Freaks in the City (23 page)

“She did as I asked. I have no further use
for her.”

“She told us about you. What are the
ramifications for her disobedience?”

Nessa’s quiet sobs become louder. Jay jerked
her chin at Tyler, and he hauled the girl upright and led her to
the couch by the bookshelves.

“None. There’s a saying, ‘What’s done is
done.’ Or perhaps, ‘No use crying over spilled milk’ would be more
apt. I promised her more money, but she said insisted she no longer
wanted it. As far as I am concerned, our deal is concluded.”

“If you hurt her, I will hunt you down and
destroy you.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

“Are you working for Evan Caine?” From the
corner of her eye Jay saw Tyler’s head snap up.

“Not anymore,” Sixer said, and
disconnected.

Jay swept her gaze over Nessa, huddled in
Tyler’s arms, looking like a terrified little girl who’d just
discovered the bogeyman was knocking on her door. “He’s not going
to hurt you, Nessa,” she said. “You’re not his primary target. He
got what he wanted from you and he’s moved on.”

“A-are you sure?” Nessa’s tear-reddened eyes
glittered with hope.

“I’m sure.”

“Thank God.” She sagged with relief and Jay
felt that unwelcome compassion creeping up on catlike feet. Poor
Nessa. She must have been frantic. It was impressive that she’d
kept this secret for so long.

“And what did he want from her, exactly?”
Tyler grated the words from between tightly clenched teeth.

“Exactly what Nessa told us he wanted—her
impressions of me.”

“Why?”

“That remains to be seen.”

“Jesus.” Tyler scrubbed his hands over his
face.

“He’s not working for Caine,” Jay told him,
and watched as he exhaled some of the tension from his body. Before
he could say anything more she said, “Please take Nessa upstairs
and put her to bed. I have something I need to do.”

“The mobile?” Tyler guessed.

“Yes.”

The expression in his eyes told her this
wasn’t over and he’d be interrogating her later, but he chivvied
Nessa from the chair and ushered her upstairs.

By the time Tyler re-entered the study, Jay had
completed her investigations. “Anything?” he asked, indicating the
cell phone with a jerk of his chin.

“Disposable. Pre-pay. Cheap generic brand.
He could have picked this up anywhere.”

“Worth dusting for prints?”

Jay shook her head. “I don’t believe so. If
he doesn’t have a record his prints won’t be in the system. They
may be on file at a private company or organization, but that’d be
like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“And he’s too smart to have a record, you
reckon?”

“Yes.”

“What about tracing the call?”

“Of course he destroyed his own phone
immediately after disconnecting the call.” She didn’t tell Tyler
what little she had been able to discover. Best to keep that
disturbing piece of news to herself.

The good news was that Sixer was no longer
an agent of Caine’s. The bad news was he’d gone rogue, which meant
he had his own agenda. And if he became a problem she would handle
him in her own way. Just as she would handle Caine. Again. More
permanently this time.

“Shit.” Tyler plunked his butt on the edge
of the desk, his gaze intent. “What are you gonna do?”

“Nothing for the moment.”

He flexed his fingers and then clenched them
into tight fists. “Nothing?”

Jay amended her answer slightly to make it
more palatable. “When Nessa is feeling up to it I’ll ask her to
describe him in detail and mock up a sketch—run him through some
systems and see if I get a hit.”

His fists relaxed. A good sign. “Sounds like
a plan. And if you can’t ID him?”

“I don’t believe I will be able to ID him.
The ball is in his court, Tyler. He wants something from me and
eventually, when the time is right, he’ll ask for it. In the
meantime, all I can do is be vigilant.”

Tyler chewed his thumbnail—a habit he had
when he was thinking hard, searching for inspiration. “You think
he’s after money?”

“No. This was a fact-finding mission.”

“And what ‘facts’ do you reckon he’s found,
then?”

“I don’t know.”

Tyler barked a disbelieving laugh. “You
don’t know?”

“It has been known to happen on occasion,”
Jay said. “Just because I’m a cyborg doesn’t mean I’m
omnipotent.”

In other circumstances, Tyler would probably
have made some smartass comment about this being a “frame it and
hang it on the wall” moment. Now he just went back to gnawing on
his thumbnail. Eventually he said, “Do we need to get out of
Dodge?”

