by Beth Ryan
The gun was a familiar silver, the same one I’d left with Audry hours before, and it wasn’t pointed at me. It was pointed at King’s hostage. The one person who was never supposed to be here.
“No.” I felt like I was going to gag, or scream, or maybe both. “No!”
The air had been knocked from my lungs as he stared back at me with a gun to his head and defiance in his eyes. I couldn’t breathe.
“Cooper,” I gasped out.
“Nathan.”
That was all he said. I didn’t know what meaning he was attaching to my name. A warning, perhaps. An apology as well, I should think. His left fist was clenched and he rubbed it against his trench coat covered chest as though there were a pain there.
I glared at the man who had dared hurt him, the man who now had a gun shoved up against his temple. My knees trembled, protesting at their job of holding me upright.
“Security found this one standing at the front gate, waving this gun around like he wanted to be captured,” King said.
He sounded smug, but my attention flicked to him for only a second before it returned to Cooper. I couldn’t look away from where metal pressed against flesh.
“What were you thinking?” I hissed.
Cooper gave me an offended look, which only served to increase my fury. As he opened his mouth to answer, King shoved him further into the room and kicked the door shut behind them both.
“Keep quiet,” he snarled at us.
When Cooper whimpered I saw red. I wanted to lash out. I wanted to grab the gun and shoot every Lemniscate and profiler who was guaranteed to be waiting outside that door. I was powerless, though. With Cooper in the enemy’s grasp, there was nothing I could do, and as King cleared his throat, our eyes meeting, I could see my own defeat reflected in his gaze.
“My children,” he said. “Where are they?”
I blinked at his demanding tone. My thoughts of murder, revenge, and escape battled with my need to protect the others. I stepped back, my hands brushing against the keyboard behind me as I prepared to shut off the system that could reveal they’d been set free.
King glared, waiting for a response.
I couldn’t fathom the vile nature of this man. He had ordered his own children’s demise to maintain his position. He hadn’t hesitated to destroy an entire section of the city to silence them. Even now, he was using my weaknesses against me to confirm they’d been eliminated.
Sine Circa. Without Regard...for his children, or his honor, or the horrors he would allow to continue on around him.
“We won’t give them up,” Cooper said, struggling to get free.
I wanted to slam my face into a wall a few times. His words were brave, but they confirmed the one thing I’d been trying to hide, and the thing King now knew; his children were alive.
I shifted, trying to get closer to the computer to shut it down before he could see what I’d done, how I had managed to release them from his grasp. The move was just enough to completely block the screen I’d been using to destroy their trading chip connections, but he caught it anyway, and I could see the realization in his eyes. I knew I’d answered his question as blatantly as Cooper had.
I turned away, hating how much I’d given up in trying to protect them.
“They’re alive?”
Something about King’s tone gave me pause. It was the same tone I’d used when I saw Cooper at the door, the same desperation, the same slight waver.
A small cry from Cooper had my attention back on the two of them in an instant. He was stumbling towards me, a pronounced limp in his right leg, and King was pointing the gun at both of us.
I grabbed at Cooper, pulling him into my arms to support the weight that his leg could not, scanning him for any other visible signs of damage. The only thing of note was the way he continued to favor his right leg. My mind wandered back to the moment I’d crossed the forcefield barrier and heard a crashing sound in the forest behind me. I wondered then, if I’d stayed long enough to see that Cooper was following me, if we might have gotten out of this unscathed.
So many ifs.
“You okay?” I whispered, tightening the arm around Cooper’s waist to help him stand straight.
He leaned against me, heavy but alive. His solid weight in my arms was reassuring. He nodded, his eyes trained on King and the gun. King still had the gun pointed at us, but his attention was on the screen I’d been trying to hide. With one hand, he was typing away among the files. He wouldn’t be able to track his children through the system now or reactivate their chips unless he had a direct connection through a Transfer Cable. I’d made certain of that at the very least.
I turned enough to whisper in Cooper’s ear. “What were you thinking, coming here? You aren’t supposed to be here.”
“Neither are you. I can’t believe the others just let you leave like that,” Cooper said, not bothering to keep the conversation from King. “They even tried to stop me following you.”
His dismissive scoff brought to mind Audry and Joshua doing as I’d ordered, physically holding Cooper back when he attempted to rush into danger. They clearly hadn’t done a great job of it. I slipped my hand into both pockets of the coat he wore, but he must have left the scalpel behind for the others or maybe lost it when he’d tripped in the woods.
“What part of ‘together’ did you not understand?”
“The part where—” I started, then shut my mouth.
Cooper was staring at me with an expectant look, like he really did want to know what I thought he meant when he said we’d be going to Paris together. I snorted and shook my head. He grinned back at me, and I wanted to say so many things, about how it wasn’t okay that he’d come after me, how he was supposed to be safe and on his way to Paris. Instead, I just stared at him with an exasperated smile. “God, I hate you.”
“No, you don’t,” he whispered back.
“No, I don’t,” I agreed, just as King’s attention fell on us again. I shifted my focus back to the man who was holding us captive and raised my voice. “Let Cooper go.”
