keeps strapped to his ankle.
The one I g-gave him, and I…and…” She stops talking and lets out a muted whimper.
“Don’t you dare shed a single tear for that piece of shit. He didn’t deserve to live. Didn’t deserve a daughter like you.”
“He was my father,” she murmurs.
“Where the fuck was he when Trenton sliced you up, huh? How the fuck did he avenge you?”
“He would’ve lost his life.”
“A decent father should be willing to sacrifice himself for his child.” That’s the sort of father I had.
That’s the sort of father she deserved. “But ultimately, Hayes, he should’ve gotten you out of Trenton’s prison, not stood by your cell door and kept you locked in.
” I flex my knuckles so hard I think I could yank the steering wheel clean off. “How’d you know where to find me?”
“The receipt in the bag.” She must be smiling, because her tone is suddenly breezy—and steady. “The one for a sports drink. It didn’t make sense at first, since there was no protein shake. I thought that maybe Hudson tossed it in there, but he’d never be caught dead in a public gym.”
“Clever girl.”
“Easy to be clever when your best friend is a mastermind.”
Hardly…
“Reeve, have you been living in that garage for the last two months?”
“No. I’ve been living in my camper.”
“That’s what I meant.”
“I don’t need blue skies to sleep. You can sit up now but stay in the rear”—I toss her my ballcap—“and put this on.” If only I’d grabbed snacks and drinks from the minibar instead of fancy soa— “Your insulin?” I glance into the rearview mirror at her shaded face. “Do you have your insulin with you?”
“I didn’t take the time to search the place for a dose.”
Even though the odds she’ll need it are slim, I still have too much PTSD from our childhood.
“What was Trenton having you do?” Quinn asks.
I knew the question was coming. “Nothing I didn’t sign up for.”
“You left the Holy Hunters, Reeve. You hate my ex. There’s no way you would’ve signed up to work for him, so how about a little honesty?”
“I am being honest. I volunteered to help stop the Atlanteans. I may not like the organization, but you know how I feel about our enemies.”
She takes a moment to sit with that. “How were you going to help stop them?”
I consider making something up since she’ll chew my head off if I confess the plan to cook up a bomb and drop it into the mine. But then I reconsider lying to her. Especially since my mission is dead in the water now.
I itch to locate a payphone and call Electra to explain myself before someone else, like Trenton, spills the truth. My stepbrothers will do everything in their power to betray me now that they’ve lost their bargaining chip.
I reassure myself that as long as the mine exists, Electra is more powerful than they are. Still, I picture them capturing her and torturing her, and I see red. If Trenton—
“Reeve?” Quinn bites out my name. “How were you going to help stop them?”
“I was angling to pull a Polly and destroy the mine with a dirty bomb.” That’s how I’d gotten my Hunter codename. Not because I had any talent in the kitchen back then, but because I taught myself to wire an explosive using a science textbook and junkyard scraps Quinn and I scavenged.
My best friend remains so quiet that I glance into the rear footwell to check if she’s fallen asleep, only to find her glaring at me.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Rafferty? That would’ve been a suicide mission! Not only that, but what makes you think a dirty bomb would’ve damaged the mine? The fucking air over the island repels bombs!”
I lick my mouth, and although I’ve showered and brushed my teeth, I get a hit of Electra’s sweet skin. “Then I would’ve walked away with no one being the wiser.” I don’t doubt she realizes it’s a big fat lie.
Sure enough, Quinn scoffs. “Polly never made it back home.”
“Yeah, but she made it onto the island.”
Silence bleeds between us. And not the soothing kind.
“Who did you pick to score your invite?” she finally asks.
“Electra Serran.” I leave out the part about Trenton’s role in the selection. Quinn would have a lot to say about it.
“Monta’s daughter?”
“Yeah.”
Another beat of loaded silence thickens the air.
Four mile markers later, Quinn grits out, “You were out. You were free! Why the hell would you agree to a fucking suicide mission?”
“Because you weren’t,” I reply quietly.
Quinn sits up to punch my shoulder. “You’re a fucking idiot, Reeve Rafferty.” Her voice hitches from emotion. “I should never have called you.”
“You always call me, understood?” I snap.
She wipes her eyes and nose on my too-long hoodie sleeves.
“I’m serious, Quinn.”
She still makes no promises. “Did she fall for you?”
I press my lips together. “Yeah.”
“Of course she did.”
I don’t know why she thinks that would be a given.
I’m about to mutter that just because she loves me doesn’t mean another woman would, when she asks, “Did you fall for her?”