Secret Worlds (462 page)

“Council agents killed her mother?” Disbelief warred with outrage on Ace’s face. “In front of Lena?”

He nodded.

“In front of her?”

“I said that, yes.”

Ace’s eyes narrowed. He leaned in toward Alex and whispered tightly, “Don’t you get short with me, Agent. You say you’ll protect her, then the next time I see you, you tell me Mercedes is dead? That they killed her in front of Lena? While you were buying time?” Ace leaned back. His face twisted, as if he had tasted something foul and was ready to spit it out.

“I got her out.” Alex said flatly. “I told her to come to you and wait, that I would get her out of the city. And I can. But she didn’t go to you, so now I have to find her. I’m running out of time.” He turned and reached for the door, bracing himself to pull it open.

Ace grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around. “Then you should have done a better job of getting her out. What the hell were you doing?”

Alex’s breath caught in his throat. The pressure built, waiting to be expelled, but the agony that had flared in his side would explode. He allowed the breath, and the pain with it, to hiss out between his lips. “I was busy trying to get the rubble of the side of the Council building off of me. It took a while.”

Ace searched his face.

The man had been thrown, even harder than Alex expected. He hadn’t anticipated that Ace might have been close to her mother.

Alex shook his head. “This is bad. And I don’t have time to explain it all now. Later, after I’ve found her, okay? Right now, I need you to go home and wait. If she shows up, keep her there. I’ll check back.” He held his finger up to Ace’s face for emphasis. “Do not let her leave. This city is not safe for her now. If they take her again—assuming they don’t shoot her out of hand for the death of the Director of Councilor Security—there will not be a damn thing I can do.”

Ace pulled back when he mentioned Hernandez’s death. “She killed him?”

“Him. Maybe my partner. Almost me.” His hand twitched, but he managed to keep it from reaching up to support his ribcage.

“Good for her.” Ace pushed past him and out the door.

Alex barely managed to avoid being knocked into by the larger man. The sudden jerk away sent a searing wave of pain through him. He ignored it, his breath gasping out as he followed. “Ace—”

Ace spun back, rage flowing freely across his face. “I’m going, Agent. You said you could keep her safe. So go find her. Or all bets are off.” He turned and strode away, his heels beating against the ground. “And if she shows, I’m making you no promises. Not anymore.”

“I am the only one—”

Ace didn’t slow, just waved him off and turned the corner, his long stride carrying him away.

Alex shook his head. The day had gone to hell. It was time to do what he did best and turn it around. Of course, it would be helpful if he had all of the information he needed.

At the top of his to-do list, right behind getting Lena out of Azcon and covering his own ass, was figuring out what Lucas, Hernandez, and the Councilor were a part of that he hadn’t even known about. The fact that he wasn’t aware of any other factions operating within the Council or on behalf of any individual Councilors left him cold. They had plenty of reports about the Tribulationist influence on Councilors Four and Two, and on Two’s panic as the Native Nations carved away her arable land. But an unknown internal faction operating at this critical point? Not good.

It wasn’t far to her sister’s grid with the tiny new homes that were meant to emulate the old neighborhoods of Santa Fe and Los Alamos. He parked and approached Teresa’s earth-toned adobe home on foot. Just inside the gate to the little private plaza, a large earthen bowl of pecans still in their brown and black striped shells overflowed onto the terracotta tiles. Alex cocked a brow at the extravagance.

The nut somehow affected the brains of Sparks, giving them a boost in strength and longevity between grounds. The valuable commodity grew almost exclusively in Zone Three. Their trade value dictated most of the crop be earmarked for shipment out of the zone. The overflowing bowl on Teresa’s porch was meant to say a great deal about her, though she made sure they were out of reach of anyone at the locked gate. He sourly shook his head.

He pulled the rope to the side of the gate, and the bell clanged. Through the front window, he could see two shadows, one large and one small, moving in a back room. Not Lena small, though. Child small. As the notes of the bell sounded, the shadows melted to the walls. He shook his head and pulled the bell again.

After the bell sounded a third time, he raised his voice so Teresa could hear him from inside. “Teresa Gracey Luevano? Council Defense Agency. Open the door.” He pulled the rope another time for good measure. He wasn’t going away. He repeated himself, louder, deliberately throwing his voice so her neighbors could hear him as well.

