Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (25 page)

I
nodded.

‘
Now, we just have to break into a likely heavily fortified
building headed by a super-powered psychopath,’ I
sighed.

‘
Yeah, but, we have our own powered badass,’ Jessica whispered,
nudging my shoulder.

My smile
slipped from my face and I turned my head away. Jessica didn’t miss
it. She followed me with narrowed eyes, and then bent forward and
pulled my head back round.

‘
What is it?’ she asked.

I told
her. I started with when I woke up, that my abilities felt like
they were turning off and on, off and on. I told her how I’d
managed to hold them long enough to punch a hole in my coffin and
drag myself through the dirt and stones before they finally
vanished. I finished with how they still hadn’t returned, and how I
felt so-

‘
-human?’ Jessica finished and laughed. ‘Welcome back to the
club sunshine. You can’t be surprised. You died from a huge hole in
your chest, got buried and then had to dig your way out. I’d say
you overused your abilities. They’re probably tired the hell
out.’

I shook
my head.

‘
Anyway, I can’t focus on that,’ I replied. ‘Right now we need
to get Anna and Chris back, and then we can plan what to do
next.’

‘
I agree,’ Jess said. ‘But there’s only the three of us left,
and I don’t see Brian hefting a gun and charging into battle. That
leaves him to look after Alex, and…’

She left
whatever she had been going to say unsaid, but I knew. She didn’t
trust Brian, neither did I, but at that moment we didn’t have the
time.

‘
He touches even ¼ of one hair on his head,’ I growled, ‘and I
will hunt him for the rest of his days.’

‘
Make that hunt for two,’ Jessica nodded. ‘I’ll make him wish
his father’s father hadn’t been born, let alone
himself.’

I looked
at Jessica through the darkness, and saw the sheer determination,
along with the connection she shared with Alex. I let my thoughts
once again wonder what had made the cold-hearted assassin in front
of me so protective of Anna and Alex. I had been so wrapped up in
those thoughts that I didn’t realise I’d voiced the question out
loud.

Jessica
scrutinised my face and stood abruptly. She slouched over to the
wall of windows and stared down at the street. I sat stunned at my
stupidity before pushing it aside. If I was going to rely on
Jessica to help rescue Anna and Chris, then I had to put these
questions to rest.

‘
Jess,’ I whispered, ‘you’ve proven yourself to us. I mean, you
did try and kill us, but after… Without you my son might have never
made it into this world. Without you, even though he made it, he
could have been whisked out of our arms before we could even blink.
I will be eternally grateful and in your debt.

‘
And if you need to, you can talk to me.’

Jessica
whirled with a face full of fury.

‘
What the hell does my past have to do with you?’ she spat. ‘It
isn’t enough that I stayed while you were dead, when I could have
left?’

I
dropped my gaze and sighed.

‘
I’m sorry,’ I said, cursing myself.

To my
surprise Jessica looked startled. She took a gulp of air and
pinched the bridge of her nose before starting up a pace. She swung
her arms while walking for a while, before finally stopping and
returning to her seat.

‘
Looks like you found my Achilles heel,’ she laughed
mirthlessly.

I
remained silent and held her gaze. I waited for her to be ready, to
work through what she needed.

‘
I’m a lot like you, you know,’ she started. ‘We aren’t too
dissimilar.’

‘
How so?’ I whispered.

‘
I wasn’t always the cold bitch I am today,’ Jessica replied
and waved off any idea to the contrary I started to form. ‘Come on,
I know what I am. I wouldn’t say I’m ecstatic with it, but I’ve
made my peace. I made my bed and I will happily lay in
it.’

She
swallowed and faced me.

‘
I had a normal life once too,’ she said, ‘big shock right? I
was happy, and doing what I wanted with my life. Ironic for me
today, I was training to be a nurse.’

‘
What happened?’ I said and went on to try and lighten the
mood. ‘You’re saying you went from helping people to killing
them?’

