Bearcat, page 9
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHARLIE
A gentle voice called me from my sleep, and I cracked my eyes groggily. My hand was tucked snugly inside something warm and strong. Hmm. I felt a smile spill across my face, trying to get my bearings.
My thumb rubbed against it and it rubbed back. Horror shrieked through me, and I jerked my hand away. Something metal dug painfully into my wrist and a grunt of pain sounded on the floor.
“Sheesh, princess.” Everett lay with one arm up under his head, his hair pointing out in odd directions, the remnants of yesterday’s beard still grazing his chiseled jawline. His other arm was outstretched toward me where his hand was cuffed to mine. “You’re gonna take my hand off doing that.”
“Everett,” I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut. It was too early to deal with this. “Uncuff me, get your smarmy mitts away from me, and stop calling me—”
“As you wish, princess.” He cut me off brightly.
In response to my request, he placed both hands on the ground to hoist himself up, dragging my wrist down to the floor and then wildly up into the air. He rose to a standing position with the hint of a smile laughing in the corners of his mouth.
That smug scoundrel.
His cuffed hand took mine gently and he unlocked the metal bands connecting us with the other. His rough palms sent thunder through my veins. A moment later, our wrists were separated and I pulled away.
A knock sounded at the door.
Before I could blink, Everett was standing behind the door. His playful smile was extinguished and replaced by a dark storm. His gun pointed at the floor as he gripped it with both hands.
At that same moment, I darted for the kitchenette and whipped a paring knife from the knife block. Another gentle knock against the door, and a voice appeared on the other side.
“Everett, it’s time to go.” Rosie’s voice was muffled against the door.
With a sigh of relief, Everett tucked his gun back into its holster and opened the door discreetly.
Rosie slid inside with a set of speeder keys in her hand. Her expression was a wash of concern as she pressed the keys into his hand. “Go quickly, but be careful. There’s a lot of police out tonight.”
“Why would that be a bad thing?” Everett inquired defensively.
“Because not all of them are as straitlaced as you, and there’s already a price tag attached to your whereabouts.” She peeked out the door as she spoke.
Everett’s eyes shot to me momentarily with a mixture of concern and determination.
Rosie waved us out the door and down the stairs where a brown speeder was waiting for us. Everett slid into the driver’s seat and I joined him on the passenger’s side.
Rosie leaned through my open, her icy eyes telling me me she knew I wasn’t Mrs. Daniels. It must have been the bounty on our heads. No doubt she had put two and two together. Even so, her wintery gaze wasn’t condemning, only warning: Be careful with that one, love. He doesn’t fall lightly.
“Don’t take this the wrong way”—she took on a firm tone that seemed to fit her perfectly—“but I don’t want to see either of you back here anytime soon.”
Everett gave a solemn nod, and we pulled away into the dark tunnels of the underground district.
We drove in the darkness for what seemed like hours, making our way toward the city borders. Although it was early morning, the tunnels gave an effect of eternal midnight, blazing the speeder with vintage light and synthetic nightlife.
In a couple of hours, we would pull off into one of the train stations outside the city and I would have to find a way to leave Everett behind. I rubbed my palms together nervously. That wasn’t going to be an easy task.
Everett glanced at me without expression and I got the feeling he was reading my mind again.
The darkness of the underground sector began to fade away as we ascended onto the ground level of the city and out into the sun. Everett squinted against the light in a grimace.
I glanced around, half expecting an ambush the moment we appeared and let out a relieved breath when none came.
We ventured toward the top levels of sky lanes, leaving the ground a mile below us. Here the arched buildings sparkled against a sun of molten gold, and the clouds billowed around us. Here there were no cameras, no traffic lights, only speeders and the sky. It was an unexplored world that you could never truly be a part of.
“Why Boston? There were so many places you could have run to, why Boston?” Everett asked, his voice cutting through the quiet and the clouds.
The question caught me off-guard. Why had I come to Boston? Why would I come anywhere near this place? I considered before responding.
“I was scared,” I responded honestly, although I wasn’t sure why.
Everett let out a laugh. “Scared? You’ve never been scared before. Not in any circumstance I’ve seen you in.”
“I’m always scared.” The words escaped my lips before I could clamp my mouth shut, but he didn’t turn to look at me. For that, I was thankful. “But here in Boston, I thought I might get some help.”
“Help from who? Lazlo?” Everett asked in a curious voice. His eyes were glued to the windshield as though he were afraid of what he might find if he turned to face me.
“No.” I bit the words out between grinding teeth.
Everett glanced at me as though he wanted to know more, but self-preservation held him back. Smart man. I wasn’t about to dive into my romantic history with him of all people.
I took a deep breath and continued. “Anyway, I guess I thought there was still a person who would remember me as Charlie before Agatha. I was wrong.”
This time Everett turned to face me, switching the speeder to autopilot while he gave his full attention. His brows were pulled together as if he were trying to puzzle me out and he crossed his arms across his chest. His biceps bulged in his sleeves. I wished he wouldn’t look at me like that, like he was trying to memorize the lines of my face.
“And who was Charlie before Agatha?” he asked thoughtfully. His eyes bored into mine, compelling a response.
