Tahir tapped something into the screen of the device. “Per our records, you left your home and boarded the subway, heading south. I presume you were on your way to Federal Plaza where you work? There was a delay on the tracks that held you stationary. Somehow…someway he caught up with you. However, that isn’t the issue. There’s was a pattern, almost a fractal of consequence, so to speak, that repeats itself no matter how we rearrange your circumstances.” Tahir cleared her throat.
The room went gray, muffled, the way Jin imagined it would be like underwater. She couldn’t see, not really, but she could…
A growled request. A maniacal laugh. A gun.
“Do you trust me?”
Remnants of a vision that Jin didn’t understand or remember fluttered across her mind. She blinked and surfaced, the room snapping into full-color focus in time to see Aiden’s head whip around to face Tahir, frantic.
Aiden reached out to Tahir, almost as if he wanted to stop her.
“Don’t…”
“In every instance you…died attempting to save Aiden.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Spring Street, Manhattan
October 4; 10:39 p.m.
Thirty-six minutes ago…
“You’re not going to make this my fault!” Aiden yelled.
Jin snatched her arm out of his grip and moved away from him, her face screwed up in anger. “I’m a grown woman. If I want to have a drink, I’ll have a goddamned drink.”
She marched into the kitchen. She was too short to reach the vodka, so she had to climb onto the counter. Her fingers had just barely brushed the bottle when Aiden wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her down.
“Let go of me!”
Aiden gritted his teeth and tried to keep his grip as she kicked and fought in his arms. He didn’t smell any liquor on her, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He had all too clear memories of coming home and finding her passed out, sprawled across the bathroom floor with her face in a pool of vomit. Drunk. Soon after that incident, he’d discovered bottles everywhere—in her shoe boxes, in the space between the fridge and the counter, behind the sculpture in the living room. And it didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was how Jin coped with losing Chaerin. An escape.
So he made the decision that they would face this together. He wasn’t going to let her deal with her demons—her past—by herself. But her recovery was mostly her. She put herself on the right path. She recollected the faith she’d lost in herself. Things were normal for a couple of years, but all of that changed with the nightmares. Night after night, Aiden would wake up to find her tossing and moaning, her brow slick with sweat, and night after night he would gather her in his arms and soothe her back to sleep. It was after the nightmares started that Aiden noticed the small changes. He would call to check up on her and notice a slight slur in her speech. He would come home and find her staring at a box that she kept in the closest—a small award won by Chaerin Williams that Chaerin’s parents let Jin hold onto. He would ask her to stop and she would snap at him.
This morning he’d found a mini bottle of vodka in the trash, empty, and he’d lost it. While she ran errands, Aiden tore through the apartment in a search for more. There had been one more. The one she was trying to rip him apart to get to.
“Talk to me,” he demanded.
“We have nothing to talk about,” Jin told him through clenched teeth.
Aiden forced her onto the couch, her arms still clamped in the circle of his. He straddled and hovered over her as she fought. When she tried to pull free, he shook her once, hard. “What’s wrong with you!? Why are you fighting me?”
Jin bit her lip and turned her face into the cushions.
“Talk to me, Jin. Tell me what’s wrong. I know you don’t want that drink. I know you don’t. I can help you!”
Jin’s head whipped towards him, and Aiden was taken aback by the anger in her eyes. “Stop doing that.”
Aiden frowned. “Stop doing what?”
“Trying to fix everything! You are not my savior. You can’t be everything to me. You can’t fix everything. Some things are broken and can’t be fixed. I’m broken, just like this stupid watch and you can’t—”
Aiden’s jaw clenched. “I don’t care.”
“You should! You, of all people should care. I’ve been a fucking mess since you met me.” Her gaze hardened. “You cannot fix me.”
“You’re so self-important, you know that? Do you even realize that? How selfish you are?”
“I’m aware,” she replied caustically.
Slowly, Aiden released her arms but Jin didn’t make a mad dash to escape.