The larger shadow peeled itself away from the wall and hurried up the hall. Locks flipped, and an attractive young woman in her late twenties came out and hurried across the courtyard.

Teresa looked like Mercedes, all large dark eyes and thick black hair worn loose and long. Their mother had been tired and likely sick, but he had still recognized the faded beauty of the woman beneath the sallow skin and timid demeanor. Teresa had her mother’s beauty. But Teresa did not have her mother’s manner.

She stopped and stood back from the gate, her arms crossed tight across her chest. “Show me your badge.”

Alex had anticipated her demand and already had his wallet out. He slapped it open with an irritated flick of his wrist. She leaned closer to see it better, as if anyone else had the capability to make a mock-up of the rare metal blend with a stamped engraving of his face.

“Teresa Gracey Luevano?” He made sure his voice still carried and nodded at the gate between them.

“Do you mind?” She darted forward to unlock the gate, looking quickly up and down the street behind him. She closed the gate then turned away from him to hurry back into the house.

He followed her.

Once he’d crossed the threshold into the cool house, she swung the door closed behind him and whirled to face him. “What do you people want? I already told the other agent that I have nothing to do with my sister!”

He held up his hand. “When was this?”

Her nostrils flared with her emotion. “This morning. Early.” She spat the words at him. “When agents came to my home and took me away like a criminal. When they pulled my son from his bed and carried him away.” Teresa gestured down the hallway. The smaller shadow, no doubt, was her son making himself scarce.

If Lucas had picked them up, Alex couldn’t blame her for being angry. But she wasn’t just angry. There was fear. Fear and—? Her hands trembled. The pulse in her neck was racing. Her eyes were red and her lashes wet.

Fear and grief. She knew her mother was dead. And only one person could have told her.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Alex said.

She swallowed hard, shaking her head, as if to deny it.

“Lena? Lena!” He called out to her, his voice a bellow of frustration. Why could she not have gone to Ace’s place like he’d told her? Why did she have to push every step of the way? He pressed his hand up against his ribcage and stalked down the hall.

“She’s not here,” Teresa called after him.

Her footsteps slapped the floor behind him as he called out again.

She raised her voice over his. “She’s not here! I threw the little bitch out of my house!”

Alex turned. “What did you say?”

Teresa folded her arms across her chest again. Her jaw set, and her lips turned down with hate. “I threw her out. She’s not here anymore, and she won’t be back, so you can go, too.”

“You threw her out?”

“Yes.”

“Your own sister?”

“Half-sister!”

There was nothing in the file to reflect that, so he merely filed the lie away. “And where was she going?”

“To one of the stupid boys she sleeps with? To her awful friend? To my idiot brother? I didn’t ask. If they’re smart, they’ll throw her out, too.” Teresa tossed her long hair back behind a shoulder. “Maybe she ran to the park or the market to creep around pretending to be a normal person like she used to do. How should I know? And why should I care? She got my mother killed!”

He felt his disgust mirrored on his face. He continued to the back of the house, a long open space with a kitchen at one end and a living area at the other. Teresa stalked after him, ordering him to leave her boy alone and spewing half-formed threats. The room was empty but for furniture and the small boy squeezed between the wall and the back of a wooden chair. Alex crossed to the boy.

“Joseph.” He squatted, back straight to ease his ribs, as he regarded the scared child half hidden behind the slats of the chair. Wide, dark eyes stared back at him. “Was your aunt here?”

The boy peeked at his mother.

Alex had to have his attention. “Joseph!”

The boy jumped.

“Do you know who I am?” Alex asked.

“A bully!” Teresa spat at his back.

Alex ignored her. He focused on the boy, hating that he needed to question him. The pit he’d waded into kept getting deeper and deeper. “Joseph, do you know who I am?”

Joseph nodded. “Council agent.” His voice was so faint as to be barely heard, especially with one eardrum still healing.

“That’s right. And if you lie to me—no matter who tells you it’s okay—it is very wrong. Do you understand?”

Joseph nodded again.

