Torn (A Wicked Trilogy Book 2)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  Ren had been different, too.

  He was friendly and warm, but he also had wanted to get in my pants from the moment he saw me, and that was straight from the horse’s mouth, so . . .

  “Why is the gift shop closed?” I asked.

  “Jerome came down with a cold and David didn’t see the point of bringing anyone down for this,” Dylan explained. That made sense. There weren’t a lot of retired Order members around these parts who would want to come in and deal with the public.

  “Glad to hear he’s otherwise okay.” I glanced into the dim shop. A few fake skulls sat on a stack of praline boxes.

  “You were worried about that old coot?” Dylan laughed. “He’s going to outlive a nuclear war.”

  My lips twitched. “Probably. So, what are you doing out here?”

  “Fae know our location now since that bitch led the prince here.” Dylan propped a booted foot against the wall. “The door has to be guarded.”

  I wanted to point out that one Order member probably wouldn’t be able to stop an ancient, but figured that wouldn’t win me any friends. “Makes sense,” I murmured, reaching for the door.

  “Hey.” Dylan stopped me halfway in. “Glad you’re doing okay.”

  Surprised, I looked over my shoulder at him. All I saw was my reflection in his sunglasses.

  “And sorry about that shit with Val,” he continued. “I know you were close to her. That isn’t easy to deal with.”

  My fingers tightened on the handle. “No, it’s not,” I admitted, angling my body toward him. “Did you suspect something?”

  “Not until David had me watching her, but I didn’t see shit that would’ve made me suspect anything.”

  And David had put Dylan on Val-duty because Ren told him that he suspected she was the halfling.

  “Strange thing is, Ivy, I saw her kill fae.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Like, how fucked up is that? She was working for them and still killing them?”

  “She had to keep up appearances, I guess.” Saddened by that fact, I turned back to the stairwell. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Yep,” he said.

  I pushed my sunglasses up onto my head and started climbing the steps—steps that I had almost bled out on when an ancient had shot me with a gun he’d manifested out of thin air. An ancient that David had refused to believe was around.

  The stairwell always smelled like sugar and feet, a gross combination. I hesitated on the second-floor landing. Irrational dread formed like a lead ball in my gut. The last time I’d stepped through this doorway, I’d found Doc Harris dead on the floor, his gaze blank and fixed on the ceiling.

  Taking a deep breath, I hit the buzzer and looked up at the small camera. I had no idea who was monitoring the door. If there wasn’t anyone, I had a key and could—

  The door opened suddenly. Ren stood there. I so was not expecting to see him already. “Uh . . .”

  He leaned against the doorframe. “I thought you were going to think about what I said, Ivy?”

  My lips pursed.

  “I can see that you didn’t.”

  “I did,” I insisted.

  “And I also thought you weren’t coming out to do anything work related, and yet you’re here.”

  Um . . .”Are you going to let me in?”

  Ren sighed as he stepped aside. I shot him a look as I walked in. The first place my gaze went to was the floor. The beige carpet had been pulled up. It made sense considering Harris’s blood had most likely bled straight through the to the boards below.

  “Huh.” My throat felt oddly hoarse as I stared at the floor. “Who knew there was hardwood under there? Like, why would they have covered that up with crap carpet?”

  Ren curled his hand around the nape of my neck. The touch was so different from how the prince had done it. He turned me toward him, and I opened my mouth to speak, but he lowered his face to mine and kissed me.

  It wasn’t a soft kiss, but it was sweet and long. My lips parted, and I tasted chocolate on his tongue, which made me start to grin as his arm circled my waist. He drew me against him. Out of instinct, I looped my arms around his neck. When he moved his mouth to the side, he kissed the corner of my lip.

  I was a little breathless when he settled me back on my feet.

  “You looked like you could use the distraction.”

  “Oh,” I whispered.

  He slid his hand up through the mass of my curls. “I’m not in your head, sweetness, but I know what you were seeing when you were staring at the floor.”

  I closed my eyes as I rested my forehead against his chest.

  “It’s the same damn thing I saw when I first walked in here and every time since then, but it’s not the doc I see on the floor.” He lowered his head as I dropped my hands to his waist. I knew he was talking about me. “I keep telling myself it’ll get easier.”

  “Has it?”

  “Not really.”

  “That’s motivational,” I murmured.

  Ren drew back, and I lifted my gaze to his. “What’ve you been up to?”

  “Nothing really. Went to get beignets, but . . .” The truth rose to the tip of my tongue. Tell him, ordered Good Ivy. Keep your mouth shut, ordered the voice that sounded strangely like Tink.

  “What?”

  I lowered my gaze. “The place was packed.”

  Tink would be so happy.

  “And that stopped you?” he asked.

  A door opened and a heavy, irritated-sounding sigh forced us apart. I turned around. I was kind of relieved to see Miles Daily, the de facto second-in-command. The reason I was “kind of” relieved to see him was because I was pretty sure Miles didn’t like me and also had thought I was the traitor.

  Miles raised his dark eyebrows as he glanced between us. “Am I interrupting?”

  “You going to get pissed if I say yes?” Ren said.

