5. Jackson
Chapter five
Jackson
The gunshot echoes through the open warehouse without any insulation to buffer the sound. I’m sure it can be heard clearly from outside if anyone were walking by, but I’ve already set up a perimeter to be sure I’m alerted if that were the case.
Since Raegan isn’t aware of that, or me, it was a reckless move. A knife could have taken care of the guy just as easily without the noise if she doesn’t have a suppressor for her gun.
My lips twitch to a smirk. None of that matters anymore. It’s concerning that she lived this way for the last five years and could have been caught by either the police or the GE scum, but that’s in the past now. I don’t get hung up on something that’s already passed, and I had no control over.
Now that she’s in my sights again, I’ll be the guardian angel she always should have had.
Though, maybe guardian demon would be more accurate.
I stroke my thumb over the smooth wing of the paper crane I created as she uses wet wipes to clear away any blood or dirt on her skin. The temptation to send the crane down to her fills me with adrenaline at the sweet nostalgia of being able to share something between the two of us again.
“Hi! I’m Raegan, but you can call me Rae. What’s your name?”
The girl smiles up at me where I’m perched on the back of the chair, my shoes sitting on top of the desk. She’s tiny for this age group in the class, and from up here, she looks even smaller compared to me.
The teacher has yet to arrive, so others in the class are congregated in their little cliques as they whisper and gossip about the new kid.
Me.
Little do they know that I can hear them all anyway.
My lips twist into a smirk at that nugget of information that I’ll never share. The look on my face brings on a whole new wave of whispers from my new classmates. Their words are more familiar than anything else here has been since I arrived on the island yesterday.
“He’s so weird…”
“That look gives me the creeps.”
“Why is he on the desk like that?”
“Can you believe he kicked Mikal out of his desk?”
“Who does he think he is?”
Only three others and this girl are staying quiet. I notice that two of them, both of the guys, are watching her interaction with me.
Interesting.
I cock my head at her, as if studying a creature I’ve never seen before and trying to determine if it’s harmless or not. “Don’t you think I’m strange? ”
She mirrors me by tilting her head like mine. It’s a silly move, but I smile at it anyway. “Why would I?” she questions back with a finger to her lips.
I shrug, not willing to give her reasons if she hasn’t found any yet.
My fingers keep folding the square paper even with her interruption. I’ve made these enough times that I could do it with my eyes closed, and it’s become a comfort to keep my hands busy with this instead of using my gift.
But while they’re busy, my mind races.
“I have a question for you, little one.” She doesn’t get upset over the impromptu nickname, which compels me to continue. “Is it better to be feared and left alone, or noticed and used?”
Her nose scrunches as confusion paints her face. “Why are those the only two options? I don’t like either of them.”
My smile sharpens. “Then what are you doing here?”
“What?”
She doesn’t understand. None of them do. I was feared in my foster home. By my foster parents. By my foster siblings and classmates. It meant that I was ignored or talked about behind my back, but I came to accept that.
Until a few days ago when my foster parents sold me to this company.
Who knows what they want with me, but I’m sure it has something to do with the power I have that scared them. Better to give me up and make me someone else’s problem. Getting paid for it probably didn’t hurt them, either.
I’m betting everyone here is a pawn for the company that paid for me like some show horse. Are we just here for show or something more?
The girl tugs at my sleeve, bringing my attention back to her. She doesn’t look frightened when I look at her like others do. She smiles brightly when she has my full attention now.
“What are you making?” She points to the paper in my hands.
I finish the crane in a few more folds, then lift it in the palm of my hand and blow behind it. Once the air is there, I use my gift to guide the lightweight object to her cupped hands that formed as soon as she saw it take flight.
She gasps when she catches it, and I wait for her to say something about my gift.
“It’s so cute! How did you learn to make this? Can you show me? Can you do any other animals? Can I keep it?”
