“So, you came here to apologize for being a complete asshole? I’m fresh out of forgiveness at the moment, maybe you could try a different waitress.” Phee said it bitterly and it had the effect she wanted. He flinched.
“Wait, Phee, you have to listen to –”
“NO! No, I actually don’t. I don’t have to listen to any of your bullshit. Get out.” Phee pointed at the door, and he groaned.
“We don’t have time to do this, Phee. You don’t understand, my uncle was with me that day. The first day. He somehow found out I took you out on a date, he went through the security tapes at my fucking apartment building, and he was pissed. He was pissed, but he would have been fine.”
“Would have?” Phee stared at him, confused.
“He would have been fine if I had been able to keep my fucking mouth shut, but I didn’t. I told pretty much anyone who would listen about you, I couldn’t stop talking about you, about how excited I was to introduce you to them.” Bryant grimaced and dropped his eyes from hers, “But… but my uncle has a thing about people from, well, people from where I’m from, dating people that, are, um –”
“Your uncle has an issue with downtowners dating people from the fog? Is that what you’re trying to spit out?” Phee crossed her arms. “So, what, you decided to prove to your friend how big of an asshole you could be so you wouldn’t get in trouble with your precious uncle? So you wouldn’t lose –”
“I did it so he wouldn’t kill you!” Bryant shouted, and Phee was stunned for a moment.
“What?”
“I found out the day after we said goodbye that my uncle was going to have you killed, to eliminate any possibility of trouble, as he puts it.” Bryant shook his head, his hand buried in his hair, “I thought that if I just ignored you, if I didn’t contact you, if I stopped talking about you that he’d give up. But he didn’t. I got confirmation this morning that he had issued a kill order. I came to the café because I needed to see that you were okay, I’ve had an associate following you all day, and then I had to wait for Regan to leave. But we need to leave, right now.”
“I –” Phee’s head was spinning. “Wha- he told you he was going to kill me?”
“No. I have contacts in the COF, they tipped me off.” Bryant looked antsy, and he took a few steps towards her, but she could barely process what he was saying.
“Why are you even helping me then? Don’t you want me eliminated so I don’t cause you trouble?” Phee felt tears burning the edges of her eyes.
“Of course I don’t want you eliminated, are you kidding me? I fucking hate my uncle, Phee. You have no idea, and that’s a really long story that I don’t have time to tell you right now. I need to get you out of here, they’re coming.”
“NO! Tell me. Tell me why you’re helping me!”
“Because I couldn’t lose you! I’m part of the resistance, Phee, I have been for years! I want to destroy my uncle and the Cabal of Freedom more than anything, or – fuck, at least I thought I wanted that more than anything. But I couldn’t let him kill you; I couldn’t let him do that. He’s taken so much from me, and I couldn’t lose you.” Bryant was pleading with his eyes, and she wanted to ask why he cared, but the door exploded inward to her left. He lunged forward and grabbed her, then there was a gun in his hand and the first man through the door was hit by two bullets as Bryant threw her behind the couch and followed her. “Stay down.”
The Bryant next to her wasn’t the serious one from the café, or the playful one from their date. This was a totally different version – in control, fierce, a warrior. He checked his gun and then leaned up and fired a shot, then two more, and Phee heard the grunt of someone hit and then the thud of their body hitting the floor. She covered her mouth, her pulse pounding in her ears as her heart tried to escape past her ribs. Bryant was up on his knees, his eyes trained on her door.
“We have to move. Now.” Bryant grabbed her arm and tried to tug her up, but she was frozen. His face shifted until he looked concerned again, “Phee. Ophelia, look at me. I swear to you, I swear I will explain everything. But I need you to trust me, I know I haven’t earned it, but I need you to come with me and trust me.”
“You’ll explain everything?” She looked up at him, her head in some kind of shock, and she was grateful that there was a still a buzz of alcohol in her veins. His turquoise eyes met hers and he nodded.
