by J B Cantwell
I tried to think of a way out. This wasn’t even about the Champions anymore. It was about me getting as far away from Damien as I could. And fast.
I had two options. Friendly. Or not friendly.
“Listen,” I said. “I don’t know who you think I am, but you’re mistaken in any case.”
“Oh, I’m not mistaken. I’d kill you right now if I thought I could survive a fight against your benefactor, whoever he is. You’re protected. For now.”
His lips were still caressing my neck, like some sort of twisted vampire. I expected a bite at any time.
But he had it wrong. I lifted up my leg and smashed my stiletto heel down on top of his foot.
He immediately released me, and I pushed him farther away for good measure.
His face became a snarl, and I half expected him to pull a gun on me, or at least throw a slap my way. But then I remembered the metal detector downstairs. I was relatively certain he wasn’t armed.
Still.
Dangerous.
I stuck my nose up in the air and turned away. Wasn’t that what Janeen would’ve had me do? But he grabbed onto my elbow and thrust me back to him.
“You insolent little bitch,” he spat. “You’re making a huge mistake right now. One that you’ll regret. If you think your Volunteers are safe, you’re wrong. I may not be able to get to you, but I’ll have no trouble finding them.”
A waiter was passing by with a tray of champagne. I grabbed one of the glasses with my one spare hand and threw it in his face.
“Leave me alone,” I warned.
The crowd around us gave a low rumble of mockery, with Damien as their target.
I guess I’m not the only one he’s done this to. Just like Grant said.
I was suddenly sure that I would find protection if I needed it. But as I turned to go, I caught a glimpse of Valle’s face, and it made my blood run cold.
He was laughing as if he’d never seen anything so funny.
I wished I had a second glass to throw at him.
“Miss Page, are you alright?” Albert asked me minutes later.
“I need to get out of here,” I said.
I didn’t wait for him to open the car door for me. I wrenched it open and climbed inside.
“Let’s go,” I said, slamming it shut and locking it behind me.
I was fully expecting Damien to be hot on my heels, but nobody was coming. It was only eleven; the party would surely continue into the early hours of the morning.
I might’ve laughed at what I’d done, the look on his face just after I’d thrown the drink. But I was so shaken, I didn’t see the humor in any of it. He’d gotten too close to the truth, and I wondered how much more he might actually know.
Albert got into the limo and hit the gas.
I leaned back against the seat, but I was having trouble breathing, drunk as well as tied tightly into my gown. I reached behind my back and unzipped it. Then, I bent down and ripped off my heels. I leaned over, my hand on my chest, gasping for air.
“Go faster,” I got out.
“You got it,” he said. “Hang on.”
Moments later we were racing through the city. Several people were out, but Albert ran lights and skidded around several corners before slowing down again.
“I think we’re away,” he said through the open interior window. “Nobody followed us. Where should we go? I’m happy to take you anywhere you like.”
Suddenly, I felt desperate to get home, to see my mother, or even Jim. But that wouldn’t help anything. I wondered if she would even recognize me. I wondered about Melanie and the group. Were they safe? Were they still at the school? Damien said that he knew where they were, but was that actually true?
I wished in that moment that they were still plugged into the lens system. I couldn’t think of any other way to get in touch with them, to find their hiding spot. Messaging my mom was out, too. She was surely being monitored. People were on the hunt for me. It seemed like everyone.
For the first time since waking up in the hospital, I felt a great debt of gratitude to Chambers. Not only had he saved my life, but he had truly constructed the best possible hiding place for me, and I didn’t even need to go anywhere to access it.
Without him, I was truly alone. I wracked my mind trying to think of someone who could help. Someone who knew where my Volunteers were. Or where Chambers was. Alex. Any of them.
And then it occurred to me.
Jonathan.
Contacting him would be difficult, dangerous, and downright stupid if I went about it the wrong way. And whom could I trust? Even Jonathan I wasn’t sure about. His loyalties were only promised in exchange for payment these days. He might have traded sides as soon as he saw that Chambers was arrested.
I looked up toward the driver’s seat.
“Albert, pull over.”
He did as I asked, and as soon as the limo stopped moving, I climbed up to the front until I was right behind him.
“Albert, I need a favor,” I said.
“Of course, Miss Page,” he said, turning around. “What can I do for you?”
I took a deep breath.
“What I’m going to ask you to do will be dangerous for both of us. But I need your help. And you know I have unlimited financial resources at my disposal.”
He smiled and shook his head.
“Miss Page, there’s no need—”
“Yes, there is,” I insisted. “I’ll pay you what you make in a year if you do this for me. The money doesn’t matter to me, and I’m very, very rich. You’ll be risking your life.”
He frowned.
“My life?”
I nodded.
“Yes. Do you have a family?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“A wife? A lover?”
“No.”
“Good. No strings.”
He shrugged.
“If you get caught, tell them the truth. That I paid you to do it. Tell them my name, where I live, everything. Give me away completely. Do you understand?”
