17
I don’t dareanswer. I just stay where I am and lift my hands over my head.
She waves her gun once at me. “Up.”
I do as she says. There are a few flecks of blood on her glove,Tremaine’sblood, and my eyes lock on to the sight. She’s going to kill me for being here, and there’s nowhere for me to hide. I’m going to die on the floor of this building, just like Tremaine did.
“Why the hell did you come here?” she snaps at me in a whisper.
“I was looking for Zero,” I say, not even believing my own bad excuse. My words come out haltingly, and I can hear the tremor in them. “I’m meeting Hideo tomorrow night. I—”
Jax observes me carefully. She knows I’m lying—but instead, she says, “You saw, didn’t you?”
I shake my head vigorously. “I heard.” Usually, I can lie better than this—but right now, the panic in my eyes gives me away. “It was too dark. All I got were voices down the hall.”
Jax sighs; she almost looks like she feels sorry for me, and I wonder if she recognizes the same look on my face from when she’d killed my assassin. “It’s impressive that I didn’t catch you on your way into the building. But here we are now.”
The echo of Tremaine’s killing shot still rings in my head, bursting over and over again, and my hands yearn to reach up and cover my ears.
Jax tightens her grip on her gun.This is it.My limbs are frozen in place.
“Walk.”
What?My feet feel rooted to the floor.
Jax seizes my arm and shoves me once. Her nails dig hard into my skin. “If they know you’re here, you’re dead,” she growls in my ear, shoving me forward. “Go.”
Her words register through my chaotic mind, and I manage to shoot her a confused glance as she starts pulling me along the shadowed wall of the main lobby. “Where are you taking me?” I whisper.
Jax leads me down another dark hall on the opposite end of the lobby. “Less talking, more walking,” she replies.
Whatever shred of silence I’d managed to hold on to now breaks, and my words come spilling out. “And then what? Will you take me out, too? A shot to the head, just like Tremaine? Where are you taking his body?”
She turns those pale gray eyes on me again. “So, you did see.”
I shake my head repeatedly, trying in vain to get Tremaine’s crumpled body out of my mind. “What are you all doing here?” I say over and over again. “What is that robot Zero was controlling? Where is he?”
Jax doesn’t answer me. We reach the end of the hall and asmall side entrance that opens into the back of the building, where a few cars are parked.
Here, Jax suddenly shoves me up against the wall and presses a gloved hand over my mouth. She looks as cold as ever, but there’s tension in her eyes now, and she keeps glancing around to make sure we’re alone. “In a minute, I’m going to tell you to go outside and get in the car farthest to your left. It’ll take you back to the hotel. The guards out front are busy with Tremaine’s body. Keep your head down and don’t try to come back here. Do you understand me?”
I struggle out of her grip. “But you—”
She shoves me again hard and puts her gun right against my head. Ice-cold metal. I hear it click at my temple. “But I hit your stupid friend Tremaine with a grazing shot to his head. I’ll direct his car to a hospital. Don’t you dare visit him tonight, unless you want Taylor to find out that you somehow knew he’d be there the instant he arrived. Wait until tomorrow morning.”
None of this makes sense at all. “What? Taylor?” My whisper turns hoarse. “Youshot Tremaine.Zero’sthe head of—”
Jax lets out a quiet, surprised laugh and lowers her gun. “You think Taylor works for Zero, don’t you?”
A note of hesitation enters my voice. “She tried to warn me. Zero—”
Jax’s smile is cold. “Zero doesn’t run things. Taylor does. We followhercommand.”
Taylor leads the Blackcoats. I blink. That can’t be right—she’s far too quiet and uncertain for that. Her soft voice, her delicate shoulders, and thoughtful look... Hadn’t she deferred to Zero the first time I met them? Hadn’t she let him talk?
Lethim talk. Like he worked for her.
“But,” I try to say, “Taylor doesn’t seem like...”