They continued to glare at each other, Jin in anger, Aiden in impotence.
He broke first, bending forward until his forehead rested on hers. “I don’t want to fix you, Jin. I just…I need you. I need you alive and healthy. You know that…”
She slumped against the couch and the anger drained from her. Her eyes fluttered and she blinked back tears. “I was scared and the store was there and I… I’m sorry I keep doing this to you.”
Aiden frowned. “Scared? Of what?”
“I don’t know, I can’t explain it. I feel like…someone is watching me, coming for me,” Jin said quietly.
He didn’t like to hear her utter the words “I’m scared.” In the short list of Jin’s emotions that always made Aiden wary, her being scared, of anything, anything that would cause her to slip up and drink again, frightened him. So, he couldn’t fix the problem. Okay. But he could always make sure she was covered. That was his motivation as he moved from over her and stood up.
“Where are you going?”
Aiden didn’t answer her right away. He took a step toward the window and looked behind the brown fabric of their sleeper sofa. Right under the window was wall safe. They had valuables, yes, but Jin wasn’t really into shiny jewelry or rings. She had one golden bangle shaped like a dragon that looped around her wrist three times that she liked to wear, but even that wasn’t considered valuable enough to steal. Instead of expensive jewelry, there were other valuables—passports, money if they ever had to disappear again, Jin’s original birth certificate and the one thing Aiden thought she needed the most. Her gun.
She didn’t pull the gun out often or at all from what he’d seen. The last time was when they lived in their last apartment. She’d pissed him off, so he had unearthed it from under a pile of case files and boxes from his closet and shoved it into her hands. He wondered how she would react to seeing it again now.
The gun case was green and black, with shiny locking clasps. He pulled it out and walked it back to the coffee table. As soon as he set it down, Jin rolled her eyes and sat up.
“I said I was scared of something. My imagination, a shadow, the boogey man. You can’t shoot the boogey man.”
“Humor me?” he said as he took a seat beside her. He flipped the locks open and pulled the pistol from the black egg-crate padding. “You don’t have to carry it around but—”
A strong knock at the door interrupted him. Aiden glanced at the clock. 11:05 p.m.
“Who on earth could that be?” he grumbled. “Don’t they know what time it is?”
“This is the city that never sleeps, remember?” Jin exhaled and rubbed her face tiredly. “Turn me loose, Dock Ock.”
Aiden studied her for a moment, watching something shut down behind her eyes. Instead, he stood, pulling her up off the couch so he could hug her. He kissed her on the forehead. “No, I’ll get it.”
Jin nodded before getting up and walking into the bedroom. He wished he knew what was going through her head. She was strong, he knew that, strong to a fault. But she was still emotional—vulnerable and weak in ways that he would never understand. She sat down on the edge of the bed and their eyes met through the open doorway. She smiled. “When you get back…we’ll talk. I promise.” Aiden nodded, and without thinking, slipped the gun into his waistband. He walked the short path through the living room to the door
. Though the peephole, he saw a man dressed all in brown. “Can I help you?”
“Delivery.” The voice sounded odd and low. Aiden raised a brow. “At eleven at night?”
The man kept his head down, but he raised a bright-pink box with white lettering level with the peephole. Dolce Confections.
“You’ve got the wrong apartment. We didn’t order anything from you guys… there’s some mistake.”
The delivery man looked at the slip of paper attached to the box. “Are you Ms. Jin Amaris?”
Aiden scowled. “Do I sound like a Ms. Jin Amaris to you? Hold on.” Sighing, he stepped back from the door. “Jin,” he yelled as he swung the door open. “Did you order anything from Dolce Confections? The bakery you always talk about?”
There was a beat of silence before Jin peeked around the corner. “No. I just went in to look around.”
“You see? No delivery,” Aiden said. Jin came up beside him, her face lit up with curiosity. She glanced at the box in the delivery man’s hand.
“Sorry for the inconvenience,” she said with a smile. “You can tell the owner…Imane? That I’ll stop by tomorrow and make a purchase.”