  I bit down on my lip to hide my grin.

  Miles rolled his eyes and turned back to the room he’d just been in, which was probably the most emotion I’d ever seen from him. I could never get a read on the guy. He was worse than David when it came to figuring out how he felt and what he was thinking.

  There were daggers and files on the oval desk inside the room. One of them had Denver, Colorado, written on the tab. Huh. That was where Ren was from. Was someone that he knew coming down? That could be interesting.

  TV monitors lined one side of the room. Obviously Ren had been in here with Miles. I stared at the files. “What were you guys doing?”

  “Looking over prospects.” Ren slid his hand down my back before stepping away and heading back into the office. “Well, that’s what Miles was doing. I was just being annoying.”

  “Truer words have never been spoken,” Miles muttered. He stopped in front of the monitors. There were more out in the main room. The Order had cameras randomly placed throughout the Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods.

  As far as I knew, there were none near Jackson Park, thank God.

  “Ready to get back to work?” Miles’s expression was inscrutable as he watched the monitors.

  Ren faced me.

  I ignored his look. “Yeah, I think I am.”

  Ren squinted.

  I also ignored that.

  “Sounds good. We need every able-bodied person out there.” Miles turned back to the table. “The fae may be lying low right now, but we know it’s not going to stay that way. It’s only a matter of time. We need to be ready.”

  This was the perfect time for me to mention the whole prince thing, but the words wouldn’t even form on my tongue. I glanced at the wall of monitors and started to look away when one of the images snagged my attention. My eyes narrowing, I turned fully to the monitor on the left, on the last row. It was a house—an old antebellum, which wasn’t odd since there were a lot of homes like that, but I recognized this one.

  “You’re watching Val’s parents’ house?” I asked.

  “Yep.” Miles picked up a folde
r and opened it. “Have been for the last week.”

  Shit. That meant going to Val’s house was off the table. She wasn’t dumb, though. She’d be nowhere near that place. I still planned on checking out Twin Cups, a bar a few streets off the Quarter that was actually a hidden bar within a bar. Val like to go there to relax and chill after work. The likelihood that she’d be there was slim, but it was a start.

  I looked over at Ren. His gaze was trained on me. A lazy half-smile was on his face, and I was thinking, based on that expression, that he wasn’t too mad about me being out on the streets. The problem with that was he was going to be hard to shake while I went looking for Val and her parents.

  Knowing that the Order was probably still questioning them, there could only be a few places where they’d be kept. Definitely not here. I glanced at the wall again. Two of the TVs were off. Both would’ve linked to two different facilities the Order had. One was over in the warehouse district. The other was an old mansion, most likely haunted, out near the bayou. Those damn monitors would tell me where they were without me having to waste my time or get caught sneaking around. What I was going to do once I figured out where they were was still up in the air.

  I was kind of winging things right about now.

  I placed my hands on the back of a chair. “How are things going with Val’s parents?”

  “Her parents are no longer a concern,” Miles tossed the file onto the desk.

  The breath I took got stuck. “What does that mean?”

  “You know what it means.” Miles walked around the desk, grabbing a dagger. He pushed up his sleeve, showing a forearm holster, and shoved the dagger in place.

  My gaze flew over to Ren. His lazy smile was gone. A muscle was flexing along his jaw. Oh no, no. I looked back to Miles. He was heading out the door, into the main room. “Did they confess to anything?”

  “No.” Miles snorted. “Not like either of them was going to admit to fucking a fae. Doesn’t matter. They were compromised, and the sooner we find their daughter, the better. And if we’re lucky, that bitch isn’t knocked up yet. Doubtful, but we can hope.”

  Oh God.

  I closed my eyes tight.

  I was too late.

  Chapter Seven

  The floor shifted under my feet. Val’s parents were dead. Miles didn’t need to confirm it. I knew. I was too late. Instead of getting my shit together the moment I’d learned that the Order had her parents squirreled away, I’d moped around my apartment for days, and now I was too late to even attempt to do a damn thing.

  “Hey.” Ren’s voice was soft. “You okay?”

  I exhaled slowly as I lifted my gaze to his. “Did you know?”

  “Know what?”

  “That they’d taken her parents out?”

  “What?” He stared at me a moment and then started toward the door. He closed it and faced me, brows knitted. “I’m pretty sure everyone in the Order knew that was going to happen, including you.”

  He was right, but I thought there was time. Hell, I don’t even know what I thought.

  Ren approached me. “How can you be so surprised?”

  “I . . .” I wet my lips. “Do we have irrefutable proof that Val is a halfling?”

  He placed a hand on the chair. “No, but—”

  “But we don’t. And let me guess, her parents maintained their innocence this whole time,” I said, knowing I needed to keep my mouth shut but couldn’t. “Right? So what if we’re wrong? What if Val is just a traitorous bitch, but not a halfling, and the Order just flat out murdered her parents? They were good people, Ren. Dedicated their entire lives to the Order.”

  And that was true. They were good people, and now they were gone. A bitter sadness blanketed me.

  A moment passed and his expression softened. “You knew them.”

