The Quintan Edge (Roran Curse Book 2)

by Heidi J. Leavitt

  Still, Jimmy had to hear about this. Zane sounded like a desperate and angry man, and desperate, angry men did incredibly stupid things.

  16. Intruder

  The story Jenna told him was unbelievable. She had just arrived back from Marah, and he had met her in the lobby. They were now sprawled on her bed, talking about the trip.

  “You mean you snuck into the building, found a ladder, and climbed up into a crawlspace so you could try and find out about the gate?” Jimmy burst out in disbelief. Jenna nodded, her cheeks bright pink. He shook his head. “Who are you, and what have you done with my wife?”

  She playfully shoved him. “Come off it, Jimmy.”

  “No, really, what in the name of the Red Sheik possessed you to do something so crazy? Next time you get a burning desire to find out more about the gate, just ask. I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he rebuked. Quintan was extremely suspicious of anyone who showed too much interest in the gate. If she had gotten caught sneaking around the Marah gate, Quintan might well have decided that Jenna was a threat that needed to be eliminated. Even her favored status as Zane’s “intended” wouldn’t save her.

  “So you’ll take me downstairs and show me how it works?” she asked, her tone skeptical.

  “Well . . .” Jimmy hesitated. There was not a chance he could get away with that. Someone was bound to notice if he brought a visitor into the gate room who was not on Quintan’s short list. She was waiting, her eyebrows raised, a mocking smile curving her lips. She had him there.

  “How about I take you upstairs and you can meet Jax? He’s got a model of the gate you can look at,” he suggested.

  “Really? I can meet your brother?” She sounded ecstatic. Maybe he should have thought of that earlier. Of course he should introduce Jenna to his brother. They were family now.

  “Won’t that bother Jax though? He doesn’t like strangers, I know,” Jenna fretted.

  “He’ll be OK if I explain how important you are. Jax does understand about family, and you’re part of his family now. He just might not talk to you at all.” Jimmy knew he had better start preparing Jax, though. Next time he went up there, he needed to tell Jax that he was married and give Jax some details so he could start to adjust to the idea that he had a new sister. It would take some time. Even if he accepted Jenna’s presence, he would probably never talk to her. He didn’t even talk to Cari, and their older sister had been around all their childhood. But Jimmy knew Jenna would understand.

  “You’ve changed the subject,” Jenna said. “And you are missing the whole point! Zane was threatening your brother!”

  Jimmy laughed. That was just ludicrous. Even if Zane was frustrated with Jax—and who didn’t get frustrated with him at times?—he wouldn’t do anything to him. Nothing he could do to him. Jimmy’s father would have Zane hunted down and shot. Hell, Zane’s own father would beat him to death if he so much as laid a finger on Jax. The Quintans and the Forrests were a partnership. Always had been, and they would not let Zane destroy that—especially not when Jax might just make them all richer than the King of Corizen.

  “Jenna,” he soothed, “I remember the night you overheard this, because the engineers commed me and I had to go talk to Jax about what had happened. Zane was just frustrated. Everyone was so disgruntled. They thought it was going to work, they had everything set up for it, and then it just didn’t. Jax apparently expected it because as soon as I told him the problem he handed me a new sheaf of notes and sketches that he already had drawn up. The engineers were relieved when I brought them down, so they’ll probably solve whatever glitch it was and get the gate up and running. The resort will get back on schedule, Zane will calm down, and everything will be fine.” He kissed her reassuringly. “The end is in sight, tigress,” he reminded.

  She relaxed and kissed him back. “If you’re not worried, then I’m not worried,” she said.

  Later, he would lament that he had ignored her intuition.

  *

  A week later Jimmy was startled awake by Jenna shaking his shoulders.

  “Jimmy!” she called urgently, but softly. “Someone’s in the apartment.” He was such a deep sleeper that he took a moment to even remember where they were or what was wrong. Wasn’t it probably just Lilah coming home from work? He mumbled to Jenna to just go back to sleep. She shook him again, though. He groggily remembered that they were sleeping in his bed that night, and there really shouldn’t be someone else in there. Was it Jax looking for him again? Was something wrong?

