Corruption

by Jessica Shirvington

  I jutted to the left, using the cover of what trees I could, and weaved my way forwards, giving every ounce of strength I had to keep up my pace. Once I made it out of the cemetery, I kept going, walking fast and staying in the shadows until I made it to the Court House station just in time for the last train.

  When I came out of the metro, I called Gus with one of my burn phones.

  ‘Well?’ he answered, knowing I was the only one who would be calling him.

  ‘They’re not going to help us.’

  ‘Shit. Why?’

  ‘Apparently I’m no use to them anymore.’

  Gus snorted. ‘Do they have any idea how much stuff we have on M-Corp?’

  I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. ‘No. They’re done with us. And I’m done with them.’

  ‘When you say they and us …?’ Gus hedged.

  I hesitated, which said it all.

  ‘She’s with them. She doesn’t want to speak to me,’ he said.

  ‘I’m sorry. Alex told me to tell you to stop calling Kelsey.’ I felt the unfairness of it all on Gus’s behalf. Kelsey wouldn’t even talk to Gus and he had no idea why. Aside from that, he was my friend.

  ‘Yeah, well. It was never going to go anywhere anyway.’

  I swallowed, at a loss for words.

  ‘What now?’ he asked. ‘Do you need me to come get you?’

  ‘No. I’m back in the area, just had to go the long way. M-Corp guards turned up.’

  ‘Oh, super. Did you leave any standing?’

  I smiled. ‘None I came face to face with.’

  ‘Nice to hear you’re back in form. What now, then?’

  I rotated my jaw a few times. That guard had got in a good hit. ‘I don’t trust the Pre-Evo’s, Gus. Someone led those guards to me tonight.’

  ‘And you think it was them? Pretty low for a peaceful group, don’t you think?’ he said dubiously.

  ‘I didn’t get a lot of peaceful vibes tonight – plus, they know I’ve been in touch with Master Rua. They could’ve been following him.’

  ‘All the way to us,’ he concluded. I could always rely on Gus to never miss a beat.

  ‘We’re getting a new base camp. Start packing. I’ll call as soon as I have things sorted.’

  ‘On it. Where are you going?’

  I smiled, walking through the bustling nightlife of Ballston. It was time to get back to what I knew best.

  ‘To kill two birds with one stone.’

  Eight

  The night’s chill had well and truly wormed its way into my bones. My knuckles were badly grazed, my jaw ached, and I craved the warmth of a bed. But worst of all, I was consumed by the very unwelcome sensation of hunger – not something I let happen often these days. At least the streetlights and the comings and goings from the small club a little further down the street kept me sane as I waited in the small alcove.

  I was rewarded for my efforts just after 3 a.m. when a familiar four-wheel drive turned into the narrow lane, pausing near my hiding place to wait as an electronic garage door opened. The driver was the only person in the car. Sloppy.

  Beneath my hood, I watched intently as I held my position. When the four-wheel drive entered the garage, I waited until the very last moment before dashing across the road and dropping to a ground roll, making it inside just as the door closed.

  It was almost too easy. I was on him the moment he tried to step out of his car, slamming the car door on him once, twice, three times, his grunts and groans a little more pathetic with each impact. Can’t say it wasn’t fun.

  He fell to the ground and it took all my strength not to kick him. Instead, I settled for bending over him, just enough so that when he opened his eyes he saw my face beneath my hood. When I saw the spark of recognition, I aimed my gun at his crotch. His expression quickly morphed to all-out fear. Very satisfying.

  ‘Hello, Travis. Very clearly, tell me the code to your apartment. If you give me the wrong one, I will happily shoot you before any alarm is triggered.’

  He swallowed, attempting to inch back and move his … parts out of my line of fire.

  I shook my head. ‘Uh-uh.’

  He froze.

  I glanced towards the internal elevator on the other side of the garage. ‘Is this your place?’

  ‘Y-yes.’

  ‘All of it?’

  ‘Yes,’ he hissed, his eyes darting between me and the gun.

  ‘Is anyone else up there?’

  He hesitated, but shook his head before I had a chance to ask again.

