The Imaginary (The Imago Trilogy Book 2)

by J. J. Stone

  As the door yanked open, James turned toward the man and trained the gun solidly at his head. The man stumbled back a step and shook his head in disbelief. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

  “Well I’m not,” James said. He felt the reassuring adrenaline rush begin to course through his veins. “Who are you?”

  The man squinted at the interior of the SUV, ignoring James’s question. “Where’s the lady?”

  “Left about a day ago to get help,” James said, watching the man’s face.

  The man curled his lips back in a sneer. “Not in this snow, she didn’t. She’s still here.” He stepped toward the back seat window.

  James cocked the gun and the man froze. “Take one more step,” James said. “My finger’s a little shaky today.”

  The man gave him an incredulous look. “You look like a stiff breeze would knock you over.”

  “Try me.”

  The two men locked glares, each waiting for the other’s bluff to fold. “Eli’s not expecting me to bring two people back. He already thinks you’re dead.” A sinister smirk twitched the corners of the man’s lips. “I can do whatever I want with you.”

  James tightened his grip on the gun but remained silent. He had a feeling his left-handed accuracy was about to be tested. He watched the man’s hand twitch as he stormed toward the SUV.

  Instinct kicked in.

  As the man’s hand slipped under his parka, James shot the man’s right shoulder. The shock of the bullet whipped the man’s body to the right but did little to slow his movement. Gritting his teeth, James grimly shifted his aim up and pulled the trigger. The man’s head snapped back as his forehead cracked open, bloody debris spraying from the back of his skull. His burly body fell hard to the shed floor as he took his last gasp of breath.

  Ada lunged up from her hiding spot and tossed herself over into James’s seat. Making sure to stay behind him, she leaned around to take in the man’s motionless body. “Now what?”

  “Get the other gun,” James said as he slid out of the car and stood upright for the first time in days. He gave his body a moment to adjust before taking the three steps from the SUV to the man’s body. He kicked the man’s foot to verify that the hunter was gone and turned back to Ada. “We need to go.”

  “Where?”

  James squinted out into the white world the blizzard had left behind and spotted a trench path. “Back the way he came.” He slipped the gun into his back pocket and stepped back to the car. “Where did you put the rest of the waters?”

  “Everything’s in the back.”

  James nodded and turned for the trunk. Ada’s hand clamped down on his forearm before he could take a step.

  “Can you just wait a second?” Ada whispered and James noticed how heavily her eyes were glistening.

  He glanced down at her hand, white-knuckled around his forearm as far as she could wrap it. While he had processed the events of the past minute on autopilot, he had forgotten that Ada was still just a teacher who happened to be along for the ride. A teacher who was now feet away from a man missing half his head. He looked her square in the face and tried to lighten the firmness in his features as much as he could. “We’re going to be fine. OK?” He raised his brows slightly, urging her to respond.

  She swallowed hard and nodded stiffly, her eyes flitting between his face and the body. She blinked and two large teardrops fell down her cheeks. Embarrassed, she swiped her free hand across her face, clearing away any moisture. The hand still gripping his arm began to tremble.

  “Ada.” James softened his voice and waited for her to focus on him. “You need to let go, or you’re going to break my good arm.” He gave her a small smile to show her that he was teasing.

  She gasped a little laugh and released his arm. He stepped away from her and moved quickly to the trunk to gather what they needed. He slipped a water bottle into each pocket of his parka, then took another couple water bottles and went back to Ada.

  She was sitting on the seat, her legs folded underneath her, just staring at the dead man and the blood pool widening around his destroyed skull. James stepped into her line of sight, impeding her morbid stare. “Take these and put them in your jacket pockets.” He dumped the items in his arm into her lap. He watched her numbly stow the water bottles, still not moving from the seat. Her hands fell into her lap, clenched around each other.

  James slipped his left hand over both of hers and squeezed them gently. Her hands twitched under his touch but didn’t pull away. “Ada, I need you to be a hundred percent right now,” James said.

