Gaia felt her blood start to race in her veins at the sight of her. Before this night was over, she was going to wipe that smirk off little Tatiana’s face.
Ever so dramatically, Tatiana stepped across the room until she was face-to-face with Gaia but a few yards away. She flicked her blue eyes to each of her thugs, smiling a bit more each time, as if to draw Gaia’s attention to them—as if to say, “I’ve got you now.”
Gaia took a deep breath, sighed, and adopted her most bored expression.
Tatiana’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to tell me where my mother is,” she said, her voice filling the room.
Gaia’s lips twitched. “No. You’re going to tell me where my father is.”
“I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands,” Tatiana snapped.
Gaia’s smile widened. “I wouldn’t say that.”
Unarmed
“NOW!” JAKE SHOUTED.
He ripped away the black curtain that shrouded his face and stepped out into the dojo in perfect unison with nine of his closest, most powerful friends. He took in the scene quickly. Gaia was tied to a chair in the center of the room, Tatiana was looking at him, shocked, and five huge guys with guns were just turning around to take aim at the fighters who lined the walls. Jake and his friends had the gun toters surrounded, but they were also unarmed.
“Dude, no one said anything about guns,” Jake’s friend Thomas said through his teeth.
You read my mind, Jake thought, trying not to let his fear show. Who were these girls?
Suddenly Tatiana reached behind her back and pulled a gun out of her waistband, aiming for Jake.
“Down!” Jake called out.
He dropped to the floor and rolled into the legs of the nearest guy, taking him down just as he fired his first shot—into the ceiling. After that, everything was a blur and Jake was moving on pure instinct. The guy’s gun went skittering across the floor and slid under the curtains. He struggled to get up, but Jake and his sparring partner from the dojo, Derek, made sure he stayed down. It was almost too easy. The guy was clearly trashed, and he didn’t have much fight in him. A one-two punch from Derek, followed by an elbow jab to the back from Jake, and the dude had passed out on the floor, sleeping like a baby.
“No!” Tatiana yelled out over the sounds of fired shots and landed punches, the groans and grunts and shouts of the battle. “No! No! No!”
Jake glanced in her direction and saw that Christov had easily disarmed her before moving on to his next opponent. Tatiana was stomping her feet like a spoiled child.
Jake and Derek rose up into their fighting stances and surveyed the room. The big guy who’d arrived first with Tatiana was giving a couple of Jake’s friends a hard time on the far side of the room.
“You help Tim,” Jake said, feeling not unlike an army general giving orders. It gave him a bit of a high. If there was ever a time to play the superhero, this was it. This was his moment. “I’m gonna get Gaia,” he added.
Derek nodded and ran across the room. Jake rushed over to Gaia and fell on his knees at her side. He yanked his switchblade from the back pocket of his jeans and went to work on the ropes that bound her wrists.
Jake Montone to the rescue! a little voice in his brain shouted. Super-Jake! Jake the Great . . .
“You carry a knife?” Gaia said, her voice strained.
“Only when I need to,” Jake replied. “You all right?” he asked as he sawed at the ropes.
“Been better,” Gaia replied.
Something about the way she said it made Jake’s heart stop short in his chest. He pulled back a little and surveyed her body, making sure she wasn’t hurt. There was a large stain of blood on the leg of her jeans, and it was spreading.
“Oh my God. You’re shot,” he said, grabbing for her leg.
“Leave it,” Gaia demanded. “It’s just a scratch.”
One of the thugs went flying over their heads and landed on his back with a loud moan. Jake still couldn’t believe this was happening. When Gaia had told him that Tatiana was setting them both up, he’d had no idea she was going to bring her own little army.
“Jake, please,” she said. “Tatiana . . .”
He glanced around and saw Tatiana searching the guy who’d just been tossed—shoving her hands frantically into his pockets and feeling along his legs. She was looking for a gun.
“Got it,” Jake said, his adrenaline pumping.