“Leave and start over? No. I don’t believe
so. He’s posed no physical threat, though doubtless he’s had ample
opportunities to get physical.”

“He scared the bejesus out of Nessa. She’s
still majorly freaked about the whole thing.”

“Mind games,” Jay said. “He wanted her
scared and compliant. But he didn’t physically harm her and I don’t
believe he will do so in the future.”

Tyler’s eyes darkened with worry. “You
willing to bet on that?”

“Yes,” Jay said. “I’m willing to bet on it.
I’m willing to put everything on the line and guarantee that he
will not harm her.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because he knows I do not make idle
threats. If he hurts her I
will
kill him.”

Tyler rubbed his arms. “Sure glad you’re on
my side.”

“Me, too.”

“What about Nessa?”

Jay arched a brow. “I’m hardly going to
insist she leave after what’s happened. If she wants to remain
here, then she can do so. If she doesn’t want to, then I’ll help
her find a suitable place to stay and give her the cash that Sixer
promised her to get her started. Stop worrying, Tyler. There’s
nothing more you can do right now, so worrying is a futile
exercise.”

He gave her classic “Doh” eyes. “Worrying is
human. It’s what we do. Times like this it’d be darned useful to be
a cyborg and switch off my emotions and concentrate on logic and
facts.”

“You should get some sleep. I’ll clean up in
the kitchen and be up a little later on.”

Tyler yawned and glanced at his watch.
“Shit. You’re right. Got a class first thing tomorrow, too.” He
stood and stared down at her. “Be careful, Jay.”

“Always.”

~~~

Tyler pummeled a pillow with his fist and
tried to get comfortable. No joy. Every time he closed his eyes his
brain kicked into overdrive.

He rolled onto his back and lay staring at
the ceiling. He wasn’t happy about the prospect of leaving Jay
alone in the house tomorrow but unless he wanted to go the
vigilante route and try to track this creepy Sixer dude himself, he
had to comply with her wishes. Man, he was tempted except for one
small problem. Aside from enlisting his dad’s help—and no way was
Tyler getting his dad involved in something like this again—he was
clueless where to start. If Jay couldn’t track this guy, Tyler
hadn’t got a shit show in hell.

Small comfort that Nessa didn’t start her
shift until the afternoon. She wouldn’t be much use protecting Jay
from… whatever Sixer decided to pull next. And God forbid Jay
revealed to Nessa what she was. Nessa would totally wig out and run
screaming for the hills.

Huh. Come to think of it, he didn’t believe
for a second Jay would reveal all to Nessa. Because then, to ensure
Nessa’s silence, Jay would have to either threaten her or bribe
her, and Tyler couldn’t see that working out so good.

Well, there was a third alternative, but
Tyler knew Jay wouldn’t resort to offing Nessa no matter how much
of a pain in the ass she could be. From the scant details he had
been able to glean, Jay had a personal code. If directly
threatened, she would disable and render her opponents unconscious.
She only killed if there was no other alternative….

Like the time her creator had accessed her
core command codes and compelled her to kill him. He’d been old and
dying of an incurable cancer. Because Jay’s command codes had been
keyed to his voiceprint, to his way of thinking once he was dead
she would be safe. But for Jay to be forced to kill the man she
thought of as her father? Cruel. And even though she’d been
compelled and had no choice but to obey, even though she was a
cyborg, it had affected her deeply—still did, Tyler knew. He didn’t
believe she would deliberately kill again if she had the
choice.

Shame. Because to Tyler’s way of thinking,
Sixer needed killing. And if it came down to it, to keep Jay safe,
to ensure her secret was kept, Tyler would do whatever it took.
Even if it meant killing a man.

~~~

Jay escorted Nessa to Café au Lait. Nessa
still seemed a bit skittish—not surprising considering recent
events. Just to be completely certain she was reading Nessa
correctly, she asked, “How are you feeling about everything?”

“Better now I’ve slept on it.” Nessa’s gaze
drifted to a storefront window. “Thanks for walking me to work. I’m
still a bit freaked about... you know.” She dragged her attention
from the outfit in the window to shoot Jay a conspiratorial gaze.
“Being watched.”

