Page 54 of The Hijack

Clark

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I’D NEVER SLEPT IN Mr. Abernathy’s bed before. The experience was jarring. As much as I enjoyed making love to Theo, being somewhere I shouldn’t have been was half of the pleasure. It made the act seem even edgier, though we were in the privacy of a bedroom and not likely to get caught. I wanted to stay awake and give it another go, but Theo’s breathing grew heavy, and I could tell he was asleep.

I sighed.

This life wasn’t something that I’d chosen. It had been forced on me at a very young age. I just wanted to get through the next few days, hunt down the people who were hunting us, and free myself from this prison. Was that too much to ask?

I heard movement out in the hallway and assumed it was Z or Lukas. They were probably bedding down for the night since we had all agreed we would travel to Europe the next morning. No one in the business was accustomed to eight hours of rest every night, but we all knew well enough to take sleep where we could get it.

I drifted, feeling comforted by Theo’s embrace. He was so strong and yet so willing to let me set the pace. I knew that we would be equally matched in a fist fight. Hell, we’d been in fist fights previously, and he’d held his own. Despite that, he seemed to believe that I would come out on top and used that to guide his actions. He didn’t once try to change my mind and deferred to me in all matters except one.

When it came to love, he clearly knew more than I did. Even though he’d moved around as a kid, he’d had parents. That meant that he knew what love looked like while I was just feeling my way through.

What I wouldn’t give to let him teach me everything he knew on the subject. We could buy a little home off the beaten path and go to sleep every night wrapped up in each other’s arms. He could teach me to cook, and maybe we could even get a dog. Anything was possible, as long as we stopped New Dawn in its tracks.

As midnight passed and I still couldn’t sleep, I became aware of another presence in the house. I couldn’t have explained how I knew that it was someone different. Maybe the creak of the floorboards downstairs was a different tone, or maybe I’d already assumed that Z and Lukas were upstairs. Whatever it was, it caused me to tense up. I told myself I was being paranoid, but it was paranoia that kept me alive most of the time.

I extricated myself from Theo’s arms and rose to my feet. Hunting around in the dark, I found my dress. It slipped back over my head effortlessly, falling to just above my knees. I didn’t need anything else to defend myself. I was just as good with my bare hands as I was with any weapon.

I snuck out into the hall and heard a rattle from the kitchen. It was probably just Lukas getting a midnight snack. Maybe he hadn’t even come upstairs, and I was imagining that. Still, I pressed onward, determined to satisfy my curiosity before trying to sleep again.

There were no lights on. That didn’t bode well. Even spies left lights on if they weren’t trying to be inconspicuous. What would Lukas be doing downstairs in the dark? My heartbeat picked up, realizing that there could be an intruder in the house.

Rather than wake up any of my friends, I continued on my forward trajectory. The last thing I wanted to do was alert whoever was down there to the fact that I was awake. I wanted to catch them in the act, whoever they were. They might be connected to New Dawn and could provide valuable information. It was a simple matter of incapacitating them, then I could alert Z, Theo, and Lukas to help with the interrogation.

It never occurred to me that someone might be luring me into a trap. So confident was I in my abilities that I just assumed whoever was rooting around downstairs was an amateur. I tiptoed soundlessly down to the first floor, noticing a pungent tang in the air. Gasoline. That wasn’t good. Maybe the person I was after didn’t care about getting caught.

I decided to forgo trying to be quiet. And I realized I had been premature in not arming myself. Though Mr. Abernathy habitually hid weapons around the house, I doubted any of the caches had survived his death. I eased my way over to the fireplace to grab a poker. The smell was even stronger in the living room.

I heard a thump from the kitchen, but I knew that was by design. The person who was down here knew who they were dealing with. I had to approach with caution or risk falling right into a trap.

Instead of going to the kitchen straight from the living room, I snuck around through the dining room and into the hallway. There was a back door to the kitchen from what was once the servants’ quarters. It was tucked into a corner and possibly not visible to the assailant.

When I opened the door, I couldn’t see anyone. I heard the whiz of a bullet fired from a gun with a silencer and felt a cold wind sweep past my ear. The door frame erupted in a hail of splinters, causing me to duck for cover.

The assailant may have gotten the jump on me, but now I knew where they were. I had seen the muzzle flash of the gun as it went off and lunged at whoever it was before they could fire again.

My shoulder connected with a body, and right away I could tell it was a man. Beyond that, I could tell that the person was in good shape, but whether they were New Dawn or some other rogue assassin would have to wait until I could get them tied up.

The gasoline was troubling, but I had to deal with what was in front of me. The man backhanded me, trying to force me off him. I punched hard and followed up with a knee to the groin. He dropped like a stone, and I wrestled the gun away from him.

But just then, I felt the heat of a fire racing through the room and the deafening crackle of wood burning. I got off the man I was fighting, noting with satisfaction that he stayed down. Racing back through the kitchen, my only thought was of Theo. He was upstairs and possibly still asleep, insanely vulnerable to the enemy’s plot.

I retraced my steps through the hallway and the dining room, back to the living room and to the stairs. The fire was all around me. Mr. Abernathy’s old wooden floors were soaked in gas, and the fire had caught the furniture and the drapes. It would be risky going back upstairs, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to leave the house without Theo, even if I had to die trying.

I pushed my way through the living room, feeling the flames sear the air. I put my arms up to shield my face, wishing I had a mask or a damp towel to prevent me from inhaling smoke. Coughing out, my eyes watered, bringing me face to face with another assailant before I even knew what was happening.

She stood on the stairs in the middle of an inferno, one gloved hand holding a gun. I didn’t even see her until I was within punching distance, but I had no opportunity to get into a second fight.

She raised the weapon and leveled it at my head. I was in pain from the heat and from the thought of losing my one true love. Yet the shock of seeing a woman I knew blocking my path was visceral.

Jasmine stepped off the last stair, looking smug as the whole house burned around her.

“I have to get to Theo!” I coughed, waving my hands as if I could somehow cause her to vanish or change her plans.

“That’s not going to happen!” Jasmine called back, her voice elevated to rise above the crackling flames.