Chapter Twelve
Beckham and Reyna were off of Roland’s radar by the time Philippé and Katarina sprinted toward them.
“We received your distress call,” Katarina got out. She was actually breathing a little heavy. “Why do you not seem in distress?”
Beckham’s eyes moved to Reyna. She shrugged one shoulder. They had been in distress when she’d made the call.
“I had it covered.”
Reyna rolled her eyes. “Well, when Roland had you against the brick wall by the throat, I wasn’t so sure.”
“Roland was here?” Katarina gasped. “And you were alone.”
“I can handle Roland.”
“Right. What did he want?”
“We’ll discuss it later.”
Katarina fell into step beside them and Philippé took the rear. “So is he still smoking hot?”
Reyna’s head whipped to the side. “He’s disgusting.”
“Well, yeah. I was kind of into that for a while.”
“Katarina has interesting sexual tastes,” Beckham said with a smirk.
“What can I say? I like the kink.”
Reyna laughed. “I’m going to assume that you don’t know this from personal experience.”
“Beckham’s walked in on me tied up a time or two,” Katarina said with a wink.
“Can we get back to business?” Beckham said.
“Right. The spy’s place was secure. We’d never even tracked it.”
“So, like, is that what you do for Beckham?” Reyna asked. “Have you always been working behind the scenes?”
“Pretty much,” Kat said. “Gerard and Philippé worked for Beckham in public, and Zoya and I did the things other people couldn’t see.”
“Like a spy.”
Kat shrugged. “You could say that. We’re a tight-knit group.” She turned back to Beckham. “Anyway, I thought it might be that zealot group we’d had on our radar for a while, but it wasn’t. This is an all-new thing. They use the tunnel systems to get around. Clever.”
“Your assessment of the premises?”
“Secure,” Philippé said from behind them.
Katarina agreed.
“Are they dangerous?” Beckham asked.
“Not in the least. Besides the stink-eye we got, they seem to want to be left alone. They’re kind of doomsdayers. Stockpiles of enough shit to sustain a nuclear attack or, you know, vampiric control of the country. Whichever came first. Right now, feels like a coin toss.”
“It keeps getting better.”
“But can they house us?” Reyna asked.
“Oh yeah. They can probably house two hundred in a pinch. They agreed to let our people stay there as long as there were no vampires.” Kat rolled her eyes to show what she thought of that.
They all stopped in front of the SUV. Reyna wrapped her pinky around Beckham’s. He squeezed gently.
“This sounds like our best bet,” Reyna said.
“Kat? Philippé?” Beckham looked at them with full trust in his eyes.
She could feel the bond between them that had been shaped, molded, fired, and glazed over the years.
Made from soft clay into a beautiful work of art that fire only solidified.
She wondered what they had done to earn that sort of trust.
“I agree with Reyna,” Katarina said. “The place is secure. We didn’t know about it, so Harrington likely doesn’t know about it either. It’s better than the mansion.”
Philippé grunted. Reyna supposed that was a confirmation.
“Okay.”
And just like that Beckham was in on the plan to move the remaining members of Elle to the anti-vamp prepper facilities.
They spent much of the rest of the day moving people.
Meghan and Tye had checked out two other safe houses Zoya had discovered while they were gone and found another five people in one location, but everyone at the other had been killed.
Once everyone was finally settled, Reyna and Beckham followed them into the subterranean headquarters. Everett wore a smug look when he saw her.
“Stop that,” she spat.
He crossed his arms. “Look, I held up my end of the bargain.”
“There was no bargain.”
“Oh right, that was in my head. I want to go to Visage and see if my brother is alive. And I want the help of someone who has been there.” He snapped his fingers. “That’s you. That’s my bargain.”
Reyna pinched the bridge of her nose. “We don’t have the manpower or resources to break into Visage. How do you expect us to do that?”
“I’m a spy, Reyna. I can get us inside. But you know how to get around. You know where people are kept.”
“I was a prisoner,” she reminded him. “I didn’t go out on strolls.”
“Someone got you out, which means you have floor plans. Just think, you can make this altruistic, if you like. We can get everyone out of there. Even better, we can broadcast it and put a dent in Visage’s credibility.”
Reyna hated to admit that it was a good idea.