“Here.” Aiden reached in his pocket and withdrew a couple of wrinkled dollars bills. “Take the tip anyway. Not your fault that…”Aiden’s words tapered off as the delivery man slowly raised his head. The money in Aiden’s hand fell to the floor.
“No.” Aiden shoved the door closed, but the sturdy metal bounced off the tip of Shen’s shoe. When his foot snaked past the frame, Aiden opened the door just enough so he could slam it across Shen’s ankle.
Shen howled and snatched his foot back, and Aiden tried to force the door shut again, but Shen caught it before it could close all the way. A thousand thoughts ran through Aiden’s mind, but only one stuck. He couldn’t let Shen into this apartment. It would be the death of them. Reaching behind him, he slipped his hand around Jin’s wrist and with his other flung the door open.
Shen was surprised, and Aiden took advantage of it, pushing forward and butting his head into Shen’s, listening to the crack of bones. Shen stumbled, away from the door, the box falling from his hands. Red cake tumbled across the floor as Aiden sprinted from their apartment.
Ten feet.
Left, stairs.
Three flights.
It was empty in the stairwell. The landlord did just enough to pass inspection, but the stairwell lights were never bright enough in Aiden’s opinion. He used the elevator while Jin always climbed the stairs. She said it was a good cheap workout. He was always scared she was going to trip because of the bad lighting, but right this moment he was thankful for the shadows, even if they weren’t enough to hide them. Not nearly enough.
A door above them opened and slammed against the wall. Aiden paused for a moment and edged closer to the center handrail. A mop of dusty brown hair appeared over the edge as Shen glared down at Aiden with enough anger to set him on fire.
Shit. “Go!” Aiden yelled and pushed along Jin’s back, urging her down the stairs faster. They hit the bottom floor and raced through the foyer to the street. The October air was cool, and they were severely underdressed, but the bite of chilly autumn air was like fuel. Aiden spotted a cab idling by the corner and started for it, but a man in a wrinkled business suit and his tie loose around his neck stepped up to it and slid inside.
They couldn’t wait for another taxi. Aiden thought about shouting, getting someone’s attention, asking someone to call the police. But he knew Shen. He knew Shen would open fire in the middle of the street and not give a shit that people were in the way. Shen had moved the heavens to break out of jail. He’d done everything to get to Jin. Nothing was going to stop him. They had to run.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Hey!” came an angry voice in their wake as they sped up the sidewalk.
Aiden heard Jin throw out a rushed “Sorry!” as they kept going, trying their best to avoid running into anyone. Hardly anyone was out and about—a couple walking their dog, a gang of teenagers who should probably be in the bed for school the next day, an older woman locking up her store, and a street performer whose jaunty music was now the soundtrack for their escape. Aiden looked over his shoulder. He didn’t see Shen. He was surprised, confused even, but he wasn’t about to sit around and wait for him to find them.
“I didn’t see him following us,” Jin breathed when they reached the entrance to the subway. “Let’s wait here for a second and call the police.”
Aiden shook his head. No way. Taking her hand, he led her down to the turnstiles, pulled his pass out of his pocket and scanned them through.
“The C train,” Aiden insisted as they jogged down the stairs and onto the platform. “We need to take the C.”
When the train pulled in, they darted into a mostly empty car and took seats facing the platform.
“We get off at Chambers and run straight to Federal Plaza,” Aiden said. “Right now, that’s the safest place we can go. No one can get in without authorization. No one. Once inside, I can put out an APB from there.”
Jin sighed. “It would have been quicker to go to the police.”
“I don’t know anyone from the precincts. I don’t trust them. I trust the Bureau. I trust my own.”
No one else had boarded their car, and he fell back against his seat, exhausted, as the train pulled away from the station. Jin was huddled with her hands between her thighs and she was shaking. It reminded him of the night he met her, when she was cold and scared, hands jammed between her legs as they sped up the highway. He felt sorry, suddenly. Sorry that he hadn’t done enough. That he’d promised to keep her safe, and yet she was in the back of an empty subway car, shaking.
