Day's End (15 page)

I shook my head, glanced at my reflection again, then opened the door and walked out of the bathroom. I made my way across my room, stopping to tuck two lethal-looking knives into the scabbards on my belt. I felt steadier than I had at first, but my legs just didn’t seem to be as strong as the rest of me. When I’d finally gotten up the energy and desire to ask Connor about it, and why they hadn’t fixed them along with everything else they’d fixed in me, he’d merely said that some things couldn’t be fixed, and that I should hold onto my weakness, because that was all StrikeForce’s fault, and the memory would remind me to fight them all the harder, remembering what they’d taken from me.

As answers went, it was typical Connor, but it hadn’t really answered my question. I knew he could have Lorne fix me. It wouldn’t even be hard. Didn’t he want a flawless weapon, someone with no frailties holding her back? But, like everything, I’d let it go because when it came right down to it, I really didn’t care.

I made my way down the corridor, then took the elevator up to the top floor, where I was supposed to meet Connor and the rest of Mayhem. Lorne met me when I got off the elevator, and I gave him a quick nod.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, falling into step beside me.

“Fine.”

“Do you feel ready to do this? If not, I can talk to him. We can see about working more on you.”

I glanced at Lorne. “He wants me there.”

“I know,” he said, glancing away. “But if you’re not ready, I need to know that, you know? I need to fix you if that’s the case.”

“I’m ready. I don’t need any more fixing.”

He sighed. “I don’t think you should go out yet. But it’s not my call.”

“My job is to be where he wants me to be and do what he tells me to do. I am tired of this building, Lorne,” I said.

“I know. Okay. Well, come see me when you get back and we’ll get you your nighttime injection.”

I nodded, barely managing not to beg him for one immediately. Instead, I straightened my spine and pushed open the door to the room where the rest of Mayhem was meeting.

“There she is,” Connor boomed, and I winced. I’d learned to deal somewhat better with my heightened senses in the last few months, but he could be loud and it was a bit much. I schooled my features into something neutral, nodding at him. The rest of Mayhem watched me with various expressions, from respect to outright dislike. Chance wore her typical smirk, and I felt like that should mean something but I didn’t know why.

“Okay,” Connor said. I folded my hands behind my back and listened, focused on him. “Jolene’s ready to go, obviously, so this should be easy. Get in, get out. Anyone gets in your way,” he said, meeting my eyes. “Don’t give them a chance to regret it. I’m tired of playing around. We will be feared. We will be respected. We will be fucking unstoppable,” he said, keeping his eyes on mine. “And Jolene’s gonna get us there, aren’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” I said quietly, and he grinned. Chance continued to smirk, and Eve looked as if she smelled something bad.

“We were unstoppable enough already,” she said, glaring at Connor. His gaze turned icy, and he turned to her.

“What? Running around in the shadows? Like rats? No. Not anymore. Now, we come out into the light. They’ll come to know us, to know that there is nowhere safe from us. That we’ll strike whenever and however we want, that none of them is safe. That’s power, Eve. Not that sneaky bullshit you want us to do.”

Eve refused to look at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“We don’t need your murderous little pet,” she said, glancing at me. “Let me work, Connor. We’ll have everything we ever wanted. More.”

Connor crouched down in front of her. “You have no idea what I want. You’re trying so hard to hold onto the paltry power you have on the Tribunal. That’s shit, Eve. The Tribunal is nothing compared to what I’m going to rain down on them. This world is mine, and you’re either with me, or you’re one of the ones who’re gonna be hurting.”

He said it all quietly, calmly, but it sent ice through my veins. Eve still didn’t answer, and Connor transferred his gaze to me.

“But first, we need some fuckin’ money. Jolene, this is your specialty, sweetheart. Make me proud.”

“Yes, sir,” I answered and he grinned, then gave me a wink.

We left headquarters a few minutes later, walking out into what looked like nothing more than an ordinary two car garage from the inside. I looked around, more than a little disappointed at my first view of the outside world.

“We’ll transport there. When we get in, Jolene, you’re gonna make your way to the safe. You remember where I told you to go?”

I nodded.

“Okay. She’ll get my money. And she’ll end anyone who tries to stop her. The rest of us are on cleanup. Get any weapons, valuables, data you can. Anything we can either use or sell. Understood?”

The rest of the team nodded, and so did I.

Connor laughed. “We have a long fuckin’ night ahead of us. Let’s get going.”

The next six hours passed in a blur. I lost count of how many safes I cracked, how many bags and boxes of money and valuables I grabbed, how much money I put in Connor’s waiting hands.

I lost track of how many men I hit, stepping over their still bodies to do Connor’s bidding. On the way out, all I noticed was that none of them had gotten up.

When we returned to Connor’s building for the final time, our arms loaded with large canvas bags, the team was in high spirits. They all laughed, and joked. Connor laughed loudest of all. Even Eve seemed to be in a better mood. I’d noticed during all of our fights that Connor had done little more than stand by and watch, and I wondered at it. For the most part, I’d been too busy following his commands to think much.

When he said to break into something, I broke in.

When he said to hit someone, I hit them.

And when he said, during our last fight when we’d finally come up against a powered person, to end him… I ended him.

My stomach was turning, twisting. I couldn’t stop shaking, and Connor’s voice and laugh were too loud and the knowing, snide glances Chance kept giving me were too much.

Connor was in a corner, talking to the Scots. I walked up to him.

“Sir,” I said quietly. He turned, a wide smile on his face.

“There’s my girl,” he said, pulling me into an embrace. I stiffened, and didn’t move until he let me go.

“I was wondering if I could go to Lorne for my injection, sir. If you have no more need of me tonight?” I asked.