“If you’re uncomfortable staying at my place
I will help you find suitable accommodation elsewhere,” Jay said.
“And there’s also the matter of the money Sixer promised you. I’ll
reimburse you for monies owed so you have the fresh start you hoped
for when you left Snapperton.”

Nessa stumbled on a non-existent crack in
the pavement but caught herself quickly enough that Jay didn’t find
it necessary to intervene. Her eyes rounded until she reminded Jay
of a manga character. “You’d do that for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” She tucked her hands into the pockets
of the short trench-style coat she wore with black pants, black
monogrammed t-shirt and comfortable flats.

“For the same reason I gave you a cell phone
and a few hundred dollars this morning. Because you need help and
I’m in a position to give it.”

Nessa scoffed. “Yeah, right. All that money
you seem to have isn’t gonna last long if you keep throwing it at
every charity case who comes knocking on your door. Besides, you
don’t even like me all that much.”

Jay frowned. It was true—to a point. She
didn’t believe she’d ever like Nessa as much as she did Caro. But
she no longer
disliked
her. “I like you more now than I did
back at Greenfield High.”

“Oh God.” Nessa visibly winced. She peeked
at Jay, her gaze now puppy-dog-pleading-for-forgiveness rather than
wide-eyed disbelieving owl. “I was a total bitch to you. If I’d
known—”

“What? That sometime in the future you’d be
reliant on me for accommodation, food and clothes, you’d have been
a bit nicer?” Jay smiled to take the sting from her comment. She’d
intended it to be humorous. Hopefully Nessa would see it that
way.

“Yeah. Something like that.” Nessa grinned
back. “But seriously—”

“Seriously, I admire your drive to better
yourself, even if the method you chose was somewhat
distasteful.”

Nessa’s mouth sagged open and she shook her
head. “You admire my drive to better myself, even if the method I
chose was somewhat distasteful?”

Jay wondered what she’d said wrong.
“Yes.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but
seriously
, you are just the slightest bit weird. Have you
ever listened to yourself?”

“Believe me, sometimes the words that come
out of my mouth freak me out just as much as they apparently do
you.”

Nessa tossed her head and giggled. “I’ll
keep that in mind.”

Jay felt a little glow of warmth around the
region of her heart. She suspected it was satisfaction—the
satisfaction of helping Nessa put the past behind her and stand on
her own two feet. “Do you want to stay on a while longer with Tyler
and me? Or would you prefer a clean break?”

Some of Nessa’s pleasure dimmed. Her smile
seemed forced and there was a tension about her shoulder muscles
that hadn’t been evident before. “I should find my own place.”

Jay could have taken this declaration at
face value. It would have been less complicated to do so. But
something prodded her to ignore Nessa’s words and look deeper. “I’m
not asking what you think you
should
do. I’m asking what you
want
to do.”

Nessa stopped dead on the sidewalk, forcing
pedestrians to fan around her.

“What’s wrong?” Jay asked, momentarily
confused by the tears glistening in Nessa’s eyes. She grabbed
Nessa’s arm and dragged her off to the side beneath a storefront
awning where she wouldn’t impede the flow of foot traffic. Some of
the mutterings from passersby were getting a bit snarky.

“When it comes to the big stuff, no one’s
ever asked me what
I
wanted to do before,” Nessa said.
“They’ve always just told me what I should do—for my own good.”

By “they” Jay presumed Nessa meant her
parents. “Well, it’s about time someone asked, then, isn’t it? So,
what do you want to do? Stay, or help me look for a suitable place
for you to live?”

Nessa blotted her eyes with her forefinger,
careful not to smear the layers of mascara. She heaved a deep
breath and faced Jay. “I think I’d like to find my own place. I
mean, your place is awesome but I’m intruding. I figure if I could
survive on the crap wages Time-Out paid me, I’ll do fine at Café au
Lait.”

“Okay. If that’s what you want, that’s what
I’ll help you work toward. I’ll check out a few places and give you
a list.”

Nessa’s smile was back. “That’d be great.
Thanks so much, Jay.”

“Well, I can’t have you moving into that
dump where Tyler lives. If you hooked up with Pete, Tyler would
have a cow.”

Nessa’s reaction to that sally—a full-body
shudder—was everything Jay had expected. “As if!” she said.