“Okay. Now, was your aunt here, Joseph?”

“Yes.” Joseph kept his gaze fastened upon Alex’s.

“And is she still here?”

Joseph shook his head. “She had a fight with Mama.” Tears welled. “She said my ‘buela was gone. She said the Council killed her.” He sneaked a glance at his mother and then back again. “But Mama said no. That Tia Lena killed her?”

“Actually, she tried to protect your abuela. Okay? It was a terrible accident, but she did try.”

Joseph nodded. His small hands, still baby fat, curled around the back bars of the chair he hid behind.

“She tried, Joseph.”

Alex rose. He made a quick circuit through the two tiny bedrooms and the bathroom joining them. No Lena. Her sister really had thrown her to the wolves. Some family.

On his way back out to the main hall, he paused where Teresa stood, her chin high, nostrils flared, and eyes dark. The woman hadn’t even bothered to comfort her own child.

“How long ago did she leave?”

Teresa shrugged. “I don’t know. Thirty minutes? An hour? I couldn’t tell you.”

Alex didn’t bother to answer her disrespect with words. He paced across the room, moved into her space, pushed forward even as she stumbled backward. Alarm replaced anger on her face. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t stop, either, until she had moved back and caught against the far wall. Movement flashed in the corner of his eye as Joseph ducked down further with a whimper. He hated Teresa for this. If she gave a single damn about her child’s well-being, she would have cooperated. He’d have searched the house, been on his way to find Lena. But no, she had to try to prove how clever she was.

Except she wasn’t clever, or strong, or tough. She was nothing like her sister. He had a new appreciation for why Lena had fled Azcon to make her home in an abandoned gas station in the middle of Kewa country.

“How long ago did she leave?” He breathed the question directly in her face as he stared down at her.

Teresa swallowed. “Twenty minutes. Maybe almost thirty? No more.”

He waited, holding the invasion of her space, drawing it out.

“I swear,” she blurted. “Twenty, twenty-five minutes. She ran out of here. And she really won’t be back.”

He understood. He was leaving, and he never wanted to return either.

He backed away. His heart wanted him to check on Joseph, but his head knew what he’d see: a terrified child, shrinking away from the Council agent, marked for life by the encounter. His lips twisted. Generally, he could assure himself that the things he had to do in order to change the world for the better didn’t make him a bad person. Sometimes, like today, he couldn’t avoid the truth. He was a very bad man. He did bad things. That he did them for a good reason didn’t pardon him.

He left them. The gate swung open behind him. He hoped her neighbors scuttled over and stole all of her damn pretentious pecans.

***

Alex rapped at Ace’s apartment door, holding himself stiff. He’d experienced the pain of broken ribs before. He’d also been under the gun, literally and figuratively, trying to make things happen against the odds. The fact that Lena had him wound so tight was not good.

He raised his hand to knock again, his ire rising. Would they have the audacity to take off on him?

Ace opened the door. He stood framed in the narrow opening for a long, silent moment, his eyes hooded and smoldering with banked anger. Finally, he stepped back.

A long breath eased from Alex. She was here.

He only made it a few steps into the living area before he felt the shift in pressure behind him as Ace moved in fast. His ribs slowed his reaction. Before he’d even managed to make a quarter turn, he felt the hand drop to the back shoulder of his shirt, and Ace spun him around. Alex gasped, and then held his breath.

“Stop doing that,” he managed to grit out. “My damn ribs are broken.”

“Good. That’s an excellent start. Because I tell you now, more than your ribs are going to be broken if you don’t explain yourself in the next five minutes.” Clearly, Ace had been catching up with Lena.

He took a shallow, tired breath. This would be pointless. Nothing he could say would appease the big man. “I did what I had to under the circumstances.”

Ace scowled, shaking his head.

“And actually, I did exactly what I told you I would.”

“You told me you’d protect her.”

“I told you I would get her to safety. And I did. And if you’ll notice, I’m still working on doing that.” Alex pointed a finger in Ace’s face. “I also told you I was running out of time and at some point my hands would be tied.”

“Your hands would be tied? You shot her.
You shot her
. Then you handed her over to them.” Ace’s chest heaved. His lips thinned.