Sloane (24 page)

I gave him a sharp look. “My brother is not—”

“Okay, he’s not,” said Axel. “But he’s no good for
you either. It was his idea to kill your parents. You had to watch,
you had to participate, but you didn’t start it.”

I swallowed.

“And then you ended up as an assassin, and you had to
keep doing it.”

“She recruited us because she said we were naturals,”
I said. “We were supposed to go to jail, both of us, but they
intercepted our transport vehicle and took us to Op Wraith.”

“Did you like being an assassin?”

“No,” I said. “But neither did Silas. He never
wanted—”

“But because of what he did, you had to kill people
again. How many times has he forced you to kill people,
Sloane?”

“It’s not like that,” I said. “He always has to
intervene for me, because I can’t handle it. He protects me. He
does all those horrible things so that I don’t have to.”

“But if it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have
to.”

“No.” I wouldn’t look at Axel. “You don’t even know
him.”

“That’s true.” He ran his hand through his hair and
turned to face the shelves. “I don’t know. Maybe I don’t
understand. Maybe I can’t understand. Maybe if there was someone
that I cared about in as much danger as you were in, then I’d feel
like I needed to kill them all too.” He glanced over his shoulder.
“So maybe it’s not that he’s a psychopath, but that you blame him.
And you feel guilty for blaming him.”

“I don’t blame him. He had to.”

“Do you
really
think that?”

I gulped.

“He says that he did it for you, but did you ask him
to do it?”

“Well, no, but…”

“Did you ask him to protect you?”

“No, but I don’t see why—”

“But he did it anyway. And now, you feel worthless.
You feel like you can’t take care of yourself.”

I pressed my lips together. Axel was right about
that.

“You feel like you always rely on him, and his
solutions are always violent.”

“We have violent lives.” My voice cracked.

“But you told me yourself that you don’t like it that
way. You don’t want to be in danger. You don’t want to have to hurt
people. And yet here you are doing it again. For Silas.”

“For Leigh and Griffin too,” I said in a tiny
voice.

He knelt down next to me and grabbed hold of my
hands. “Sloane, you are the opposite of worthless. You are capable
and strong. You have no idea what you might have done if Silas
hadn’t started killing the people in that basement. You don’t know
if you would have found a better solution. Silas made you freeze.
He exposed you to something horrible. That’s why you froze. Not
because you’re not good. Because you’re a normal human being, and
you couldn’t handle watching all that carnage.”

I gazed into his eyes. Holy fuck, he was right. I
remembered a conversation I’d had with Leigh a few years ago. She’d
asked me about torturing people, and I’d gotten so uncomfortable,
because it had reminded me of killing our parents. What Silas and I
had done, it had horrified me. It still horrified me. But it had
never horrified Silas. If anything, it had made him harder and more
closed-off. I thought that my horror of it was weakness. I’d told
myself that I was less than him because it bothered me. I parted my
lips. “It’s normal to think that killing people is horrible.”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s normal.”

“I’m not useless,” I whispered.

“No.”

I was quiet, letting that wash over me. I couldn’t
explain how, because it didn’t quite make sense, but somehow, I
felt better. It was as if I’d been running away from a simple
acceptance, and now, having made it, I felt soothed. I felt
strong.

I squared my shoulders. “Okay, Axel, let’s figure out
how to get out of this room.”

He grinned at me. “That’s my girl.”

“Start moving the shelves. Let’s see if there’s
anything behind them.”

LEIGH

The door opened, and French came in, leading Griffin
along with her. Griffin wasn’t tied up, but he wasn’t himself
either. He stared out into the room as if he couldn’t see anything
that he recognized.

I got to my feet. “Griffin?” I looked at French.
“What did you do to him?”

Silas scrambled out of the bathroom stall, his face
twisting into a snarl as he headed for French.

French looked at him. “Oh, Silas, hello.”

Silas was still rushing forward.

French stepped behind Griffin. She stroked the back
of his neck. “Don’t let anyone near me.”

Griffin turned to Silas, his expression blank, his
hands curled into fists.

