35. Artemis
35 ARTEMIS
“Tem.” A hand touches my shoulder and immediately releases me.
My swing touches empty air.
“I knew you were going to do that.”
I crack my eyes open.
My body aches, and I slowly push the blanket off my shoulders.
I didn’t cover myself, but…
now I’m covered.
And Kade crouches just out of reach, a smile playing on his lips.
“Did you find him?”
He shakes his head once.
“No, but we’re going out.”
“We as in you and Saint?”
“We as in the three of us.” He tips his head.
“Unless you think Saint and I should be alone together.”
I narrow my eyes.
“You wouldn’t hurt him, would you?”
“Only if he strikes first, little goddess.”
A chill runs down my spine.
The good kind . Not sure where he came up with that nickname, but I’m not terribly opposed.
He doesn’t say it mockingly.
There’s a softness in his gaze that doesn’t reconcile with how he usually acts.
Tough. Almost cold.
He just feels sorry for you .
“Okay,” I finally say, swinging my legs out of the cot.
He steps closer and holds out his hand, helping me to my feet.
He tugs me closer without warning.
My chest bumps his. Immediate butterflies fan their wings in my stomach, and I meet his dark eyes in confusion.
He uses two fingers to catch the mussed hair at my temple.
He tucks the strands behind my ear, then releases my hand.
I step back, letting out a shaky exhale.
That shouldn’t have been sensual.
It definitely wasn’t sexual.
Was it?
“Right.” I clear my throat.
“Let’s go, then.”
He grabs a folded sweatshirt and thrusts it at me.
His gaze drops to my chest, and I follow.
Yeah, those fucking nipple piercings are prominent.
“You’ve got piercings, too,” I blurt out.
His eyebrow rises. Just one, a little tick up before it smooths.
“You saw that, huh?”
“We interrupted your skinny-dipping.” My face flames.
I snap open the hoodie, ready to drag it over my head, when Kade reaches out and stops me.
Two fingers, the same that tucked my hair, now just barely graze the still-visible piercing.
I just barely stop myself from reacting audibly.
“Come over early more often.” His voice is hoarse.
“We can continue that interruption in a more positive note… or maybe you can join me in the water.”
My mouth dries.
I step back and finish putting it on, letting the dark-gray fabric hang down to my mid-thigh.
It has the same logo on it as the other one—that I still need to return to him at some point—and I frown as I pluck it away from my chest, examining the eye and the snake.
“Is this your company logo or something?”
Kade sighs.
“No, my sister drew it. We used it as a fundraiser.”
“For…?”
“Her hospital bills.”
We stare at each other, and I try to decide if I need to apologize for overstepping or…
“Let’s go,” Saint shouts from downstairs.
“He has impeccable timing,” I say with a hesitant smile.
Kade returns it, and I exhale my relief.
He goes to one of the locked boxes next to his clothes.
I hadn’t paid much attention to them, but now he unlocks it with his thumb print and pulls a handgun.
“Here,” he says, holding it out to me.
I take it. The holster and magazine come next, along with a spare one.
I slide the extra magazine into my pocket and load the weapon, checking it over.
It fits nicely in my palm—it doesn’t seem like the kind of gun Kade would own, much less take with him.
“You expecting a firefight?”
“Better than to be unprepared.” He loads his own and attaches the holster to his pants.
They’re the kind that go on the inside of the waistband for concealed carry, and as soon as he pulls at his shirt, it disappears from sight.
“Saint?”
I think I’ve seen him with a gun.
“He’s shot before.”
Kade nods.
We go downstairs, and I finish fiddling with my holster.
I own a similar one, so I’m not unfamiliar with it.
Jace and my brother taught me to shoot when I was sixteen, and the lessons continued until I was able to master large distances with a range of weapons.
“Why do you wake up so violently?” Kade asks.
My chest tightens. “Doesn’t everyone wake up swinging?”
He snorts.
“No.”
“Product of having a volatile family,” I murmur.
Although that’s really only half of it.
The rest comes from trauma.
Saying that seems like a step in the wrong direction, though, and would only open myself up to pity.
Reese knows.
Kade and Saint can treat me like a normal person.
Human .
We get downstairs, and Saint straps his weapon on.
Outside, it’s practically dusk.
I slept for way too long, and I don’t know how to feel about them letting me take the nap…
if it can still be classified as such.
We got here in the morning.
Reese was taken last night.
It’s been almost a full day.
We pile into Kade’s SUV, me in front and Saint taking the backseat.
He slides into the middle to see straight ahead.
“Why did you let me sleep?” I ask in a low voice.
“You needed it,” Kade replies.
“And we were working with my contact to track Gabriel’s car’s movements."
I sit up straighter. “Did you find him?”
“We found where he parked it,” Saint says. “There were some gaps in the footage, and it doesn’t appear like he removed Reese from where it is now.”