  Suddenly the door to the bedroom slid open with a soft snick. He could see a tall, dark figure looming in the doorway just before the light switched on, completely blinding him for a moment.

  “What?” mumbled Jimmy, rubbing at his eyes. Beside him, Jenna gasped. His eyes finally adjusted to the light, and he immediately realized something was terribly wrong.

  It was Zane.

  “So it’s true,” Zane observed in a cold, dead voice. “I’d heard that my friend had betrayed me by moving in on my girlfriend, but I didn’t believe it. Why would Jimmy—someone I’ve trusted completely—turn against me?”

  Jimmy was finally wide awake. He sat up in bed next to Jenna, who seemed too terrified to speak. She was sitting starkly stiff next to him, frozen in place. He could instantly spot the source of her fear. Something was horribly wrong with Zane. Jimmy had never seen such a flat yet calculating look in his eyes before.

  “What are you doing here, Zane?” Jimmy’s voice was as unfriendly as he could make it. “What gives you the right to break into my home in the middle of the night?”

  “Your home?” Zane’s eyes glittered dangerously. “This building belongs to me. This apartment is mine; I merely let you borrow it for a season. Even that bed, which you have had the audacity to defile, belongs to me,” Zane said passionately.

  “Zane, it’s not what you think,” Jenna started to explain, her voice shaky. Jimmy stared at Zane in horror. This wasn’t Zane. He wasn’t even talking like himself; even in his most formal moments, he had never heard Zane use words like “audacity” and “defile.” There was only one likely explanation for his utterly irrational behavior.

  He was using nanospeed again.

  “That’s ridiculous, Zane,” Jimmy scoffed, trying to fight back with logic. “This entire building belongs to Quintan-Forrest Enterprises—not to you or to me.” It was probably futile to even try to reason with him. Nothing would be accomplished by talking to a man whose brain had been invaded by nanobots bent on aggression and risk-taking.

  He needed to call security, but his flipcom was across the room. Could he get to it unobtrusively, without antagonizing Zane? One wrong move and Zane’s nanobot-induced aggression could be unleashed against both of them. Silently he wished Jenna could break out her atlatl gun. Of course, her weapon was downstairs in her own apartment. Jimmy himself had so confidently trusted in the security of Quintan Tower and the protection of Grier that he’d never bothered to get a weapon of his own. He’d certainly never expected he’d need to defend himself against his own friend.

  In desperation, he tried to appeal to the part of Zane who was still his friend. It had to be there somewhere, even if it was buried deeply.

  “Zane,” Jimmy began calmly, “why don’t you head back up to your suite tonight and we can talk about it in the morning? Yes, we all have a lot to discuss, and there are things we need to get into the open, but I don’t think the middle of the night is the best time to do it.” Jimmy started to climb out of the bed, but Zane drew a gun and aimed it casually—at Jenna.

  His heart stuttered.

  “Zane,” she said hoarsely, “what are you doing?” Jimmy froze at her side, not daring to slide toward the flipcom.

  “I would have given you everything, Jenna,” Zane stated matter-of-factly. “It’s too bad you turned out to be nothing but a high-class whore.” Jenna gasped as if h
e had punched her low in the gut.

  Rage boiled over instantly within Jimmy. His forbearance disappeared in an instant. How dare he say something like that to Jenna! Jimmy wanted to rush at Zane and knock him to the ground and just pound his head until he snapped out of it. But the gun was still pointed at Jenna, and she was shaking in fear.

  Jimmy raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Zane, you don’t want to hurt Jenna. None of this is her fault. Just put the gun away, and we can talk.”

  Zane didn’t move. He still had the gun trained on her chest. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” Zane said dismissively. “Jenna is nothing to me now but a means to an end.” The words sent icy fingers creeping around his heart. If she was just an object to Zane, he would have no problem hurting her. Possibly even killing her. He had to get his fingers on that flipcom.

  “We are going upstairs, and you are going to convince Jax to come down with us,” Zane instructed methodically. “You will do this, or I will kill Jenna.” Jimmy almost barked out a laugh, though he choked it back, unsure of how Nanospeed-Zane would react. Did he honestly think that barging in on Jax like this, with Jenna under threat of death, would somehow make Jax want to calmly leave his sanctuary?