I blink slowly at her while taking in her reaction. The flush of her cheeks as she studies it from different angles with excitement. The rapid words falling from her lips as if she can’t wait to get all of her questions out before taking another breath. The clear blue of her eyes that are wide in amazement.
“Sure.”
Her smile grows as her hands wrap protectively around the paper bird to keep from crushing it. “Thank you…?”
“Jackson. Or, Jack.”
“I love it, Jack! Thank you!”
I made hundreds more origami animals for her after that day, and now I can’t make one without thinking of her. But then, she’ s never been far from my thoughts.
I would gladly share this one with her now, but it’s too soon.
If I’ve learned anything over the last two weeks of watching her, she no longer trusts anyone. Least of all, those of us from her past.
I don’t blame her.
She needs time to process seeing me again and what, or who, she’s already realized will follow. I need to use the time I’ve lured her here for to prove myself to her. The others can do what they want, but this time, I’m not letting her go, no matter what it takes.
Raegan finishes cleaning herself up and leaves out the main door without ever looking up.
People never look up.
I swing forward and push air beneath my feet to help me switch from a sitting to squatting position on the metal bar I’ve been perched on since following her here. I pocket the crane and walk steadily across the one-inch bar to the high window I left unlocked for myself. Even if my body starts to lean to one side, I easily shift the air around me as a buffer to keep myself balanced.
Once I’m outside, I stick to the rooftops as I follow my little one. The buildings are close enough together that it barely takes any of my gift to keep me aloft and complete the jump.
She returns to Hype, where she’d been last night. I wouldn’t trust this type of location for her to be in without someone watching her back, but it’s the nightclub owned by Elias Thorton.
She’ll be safe here.
The monster in me stirs at the thought of Elias touching Raegan, and I let its hunger for violence swell in my chest and spread through my veins like poison. My eyes close, reveling in the darkness as I soak it all in. I won’t hurt Elias, not tonight, because I haven’t even begun to prove myself to Raegan to be worthy of her. But I can feed the monster what it wants to keep it sated for now.
It's time to get back to work.
The guy’s already cold when I get back to the warehouse, even though it’s only been a couple of hours since I left. I should have cleaned him up first and then caught up to follow Raegan, but the thought of her wandering this area of the city, unaccompanied for even ten minutes, didn’t sit right with me.
It was a chance worth taking for her.
If anyone found this place while we were gone, I’d have taken care of them and any trails that led back to her or me.
The cabinet in the corner contains a small portion of my clean-up supplies, so I grab what I need and stalk over to the body. The recruiter scum’s eyes are still wide open, but they’re glazed and empty now.
He deserved far worse than a simple headshot. I’d saved a four-year-old girl from GE’s clutches when I grabbed him. Who knows how many others he’d taken in his time with the company? One little girl out of possible hundreds means this isn’t really a win for our side.
They have so many recruiters that they’ll hardly notice the loss of one .
I’ve taken out enough of them over the years to have slowed their progress substantially but not stopped it.
They’ll never stop so long as those in charge are still there to brainwash and coerce others to join them.
It’s why we’re now aiming for the top.
After we escaped the island, we took some time to adjust back into society. Two years ago, we realized that we may have gotten off the island, but GE was still around. We, and other people with gifts, would always be hunted by them. There are other islands and other gifted people who didn’t get the opportunity we did to escape.
The least we can do is help free them and end this group before they achieve their goal of controlling the world from the shadows by using people like us to do it.
I shove squares of gauze into the holes in the guy’s head and knee to stop the blood that’s now oozing from the wounds. At least I’d gotten some pain out of him before I’d gifted him to Raegan. And now I’ll make him disappear like he’d never existed. No one to miss or mourn him and certainly no one to ever find him.
Gone like ash in the wind.
Stepping back, I wave my hand to send a rush of air beneath him and the chair, then hold it in place to keep them hovering off to the side as I get to work clearing the blood from the concrete.
