Blood Deep (Blackthorn Book 4) (17 page)

‘Still in possession of stolen goods?’ he signed. ‘I’ll have to arrest you for that.’

‘
Uncle Eden, you’re silly
,’ she signed, grinning wider. She wiggled a little further under the covers, but grimaced with the discomfort of it.

Eden’s heart jolted. His throat constricted.

She reached out to play with his wristband as she always did. She unfastened the leather ties with her small, fragile fingers, before running her fingertips over the tattoo. She signed each letter. ‘
H-O-N-E-Y
.’

He tapped her under the chin to get her attention. ‘Why is it there?’

She looked into his eyes, then back at the tattoo. ‘
Magic.
It came the day I was born and it will stay there for as long as you love me
.’ She glanced back up at him and smiled.

‘And how long will that be?’

She dropped her hands either side of her head, one hand squeezing the head of her giraffe. ‘
Forever
,’ she signed.

‘Forever,’ he repeated.

‘
Until I die
,’ she added.

‘And after,’ he signed. ‘Forever is a long time.’

‘
The longest time
,’ she signed back.

Honey’s eyes flicked to the door then back down at the wristband before she looked up at Eden. ‘
Mum’s sad. She’s sad all the time now. She pretends not to be
.’

He lay down on the bed beside her, turning to face her, brushing her hair back from her face. ‘She’s worried about you. You understand that, right?’

Honey nodded. ‘
Because I’m sick
.’

‘You’re very sick, darling. But we’re doing what we can to make you better.’

‘
Like what you do out there. Keeping us safe
.’

‘I do what I can. Just like your daddy does what he can to keep you and your mummy safe. We’re a team, right?’

She gave a little nod as she turned to face him fully, causing her discomfort again.

He gently pushed her fine hair back from her cheek. ‘And your job is to make your mummy smile by telling her all of your Uncle Eden’s bad jokes, yes?’

She smiled. ‘
Really
bad jokes
.’

‘They don’t have to be good; they just have to make her smile.’

‘
Whenever I tell her it’s one of your jokes, she smiles
.’

‘That’s because she feels sorry for me.’

‘
That’s not because of your jokes; that’s because you don’t have a girlfriend. Why don’t you have a girlfriend, Uncle Eden?
’

‘Because girls smell.’

She laughed as she rolled onto her back. She winced. ‘
We don’t smell. Boys smell.
’

‘Not as bad as girls.’

‘
You are so silly.
’

‘And that’s the
real
reason why I don’t have a girlfriend.’

‘
If you get one, can I meet her?
’

‘So you can give me your approval?’

She nodded.

‘I’ll think about it. You might scare her away.’

She smiled broadly again. She played with her giraffe for a moment, smoothing behind its ears before rubbing her thumb over its worn nose. She looked back at Eden. ‘
Will I get better?
’

‘If there is a way, I will find it.’

‘
Promise?
’

He brushed her hair back again, held her face gently for just a moment before letting her read his lips, ‘I promise.’

‘
M
y offer
to you is simple, Eden,’ Sirius continued. ‘You agree to this and you succeed, and you’ll never need to work again. More importantly, your family will be set up for life. A nice home, decent jobs, a school for Honey, friends she can play with, green spaces, parks even, fresh air, all the medical treatment we can provide. Just think: no more sleepless nights, no more rushing around there at two in the morning, your brother no longer having to look over his shoulder just to get to the shop to buy basic provisions.’ He barely flinched. ‘And, of course, if this female
is
what we think she is, you may even have found Honey’s cure. She could go on to lead a happy life, maybe even have children of her own one day. And then maybe you could move on with your own life, instead of living day to day waiting for that call from your brother.’

He could do nothing to stop the resentment spilling out with his words. ‘Because she won’t get to the top of the list other than to serve your purpose, will she? It’s not about right or wrong – it’s about what’s in it for you.’

‘Let’s not be idealistic about this, Eden. You’re a lot of things, but naïve isn’t one of them. Like everything, we have limitations, not an endless supply of resources. But I do believe in quid pro quo. You’ll be a hero, whether publicly or not. It won’t matter who you are or where you’re from then. Don’t just think about Honey; think of all the others out there. If you hate the system as it stands, then do something about it.’

‘Why me?’