“So he stopped, took Reese out of the trunk, then parked his car.” I sigh. “Why can’t it be easy?”
“If it was easy, we could call the sheriff and be done with it,” Kade says.
I feel my hackles rising. “We’re not trusting the sheriff with shit now. You understand that, right?”
He just looks at me.
I get it, in a way. Kade thinks that the sheriff is loyal because he did something for him. But it’s not people Bradshaw is loyal to—it’s the money that Kade paid him. It was proven again and again before my brother and his friends put an end to the war.
Even before the war, the sheriff had his fingers in all the pots.
“Artemis is right,” Saint says. “Brad should be our last resort.”
Kade huffs. “Guy really fuck you over, or something?”
I narrow my eyes. “Yeah, Kade, he has. Not to mention, last night he executed a search warrant of my club. No idea what he was hunting for, but he tied it back to the guy who was murdered and left outside it.”
They both look at me. Kade only briefly, since he’s currently speeding toward West Falls, but Saint’s gaze lingers.
“What?” I mumble.
“You didn’t mention that, is all,” Saint replies.
“We were busy.” I try not to think about the main distraction. Before we realized Reese had been gone for too long. “So, where is his car parked?”
We’ve come down through North Falls into what was formerly called the neutral zone—the gangs didn’t fight in this area, which is comprised of the schools, downtown area, and financial district. There comes a line where downtown becomes West Falls, which was run by the Titans.
I was just here. Day drinking my problems away at Madness.
My skin prickles when Kade turns onto that street, and he rolls to a slow stop in front of the bar.
“Seriously?” I breathe. “You’re joking.”
“Nope.” Kade gazes up at the buildings. In this area of town, it seems like Sterling Falls is falling inward. The buildings all kind of slope together, leaning over the street. The buzz of neon signs—another club opened up down the way, more bars and restaurants, smoke shops and cigar dens—hums on the air, and their color splashes the ground.
I’ve always felt like Sterling Falls was alive, and this part of the city is its teeth.
The gun makes me feel better. Barely.
Kade shuts off his SUV, and we climb out. There are more people around at this time of evening, which isn’t too surprising. People are leaving work, going out to dinner. The sun just set. Later tonight, the more volatile citizens will emerge. But that’s not for us to worry about.
Saint jerks his chin toward a car parked farther down. My lungs stop working, and I grab his wrist. To go check it out or…
“Come on,” Kade says. “He might be watching it.”
Saint nods.
I frown.
We go into Madness.
Half the barstools are filled, as well as some of the tables. Busier than I would’ve guessed. We take seats at the bar, although Saint sits with his back to it. He gazes out at everyone like they’re a threat.
Maybe they are.
I’m sandwiched between Saint and Kade, so close that my arms brush both of theirs. It gives me a modicum of security, surprisingly. Saint watches our backs while Kade flags down the bartender.
He comes over immediately, but he doesn’t smile. No warm welcome. “What’re you having?”
“An old fashioned.” Kade tips his head. “And whatever these two are having.”
I clear my throat. “Um, water.”
“Same,” Saint echoes.
Kade scowls. “Give them what I’m having.”
An old fashioned appears in front of me. I don’t say what I’m thinking—that I’ve had enough whiskey to last at least a year—but I take a sip all the same. Kade does, too.
Saint tosses his back like a shot.
“You heathen,” Kade mutters. “You don’t just gulp down?—”
“I wanted water,” Saint interrupts.
“You stand out in a bar if you just order water.”
Saint raises his eyebrows. “Are we trying to blend in? You didn’t really tell us the plan when we strolled in here.”
Kade snarls. “Seriously? We’re trying to blend in. It’s common sense.”
“You don’t blend in anywhere, outsider,” Saint retaliates.
I put my hands up in front of their faces. “Stop it. Both of you.”
I can only imagine what would happen if I left the two of them alone. They’d probably tear each other’s throats out.
“Saint, calm down and stop riling up Kade.” My gaze switches to the big man on my other side. “And you should be more forthcoming about what we’re doing, since you’re not flying solo anymore.”
He goes still. His dark eyes bore into mine, and I kind of hate how transparent I feel around him.
“Okay,” he finally says. “You’re right.”
Saint scoffs. He leans forward and flags down the bartender. “We’re hoping to speak with Gabriel.”
Kade glares past me.
The bartender hesitates. He’s young, probably in his early twenties, with floppy blond hair and a handsome face. He doesn’t seem like the type to be caught up with the Cyclopes or Gabriel…
Wait.
Are they related? Gabriel and the Cyclopes? I hadn’t considered it. Didn’t really think it was any sort of possibility. But if Gabriel came here, then…
I keep my expression carefully neutral and hope the bartender doesn’t clock my sudden nerves. We’re in West Falls, in an area that has definitely been taken over by Cyclopes. Just because I managed to drink here one morning—yeah, it sounds bad in my head, too—doesn’t mean that I can just come and go.