He smiled. “Sure thing, sweetheart. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I nodded.

“Nice job tonight, Jolene. You’re everything I hoped you’d be.”

I nodded again, then walked away. I made it to my room, forgetting that I was supposed to see Lorne, and barely made it to my bathroom before losing the contents of my stomach. I stayed, bent over the toilet, unable to stop, unable to stop the shakes that just wouldn’t stop, the sick feeling in my stomach.

All I kept seeing was those men I hit, staying down.

The super hero Connor had told me to kill, eyes open, looking at nothing, as he fell to the floor in the bank we’d been robbing.

When I finally stopped heaving, I slid my body down the wall and crouched in the corner of the bathroom, hugging my knees.

What was wrong with me? This was what I did. This was who I was. This wasn’t the first time I’d killed, by all accounts.

Maybe it would take longer to remember it all. Longer to be okay with it.

I heard a soft knock at my door, smelled Lorne’s slightly rancid scent. I flushed my toilet.

“Just a minute,” I called, hoping my voice didn’t shake too much. I cupped some cold water in my hand and rinsed my mouth, spat the water into the sink.

I went to the door and opened it. Lorne stood there, holding my injection.

I couldn’t get my armor off fast enough, baring my arm for him.

“You okay?” he asked as the needle went in.

“I will be in a minute,” I answered.

He didn’t say anything for a moment.

“What do you mean?” he finally asked.

I tried to think. What had I been thinking about? What had I been upset about?

I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m sleepy,” I told him, and he nodded, then pulled the needle from my skin. All I felt was the perfect, numbing warmth that came from Lorne and his needles, and, just then, I think maybe I loved him a little. He stepped away, still watching me.

“Get some sleep then, Jolene,” he said.

I nodded.

“How was it?”

I tilted my head, trying to remember. “Fine. It was fine,” I said.

He gave a small nod, and stood, looking at the floor for a moment. “Okay. Good night,” he said, and his voice seemed funny. Tight.

I didn’t care enough to wonder at it. I turned toward my room and fell into bed, still wearing my mask, my uniform pulled down to my stomach.

Nothing mattered right now. Everything was fine.

I heard the door click as Lorne walked out, and then I dropped into blissful, dreamless, feelingless sleep.

Chapter Nine

Ryan

I watched the video for the fourth time. It didn’t get any easier. I was well aware of everyone in the room watching me while trying to act like they weren’t. I could hear Jenson’s heart beating rapidly, the only expression she gave of her horror. Christ, I could smell the adrenaline in the room. And it was all thanks to the videos I was staring at.

Even the first grainy videos from the large private bank in Finland had been good enough for me to know what I was looking at.

The good news was, the woman I love more than I’ve ever loved anything in my life was alive. She was there, in the flesh, and her body was whole and she was moving. She was alive.

But now we knew why she was alive. At least, I hoped I wasn’t the only one who knew what I was looking at here.

The video from the fourth bank, the clearest of all of them, the one with a crystal clear color feed, came on, and I leaned forward.

I’d know those hazel eyes anywhere. It was almost like the fucker had dressed her like that to torture me. I could have handled anything else without feeling like I was losing my mind. I could have seen her mouth, her hands, her neck. I still would have known it was her. But to have to look at her eyes, at eyes that I’d met every chance I could get when she was nearby, as if the answer to every mystery in my world could be found there… . To have to look at her eyes and not see a single sign of her there, it felt like my heart had been ripped out and fucking fed to me, still beating.

“It’s her,” I said quietly. No one answered. Jenson and David had done their thing. We’d been watching everything since the day she’d disappeared, waiting, hoping for a break. I think we all new that we wouldn’t see her until whoever had taken her was damn ready for her to be seen. And I think we all knew it was Killjoy.

Knowing that hadn’t helped any. He’d hidden himself, and her, well.

“She’s alive,” Jenson said, and I’m pretty sure I was the only one who could hear the way her voice shook. I was the only one who knew that Jenson slept about as little as I did, that she prayed in whispers for a sign of Jolene.

It was more than that, though. I glanced at Jenson.

“She’s not in control,” I told her.

I saw her body relax, just a little. “You see it too, then?” she asked me.

“I see it.”

I zoomed in on the monitor, closing in on her eyes, no matter how much it fucking hurt. “Glassy gaze. Unfocused. She’s not there.”

“Or if she is, she’s so far under whatever he did to her that she may as well not be,” Jenson muttered, and I nodded.

“So he has her under his control somehow,” Portia said, staring at the screen. “I knew she wouldn’t do this. I goddamn knew it.” She blew out a breath. “At least now we know for sure who took her.”

I nodded, unable to tear my eyes away from the image on the screen. She killed the Finnish hero again, and as much as I wanted to look away, I couldn’t do it.

“So he’s after money. From my contacts in Finland, Jolene got a hell of a lot of it for him. Well over a hundred million. That second bank they hit… they did some damage there.”

“Private banks,” Jenson said, staring at the screen as well. “Institutions like those are usually hidden so well only those whose money is there know they exist. And he knew about four of them.”

“I’d bet any money that information came from Eve,” I said, finally tearing my eyes away from Jolene’s blank stare on the screen. Focusing on something else was the only thing that would save me from taking someone’s head off right now.

“I’m shocked that she outed herself like this,” Portia said. “I mean, now everyone knows what she is, who she works with. Her time on the Tribunal is done.”

It was true. The second the videos had surfaced, both the super powered and non-powered law enforcement agencies had been calling for her head. As if we didn’t have enough stacked against us, enough reasons for the non-powered people to fear us, now we had the head of our international security council, the people who were supposed to keep us all under control, robbing banks and watching gleefully as Jolene killed super heroes.