‘It was enough to have my “protectors” rolling their eyes and ignoring my antics,’ he said, by way of admission. ‘We planned to try to have me pass out in one of the bedrooms where I would then sneak away, but in the end, we didn’t need to.’ He glanced at me suspiciously. ‘Something happened, and suddenly all but one went running off, saying they had to get to the cemetery.’
I winced.
Quentin raised his eyebrows. ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. What have you been up to?’
‘I’ll fill you in later,’ I said, not bothering to add: when you’re sober. ‘Tell me the rest.’
‘Not much more to tell. Have I told you how much I love this part of you?’ he said, running his finger along my collarbone. ‘I lie awake at night and think about doing this. Think about everything we could be together.’ His voice ran like velvet across my body and I fought the need to lean into him. He saw, and smiled.
‘Quentin, tell me what else happened tonight.’
He sighed. ‘It’s very hard to be good right now.’
I nodded. ‘I realise that. And you’re doing extremely well.’
He let out another heavy sigh. ‘With only one guard left, I hit him from behind with a wooden chopping board and Morris gave me his bike. I ditched it a few blocks from Burn and backtracked another couple of blocks to make sure no one was following me. When I finally got to your place, Gus was on his way out.’
At least he’d gotten away cleanly. I hoped.
I lay with Quentin for a few more minutes before extracting myself with the promise to return shortly. I quietly closed the bedroom door and prayed he would drop off to sleep. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit a part of me wanted to go back in there and jump into his waiting arms. For all I knew, it would be my one and only chance.
Gus was in the same place I’d left him, standing over Travis, prodding him in the forehead with one hand, the tranq gun in the other.
‘How long did it take you to figure it out?’ Gus asked me, keeping the gun poised while nodding towards the bedroom.
‘Probably a little longer than it should’ve,’ I admitted. I’d been too busy basking in Quentin’s words to notice he was on something.
Gus rolled his eyes. ‘If it’s any consolation, it says a lot that, even on that stuff, all he wanted was to get to you.’
I shrugged, not wanting to get into it with Gus right then. As I got closer, I noticed Travis wasn’t moving.
‘Gus?’ I queried.
‘What?’ he snapped. ‘I did like you said, but you were gone a long time and my arm got tired.’ He waved the tranq gun around and I ducked a few times. ‘My finger just slipped! Could’ve happened to anyone.’
I pulled the tranq dart out of Travis’s shoulder and sighed.
Nine
Courtesy of Gus, Travis was knocked out for at least the next few hours so I sent Gus to bed, planning to have a rest on the couch where I could keep one eye on the door and the other on Travis.
Gus, already yawning, disappeared in a flash.
A couple of hours later, Quentin came out of the bedroom. Looking sheepish, he sat beside me.
Eventually he took hold of my hand, his fingers outlining the grazes on my knuckles, sending bolts of electricity up my arms and straight to my heart.
He raised his free hand, gesturing to my face, which was now sporting a bad bruise. ‘What happened?’ he asked, a hint of gravel in his voice.
I shook my head and pulled my hand away. ‘How are you feeling?’ I countered.
He licked his lips. ‘Pretty rough, but better. More myself,’ he said.
I nodded. ‘That’s good.’
‘At least I get to stop living the lie now,’ he said, causing me to blink in confusion. He noticed. ‘You didn’t really think I wanted to be there? Please tell me you know me better than that by now.’ His eyes locked with mine and I found myself nodding.
‘I know,’ I whispered. ‘I just … I know what it’s like to have everything you believe in torn down, and I feel sick knowing that I did that to you.’
‘You didn’t do that,’ he said, gently running a finger along my forehead and brushing back a few strands of hair. ‘My family – the people I believed were my family – did that.’
Unsure where to go from here and feeling self-conscious about what had happened earlier, I jumped to my feet. ‘Hungry?’
Quentin, looking at me as if he knew exactly what I was avoiding, nodded slowly.