  His words made the contact he wanted. In a second, her distant expression flew back to the present and her back straightened. She slid her legs out from under her, breaking their hands apart. “I’m good,” Ada said.

  James stepped away from the car to let her out. She landed on her feet and zipped her jacket up to her chin, pulled the hood over her head. She pointed to his askew jacket. “Do you need help?”

  “Yeah, I probably don’t need to freeze to death.” He straightened as much as he could so she could zip his jacket to his chin. She pulled his hood up and tugged the side strings so that the opening narrowed around his face. She glanced down at his empty right sleeve flopping around and chuckled. James shook his head, smirking. “Let’s go.”

  He stepped toward the open doors then realized Ada wasn’t following him. He turned back and saw her contemplating where to hide the gun she was awkwardly holding in her hands. “Is the safety still on?” He asked her.

  She tilted the gun to the side and nodded. James was proud of how quickly he’d gotten her acclimated to the weapon.

  “Put it in your pocket, then. Just make sure you flip that safety if you have to shoot.”

  Ada carefully pushed the gun into her right jacket pocket and took a deep breath. As she came up beside him, they both paused for a moment and got their first real look at their battered SUV. While James had expected it to be beat up, he didn’t realize how totally destroyed it was. Beside him, Ada shook her head. “I feel bad leaving it.”

  “I know,” James said. “We’ll get someone down here to tow it out.”

  This seemed to quell her sadness enough to get her to move. She shielded her eyes with her hand and surveyed the perfectly silent forest lying beyond the open shed doors. “So we’re taking that path?” She pointed to the hollowed half tunnel leading away from the shed.

  “Unfortunately.” James stepped out of the safety of the shed and sunk his foot into the powder. “Stick close.”

  ——

  Brenda dove for her phone as it chimed for a fourth time. She had one more chime before it went to voicemail. Shaking the sleep from her head, she answered the call without pausing to see who it was. “Agent Stine.”

  Dade glanced up from his ancient People magazine and cleared his throat at her. “Quantico?” he mouthed when she glanced at him.

  Brenda nodded at him then a frown rose. “What do you mean?”

  “Crap,” Dade grunted as he rolled off his cot and jogged to her side. He leaned as close as he dared to the phone.

  Brenda shoved him away and walked over to her computer. “Let me double-check the number.” She clicked around furiously for a few moments, ignoring Dade’s exasperated gestures. “Yes, that’s the correct VIN.”

  Dade leaned against the table and snapped his fingers at her. She continued to ignore him.

  “How can it not be tracking?” Brenda asked, struggling to keep the sheer frustration out of her tone. “OK, well, we should be able to head out in the next few hours, so I’ll call in when we get to where they were headed.” She glanced at Dade and shook her head once. His face fell. “Thank you.” She hung up the phone and hurled it into her cot.

  “They can’t track it?” Dade asked quietly.

  “No!” Brenda shoute
d, thankful the room’s door was shut and they were at the end of a long hallway. She planted her hands on her hips and made herself take a few breaths. “The tech said it’s not responding at all.”

  “We’ve got to get up there.” Dade stomped back to his cot and shoved his feet into his boots while pulling on his parka.

  “I don’t think the roads are clear—”

  “I’ll make it work,” Dade said, cutting her off. He swiped a set of keys off the table as he marched toward the door. “You don’t have to come.”

  “Give me a second.” Brenda was already sliding her arms into her own parka. “It wouldn’t hurt to get a couple of squad cars to come with, you know.”

  “Already on it,” Dade called from halfway down the hall.

  CHAPTER 16

  The cabin stuck out like a brown sore on the bleached face of the forest. A thick column of smoke flowed from the chimney tip, thinning out on the lingering blizzard breezes before finally evaporating. Ada came up behind James, her legs pulsing with pain from their almost hour-long trek from the shed. They had had to halt every five minutes or so for James to catch his breath. Between the bandages and the ribs, his endurance was vastly compromised.

