Anarchy Found (33 page)

“Fuck that, Thomas. This plan is over. Atticus fucked it all up and now Molly knows that Blue Boar asshole is her real father.”

“Who cares?” Brooks actually looks bewildered. “She has nothing to do with any of this. She’s a happy accident, Lincoln.”

“Wow,” I say. “I’m not sure if I’m surprised. You never did give a fuck about her.”

“She’s still alive, isn’t she?” Thomas snarls at me. “Obviously I cared enough.”

I feel the rage. The heat pours through my hands as I take in the full meaning of that comment. I picture pushing Molly out of that window and telling her to run away all by herself. The fear in her eyes. That flimsy fucking nightgown because I was so sure Thomas would come upstairs and find us, there was no time to let her change. “I said I’m out,” I snarl back at him.

“You’re not in charge here, Lincoln. You do as you’re told.”

“OK, you guys,” Case says. “We need to calm down. Lincoln, Molly doesn’t have anything to do with this job. It sucks that she’s involved, but—”

“You,” I say to Case, “you of all people are gonna stand here and talk sense after what he did that night? Are you fucking kidding me, Case? He took everything with him when he left. Or has that little detail slipped your mind?”

It was the right button to push for Case. We’re not talking about the same night. That night when I pushed Molly out the window, that was the night of fucking over Lincoln. But the night Thomas stole that girl from Case was the same shit, different date.

Case is silent, staring me in the eyes. I know how his mind works and I can see it spinning. “He doesn’t care, Case. He just can’t have his little news conference if we leave.”

“Fuck you, Lincoln,” Thomas says.

I drag my eyes back to Thomas. “It’s true. You’re a freak, Thomas. You’ve never attached to anyone. Not even us, though you try to talk the talk. Loyalty, brotherhood, revenge. All these words are just triggers for Case and me. To keep us in line. But they don’t have any meaning to you, do they?”

“I’m doing this for all of us.”

“You’re doing this for you. You don’t give one fuck about me, or Case, or hell, even Molly. If you had your way, she’d be dead. I bet your girl is dead, Case. Did he ever tell you where he sent them?”

Case looks at Thomas like he’d kill him right now, no questions asked, if only he was able. I feel a little bad about the last remark. We all know the girl isn’t dead, because we all know Thomas doesn’t do his own dirty work. That’s why he needs me. But who’s to say he doesn’t have another me stashed away somewhere?

Case takes the bait. “Fuck that,” he says. “I’m out too. All this is for you, Thomas.”

“How the fuck do you figure?” Thomas asks, realizing he’s losing. “Have you forgotten who was there that night?”

“You left,” I say. “You left and made your fortune off us.”

“I funded you two assholes,” Thomas says. “You have your toy company, Case. And you have your”—Thomas stops to consider me—“whatever the fuck it is you do down there in that cave.”

“Whatever the fuck I do?” I ask. “Are you kidding me?”

“Well, you’re the one backing out, Lincoln. I figure you’re realizing you’re not quite ready for prime time and it’s got you running scared.”

“Huh.” I grunt out a laugh. “I’m ready, motherfucker. I could take this whole town down with the shit I have down there.”

“So do it,” Thomas challenges. “What was the point of all that killing if you’re not going to finish the job?”

“That’s the only thing you care about,” Case says. “It’s always been about taking him down. Nothing else has ever mattered to you, has it, Thomas? Not me, not Lincoln.”

“Not Molly,” I add. “Or that girl of yours, Case. He didn’t threaten her father to keep her safe.”

“The hell I didn’t!” Thomas yells. I look over at Mac and he’s already ducking into the back room. An angry Thomas is terrifying if you’re not under the protection of the inhibitor. “You were gonna get that girl killed, Case. The Blue fucking Boar had his claws in her father good and tight. He was just about to bring him in, and then what do you think would’ve happened to her? All you gotta do is look at Molly for that answer.”

“Don’t bring Molly into this,” I say.

“She’s my fucking sister, Lincoln. I’ll bring her—”

“Lincoln,” Sheila says, through my phone. “An unauthorized text has been sent to Molly from your number.”

“What?” All three of us go silent.

“She was told to head to Thomas’ cathedral maze. She left on her bike and I’ve been trying to contact her, but the phone powered down just seconds after the message was sent.”

I look at Thomas and growl, “You better not walk away from her this time, you cold piece of shit. You better not walk away. If this is him, I’ll take him out. But you had better be invested, asshole. Or I will hunt you for the rest of your life. I will sit down in my little cave and create a drug that will undo this protection you have. And then I will torture you in ways you can’t even imagine.” I look over at Case and say, “Coming or not?”

He nods. “You know I’m there.”

“I’m taking the bike.” I look back at Thomas, who is still silently glaring at me. “And you better have my back.”

I know better than to wait for an acknowledgement from Thomas.

But I also know he’ll be there.

We are, after all, in this together. You don’t kill all those people for a guy like Thomas and not get what’s due. He might not be completely loyal, he might be selfish, and pretentious, and evil as fuck. But he pays his debts.

“We’ll do it just like we planned.”

I catch his words just before the door slams closed behind me and I’m already on the bike, racing towards the cathedral, when I ask myself if I ever really knew the plan.

