“Wasn’t it?” I felt like exploding.
“Talk to him.”
I held Ava’s gaze for a long minute, but hers didn’t waver and in the end it was me who looked away first. Defeat notwithstanding, I wasn’t finished yet. “So what did you do with Stefan’s sperm?”
She didn’t respond for the space of several heartbeats. “We kept it until it was needed.”
Exactly what I’d feared. “For Jace,” I said. My brother, in his euphoria at his Change, hadn’t thought to question where he’d gotten his ability—or his blue eyes. We had an ancestor who’d been gifted in combat, but the genes were twelve generations removed, and though that didn’t bother Jace, it didn’t seem likely to me. Maybe because I knew his birth had been engineered like mine.
Jace’s parentage also explained why Stefan Carrington had looked familiar to me when I’d met him. The recognition hadn’t been on a primitive level, or because of some Unbounded link. It was because in him I’d seen my little brother’s features. “Oh, Ava, what have you done?” They’d be looking for him once they knew.
Her lips tightened. “I did what we had to in order to survive. They were further ahead in their genetics. It was simple mathematics.”
“We have to tell him.”
“Does it really matter? Wasn’t it better when you didn’t know?”
“Yes.” Heaven help me, she was right. I told myself that not telling Jace meant I was protecting him, but keeping the secret probably meant I was a liar like everyone else. What I didn’t want was his relationship with the man we called our father to change . . . like mine had. Even so, I wouldn’t relinquish the knowledge of my own parentage. It added to who I was and what I was becoming.
Pushing these thoughts away for later, I indicated Mari, who still sat on the steps. “She seems to think she’s going with me.”
Ava went to Mari, helped her rise, and put an arm around her. “Come back to the apartment with me, dear. Stella’s going to need you when she wakes. You’ll need each other. We should also change your clothes. How does that sound?” Mari said nothing but didn’t resist as Ava guided her up the stairs.
“Oh, and Erin,” Ava said from the second stair. “Ritter will be in charge once Dimitri fills you all in there, but . . .” She hesitated, glancing beyond me at the others, now climbing into two different vehicles. “But speak up if you sense something that doesn’t feel quite right. Genuine threats aren’t always obvious, and neither is the way we sense them.”
I knew she regretted not being able to go, but as our leader, she had to take care of all of us. Leaving behind our two newest Unbounded with an unconscious Stella wasn’t an option, and she was the only one skilled enough in medicine to care for them properly.
I nodded and headed for the front passenger door of the blue van, glad to find Jace and not Ritter behind the wheel. But he wasn’t alone. A man I didn’t recognize sat in the backseat. He had long, greasy black hair that looked in desperate need of a wash, but his face was clean-shaven. I couldn’t see what he was wearing in the darkness, but something didn’t smell quite fresh. Before I could ask about him, Chris came sprinting down the stairs and over to the van, jumping into the backseat near the stranger.
“Cutting it kind of short.” Jace started the van and followed the Land Cruiser ahead of us.
“We almost left you.”
Chris laughed. “Unless you’ve learned to fly a plane in the past couple of hours, you aren’t going to Mexico without me.”
Jace and I exchanged a private glance. No, we couldn’t leave without Chris, but we could make sure he stayed with the plane. Strange to think Chris used to be the one to take care of us as kids, and now he was the most vulnerable.
“Who’s our friend?” I whispered to Jace in a low voice as we cleared the community gate.
Jace frowned and leaned toward me. “You don’t know? Found him hanging around outside the palace after we started the fire. He saw us start it. I didn’t want to leave him there to tip off the police. He said you offered him a job, so we took him to Stella’s.”
What? I turned and stared at the man. Wait, I did know him. He was the bum who’d tried to rob Mari and me earlier outside the palace. He’d shaven, but it was the same Hispanic guy. Only he appeared to be a bit more sober now.
I stretched closer to Jace. “Are you crazy? He tried to hold me up.”
“You didn’t offer him a job?”
“I guess. But I didn’t mean today.” I paused before adding, “He knows how to fix sinks.”