But it was. She wanted to save the people who were like Jodie and had been under Visage almost all of their lives.
The ones like her, who Harrington had used to feed from or experiment on.
The ones like Beckham’s sister, Bronwyn, and Everett’s brother, Edmond, who Visage had kept for collateral.
“Let me think on it. We can’t do anything until after the snow clears anyway.”
Everett put his hand on her shoulder. She flinched and pulled away. Sadness crinkled his eyes for a split second before he covered it up. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. You know, for everything.”
“I don’t trust you, Everett. This is a huge step for me. I really think you’re going to fuck this up. But do me a favor, okay?”
He looked at her warily. “What’s that?”
“Prove me wrong.”
She moved away from Everett, careful to avoid his friends, and went back to Drew’s side. “Are you ready to go?”
“Go?” he asked.
“You and Laura can come back with us.”
Drew sighed. “As much as I’d like to do that, Rey, I feel like I should stay here. I don’t trust Everett farther than I can throw him and someone needs to be here to lead these people.”
She swallowed around a knot in her throat. “Right. That makes perfect sense.” Sometimes she wanted to be that little girl who threw herself into her brother’s arms and let her cares fall away. But they both needed to lead this rebellion if it had any hope of getting legs again. “I’ll miss you.”
“Always, Rey.” He drew her in for a hug and whispered into her ear, “We need to figure out what happened to Brian. The not knowing is killing her.”
Reyna nodded. “I know.”
“The stress is bad for the baby.”
“How are you holding up?”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Drew,” she muttered. He’d always been the softer of her two brothers, trying so hard to be more like Brian, but it never took. “Gregory is gone. I know how devastating that is. I thought Becks was gone and it nearly destroyed me.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Rey. Let’s think about Laura, okay? I have to take care of her. Brian would want me to do that.”
Reyna nodded sadly. Burying yourself in work, in a mission, in everything except the grief was a thousand times easier than facing it.
She saw resolve on his face. Grieve when the war was over. She hoped one day they would be able to live the life they’d always wanted. And not just endure the hardships they stumbled into.
…
By the time they returned to Washington’s mansion, the roads were nearly impassable.
The snow hadn’t stalled even for a minute, and the forecast read white for days.
A blizzard had struck and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.
The ragged group reluctantly left the heated vehicles they’d abandoned to Washington’s garage and hurried through the rapidly building snowdrifts back to the nineteenth-century mansion.
Reyna shivered even when she was inside. A place this old didn’t trap heat in the same way as modern houses. There were strange, chilly drafts. The massive fireplaces were built high to try to combat the heating problems that a house of this size had.
“This is an icebox,” she murmured as she put her hands up to the fireplace. “Maybe we should have stayed in the city.”
Beckham kissed her forehead and retreated upstairs. The rest of his inner circle followed him. Reyna almost headed after them, but one, she was too cold, and two, even though she and Becks were a team he enjoyed his privacy. They were his people. Not hers. Not yet.
The door to the basement creaked open and Jodie appeared, dashing across the sitting room. She threw her arms around Reyna. “Thank fuck you’re back.”
Reyna laughed. “Miss me?”
“A day felt like an eternity in this house with nothing but vamps and Gabe as a shadow.” Jodie gave her a pointed look.
“Better to be safe than sorry.”
“If you leave me with him again when he’s feverish to be out with y’all, I might have to kill you.”
“Seems fair.”
Jodie sobered. “Tye radioed in when he got close enough. I heard what happened at the other safe houses.”
“Yeah.”
Reyna didn’t want to think about that. Those bodies. All that blood. The message. She shivered and it had nothing to do with the cold. No, she definitely didn’t want to relive that memory anytime soon. Harrington had done this on purpose and with her in mind.
“Stop that,” Jodie ordered.
“What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. I know you well enough to know when you’re blaming yourself.”
“Did Tye tell you about the message?”
“Yes. Harrington’s toying with you. It’s what he does. You know that.”
“I do. But it doesn’t change how I feel about it, Jodie.”
“If anyone knows that, I do. I fucking had blood drawn today while you were gone.”
“I know. I know.”
“I’m tired of Harrington messing with us. He wants us to fall apart. We’re not going to, okay?”
“You’re right.”
“Plus, Zoya said she’d help me find June.”
