I look up at him in confusion.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of me,” he says quietly. “But I know a whole lot about you. You are not nearly as invisible as you might imagine.”
I can’t help the shiver that spreads down my back.
“Don’t worry,” he adds. “You’re not in trouble. For now. Actually, I want to help you.”
I stare at him suspiciously.
“I’m all by myself,” he murmurs. “See? I don’t pose a threat. I’m acting on some information I received. But I haven’t told a soul about it yet. I was waiting to talk to you, first. I’m sure you’ll help us, Seraphina. I know you were held against your will at Devil Tower. I know you’re the target of a lot of bad people. I’m on your side.”
I try to swallow, but my throat is parched. I keep my eyes on him, unable to utter a sound.
My muteness doesn’t deter him, though. He fumbles in his breast pocket and takes out a tiny chip.
“This is a nanochip,” he says, then looks at me shrewdly as I make a little movement of surprise. “I can see you know about it. The contents on here could put several bad people away for a long while. They’re pretty much guaranteed to get the leader of Devil on the electric chair. We’re going to fry that fucker. Wouldn’t that be nice? You’d finally be free. I heard he’s been trying to kill you.”
I continue to look at him dumbly.
“I’m asking for your cooperation,” he says, the smug little smirk forming on his lips telling me he has no doubt I’ll give it to him. “If you help me, your past will be forgotten. And you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you put a bad man on the chair. What do you say, Seraphina?”
I hesitate for another few moments, and then I nod my head.
His smile widens.
“I knew we could count on you, sweetheart. Come on. Let’s go. I see you’re injured. I’m going to get you all patched up.”
He stands up, reaches a hand out, and I grab it. He pulls me up,then helps me walk to a car parked a little while away.
He was telling the truth. There’s no one here but him.
We reach the driver’s side, and he opens the door, gesturing with his head to the passenger’s seat.
I take a step forward, so that I’m standing right behind him, then whisper, “Mr. Mattson?”
He turns around, smiling. He’s still smiling, a frozen, sickly sort of grin, when the steak knife in my hand plunges into his heart.
And then, I find myself doing it again and again, fury strangling me as I think of how he so gleefully spoke about frying Damien. And about how he so paternalistically called me sweetheart.
The blade goes in and out, in and out, all over his stomach and chest as he stares at me in utter shock and confusion.
And then, in a final choking sound, his body topples over to the ground, unmoving.
I don’t waste any time. I fumble through his pockets until I’ve found the nanochip. I return to the lake and throw it, as far as it will go, into the water.
“Well, well, well.”
I freeze.
The voice is cold and raspy. I recognize it. Vale Jameson.
“I was not expecting that when I told Mattson where to find you. Guess you have a little bit more loyalty in your bones than I gave you credit for. Too bad you’ll die at the hands of a guy who doesn’t give a shit.”
I whirl around to face the Devil. His eyes look me up and down, taking in my appearance. They rest for a moment on my shirt, which clings, soaked, to my wound.
“So, you didn’t die after all. You really are a wriggly thing, aren’t you,pet? You can’t just let yourself die. Don’t you get sick offlailing around helplessly like a fucking fish?”
I try to swallow the anger surging through me.