“Everything. I promise.” Bryant lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles before tugging her to her feet. She pushed her feet into sneakers by the door, ignoring the two dead men in pools of blood on her floor, and then he was pulling her down the stairs.
On the first floor he turned to the front doors, but a voice called out from behind them. “Phee!” She turned around sharply to see Alex standing there. “Phee, are you okay?”
“Alex?” She stared at him, confused, but Bryant shoved her behind him his gun lifting, and Phee grabbed his arm. “Bryant! Wait! It’s Alex!”
Alex looked confused, and she saw him raise his hands, fear in his eyes as he looked at the gun. Bryant whispered at her, “Who is Alex?”
“Phee, get away from that guy! I’m here to help you, just come over to me.” Alex called out to her, but she had to lean to the side to see him around Bryant.
“He’s my boss, he owns the café, Bryant. Just put the gun away.” Phee put her hand on his back, but he didn’t move.
“Okay, he’s your boss, and he has your address? He’s been here before? This is normal?” Bryant asked the questions calmly, his head tilted slightly so she could hear him better, but she didn’t know how to answer. When her grandparents had died, Alex hadn’t known where she lived. He had sent Regan home with a bouquet of flowers, and the reason he’d given for not having them delivered was because she had never given her address. He paid the two of them in cash so the COF wouldn’t take a cut of their wages, and didn’t actually have them listed as employees for the same reason.
“How did you know my address? I didn’t give it to you, Bryant.” Phee felt a cold shiver of fear wash over her.
“I work for the COF, I looked it up. How did he get it, Phee?” Bryant turned to look at her, and as soon as his eyes were off Alex she saw him pull out a gun. Phee shoved Bryant to the side as the gun went off, the whole scene moving in slow motion as she and Bryant almost fell onto the stairs. The bullet Alex had fired shattered the glass entry door of the building, and Bryant shielded her as he ducked them behind the wall of the stairs.
“You stupid bitch, Phee!” Alex growled, “I told you there were consequences to fucking with a downtowner. And you, Bryant Holbrook…” He said the name with disgust. “Did you really think you could just do whatever you wanted, whoever you wanted?”
“What the fuck, Alex?!” Phee shouted and Bryant looked over at her with a sigh, his gun up and his back against the wall.
“What was wrong with me, Phee? I gave you a job! I’ve helped you and your idiot friend out for years. I kept her on even though she’s probably the worst waitress in the history of waitresses. I fucking took care of you! And you choose him?” A shot hit the wall in the front of them and she yelped.
“You reported me, didn’t you? You saw me ask her out, and you tattled on me like a little boy.” Bryant called out and she heard Alex roar and another shot slammed into the wall in front of them.
“Go to hell, Holbrook! You and your uncle can go to hell!”
“You son of a bitch! Phee almost died because of you!” Bryant stepped out from behind the wall, raised his gun, and fired. Then he fired again as he stepped forward, and then again and Phee scrambled up because she couldn’t see him anymore. When she stumbled from behind the wall she saw Alex on the floor, still.
Phee couldn’t help but scream. She had known Alex for years, and seeing him on the ground, dead, was insane. Realizing he had pulled out a gun to shoot them, that he had caused this, was even more insane.
“At least now I know how they found you.” Bryant was grabbing her hand again, tur
ning to the front door. “If he reported me asking you out, that would be how they connected you to the girl on my building’s security footage so quickly.”
“I thought you said you talked about me.” She stumbled over the words as he pulled her out the broken door and then the main door of the building.
“I talked about a really hot brunette named Phee, who was gorgeous, that I wanted to take out again. I never said where you worked, or your real name.” Bryant squeezed her hand as he stopped next to a motorcycle. “I really am sorry for all of this.”
“So you were actually going to ask me out again?”