Silas stopped, his nostrils flaring. He and Griffin
both sized each other up, but neither made a move.

“Griffin,” I said. “What’s wrong with him?”

French smiled. “I can’t help it. I guess it’s weak of
me, but I needed you to know my triumph before you died.”

Oh, so she was threatening to kill me. Whatever. “You
did something to Griffin. I want to know what is was.”

“Shut your mouth, and I’ll explain,” said French. She
let go of Griffin and clasped her hands behind her back. She began
to pace in front of us. “You see, it’s like I told you before. You
took everything away from me. And I had to build it all back up. I
made one big mistake with the assassins I created before. I didn’t
control them well enough. I thought that my own abilities to
understand the way your brains worked would be enough. But you all
surprised me. You rose up against me. And so now, with the help of
Costello Labs and James Armstrong, I’ve been able to correct
that.”

French paused at stared at me. She was enjoying this,
wasn’t she? “At first, we couldn’t quite get the formula right. It
made soup of Knox’s brain. Our trials spoiled him, and he wasn’t
any use to us anymore. But then we tinkered a little bit, and now
it’s perfect.” She smiled at me. “I was going to keep you alive,
Leigh, and use you, but after that little stunt with Sloane, I
realized you wouldn’t be of any use to me. You’re not a trained
assassin.”

“Sloane?” I said. “What about Sloane?”

“You didn’t kill her,” said French.

“Well, of course I didn’t kill her. I would never
kill her.”

“Sloane?” said Silas

French eyed him. “Silas, don’t worry. I’ll be sure
that you and your sister are reunited soon enough.”

“Where is she?” Silas growled.

French only smiled.

“What did you do to Griffin?” I couldn’t take my eyes
off of him. He seemed so… empty.

“The same thing I did to you when you nearly shot
Sloane to death,” said French. “Of course, you failed. And I have
no reason to keep you alive.”

“I would never…” I gave Silas a pleading look. He
couldn’t believe what French was saying.

Silas’ face was drawn. “You’ve got him doing what you
say.”

“This latest injection that we’ve created here makes
people very suggestible,” said French. “Griffin here will do
whatever I need him to.” She ran a hand over his shoulder. “Isn’t
that right, Griffin?”

“Yes,” said Griffin, but his voice was dull.

“And why is that?”

“Because I love you,” Griffin said.

It wasn’t his voice—not exactly. He sounded like a
robot, a man in a dream. But it still sent shudders through my body
to hear him say those words to Jolene French.

French turned Griffin to face me. “That’s your
target.”

I swallowed.

“Kill her,” said French.

Griffin started towards me.

“No,” I whispered, gazing into his eyes. “No,
Griffin, please. I know you’re in there.”

“I just want you to know,” said French, “before you
die. I win, Leigh. I win.” She backed out of the room, chuckling to
herself.

And the door slammed closed.

Griffin was coming for me.

Silas glanced from him to me. “Look, we know it has
to wear off. You had it, and you’re okay now. And when she gave it
to Griffin before, it didn’t last forever. So, we just have to keep
him busy until he’s himself again.”

“What if he never is?” I said. “What if she tinkered
with the formula again. What if it’s permanent?”

“It’s not,” said Silas. “Now, back away from him,
Leigh. Back away.”

Tears sprang to my eyes. This was Griffin. This was
the man that I loved more than anyone on earth, and he was coming
after me, trying to hurt me. It hurt in a way that I couldn’t even
describe. It felt like betrayal, even though it wasn’t. On unsteady
feet, I started to back up.

Silas stretched his neck. “Sorry, buddy.” And then he
lunged for Griffin, tackling him from the side.

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting. Griffin had
been slow, almost dazed when we’d been talking. He hadn’t even been
walking towards me particularly quickly. But now that he and Silas
were struggling together, Griffin wasn’t acting the least bit
dazed.

Griffin punched Silas, an uppercut to his chin.

Silas’ head snapped back. He grunted.

Griffin drove his fist into Silas’ stomach.

Silas absorbed the impact. He was on top of Griffin,
and he used his position to get his knee against Griffin’s
groin.