“Are you cold?” he said as he blew into his hands before rubbing them over Jin’s arms.
“No,” she said quietly. She was still shaking.
Aiden understood. He understood her fear. He shifted in his seat and something blunt and cold pressed against his back. Jin’s gun. He reached behind him and withdrew the gun from his waist band. The subway platform vanished, and the lights in the car flicked off briefly.
When they came back to life, Jin was looking down at her lap, frowning. “No,” she said, pushing the pistol back toward him.
Aiden brought her closer, pressed his lips against her brow, and pushed the gun back into her lap. “Now isn’t the time, Jin. Just take it.”
They rode in silence for several long seconds, and heavy brakes squealed as they pulled into the next stop. The subway car doors opened…and stayed open.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this train is being held at the station by the dispatcher. Thank you for your patience, and we should be moving shortly.”
Jin frowned. “We’re only one stop down. Perfect. Thank God we aren’t running for our lives or anything,” she said, her tone biting.
Minutes passed, and a few passengers got on—a young boy with a pair of large red headphones clamped over his ears, a man with a clanking duffle bag, and a lady with a tote over her shoulder. A little dog poked its head out and yawned before snuggling deeper in the bag. The next to board was an older man muttering to himself. Aiden ignored them.
“This is a Brooklyn-bound C train. Next stop, Chambers Street, transfers available for the A, E, 2, and 3 trains. Please stand clear of the closing doors, please.”
The last person to board almost didn’t make it. Right as the doors began to close, he rushed through them, stumbling in with a laugh. Still laughing, he turned to face Jin and Aiden.
“Well, isn’t this just amazing? I mean, I’m good, but this? This has to be fate,” Shen said, waving one hand.
Jin gasped.
No. No. It was impossible.
“Surprised? Yeah, I would be too. Jin always said I was a little stupid, said I didn’t get enough school when I was kid or some bullshit like that, but I thought, now if I were a federal agent, where would I go?” Shen chuckled and used the heel of his hand to wipe away some of the blood
running down his nose. “Your penchant for predictability is adorable.” He stood midway down the subway car, smiling at them like a cat who’d caught a mouse.
Aiden’s gaze darted around the car, taking note of the other passengers. For the most part they were paying no attention to Shen, and the lady with the dog even rolled her eyes at him.
Aiden turned his attention back to Shen. “How did you find us?”
“I’m resourceful.” He shrugged and pulled a gun from the waist of his pants. The woman screamed when he pointed the gun at Jin and Aiden. “Now we don’t have a lot of—” The woman screams turned to sobs and the dog in her bag began barking. Shen sighed. “Lady. I will snap that dog’s neck into pieces if you don’t shut it up.” There was a pained yelp, a whimper, and the cabin was quiet again. “Thank you!” Shen breathed.
The train picked up speed, heading for the next stop.
“Now we don’t have a lot of time to bullshit around, so what I want you to do, Jinni—and don’t think this is a request. I’m not giving you an option.” He pointed the gun toward her. “Come here.”
“And if I don’t?”
Aiden willed away his smirk. He had never been more proud of Jin’s stubborn streak.
Shen tsked. “I thought we just discussed the lack of options?”
Jin glanced at Aiden, just the merest shift of her eyes. “That’s all you want?”
“That’s all I want.” Shen held out his hands in a gesture of welcome.
Aiden stood and eased in front of her. “Over my dead body.” He reached down and grabbed her hand.
Shen smirked at his suggestion. Aiden hated that smirk. “Tempting, but not today. I just came for what’s mine,” he said, glancing at Jin. “You know I’d never hurt you. Not you, Jinni.”
Aiden remembered Shen’s cold glare the day she testified against him in court. He remembered what happened to Chaerin. He remembered the threatening note stuffed between Chaerin’s bloody fingers. Shen was a snake, and he’d already hurt Jin enough.
The Halo of Amaris Page 17