A Broken Jewel (Jade Book 1)

by Lucy Rains

  Pierce chuckled softly, “You do realize that neither Gavin or Alex paid full price for your services, don’t you?”

  I turned my head up to his, “What do you mean?”

  Pierce folded his arms, his stance relaxed as he also watched Kyson. “Gavin uses his ability when he wants. None of us can tell him what to do or control him. So, if you think he’s abusing his talent, being unethical, morally wrong,” Pierce shrugged, “there’s no point in complaining about it.”

  His words sunk in. “Gavin used his ability to get out of paying full price for my hair?” I turned away, as I thought back to the receptionist that had been ogling him when we walked in. “I bet he didn’t have to work very hard,” I mumbled. Still the revelation intrigued me and prompted more questions. “What about in the lab? Why didn’t he use his persuasion ability to get out, or escape?”

  Pierce didn’t answer for a long minute. I glanced up and saw his eyes had glazed over, lost in memory. When he realized I was looking at him he snapped his attention back to me. “It wasn’t that easy. His ability only works on one person at a time, the compound is tightly controlled with many security personnel.”

  The sound of a door opening and closing drew my attention to the garage. Gavin appeared, shirtless, and wrapping his wrists in black straps. “If he managed to get past one person, it would only take a few minutes for that guard to realize what had happened and alert the rest of security to his absence. And also, he wouldn’t be able to fool the security cameras.” He let out a deep sigh, “And at times we were drugged.”

  I gave a sarcastic chuckle, “Yeah, I know how that feels.”

  “There were times when he would use it. To get extra food, a few minutes longer in the shower, perhaps extra Television time. But he never wanted to risk having his ability being discovered. So he kept it subtle and simple.”

  Gavin has stacked a few large sets of weights on to a bar and was laying down on the bench.

  Kyson was towel drying his car now, running a squeegee over his windows. I glanced up at the sky, wondering how long his car would even stay clean.

  “Are you feeling any better? About being here?”

  I turned my body towards Pierce and crossed my arms again. I shrugged, “I don’t know how I feel about anything right now. Or that there is anywhere I would belong.”

  We stared at each other, his gaze searching mine. “Wouldn’t a wolf belong in a wolf pack? A deer with its herd? A lion with its Pride?”

  I looked down at the grassy lawn, understanding what he was saying but unsure of how to answer. “I know you guys feel like I should be comfortable, that I should feel like I belong here.” I paused, at a loss for words. I eyed Gavin while he pushed out several bench press reps. “It’s just not that easy.”

  Pierce opened his mouth to respond when the front suddenly opened and Alex hopped down the front porch steps.

  He trotted over to us and stopped, Pierce stood up straighter, hs face becoming tense. “What is it?”

  “I tracked Vera’s phone call to the number here in D.C., you’re not going to like it.”

  “Who is it?” Pierce asked, his voice tight.

  “Well, it took a bit of research- because the name didn’t ring any bells. But when I looked into his records, I realized that he’s part of Zraa.”

  “Shit.”

  I tensed at Pierce’s curse, his emotions taking a twisted turn. “What’s Zraa” I asked.

  “And when I dug deeper,” Alex continued, “I found that he’s connected with Jason. Possibly who Jason reports to.”

  “Who’s Jason?” I tried again.

  “What’s his name?” Pierce asked.

  “Ebony.” Alex answered. “Richard Ebony.”

  Pierce rubbed around his mouth and chin. “We should be prepared for a phone call from Jason soon, or even a visit.”

  Alex nodded, “The security around the house is up to speed. We tightened the ropes just before we…” He glanced at me, “added Jade.”

  Pierce nodded at this and Alex turned to begin walking away. I waited until the front door closed behind him before turning to Pierce.

  “Who’s Jason?” I asked again, with more urgency.

  Pierce didn’t answer me. I forgot my questions as I saw his eyes suddenly became dark as storm clouds on a summer day. His head whipped to both sides. “Something...,” he muttered. He closed his eyes and tipped his head to the sky, his mouth dropping open slightly. “Something….” he breathed deeply, “is coming.” His eyes flew open and panic filled them. “Cover!” He bellowed. “Code red!”