  ‘The code, Travis.’

  Sweat ran down the side of his face. I raised my eyebrows, enjoying the power. His eyes narrowed, but he knew there was no other way. ‘Seven, thirteen, sixty-six, eighty-two, seven, alfa, echo, alfa, romeo.’

  I recited the code back to him.

  As soon as he nodded, I shot him. In the balls.

  He was damn lucky I’d only brought my tranq gun.

  One good thing about dealing with lowlifes was that they didn’t bother with security surveillance. Sure, it had its uses, but with tech so easy to hack these days, most chose to go without. That is, unless they had someone like Gus to secure all the software. And Travis most certainly did not. Nonetheless, I did a quick sweep to make sure there were no cameras.

  Kneeling by Travis’s body, I patted him down, relieving him of his gun – a very nice Bexley & Moore glock that I would be donating to our collection – his pocket knife, and two handheld phones. Then I pulled one of the plastic ties from my backpack and zip-tied his wrists together, ensuring he couldn’t fight if he came around and that he couldn’t access his M-Band to set off any silent alarms.

  After I had finished gagging him, I sat back on my heels and inspected my handiwork, double-checking that I hadn’t forgotten anything. Mistakes meant failure, and that wasn’t an option. I wiped the sweat off my brow and got on with the next stage.

  Dead weight is a goddamn nightmare.

  Travis was no friend of mine – he’d made that clear by double-crossing me and feeding my father the information that ultimately let to my imprisonment. So I figured I was being more than charitable when I paused twice, as I dragged him by his feet along the concrete floor, to adjust his arms from bending in unnatural ways. As for the drag marks that were leaving a slight trail of blood … well, he could live with that.

  By the time I levered him up against the doors to the elevator, I was drenched in sweat and wheezing like a ninety-year-old stuck on a treadmill. But there was no time to rest. The tranq wouldn’t hold out for much longer.

  I pressed the elevator call button and leaned against the wall. When the bell dinged and the doors slid open, I used one foot to wedge them open, then grappled with Travis’s limp body. Somehow I wriggled my hands under his smelly, hot armpits and heaved him into the elevator.

  Making use of his pocket knife, I cut the zip-tie around his wrists so I could hold his index finger to the print recognition scanner while I entered the code. As soon as the code registered, I grabbed a fresh tie and yanked it tight around his wrists, then set about changing the security settings on the elevator. I couldn’t do anything about the code, but I was able to lift the fingerprint requirement at least.

  When the elevator doors opened, I stepped out slowly, my tranq gun poised and ready. But the dilapidated open space that looked like it had once been a factory was silent. It seemed Travis hadn’t been lying. I scanned the thick exposed beams in the ceiling and the large pylons, both of which could serve as hiding places, before I re-entered the elevator, and dragged Travis out.

  Then I got on with clearing the space properly.

  Judging by the large stained areas on the old wooden floorboards and the two fixed tables that ran down one end of the thirty-by-ten-metre space, this had once been a textiles factory.

  I spied four doors at the end of the open area and kept my guard up as I moved closer. The partitions were flimsy and recent. Breathing steadily, I opened the first
door, discovering it was a bathroom. The next three were bedrooms. I took my time inspecting them. They were all similar, except only one of the beds had sheets on it and the only clothes I found were in that room too.

  I looked through the galley-style kitchen in the main area. It was little more than a small bar fridge, a counter with a sink, a single burner working off a gas bottle and a microwave. And I discovered another small bathroom with no supplies tucked behind the kitchen area.

  After a full inspection, I was sure that this was not Travis’s only place of residence. In fact, I was beginning to think I’d been especially lucky that he’d stopped by tonight. From the contents of the rubbish bin alone, no one had been here for at least of few days.

  Satisfied we were alone, I heaved Travis onto the sofa, checking his ties, and then called Gus.

  ‘About damn time!’ he answered.

  ‘Aw, were you worried about me, Gus?’ I teased.

  ‘Bite me,’ he snapped.

  ‘No thanks.’

