He seemed to consider my question carefully before giving an answer. “You’ve been working with the police.” He stated, his voice deep, but slightly raspy. A lingering effect of getting your throat slit, I’d imagine. A pity his partner hadn’t been slightly more successful in that endeavor.
My first reaction to his statement was to deny it, but he was watching me carefully so I knew he wouldn’t believe the lie. The way he’d said it also made it clear that he already knew it was the truth. I nodded slowly, not liking the direction this was going.
“You forced me to close down operations in a thriving business area,” he said, his raspy voice carefully neutral. I blinked in surprise. That was news to me. All I had done was talk to some of the street people and ask them if they knew anyone working for Mason. “I simply want to make you an offer,” he continued. He leaned toward the Bulldog and whispered something. The bodyguard nodded and left the room.
“What offer?” My voice was wary, any offer he had couldn’t be good. I was debating asking him how I had forced him to shut down, but determined it might put him in a worse mood. He thought I’d shut him down somewhere? All I’d done is follow some of his people that my contacts had told me about. I hadn’t been able to find definite proof of anything in the short time I’d been helping Alice. I was pulled from my thoughts when I felt Bulldog’s footsteps coming back and with him… “Sammy,” I whispered.
Mason’s eyes widened slightly in surprise—the first real emotion I’d seen from him—and I berated myself. The man had no idea of my abilities and would now wonder how I’d known it was Sam. This was one person I did not want speculating about what I was capable of. If he threatened Sam, I would have to show him firsthand, but I would cross that bridge if it came.
The door opened and Bulldog pushed Sam in front of him, the little boy stumbling slightly. His dark brown eyes were narrowed in anger, but his face was pale with fear.
“Let him go,” I growled, tensing and ready to unleash my power. My desire to keep my powers hidden did not extend to watching some common criminal hurt one of my kids, and the tentative hold I kept over my ability was already slipping with the thought of this monster’s thug holding Sam. When I pulled myself together a bit, I noticed that Sam was tapping his foot, letting me know through a code I’d made up, that he’d seen the outside of the building. He was a very observant eleven-year-old and had been able to memorize the building number. After passing on the message he stood quietly, careful not to draw too much attention to himself as he waited for me to make a move.
Mason was watching me closely and I tried to hide the fact that I was receiving information about where we were. “You want to make me an offer, get me out of this,” I demanded, shaking my hands and making the cuffs rattle on the pipe.
He pursed his lips slightly and nodded at thug number two. “Let him out, but keep the cuffs on him.”
Thug Two opened the cage door and unlocked the cuffs from the wall. He dragged me out, and I nearly blacked out at the sudden change from laying on the floor to standing. Only the thug’s beefy hands on my arms kept me from falling over. He put the loose end of the cuffs around my wrists and closed them… hard. I winced in pain as the unyielding metal dug into the skin and cut off the circulation to my hands.
Okay. This would make things a little bit harder, but my hands weren’t completely necessary for accessing my power. Having them free made precise work easier, but I wasn’t going for precise right now.
“Sammy, you okay?” The boy nodded, his brown hair falling into his eyes and shadowing them, hiding the fear I’d seen right away. He seemed unhurt, but I couldn’t be sure. “Cut to the chase, Mason,” I demanded. My eyes narrowed in anger, my fear was gone or buried so deep it didn’t affect me. “What do you want?”
“It’s simple,” he said. “I want you to stop helping the police. If you do that, little Sammy here will remain safe in my care.”
“Oh, hell no,” I growled. Alice had told me what kind of things Mason did to children and I would not allow Sam to go through that. “Sam won’t be staying with you, and I will take you down.”
I nodded once and Sam dove to the ground as I let loose the power I’d been building. The ground shot up, and chunks of concrete flew around the room, hitting the startled bodyguards and making Mason dive for cover. Someone yelled in fear or surprise, or some combination of the two, as I continued my attack.