  Too many things happened at once. The crashing of metal weights sounded from behind me. Kyson threw his towels down and sprinted into the garage. My mouth opened to ask what was happening, but I was being hauled off my feet and dragged behind Gavin’s car.

  Before I could protest, the sound of gunning engines and screeching tires filled my ears. Pierce slammed me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me. He didn’t even look at me as he barked, “Stay here!”

  He ripped open the side door to Gavin’s car and thrust his hand under the front passenger seat. I heard a sharp velcro noise and a silver handgun appeared in his hand. He checked the magazine and snapped it back into place.

  Nothing made sense. I didn’t understand. Yelling, a flurry of motion, don’t move, a door slammed, the knees of my pants soaking, stay there. I felt like an outsider looking in at the chaos.

  Flattening my body, I peered under the Audi. My attention went to the street as the engine noises grew louder. It sounded like someone had removed their car’s muffler. Two black sedans pulled up sharply to the curb in front of the lawn. Deep engines hummed, the sound of car doors opening. I looked back to Pierce to ask questions, but he was now standing. The gun tucked into the rear of his pants, his arms hung by his sides. Behind him I could see Gavin and Kyson crouched behind a stack of brown moving boxes in a corner of the garage. Their eyes were narrowed, their faces tight with tension.

  I looked back and saw four pairs of legs now standing in the grass. They walked forward lazily, stopping in the middle of the lawn. Black denim, dirty boots, and one large pistol hanging by someone’s side.

  My body froze, my mouth dropping open. I couldn’t look away from the weapon. Breathing became difficult and the desire to flee rushed over me.

  Pierce stood motionless, waiting. He placed his hands on his hips, his face set in a firm scowl. I adjusted my weight and slowly, so as to not make any noise or draw attention to myself, I brought my knees up, one foot planted. I didn’t have as good of a view under the car, but I would be able to move faster when needed.

  A deep voice sounded over the car engines, “Cowards! Hiding like ants!” A different voice hooted in agreement. “No more hiding!” The voice held a heavy accent. “We’ve come to show our gratitude for what you did to our brother!” He made a noise to clear his throat and spat into the grass.

  “Your brother was a murderer,” Pierce responded. “And a rapist. He is where he belongs.”

  The first voice spoke again, the large gun I could see shook slightly as he spoke. There was a murmur of voices in the foreign language. Swahili? Arabic?

  “What our brother did was none of your business! You should have kept your noses out of it. Because of you, we lost all of our business! Money! Reputation!”

  “Then maybe you should leave, go back home.” Pierce suggested with a shrug. “Or else you might end up like your brother. Imprisoned. Tortured.” He said this with a deep punch of satisfaction.

  I knew this last comment would not bode well with the visitors and I was right. A shot rang out, shattering glass. A high shriek escaped my mouth as I gasped. Pierce quickly dropped down behind Gavin’s car. Glancing down under the car, I could see the feet begin moving quickly in various directions.

  Gunshots rang out, and a dog barked somewhere behind me. Would a neighbor see the situation and call for help? The temptation to curl into a ball and hide under the car was loom
ing in my mind. I couldn’t run, not with so many bullets flying.

  Putting my legs out behind me and flattening down again to the cement, I threw my hands out in front of me under the car. I let out a strong gust of energy that flew towards the approaching feet. They stopped, two sets tripping slightly. I waited a few seconds and then did it again, and again. On the last one I put a stronger force into it that brought down one of them to their knees. They cried out in shock, and also pain. Those energy gusts would leave heavy bruises on their shins.

  Pierce and Kyson took my distraction and charged the intruders. Fists connected with flesh and heavy grunts burst from the men.

  A spark of courage lit in my chest. I needed to move. My heart raced and I felt light headed. Bringing my feet up, I crawled to the back of the car and leaned around the end.