He sliced through the last threads of the fraying ropes and Gaia swung her arms free. Her eyes were trained on Tatiana, and Jake could tell she was salivating to get to the girl, but her legs were still bound. Jake stood up, grabbed the back of the chair, and ripped it off the seat, tossing the shredded wood across the room.
“Can you stand?” he asked Gaia.
Tatiana was now crawling around the room, feeling under the curtains. She was only yards away from the first thug’s gun.
Gaia grunted her approval and struggled up. The moment her butt was up, Jake sliced the wooden seat in two with one expertly placed karate chop. The seat fell free of the chair legs and he was able to pull the two rods of wood out of the ropes around Gaia’s ankles.
As soon as Gaia was free, she spun around, her eyes searching. She spotted something and dove past Jake toward the back wall. At the same moment Tatiana finally found her gun and whirled around as she stood, her wig falling from her head, her eyes wild.
“Gaia!” Jake shouted.
But he didn’t need to alert her. She’d found her own weapon and aimed it right back at Tatiana. The two girls cocked their guns at the same time and stood there, chests heaving, at opposite sides of the room, an Old West-style standoff.
Okay, Jake thought. This is not your ordinary catfight.
He had no idea what was going to happen next, but he had the distinct feeling that it was not going to be good. His friends from the dojo, having made short work of Tatiana’s little band of thugs, walked up behind him. They all stood there and watched the two girls in silent awe.
“You don’t see that every day,” Derek whispered just off Jake’s shoulder.
“No, you don’t,” Jake replied.
“We’re not going to solve this if we’re both dead,” Gaia said, her shooting arm as steady as a tree branch.
“No, we’re not,” Tatiana agreed.
“I don’t want to shoot you,” Gaia said.
There was a beat. “Nor I you,” Tatiana replied.
She blinked. She was lying. In that moment Jake knew for absolute certain that Tatiana wanted Gaia dead. Gaia had warned him that this was the case earlier this afternoon when he told her about this meeting and had been honest about who was calling it. That was why he’d agreed to bring along his friends. That was why he was here. But he’d never fully believed it until that moment. Tatiana wanted to kill Gaia. The girl really was a psycho.
“So why don’t we just both put down our guns and talk this out?” Gaia suggested. “I’ll tell you what I know about your mom, you tell me what you know about my dad.”
Tatiana took a deep breath. “Agreed,” she said.
Ever so slowly both girls lowered their arms and crouched to the floor to put down their guns. Gaia winced in pain and grabbed at her leg, and Jake’s heart flew into his throat. He glanced at Tatiana, and she saw her opportunity. She reached behind her, and Jake caught a glimpse of silver—the butt of another gun—tucked into the waistband of her pants.
“No!” Jake shouted, and took off across the room.
One step and Tatiana had the gun in her hands.
The second step and she was training it on Gaia.
The third step and he swore he heard the catch of the trigger.
He threw himself into the air, his eyes locked on Gaia’s shocked face. The sound of the gunshot exploded in his ears, and then everything went black.
ED
Tonight, I swear on my life, I remembered what it was like to learn to walk. The first time, that is. Not the last time, after I
got out of my wheelchair. I swear, I vividly remembered being one year old and concentrating my little diapered ass off as I tried to walk to my father’s outstretched arms. Only this time I was concentrating to walk away from someone. And it took everything I had.
It’s unbelievable, that thin line between love and hate. That tiny little thin line is like a balance beam that’s . . . well, impossible to walk.
But somehow I did it. I put one foot in front of the other, and somehow I made it to the end of the block and got Kai to her building.
And then I took that last monster step. I kissed Kai good night.
And it wasn’t half bad.
heart monitor
She thought of Jake’s open, honest face . . . the way he’d looked at her as he threw himself in the path of the bullet that was meant for her heart.
