Black and Blue (36 page)

Five.

“Henry?” another man said.

The ringing stopped.

Blue popped to his feet and launched forward, through the door, barely missing the reengagement of the lasers. He scanned the home, taking everything in at once. The living room had three other guards in it. Two were watching television. One was striding toward the fallen Henry, his expression concerned.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

All three died as quickly as their friend, this time courtesy of Blue.

A search of the premises revealed no other guards. Just Tiffany in bed, her blue eyes wide as she pressed against the headboard, her hands trembling as she aimed a pyre-gun at him. She squeezed off a shot as Blue approached, but he dodged, and the blaze soared over his shoulder. He was on her the next instant, rolling her over and tying her hands behind her back.

She bucked, far stronger than she appeared, but still Blue managed to subdue her easily enough.

“Stop fighting,” he said. “You’re not going to win this.”

“No, Blue. No. Don’t do this.”

Begging won’t help, honey.
“I’m taking you hostage.”

“You don’t understand.” Her struggles renewed, but they were just as ineffective as the others. “Please,” she said. “Don’t do this. You’ll regret it.”

“I’m not going to kill you.”
Yet.
Pressing her into the mattress with one hand, he withdrew a syringe from his pocket with the other. “Right now my plan is to use you as a bargaining chip. Your father has something I want, and you’re going to get it back for me.” Star claimed he would not trade, but they would soon put those words to the test.

“No,” she sobbed. “You don’t want to take him on. Just leave me here. Walk away before you tumble straight into his trap. It’s the only way you’ll survive.”

Blue paused. Her words . . .

Those of a frightened captive, sure. But there was something else at work here, it seemed, something far
more desperate than he was used to seeing from those he’d wrangled over the years.

He didn’t have time for a conversation but found himself flipping her over anyway, placing a knee in her stomach to hold her down and training a gun on the doorway, just in case they had any unexpected visitors. He also kept the syringe ready to be plunged deep into her neck.

She was fully dressed, he noted. T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. The tennis shoes looked odd on her. Too casual for the girl he’d come to know, the white canvas somehow out of place when paired with the bright colors of the rest of her clothing.

Watery eyes beseeched him. “Walk away. Leave Tyson and me alone.”

“I can’t. What do you know of your father’s plans for John, now that I’m coming in strong?”

She pressed her lips together in a thin, stubborn line.

“I’m going to find out one way or another. You can make it easy on yourself and talk now.”

“No. I can’t,” she whispered, her features tormented.

“You can.” Drawing on his compulsion, he said, “You will.”

But she shook her head, making him think her father had given her an injection of whatever made him immune to the ability. “I won’t. You don’t understand.”

“Enlighten me.”

She closed her eyes, and a tear beaded from the corner, cascading down her cheek. “I’m not a horrible person. I’m not. But he’s going to make me become one, and I don’t want to become one, but I will, there’s
no other way, because I can’t survive on my own, don’t want to survive on my own.”

Enough babbling. He wasn’t getting any answers out of her. Frustrated, he jabbed the needle into her vein with a little more force than he’d intended, watched as her eyes closed and her head lolled to the side.

He double-checked her vitals before hefting her over his shoulder. When exiting the front door, he disengaged the lasers outside and fired a flare into the night sky.

Evie and Solo raced over to him.

“Got her?” Evie demanded.

“I do.”

Hauling her to the plane was easy. Locking her in one of the holding cells was satisfying.

Once they were in the air, Blue called Michael to tell him everything was set.

“I’ll find a way to reach Star and let him know we’ve got his baby girl,” Michael said. His tone wasn’t as affectionate as it used to be, but it wasn’t laced with disappointment or anger, either.

Progress.

“I want to know what he says.” Blue paused, then offered: “Something’s off with Tiffany. She knows something, but I couldn’t get it out of her.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll find out. Time is on our side now.”

Blue scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Yes. You’re right. See you soon.”

“Wait,” Michael rushed out just before he disconnected.

Curiosity and dread warred. “Yes?”

There was a crackle of breath. “Listen, I know I haven’t been supportive of your relationship with my daughter.”

Understatement.

“I’m . . . sorry about that. You make her happy and that’s all that matters. Just . . . take good care of her.”

Shock hit him as his gaze found Evie—his gaze always found Evie. His heart seemed to beat for her, and her alone. She sat in front of Tiffany’s cage, waiting for the girl to wake up, determined to have a little girl talk. Every moment in her presence was a gift.

“I will,” he vowed. Just then, he thought loving Evie was what he’d been born to do.

T
IFFANY WAS STILL SLEEPING
when they reached New Chicago. And she was still sleeping when they carted her to a cage in Michael’s underground room at the boathouse. Nothing roused her. In fact, she was still sleeping an hour later.

“Go home,” Michael finally said. “Eat. Get some rest. You’re all operating on pure adrenaline. She’ll be here in the morning. Or afternoon. Whatever.”

Solo took off to be with Vika—where he’d left her, no one knew.

Blue and Evie weren’t far behind. They stopped to pick up a bag of Evie’s things, then drove to his safe house and fell into bed, exhausted.

When her phone rang, however many hours later, bright light slanted through the curtains. She groped for the cell perched on the nightstand.

“Hello?” she rasped.

“Sorry, sunbeam, but I need to speak with Blue,” her father said, “and he’s not answering his phone.”

“Hang on.” Groggy, Evie tried to hand the cell to Blue, who was curled tightly around her body, holding her as if he feared she would slip away.

“Put it on speaker,” he muttered. “I like where my arms are.”

She pressed a button. “You’re on, Daddy.”

“I sent a message through certain underground contacts, letting them know I have Tiffany. They let Star know. He called me but refused to talk about terms. He wants to talk directly to you, Blue.”