King’s mouth twisted into an ugly sneer at my words. He might have had a gun pointed at us, but it didn’t feel as dangerous as it had before. Before, it was directed at Cooper. Now, I could get between him and any bullets headed our way.
King wasn’t saying a word. He looked like he was considering his options. He was very calm. I didn’t like that. The more time he had to think, the worse our situation would get.
“You would need to physically connect to the chips to turn them back on again,” I warned, edging my way in front of Cooper. “You can’t turn them back on remotely.”
King only scowled at my words.
“Of course not. Why would I even want to?” he asked, his sneer twisting into something hateful that bared his teeth. He waved the gun and began to pace as he continued. “My family is more important to me than anything else. We are the ones who created the chips, you know. I understand how they work better than anyone in the world. I can alter any chip in any way I please, and no one can ever stop me. I’ve ruled the entire country this way, and you think to tell me what I can and cannot do? I know what my limits are, and yours. You might have deactivated the other chips, but you haven’t deactivated his.”
“If you’d give me half a second,” I started, unable to rein in my sarcasm.
I’d never dealt with danger the way I should; Audry had once speculated that my coping mechanisms were directly related to issues with my mother. I’d told her to fuck off.
“I don’t think so,” King replied.
The gun was pointed at my chest, but his eyes were on the slight man I’d half hidden behind me. He tilted his head to the side just a bit, and the corner of his lip twitched. I shifted forward to pull Cooper all the way out of view. To my frustration, the dark-eyed young man pushed me away and left himself bare to the gun pointed at the both of us, leaving me to wonder if there was something about the people I tried to protect that made them
think they were invincible. Ivy had done the same thing with her brother only a few hours before, after all.
"I can't have you telling anyone,” King whispered, more to himself than anyone else. “No one can ever know."
The older man still held the gun in our direction, his eyes darting back and forth between us, as though uncertain which of us would be stupid enough to try and stop him. Or as though he couldn't decide which of us to kill first. His gaze settled on Cooper. My throat constricted. There wasn’t enough air in this little room.
King's expression shone with a manic desperation, and realization dawned on me that this was a man willing to destroy entire countries just to keep his children safe. He was no different from the other elite who followed a creed designed to stop at nothing to keep their secrets, except now his secret had changed. His motivation, the thing that drove him, was not the wealth of the Lemniscate.
Without regard, he would protect his children.
"We want them safe too," I said, the words rushing out of me before I’d thought all the way through my plan.
His eyes flicked to me, but moved back to Cooper just as quickly. It was difficult to keep my voice steady when my throat felt so tight, and my heart was working double time to rush my adrenaline-soaked blood through my body. Only years of calming frightened clients kept my tone soft. That was what he was to me now: a client.
"Mr. President, I promise we are on your side."
"Is that so?" he snarled. "You really think I'm going to leave my children's safety to you?"
"Yes," I told him, and then fought down the triumphant smile that threatened to rise to the surface. King looked back at me, startled, and then uncertain. Right where I needed him. I moved forward, and the gun swung over to point right at me. A calm washed over me. "Yes, Elijah King, you will trust me. I am the best at what I do as well, and what I do is help people. I make them safe. I've already made your children safe."
"They aren't safe. So long as you are capable of telling someone that they are alive, they are in danger. You are a danger to them," he proclaimed
Again, his attention and his gun swung back to Cooper. Bile clawed at my throat. It was Cooper who wasn't safe because of me. I had to change that. I had to.
"I know how you feel," I whispered, my voice hoarse. I turned to look at the younger man at my side and then I couldn't look away. "You love them so much you'd do anything to protect them. You would kill for them. You would die for them. I know how that feels."
Cooper stared back at me with his mouth agape and eyes impossibly wide. I turned away before I could get caught up in his startled expression.
We'd met barely three days ago. We knew nothing about each other and had only shared a few fleeting kisses. A confession like this was out of place, and we both knew it.
"Send Cooper Hall away," I ordered, looking at King again. "Send him somewhere safe, and then you can do what you want with me. You can kill me, or place me in a prison, or wipe my memories, but only after I know that he is safe. The only thing that could ever push me to reveal your children’s survival is placing him in danger. That includes the gun you have pointed at him right now. Send him away, and I swear on his life and my own that I will never speak a word about Ivy and Joshua again."
"No."
The echo of that word startled me, coming from both King and the man I was attempting to save. I turned to glare at Cooper even as King continued.
"That isn't enough.”
“It’s all I’m willing to give,” I replied, still glaring at Cooper to keep him silent.
The weight of my glare was ineffective. He was leaning hard to the right, and I knew it wouldn't be long before his ankle gave out on him. We didn’t have the manpower to fight our way out of this.
“I could still tell someone,” Cooper said, and again the wave of frustration welled inside me. He wouldn’t look at me, though. He kept his eyes trained on King, who was still pointing that blasted gun directly at Cooper’s head. “I won’t, though. I’ll never tell a soul, as long as I know that Nate is safe. If you hurt either of us, then your children will be hunted the rest of their lives.”
