“Initiate turbo mode,” I tell Alfie, and the computer takes over the wheel.The car hits the ramp at high speeds and sails over the truck.Parachutes deploy, allowing the car to float over the median into the opposite lane of traffic.
“Call incoming.Unknown number,” Alfie tells me.
“Trace it,” I bark and start evasive maneuvers, dodging cars to drive the wrong way down the highway.
“Trace complete.Location, Club Empire.”
“Hamish, I’ve got to go.St.James is calling me.He has Inara.”
“May I ask what you’re about to do next?”
“I’m getting Inara back.Then I’ll deal with everything else.”
“You can’t fight everyone and keep her safe.You need us.You need me.And you need her consent.”
I want to shout him down, but he’s right.I curse.
“Language, sir,” Hamish clips, sounding just like he did when I was a surly sixteen-year-old.I automatically cringe.
A truck veers into my path, and I swerve around it.I’ve lost the cops, but it’s only a matter of time before one of them spots me again.I jerk the wheel, crossing five lanes of traffic to dart into a tunnel.
“I’ve recovered the most recent feed from the townhouse,” Hamish says.“Sending it over now.”
I end the call with him and switch to the line with St.James.
“Where is she?”I ask.
“Hello, Rex.It’s been a while.”He’s joking; it’s been only a few minutes.I can hear his smirk over the line.
“Cut the small talk, Sebastian.You have something of mine.Give her back.”
“Is the lovely detective a toy we’re fighting over?”
“She’s mine,” I snarl in response, but Inara’s accusations echo in my head.
I’m just a possession to you.A trophy you can put on a shelf.
Maybe it’s the after-effects of adrenaline, but her words resonate with me now as they didn’t before.
St.James continues, “The news is all abuzz about a high-speed car chase in the city.And it seems all the traffic lights on roads running east to west turned red.The police are out in force, trying to sort out the gridlock.”
“And?”
“You came to Fraternitas to help you find the Bondage Killer.”He changes the subject.“Is that still a priority?”
“My priority is Inara.”
“So is mine.”
“You have no right to her?—”
“She doesn’t want to see you.She told me so herself.She says you tried to lock her up.I’m just as much of a fan of keeping my partners in a cage?—”
I grimace.I don’t want to be anything like St.James.
“The good detective is shaken.”
“Is she hurt?”That should have been my first question.
