Page 67 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
“Yeah. It was Trev that represented me in California. His name was the only name she ever mentioned to me. She’d referenced to the rest of you but would just say ‘my brother’ or ‘my friend.’ She always said if you find yourself in trouble, ask for Trevor Anderson to represent you and to mention her name, and no matter where you are, he will help.”
“So, you called Trev?”
“That’s the weird thing, I didn’t get the chance, but I would’ve. They weren’t allowing me to make any calls. Said that I’d violated some trumped-up rule, so the right had been taken away from me.”
Wolf’s mouth fell open as he stared at Maeve. This explained so much but added more questions than answers to the mix.
“So, how did Trev end up representing you?”
“No idea. I don’t think he knows, but he wouldn’t say. He’s pretty tight-lipped.” Wolf laughed at that very accurate description of Trev. “He showed up the day after I was arrested and seemed as shocked as I was that I knew Morry. I told him my story. He believed me, and that was that.”
“How long have you known I was a part of The Righteous?”
“I didn’t until you tossed me in the back of this thing at the gas station, but I was in such an enraged state I couldn’t get out of my own way to tell you. I was hurt and just wanted to get away from you.”
She paused, and as her eyes found his, a sharp pain lanced through his chest.
“Maeve, I—”
“Don’t, not right now.” She rubbed her face and turned to stare straight ahead. “You wanted to know how I escaped from custody? The part I didn’t tell you was that two more of your friends were the ones that broke me out, a Kes and an Arek. The one named Kes dropped me off in Vegas with some money and a backpack of clothes so I could make my way to Arizona and Morry. Unfortunately, I was an idiot. After being locked up for months, I decided to party. I stayed a little too long, which is when you found me.”
“But I stopped you before you could make it to Arizona.” He smacked his other hand off the steering wheel. “Son of a bitch! I’ve been being played this entire time.”
“I didn’t play you.” Maeve looked horrified as her hand went to her chest.
“Not you, The Righteous. We receive our orders from headquarters, and they sent me after you. The order was to kill you on sight.” Maeve shivered, and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “This confirms they were at the Ranger station and now at my home. They knew I’d track you the fastest. Hunting people down is one of my specialties. I think they expected you to stay underground, though.”
His hand gripped the steering wheel tight.
“They fucking used me to get to you when Trev found you and staged the breakout. But that means that whoever framed you either hired, The Righteous to find you and kill you, or it was them all along that framed you and have been using our members as pawns. Either option is unsettling.”
He shook his head and smacked the steering wheel over and over until his palm hurt. “We’re not hired-thugs. We don’t take money to complete our kills. We’re supposed to be a group that eliminates those protected by the law or have eluded capture. It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.”
“I don’t understand.” Maeve’s eyes couldn’t hide her fear. “Why would a group that hunts down the worst of the worst in the world want to kill me?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
“I don’t know. This whole thing is confusing me. Now I don’t know if the Marshals are after you because of the frame job or if they were in on it all along. For all I know, they have their own agenda.” He glanced over at Maeve. “The head man called me himself to go after you as a personal favor. What the fuck? I’d only ever spoken to him once before, and he certainly never calls someone like me to ask for favors.”
He turned his head to stare out at the dark road and the faded white lines as they whizzed by on the pavement.
“Those guys at the house called you an asset Maeve. That means that the kill order has changed.”
“Changed how?”
“They want you alive, which is probably why they didn’t just blow the house up. They are now planning on taking you somewhere. You really have no idea why? I mean, could you be secretly trained for a government agency and had your memory wiped? Or could you be a child from a prominent political family?”
She laughed hard until tears were pouring down her cheeks.
“Oh, I doubt either of those options. Until Morry took me in, I was lucky if I’d kill a fly. She’s the one that trained me to fight, and if I was born into a political family, how did I end up in foster care?” She sighed and shook her head. “I have zero idea why they’d want me, but I swear I’m not holding anything back. Morry would know if I’d done anything to warrant The Righteous’s attention. Absolutely nothing gets past her on that property.”
“This is true.”
“Could we go there, she has a lot of members in her biker club, and they’d all protect us.”
“We could and we will, but not right now. If they know you, they know where you would be heading. We’ll lay low for a week or so, let the heat die down, and then re-evaluate. I also need a new phone.”
“Can’t you use the Hummer to call?”