I found a couple of packets of ramen noodles and boiled them up, and we sat on the couch and ate in silence. At that moment, what was there to say? The world as we knew it would never be the same. The bad guys were hunting us down, and the people who were supposed to be the good guys had turned their backs on us. A trigger-happy tech genius was asleep in the next room. And a black-market criminal – whose place we had just commandeered – was tied up and gagged in front of us.
Silence seemed appropriate.
After we had eaten, Quentin searched the bathroom and reappeared with a small first-aid kit. He proceeded to tend to my grazed hands. He also found a tub of ice-cream and held it gently to my bruised jaw.
All the while, I stared at him, wondering if there was anything I wouldn’t do for him. My need to protect him from those who would do him harm was extreme. Perhaps it was due to our status as a true match. I thought back to the pregnant woman at the Mercer Ball who had stood by and allowed her true match to gun down her husband, who was also the father of her unborn child. Would I allow that?
I hoped not.
But I couldn’t say for certain.
‘I’m sorry about your mom,’ I whispered. We’d each settled back onto opposite sides of the sofa, and I was trying hard not to focus on where our thighs were touching.
‘I’m sorry about your dad,’ he echoed.
‘Yeah, he’s a real piece of work,’ I said, suddenly exhausted.
He threw me a roguish smile right before he jumped up, pulling me up with him. Suddenly I was standing before him, and he was close, and I was fairly certain he was about to kiss me, and Christ I wanted that kiss. I wanted it more than I’d ever wanted anything before. His eyes fixed on mine as his lips moved dangerously close and my heart thumped in my chest. With every ragged breath, I felt the frenzy of emotions and our desperate need to be together. Our lips hadn’t even touched yet and I was already overwhelmed by my desire to be owned and to own him.
Except, of course, when I heard a sound and realised we had an audience.
‘Uh, Quin,’ I murmured.
‘Uh-huh,’ he replied, his lips brushing mine, causing me to almost throw caution to the wind.
‘Travis is awake,’ I said before I could stop myself.
Quentin blinked and stepped away from me as though I’d just tossed a bucket of ice-cold water on him.
I wanted to laugh, but my attention was quickly on my prisoner. Seeing his eyes and the way he watched me reminded me of my imprisonment. My jaw clenched as I slowly stepped towards him.
Travis watched me and I could feel the nerves radiating from him.
He was scared.
He should be.
But he was also a career criminal. He knew how to play the game. And he had people who would start looking for him before long. I needed to close whatever deal I was going to make with him, and fast.
I walked up nice and close and put my fingers on the edge of his gag. ‘I don’t imagine your neighbours are unaccustomed to hearing screams coming from this place, but still …’ I smiled, as if this whole thing was completely normal, and glanced briefly at his gun in my hand. ‘If you don’t do as I say, the next thing to hit you won’t be a tranq. Do you understand me, Travis?’
He nodded.
I pulled down his gag.
He heaved a deep breath before narrowing his eyes at me. ‘You shot me in the balls!’
Quentin winced.
I continued to smile. ‘What can I say? I was feeling sentimental.’
‘What doe
s that mean?’ Quentin asked.
Travis huffed. ‘It means the bitch already kneed me in the balls once before.’
Quentin glared at Travis. ‘Then I suggest you stop pissing her off.’
Travis looked between us, his eyes settling on Quentin. ‘You shouldn’t be here, Mercer. However much ass you’re getting for this, trust me when I tell you, she’s going to get you killed. You should go back to your almighty family.’
‘Not going to happen, Travis,’ I said. ‘At least not while there are people in this world who can expose him.’ My threat was clear. And he saw the truth in my eyes. If it came down to it, Travis was a price I would happily pay to protect Quentin.
Travis’s shoulders slumped. ‘I tried to warn you, Maggie.’
I crossed my arms. ‘Oh? When exactly was that? Before or after you sold me out and double-crossed me?’
‘I told you to walk away the day after Roosevelt. I didn’t know you when I made the deal with your father. I didn’t even know he was your father until the very end when I worked a few things out. I’d already taken his money. There was no backing out for me. I had to hand over the intel. You know how it goes in our world. But I only gave him what I had to. You gotta believe me.’