  “What is the problem, Zane? Is the gate still not working?” Jimmy asked, trying to stall for time. “If that’s the case, Jax works best alone in his suite. Taking him down to the gate won’t solve anything.”

  Zane just laughed, the sound cold and metallic and mirthless.

  “Now, Jimmy!” he ordered. “I don’t have time to waste.”

  What could they do but comply?

  They made an odd procession heading for the lifts, considering that Zane hadn’t allowed them to grab robes or even shoes. Jimmy was shirtless and Jenna was wearing nothing but the shift she preferred to sleep in. Jimmy walked in front, though he kept glancing back at Jenna to check that she was still safe. Jenna walked in front of Zane, and he still had the gun aimed right at the back of her head.

  Inside Jimmy seethed. How dare Zane treat them like this! Rationally he knew that most of this was caused by the nanospeed, but there had to be some part of Zane that really did think of Jenna as his possession and Jimmy and Jax as just tools to be used and discarded. The nanospeed would just make all those qualities worse. Where was the Zane who was his friend? Why wasn’t he fighting it?

  If they all made it through this alive, Jimmy was going to strangle Zane.

  In the lift he pressed his thumb to the screen and activated the stop on the twenty-first floor. Jax was a night owl by nature, so most likely they would find him awake. Jimmy was already dreading this. Zane wouldn’t hurt Jax—he was pretty sure—because he needed Jax to get the local gate design to work. But Jax wasn’t going to help them easily. Jimmy was almost certain that Jax was going to have a meltdown as soon as they all marched into his space. To his reclusive soul, three people coming into his apartment at the same time was a radical invasion. Jimmy eyed the emergency button in the lift, but he confirmed once again with a sidelong glance that Zane’s gun was pointed directly at Jenna’s head. Would he hold off on shooting her if Jimmy pressed the call for help?

  He sought Jenna’s eyes, and they were pools of terror. She gave him the tiniest nod, giving him permission to risk her safety, but he couldn’t do it. He would have to wait until Zane was distracted to do something. There was a pretty good chance that Jax would flip out and provide a very effective distraction. Jimmy just needed to sit tight for a moment.

  The lift doors opened to the small lobby that was the entryway for Jax’s suite. Jimmy went to the security pad and pressed his thumbprint again; he went through the retina scan as well. A disembodied voice proclaimed, “Welcome, James Forrest,” from a speaker. Jimmy knew that the same greeting would play in every room in Jax’s house. It was his fair warning so that he could hide if he wanted to. This time, Jimmy didn’t know whether he wanted Jax to hide or to be found.

  They walked into the front entry of Jax’s suite, Jimmy in front and Jenna and Zane crowding him from behind. In the foyer, Jimmy stopped for a moment, listening for any sign of life that would tell him if Jax was on his way in. Normally, if Jax was anxious to see him, he hurried straight into the foyer, leaving Jimmy to wait only a minute. Sometimes Mrs. Smitz, the motherly soul who took care of him, would come to greet Jimmy and tell him where his brother was. She had a monitor in her room that tracked Jax—or anyone else—by body heat. At this time of night, Mrs. Smitz was almost certainly asleep. Thank the stars for that, or she would wander right into Zane’s nanospeed-warped scope.

  Tonight, Zane didn’t even let them wait that short minute for Jax to make his appearance. He pulled out a small tablet and tapped at it. “He’s in the lab,” said Zane. “Let’s go.”

  Jimmy swallowed his surprise that Zane had a personal way of tracking Jax and took the door to the left. Zane had overseen Jax’s security measures personally; it seemed that while at it he had jettisoned all concerns about Jax having any kind of privacy. They entered a long hallway with abstract art viewers hung at intervals. Jimmy didn’t even bother looking around; he was too deep in thought. How would Jax react? With a fit? Or would he simply run away? How could Jimmy best use that to his advantage?

