“Don’t hold your fire when you find them,” he says coldly. “He’s made his choice.”
9
James
This time, I don’t tackle Rosabelle to the ground.
This time, I don’t make a sound.
I dart into the shadows, grab the menace by the tail, and yank her backward, covering her mouth to capture her scream. I clamp down her arms, keeping her hands where I can see them, and pin her back to my front as I pull her deeper into the recesses of the darkening hangar, shifting us both away from the last shafts of golden sun.
“So when you told me you weren’t some kind of genius-level hacker—”
She stiffens against me.
“—you were obviously lying.”
Her chest rises and falls against my forearm. I can practically feel her heart beating, and I’m not as armed, emotionally or physically, as I’d like to be in this moment. The knife I’d had in my pocket was a simple, everyday carry; I’ve now stashed it out of Rosabelle’s reach, but I wish I could do this whole day over again. I’d be armed to the teeth. I wouldn’t be wearing these jeans.
“Any other confessions you’d like to make?” I ask. “Are you a professional fighter pilot, too? Do you spend your free time base jumping off cliffs? How many languages do youspeak? How long can you hold your breath underwater? When was the last time you told someone the truth?”
She shakes her head, making a muffled, indistinct sound, and I move in seconds, fluidly trading one hand for the other, flipping open my knife and releasing Rosabelle’s mouth before pressing the blade to her throat.
“Speak,” I say sharply.
“James—Please—”
I press the blade a little harder. “That’s not an answer.”
“You’re not going to hurt me,” she says. “I know you don’t want to hurt me.”
I lower my lips to the curve of her ear. “You didn’t want to hurt me, either. But when it mattered, you didn’t hesitate.”
Her breath hitches. She tenses against my body.
I really thought Rosabelle would see reason; I thought she’d needed to put up a fight on principle; I thought she’d understand that I literally could not let her go.
Apparently not.
Just because I believe she’s had a change of heart about the fascists doesn’t mean I’m going to let her run home without telling us what the hell she was doing here. I need to know what her original mission was; I need to know what she was planning to do with that vial.
Contrary to popular belief, I am not an idiot.
For as long as we have a mercenary of The Reestablishment in our midst, reformed or otherwise, we’re going to need her to talk. The safety of the entire continent—the world—depends on it.
Footsteps shudder through the building like a roll of thunder, vibrations sending waves of tension through my barely healed body. I brace myself.
“You know,” I say, “it’s just occurred to me that I never even asked you how you broke out of prison. How were you able to escape supermax without a trace? What did you mean when you said you left for a reason?”
She tries to launch out of my arms and I clamp down harder, pulling her more tightly against me.
“I’m not fucking around anymore,” I say darkly. “I was being nice to you earlier. Try to run again and I’ll have you on your knees.”
I can hear her breathing. I swear I feel her tremble.
I lower my voice to a whisper, my jaw nearly grazing her temple. “Rosabelle.”
She stiffens.