Jess
smirked and continued, ‘Yep. Let’s just say my life dove off the
edge of crazy into insanity. It only takes one little thing, one
tiny, almost insignificant mistake before your life gets
destroyed.’

‘
Tell me about it,’ I sighed.

Jessica
chuckled and ran her hands through her hair. She got up from her
seat and walked back over to the windows. I decided to join her,
and when I looked down at the vacant streets below us, I knew
Jessica was reaching the hard part. I guessed she was right, we
were similar. Both of us had gone through life changing events, and
then both of us had buried them. It wasn’t a week ago I’d faced my
own demons.

‘
It might not seem like it,’ I told her, ‘but talking about it
actually helps. You have to face it one day.’

‘
Shut up,’ Jess replied without cruelty, ‘I’m bloody getting
there big mouth.’

She
sighed.

‘
I went out with the girls one night,’ she said. ‘Just one
night that should have been like any other, and like a twisted love
story that was about to go twistedly wrong, I met a guy. It wasn’t
just any guy. Chalk it to alcohol or just a crazy girl in her youth
but, it was like the world stopped.’

‘
When was this night?’ I asked trying to set up a
timeline.

‘
Five years ago,’ Jessica said, ‘and before you insult a lady
by asking her age, I’m twenty-six.’

‘
I would never insult you by calling you a lady,’ I
retorted.

Jessica
gave a genuine laugh and punched my arm. I winced and that set her
off. Once she’d shushed herself she continued.

‘
Well, without all the sentimental bullshit, that guy and I
ended up back at mine,’ she said. ‘Then so forth with the sex,’ I
grimaced, ‘and then that one night stand was done.’

‘
But it wasn’t over,’ I stated, and she nodded.

‘
The hell it was,’ Jess spat, ‘like I said, one silly mistake;
one lapse of judgement and two weeks later I find out I’m
pregnant.’

I didn’t
push her when she’d stopped. I could feel the tension that emanated
from her posture, and even though I didn’t dare voice it to her, I
could feel her fear. The way she said she had become pregnant had
been loaded with emotion, and her forehead crumpled as her eyes
shot down. She clasped her hands around her front, and started
pulling at her fingers.

‘
I was actually happy,’ she whispered. ‘It might have been a
one night stand, but, the moment I found out, I wasn’t disappointed
or scared. It had been the best moment of my life. I’d always
wanted a baby, and even though I was still on the younger side, I
knew I would do anything for her.’

‘
The baby was a she?’ I smiled sadly.

Jessica’s smile pulled at the corners, but she looked me in
the eye.

‘
Yeah,’ she gasped and gulped at the air. She cleared her
throat. ‘Yeah, I was gonna have a little girl. I was around the
five month mark. I’d even picked her out a name.’

‘
What was it?’ I whispered.

‘
Penny,’ Jessica replied, her eyes alight with love. ‘My little
Penny…’

Her
hands stopped fidgeting and they shot to her eyes to staunch the
tears before they fell. Part of me regretted asking her for her
answers. I could feel a despicable climax coming.

‘
If I cry I’ll be tying you up and kicking you where the sun
doesn’t shine,’ Jessica stuttered, ‘and trust me, it won’t be your
arse.’

I
remained silent as she steadied herself.

‘
My family were fantastic, they were just as excited as I was,’
she said. ‘Then my best friend Tania decided to try and find the
father. I wasn’t expecting anything from him, but I thought it best
just to let him know that he was going to have a daughter, just in
case he did want to be a part of her life.

‘
Tania still had pictures from our night out, and she posted
them on Facebook. We hunted and hunted for him, but we couldn’t
find him. We left the pictures up, and let it be. But a few weeks
after we started, a man broke into my flat, and stuck a knife in my
stomach.’

I gasped
and grimaced. I turned away from the window and edged closer to
Alex, asleep in his crib. It wasn’t that he was in any danger, but
my parental instinct drove me to his side. Jessica watched with the
shadow of a smile on her face, before finally, the emotion
overwhelmed her and she clutched at her stomach. Tears broke free
and made their way down her face, and her mouth crumpled as she
fell to her knees.