“Who’s going to catch me?” he asked.
This was a difficult question.
“It doesn’t really matter. There are too many people to count.”
“Sounds crazy.”
“It is. What I’m paying you for is your discretion. If you’ve got someone with a gun to your head, by all means, tell them whatever they want to know. But unless you get to that point, I need you to stay quiet, no matter what you see or hear either on the news or just on the street. Do you understand?”
“I’m with you, Miss Page,” he said. “Whatever you need.”
I took a deep breath.
“My name is not Miss Page, Albert.”
He turned around in his seat and looked me in the eye.
“My name is not Albert, Miss Page.”
I let the breath I had been holding go, and I smiled.
Go figure.
Chapter Eleven
“I want them out of there,” I said.
Jonathan smirked at me, arms crossed.
“Why should I?”
“You know, I never liked you,” I said.
He looked at me, confused.
“What will it take to get them out?” I asked.
“You mean for me to warn them? Or for me to handle the whole operation?”
I sat back into the cushions of the limousine and crossed one long leg over the other. I had to pretend that I was in control, that I wasn’t nervous at all. That, in fact, I had these sorts of dealings all the time.
His eyes slid from my knee to my ankle.
“You know, you play rough,” I said. “But the truth is, the probability is, that you don’t have anywhere else to go for your pay. Chambers was the end of the line for you, and now he’s gone. You’ve already burned the Champions. The Service would never take you. Even the Guard would figure you out. So maybe you can cut the attitude.”
He faltered, but just for the
quickest moment.
“So. It’s not like you have me over the barrel of a gun,” he said. “It’s not like I’m left with nothing. And I’ve got a million pieces of evidence against Chambers. You say I’ve got nothing, but—“
“Oh, just shut up. Either you want the money or you don’t. But I swear to you, if you do me wrong, you’ll regret it for the rest of your short life.”
“Who are you?” he asked.
I laughed. It was just too funny not to.
Albert had contacted him for me through his lens. We were riding around uptown, Jonathan in the back of the limo with me.
And he had no idea who I was.
Chambers and his perfect disguise.
“I mean, I know who he is.”
This made me laugh even harder. Maybe it was the champagne.
“I’ll give you fifty thousand to find them, warn them, and move them out. Then, once I see that they’re safe, another fifty.”
His eyes were wide, surprised. He opened his mouth, presumably to try to bargain with me. I put up one finger to shut him up.
“This is the only time you’ll find an offer like this. If I find out that anything, anything happened to them, I will find you and kill you myself.”
He sat back in his seat, looking smug.
“What makes you think—”
“Albert,” I called.
“Yes?”
“Pull over, please.”
“As you wish.”
“As soon as I kick you out of this car, Albert will transfer the fifty to your account. I’ll have eyes on you, so don’t hesitate. Once they’re moved, I want a meeting with Melanie, the leader. You can contact Albert to set it up. Once I have contact with her, and I know they’re safe, he’ll send you the other fifty. Now get out of my sight.”
I opened the door and sat back against the cushions.
He gave me one last glance, opened his mouth to speak, but then he thought the better of it and climbed out of the limousine.
“You’ve got until tomorrow night. Tell Melanie to meet me at the building where she met Jay. She’ll know where to go.”
I slammed the door in his face.
“Albert,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I like the way you operate, Page,” he said as he hit the gas.
“Likewise.”
The day dawned too early for my liking. The sunlight came in through the bedroom window, but it was too bright. My head was pounding, and I had a sudden urge to throw up.
I rolled out of bed and ran for the toilet, but the only thing that came up was white liquor and champagne. I hadn’t had a bite to eat since early the day before. I’d been running on pure alcohol since the party had started.
I became vaguely aware that I was still in my party dress. The zipper was down and my shoes were gone.
What had happened?
Before I had a chance to even ponder the events of the night before, I heard the front door to the apartment slam. High heels echoed off the wood floors, and a moment later I found myself face to face with Janeen.
“You fool,” she said. “I can’t believe your behavior.”
“My behavior?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said as I heaved again. “Damien Ross is not one to be messed with.”
“I just thought it was you I wasn’t supposed to mess with.”
This statement did nothing to appease her foul mood.
“In any case, you failed. You could have been arrested for what you did to Damien. Do you know that? He could have called in on you and—”
Oh, yeah. Damien.
“He had me in a vice grip with his hand on my back end. What was I supposed to do? Besides, everyone there thought it was warranted, I can tell you that.”
Her heels clicked on the tile of the bathroom floor, and she pulled my head back from the toilet bowl by the hair.
“You will never behave that way again. Do you understand me? You risked all with your little show last night.”
“Yeah?” I asked, gripping onto her hand and squeezing it hard until she let go. “Because it seems to me that I did things just right. I made contact with the target, I kept him amused, and I told off one of the benefactors after he fondled me in front of the whole party. I think my behavior was quite warranted.”
I spit into the toilet, then got on all fours and crawled my way back to the bedroom. She followed behind me, and I could tell it was taking some effort for her not to kick me as I made my way up and back into bed.