“Really?” A smiled tugged at his lips. “Then you did the right thing. Don’t worry. I made sure he didn’t have a gun.”
“Does Ava know?”
“Of course. Marco called his contact at the government and they vetted him while you were playing on the roof. No police record or hint of involvement with the Emporium. Got laid off a few years back, though, and never recovered financially. But Ritter didn’t want to leave him with Ava. She has enough on her plate without having to keep an eye on him. Besides, he told me his mother lived in Mexico City and he’d love to visit. We’ll give him money for a taxi when we land there to pass customs. Pick him up on the way back. That’s far enough away not to cause Ava—or us—trouble.”
“He lied,” I growled. “His mother lives in Dallas, Texas. I saw it in his mind.”
“Oh.” Jace glanced back. “Should have known it was too good to be true. Should we dump him at the next street?”
“You can’t. He still knows about that fire—and where Stella lives. If he leads the police there, the Emporium will know their location. They have too many eyes in law enforcement—and the fire won’t cover up the death of the mortals we left there.”
“Well, since Cort is the only one who knows Spanish, maybe he’ll actually come in handy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just so long as you’re the one who explains that to Ritter.”
“We’ll find some place to stash him. Don’t worry. He’s been cleared, remember? Marco even had him sign a non-disclosure doc.”
I knew what dire threats and consequences the disclosure document held—none of which would hold up in any mortal courtroom but were worded strongly enough to make an employee think hard about exposing our nature. However, I doubted any of it would make a difference to the bum the next time he was drunk.
“What are you two whispering about?” Chris called from the back.
“Nothing,” Jace and I said at the same time.
“Okay, but Benito and I are hungry. Can we stop for something?”
I looked back at him, exasperated. “There’ll be food on the plane.”
“Are you sure? Because I didn’t see any earlier and no one packed more than a few energy bars. You guys seem to forget that some of us still need real food.”
Mortals were sometimes a big pain. “I’ll take care of it.” Actually, now that he’d brought it up, I felt like sinking my teeth into a bit of old-fashioned comfort myself—preferably in the form of some kind of chocolate. I spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone, working out the details of a food order with a restaurant at the airport. Both Chris and I would soon have our appetites fulfilled.
At the airport, we had to pass through a special security, but someone had planned for our arrival and the inspection was only cursory. I wondered how much that cost because unlike the Emporium, we didn’t have many agents in high positions. Still, Ava and Dimitri had been around long enough to form numerous alliances.
Cort and Dimitri had taken Cort’s smaller plane, so we were stuck with Ava’s corporate jet. Light now filled the horizon and washed over the tarmac where the others were already loading gear from the Land Cruiser into the cargo hold. Ritter glanced in our direction, his eyes going from my face to our new tagalong and shaking his head, a sure indication of his irritation at having to drag the man along. Ignoring him, I hefted my duffel and another box and started for the hold. But I stopped short as a car roared toward us, parking near the other vehi
cles.
Keene jumped from the car. “Sorry I’m late,” he called. “I have news, though. Not good.”
“You’re coming with us?” I hadn’t been sure Ava would allow it, but I considered him a useful addition. Unlike Chris, Keene could hold his own in a fight, and he’d been at this a good while longer than either me or my brothers.
“You’d know that if you weren’t spending all your time on rooftops,” Jace said under his breath. I gave him a withering glare, which he returned with a smirk. Why I’d ever thought he was my favorite sibling was beyond me.
“Of course I’m coming,” Keene said. “About time I had a reunion with my brother.” He flashed me a smile that didn’t reach his worried eyes.
“You said you had bad news?” Ritter didn’t look pleased to see Keene.
“I checked with my people in Arizona, and Senator Bellars left for Mexico yesterday afternoon. The official word is that he’s working with some corporations there to import their products. However, the real reason is because he heard about whatever happened to your lab in Mexico.”
“Oh, no,” I said.