  A large black man with a red bandana around his head, was inching slowly towards the garage. He held a gun up in both hands, cautiously approaching. I brought up my left hand and shot out a long harsh burst. As he was caught off guard stumbling backwards, I moved to bring around my right arm as well, wanting to add more energy to slow him down. But before I could bring my arm up, a shot sounded behind me, while a flash of searing heat filled my right shoulder.I screeched, and turned around. My attacker was a tall thin black man, pointing a gun down at me. He sneered, a gold tooth peering out from his mouth.

  Fear rolled around in my gut. What the hell was I doing? I gritted my teeth. My skin burned like wildfire and tears pricked my eyes. I flicked my palm at him, energy spiking into his wrist and dislodging the gun from his hand. From my crouched position, I brought my right foot up and connected with his wrist again, hearing bones crunch on impact. He hollered in anger and shot out a large black boot at my head. His action’s forced me to bring up my injured arm to block the blow. I grunted harshly at the pain that spread into my neck and made my headache.

  The continued aggravation to my arm was not allowing the wound to heal. Warm liquid streamed down both my back and arm. I couldn’t tell if the bullet went in or not.

  As his eyes narrowed on me my heart hammered in panic. I brought up my good arm and let out another shot of energy. It wasn’t enough. Mixing pain and panic, my energy was weakening, and the shot only managed to push him back a step.

  The man eyed me curiously, not understanding what I was doing. I looked around me for something I could use as a weapon, and could only find the dropped squeegee from Kyson, laying by the front of the car, a few feet away, out of reach.

  The man was approaching me again, now only a few feet away, curiosity replaced with angry determination to end me. His large hand reached to grab the top of my head. I twisted my torso away out from his reach and dropped quickly to the cement, rolling once to reach the squeegee. I gripped the handle with my uninjured arm and flipped it at the man. It connected with his cheek with a satisfying thunk. His head whipped back, forcing his body back from me and I shot another energy burst at him to level him on the ground.

  Alex appeared from around the corner of the garage at that moment. His eyes widened when he saw me. “Jade?!”

  I grimaced in pain, jerking my head towards the guy on the ground. When Alex raised his gun, I looked away quickly to avoid seeing the gore that I knew would come from his bullet wound.

  I heard a few more shouts and then all was quiet. Deathly still. I whipped around, adrenaline still pumping madly, and paranoia making me unable to drop my defenses. Sirens sounded. I looked everywhere, making sure no one was trying to approach me, that there wasn’t an unseen threat we had missed. My body trembled and my breathing was raspy. Streaks of bright red slashed across the sidewalk where I had rolled.

  “Pierce!” Alex screamed.

  As footsteps pounded to answer Alex’s call, I dropped back, leaning onto Gavin’s tire. My left hand came up to squeeze the bullet wound.

  Kyson didn’t speak but his eyes blazed with fury. Gavin looked annoyed.

  Their fear was suffocating me. My senses tuned into their emotions, and I could practically hear four separate heartbeats speeding up faster than they already were.

  “I’m ok,” I tried to reassure them. It didn’t work. I must have sounded awful because their fear grounded harder on me.

  Pierce turned to Kyson, “Is the bullet inside?”

  Kyson shook his head.

  “Is she hurt anywhere else?”

  Kyson shook his head stiffly, seeming unable to speak. His lips were pinched together so tightly they were white.

  I gripped the side of the car, trying to push myself to a stand, but my legs shook, threatening to give out. My breath was becoming shallow and quick. Sirens sounded in the distance. Pierce swore again.

  The humming in my chest was doing nothing to comfort me. Exhaustion was creeping in as the stress was leaving. I took another step and a hand went around my waist, lifting me up. I was too numb to care or even give the slightest protest. I dare say I was thankful.

  The sirens grew louder. “I’ll take care of her, you guys deal with this,” Kyson spoke quickly, hurrying into the house.

  Pierce began giving clipped orders to Gavin and Alex, but I couldn’t tell what he said. I pressed my head to Kyson’s broad chest and closed my eyes. Not opening them again even when I was being set down on the hard bathroom counter for the second time that day.

  My arms shook slightly, the trembling running up my shoulders and into my chest. The hard eyes flashed in my mind. The gleam of weapons. The fear…

  Nausea brimmed low in my stomach from the release of nerves and I took deep breaths to regain mental balance.