I’m marked, isn’t that what everyone has been saying?
And they’re not talking about my bike. They’re talking about me.
Twice now, I’ve been attacked. Saint saved me once. I saved myself the first time, which was really more like a warning than anything else.
“Gabriel,” the bartender repeats, his expression freezing in place. Like he isn’t sure what to do with the question and he’s never heard the name before.
Saint stiffens. He nudges me, just the barest graze of his elbow along my ribs. I look at him, and in the peripheral I spot someone rising from their booth. Not just one. The stares of several men burn the back of my neck.
I grip Kade’s knee under the bar.
“If you don’t know…” Kade purses his lips, easily taking over the conversation. “I’ll just go smash up his car while we wait.”
Saint grabs my arm and pulls me from the stool. He drags me into his side just as someone throws a bottle. It sails through the space I just occupied, smashing into the glass behind the bar.
“Oye,” the bartender yells. “Not here!”
Kade swivels around slowly, not even shoving to his feet until someone is right up in his space. The guy punches, and Kade easily evades it by leaning back. He grabs the front of the guy’s shirt and yanks him forward.
Kade’s forehead cracks into the guy’s nose, and he takes the moment of his opponent being stunned to draw him farther forward. And down. The guy’s head rebounds off the lip of the bar, and he falls to Kade’s feet.
“Anyone else?”
There are seven of them.
Big, burly assholes.
They share looks, seeming to get on the same page, and my gut twists.
Saint slowly uncurls his fingers from my arm. He puts some space between us, edging toward the door. I’m not concerned with him leaving us high and dry—I’m not running. I wouldn’t do that to Kade.
And I’m not drawing my gun until he does.
All at once, they charge. One comes for me, two for Saint and two at Kade. Two hang back, but I ignore them as soon as the guy in front of me throws the first punch.
My blood roars to life at the challenge.
I duck, and his arm sails through empty air over my head. I leap forward, into his space, and slam my fist into his gut. He’s one of the younger ones fighting, barely a trace of facial hair on his chin. And he picked me to fight.
He thought he could get off easy, maybe?
Defeat a girl?
I hammer two more punches into his stomach before he manages to shove me away. I dance back and grin at him.
I miss fighting.
It’s been too long since I’ve fought at Olympus. Since before the war, I think… I didn’t want to fight for fun after all the fighting that was for survival.
“Come on, then,” I goad.
He lunges. He’s not a natural fighter, which makes his movements a little hard to predict. He catches me on the jaw once, and my head snaps to the side. That’s all I need to really wake up, and we collide again. Pain echoes down my arm with each hit I drive into his face, and it isn’t until hands grab my arms and haul me up that I realize I’ve been punching an unconscious man.
His face is a bloody mess, barely recognizable anymore.
Saint and Kade have similarly dispatched theirs, and the other two are long gone.
As is the bartender.
Kade grimaces, touching my jaw. “He hit you.”
I lick my lower lip and taste blood. “Only twice.”
He growls. Before I can stop him, Kade pulls his gun and shoots the unconscious man in the head. The bar goes deathly quiet in the wake of the gunshot, and my mouth opens and closes.
Did he seriously just do that?
“You didn’t?—”
“I did.” His voice is clipped. “No one touches you. Let’s go.”
Shit.
Okay, then.
I exchange a look with Saint, whose eyebrows are nearly in his hairline. We follow Kade out and down the street to Gabriel’s car.
He circles to the front and turns away, shooting the glass of the driver’s door. He reaches in and unlocks it, then pops the trunk.
I catch on to his thought fast—that Reese could still be in the trunk.
Dead or alive, I don’t know.
I hurry forward and fling it open the rest of the way, immediately expecting a body.
But the trunk is empty.
“Damn it,” Kade roars. “Where the fuck is he?”
I wish I knew.
“There’s another place.”
We whirl around.
The bartender lingers in the doorway of Madness, his fingers twisting his apron and releasing it, over and over again.
“Another place?” Saint asks. “What are you talking about?”
“Where they meet. Where he feels safe—” He chokes. Blood bubbles out of his mouth, dribbling down his lips.
I start, and Saint moves in front of me. I crane around in time to see him fall forward with a knife protruding out of the back of his throat. One of them inside killed him for talking. What would they have done to us for asking questions?
“We need to get out of here,” Saint says.
“Not without someone to tell us where Reese is.” I squeeze Saint’s arm.
Kade is already nodding his assent, and he moves past me with sure steps. After a long moment, he remerges from the bar dragging an unconscious man behind him. He hauls him over the bartender and to his SUV. Without our help, he pops the trunk and hoists him in.
Saint and I circle around in time to see him taping the guy’s ankles and hands. He places another strip over his mouth.
“Let’s go,” Kade orders.
Holy shit.
Saint and I climb into the car wordlessly, and I can’t help but wonder what the fuck we’re doing.
Besides kidnapping a gang member…
That’s a given.