I made a wall protecting Sam from both the effect of what I was doing, and the Bulldog who was trying to grab him as a shield. I sent a tendril of power through the uncovered earth, and located Alice. I was able to push enough power through to send the address Sam had given me. We were only about two blocks from where the detective was, and I could only hope she’d get here quickly.
“Sam, get out!” I yelled as I poured more energy into keeping Mason and his thugs busy. I felt Sam’s response as he rose and quickly ran to the door. There was a pile of dirt and debris blocking the door so I sent enough power to clear it away, allowing Sam to get out. The effort distracted me long enough for Mason to sneak behind me.
Unfortunately, it was also at that moment that my strength gave out. I heard a click and felt the cold circle of metal on my neck as I nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
“Enough,” Mason said, his voice filled with anger and possibly a little fear.
He hadn’t expected that, I thought with a smirk as my legs gave out and I fell to my knees. Still locked in the cuffs behind my back, my hands were numb and left me feeling even more drained.
Mason kept the gun to my head as he surveyed the damage. His thugs were nowhere to be seen, yet there were still the very light footsteps behind us. Whoever was there didn’t bother interfering; the sirens right outside gave him reason to be concerned as well. I felt several people enter the building, Alice and Dan among them, distracting me once again from the odd footsteps.
“It’s over, Mason,” I said with a short bark of laughter.
“Not even close, Freak,” he hissed.
I almost snorted. No, I didn’t like being called a freak. But really, couldn’t he come up with something a little more original? He yanked me to my feet just as the door burst open.
Alice and Dan entered with their guns drawn. My anxiety level increased at having three guns pointed at me, and my near-amusement of a moment ago was forgotten. Mason adjusted his hold on me, the larger man not having too much trouble holding me up. I’m only about five foot eight and weigh about one hundred and fifty pounds, while he stood at easily six foot and weighed about two hundred. And as I could feel through his suit, he was quite strong. He held his left arm around my neck and his right hand held the gun to my head.
Alice’s eyes caught mine after quickly taking in the damage done to the building. I allowed my exhaustion to show for a moment to let her know I had reached my limit and was down to running on fumes. They would have to take care of this on their own; I could hardly move a pebble at this point.
Sam’s footsteps had gone out a different door before Alice had arrived so I wasn’t sure if she even knew he had been here.
“Let him go, Mason,” demanded Alice, her blue eyes piercing and colder than I’d ever seen before. Her smooth, brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which sharpened the angles of her face, making her look sleek and dangerous. Her partner entered next to her, his slightly wrinkled face set in a mask of anger. His dark eyes narrow as he aimed his gun at Mason’s head. Alice didn’t always take charge, but in this instance, Dan allowed it.
I felt some familiar steps approaching behind the two officers then saw both Bulldog and the Big Man creeping up behind them, guns in hand.
“Alice, look out!”
FOUR
Alice
I froze as I heard the click of the gun behind me. Jason’s warning had come seconds too late. “We have back up,” I warned coldly, not lowering my weapon from Mason. I tried not to think that they might arrive too late to help.
One of the m
en behind me laughed. Dan looked at me then glanced back at the men behind us as he moved to put his weapon on the ground.
“Smart man,” one of them growled. “Put yours down too, little girl.”
My jaw clenched at being called ‘little girl’, but I had few options with guns held on all three of us. As I moved to place my gun on the floor, my blue eyes locked with Jason’s soft brown eyes and I saw that he was exhausted and scared. From the damage done to the room, I had to assume he’d pushed too hard and was about ready to collapse. There was only one other time I’d seen him this worn out, and that was a kidnapping case he’d helped me on two summers ago. That case hadn’t ended well. I pushed those thoughts out of my head, concentrating instead on some way to get out of this.
His eyes suddenly widened as he noticed movement behind me. I felt my mouth twitch in a small quick smile. “Put down your weapons. Now.” A calm but demanding voice came behind the two men. I sighed in relief as I picked up my gun and turned to face our attackers.