The dress had gone from beautiful and soft to crumpled and scratchy, and as soon as I was sitting up on the bed, I peeled it off me. I wasn’t shy about nudity in front of Janeen; she’d made it clear that I belonged to her in that right. She could take control over what I looked like, over my manners, even, but she couldn’t control who I was on the inside. And that person wasn’t Audrey.
I flopped back down on the bed, naked but for my lingerie. I was getting sort of used to it. It reminded me of a corset women might have worn a couple hundred year ago, but that fact didn’t make me feel bad; it made me feel propped up when all I wanted to do was slouch. I sat up straight, kind of like Janeen.
“I have bad news for you,” she said as I was crawling under the covers.
What now?
“There have been arrests made in recent days.”
“Yes,” I said, sitting up on one elbow. “I saw Chambers and Jess on the news.”
“That’s not the arrest I’m talking about.”
She came over and sat down on the bed next to me. As much as I feared Janeen and her drills, her heels, her life of pretend, I couldn’t think of a time I’d felt so much trepidation before.
“What?” I asked, my voice soft.
But I knew what. There were only two people in the world that I cared about. Really cared about. The only question was which of them had been taken?
But I thought I knew.
“Mom,” I said.
Janeen looked surprised for a moment at my guess, but she ultimately put one hand over mine. I pulled it away.
Janeen was no mother. Not to me.
“Who?” I asked.
“The Champions.”
My stomach sank, and I thought I might be sick again. I remembered the cruelty Kiyah had suffered at their hands, an ultimately sadistic and drawn out death. Would it be the same for my mother?
Suddenly, I realized the stupidity of my trick with the drink the night before.
“When?” I asked.
“Late last night.”
My fault.
“How can I get to her?”
But I already knew the answer. It was the one man whom I’d insulted in public, whom I’d denied front of a whole room of his peers.
I might’ve given up then, but instead I sat up in bed and began to undress.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Getting ready,” I said.
“For what?”
“For the fight of my life.”
But Mom wasn’t the only one missing. The next thing Janeen had said wasn’t about Mom and Jim, but about Alex. Before Chambers had been arrested, he’d lost track of Alex. He was no longer a prisoner of the Service, or, at least, he was more deeply hidden now then we’d ever expected him to be.
He would be close to impossible to find. And it wasn’t like he was a prisoner some idiot like Jonathan could find. He would be protected, perhaps more so than any other.
I wondered what exactly the Service wanted with him, anyway. They’d grown him so much and so many times, his brain was probably mush by now.
I held out hope, though. We had always been able to find each other in the past, like two magnets drawn together, stronger than the forces of gravity that held us apart.
My heart ached when I remembered the pictures of him lying in bed, comatose. Was that who he was now? Or was the whole thing nothing more than a farce? Maybe they’d knocked him out or given him some powerful drugs to keep him sedated. It
wasn’t impossible.
Either way, I was forced to deal with this situation virtually on my own. Chambers gone. Kiyah gone. Even the girl, Jess; she had been taken on the same night as Chambers. I wondered what the charges were. Thinking outside the box, maybe? Planning to attack the government? That was certain to land you with severe punishment. Torture. The Burn. Even death.
The abduction of Chambers was, however, the biggest blow. He had been my main conduit to Alex, the one who had set me up with this apartment, with Janeen. Did his disappearance mean that I needed to go back on the run again?
No. I still had that new chip, taken from some dead woman from who-knew-where.
But the money that was tied to her name might be something else entirely. Had they murdered her? Or moved her? Stolen her vast wealth?
It occurred to me that maybe they had even swayed her to our side. Maybe she had given it all up willingly. Unlikely, but possible, and a much nicer thought than murder.
Chambers had told me not too long ago that the benefactor to the Volunteers had disappeared, low on money and in danger. Audrey would be new to the scene. Or at least her money was new. I couldn’t imagine why she would’ve left her life without it.
And now, me. Hadn’t this all been my dream for nearly my whole life? I’d always coveted riches, believing that the money would secure my way out of the slums, that it would solve everything.
But now, the experience had been quite different. Would I give all this money, this apartment, the clothes, the parties, all of it up to just have Alex back again?
Of course. No hesitation. Absolutely.
So maybe Audrey had left it for love.
But who was I to make those judgements? Just a kid from Brooklyn trying to play with the big boys.
And that brought me back around to Damien, the slime bucket from last night. Damien. He had me over the barrel of a gun, and he knew it.
At least, he thought he did. What he didn’t know was that I had already lost it all, more times than I could count. Alex dead. Alex alive. Alex abducted. Alex comatose.
I didn’t fool myself into thinking I could rescue him from whatever peril he was in now. Just like he wouldn’t have been able to rescue me. He could try, yes. But he and I both knew that we were stuck like rats in traps. The best we could do for each other now was to rescue ourselves. Someday, we would come together again, maybe when all of this was over. Love would find us.