Grub
GAIA PULLED THE METAL-AND-PLASTIC chair over to the side of Jake’s hospital bed and sat facing his side, watching the little line on his heart monitor jump up and down on the other side of the room. She slumped down in the chair, brought her hand to her mouth, and promptly started to chew on the side of her thumb. Jake’s dad, after at least an hour of intense conversation with a CIA agent who had calmed him down while divulging nothing, had just headed down to the cafeteria for some coffee. Gaia had actually turned down his offer to buy her food. The very idea of tasteless hospital grub made her lose her appetite. She’d been spending way too much time in hospitals lately.
“Gaia?”
She sat up straight and saw that Jake was rubbing his eyes with his fingertips. He blinked a few times and looked at her, confused. “Am I dead?”
Gaia laughed—a loud, relieved sort of bark. “No. You don’t die from getting shot in the shoulder.”
“The shoulder?”
He attempted to move his arm and winced and groaned. His head, which had come up about an inch off the pillow, flopped down again.
“Why does my head feel like someone ripped it in half?” he asked, his face crinkling up in pain.
“Concussion. You should probably just stay down,” Gaia said. She got up and quickly flicked the light switch off so that the glare wouldn’t cause him more pain. “You were knocked out when you fell,” she explained, returning to her chair.
Jake managed a wry laugh and closed his eyes. “That’s graceful.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, gradually relaxing the muscles of his face. Gaia watched him, her heart pounding. There was something she wanted to say to him, but she was, as always, having trouble with the words.
A few more of his calming breaths and his eyes opened again. They were cool and clear now in the semidarkness—the only light in the room seeped in from the hallway.
“How’s your leg?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” she replied. “Like I said . . . just a scratch.”
“Great. You get a scratch, and I get an arm that feels like a sack of flour,” Jake said with another laugh.
Gaia reddened and looked down at her hands in her lap. “Yeah . . . about that,” she said, picking at her nonnails. “I wanted to . . . you know . . . thank you.” He said nothing, and she finally forced herself to lift her chin—to look him in the eye. “You saved my life.”
“Eh,” Jake said, blowing it off. But he smiled nonetheless.
“Really. I was stupid. I should have known she wouldn’t let it go,” Gaia said. “So thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You’re going to be carrying my books for the next few weeks,” Jake shot back with a smirk.
Gaia smiled and looked down again, unsure of what to say next. Her legs were itching to run. She’d done what she’d come here to do, and now she was free to flee the hospital. But something made her stay right where she was. She didn’t want to leave Jake alone. If she were honest with herself, she would have to admit that she didn’t want to leave him, period.
There was this new but unmistakable pull between her and Jake. If she could, she would have made sure he was with her wherever she went. Having him around made her feel . . . safe . . . calm . . . almost normal.
“Gaia . . . how did you know?” Jake asked slowly.
“Know what?” Gaia asked, her face reddening as if he could hear her thoughts.
“That Tatiana was going to have those guys there?” Jake asked. “I mean, when I told you that the meeting was for the two of you and not the two of us, you knew right away that she was setting you up for something.”
“I just know her,” Gaia replied, realizing he’d want more than that. “Why did you tell me she asked you to bring me there? I’m sure she wanted it to be a surprise,” she added with a touch of sarcasm.
“I didn’t trust her,” Jake replied. “When it came down to the two of you, I just . . . I knew she was in trouble, but somehow I knew I had to believe you.”
Gaia’s whole body warmed, and she looked away again. For all of Tatiana’s flirting and damsel-in-distress routines, Jake had still seen who she really was. Gaia knew there was something great about this guy.
“Thanks,” Gaia said.
“Look, I don’t want to . . . you know . . . stick my nose in or whatever,” Jake said. “But those guys tonight were pretty serious. I wasn’t expecting . . .”
Gaia swallowed hard. “To get shot,” she said, fresh guilt welling up inside her. “I never meant for you to—”
“No. I don’t care about that. I’ll be fine,” Jake said. He looked her in the eye, and Gaia could tell there were a million questions he wanted to ask. She just wasn’t sure if she could answer them. “I just . . . want to know if you’re . . . if you’re going to be okay.”