‘Yeah. You only gave him enough to capture me and leave me locked away in a cell with no light, no hope and barely any food or water for over a month!’
Travis looked horrified. ‘Your own father did that to you?’
‘His and mine,’ I said, waving towards Quentin.
‘Shit, you two really lucked out with the family trees.’
‘And you are plain shit out of luck, Travis,’ I threw back.
‘Look,’ Travis started, but then winced.
Quentin disappeared into the kitchen, returning a moment later with a bag of frozen vegetables. He dropped it in Travis’s lap.
‘Thanks, man,’ Travis said.
Quentin shrugged and sat on the couch.
‘Look, Maggie,’ Travis tried again, turning to me. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not usually in the business of double-crossing, but it was an easy score – it was win-win for me. I was getting intel from you and money from your father. I was cleaning up.’ When he saw my face, he quickly added, ‘Not that that’s an excuse for what I did.’
I glared at him. ‘It goes like this, Travis. You now work for me. You and your entire team.’
Travis choked on a laugh. ‘Sorry, but you can tie me up and tranq me all you want, sweetheart. You won’t get my team on board. They’ll happily watch you kill me before they ever work for you.’
I waited.
When his smile faded, I continued. ‘Your hands are tied behind your back so I forgive you for not noticing straight away, but if you wriggle around a bit I’m sure it won’t take long.’
I waited.
Travis slowly started to move. It only took a second.
‘You’ve got my M-Band.’
I smiled broadly. ‘No, Travis. I don’t. Gus does. I’m not sure if you ever did your homework on Gus. He’s a man of many talents. He was the head programmer at the Clarendon M-Store, but he liked to moonlight as a hacker, restoring retired M-Bands and selling them on the black market along with some other bits and bobs. Basically there’s nothing he can’t hack or … download onto an M-Band. Did I mention I filmed a portion of our meeting back on Roosevelt, including the part where you activated the mines that ended up destroying half the island and taking … how many lives?’
Travis’s face paled.
‘You see, I’ve always been good at keeping evidence. We all have skills, and that is what I do very well, Travis. I also happen to have a number of other … informative little moments documented from the following day. Let’s just say, it will be crystal clear to M-Corp exactly who was responsible for hijacking all of their lust-enhancer labs over the past three weeks. The files have all been stored in your M-Band in a place where, I promise you, no matter who you go to or what you pay, you will never find. But the second you cross me again, the second I think I can’t trust you, all the files linked to your M-Band will be sent to the police, and to M-Corp security.’
‘They’ll kill me, Maggie.’
I nodded slowly. ‘At least I’m giving you the chance to dig your own grave. It’s more than you ever gave me.’
I turned away from Travis to give him a few minutes and took the opportunity to glance at Quentin, who was watching on. I wondered what he thought of me at this moment. Was he disgusted that I could go this far and be so heartless? Did he think this was easy? Did it remind him of how I’d treated him?
I looked away, turning my attention back to Travis.
‘Tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen.’ Travis shook his head. ‘And for the record, if you’d knocked on my door instead of knocking me out and tying me up, I would’ve let you in and tried to help anyway, Maggie. Believe what you want, but I wouldn’t have sold you out if I’d known you.’
I nodded. ‘And for the record, I wish I had been able to trust you enough to do that.’
Travis lifted his chin at Quentin, but kept his eyes on me. ‘But you trust him? A Mercer?’
It was the easiest answer I’d even given. ‘With all our lives.’
Ten
Travis paced back and forth. We’d released him a few hours ago, and Gus had joined us to let Travis in on our plan.
‘We’re all going to die, you know that,’ Travis stated.
Gus nodded at me pointedly.
I stared.
‘You want to go down into the tunnels and free an entire neg hub?’
Gus nodded again.
I stared.
‘And who exactly is in the ground team you’re proposing?’ Travis asked.
‘Me. You. And four of your best men,’ I answered.