“If your life hadn’t depended on it, I would have already asked you out. Come on.” Bryant grinned and handed her his helmet as he straddled the motorcycle and started it. She climbed on behind him, nervous energy thrumming through her because she had no idea how to ride a motorcycle, so she just clung on to him as he pushed off and the bike picked up speed through the dense fog. Minutes passed where she tried to process what had happened. Two men had tried to kill her in her apartment, Bryant had killed them with relative ease. Then Alex had been there, the owner of the Elsinore Café, the man who had given her and Regan a decent job downtown even though they were just two girls from the fog. The same Alex who had given her days off when her grandparents died. The same Alex who made them their favorite desserts for their birthdays. The guy who spent twelve hours a day in a kitchen. That guy had apparently reported her and Bryant, and pulled out a gun, and actually shot it at them. Then Bryant had killed him too.
And all of it, all of it, was apparently because Bryant’s uncle didn’t want him dating some girl from the fog? Phee had known it was a social faux pas. That the tabloids loved to plaster those relationships all over the front pages, but to kill her over it?
About twenty minutes later, Bryant was parking the bike in the alley behind an old, boarded up church. He let her climb off the bike first, and then he followed, taking the helmet off of her he brushed his thumb across her cheek. For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her, but he seemed to change his mind and lead them both inside in silence.
The place was strangely quiet and solemn. Old pews were somewhat out of line in places, and one was on its back. Cobwebs covered everything, and thick dust clogged the once colorful stained glass. They went down one side of the church and through a door that had stairs leading down. As they moved down the steps she could hear talking and quick bursts of laughter. His hand tightened on hers as they met the door at the bottom, “This is a resistance safe house, we’ll be safe here, okay? I just have to explain why we’re here.”
“Okay.” She squeezed his hand back, and he gave a small smile before he pushed the door open. Conversation stuttered to a halt in the room as everyone turned to look at them, several people had guns aimed and ready, but Bryant kept her tucked behind him, and his gun stayed in the small of his back.
“Hi, everyone.” Bryant waved a hand.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Holbrook?” A man stepped forward, his head was shaved and Phee could see a scar cutting across his scalp and down behind his ear. The scruffy stubble on his face was dark though, which matched his olive complexion and dark eyes.
“We just need a safe place to sit tight until everything happens.” Bryant spoke calmly, and the guy laughed in obvious disbelief.
“Until everything happens? Are you fucking kidding me? What did you do? What did you FUCKING do, Holbrook?” The man was yelling and the whole room was watching. So many wide-eyed faces.
“I made a decision, and it means we’ll just need to move the timeline up a bit.”
“How much is a bit, Bryant? And who is this girl behind you?” The man leaned to the side, but Bryant reached back to hold her hand again.
“If we can do everything tonight, that will be best. If not, tomorrow night. But tomorrow night will be a little more difficult.” Bryant stepped further in, blocking the man’s glare, “Hey, Easton, why don’t you look at me, okay?”
“Two weeks? You want us to move up the timeline two weeks?! What. The. Fuck. Did. You. Do?” Easton growled and grabbed Bryant by the jacket and shoved him back, Phee jumped to the side as they collided against the wall.
“Back off, Easton!” Bryant tried to shove him back, but Easton slammed him harder against the wall by his shoulders. “I’m serious, back off!”
“Tell me what you did!” Easton looked like he tried to get Bryant into a headlock, but Bryant ducked under it and grabbed Easton’s arm, turning until he suddenly had Easton bent over at the waist and his arm pulled precariously to the side. The way Bryant was leaning on Easton’s elbow it looked like he could break it with ease.
“EASTON. Don’t make me hurt you, man. I just want to crash at your safe house. Call Parks, have him come over, then I’ll tell you guys everything.” Bryant seemed to put more pressure on the man’s arm because Easton bit down on a shout, “And that girl is my guest, so be nice to her.”
“Fine! Fuck off and I’ll call Parks.” Easton growled and stood up, shaking out his arm as Bryant released him. Phee stepped back from him as he stomped off through the huge basement space. One wall had a giant version of the resistance symbol, but this one wasn’t hurried or rushed like the ones she’d seen on the streets. This was a white, headless chicken in chains. Its feathers tinged with blood, the chains that curved up to outline the circle looked rusted and dark. Phee’s head spun. Bryant really was a member of the resistance. He hadn’t lied.