Chapter Forty- Five - Molly

The SkyEye Cathedral is dark when I pull up to the front. It’s silent and imposing as my eyes wander up to the top of the spire where the light that’s been shining from the tip every night since I got to town is off.

Lincoln is probably out back. So I give the bike some throttle and ease into the alley, looking for the delivery truck gates.

They’re open, and I breathe a sigh of relief. For a minute I thought he wasn’t here yet. I pull the bike through and park it in front of the back stairs leading up to the cathedral as I look around.

“Lincoln?” I call out. The maze is just as dark as it was the first time I was back here. But the center light that illuminates the statue in the middle is on. I can see the glow. “Lincoln?”

I can see tall shadows moving in the middle of the hedge.

“Jesus,” I mutter. “You’re gonna make me work for this, aren’t you?”

But I smile. I can find my way in. I think. That makes me laugh.

I kick the stand down, swing my leg over the bike, and take my helmet off and place it on the seat. OK then. Into the creepy hedge maze.

The lengths I will go to for this guy. Gah!

I consider cheating by walking around to the back of the hedge the way I came out last time. I think I can remember the way. But he’s probably expecting me from this end. And whatever he’s got planned, I know it will be good. I don’t want to ruin it.

So I walk in, buzzing with anticipation. I picture myself last weekend, floating through this maze in that ball gown. God, one week ago I knew nothing. My memories were still lost and Lincoln was just a glimmer of something I knew I was missing.

I never want to go back to those days. Ever.

And even though I learned a lot of disturbing things today—Old Man Montgomery is my father! Atticus is my brother!—Lincoln’s reassuring words on the phone are the only things that matter. It will take a lot longer than a few hours to make sense of all this. And tonight I just need what Lincoln wanted last night. To forget about the past and just be together.

I come to a dead end in the hedge and have to retrace my steps and start again on a new path. I’m about one quarter of the way in when a little laugh comes from the center.

“Lincoln?”

Then soft music starts. It’s a waltz, and I am reminded of the dance I had with his friend Case at the party. His sad story of that lost girl. Even though the temperature is mild tonight and I’m wearing a leather jacket, the memory sends a chill through my body.

I quicken my steps, find myself at another dead end, then turn back and take another path. I go right, then right again. Trying to find the place in the maze when Lincoln started telling me how to get to the center. I pass by a cutout in the hedge and glance over into the shadows. He was watching me that night. I know it. Is he watching me again?

I stop and peer into the darkness. “Lincoln?” I whisper.

No answer. Just that soft music.

My heart starts to beat faster. God, this maze is creepy. It was creepy when there were other people here for the party, but now, it’s eerily disturbing.

A memory flashes in my head.

“Alpha?”

“Keep walking, Omega,” he says from somewhere in the interior of the hedge.

“It scares me,” I say back. My voice sounds small.

“It’s not scary, Omega. It’s just a bunch of bushes. They want you to feel lost and afraid, but I’m here and that means nothing will ever happen to you. Now keep walking.”

I take a deep breath, trying my best to push that memory away. It wasn’t OK that night. I remember that much. Prodigy used the maze at the school to teach us how to fight. They ran us through that maze like rats. We weren’t children to them, we were experiments. And there were plenty of things inside that maze that could hurt me. They planted traps in the corners. If you found a dead end, there was always something nasty to teach you not to do that again.

Stop it, Molly. This isn’t Prodigy School. This is the headquarters for SkyEye and Thomas Brooks made this maze, not those mad people at Prodigy School.

Lincoln is in the center waiting for you, Molly. Just concentrate on seeing him and how safe you feel in his arms.

I swallow hard despite myself, and I have a moment of panic where my feet freeze and I cannot move.

I want to get the fuck out of this maze.

“Lincoln,” I yell. “Answer me or I’m going home!”

The music gets a little louder, but other than that, nothing. I’m almost to the center, I know it.
Just keep going, Molly
.

I come to the fork where I was at when Lincoln called out the solution to me last weekend and his words come back to me.
Go left. Then take the first right, go past the second alcove, and then turn right again. I’ll meet you there
.

I’m practically running now. I want nothing more than to be in the center where the light is. The stone path under my feet is getting brighter and brighter and I’m rushing forward faster and faster.

Just get me the fuck out of this maze!

The music is getting louder and when I take that final corner and see the center statue bathed in light, I have an immediate sense of relief. Lincoln has his back to me. He’s wearing a tux.

I laugh. “You told me not to dress up!”

But something about his body is wrong. He’s too thick, not tall enough, too—

“Molly,” Alastair Montgomery says as he slowly turns to face me. “I’m afraid you didn’t pass the test, darling. Your time in the maze was pathetically slow.”

My childhood flashes before my eyes. I see him. A younger, stronger, and even meaner version of the man standing in front of me now.

“Where’s Lincoln?”

“You mean Alpha, don’t you.” He smiles as he looks up at the statue.

What was a boring copper satellite dish last weekend is now a long-tusked boar standing on two legs, wearing a vest and trousers, pocket watch in a cloven hand, with a chain dangling from a slit in his waistcoat. The boar is holding the large satellite dish sculpture that really belongs there high above his head like a trophy.

“He thinks he’s taking me down tonight,” the Old Man says, pointing up at the dish.

The soft white spotlight shining up on the centerpiece changes to blue, and when I look back at the Old Man, I can almost see the resemblance.

He steps forward.