Vesper went to go back but the other two men hesitantly barred her path. “We’re leaving, V.” Cedar’s voice was stern. Vesper clenched her teeth. The attempt at telling her what to do was really starting to grate on her nerves. Cedar should be nicer since Vesper hadn’t quite decided if Cedar would live through this or not. Vesper slashed out at the other two men angrily. She caught one unprepared, slicing through his neck. The other was more guarded after her stunt with the illusionist.
His arm came up just in time to defend his neck. “Cedar, fucking control her,” he growled. Vesper could have laughed. Cedar had never had any control over Vesper.
“Vesper!” Cedar snapped, trying and failing to hold her arms back. It only took the look in Vesper’s eyes for Cedar to back down and let Vesper kill the other guard. Cedar had better survival instincts than to interfere with Vesper’s rage again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Vesper
Bellamy hadn’t moved since they left. The poison was now just a memory in her veins; Vesper could hardly tell it had almost killed her mere minutes ago. She ignored Cedar’s hovering, peering over her shoulder like a specter of death, waiting. Cedar tapped her foot impatiently, but she didn’t rush Vesper, not with her guards’ blood fresh on Vesper’s hands.
Vesper knelt beside the dagger, keeping it protected from Cedar’s grasp. She couldn’t risk that bullshit again. Carefully, Vesper peeled Bellamy’s shirt away. The coagulated blood was stuck to her skin and plastered the shirt around the cut so that Vesper had to tear bits of it off in order to avoid the wound. She wished she’d brought water or something.
All in all, it was a clean cut. Cedar hadn’t fucked around trying to make Bellamy suffer. Her goal was to manipulate Vesper into saying yes, not to torture Bel. She just had to hope there wasn’t any internal damage now since Bel would not be seeing a healer anytime soon. The best Vesper could do was to suture her up and disinfect the wound.
Vesper dug in her pocket for the small tin med box she brought—standard on every assignment. It only held the bare minimum emergency supplies, which meant this time, the lack ofnumbing cream was not due to spite. And for once, she was relieved she had the good sutures for Bellamy.
Good thing Bel hadn’t woken up yet. The sting of the alcohol wipe would have her complaining, but the application of the two sutures would have her cursing Vesper. They really couldn’t waste the time Bel would spend bitching about it either.
“That’s done now. Come on,” Cedar snapped impatiently. Her foot tapping had only grown more incessant while Vesper worked. “We are running out of time, and we had an agreement.” Cedar was seething behind her.
“No,” Vesper said calmly. “I want answers. Now. Let’s start with why you stabbed her?”
“Incentive.”
“Incentive?” Vesper asked disbelievingly.
“She was supposed to be selfish, like she always fucking is, and save herself. Then, you’d know you made the right choice coming with me. But since she didn’t, you needed a different motivation to join me.” Cedar scoffed. “It’s pathetic how easy it is to read you. You can pretend to hate her all you want, but I know you’d do whatever it takes to save her worthless life. I thought I could’ve gotten through to you without such dramatic measures.”
“So, you stabbed her because she didn’t read your fucking mind and do what you wanted?” Vesper was getting more and more angry with each word Cedar uttered. With the mere idea that Cedar had been trying to control her at all, that shehadsomewhat successfully controlled her.
“I stabbed her,” Cedar said, calmly enunciating each word. “Because she’s a selfish, entitled brat who doesn’t know how to follow instructions.”
“What instructions?” Vesper gritted out. Her hand found the smooth hilt of Cedar’s dagger on the floor, and she gripped it until her knuckles turned white and her hand ached.
“Don’t save her,” Bellamy’s voice was raspy and unexpected. Vesper snapped her head around in time to see Bellamy trying and failing to sit up. She squinted at Vesper, her breathing ragged andharsh, and something tightened in Vesper’s chest. “Those were my instructions.”
Vesper’s head swam. What the fuck was going on here? How did Bellamy and Cedar know each other? She dragged through her memories, but the first time she even remembered them meeting was after Bel had caught them together.
“Why the fuck were you taking instructions from her?” Vesper asked Bellamy angrily.
“You’re better off without her,” Cedar butted in, ignoring Bellamy entirely, who snapped her mouth shut when Cedar started talking. “This is what she does—she’s a liability. Her shit decisions indebted her, and now you’re at risk because of her.”
Vesper took a deep breath, finally looking away from Bellamy’s pleading eyes. “Someone needs to explain everything. Right now.”
“No time,” Cedar pressed, grabbing Vesper’s shoulder. “We need to leave right now. She is alive, you got what you wanted, now you need to follow through on your end. Goodbye, Bellamy.”
“What do you think is going to happen here, Cedar?” Vesper whispered, she looked back to Bellamy and watched as a tear slid down her face. The knowing in her eyes, the assumption that Vesper would leave her here, would choose Cedar over her, was plain on her face. And as much as Vesper hated to admit it, that broke Vesper’s fucking heart.
“That you’ll come with me, leave her to take the fallout, and live a much better life without her. You know the second your little group finds out you’ve failed, you’ll be terminated. I can protect you. She doesn’t deserve protection. She’s been fucking everything up for you for years. She’ll die, and you’ll be better off for it.”
Cedar’s nails dug into Vesper’s shoulder, her voice growing more frustrated with each word. Each word was a stab to the gut. Sure, Vesper and Bellamy hadn’t been good the last few years. And yeah, they probably spent an equal amount of timefantasizing about killing each other. But shit—Bellamy had laid down her life for Vesper. How the fuck was she just supposed to walk away from that?
And on top of that, here Cedar is, flippantly talking about how Bel deserves to die for it? Fuck this. Fuck Cedar. Fuck their stupid fucking employers. Vesper was not leaving this building without Bellamy.
Vesper grabbed Cedar’s wrist, hating the utter dismay it brought to Bellamy’s eyes. “Good. Come on.” She could hear Cedar’s smile through her words.
Then, Vesper wrenched Cedar’s hand off her shoulder and yanked her to the ground, stabbing straight through her palm with the poisoned dagger. Cedar tried to jerk away, and she cried out in pain. Panic clawed at her, and she hit Vesper hard in the back. But a few things hadn’t changed: Cedar still wasn’t a fighter, Vesper was still significantly stronger, and Cedar definitely didn’t stand a chance.