Griffin let out a shriek.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“I’m trying to get him to go dark,” Silas grunted. He
wrapped his hands around Griffin’s neck and squeezed.

Griffin’s face started to turn red. He scrabbled
against Silas, wrapping his hands around Silas’ wrists and
pulling.

Silas’ face started to get red too, from the strain
of resisting him.

They were locked that way for several eternal
moments, both giving their all to trying to hurt the other.

And then Griffin suddenly let go of Silas.

And Silas was so startled that his grip loosened on
Griffin’s neck.

Griffin yanked one of Silas’ hands away.

Silas struggled to get it back.

But Griffin snatched Silas’ free arm and twisted it
behind his back.

Silas cried out, letting go of Griffin’s neck.

Griffin turned Silas’ body so that Silas’ back was
pressed against him. Quickly, he snapped Silas’ neck, and then
flung the motionless body away from him like it was a broken
toy.

Silas’ lay against the concrete floor. His eyes were
still open, but he was dark.

Griffin got to his feet. He looked at me.
“Target.”

I put my fingers over my lips. Oh no. Oh, no, no,
no
.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

We’d taken apart some of the shelves, at least as
best we could. We’d tried to use some of the pieces to pry the door
open. That had been a bust.

We’d used the other intact shelves to climb up and
inspect the ceiling, looking for some way up into the upper level
of the building. That hadn’t helped either.

We’d gone around knocking on all of the walls, hoping
that we’d be able to find one that was hollow, that we could maybe
break through. But the walls were all concrete, and they were
solid.

I was out of ideas at this point. There simply wasn’t
much in the room that could help us. And there wasn’t much on our
persons either. Of course, they’d taken away our weapons when they
brought us here, but they’d also emptied our pockets of wallets and
phones and anything else we might have had.

Axel had made some comment about how Crocodile Dundee
had rigged something up with a bra, but I told him we weren’t in
the Australian outback, and besides, the bra on that movie had an
underwire, and I thought underwires were tantamount to torture.

We’d both laughed, because at that point, we’d been
in high spirits, thinking we were going to get out of here somehow,
if we just figured out a way.

But that had been a long time ago, and we didn’t feel
that way anymore.

We both were sitting on the floor, amongst the
dismantled shelves. We were tired. We were hungry. We weren’t sure
how long we’d been in this room, but it had probably been a long
time. Hours and hours, maybe. We didn’t want to sleep, though,
because both of us were afraid that if we did that, French’s people
would come and kill Axel.

She’d taunted us when she left, saying that we
wouldn’t know when, and that was because she knew that waiting
would wear us down.

Now, sitting in the room, staring at the gray walls,
the light above us casting long and dark shadows over everything, I
could feel despair starting to seep into me. It was in the stuffy
air, oppressive and strong. It was in Axel’s own face. His
bow-shaped lips were still perfect, but he was pale and worn.

And my eyes kept closing. Sleep was threatening to
drag me down into oblivion.

I focused on his lips. I thought about kissing them.
And my lids drooped.

And…

“Sloane.”

My eyes snapped open. Had I slept? I struggled to an
upright position, rubbing my eyes. “What? I’m awake. I’m
awake.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.” His voice had a
gravelly quality, so different from his usual self-assured silk
purr.

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I wanted
to stay alert. I
needed
to do that.

“You know,” he said, “the first time I saw you, when
you and Griffin came in to the club to ask about Leigh, I didn’t
think anything of you.”

Why was he saying that? Was that really the thing we
needed to talk about right now?

“You weren’t like the other girls that I know,” he
said. “You were ordinary and plain. You didn’t seem the slightest
bit interested in me. And I wasn’t interested in you either.”

Oh, maybe I understood this. Maybe Axel was trying to
apologize to me. He knew that I had feelings for him, and he’d used
me, and he wanted me to know that he felt bad about it, since he
was going to die. I shook my head violently. “Axel, you don’t have
to say stuff like this. Just because we can’t get out of this room
doesn’t mean we won’t fight. When they come for you, I’ll do
everything that I can to stop it, you understand?”