  ‘Jesus, one night out and you’ve reverted to the She-bitch. And no, by the way, I wasn’t worried about you, more like the trail of destruction you were leaving in your path and how it will all come back to bite me on the ass.’

  ‘You’ve been thinking way too much about biting, Gus,’ I said, enjoying the fact that he was fuming. I’d missed our chats.

  ‘I wouldn’t test me right now, Maggie. I have all of your supplies and weapons packed in my car. I could easily drive in the wrong direction and never come back.’

  ‘Where are you?’ I asked, dropping the chit-chat. Now that he’d mentioned it, I could hear the background noise of his car.

  ‘Driving the streets. Once I packed and got everything loaded, I basically started to piss my pants. I wasn’t about to hang around in that place waiting for M-Corp’s finest to come pay me a visit, was I?’

  I held back a smile. ‘Well, it’s your lucky day because we have a new place. You can drive straight in and park the car, just try to be discreet. I’ll leave the garage door open.’

  ‘And where, pray tell, is our new abode?’

  ‘Remember when Travis brought us back from Roosevelt Island?’

  Pause.

  ‘Yes,’ Gus said softly.

  I grinned. ‘Well, Travis has kindly offered up his place for the foreseeable future.’

  ‘Maggie, please, please, please tell me you are joking,’ Gus said in a low voice.

  ‘Nope. And I suggest you get your butt over here instead of driving the streets where you can be seen in your very obvious car. The code for the internal elevator is seven, thirteen, sixty-six, eighty-two, seven, alfa, echo, alfa, romeo. Got it?’

  ‘Tell me this is part of the plan, Maggie. At least tell me that,’ Gus pleaded.

  I walked over to where Travis was still knocked out, glancing back at the veritable treasure trove of weapons and tech I’d just found buried under the floorboards. ‘It’s part of the plan, Gus. Just make sure no one follows you here.’

  ‘Says the girl who got caught,’ he said with a snort before hanging up.

  Gus arrived just as Travis started to wake up. By that time, I’d moved him onto a wooden chair and secured him with a possibly too-tight rope. Oops, my bad.

  ‘Did you close the garage door?’ I checked with Gus.

  He threw me a dry look before taking in the scene in front of him. ‘No, I actually left it open with a welcome sign out the front,’ he deadpanned.

  I rolled my eyes.

  ‘Oh, and by the way, there’s something you should know,’ Gus said, scratching the back of his neck.

  I glanced up from Travis who was groaning with his head still hanging down. ‘What?’

  ‘Quentin came to the apartment just before I left.’

  My heart did that squeeze thing it does whenever I heard his name. I took a step towards Gus. ‘Is he okay? You told him not to go there again, didn’t you? It’s not safe!’ I was rambling and starting to panic. Gus simply smiled and crossed his arms which only infuriated me more. ‘Jesus, Gus! If they find him out, they’ll … He can’t take those kinds of risks anymore!’

  Just then the elevator pinged and the doors slid open. I launched myself at the weapons lying on the coffee table, snatching up Travis’s Bexley & Moore glock just in time to spin around and aim … right at Quentin.

  He stepped out of the elevator, carrying full garbage bags similar to the ones Gus had arrived with.

  He stared at me calmly as I remained rigid, my brain refusing to accept that he was there. My eyes darted between him and Travis, who had chosen that moment to finally open his eyes and was staring straight at Quentin Mercer.

  ‘Maggie,’ Quentin said softly.

  I jerked my head back to him.

  ‘Think you’d mind putting the gun down, Mags? Or at least, you know, not pointing it at me?’ he said with a quirky smile.

  I blinked. I’d completely forgotten the gun. Which only made me mad.

  ‘I could have shot you!’ I yelled, lowering the weapon.

  Jesus Christ, that would be just my luck. First ruin him, and then damn well shoot him!

  Quentin put down the bags and slowly came to me. ‘No, you couldn’t have,’ he said, sounding so sure of himself. Of me. He eased the gun from my hand and rested it on the table, swaying slightly as he straightened.

  ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ I said, even as I let him pull me to his chest. ‘Travis has seen you.’ My mind was spiralling. If I didn’t manage to keep Travis my prisoner now, he could turn Quentin in to M-Corp.

  ‘They know, Maggie,’ he whispered in my ear. I leaned back from him and looked into his steel-blue eyes.

  I jabbed a finger at Gus, who I was entirely pissed off with. He should’ve told me the second he walked in about Quentin. ‘Watch Travis.’

  Travis, who was gagged, watched on, blinking furiously as if that would somehow convey whatever it was he wanted to say. He was just going to have to wait.

  ‘Maggie, wait,’ Gus protested.

  But I held my hand up. ‘Watch,’ I ordered.

  ‘But –’

  ‘Watch!’

  I dragged Quentin into one of the small bedrooms, closing the door behind us.

  ‘Who?’ I asked, feeling dread course through my veins like ice.

  He shrugged, trying to blow it off, and collapsed onto the bed. ‘I heard Mom on the phone. She was telling whoever was on the other end that they needed to stay close to me and get ready to take me out of the game.’ His voice sounded distant, but he lay back on the bed, stretching out his arms.

  ‘What does that mean?’ I asked, fearing that I already knew.

  ‘I like this bed,’ he said in a very un-Quentin-like way.

  I narrowed my eyes, studying him.

  He sighed. ‘I think it means that my mother just ordered my execution. Whoever she was talking to was clearly following her orders.’ He sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. ‘She instructed the person to leave Sebastian and Zach alone. That she had no doubt they were loyal. I just …’ He shook his head. ‘I guess I’d been holding out hope that one of them might be in the clear, but her voice … I’ve never heard her sound like that. So cold and …’ He trailed off.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Quin,’ I said, feeling responsible.

  He suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me down onto the bed beside him. ‘No more sorrys. We’re in this together from now on, okay? I need someone on my side, Maggie. Please be on my side.’

  I nodded. ‘I’m on your side. Always,’ I said, but froze when I felt him bury his face in my neck and inhale deeply. Once. Twice. On the third time I wriggled.

  ‘Quin,’ I said, pulling back to get a good look at his eyes. ‘Are you okay?’

  He brushed his fingers across my jaw, then brought my hands up between us, running his thumb over my sore knuckles. ‘Part of me wants to stay mad at you.’

  ‘I know,’ I admitted.

  One of his hands went to my hip, pulling me
a little closer to him. ‘Part of me wants to go back and never know the truth.’ He half laughed. ‘Can you believe that? Part of me would actually prefer to believe I was a neg than know you could betray me like that.’ His hand travelled up the side of my body, his lips moving closer to mine. ‘But in the end none of it matters. You know why?’

  He was definitely slurring and his pupils were too big. I’d seen my brother with eyes like that before. His hands continued to move as he closed the gap between our bodies and, for the life of me, I couldn’t seem to pull away. I craved him that much, and the feel of his hands on me made any attempts at talking impossible.

  ‘Because I can’t fucking breathe when you’re not around. And all I want to do is be with you,’ he murmured into my neck.

  ‘Quin, have you taken something?’

  He laughed. ‘I want to kiss you, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.’

  I swallowed. ‘I want to kiss you too.’ And I would never want to stop. But as much as I longed to hear those words, I didn’t want them like this. ‘Why wouldn’t you be able to stop, Quin?’

  When he didn’t answer and just kept trailing his fingers over my body, I dug deep and tried to focus. ‘How did you get away?’ I asked, trying a different tactic.

  His hands continued exploring. ‘Morris helped with one of his overly elaborate plans. He staged a party at his family’s city apartment in Old Alexandria. I turned up and played the part of the drunk, falling all over the band and spilling my drinks on poor girls with intolerably high-pitched squeals.’

  I mustered a chuckle. ‘Exactly how much of a method actor were you?’

  He rolled his eyes.

  I forced him to look at me. ‘Quentin, have you taken a lust-enhancer?’ I knew that if he had, then being around his true match would make it almost impossible to control his desires. Which would also mean I couldn’t trust the words coming out of his mouth when it came to the subject of us.