Dying Light (39 page)

“
Great timing.” I glare.
“Can it wait?”

Gideon frowns. “No.”

“
Ugh.” I pull myself off
of Ally.

“
You too,” Gideon says to
Ally. “If you’re feeling all right.”

“
I’m fine.” She fusses
with her shirt, trying to make it lay right, but that’s hard to do
with an unclasped bra bulging through the front. Ally crosses her
arms over her chest and Gideon has the decency to let his gaze
slide away.

“
I’m not
fine
,” I grumble as I
pass him.

“
The news ends in a few
minutes. Then you can go back to doing whatever you like, if you
can stomach it.” Gideon’s voice is grave.

I search his face for the source of
his tone. He points to the bedroom, where the blue light of the TV
dances along the walls.

I creep inside, trying to be quiet,
until I realize Rachel is snoring louder than a train. Gideon put
her in her PJs, but the glass of water sits untouched on the
nightstand beside her.

Gideon lifts the remote from the
bedside table and turns up the volume. I don’t need to hear to know
I’m not going to like this.

Caldwell, my homicidal father, stands
behind a podium, his face a mask of grief. Tears that I’m certain
are fake as hell stream down his cheeks. Even in his beautifully
tailored suit and nice haircut, he looks like shit. The woman
beside him, Maisie’s mother Georgia, doesn’t look any better. Her
hair is disheveled and thick black smears from her eyes to her
chin.

“
We want our daughter
back. We want all of this to end.” Caldwell panders to the
sympathetic crowd. The camera sweeps the masses, and there isn’t a
dry cheek in the house.

“
When was this?” I ask
Gideon.

“
It must’ve run earlier
today. I’m surprised they didn’t broadcast it in Times Square,” he
says, deep creases forming between his eyes.

“
We want the people
responsible for this to be brought to justice. We’ll give a reward
to anyone who provides information on our Maisie.”

The camera cuts to the reporter, who
also has tears in her eyes. “The following suspects are wanted for
questioning in this case: Jesse Sullivan—”

My mugshot from last year flashes up
on the screen. Not the most flattering picture, I must
say.

“
Rachel
Wright—”

Rachel wearing her mental hospital
gown flashes up on the screen next. At least she looks a little
worse than I did. If she sees this, she’s going to go ballistic.
The idea that she was on television without makeup and dressed to
the 9s will definitely cause an uproar.

“
Alice Gallagher—” Ally’s
driver’s license photo fills the top right of the screen, making
our square ¾ complete.

“
Captain Gloria Jackson—”
An old photo of Gloria from her days in the military is the last to
appear. She looks sharp in her uniform, her face and eyes
somber.

“
A fifth suspect, possibly
a radical Islamic terrorist,
is believed
to be assisting them. They are
responsible
for the bombings in Chicago that took so many lives.”

“
What racist bullshit.” I
half-choke on the words. “Caldwell blew up the city
himself!”

“
Any information leading
to the capture of these criminals or the return of Maisie Caldwell
will be generously rewarded.”

Gideon turns off the screen. “The
first part of the program presented Maisie’s disappearance as an
attack against the Church. They are arguing that some have
radicalized against the unification of the Church and seek
retribution by harming the daughter of its leader.”

I squeeze my head as if to keep the
anger from splitting in two. There are so many problems with this I
don’t even know where to begin. I end up shouting, “You’re not a
terrorist!”

“
It doesn’t matter.” He
flashes me a weak smile. “I look like a terrorist, and my devices
can’t hide us from the public. We are only hidden from technology.
Someone will spot us on the streets.”

“
We aren’t abandoning the
plan!” No, no,
no.
We are so close to killing him once and for all. Caldwell,
the evil son-of-a-bitch who murdered my handler Brinkley, abandoned
me, mentally abused Maisie, and is responsible for the genocide
of
hundreds
of
thousands
of people. No. I won’t stop until he is cold in my
grip.

“
Jesse.” Ally places one
hand on my arm. Her eyes are big and round, and more alert than
they’ve been in the last few hours. “If we’re caught and we go to
jail, we won’t get our chance.”

She’s right. Dammit.

I look up at Gideon. “But what about
our plan?”

“
It can still work. With a
few minor alterations, it can still work.”

I accept his answer with a
sense of unease. I wish I could ask Gabriel what he thought, but
I’ve only seen him twice since we left Chicago. Until he became
absolutely inaccessible, I hadn’t realized how much I’d come to
depend on the advice of my angel. I know he’s still there. I
can
feel
him so
to speak, but he can’t materialize as long as Rachel, Maisie, and I
are together. Inconvenient.

“
Just don’t tell Maisie,”
I say at last, looking from Ally’s face to Gideon’s. “If she knows,
she’ll do something stupid and heroic.”

Gideon clears his throat and cuts his
eyes over my shoulder.

I turn and find Maisie standing in the
doorway, her expression grim. Winston sits at her feet, his collar
and leash still around his neck.

She’s heard every word.

Want more?
Get your copy
here
.

Dying for a Living
Series: The Jesse
Sullivan Novels

Dying for a
Living (Book 1)

Dying by the
Hour (Book 2)

Dying for Her: A Companion Novel (Book 3)

Dying Light (Book
4)

Worth Dying For (Book
5
)

Other work

Badass and the Beast: Ten
“Tails” of Kickass Heroines and the Beasts who love them (with
Angela Roquet)

I would like to gratefully
acknowledge all of the proofreaders and editors that helped me
bring Jesse’s story fully formed into the world: Angela Roquet,
Monica La Porta, Kathrine Pendleton, Karen Sahagian, Katrina Pitts,
Juliann Krute, Colleen McGuire, Andrea Cook, Joe Thomas, Rachel
Menzies, Ashley Ferguson, Wendy Nelson, and CC Ryburn. A special
shout-out goes to Michelle Pike for her keen eye and
take-no-prisoners approach to editing. Without you guys, the story
wouldn’t be nearly as good.

Many thanks to family,
friends, bloggers, and Twitter-ers who first showed love for
Dying for a Living
and
no less enthusiasm for this fourth book. There are too many to
name, but I adore every single one of you. Your encouragement makes
the hard days easier.

Thanks to John K. Addis for his
help with the cover and author photo. If you haven’t read his
awesome book The Eaton, you’re missing out.

And thank you, Kimberly Benedicto, for your
unending support and encouragement. You’ve given me five beautiful
and happy years. Life wouldn’t be the same without you.

Kory M. Shrum lives in Michigan with her
partner Kim and her ferocious guard pug Josephine. She is very fond
of naps and foods made of sugar, which is, as you can imagine, a
deadly combination. But she tries to compensate for her extreme
physical laziness with her overactive imagination. She’s an active
member of SFWA, HWA, and the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse,
where she’s known as Conquest. She’s the author of five
contemporary (and somewhat dark) fantasy novels in the Dying for a
Living series: Dying for a Living, Dying by the Hour, Dying for
Her: A Companion Novel, Dying Light, and Worth Dying
For.

When not writing, she can be found teaching,
traveling, and wearing a gi. She’s very likely to tempt you to an
ominous tarot or palm reading—anything spooky-foo to pass the time
until
Guardians of the Galaxy
or
Sherlock
return.
She’s not-so-secretly dying for the next season to begin. The two
of you could also kill time socializing on
Facebook
,
Twitter
, or her
website
.

If
you like free stuff, be sure to sign up for Kory’s
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you.