Keene nodded. “No better place than Mexico for him to disappear, especially if he decides to head into the Lacandon Jungle by himself. He’s made it easy for them. Though I suppose that was the point of the setup. Get rid of both him and the lab in the same week.”
“How’d you know where our lab is?” Ritter growled.
I wondered the same thing. I’d told Keene at the restaurant that we had a lab in Mexico, but I hadn’t said where.
“Ava told me.” Keene met Ritter’s stare. “I’m not your enemy. Not any longer. We’re working for the same thing here. With Justine in Mexico neither Senator Bellars nor my brother is safe.”
Ritter kept his eyes locked on Keene for several tense seconds, but he finally nodded. “You’d better be able to follow orders. I give them only once.”
Keene nodded. “I’ll get my bag.”
Ritter watched him stride away. As I turned to put away my own duffel, I caught a glimpse of Ritter’s head turning toward me, his dark eyes full of pain.
I stopped mid-step. “What?” I asked.
He arched a brow. “Nothing.” Turning, he stalked back to the Land Cruiser, leaving me wondering. There had been something. Maybe.
Sighing, I continued to the plane. I hadn’t gone three steps before Benito came rushing after me. Guess for now he belonged to me, or at least I was responsible for him. “So you’re Benito,” I said, wishing I’d worn gloves to protect my hands from the biting cold.
He dipped his head. “Yes. Benito Hernández. Thank you for giving me a job.”
Sure enough, though he had an accent, it was nowhere near as heavy as when he’d held me up. “You lied about your mother living in Mexico.”
He nodded.
“Don’t lie again. I’ll know.” I wouldn’t unless I searched his mind and right now I was so tired I probably couldn’t see anything if I tried, but he didn’t know that.
His dark eyes went wide—with fear, I suspected, rather than innocence. But his next words surprised me. “I really ’preciate you giving me a job. No one has wanted to take a risk on me for a long time. I won’t let you down. That’s a promise.” He sounded sincere, but maybe he was accustomed to saying whatever he needed to get by. Regardless, if he stuck around, he might get enough of the whole picture that his professed loyalty would become real.
“We’ll see,” I said.
“I can take that.” He tugged at my bag.
Not until he took a bath. And probably not even then. I wanted to keep what little I still owned, at least until I got a chance to go shopping. “No, thanks. I got it. Uh,” I added, “you do actually speak Spanish, right?” For all I knew, his accent wasn’t even Hispanic, even though his grandfather was from Mexico.
He nodded. “Sí. I speak it much better than English.”
“Hey, look, the food’s already here.” Chris called to us, his mouth already full. “Come and eat, Benito. Then you can help me get the rest of the food onto the plane.”
Leave it to my big brother to find the food. Well, I guess we didn’t want our pilot fainting from lack of nourishment. Benito joined Chris at the metal cart, filled not only with steaming dishes meant for now, but ones we could microwave later. As they ate, the rest of us piled everything into the cargo hold.
“That’s it, then,” Marco said. He saluted Ritter. “George and I are off.”
“You two aren’t going with us?” I asked.
It was Ritter who answered. “Ava wants them to, but that would leave her with only Charles. I convinced her to let them stay.”
I nodded. It would make me feel better knowing Ava had help. “It’s not like we’re going to confront the Emporium head on,” I said. “It’s just finding our scientists and the research, right? In and out.”
“Something like that.” Ritter’s growl was hardly convincing. Whatever he planned, he wanted to make the Emporium pay. This worried me because it might make him sloppy, though the idea of Ritter being sloppy seemed ludicrous.
“Don’t forget we’re also warning the senator and doing something about his fake aide.” Keene thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. He hadn’t worn them at the restaurant, so he’d apparently cleaned up like the rest of us.
“Let’s go.” I hurried up the stairs into the plane behind Chris and Benito, their arms loaded with food trays.
“Very nice,” Benito said as his eyes wandered over the interior.
