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Owen's grin widened. "I didn't figure that you would. "
His voice had taken on a sly, teasing tone, and I found myself grinning back at him, despite the seriousness of our discussion.
"What can I say? I am rather headstrong that way," I quipped.
"Headstrong is one way of putting it," he drawled.
"Mule-headed stubborn is another. "
"That sounds like something Jo-Jo would say. "
The words slipped out before I could stop them, wiping the grin off my face and snuffing out the easy banter between Owen and me. A shadow enveloped me once more at the thought of Jo-Jo and how she was laid out on cooper's kitchen table, still fighting for her life. Owen's smile vanished too, as if he shared in my dark thoughts.
He probably did. No doubt Phillip had told him how much blood Jo-Jo had lost and how hard cooper had had to work simply to stabilize her.
"Listen, I'm going with you whether you want me to or not," Owen finally said in a quiet, determined voice.
"And not because of Salina or Briartop or anything like that. "
"Then why?"
"Because I've spent too much time lately not having your back, and you need that today more than ever. "
Our gazes locked, gray on violet, with so many emotions, so many memories, so many words spoken and unspoken ebbing and flowing between us. Once more, I looked at Owen - really looked at him - as if I could peer through his eyes and see all the deep, dark secrets of his heart and soul lurking underneath. Trying to determine if he really meant what he said. But his eyes remained clear, his stance stayed tall, and his jaw was as tight as it had been before. I didn't sense any hurt in him. No anger, no blame, no accusation of any kind. Just the quiet determination to stand by me through this, no matter how bad it was already and no matter how much worse we both knew it was going to get.
Still, I decided to give him one last chance to back out.
"I don't think that you understand what I'm going to do now," I said. "Because Harley Grimes is pure evil, and I'm going to have to be that way too in order to rescue Sophia. Violent. Vicious. Vindictive. With no quarter asked for and sure as hell none given. Not to Grimes, not to his men, not to anyone who gets in my way. "
"I know," Owen replied in a quiet voice. "I know, and I don't care. Not anymore. You do what needs to be done to save Sophia. I'll be right there with you, every step of the way. No matter what. I promise. "
His words touched me more than he knew. Because this was what I'd wanted him to say when everything had gone so horribly wrong with Salina. That he understood why I'd killed her even as he asked me not to. Because it simply had to be done before she hurt anyone else Owen cared about, including himself. By killing Salina, I'd been trying to protect Owen from, well, Owen. And more important, from being responsible for the death of someone he'd once loved.
I had carried that burden around every single day, ever since I hadn't been able to save Fletcher from being tortured to death inside the Pork Pit, so I knew how very heavy, how very wearisome , it was. Now it seemed like Owen wanted to return the favor by going with me into Harley Grimes's lion's den and helping Sophia and me however he could.
"Trust me on this, Gin," Owen said. "Please. " It was that soft, final please that did me in. Because I could see how hard he was trying and how much he meant what he said.
"All right," I said. "All right. You win. If you're so bound and determined to go with me, then let's get moving. We have a long way to go before we reach Grimes's camp. "
After another quiet moment, we both shouldered our gear again. Owen started to head back over to his car, but I shook my head and gestured for him to follow me to
Roslyn's vehicle.
"This one already has blood all over the inside. No reason to mess up anyone else's ride today. "
Owen opened the back door, stopping a moment to stare at stains forming all across the leather seats. He dropped his backpack onto the floorboard, on top of one of the bloody towels that I'd used on Jo-Jo's wounds. I put my bag down next to his, then slid into the driver's seat. A minute later, we were headed down the driveway.
As I drove, I told Owen everything that I knew and suspected about Grimes. While I talked, he leaned over into the backseat, unzipped my backpack, fished out
Fletcher's file on Grimes, and started reading through it.
Owen frowned. "The name sounds familiar. Why do you think Grimes came after Sophia again after all these years?"
That newspaper clipping of Jo-Jo flashed through my mind. Guilt twisted my stomach, but I made myself shrug. "Probably for pure meanness. Fletcher took her away from him, and Grimes didn't like that. So he finally decided to do something about it. The coward just waited until after Fletcher was dead to make his move. "
"Do you think that he knows about you?" Owen asked. "That Fletcher trained you?"
I thought of the way Grimes had so casually thrown his Fire magic at me, then walked away, so sure in the knowledge that the flames would roast me where I stood.