  He was about to find out. They had reached the door to the lab. It was locked, like always, but once again, Jimmy’s thumbprint and retina scan sent the door sliding silently back into the wall. He stepped carefully through the doorway, turning and flashing a glance at Jenna. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing too fast, but she still seemed all right. Zane met his eyes, his gun still barely an inch from Jenna’s head. He gave a little jerk of his head, indicating Jimmy should keep going. Jimmy drew in a deep breath and called out, “Jax! I have a surprise for you!”

  Nothing but silence in response. Jimmy started to move among the tables and the equipment, most of it instruments to measure things that he didn’t understand in the slightest. The room was large, taking up almost half of the entire floor, but Jimmy knew where Jax would most likely be. At the far end was the model of his brainchild, his obsession for years, the reason Jimmy had been packed off to Zenith, and ultimately, the specter that had driven Zane beyond rational behavior tonight.

  As they worked their way closer to the far end of the laboratory, Jimmy could hear the tink of metal tapping against metal. Jax was fixing something. Jax hated to be interrupted when he was working.

  This was going to be even worse than Jimmy had thought.

  17. The Gate

  The gate was far simpler than Jenna had expected.

  Despite the gun at her head, she had to stop and stare at it. It was a large octagonal frame about three feet thick crafted out of something that looked ceramic. It reached almost to the ceiling and was wide enough for maybe three people abreast to walk through. There were wires that looked as wispy as thread woven together like a web hanging limply from the back. But as far as she could tell, that was all there was to it.

  This was the technology that people were willing to kill to prevent? Or squander fortunes to obtain?

  Then again, this was just the model. Maybe there was more to the actual prototype.

  From behind the gate she could hear a gentle tinkling noise, like someone was striking a crystal goblet with a fork. In front of her, Jimmy hesitated, clearly not wanting to get his brother involved in this.

  “Jax?” he called softly.

  The clinking silenced immediately, but there was no response from Jimmy’s brother.

  “Jax?” he tried again. Jenna held her breath. Would Jax come quietly? Or would he go hysterical? Would he even understand the danger they were in? Zane was close behind her, the gun no longer aimed at her head but hidden, pressed against her back. His hot breath brushed her neck, but she didn’t dare move farther away.

  A head suddenly popped up from behind the gate.

  He stared at all of them
, his eyes wide and bulging. He was quiet for a moment, and then he let out a bloodcurdling screech and dashed away, running along the opposite back wall. Zane watched him flee without a word, apparently unmoved. Jimmy was tense; he looked like he had been about to rush right for Zane. Maybe he’d expected Zane to be startled or to bolt after Jax. Instead, Zane just waved his hand at Jimmy.

  “Jenna and I will stay here. You can go retrieve your brother. Tell him anything you need to,” Zane said airily. He glanced briefly at his tablet. “He’s still in the lab, and I’ve locked the lab door. He can’t get out.” Jimmy gave Jenna an anguished glance. She smiled at him bravely, trying to reassure him. Maybe while he went after Jax he could think of some way to get them out of this mess. She sure couldn’t think of anything.

  After Jimmy had trudged away, Zane took a lock of Jenna’s hair and ran it through his fingers. She suppressed a shiver. She couldn’t forget how he had spat “high-class whore” at her earlier. He seemed to be remembering the same thing.

  “I realized you were an industrial spy your first night at Marah,” Zane spoke suddenly, his voice icy. “When I saw the security footage of you trying to break into the gate room. It all made sense then. Your coyness with me over the months, your refusal to actually marry me but manipulating my father into making you a project lead. It was very skillfully done. You should be proud of yourself,” he mocked.

  An industrial spy! Jenna would have laughed if it wasn’t so frightening. Spying for whom? She didn’t have any contact with their rivals. It didn’t matter one whit to her whether they ever finished the gate, other than releasing Jax—and therefore Jimmy—from being the constant pawns of Quintan-Forrest Enterprises. But they were only minutes away from the Red Zone, where rule of law didn’t exist. If Zane took her down to the Quintan Edge and convinced everyone she was a spy, he could kill her publicly, and Mr. Quintan wouldn’t even lose sleep over it. Yet he was right in a way. Putting off his physical advances and refusing his proposal without rejecting him outright—it was all business. She didn’t dare look back at him, lest he read the guilt on her face and misinterpret it.