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He’d given her chance after chance to come clean –– even told her that despite being mostly in the dark, the black hood let in pinholes of light. It allowed him shadowy moments when his senses told him there was more going on than what he knew certain. It may have been movement from a tree the vehicle was passing or someone else was in or around the vehicle. He didn’t have to see them to know they were there when the rest of his instincts were heightened, and he was trained to operate this way. And she knew this.
Wit was trained just as well as Ayelish, and she was well aware of that but chose to play coy. He found that interesting, infuriating, and maybe a little unnerving. What did it mean, and what was she hiding? Her lie was as flawed as her plan, but who was it to protect? Her? Him? Or someone else? The question haunted him. Nagged him. Provoked him.
He was grateful that she saved his ass but wasn’t sure if it was with the best intentions anymore. Something was off. Maybe she was protecting him from himself, and he could think of a thousand reasons she would. His past was calling. Creeping in and tampering with the emotions he’d left dead and closed away for so long. But on this day, they were alive and well and doing their best to rock him at his core. It was working.
From the moment those agents told him he was accused of killing the Skrivers, the demons had been at play. Opening old wounds and threatening to create new ones. He was spiraling, and it was taking everything in him to keep his shit together and battle the paranoia within. Because if his past didn’t come to kill him…that would.
“How long have you been using this safe house?” Wit hollered to the other room. Ayelish didn’t answer immediately. “Aye?”
“Huh? Oh. Not long,” she said as she entered the room.
“You already eat?” he asked, pointing at her empty hands.
“Yeah,” she said, swiping her hands across her pants as if brushing off crumbs. “Just. Ate. Real quick.”
He nodded and looked out the window as he continued, “So?”
“So? Oh, the safe house?” She took the seat across from him and perched her elbows on her knees. “Not long. Had a change of plans recently and landed here.”
“Because of me?” he questioned.
“You could say that. Case ran nowhere. It fell flat,” she answered shakily. “Kind of a wild goose chase.”
Wit noted that her answer lacked confidence. “Client hired us for nothing, huh?”
“Maybe? Or it was just a distraction. That’s how it felt, anyway.”
He scratched his chin as he nodded. “Seems to be a lot of that going around. What do you think?
Maybe someone is trying to spread our team and resources thin? Take us out of the game or something?”
“Maybe? It’s a good theory.” She answered direct and short.
“Was that a good sandwich?” he asked, and she nodded. “You know it would have been better with soup.”
“You and soup.” She chuckled. “It did the job. You’re probably right about the soup, though.”
Wit took to his feet and walked to another window for a different vantage point. “So when are we heading into Watermark?”
“We’re not,” she fired back. “Not yet, anyway.”
Puzzled by her response, he continued to question her. “Shouldn’t we at least make contact? Check in or something?”
“Later,” she said simply.
“They should be tracking me. I’m surprised they aren’t here yet, actually.” Wit felt unsettled by her response and decision to stay off the grid. “Surely, they’ve cleaned up whatever that was earlier.”
“They won’t find you,” she said. “We’ve been hiding behind a jammer from the moment I grabbed you. Your device looks operable, and I’m sure you’ve checked it, but it’s essentially offline.”
He had checked it. More than once. Initially finding that he couldn’t get a signal out didn’t surprise him, given their location and the surrounding landscape. They really were off the grid and buried in the thick of nature. When sometime later, there wasn’t a signal or any attempt or mention of making contact, it left him questioning her motives. Surely, Ayelish wasn’t out to harm him. They were a part of the same team; she was an O’Reilly, and they didn’t go bad. Beyond that, something was between them. He and Ayelish had something special –– even if it was mostly one-sided for the time being.
“Why? Why the jammer? Why are we hiding from our team?” he asked, seeming on high alert. “Dowehave a problem, Aye?”
“Other than you being a pain in my ass… no. We’re both offline for now,” she rebutted as if nothing were wrong or out of the ordinary. “Just until we know who we can trust.”
“You don’t think we can trust the team?” he questioned. “You’ve been deep cover too long. You’re paranoid.”
“Not paranoid at all. I’m…we’rejust being careful,” she admitted. “We already danced around the oddity of Keepers and Dirty Dozen mysteriously showing up at an odd scene with thuggish unknowns trying to cause chaos. But there’s something else to consider.”