Reyna’s eye lit up. “She did?”
“Yep. She said she could take a look for me after she breaks through the last code for the final safe houses.”
“That’s great. I’m sorry I didn’t think to help before this. There was so much going on…”
“Hey, whatever,” Jodie said. She waved her hand dismissively. “You’ve got a lot on your mind. Like vamp boyfriend coming back to life, leading the rebellion, and I don’t know, taking out Harrington?”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Speaking of, how’s vamp boyfriend?” Jodie waggled her eyebrows up and down. “He biting you? There better be some awesome sex.”
“You are ridiculous.”
“Come on. Don’t hide the details. A girl is starving for sex here. Feed me.”
Reyna pushed her gently. “There’s sex. It’s awesome. There may be some biting.”
“Girl, yes.”
Gabe walked into the sitting room. “What’s all the excitement over? I thought we were in a sad state of affairs because we have to trust that motherfucker Everett.”
Reyna blushed and turned her bright red face away from Gabe. Jodie laughed hysterically.
“What the hell did I walk into?” Gabe sank into an overstuffed brown leather chair. His dark red hair had been combed messily and his bright green eyes shined when he looked at the pair.
“Reyna telling me saucy stories,” Jodie teased.
“Well, don’t stop because I’m here.”
“I’m pretty sure a certain vampire might kill you.”
“I could take him.”
Reyna arched an eyebrow.
“Okay, fine,” Gabe said, looking sullen. “Let’s get back on topic. Everett?”
“I know,” Reyna said with a sigh.
“You trust him?”
“Of course I don’t trust him.”
“Yeah, get off her case,” Jodie chipped in. She plopped down next to Gabe and punched him on the shoulder. “She’s doing the best that she can. Give her a break.”
“It’s a huge risk. The only thing we know about this guy is that he’s a spy. He turned you in to Visage. How do we know he won’t do that to the rest of Elle?”
“We don’t. But his brother is inside Visage, and he wants to work with us to get him out. To break everyone out. That’s also something I want. As long as we have mutual interests, I think he’s going to work with us. And really, what other choice did we have?”
“I trust you. It was a tough call, but we’re in a tough situation.”
“I’m hoping for the best.”
“Me too.”
Reyna pushed away from the fireplace. “I’ll see you guys in the morning, once I’ve slept a solid twelve hours and washed this day off of me.”
“Hey,” Gabe said.
She glanced back at him.
“We believe in you, you know?”
She nodded. That was what worried her.
Reyna trudged up the flight of stairs and headed to her bedroom. But when she entered, it was clear that Beckham was holding court within their quarters.
She froze on the threshold. Barging into the room and acting like they owed her anything would never be the right move.
Reyna met Beckham’s gaze head-on. She tilted her chin up.
She read the thoughts forming on his blank face.
Ones she was sure only she could see. Things that said he was quite content for everyone else to get the fuck out right the fuck now.
“Let’s reconvene in the morning,” Beckham said. He nodded once at Gerard, who pulled out a phone and left.
Reyna hastily moved out of his way and into the room. The rest of Beckham’s inner circle followed Gerard. Katarina winked at her as she closed the door.
Even though they were all gone, the tension didn’t dissipate. He was the king of his people, and she was the queen of hers. Could two rulers come together like this? Trust each other? Not leave the other in the dark?
She felt at his mercy. He knew all of her thoughts, feelings, and actions. She hid nothing from him, least of all her heart. And sometimes she felt like he kept so much back. So much that was left unsaid.
“Come here,” Beckham said.
She stepped across the room to him. He pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and let the dark strands fall loose around her shoulders. He tilted her chin up. Their eyes locked. His endless obsidian orbs swallowing her whole.
“You did good today.”
She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Then why do I feel so horrible?”
“Because trusting your enemy and seeing the death of your people is never easy. It shouldn’t be.
You should feel this, Little One.” He ran his thumb across her bottom lip.
“I spent countless years not feeling anything at all. A part of me knew that I should feel something for what I had done. For the wrongs I had committed. But I felt nothing. Feeling what you are feeling, feeling something is human. It is real. Do not wish it away. Get up, accept the pain, and keep moving forward. That is all you can do.”
Then he covered her lips with his and there was no more talking that night.