‘For all the reasons I’ve said. You’ve got the greatest motivation to succeed, Eden. I’ve also had our team of psychologists working their way through this entire unit to find the right person for the job. We need someone authentic, someone who knows how to talk the talk. We need someone who can keep their head above water in there. We need someone who can blend. We need someone who’s not going to crumble under pressure, who can handle seeing, hearing and experiencing the things that go on in there and not break. Someone who can handle themselves amongst the lowest of the low. And, to be frank, we both know what a bastard you can be, Eden – and that’s what it’s going to take to survive in there. Your levels of, let’s call it “detachment”, are impressive to say the least.’

‘Well, it’s one step up from “fucked up”, I guess. But that’s professional psych reports for you these days.’

Sirius offered a fleeting smile. ‘Besides, whatever she is, she’s still female. And you, Eden Reece, with your looks let alone your charm, have those two clear bonuses on your side. Not everyone gets the boss’s daughter into bed, do they, Eden?’

There was no accusation, no threat, just amusement in Sirius’s eyes. For now. Because Eden was already being cornered. There was no way he was going to be left to just walk out of there after what had already been disclosed – not without saying yes.

‘So I’m the eye-candy honeytrap? I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.’

‘How about just being smart about this? I’m only making the offer once.’

Eden looked back at the photo of the girl. ‘When do you need someone in there?’

‘Tonight.’

His attention snapped back to Sirius. ‘
Tonight
?’

‘I need your answer in the next two hours. I have an important meeting at dawn that’s dependent on me knowing if I have someone going in or not. If you say no, I’ll have no choice but to make the offer elsewhere.’

‘And if I
do
say no?’

‘We both know you’d be a fool to.’

‘Timescale to get the job done?’ Eden asked, looking back down at the picture of her.

‘Three days.’

Eden looked back up at him. ‘You’re fucking kidding me?’

‘I fuck you not, Eden,’ Sirius said, sitting up and interlacing his hands again. ‘I cannot stress how important timescales are to me.’

‘Why? What’s the urgency?’

‘A lot can happen in Blackthorn in three days. I want her out of there as quickly as possible.’

Eden dragged his gaze from the photograph back to Sirius. ‘
If
I agree, what are the rules?’

‘Rules?’

‘The conduct rules.’

Sirius smiled. ‘Ah,’ he said, sinking back in his chair. ‘Whatever you need to do, you do. Whatever is required to blend in. You’ll get full immunity from anything you do in there, so play it whatever way you deem fit. All you need to do is keep her and yourself alive. The rest is down to your professional judgement. But there is one rule – you talk of this to no one, not even your family. We cannot risk anything leaking out there. Which is why, once you sign up, there’s no going back until the job is done.’

‘What are those?’ he asked, looking at the other two piles of files.

‘Files on Nathan Stark as well as a few significant members of his crew that you’re more than likely to come across. There are also blueprints of the row, the area, that some of my agents have been compiling should we ever need to breach the place. You’ll have until midnight to study it all and retain what you can. I shouldn’t imagine it will be any great problem for someone of your IQ and memory. So,’ he said, sitting back up again, lacing his fingers together on the table like a poker player about to lay down his winning hand, ‘are you going to ask where you sign?’

J
essie had stayed
down in the lock-up, perched on the edge of the sofa, for another hour after Eden had left. Aside from the fact he’d walked away, the way he’d held her to the floor had been as confusing as the rest of his handling of her – the intention cold and calculating but the execution surprisingly gentle. The way he’d looked at her only exacerbated her confusion, because he didn’t look at her like the others did.

There was something different about him, something she couldn’t work out – and it wasn’t just because of the prospect, amidst his revelation, that he might actually be capable of caring for someone. Eden Reece was an enigma. An enigma she had to concentrate on not letting near her again. He’d get bored or accept he was onto a loser. Then, as soon as her blood evaporated from his system, their connection would be severed. To that extent, the ball was very much in her court – a good thing considering she had equally pressing things to deal with in his absence.

The prospect of that severed connection left a hollowness that consumed too big a chunk of her chest though. He’d been in her home only a matter of hours but already his absence left the place feeling even more cold and empty. More troublingly, she felt a pang of concern for his welfare out there on the streets of Blackthorn trying to get the items on Pummel’s list. Because whatever Pummel had had him doing, he wasn’t planning on making it easy for him. Eden was most definitely on borrowed time – all the more reason to sever those ties.