A smile pulled at Gaia’s lips. That was the most important thing on his mind? “I will be,” she said. “Now that Tatiana is in custody . . . I’ll be fine.”
“Good,” Jake said. He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “God! She lied to me. Right to my face. All those fake, freakin’ tears. She’s insane.”
“Pretty much,” Gaia replied.
“So . . . you said she’s in custody?” Jake asked, using his good arm to push himself up into a half-seated position. He let out a little groan as he settled back in.
Gaia took a deep breath and nodded. “She’s been turned over to the proper authorities,” she said.
Jake simply stared at her for a moment. “You ever gonna tell me what that means?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
For a moment Gaia sat in silence, listening to the beeping heart monitor and the sounds of nurses and visitors walking past the room. She thought of all the secrets she’d kept over the last year, all the people she’d lost, all the people she’d tried to protect to no avail. She thought of Jake’s open, honest face, of that afternoon when he’d readily offered to bring his friends to the dojo to help, of the way he’d looked at her as he threw himself in the path of the bullet that was meant for her heart.
He cared about her. He wanted her to be safe. He wanted to be at her side.
Maybe it was time for a change in her life. Maybe it was time to stop protecting and let someone protect her. Let someone in. Let someone be a true friend.
And so she looked at Jake, smiled, and meant it when she said, “I will . . . someday.”
Dim
THE HANDCUFFS WERE LIKE ICE against Tatiana’s bare wrists. The cold of the metal chair stung her skin, even through her clothes, and she felt like she was being refrigerated from the inside out. Even her bones were shivering. Her head slumped forward, pulling the muscles in her arms, which were secured behind her back. She sniffled, trying to keep her nose from running. Trying to keep that one sign of weakness at bay.
I’ve failed, she thought, staring down at the blood spatters on the thigh of her jeans. I’ve failed you, Mother. I’ve failed myself.
She sat in the center of a dim, gray, cinder-block-walled room. A two-way mirror hung on the far wall; a single lightbulb swung overhead. The only two pieces of furniture aside from her own chair were a wooden table and a high stool
that stood next to the leaden door. Tatiana had no idea where she was, but she’d never felt so alone.
I’m worthless. I hope they just let me die in here, Tatiana thought, feeling her bruises throb, the cut across her left cheek sting. She’d gotten that just after the gun went off—just after Jake had slumped to the floor—dead, for all she knew. Not that she cared about him. He’d betrayed her. He’d ambushed her. He was a traitor.
Gaia had launched herself over his prone body and landed a backhand across Tatiana’s face that had exploded behind her eye and knocked her out for a few moments. Long enough for Gaia and the Karate Squad to tie her up. Long enough for Ms. Moore to call in the CIA.
If I ever see her again, I’m going to kill her, Tatiana thought. Next time I’ll get it right.
A loud clang echoed through the room as the lock on the heavy door slid free. Suddenly alert, Tatiana snapped up her head. The interrogation was about to begin. She could not be weak in the face of her enemy. She knew they’d probably hit her with the good-cop, bad-cop routine. It was standard procedure. She waited for the appearance of a couple of suited CIA agents, ready and more than willing to break her. Tatiana would not be broken.
The door swung open slowly, and Tatiana’s brain almost exploded at the sight before her eyes. Gaia Moore—hair slicked back into a neat ponytail, a clean black sweater over a clean pair of jeans, and her standard black boots. No sign of a fight anywhere on her perfect little face. She stepped into the room, her eyes locked on Tatiana’s, and the door swung shut behind her.
Somehow Tatiana managed to stare right back at Gaia. Stare through the confusion, the shame, the pain, the anger, the hatred. Her blood boiled and raced and melted away the cold. She refused to be the first to look away.
Gaia turned and picked up the stool by the wall. She set it down about two feet from Tatiana and perched herself on top of it. Now Tatiana saw the benefit of the higher stool. Gaia could look down on her—she could feel taller and more imposing. Tatiana lifted her chin and met her eyes. She was not intimidated.
Chase Page 13