Donovan dropped his heavy body on the other section of the L-shaped couch. “Looks comfy enough for me.”
I looked at Jacques, he’d have to sort it. I trusted him to.
21. JACQUES
I grabbed the comms from the faraday bag. There was an instant connection. Runa screamed at me. “Where the fuck have you been?” Her shrill voice was somewhat welcome. I’d been convinced the comms was tracked—it didn’t take much convincing actually, I sort of already knew. “I’ve been checking this line daily. I’ve had news. And I don’t have to keep this secret.”
“Donovan is here,” I said.
I sat on the edge of the bed, the only quiet space in the entire place. I didn’t know what to call it—an apartment? Surely it was more of an underground cave. Donovan was in the kitchen with Artemis and Ezra, discussing his case. I had to get confirmation of information from another source, a more trusted one. Runa.
“And what’s he said?” she asked.
“You tell me.”
She scoffed. “You know, when I see you next, I’m going to hit you so hard.”
“He told me Mercy dropped Nexovex as a client.”
“Not just them, Victor Pemberton too.” I didn’t think she could hide her excitement even if she tried. “He brought in a lot of business for the agency. She’s also been out of the office for weeks. I have no idea what she’s doing, or where she’s gone, but there’s a lot of rumors.”
“I’m not one to gossip, Runa,” I said with a smirk, unable to stop itself forming on my face. “But Donovan didn’t mention that. Apparently, he got an in person visit from her, wherever he was staying.”
“I’m not surprised she brought him out of that one year retirement,” she said. “But what I am surprised by is that shesent him after you. I’ve been trying to keep up with the news. They’re not doing you any favors.”
“At least Ezra’s name is out of the papers,” I said. “That’s all that really matters right now.”Runa was sighing as if she knew something “Go on, tell me.”
“I don’t see this ending well. I’ve never known you to be close to anyone. Part of me is wondering if this is all going to end badly.”
“I don’t want to hear that, but I’m glad you feel free enough to express your opinion.” That Sanctum therapy had been doing wonders for my anger, but this was coming from Runa, and her lack of optimism on the situation had angered me. “I love Ezra. I’ll do anything to make sure he’s safe. And if you want to help, you should, but if you can’t, then I’m not going to keep you any longer.”
“I’ll help you, obviously. I’m just wondering if this is going to be a situation that you can both come out of,” she said. “The news says you kidnapped him, and everyone is going to hate you for it. The world isn’t safe right now for you, Reaper. The people are coming for your blood.”
The smirk stayed on my face. This wasn’t the first time I’d been told that. It probably wouldn’t be the last either. “They’ve got an old mugshot, and nobody is going to come close to me. They keep frightening people with the number of people I’ve killed, and calling methe Reaper. It’s just overplayed, acting like I’m the boogeyman.”
“For what it’s worth, we know you’re not, but the media is powerful, and to say Ezra won’t turn on you when he realizes how many people hate you is a huge unknown,” she said. This must’ve been everything she’d had on her mind for a while, because what had happened to the supportive person she was when she gave me directions and helped me? “I’m not beingmean on purpose, there’s just so much we don’t know about him.”
“You’ve been looking into him?” I asked.
Ezra came into the room, as if he’d been listening from the door. He shook his head at me.
“Only child, went to Whitespire, so he’s well educated. He probably knows the billionaires. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in on it. I’m trying to do my due diligence since Mercy let the Pemberton family go. If this was all him and not them, she deserves to know.”
“Speaking of the media, you might’ve been the one brainwashed,” I said, pulling the comms from my ear. A fizzle settled across my skin. I couldn’t trust anyone now.
“What’s going on?” Ezra asked.
***
The small underground apartment was cramped. The bedroom wasours, but Donovan and Artemis had taken up all of the living room space. It was even more cramped when the Bianchi brothers came over, which was often followed up with alcohol, and laughing about how they’d each met their partners—Ezra had been right, Kalen had worked for the FBI.
As we got closer to the hearing, there was electricity in the air. We’d made grand plans, acting like we were transporting the president themselves. We needed to think like that, to be on our A game. It was the four of us—or three, since I wasn’t arming Ezra—as we went against the world. I’d organized several large black SUVs to drive from Boston to New York City. The plan was to spread out in them. I’d stick with Ezra, and Donovan and Artemis would take individual cars. We’d all be connected through close-range two-way radios.
Ezra had a suit, it wasn’t anything fancy. He didn’t feel too comfortable dressing up for it. He had wanted to just wear sweats, because that’s what we’d become used to together. I was in all black, alongside Donovan and Artemis. We were really doing our best to look like secret service—and we were a little bit out of practice.
It was a four-hour drive using the I-90 westbound. There was a lot of time for shit to go down, but we were prepared for everything. Five black SUVs almost all in a line, dodging and weaving between cars, each one acting like they had Ezra on board and wanted to get to the courthouse.
In the back seat of the undisclosed SUV, Ezra laid his head on my lap, breathing heavily, in through the nose, out through the mouth. I stroked my fingers through his hair, reassuring him everything was going to be okay.