“I see,” King said, and he didn’t look happy.
I was prepared in that moment to throw myself in front of Cooper. He’d put the leader of the Lemniscate in an impossible situation, and the only solution I could see now would be to kill both of us before we could ever tell a soul where his children were. However, instead of shooting at us, Elijah King lowered the gun.
“I will let him go,” he said to me. I only had a moment to feel a flood of relief wash over me before he continued in his thoughtful tone. “However, in return you will agree to never leave. Instead, you will join the Lemniscate so that I can keep an eye on you, to be certain that you never speak a word of what has happened tonight. If you consent to physically connecting to the system, I can reactivate your trading chip. Then Mr. Hall will be free to leave, safe in the knowledge that I have you here, alive and in service to your government. You’ll both be unharmed so long as my children are as well.”
“No!” Cooper cried out again. He took a step forward, but King lifted the gun out of his reach and stepped back, unconcerned. He raised an eyebrow at me and I locked eyes with him, nodding my agreement.
“Nate, don’t. He’ll—”
“I’ll be fine,” I said before Cooper could speculate on what might happen to me.
We both knew it was a lie. I was the best at what I did and I knew every single way this could go wrong. One incorrect keystroke, one poor cable connection, and King would wipe my mind. He might do that regardless, if he thought it was the better option.
I took Cooper’s hand with a reassuring smile and led him to one of the many office chairs. He refused to sit, gripping my hands like they were a lifeline. I looked away from the pleading expression he wore. If I looked at him too long, I would want to memorize every inch of his face, and he was frightened enough as it was.
It had always been my job to calm him down, so I did my job.
“I do this all the time, remember?”
“I’m not leaving,” he whispered in answer. I gave him an indulgent smile.
“Of course not.”
“Sometime tonight, please?” King broke in, crashing through the moment.
I let go of Cooper’s hands and turned my back to him. There was no more time for soft words or easy reassurances now. There was no more time at all.
I straightened to my full height and turned to face my fate.
33
I was tense even before the knife came into contact with the back of my neck. I forced myself to relax. One centimeter off, and I’d end up just like my mother, paralyzed and desperately crawling away from my responsibilities.
King set the gun on the cluttered desk. He didn’t need it anymore. The impossible situation was a weapon all its own.
As he slid the sharp edge of his scalpel along the scar I’d had since birth, I suddenly understood what every one of my clients had endured. Intellectually, I had always comprehended their desperation, but now I had firsthand experience at why they would take such a risk. The threat of being killed for my actions hardly mattered when faced with the security of Cooper, Audry, and the others.
Thinking of him, my attention was drawn to the young man across the room, leaning against a table. He crossed his arms as he met my gaze. I closed my eyes, unable to stand his look of betrayal.
“You shouldn’t have followed me back here,” I murmured, wincing as King’s clammy hands fumbled with the cord that would connect me directly to the trading chip database. “I had this under control. I still do.”
“If ‘under control’ means sacrificing your life for ours, then I’m sure you know what you’re doing,” Cooper grumbled.
I opened my eyes long enough to see him shift. His ankle must be killing him.
King ignored our argument, typing away at the computer and deleting any hope of a future I might have had. Still, whatever he
planned to do to my chip meant nothing to me as long as Cooper was set free and allowed to go back to his family without facing the consequences of my crimes.
When the typing finally stopped, I turned to the head of the Lemniscate. The cord still attached to my spine strained at the movement, and I fought the urge to reach back and unplug the thing. There was no telling what kind of damage I might do if I pulled it off at the wrong angle.
“Hold still,” King snapped, his hands settling on my shoulders to keep me from moving.
Shoulders stiff, I remembered the way I’d done the same thing to Cooper only a couple of days before. Was this how he’d felt when I touched him, trapped and nauseous?
The snick of the transfer cable being ejected from the trading chip port relaxed me. Whatever King had done, whatever changes he had made in the small bomb attached to my spine, it hadn’t killed me yet.
I reached back with hesitant fingers to trace the edges of the wound where the small metal chip was buried. I could feel it against my fingers, wet with blood and as permanent as the day they’d put it in me.
I turned to King, a dozen questions buzzing through my mind about what he’d done to me and what he planned to do to Cooper. He pressed his finger to his lips and shook his head, a warning in his eyes. I snapped my mouth shut.
“Don’t speak yet, Mr. Donovan. I’ve taken great pains to change the parameters of your chip, and it would be a shame to have you accidentally kill yourself before you fully understand your restrictions. Hush now, I’ll explain everything.”
King’s voice was meant to be soothing, but it grated on my nerves. He began to pace again.
“Now, I assume by your presence in my home that you already know about the kill procedures hidden inside each trading chip? Wonderful. Using that same technology, I have reversed the effects of your chip reward system. To be blunt, if you tell the truth at any point for any reason, you will die.”
“Excuse me?” Cooper’s outraged tone matched my own internal alarm. He pushed himself off the table, only to stumble and rest back against it. Face screwed up in pain, he asked, “What counts as the truth?”