My special concoction of bleach and corrosive chemicals spills out of the jug I’m holding and over the blood and sweat and whatever other possible evidence might be on the concrete. It bubbles right away, foaming and hissing as it eats away at what it finds in a sound that’s so familiar it makes me smile.
After a good few minutes, it leaves wet concrete in its wake. I dust my second concoction over top in a fine white powder that will absorb any moisture over the next hour before I can sweep and dump it.
With that taken care of, I climb the walls to the metal bars along the underside of the roof and then open the unlocked window. The dead recruiter in his chair follows behind me, floating, as I slip back into the night, moving from rooftop to rooftop further away from the heart of the city.
Once the recruiter has been disposed of, I decide it’s time to return to my brothers.
I barely open the door into our primary apartment, the Loft, before Dane whines, “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
My mouth quirks into a smile as I move further into the room, then plant myself behind where Dane’s seated on the couch and cant my head to the side as I look at him. Most people shrink back with fear when I give them this look, or even just by having my attention trained solely on them, but he’s known me since we were kids and moves back out of righteous indignation rather than fear.
“Jackson. Back the fuck up. You are covered in dirt and blood, and I don’t know what else, and you reek of gasoline and smoke. Why didn’t you stop at the safe house for a shower before coming here? Hell, swim in the lobby’s fountain on your way up for all I care. We don’t bring that shit here.” He twists around on the couch to glare at me while simultaneously adding more space between us.
I shove my hood back off my head, revealing my black hair which is a stark contrast to Dane’s dyed blond hair. The blond is a reminder for himself and to all of us of who we lost. But also proof that he doesn’t know how to move forward from the past.
It’s annoying.
“If we’re dropping the rule for not bringing work back here, then I don’t want to hear shit about cleaning up here after my nights out,” Kellan drawls from further down the couch, his eyes still locked on the video game he and Dane are playing.
I may be covered in shit, but Kellan looks it. His self-care has gone out the window as his brown hair and beard grow wild, and the scent of alcohol wafting from his body is strong enough to taste it on the back of my tongue. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve seen them, and while he’s been riding the self-destructive train for a while now, it looks like he’s recently taken it to the next level.
I’d feel guilty for being gone so long if there was anything I could do about it, but years of trying have proven that the problem can only be fixed by him if he wants it.
And he doesn’t.
Kellan’s avatar dies in the game, and he drops back into the leather couch, his hand fisting around the neck of a bottle of whiskey as he guzzles it down like it’s water. Only after he’s polished it off does he whip out a cigarette and plant it between his lips.
“Oh, hell no.” Dane dives over to snatch it, but Kellan grabs him by the face to hold him back. “You are not smoking in here.”
I look to the high-backed, winged chair where Aiden is sitting exactly where I expected him to be. Rather than watching the spectacle of the other two, his brown eyes are locked on me.
I raise my eyebrows at him in question of what he wants.
“Find anything of value while you were gone?” he asks, still ignoring the ruckus happening on the couch just feet away from us. It sounds like Dane tried using his gift to stop Kellan, but the guy runs and participates in fight clubs as a hobby. Dane doesn’t have a chance against him.
The second I smell cigarette smoke, Aiden’s eyes snap over to them. “Take it outside, Kell.”
Kellan chuckles and stands, taking a deep drag from the cigarette and then exhaling it at Dane. “Calm down, Rapunzel. You know I’d never stink up your tower.” He stumbles toward the balcony and shoves the door open, then collapses into the chair out there.
Dane’s jaw ticks while watching him, then he pins his glare on Aiden. “I’m taking his gift and stabbing him next time he does that.”
My face remains blank when I look back to Aiden. I hadn’t realized things were getting this bad between us. There was a moment when we all came together, and it seemed like we would be okay, but the past year has shown me that isn’t the case. We were like broken pieces of glass. We fit together, but it was unstable. Just as easy to cut each other than it is to line up all of our jagged edges.
We were missing the glue that kept us together.
Raegan.