“All right. We’ll be there as soon as possible.”

“Also, Tiffany has woken,” Michael added. “I spoke to her at length and even used Evie’s truth serum, but I got no answers out of her. She’s definitely had some improvements since you last saw her.”

Blue stiffened. “Well, then, we’ve been asking too nicely. Might be time to change that.”

Evie hung up and set the cell on the nightstand. She dug through her bag, picked the purse she wanted, and filled it with everything she thought she might need. A golf ball, a pair of glasses, a coaster, a Rubik’s Cube, three tubes of lipstick, all in a different shade, and a package of freeze-dried ice cream.

“More weapons?” he asked, startling her when she realized he was standing behind her.

“Yeah. When I fit my fingers into certain grooves in the golf ball, it’s activated, and poisoned smoke will fill the air. You can breath it in, and that’s fine, but if it comes into contact with your eyes, you’re in trouble. And the Rubik’s Cube is actually a bomb. Line up certain colors, and you get to watch a room go
boom boom
.”

Grinning, he tugged her into his embrace for a quick kiss. “You are too adorable for words.”

“Uh, Blue. I hate to break it to you, but I think
there’s something wrong with you if you find a girl with weapons of destruction adorable.”

“
So
adorable. Or should I say ‘adorbs’?”

She punched his arm, but inside, she was as giddy as a little schoolgirl.

The boat ride proved uneventful, for which she was grateful. She used the time to get her focus off Blue and what he made her feel and onto the Stars and John. The entire ordeal was almost over. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

Her father was in the spacious living room, cleared of all but a table piled high with weapons, a lounge chair, a few computers, and now a cage. Tiffany was trapped inside. Dirt and tears smeared her cheeks, and her shirt and jeans were ripped and wrinkled. There were angry cuts running the length of both of her arms, and one across her neck. She looked nothing like the elegant woman Evie saw at the victory party.

Tiffany paled when she spotted Blue, stood, and curled her fingers around the bars of her cage. “You’d be wise to leave,” she said, a tremor in her voice.

“You’d be wise to give us the answers we seek,” he snapped, “before I make use of the tools on the table. That happens, and you’ll pray for death. But you won’t get it.” He looked to Evie. “You want to watch me work, princess?”

“Would love to, Mr. Hammer.” He deposited her in a chair at the computers, kissed her, kissed her again, and stalked to Michael, who waited at the table, cleaning a dagger.

“Where’s Solo?”

“On his way,” Michael replied. “I have Star’s number, if you want to call him.”

He smiled coldly at Tiffany. “Yeah. Let’s get him good and scared about what I’m going to do to her.”

*  *  *

Blue was so ready for this to be over. He wanted to move into Evie’s officially, or move her into his place. He wanted to take her on a date. Their first. He wanted to ask her to marry him.

Yeah, he realized. He did.

He wanted her to wholly belong to him. To be his family.

He wanted her ensconced in every part of his life. And he wanted to be ensconced in every part of hers, whether she did a little agenting or went back to the hospital as she’d originally planned. He wanted to romance her so hard she offered her heart on a silver freaking platter.

He just plain wanted.

Michael held out a cell phone. “You’ll need this. And you’ll also need to stop staring at my daughter.”

He blinked into focus, only then realizing he’d switched his attention to Evie.

She offered him a knowing—wicked—smile.

He winked at her, then shifted his gaze. Tiffany sobbed quietly.

He hardened his heart and dialed Star’s number.

Two rings in, the male answered with “Well, well. Someone finally remembered he’s at war” in lieu of a greeting.

“You know we have your daughter and you know what we want. Let’s not play games.”

“Mr. Blue,” a low growl crackled. “Where is she?”

“Somewhere you’ll never find her.”

“You don’t want to do this. I will kill your friend and send you the pieces.”

“Despite the money you would lose?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve done more for less.”

Blue’s laugh was devoid of humor. “I could say the same. You hurt John any more than you already have, and I’ll do the same to your little girl. In fact, as soon as we hang up, I’ll take her fingers and make myself a real pretty necklace from the bones. Or maybe I’ll remove her skin the way you removed John’s.”

A hiss of fury.

“So, where does that leave us?” he finished casually.

Silence dominated the line for several seconds. “I suppose you want to trade.”

“I do.”

“And you would trust me to keep up my end.”

“Of course not. I would
force
you to keep up your end.”

Another hiss. “I want to talk to her first. Proof of life.”

“That’s great, wonderful. I’ll let you. Just as soon as I’ve spoken to John.”

“I thought you’d say that. Sadly, he’s not in the mood to speak right now. However, if you’ll glance at your screen, I’ll show you a video of him.”

Dread filled Blue as he lowered the phone. An electronic notebook was held up, displaying that day’s paper. Then the notebook was removed, and a small concrete
room came into view. The walls were gray. There was a bed—a gurney, really—with a huge red lump in the center.

A red lump that was . . . that was . . .

Blue nearly hunched over and vomited. That red lump was clearly John. He was a mass of meat and blood, without a single inch of skin to protect his insides. His mouth was parted in an endless, agonized scream he probably didn’t have the strength to unleash.

The scene vanished, and Blue shoved the phone back to his ear. His hand was shaking. “You’ll pay for that,” he croaked. “I will make sure you pay.”

Evie came up beside him and wrapped her arms around his waist, offering comfort. He was glad. His knees were knocking and his head swimming with a rage his body couldn’t seem to contain. He was on the brink of cracking and he hadn’t even realized it.

“My turn,” Star said stiffly.

Blue kissed Evie’s temple before stalking to Tiffany’s cage. He held out the phone and pressed Speaker. “Say hello.”