“Sometimes I don’t even know. Where does Charlie stop and Charlene begin?” I thought openly. “I was just a kid when my parents died. I can still see the wreckage in my mind like it was yesterday.” My eyes glossed over as I remembered blue and red lights reflecting off a crumpled heap of speeder parts and exposed engine oil oozing out onto the asphalt. “The reports show their elevation drive had a critical failure. They fell from the sky at forty levels up.”
My gaze wandered down to the streets far below us. I imagined falling and watching it grow closer and closer. I avoided Everett’s gaze but I could feel his eyes on me.
“Did you know that you have a greater chance of getting attacked by a shark than your elevation drive having a critical failure?” I mused quietly, almost to myself.
“Charlie...” Everett began, his voice hesitant. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know....How did you end up with Agatha? You should have been put in the foster care system.”
“Ha!” I let out an uncomfortable laugh. “The foster care system is a joke. Two years I spent with a family that puts the Cristianis to shame. My foster mother refused to see her husband for what he was, and so did Child Services. I was better off in the streets, so I ran. I was thirteen.”
We drifted through a puff of clouds, and for a moment, it was just him and me. All other vehicles in the sky were gone. He looked at me with a mixture of shock and pity. I guess he’d been expecting a story about some juvenile delinquent born into a life of crime and loving every moment of it.
Sorry to disappoint.
“And Agatha?” he probed.
I had never told anyone in her organization about my past, and here I was spilling it to Everett. No one else had ever asked. I almost had to laugh at the situation. Instead, I continued on. No reason to stop now.
“I was a member of Agatha’s street-rat network. I was her eyes and ears of the city. I reported what I learned, and in return, the Mistress gave us food and shelter and half a chance.”
“Us?”
“Henry and me.” The name stung, like salt in a wound and my throat burned at the thought of my friend. My only friend. “He’s the one I came here for. I guess I should have expected him not to risk his neck for mine—after all, I taught him everything he knows. Anyway, he turned me in...” My words stumbled awkwardly under Everett’s intense gaze. “That’s when you showed up and kidnapped me.”
“Rescued,” Everett corrected sternly, and I narrowed my gaze.
“Rescued with intent to kidnap.”
He smiled gently and shook his head. “There are worse people to be rescued and kidnapped by.”
Yes, there were. Far worse but far less dangerous.
Warmth spread in the air, and I realized with a start that we were both laughing. I snapped my mouth shut, but I couldn’t stop a sly smile from growing.
“So...” Everett asked expectantly.
I blinked at him. “So what?”
“You still haven’t told me how you ended up with Agatha.”
“Oh.” I gulped, suddenly awkward again. “It wasn’t anything special. I was sixteen when a group of her men jumped me in an alley. When I fought back, they dragged me into Agatha’s office expecting retribution. Instead, she gave me a job, a place to live, and a social status. She always said it was the look in my eyes, like I would do whatever it takes to survive, that drew her to me.”
We broke through the clouds and the sun flooded the speeder again. Everett’s eyes hadn’t left mine, and he looked as though he wanted to say something.
I lifted a hand to brush a loose strand of hair behind my ear and was surprised to feel trembling in my fingers. The strand came loose again, and Everett reached out to tuck it behind my ear. Roses bloomed under my skin where his fingertip grazed my cheek.
Abruptly, he pulled back and turned back to the wheel. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was all a long time ago. It is what it is,” I replied quietly.
Awkwardness filled the air and stuffed my lungs. I had always been good with silence. It was a safe haven, an ally, a tool, but I found myself wishing he would say something, anything.
I couldn’t take the quiet anymore. “Was your dad a cop too?”
Everett stiffened, his grip tightening around the wheel only momentarily before he eased up. Maybe I’d touched a nerve. I opened my mouth to apologize but he interrupted.
“Yeah, he was.” A stoic veil fell across his face, and in an instant, he had returned to the stone-faced man I had known a day ago. “What did your parents do?”
“They were district attorneys.”
An expression of recognition crossed Everett’s face moments before the vehicle jolted and the rear window shattered.
“What in the—” I turned to peer out the back. Three speeders, brimming with guns and muscle, trailed after us.
Without hesitation, I grabbed the gun from Everett’s holster.
“Whoa, handsy,” Everett growled. “What do you think you’re doing with that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I thought I might take a shot or two at the bloodthirsty thugs on our tail. Or is that not okay with you?”
I threw the seat back and aimed out the back window as one of the speeders veered beneath us, the front passenger holding what looked like a handheld programmer. I took a shot and missed. Sloppy.
A shot cleared through the back of my seat just as I ducked.
“The nerve of some people.” I gritted my teeth and took another shot. This time I hit with deadly precision.
The driver slumped over the wheel as the speeder veered off course. It collided with a sprawling skyscraper, creating a cloud of burnt smoke. The speeder shuddered momentarily as the control panel flickered in and out of life.
“Charlie.” Everett spoke calmly through the barrage of bullets riddling the rear of the speeder. “Do you remember what I said about seat belts?”
“A reminder would be nice.” I slid back into my seat and harnessed in.