I finally answer Aiden. “There’s a gala happening on the twelfth at Reynard. Only Gifted Enterprise employees are in attendance, aside from the invited donors to their cause. There’s a hefty buy-in to attend and then a silent auction to support different research or specific kids.”
I have everyone’s attention now. Even Kellan’s, whose gaze I can feel through the open balcony door.
Dane nods sharply, back to business. “Right. I’ll get you an invite, Aiden.” He gets up from the couch and moves to his workstation, where he spends ninety percent of his time. It’s a long, L-shaped desk with three rows of three monitors, each curved in front of him. He taps away at the keyboard a mile a minute.
“It’s black tie formal, and you’ll need a mask,” he calls out once he has Aiden’s invite up on the screen.
“Probably to protect their own identities, but it works out for us too,” Aiden muses, his thumb and forefinger rubbing at the light brown stubble along his jaw. “We’ll do the usual. Dane on overwatch and Kellan on standby outside.”
I nod and move past them toward the hallway that’ll lead to my room now that my message has been delivered. That’s my job, pulling information and then taking out the trash. The other three handle the rest from there.
It’s a process that Aiden put in place once we started working together to take down GE and got the resources to make that happen. Getting this building, a stockpile of money, and different revenue streams allowed us to focus on helping others and trying to work our way up the chain of Gifted Enterprise personnel. Seeing Raegan broke and on her own is a reminder of where we could have been if not for a lucky break and Aiden’s overachiever business sense.
I flex my hands to soothe the building frenetic energy tingling beneath my skin. I need to rest so I can get back to helping her.
“Wait.” I stop just before the hall at Aiden’s voice. “Don’t you have something else to share with us?”
My lips twitch upward. Nosey bastard. Of course, he knows. How he knows and Dane doesn’t is a surprise, though. I turn on my heel to face the room again and shrug, but the smirk stays on my face. “Not particularly.”
It’d be better to give myself more time with Raegan before the others find out about her. But Aiden, being the control freak he is, can’t stand me keeping this secret from the rest of the group.
“Who broke into our safe house the other night, Jack?” he presses on, his forehead furrowed with frustration that I’m not just coming out with it.
“No one broke in.”
Aiden pins me with a look. I’ve known him since childhood, so I’m immune to it. I hold his gaze, my smirk widening as he struggles with maintaining his control beneath the fa?ade he wears. “Fine. Who did you let into our safe house?” He breaks first, and now my smirk is a full-blown, maniacal grin that’s as much mirth as it is a baring of teeth.
“Raegan.”
There’s a crash and the sound of glass shattering, followed by Dane swearing up a storm. Kellan’s back in the room, cigarette dangling from his open mouth in shock. And then there’s Aiden, still sitting in his fancy chair and staring at me as if he’s waiting for me to spill all of my secrets to him.
He should know me better than that.
I start to turn away from them and pause again when Aiden speaks. “Is that it? You’re not even going to share what happened or why she just so happens to be in this city?”
“No.” My gaze alternates between the three of them, then lingers on Dane a bit longer. He’s taking deep breaths, and his hands are clenched in his hair.
“What the fuck, Jackson?” Kellan finally spits out. He throws his cigarette out the open balcony door and storms up to me, fisting my hoodie. I can’t help that the grin is still there, even if I can see that it’s pissing the others off. As much as this news upsets them, it’s what I’ve been waiting five years for, and I’m excited as hell about it. Nothing they say or do will change that.
There hasn’t been a day since getting off the island that I haven’t searched for her.
I know there’s more to the story with Vera, but the staff never gave us a chance to talk again after we found out. And then the island was destroyed and we were forced to escape before I could find her.
“What do you want me to say?”
Dane’s voice cuts in before Kellan can respond. “Get rid of her.” His voice is low and dark but fierce in his resolve.