Two uniformed cops stood behind them, and several more had just entered the building. Noticing that the goons were taken care of, I spun to face Mason, who still held Jason hostage.
“Let him go,” I ordered in a voice as cold as ice. Dan started edging toward them and Mason backed up a step, tightening his grip on Jason as he dragged the younger man along with him. Jason, as exhausted as he was, could do nothing to stop him.
“Actually, I think I’ll keep him,” Mason said, sounding like he was talking about the weather. “He’s a very interesting specimen.”
Jason’s face went white, and I knew there was no way I could let Mason get away with taking him. Especially now that he knew about Jason’s power—something Jason usually avoided at all cost.
“Not gonna happen, Mason,” I said. “You wouldn’t even make it out of this room with him.”
Mason considered that for a moment, his eyes flicking to the other officers now entering the room. “You might be right,” he conceded with a slight nod.
He leaned closer to Jason and whispered something in his ear. I tensed as whatever Mason said made Jason strain against him in fear. I was caught off guard when Mason suddenly pushed Jason toward us, fired his weapon, and ran for a side door. I ran for Jason, who had fallen to the ground and wasn’t moving, while the uniforms just stood there, unsure what to do. Their inexperience was maddening.
“GO AFTER HIM!” I yelled as I carefully turned Jason onto his back. They took off running and I lost track of what happened with the chase as I saw the puddle of blood on the floor and the gushing wound on Jason’s head.
He was still conscious, his brown eyes staring up at the ceiling and his jaw clenched against the pain. “I need some cuff keys!” I said when I saw that his hands were cuffed so tightly that they were turning blue. Someone handed me some keys and I quickly removed the restraints. As circulation was restored, he gasped in pain and then closed his eyes tightly.
“Somebody call an ambulance!” I shouted as I removed my sweatshirt and held it against the wound.
“Jase? Are you still with me?” I asked urgently. He hadn’t opened his eyes since I’d removed the cuffs. “Stay awake, Jason. You need to stay conscious.” I kept talking to him, aware the whole time that he was out.
The few minutes it took the ambulance to arrive felt like years. The wound on Jason’s head refused to stop bleeding so I had to keep pressure on it and couldn’t properly assess the damage. His face was pale and he felt cold, so I knew shock had set in as well.
The shirt I was holding against his head was drenched in blood, and I worried he would bleed out before the paramedics arrived. An eternity later some paramedics rushed in. One took over putting pressure on the wound, exchanging my blood-soaked shirt for a sterile towel with an ice pack to try to slow the bleeding. The other got an IV with fluids hooked up to help Jason through the blood loss until he could get to the hospital.
As soon as the IV was running and the towel tied into place with a pressure bandage, the two men got Jason onto a gurney. Dan explained what had happened, and the paramedics rushed Jason to the waiting ambulance.
I stayed kneeling on the remains of the warehouse floor, and slowly wiped my hands with a towel someone had handed me. Jason had been shot. The shock of that froze me in place until Dan came up behind me.
“Alice, they’re taking him to Memorial. The uniforms can handle this.” His arms waved aimlessly, indicating the destroyed room. His eyes lingered on the unusual damage for a moment before continuing. “We need to get over to the hospital and find out how the kid is doing, and you need to get cleaned up.”
He put his hand on my shoulder in support, worry showing clearly on his face. When he and I had been made partners a few years ago, he’d become a surrogate father to me. Dan was worried about Jason for sure, but he was also probably worrying about how the events of today would affect me.
“It was my fault.”
Dan would disagree, but it was how I felt. Heck, if asked, Jason would also disagree, and probably be offended that I took responsibility for his choice to help me on the Mason case.
“What? How?” His gray eyebrows drew together in confusion. My lips curved upwards in amusement as he reacted exactly how I’d expected.
The amusement faded as I stared down at my bloodstained hands. “I should never have asked him to go after Mason. I know how dangerous he is. Jason isn’t trained for this kind of work.”