  “Jade,” Kyson spoke softly, almost in a whisper. I opened my eyes to see him beginning to reach for my waist. “We have to take off your shirt.” His eyes showed compassion, knowing I wouldn’t like his request.

  I nodded obediently. When I tried to help by raising my injured arm, a fresh blaze of pain ripped into in my shoulder and I hissed in pain.

  “I’ll get scissors,” he said, and began rummaging in the same drawer Alex had earlier. I pinched my eyes closed, waiting for the fire to ease back down.

  I held still as he ran the scissors up the side of my shirt and over the wound, clipping quickly through the tank top to expose my bare torso. He cleared his throat and I opened my eyes.

  His blue eyes were locked on my shoulder, and I turned to my bullet wound. My stomach rolled at the sight. Pink flesh puckered open around the very top of my shoulder, where the bullet had grazed over it. A mixtures of fresh and dried blood covered my entire shoulder and down on to my chest. And right next to the gash was my bra strap.

  “I’m sorry, but I need the strap out of the way.”

  I flinched, “No,” I bit out.

  Kyson looked at me in irritation. “I’ll just clip this strap, you can hold it over your chest to keep it up. But it has to go. If you were in a medical office it wouldn’t be a question.”

  I swallowed, knowing I was being unreasonable in the given situation. “Fine,” I huffed, and placed my hand over the top of my bra to hold it in place.

  After clipping the strap, Kyson quickly disinfected the gash and cleaned the area around the wound. His thick hands were expertly quick and knowing all the right moves.

  “You scared us.” He spoke while rinsing the washcloth in the sink. Pink liquid sloshed around the porcelain bowl. “Gave us all freaking heart attacks.”

  “Even Gavin?” I snorted. “I doubt it.”

  “You would be surprised.”

  I rolled my eyes and leaned back against the mirror.

  Kyson went on, “We’re not immortal, you know.”

  “Why?” I laughed dryly, “Have any of you died?”

  He leveled me with a hard stare. “We’ve seen the other test subjects,” he paused, “not recover from deep enough wounds. A shot to the heart, or enough headshots, will take out any of us.”

  “I was fine,” I mumbled, laying my head back against the wall again. It rolled slightly as the muscles
lost any desire to work.

  He took a step back and nodded confidently to my shoulder. I looked down hesitantly, but the wound was only an angry pink line. My stomach released its tension.

  Kyson gripped the bottom of his light gray t shirt and pulled it over his head. My eyes widened and my breath caught in my throat. Even though he wore a simple white tank top that molded to his chest, his movement was bringing a warmth to my cheeks I couldn’t stop. Broad shoulders rounded in a hard chest. His hard chest led to a flat stomach and-

  Kyson cleared his throat, pulling my attention away before I could continue my study. He held out his shirt to me and I stared at it dumbly. His eyes darted to my exposed torso and back up. He gave a knowing smile. I sat up straight and grabbed the shirt out of his hand.

  Once it was over my head, Kyson held up a finger and pinned me with a look that threatened harm. “Do not come outside.”

  “What are you going to do? How are you going to explain that?” I jerked my head towards the front of the house.

  “All we have to do is show them our I.D., they run our info, and we come up in the system as being apart of the FBI undercover ops. A few phone calls to the necessary people, and we’re fine.”

  Without asking, he placed his arms under and around me and lifted me again.

  “I can walk now, Kyson.”

  He took me over to the couch and gave me a small smile as he set me down. I didn’t return it. But I did say thank you.

  He was out the door when I called, “Wait, Kyson?”

  His head of dark hair appeared around the corner. “Who were they?” I asked.

  “The Boef. An African gang. A month ago, we were given a job to bring their brother in for many crimes.”

  “Does this kind of thing happen often? Family members wanting revenge?”

  He shook his head. “This was a first.”

  I nodded and he disappeared again. When I heard the front door close, I tuned my ears to hear the conversations happening outside. There were too many voices to catch and follow. My heart hummed in the knowledge that the guys were close. My breathing slowed as each muscle in my body relaxed and my head settled deep into a pillow. Eventually my eyes drifted closed and stayed that way.