After watching her deck that guy at the Confederation for Citizen Protection, more commonly known by the acronym “CCP,” I know she’s still got some bite, and frankly it’s a relief. That doesn’t mean I want to be next or that I’ll let the opportunity her precarious position puts her in pass us by. A muffled squeak passes her lips as I allow my free hand to trace up her side. She shivers at the touch, but her thoughts don’tcontain the haggard edge of fear anymore. Her mind, it seems, has gone quite blank, and not because of my influence.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” I growl in her ear. “You can try to fight me, lose, and force me to keep you under my control. Or you can accept that I just busted you out of that hellhole and you might just be better off sticking with me for now. Your choice.”
I release her enough to allow a response but keep my grip firmly on her wrist.
“What are you going to do to me?” A tremor rides the cadence of her voice. A long, ragged tendril of chestnut hair falls into her eyes. Whole sections are torn. Some are shriveled and white, curling into one another. “What do you want, Charade?”
“You need help.”
“You think you’re the person to do that?”
“Are you going to behave or not?”
She pulls away, settling into her seat, and I let her go though I keep her wrist in my grasp.
“We both know what you purchased tonight, Charade. If you’re going to kill me, do it quickly.”Painlessly. The word floats on the tendrils of power still threaded through her skin. She shudders against it even as she chooses not to voice it aloud. I hear it nonetheless. “You owe me that.”
My black heart lurches at the bleak acceptance in her tone. The certainty.
My phone buzzes in my hand.
THIRTY SECONDS. -F
“I’m not going to hurt you.” I sigh, slipping the phone into my pocket. “I need your help.”
Her attention shifts to the building. “Thosepeople need my help.”
“The best thing you can do for them is promise not to attack me while I’m driving.”
“Charade…”
“Checkmate.” I tip my head in acknowledgment.
“Theytold you my real name, didn’t they?”
I nod, but a glance tells me that’s not what she wants. She’s waiting for me prove it.
“Katerina.” The name rolls off my tongue. “Katerina Marie Grace of 2249 Mulberry Avenue, Apt. 16C. Formerly.”
“It’s Kaye, actually.” She scowls.
“Kaye.” I savor the feel of her name in my mouth. The texture.
BOOM.
My foot mashes onto the gas pedal as a hulking plume of gray jets out of the CCP building, blasting the doors apart. Glass showers on the sidewalk from the windows.
“What the hell was that?” She scrambles to fasten her seat belt into place as my tires finish a nice squeal.
A few blocks away now, I glance into my rearview mirror to see dark figures starting to move crumpled forms out of the building. The cloud of smoke expands to cover their departure. We turn around a sharp corner and then the view is gone.
“What did you do? Those were innocent people and you just?—”
“We both know they weren’t innocent.” It was unsettling to give those assholes a stack of cash to take her with me, but how else was I supposed to get a flash bomb of that size in that building undetected? From what I witnessed, humanity had vacated those premises long ago. “The heroes are fine. Much safer now than they were with the CCP. They’ll be even better if you do what I say.”
A guttural growl emits from between her lips. The seatbelt unclips in one smooth movement. Back to me, her heel bashesthe door, scuffs marring the material covering the interior door panel.
“Take it easy. This car wasn’t cheap.”