The world spun around us in slow motion as Everett twisted the vehicle violently. As we reached the upside-down position, I raised my gun and shot several rounds blindly down through the roof. We didn’t stop. Momentum pushed us back upright, and I peered out the window to see our friends with the programer sinking down to the streets.
The last speeder pulled up beside us, and the driver thrust a pistol through his open window and I spun to face him. The driver’s eyes met mine, and I saw in him something I saw every day in my line of work: visceral self-preservation.
We fired at the same time.
My shot was fatal while his whizzed past me and grazed Everett’s arm. He let out a reserved wince of pain, but his hands never left the wheel.
“We have to get out of the sky,” I shouted as we swerved around speeders, not knowing which ones were pedestrians and which were enemies. Everett seemed to agree, because we were already making our descent toward the bridge on the ground.
I kept my eyes on the sky, but my mind was occupied with the wound on his bicep. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
The ground rose to meet us, wheels already rolling as we landed hard against the cement.
My nails dug into the seat when I spotted the barricade forming at the other end of the bridge, where a group of five more speeders blocked the road. Two of the passengers leaned casually up against the hood of the nearest vehicle. My heart stopped as I realized who they were.
Lucas and Dante Cristiani. My breath caught in my throat.
In my time working for the Mistress, the only thing that scared me more than Agatha herself was the brutality of the Cristiani brothers.
Lucas Cristiani was merciless in executing his plans. No moral reserve or ethical restraint bound him. He would lay waste to a city block if it meant gaining the upper hand, and he would do it with a grin on his nearly pristine face. Pristine except for the scar from the corner of his eye to his jaw.
Dante Cristiani was a mess of muscle and tendons and power. Between the two of them, Dante was the brute force that led the Cristiani men as much as Lucas was the calculating mind that commanded them.
The only thing missing from the barricade was Lazlo Cristiani, the third Cristiani brother—the leader and heir to their criminal empire.
The two men were surrounded by armed forces, and modernized tommy guns hung menacingly at their sides. If we took to the sky, they would shoot us down, and if we tried to break through the wall of cars and men, we would only make them angry.
I glanced at Everett as we drew closer. We had made a good team earlier. The thought surprised me. I’d never worked with a partner before. Even my drivers were only ever that. The more surprising thought was that I didn’t want Everett to die today—not if I had a choice to save him.
A decision had to be made.
“Stop the speeder,” I commanded.
Everett shot me a confused look. He didn’t stop. Instead, he drove his foot through the pedal. Apparently, he intended to try the battering-ram approach.
“Everett, stop. We’re not getting out of this one.”
“No.” Darkness fell across his face, the storm returning to his eyes. His voice was hot steel. “I will not let them take you.”
It was at this moment that the dynamic shifted between us. This wasn’t his greed for reward talking. It was fear. Concern. For me. He managed to see something worth saving when he looked at me, and I wasn’t about to let that die.
“You can still finish the deal with the Mistress. Here.” I tore the ring from my finger. The snakehead sparkled in the morning sun. It was the symbol of the Mistress’s organization. She had given it to me as a gift when I completed my first job. I had never removed it from my finger. My skin felt raw without it but I pressed it into his hand. Good riddance. “Bring this to her. Tell her I’m dead, that you found my body somewhere in Boston. You can still earn your freedom, but you have to let me go.”
Everett’s expression flickered from determination to surprise and then further into determination.
He slammed the brakes, and the back end of the speeder drifted around so we were horizontal to the barricade. Our front bumper slammed against the barrier guarding the edge of the bridge. Everett flung open his door and dragged me through after him.
He pulled us down into a crouching position, tucked behind the speeder, and placed his hands firmly on my arms. Warmth spread down into my fingertips. The storm rolled in his eyes, and he haphazardly ran a hand through his hair, clearing it from his face.
“Charlie.” His voice was horse.
Oh no, don’t get mushy on me now, Daniels. I was just starting to like you.
“Letting them have you is not an option. This is not how I will win my freedom. It’s not a price I’m willing to pay.”
“There’s nowhere to run, Charlene. Come out now and we won’t hurt your new boyfriend. Although, I can’t speak to what Lazlo might do to him.”
My skin crawled at the sound of Lucas’s acidic voice echoing out over the cement. I peered over the edge of the bridge. We were still on the near side. The water wasn’t far down.
Everett and I had never seen eye to eye. He’d always been a pious, self-righteous pain in my ass. But he had shown me kindness and respect, even when I was his prisoner. We weren’t friends, by any means, but it didn’t mean I wanted him to die.
“Everett, please understand.”
I planted both hands behind me and kicked out with my legs.
Everett never saw it coming, and the guilt reverberated through me before my feet hit the ground.
He tumbled back over the edge of the bridge and disappeared into the water. A resounding splash called from below. It was for the best.
Whatever happened to your only rule, Charlie? First the family, now Everett.
I pushed the thought aside and donned a mask of courage. It was time to face them.
I stood slowly from behind the speeder, head held high, shoulders back, and strode, catlike, out from my hiding place. My eyes took on similar feline attributes as I drew closer and closer to the Cristiani boys.