  “Of course I did. Not really well, but that’s . . .” I trailed off, closing my eyes. Guilt churned the acids in my stomach. By staying quiet, had I gotten Val’s parents killed? They would’ve been walking a very fine edge even if no one believed her to be the halfling, based on her actions alone, but I couldn’t help thinking of the role I’d played in Shaun and my adoptive parents’ deaths.

  “I’m sorry.” Ren circled an arm around my shoulders and tugged me to him. I went, but my arms were still limp at my sides. “I want to forget that you were close to her. That’s wrong of me.” He paused, letting out a rough breath. “And I get why you want to be out here and why you feel you need to find Val.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut again.

  “There’s something I should’ve said this morning when we were talking about it,” he continued. “I don’t want you out there looking for her, because if you do find her, it’s going to be hard—too hard for you. I don’t mean that in a bad way, like you can’t handle yourself, but this will be rough on you, Ivy. You’re going to find yourself in a really bad position.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you?” he asked quietly. “Are you ready to face her? Go toe to toe and take her down? Because that’s what you have to do, and I don’t want you to have to make that decision. I’d rather it be me, or anyone else. You don’t need to live with the kind of shit that’s going to be left behind. I can shoulder that for you.”

  Oh gosh.

  My heart imploded into goo. I wanted to be mad at him, because it made . . . well, it made hiding everything from him so much easier, but how could I when he said all the right things?

  “You’re too good.” I whispered the truth.

  “I am pretty awesome.”

  I cracked a grin. “And so modest.”

  Ren turned and leaned against the table. He brought me along with him, positioning me so I stood between his legs. A finger curled under my chin and lifted my head. “I really am sorry for what she has done.”

  Me too. But he didn’t even know the half of it or why he really was too good for me, and why I didn’t deserve this . . . with him. I knew that, and yet I was still standing here.

  “You haven’t eaten anything?”

  I shook my head.

  “I was thinking about trying out this place on Canal. They have fried alligator.”

  My nose wrinkled. “Ew.”

  “I’ve never tried it.” His eyes danced with amusement. “I’m thinking today is the day. Come with me.”

  “I don’t know. I’m not really hungry.” Plus, I had other things to do. Important things.

  “Checked out their menu. They have Tater Tots.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Tater Tots with cheese and bacon smothered on them,” he added.

  My eyes widened. “Sold.”

  ~

  After leaving the diner on Canal, I was rocking a decent-sized food baby, the only kind of baby that would be getting into my stomach anytime soon.

  Ren had eaten the fried alligator and determined that it sort of tasted like a cross between chicken and pork.

  And I sort of thought that sounded gross.

  Ren took my hand as we walked down Canal, toward the Quarter, his fingers threaded loosely through mine. I didn’t know how to feel about this since I hated having to navigate people holding hands, but I liked my hand in Ren’s. I liked the warm weight and how . . . grounding it was.

  Ren squeezed my hand. “You going home or . . . ?”

  I knew this was coming. Dinner had been nice and normal despite what I had learned about Val’s parents, my weird meet and greet with the prince, and all the other messed-up things going on. It was weird how all of us Order members could easily bounce back from the Three D’s: danger, death, and destruction. Maybe it was the fact we constantly faced certain death that made us seize each second of the day while continuously pushing forward.

  Well, some of us.

  Up until recently, I’d really been living in the past. Hung up on my own missteps and guilt, afraid of letting go and moving on, and now that I finally had done that, everything I knew about myself was a lie.

  I swallowed a
sigh that would have sounded so pathetic I could have won a Daytime Emmy for it. “I’m going to head home in a bit.”

  “But not right away?”

  I didn’t answer.

  Ren stopped, pulling me off the sidewalk so we weren’t in the way. We were at the corner of Canal and Royal. “Okay,” he said after a moment. “Just remember what I said earlier. If you find her, think before you act. Call me. I’ll take care of it. Make sure she’s brought in alive.”

  I appreciated what he was saying, more than I think he realized. I stood on my tiptoes, placed my hand against his smooth cheek, and kissed him. Then I smiled at him. “Are you coming to my place when you get off?”

  “I was planning on it,” he said. “Can you text me when you get back to your place?”

  He was giving me permission to go do my thing. He wasn’t exactly saying it, but he knew what I had planned, and he was stepping aside. Geez, I sort of wanted to strip right here and have sex with him.

  “I will,” I promised.

  His gaze held mine, and there was so much warmth and strength in those emerald eyes, but there was something else. A deep, unfathomable emotion. “Ivy, I . . .”

  I held my breath, for real. Because what was in his eyes mirrored how I felt, and if he was going to say those three words, there was a good chance I would strip down, right here and now—

  “I’ll miss you,” he said finally.

  Oh.

  Well then.

  Ren leaned down and kissed me. It was short but powerful, and better than cheese and bacon-smothered Tater Tots.

  He swaggered off down Canal, heading back in the direction we came from, and I was left standing there, staring at him, a little weak in the knees.

  Goodness.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I looked down and fished out my cellphone. Dusk had fallen, and since it was a little too early for Val to be at Twin Cups, I decided to go ahead and make my way there. It wouldn’t hurt to scope out the place and talk to a few of the bartenders.