It wasn’t a luxury liner by most standards, but it did seem spacious compared to commercial flights. One side of the plane held four sets of double seats, arranged so two sets faced each other around a table. On the other side of the aisle there were two single facing seats, also with a table. Ten seats altogether, wide enough to be comfortable, and the two single seats actually swiveled. A small bar with a refrigerator and microwave took up the remaining space behind the single seats, with storage space for food supplies. Beyond this were two bathrooms.
Another section at the rear of the plane after the bathrooms had three triple bunks on one side and a storage area on the other. The last time we’d used the plane, I’d thought it strange to have bunks so tightly packed, and even stranger that metal grates locked in place over each opening. Who could sleep in such a closed space? Even sailors on a submarine had more room. Now I knew they were used regularly to transport unconscious Emporium Unbounded to the rehabilitation compound in Mexico. We’d captured eleven Unbounded and mortal Emporium agents last night, so those nine spots were overfilled on this trip. I was glad curtains covered the bunks.
After indicating one of the single seats to Benito, I settled in one of the four seats across the aisle, far enough away not to feel smothered, but close enough to keep an eye on him. I folded up the arm rest between the seats and turned sideways, lifting my feet onto the spare seat, staking out my space. With any luck, Ritter would be up in the cockpit with Chris, and Keene and Jace would take the other seats behind me so I could get some sleep. My nerves were jumpy, and since my acrophobia was never activated by flying, I guessed the jumpiness was from lack of rest. Unbounded didn’t need a lot of sleep, but we did need some.
The nerves might also have a tiny bit to do with the fact that this was the first operation I’d been on since New York—and that day still haunted me.
“Uh, can I use the bathroom?” Benito asked with a grimace.
I sighed. “Not until the plane is in the air.”
I already regretted allowing him to come along. But what other choice did we have? There was nowhere we could leave him to make sure he didn’t go to the police, which would put Ava and Stella in danger. We’d have to do as Jace suggested and stash him someplace out of the way in Mexico until we finished whatever we needed to do. Because even though he’d been cleared by Marco, his reappearance at the palace on the night of the Emporium attack was too much of a coincidence for me. In my experience, coincidences wer
e almost never a good sign.
I SLEPT THE ENTIRE TEN-PLUS hours to our destination, rousing only briefly when we stopped to pay respects to officials in Mexico City. Since our destination was a private airport south of Villahermosa, we had no choice but to land and pass through customs at the larger airport first, or risk being shot down. Passing customs in our case basically meant an exchange of money. Though foreigners weren’t officially allowed to bring arms into the country without a special permit, we had a proven, albeit expensive, system to secretly transport whatever we wanted into Mexico. Unfortunately, the stop meant more than a two-hour delay in our trip. Afterward, we would have been able to fly closer to our final destination outside Palenque, but the size of our aircraft limited our landing choices. Cort’s smaller plane was far more versatile.
Upon first waking, I was dismayed that I’d forgotten to watch Benito, but then I caught sight of Ritter across from him playing cards.
Cards? I didn’t know Ritter even played cards.
There was a lot I didn’t know about him. Maybe I wouldn’t even like the real him. Maybe what was between us was simple physical attraction.
Though if it was simple, I’d like to know what complicated meant.
Someone chuckling nearby made me aware that I was not alone in my four-seat section. I looked over at Keene where he sprawled on the two seats facing me. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Ritter hasn’t let him out of his sight. Either him or the woman.”
“Woman? What woman?”
He grinned. “You snore, you know that?”
My hands clenched. “What woman?”
“That woman.”
I sat up and looked behind me where he was pointing, craning my neck to see over the high-backed seats. My jaw dropped when I saw Mari lying on the two seats immediately behind me, curled in a fetal position. Someone had put a blanket over her. “How’d she get here?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.” Ritter rose and crossed the space between us. “After takeoff, she was just there. No one saw her get on.”
Had she been there all along? I didn’t think so. Chris and Benito had passed her location when they’d stored the food. And how had she been able to get here from Ava’s? It didn’t make sense. Unless the whole catatonic bit was an act and she was actually working with her husband and the Hunters. I rejected that immediately because her fear at the park had been real. However, she could have been hired by someone else.
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