I
thought about comforting her, maybe joining her on the floor, but
sense told me better. Jessica was tough, independent, she wouldn’t
accept my pity kindly, and I didn’t want her to feel
worse.

‘
It was
him
,
one night stand guy,’ Jessica spat. ‘He didn’t even say anything,
just twisted the blade he gutted me with deeper into my
stomach.

‘
I pleaded with him, begged him for the sake of our daughter,
but his face was stone. He didn’t give a fuck!’

She
pushed herself to her feet and clenched her fists. She looked ready
to murder.

‘
The next thing I knew I was in hospital. A neighbour heard the
break-in and called the police,’ Jessica whispered. ‘I was lucky.
They were able to save me.

‘
But they couldn’t save my baby.’

Jessica
slouched over to the table again and sank into her seat. I had no
idea what to do, so I remained upright next to my son. I swallowed,
and tried to keep my own tears at bay. Jessica gave herself a
shake, wiped the water from her face and then set her features in a
clenched expression. When she spoke again, her tone was clipped and
icy.

‘
I was in the hospital for a while, and even though they tried,
the doctors couldn’t help,’ Jess said. ‘Not only had that bastard
killed my unborn baby, I’ll never be able to have kids again thanks
to him.’

A
shuffling by the door brought both Jessica’s and my own head
snapping in that direction. Brian stood in the open doorway, his
face dark and depressed. I hadn’t realised how tired and decrepit
he looked. The bags under his eyes had black bags of their own, and
his face sagged inwards, as if he hadn’t eaten or slept the whole
time I’d been buried underground. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been
stood there for, but judging by the shine in his eyes, he’d heard
the majority of Jessica’s story.

The
assassin looked furious at the intrusion, but she held her tongue.
It was too late to go back. The story had to be
finished.

‘
It was at the same time I found out my killer had also
targeted my entire family, plus Tania,’ Jessica resumed. ‘He’d
fucking killed them all. I passed into a state of shock and fury,
and it was then that a woman approached me. I believe you met her,
she has a fondness for violet.’

‘
Bonnie?’ I asked.

So,
Jessica did know the illustrious violet assassin.

‘
Yeah,’ Jess replied. ‘So to make this long story short, Bonnie
helped me. She became my deadly guardian angel. The guy I’d slept
with was from a rival agency of killers. Getting me pregnant wasn’t
an issue, but Tania and I searching for him broke a rule. Assassins
are supposed to be incognito. No should be able to find us, all of
our previous life gets erased. When we started plastering my one
night stand’s picture all over the internet he was ordered to fix
it.’

‘
So Bonnie was an assassin?’ I asked, but I’d already had the
suspicion she was.

It made
sense, and further cemented our reasoning about the government’s
plans. They hadn’t intervened in Greystone because they hoped it
would have been a success, and it had. So Bonnie, working for our
friends in power, tried to sample my blood and put me in the
ground.

‘
Yep, she trained me, removed me from the world,’ Jessica said.
‘I mean everyone I knew was dead so it wasn’t hard. She helped me
hunt the bastard down, and I drove a knife into
his
gut. Only I made sure he was
truly dead.’

I
watched as Jessica’s shoulders sagged. I remembered the feeling.
The weight of all of what we’d held on to for so long lifting like
wisps of smoke and vanishing into the air. It answered that long
standing question of why she instantly bonded with both Anna and
Alex, of how she became so protective over them, and of how she
joined our side because of her number one rule. She would never,
ever, harm a child.

There
was no way, even being the person she was, that Jessica Reed would
ever inflict the pain she had been dealt to another
person.

‘
So when I said I understood your choice, Lucas, I meant it,’
Jess whispered. ‘We’ve both been down that dark road. Both been
faced with that choice, hung over that cliff. Only I know I choose
wrong, even though if I had to go back, I wouldn’t change a thing.
I accept what I am.’