‘Her, you, three of your best men, and me,’ Quentin corrected.
‘No, that is not how it’s going to happen,’ I said through gritted teeth.
Quentin crossed his arms and leaned against the kitchen bench. ‘Yes, it is. You’re not going down there alone with him and his men. No way. I’m coming with you.’
Travis grinned and gingerly sat down. ‘Well, I have to say, I didn’t see that coming from a Mercer. Maybe you aren’t full of shit.’ He looked at me. ‘I agree. He comes. Better for all of us. If my men think he’s down there, they won’t think he’s up here double-crossing them. And clearly he’s the only one around here who has any hope of controlling you.’
I glared at them all.
Gus started chuckling. ‘What?’ he said, when I turned a hard look on him. ‘He’s right. And anyway, Quentin’s the only one besides you who’s been down there before.’
Quentin cleared his throat. ‘You should know that if they see me, they’ll probably shoot on sight,’ he said, hands in his pockets, looking at his shoes.
‘Well,’ Travis said, sensing the mood, ‘that all but makes you one of us then.’ He leaned his head back, blinking as if fighting to keep his eyes open. ‘And what happens to all of us after we majorly piss off the richest bastards in the world? Have you got somewhere to go?’
I wiped a tired hand over my face, wishing I had a better answer. ‘We’ll go off the grid, maybe get our chips removed.’ I exhaled. ‘I don’t know, Travis. We’ll leave the city that night and hope that when everything comes out about the negs and the underground …’
‘What?’ He laughed. ‘That you’ll be welcomed back with open arms?’
‘No,’ Quentin said. ‘We’re not naive. But if what we do is enough to create division in public opinion, it will inevitably cause a division within the power structures too. And a division makes us valuable to one side.’
‘Yep,’ Gus agreed with a sarcastic nod. ‘And a goddamn target to the other.’
Travis pointed at Gus while looking at Quentin and me. ‘You should listen to your friend. We do this, we will be the most hunted people in the world.’
‘So you’ll do it?’ I asked.
&nbs
p; Travis rolled his eyes. ‘Well, apart from having no fucking choice, I wouldn’t mind blowing a few holes into the M-Corp armour. I’ve got a few friends that turned neg all too suddenly for my liking. I reckon I owe them a little justice.’ He paused and looked at me, his eyes softening slightly. ‘I reckon I might owe you too.’
I studied Travis, his shirt stained with blood and dirt from being beaten with the car door and dragged across the floor, his wrists badly bruised from the zip-ties. He had every reason to hate me and betray us, and yet … I found myself nodding, knowing that if he did double-cross me, it would most likely end in all of our deaths.
‘But once we’re done, we go our separate ways. Something tells me I’ll be safest as far away from you lot as I can get.’
He was a smart man.
‘What about the guys you’ll bring in? Do you trust them?’ Gus asked.
Travis didn’t hesitate. ‘No. But these guys will do anything for the right money, and I think that’s the best way to go on this one. We tell them what they’re risking and pay them well, but otherwise we don’t give them the dirty details. Best if that stays just with us.’
I was surprised to see Travis strategising so quickly, but then, why wouldn’t he? He was going to have to go down there with us, and giving the wrong people the wrong information would end very badly for him as well as for us.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Brief your men on a big money, high-risk job, but nothing else until the night so they can’t go running off their mouths. And make sure they know this is a no-kill job. Not unless there’s absolutely no other option.’ I hadn’t killed anybody yet. At least not directly, and I didn’t want to start now.
Travis nodded. ‘When are we doing this?’
I turned to Gus and Quentin. With each day that went by, we were in more danger of being discovered. I would’ve liked a few more weeks to get stronger, but I was fit enough to hold my own. ‘Gus?’ I asked, knowing that he would need a certain amount of time to get his end organised.
‘Two days at least,’ he said. ‘And you’re going to have to get into the tunnels via an entry you’ve never used before. Your dad was aware of everything you’d done, which means at some point he corrupted our contacts or people we paid off along the way. We need a clean slate.’
Corruption Page 10