After leaving the lock-up, she’d crept back along to the exclusive end of the row. The nights seemed so long, but the days even longer. Only ever needing a couple of hours of sleep gave her extra hours of privacy over any of her housemates. It also meant there were times of the day where she could move around the row alone, when everything was locked up and a rare hush fell on it. And the quietest time was always those early hours between the late night revelry and the new day. She often wandered the corridors during that time, when most had dispersed to their rooms or back to their homes.

The solitude was usually comforting but now it felt painfully unsettling. Because amongst the crowd of familiar faces and predictable actions, the mundane tedium that shrouded the place like a stifling blanket, there was now a spark amongst them – a spark called Eden Reece. A spark she wasn’t even sure would return.

She listened through the gap in the ajar lounge door. There were no voices, but that was no guarantee it was empty. Pummel no longer used her simply to heal his injuries like he used to in the early days – he had also experimented. He’d learned that top-ups from her healed him in more ways than one. His physical composition was swimming with her cells, not changing what he was but renewing him, sustaining him. It didn’t reverse anything – but it meant he had the resilience and energy of someone half his age if not less, his need for sleep at a minimum.

Jessie crept past the door and into the, thankfully, vacant kitchen. The light seeped through the cracks in the boarded-up window ahead, igniting dust motes over the sink, giving the room that peculiar, mid-dream etherealness that accompanied the early hours.

She quietly poured herself a glass of water, glancing anxiously back down to the lounge to see if anyone had followed. The hallway remained empty.

She looked across to the wall adjacent to the kitchen door – at the larder.

With one more glance down the hallway, she left her glass on the central table on her way across the kitchen.

Using her skeleton key, the only one aside from Pummel’s crew to have one, she unlocked the larder door.

She scanned the space where Pummel kept the food and drink supplies – something he kept as much of a stronghold on as everything else in that place.

The cons got their hands on what they could in Blackthorn. Most of what was delivered to shops was barely worth eating; it was all laden with preservatives and other chemicals, nutritional balance meaning nothing. Even some products having reached their sell-by date were given to Blackthorn as part of “community projects” from more privileged districts. With fresh milk particularly sparse, there were at least two shelves dominated by the dried variety.

And there in the floor was the trapdoor: the only access she knew of to the cellar. From what she vaguely recollected, it only ever used to be bolted down. Now it was padlocked – not just with one, but three.

Peering back into the kitchen, she quietly closed the larder door, allowing just a sliver of light to filter in. Her day vision gradually switched to night vision as she knelt down to examine each padlock in turn. They were definitely new, not least given away by some fresh sawdust around one. Knowing Pummel, the keys were nowhere to be found.

She could have prized them off, but not without leaving a trail of evidence. What she needed was to unpick them – a skill she was void of. Jessie sank onto her haunches and sighed in frustration until she heard movement in the kitchen beyond.

She stood quickly to her feet, grabbed the nearest item she could, clutching it to her chest as she shoved the door open.

Pummel’s eyes narrowed. ‘What are you doing?’

She held the packet of cereal tighter to her chest. ‘I was looking for something to eat.’

‘There’s stuff in the cupboards.’

‘I’ve had the same thing for days.’

He raised his eyebrows a fraction. ‘So now what I provide isn’t good enough?’

‘I didn’t say that.’

She took a wary step back, bracing herself as he stepped into the larder. He glanced down at the floor, before glaring back at her. He yanked her out, slammed the door shut, locking it with his key.

‘Good,’ he said, backing her against the counter. ‘Because if that
is
what you’re saying, I’ll make sure you appreciate just how generous I am with you. You’re starting to get a little above yourself again, Jessie. You be careful to rein it back in now, do you hear me?’

‘I’ll check with you next time,’ she said, her stance tactfully submissive, but her eyes locked squarely on his.

He held out his hand. ‘Too fucking right you will. Key.’

She glanced down at his open palm, back into his cold eyes.

‘Key,’ he commanded, his tone lower.

She took it from her pocket, placing it in his hand.

‘Until I’m sure you’re behaving, you only use the key to your room,’ he said. ‘The rest of your privileges are temporarily revoked. Now get your cereal and get your arse in the lounge. I’m going to be keeping a close eye on you today.’

Her hand clamped the counter as she watched him leave. She narrowed her eyes, the temptation to childishly flip him her middle finger despite him not being there to receive it, overwhelming. She’d stay smart though – not least because she still had the spare key from when it was
her
house,
her
home, tucked safely away. All he’d done was give himself false assurance. And that suited her just fine.