  “How are we going to do this?” Ada asked.

  “If you were expecting someone you knew, would you be paying that much attention to the door?” James’s breath formed white puffs with every word.

  Ada tried to see where his train of thought was headed. “Probably not closely.”

  “The guy in the shed thought I was dead. Which means he was coming back for you.”

  Ada frowned. “Me?”

  “This Eli guy is expecting to see you come through the door.”

  His plan suddenly clicked and she did not like it. “No, I’m not walking in there—”

  “I’ll be right behind you. Eli will think I’m his partner. We have the same color jacket.” James cocked his head. “Once we’re inside, I’ll move you out of the way and train my gun on him.” He glanced at the cabin. “The sound from those gunshots would have carried to the cabin. He’s probably on edge, which means we need to be as convincing as possible.”

  Ada’s mouth dropped down in disgust as she stepped around to face him. “I’m a human shield?”

  “What? No.” James frowned at her. “You really think I’d put you in that kind of situation?”

  If it gets you what you want, Ada almost said but stopped herself. That reply would have suited the James of a few days ago. Not the one standing in front of her. “No,” she said resignedly.

  “OK.” James relaxed some and unzipped his jacket. He adjusted his grip on his gun a few times then nodded once. “We’re going in the front.”

  Ada’s stomach clenched while her heart decided to beat box. She glued her eyes on the cabin while she waited for James to start walking.

  “Go, you need to be in front,” he said, turning her toward the cabin and giving her a gentle nudge in the back.

  Ada winced and forced herself forward. The side of James’s gun pressed into the back of her neck as he wrapped his hand as best he could around the base of her neck, enough to look convincing. Even though it was meant as a menacing gesture, it reminded her that he was back there, which helped her keep moving.

  When they reached the front porch of the cabin, James pulled slightly on her, getting her to pause. Music was blasting inside the cabin, the bass up high enough that they could feel it as they drew closer. James listened for a few seconds before whispering, “Go.”

  She clopped up the porch steps woodenly and stopped before the front door. She looked back at James, who nodded for her to go ahead. Every fiber of her was screaming to turn and run as she placed her hand on the door handle and turned the rusty knob. The door sprang away from the frame and swept inside the house, the bottom catching on the hardwood floor.

  Ada’s knees locked as the door exposed them to whoever was waiting inside. She felt James push his hand and gun slightly into the back of her neck but she couldn’t move. Her breath started catching and her stomach threatened to release water and peanut butter bread all over the cabin floor. James hissed something under his breath and then forcefully shoved her through the doorway and into the cabin.

  She was too shocked at his harshness to stop her feet from tripping each other up. She stumbled to a halt far enough inside the cabin that James could kick the door shut. Neither of them moved. Despite their noisy entrance, no one had come to greet them. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace and the air held the heavy tang of cooking meat, so someone had to be in the cabin.

  James poked the back of her neck again and they moved in unison further into the rustic living room. The music was blasting from a gigantic pair of home theater speakers flanking the fireplace. The beat was almost deafening. Ada wondered if they would even hear someone approaching.

  “There you are!” came a booming male voice from the kitchen.

  Ada moved her head a few centimeters toward the voice. She and James had stepped far enough into the living room that she was the only one visible to the husky man standing in the kitchen.

  “Travis, get her in here.” The man went back to cutting the lumps of meat flopped on the butcher-block island in the middle of the tiny kitchen.

  James pulled his hand off her neck and tapped her shoulder. She half-turned back to him and looked at him with saucer-round eyes. He nodded toward the far corner of the cabin and adjusted his grip on his gun. Ada retreated toward the corner.

  “Put the knife down,” James said as he stepped into the kitchen. He trained the gun steadily on the man calmly chopping meat.