Dan shook his head and squeezed my shoulder once before removing his hand. “All you asked him to do was keep his eyes and ears open for any signs of Mason’s whereabouts. I was there when you asked him. Mason is a sick freak who decided to use Jason as a tool to warn us off. That wasn’t your doing so don’t blame yourself for that man’s actions.” As he spoke, Dan pointed in the direction Mason had run and I wondered for the first time how the chase was going.
I rose slowly, not willing to release all of the blame but wanting to drop the matter. “How’s the pursuit?”
“So far nothing,” Dan said in disgust, his blue eyes narrowing. “The uniforms say it’s like he ran out the door and vanished. They called in more backup to help with the search, but…” His hand waved aimlessly to indicate his opinion on how that would work. I knew. It would make no difference, and once again Mason would get away.
“We should go see how Jason is doing,” Dan said, pushing me to the exit. “We’ll deal with the fallout of this later.”
The walk to the squad car was silent as the morning’s events were running through both our minds. I began to wonder how the ripped up floor of the warehouse would be explained. It was obvious to me that Jason had seen no other option, but why?
“Dan, where’s Sam?” I asked, freezing in place as I reached to open the car door.
“He’s with one of the uniforms, giving his statement.” Dan climbed into the car, and I relaxed slightly, happy that Sam was safe. “They saw him running away, but he looked back, saw them, and came back to talk to them,” Dan continued as I sat next to him.
I felt my eyes widen in surprise at this revelation. “Jason’s been a good influence. Usually his kids scatter when they see a cop other than me.”
“Yup, it surprises me too; Jason usually does the same.” Dan pulled a U-turn as he entered the flow of traffic several minutes behind the speeding ambulance. He didn’t turn on the siren, but we were definitely pushing the speed limit.
“They won’t try to hold Sam, will they?” I asked. “He needs to let the others know that he’s okay, so they don’t worry about him anymore.”
Dan’s eyebrows crinkled in concern. “He’s a young kid living on the streets, Alice. You know they have to call Social Services. As much as Jason cares about those kids, he doesn’t have the means to support them or put them through school. That being said,” he continued lightly. “You can bet that as soon as he’s done talking, that kid is gonna take off running.”
“You’re probably right.” Despite their difference
s, Dan understood Jason and his kids better than he would admit. “Jason would know we’re not out to get him, so he’d want the kids to be able to go to us for help. But he wouldn’t risk them getting sent back to their parents, so he’d be sure to tell them to run away as soon as they were done talking.” We were covering old ground, but anything was better than dwelling on the injured informant.
Jason had told me some of what the kids had been through at their homes. I knew, even if Social Services didn’t, that the kids were better off on the streets with Jason than they had been at home. He never had told me exactly what made him leave, except to say that he and his father had a difference of opinion in how he was being raised. The look in his eyes as he’d said it warned me not to ask for details. From what I’d seen, it would have had to be something bad for Jason to leave. He was responsible enough that he would not have left over a slight disagreement, but he wanted me to believe the lie. For his sake, I could pretend—at least until he felt he was able to share the truth.
“Did you ever find out what made Jason leave home?” Dan asked, unconsciously mirroring my thoughts. I’d known Jason since very early in his time on the streets. He was only about thirteen when I’d met him. Jason was no longer at risk of being sent back to his parents or whatever situation he’d run away from; he’d turned eighteen a couple months ago, but he still hid his past from me. For some reason he was still afraid he would be sent back, and that told me enough.
“He doesn’t talk about it,” I answered. “I think you and I have been around long enough to suspect what it was, but I don’t push him.”
Dan grunted. “That’s probably why he still talks to you. You’ve always presented yourself as being on his side.” I didn’t comment, knowing Dan would object to my revelation that I was on Jason’s side. I would protect him from anything I possibly could, including if he got into any trouble with the police. The kid had been through enough. He was also willing to help me with cases when other street people were too scared to speak up or just unwilling to talk to the cops.
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