Which meant the COF had really tried to kill her.
Phee turned against the wall and promptly threw up the bourbon in her stomach, and she was subtly grateful she’d refused dinner. A woman in jeans and a t-shirt came over and rubbed her back, “Oh sweetheart, are you okay? What happened to you?”
Bryant replaced the woman’s hand on her back, but continued rubbing. “She’s fine. Could you grab her some real clothes, and maybe a spare overnight bag if there are any?”
“Yeah, sure, Holbrook.” The woman walked away and Phee tried to breathe.
He leaned down next to her as she spat onto the floor. “It’s okay. It’s normal to react this way, everything is just starting to catch up with you. If you need to throw up again, go right ahead.”
She looked up at him, and she didn’t understand how he could be so many different people. Serious, aloof, downtowner, COF employee. Playful, fun, kinky, ridiculously hot date. And calm, badass, resistance member with a gun. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain everything, I promise. It’s about one thirty in the morning, I doubt Parks will do anything tonight, but I still have to meet with them and tell them what happened. Why don’t you lay down until I talk with them?” Bryant rubbed her back and then the girl returned with a small backpack and an armful of clothes.
“I’ll take care of her, Easton just got off the phone with Parks. He’ll be here in ten.” The woman smiled at her, “I’m Stephanie, why don’t you come with me?”
“Bryant?” Phee looked at him and he brushed her hair behind her ear.
“Stay up for me, I’ll be there soon.” Bryant smiled at her and she let herself be led away by the woman.
There was a communal bathroom they stopped in for her to brush her teeth and wash her face, and then Stephanie left her in a tiny room. Just a small bed and a little dresser. She changed out of her pajamas and into the clean clothes, which were actually a little big on her, and climbed onto the bed. Phee laid down and realized that she didn’t have the energy to begin to process everything, so she just closed her eyes. Some time later she felt a hand on her face and she jumped, but it was just Bryant, sitting on the edge of the bed and brushing her hair back. He had a half-full bottle of water in his hands and he offered it to her.
“Hey.” He spoke softly as she took a drink.
“Hey…” she mumbled, handing it back and he took another drink before screwing the lid on.
“I’m sorry, that took longer than I thought, but nothing is h
appening tonight. It’s all going to happen tomorrow night.” Bryant sighed, “I think I owe you some answers.”
“Yeah, I think you do.” Phee pushed herself up and wiped her face as she leaned back against the wall. Bryant dropped heavily onto the bed next to her, but left space between them as he leaned back as well.
“I’ll start at the beginning then, so you understand how we even got to tonight. My uncle has always been COF, he got a job when he was young and worked his way up through the ranks. Right now he’s second in command to one of the triumvirate.” Bryant glanced at her as the weight of that sank in. The triumvirate were the three leaders of the Cabal of Freedom. They always said that with three people in power, instead of one, all decisions would be fair. It was a common belief in the fog that three power hungry, corrupt, downtowners just meant worse decisions for those South of downtown, not better decisions. For his uncle to be second in command to one of them meant he was an arm’s length away from the most powerful position their government had to offer. Bryant was watching her, “So you understand the kind of power he wields?”
She nodded, and he reached for her hand.
“Well, when he was climbing through the ranks, my father found out some of the things he was involved in. Terrible things. And my father tried to stop him, threatened to expose him, expose the whole COF. So my uncle had him killed. They fucked with my parent’s car, and it exploded with both my parents in it. I was ten, and the bastard held my hand at their funeral, and took me in as his own.” Bryant stared at the opposite wall, and Phee felt a heavy ache in her chest. The memory he had shared while walking through the art installation the week before felt all the more important. “I had no idea, of course. My uncle didn’t tell me. But for high school I was sent off to a boarding school, to get prepared for the kind of role I’d need to fulfill as his successor. You see, he’s always wanted me in the COF, he wants me to be just like him.”
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