  The man snapped his head up at the unexpected voice but didn’t move or drop the butcher knife. His eyes widened as James stepped toward him. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

  “I’m really getting tired of hearing that,” James said. “Put the knife down, I’m not telling you again.”

  The man put the knife down but remained behind the island. “Where’s Travis?”

  “Not here,” James said as he entered the kitchen. “Eli, right?”

  The man bristled but nodded.

  “Where’s your phone, Eli?”

  “Don’t have one.”

  “Where are our phones, then?”

  “Out in the snow somewhere.”

  James turned his head slightly toward Ada, keeping his gaze on Eli. “Ada, look around for a phone.”

  Eli looked around James. “Ada?” He studied her for a moment then snapped his fingers. “You’re the teacher. The one from Seattle.”

  Ada refused to acknowledge Eli. She scurried around the living room, searching frantically for the phone.

  “Wonder what he wants with you,” Eli said, his eyes leaving Ada and fixing on James. “That car sure did a number on you.”

  “Move over to the table and sit down.” James flicked the gun toward the dining area off the kitchen. His weakened left arm was starting to tremble from the weight of the gun.

  Eli moved silently to the table and pulled out one of the well-worn chairs. As he sank his weight into it, it croaked pathetically. The two men continued their stare down as James moved against the dining area wall and pressed back against it.

  In the living room, Ada upended every book, magazine, and food wrapper on every surface. She tore the couch cushions away from the sawn log frame. She pulled every book off the bookshelves. She almost gave up when she heard a ringtone. She froze and tried to identify the sound’s source. After the third ring, she determined it was coming from the bookshelf under a front window. She fell to her knees in front of the window-high bookshelf and ripped the books off the shelf. Two rings later and one of the books tumbled open as it fell to the floor, exposing the carved out nest the phone was stowed in.

  Ada leapt to her feet and ran
across the open cabin to James. “Whoever was calling hung up.” She still avoided eye contact with Eli.

  “Keep your gun on him,” James said. He waited until she removed the gun from her pocket and held it halfway out toward Eli, then James stowed his gun in his pocket, took the phone from her and tapped in a number. “Dade, it’s James,” he said as he stepped away from Ada and Eli.

  Ada took up James’s post against the wall and hesitantly made eye contact with Eli. He was staring up at her from his seat with a predatory glint in his gray eyes. Steeling herself, she raised her chin slightly and nestled the gun tighter into her palm. Eli snickered and stretched back into the chair. “You’ve never shot a gun.”

  “First time for everything,” Ada said, impressed with her impressively rapid snark.

  Eli only chuckled harder. “It’s the spunky ones that always go down easy.” He glanced at James, who was over by the front door giving Dade directions. “Bet the two of you had fun keeping warm the past couple of days.” His furry eyebrows gyrated at Ada.

  Ada didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response.

  “I still don’t get why he wants you so bad,” Eli said. He propped one leg on top of the other. “You’re not even real FBI.”

  Against every shout from her conscience, Ada asked, “He?”

  Eli’s face sobered, and he paused for a moment before answering her. “Our leader.”

  Stinging dread spiked up through Ada’s gut. “Who is that?”

  Something sinister slipped back behind Eli’s eyes. He leaned toward her and almost whispered, “Sakima.”

  The gun nearly fell from Ada’s hands as her knees started to buckle. Had it not been for the wall behind her, she would have crumpled like a stringless marionette. Her lungs denied her body air as they seized under the crushing weight of shock. The room started to spin as Ada thought back to the notes. Those stupid, harmless notes …

  In a blur of two seconds, Eli whipped his hand under the table and unstrapped the gun attached to its underside then propelled himself out of the chair toward Ada. Ada watched in slow motion as Eli’s hulking mass closed in on her, yet she couldn’t move a single muscle. Then came a splitting bang from behind her, followed by a wet crunch as Eli’s left knee exploded. His lunge toward her ended abruptly as he fell in a wailing lump to the floor.