Page 85 of Broken Mercy
Brenden leads us back out into the game room, which is now noticeably louder as the free drink tops off blood alcohol levels. Jason’s sitting at the cramped bar with an ice pack on his face and blood down his shirt, glaring as we walk past.Sorry,I mouth to him, and he flips me off. Fair enough.
“We’re going to put this right,” Brenden says once we’re back out on the street. He takes my hand like it’s an impulse, and onethat I like, but I don’t share his optimism. Meeting with Sam and seeing him afraid put a stone in my guts. I don’t know how to get it back out.
“What happens if we mess up? If we don’t get the other ledger?”
“I’ll get it.”
“But what if?—“
“I’ll get it, Tallie, and if I don’t, I’ll come up with some other way to protect you and your family.” He stops and faces me. His face is hard as he grips my arms and leans in closer. It’s dark where we are under a broken street lamp. “I dragged us into this, and I’m going to make sure we can get out of it. I swear, baby, no matter what, you’ll be okay. Sam will be too.”
“You don’t know that.”
“But I do.” He says it grimly, like the options aren’t good. “You’re trusting me, right?”
“I am, but?—“
He kisses me. His mouth is firm like he doesn’t want to hear any more arguments, and if I’m honest with myself, I don’t want to make any more. I kiss him back before he leads me away from the bar, leaving my nervous brother behind, hoping that’s not the last time I see him.
CHAPTER 24
BRENDEN
Funny how it all comes around. Standing in the bushes of a large manor house, I can still feel the steamy heat of the office on my skin. I can still see a strange, pretty girl come rushing into the room, oblivious to my presence, and I can still see her rip open her top and turn her bra-covered tits (fantastic, really) toward a fan and groan with pleasure as the air brushed over her sweat-damp skin. And the shock when she noticed me there, the turn in the emotional weight when we kissed, the taste of her against my mouth?—
It started here. Might end here too.
All my life I’ve been good at watching. I remember playing hide and seek with Riley when we were very little. I’d kick her ass, mostly because I was willing to stay in one place for hours. She could whine and call out and beg me to show myself, but I never did. She’d have to find me, and if she quit, I’d sneak up behind her and scare the snot from her face. She’d shriek and smack at me, but I’d laugh and laugh, and she’d always agree to play again.
Maybe that’s why I ended up the way I am, more comfortable with dark spaces than I am with normal people.
The Davises don’t seem to have a lot going on. Mr. Davis stays in his home office while Mrs. Davis putters around the back garden. They have staff, but not many, and they’re all gone by the time six rolls around, leaving only the evening chef to make their dinner.
I want to get closer. There are loose windows with old latches easily defeated and locks begging to be picked, but it’s the strange black van against the curb out front that keeps me from doing something stupid.
There are no markings. Nobody’s behind the wheel. It looks out of place though on a block where the cheapest car is a Jaguar. I don’t see anyone else watching the Davis place, but I keep thinking about what Sam told us, how Arsen’s got eyes on Haik’s house.
He knows about the ledger. And he knows about the twin copy. If I were in his spot, I’d want to make sure that twin stayed tucked away and safe, right where it belonged, enough to send my best people to make sure.
Which means, even if I don’t see anyone, that doesn’t mean they’re not here.
I can’t risk going in. Even if I’m tempted. I know what’ll happen when I go back to the safe house, and I wish there were some other way I could convince Tallie to stay behind.
That fucking girl. She’s as stubborn as they come, which is amazing. I expected a demure, soft, quiet thing, but instead I got this furious, magnificent, lost angel, desperate to figure out who and what she is. Watching her unfold herself, to find the creasesand the edges, it’s like seeing the miracle of life itself. When she’s around, all those dark spots, the dank basements I want to crawl into, the labyrinthine pits where I can lose myself, those don’t seem so good to me anymore. I want light, so long as it’s from her.
In the end, I back away, long after darkness falls and it’s safe to escape. There’s a different van parked in the same spot, which doesn’t exactly confirm my suspicion, but it sure as hell doesn’t change my mind. I make my way back to the car and drive to the apartment building.
Tallie’s awake and waiting when I walk in through the door.
“Oh god, it’s you,” she says with a relieved groan.
“Who did you expect?”
“I don’t know. A dozen thugs with guns? Really, really big guns?”
“They wouldn’t need big guns to take you captive, you know.”
“Yes they would.” She brandishes a kitchen knife. “I’m very dangerous.”