The darkness in me rears up in defiance at the threat toward her, and my body stiffens. It’s a sign only my brothers recognize as me preparing to strike when I’m angry, and Kellan’s grip on me tightens. “Don’t,” he warns under his breath so only I can hear him. But it doesn’t matter because no one threatens Raegan around me .
The knives under my hoodie are out and in my hands in seconds. Kellan shoves his body against mine until the blades sink into him to keep me from sending them at Dane. He grunts from the pain but doesn’t budge, keeping me pinned against the wall and gripping my wrists, so I can’t pull the knives out or go for more. It’s a painful trick, but effective, as his gift will heal him anyway.
“He's right. She could still be working for GE and may be looking for Dane. We just need her to leave this city without finding out he’s here,” Aiden reasons, like Dane’s comment was merely saying to kick her out of town.
We all know he meant killing her.
I’ll have to keep an eye on him as well now to make sure he doesn’t go rogue in his personal vendetta if he’s already prepared to kill her.
“That’s not—” Dane starts, but Aiden cuts him off.
“No one is killing her, Dane. As long as she’s not in our city, we agreed to leave her alone.”
Dane jumps to his feet. “But she’s in this city now! Why are you still defending her? She’s one of them!”
“Are you telling me you’d have no problem hurting her? Even after everything we’d all been through?” Aiden asks slowly.
“Everything on that island was a lie. She wasn’t real ! You’re protecting the memory of a girl who never existed in the first place,” he snaps back coldly.
Kellan’s hands tighten on my wrists. I don’t think he realizes he’s done it. It’s an involuntary reaction to what Dane’s saying that speaks volumes to where he stands.
“What if she’s here to kill one of us next?” Dane adds angrily. “She was willing to kill my sister, after all.”
Aiden’s tone is firm when he answers without hesitation, “Then, I’ll handle it.”
I already know none of that is true. She looked ready to run when she saw me. And she killed the GE recruiter instead of saving him. I’d bet she’s been fighting them all this time like we have.
I don’t bother saying anything when their minds are already made up. I’m going to find out why she killed Vera on the island and what happened in the years since then. I doubt they’ll listen until I have that.
There’s a stretch of silence where I’m sure there’s a stare-down happening between them, but Kellan’s bulky frame blocks my view.
Dane makes a noise of frustration and drops back onto the couch.
Aiden picks up where he left off. “Jackson, will you be able to handle getting her to leave, or do I need to do it?”
I know he's hoping to keep it a secret that the rest of us are here, but he also knows how obsessed I’ve been with her since we were kids. All of us wanted her back then, and we each fought for her attention in different ways.
I'm the only one who never let go.
Kellan looks at me, and I can see the conflicting emotions battling in his eyes before he locks it down to his default devil-may-care attitude. I shove at him, driving the blades further into him to get him to back off of me, but he just grins at me. “Or maybe I should do it?”
Prick.
As if I would risk them actually scaring her away when I just found her.
I smirk at him. “I’ll talk to her. Now. Get. Off.”
He pulls back, and the knives, which are still in my grip, slide out of him. I wipe them on my hoodie and slip them back into place. His wounds are already healing and turning a hard gold when I move past him and the others to the balcony. I start my controlled descent from balcony to balcony until I can make it to the roof of the nearest building.
There’s no chance of me hanging around the Loft now that Raegan’s name has been dropped, so I’ll have to go to the safe house for a shower and change of clothes before I check in on her again.
Not to threaten her away from the city like they want. Little do they know I brought her here, though I’m sure Aiden suspects it. He thinks time and what happened on the island may have changed my mind about her. I haven’t spoken a word about her since we left the island to give him a reason to believe otherwise, but the idea of me growing out of my obsession is laughable. It’s stronger than ever with the years lost between us that I need to catch up on like I need air to breathe.
At least tonight confirmed that Aiden doesn’t want to hurt her, even if Dane does. My little one won’t be scared away by Aiden or Kellan if she has a mission in this city, so their threats mean nothing so long as Dane is left out of it.
I just need to earn her trust before then.