CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I left Desmond and Tania to get a cab while I took Desmond’s car. The drive went by in a blur of slick streets and distant gunfire. I was speeding, but no cops were going to bother pulling me over. They had more important things to worry about.
I clutched O’Neil’s phone in my hand while I drove. There was no way in hell I was letting the thing out of my sight. It was all I had to get to Todd, and by God I was going to do it.
I’d allowed that son of a bitch to hurt Tania too many times. I wasn’t going to do it again. This wasn’t even about Bluegate anymore, no matter the way my stomach burned every time I heard another building crashing down.
Maybe the cops could stop Todd without me, maybe Vivian would get what she needed to take him down. But I couldn’t wait for that. I was going to give Vivian the cell phone and tell her everything I knew.
Then I was going to track him down and bring him to his knees.
I slammed on the brakes outside Vivian’s apartment, nearly losing control as I brought the car to a skidding halt. A passing pedestrian running to get out of the rain gawked at me, his mouth hanging open while he stared at my battered face. I slammed the car door behind me and ran up the stairs to Vivian’s building. I only hoped she was home. I’d never get to her if she was working, surrounded by cops. And going directly to any other police officers was out of the question. I didn’t trust them not to be working for Todd. Vivian was the only one I could rely on.
I used a Pin Hole on the outside lock, took one look at the elevator, and sprinted up the stairs. They were still muddy with the bootprints of the armed police. That was one good thing about all this city-wide destruction; no cops would be spared to hang around Vivian’s place waiting for me to come visit. At least, I hoped there wouldn’t be.
I reached the fourth floor and realized I couldn’t remember which apartment was hers. Then I spotted the fragments of wood on the ground and the still-shattered lock on apartment 402.
“Vivian,” I called, pushing the door open. “You home? I got a present for you.”
No response. I stood in the doorway, staring around. The cops had really given this place the once over. The apartment had been Spartan already, but the cops had trampled dirt over the bare wooden floor and knocked over the few pieces of furniture so it felt like I was in a haunted house out of some movie.
I stood like an idiot for a few more seconds, then stepped inside, making for her bedroom. If she wasn’t here, I’d drop off the phone along with a note. Maybe she was asleep. God knows I would be if I had the chance.
“Vivian?” I tried again.
A muffled noise answered me this time. It hit me too late. I opened the bedroom door and took a step inside.
Vivian lay on the bed, fully dressed, her normally perfect hair mussed and tangled around her face. She bore a fat lip that trickled blood and drool down onto her chin and the collar of her shirt. Her eyes were half-shut, and all I could see were the whites.
No, no, no. My thoughts were already yammering as I followed her arms up above her head, to where her wrists were attached to the headboard with a pair of handcuffs.
Fuck. No. She had to be alive. She was tough. Oh Jesus, who the fuck had done this?
I took a step toward her. Then came a single, ominous click, the sort that only comes from a gun.
“Easy, Miles,” Detective Todd said. “That’s enough.”
I froze. Well, my legs did, but my hands had different ideas. They went for the Pin Holes in my pocket.
“Don’t be a fuckwit.” Todd stepped out of the dark corner to my right, and I swear I could sense the bullet quivering in the pistol barrel. “I’m too jumpy to have you fiddling in your pockets. Come on, hands high.”
I hesitated for a moment, then obeyed. Getting shot didn’t seem like a particularly heroic move right now.
“Enjoying yourself, Todd?” I asked, eyeing Vivian. Her chest was rising and falling, but slowly. She was alive. Alive. I allowed myself to breathe. “Is destroying the city everything you thought it’d be?”
He was nothing like the strong, confident cop in the interrogation room a couple of days ago. His face was drawn, as tired as mine must’ve been. The stubble on his cheeks had gone well past five o’clock shadow. His haggard eyes watched me—never looking at Vivian—and something in them made me shiver.
“I knew you’d come talk to her sooner or later. Where is it?” he asked.
“Where’s what?”
“The phone.”
“What phone?”
He took a step forward and raised the gun to my head. “Don’t fuck with me, Miles.”
“You’ll kill me if I give it to you.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I haven’t decided yet. You pissed me off, but maybe I’ll give you a pass, if you play nice.”
“What’ve you done to Vivian?”
“She’s fine,” he said without looking at her.
“She doesn’t look fine.”
“I gave her a little something. She’ll be all right, as long as you do what I say.” He held out his hand. “The phone. Now.”
Son of a bitch. I didn’t have a choice. “Right jacket pocket.”
“Get it. Slow-like.”
I lowered my hand slowly into my pocket, pulled out the phone.
“Good,” he said, jerking his gun slightly. “Toss it.”
I threw it to him, and he caught it with one hand.
“Good,” he said again.
He hurled the phone at the floor.
“No!” I shouted.
The phone shattered, sending bits of plastic flying in every direction. That was everything, everything I had. I took a step forward and got a gun in my face for my trouble.
Todd shoved me back against the wall and stomped on the remaining bits of the phone. The crack went right through my skull and into my soul.
I closed my eyes and fought back the twisting pain in my gut. “You done?”
Todd gave the phone one more stomp. Vivian groaned and shivered, then she was still again. I needed to get her the hell out of here. Todd was crazy, and she was in desperate need of a doctor.
“What did you think you were going to do, huh, Miles?” Todd asked. “You think this one little cell phone would turn everyone against me?”
“I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon. Your eyes are too close together, classic criminal trait.”
“You think you’re such a righteous little shit, don’t you?” He stabbed his finger toward me.
“Not really, but it doesn’t take much to be more righteous than you.”
He spat. “Fuck you, Miles. You think you’ve seen the underside of this city? You haven’t seen shit. I’ve spent hours searching the bodies of junkies that’ve got on the wrong side of someone or other. I’ve spent decades fighting the scum that rule these streets. I was first on scene when the twelve-year-old daughter of a Silk Dragon whore was kidnapped by a group of Gravediggers. Those sick fucks shoved the barrel of a .45 in her cunt and emptied the clip into her. I’m the only one who has the guts to do what it takes to save this city.”
“It doesn’t look very saved to me. Damn it, Todd, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“For decades I did my job, did it clean. And my son paid the fucking price. I won’t let it happen again, Miles. Never again.” Todd shook his head and waved the gun at me. “But you, you had to go fuck everything. You motherfucker. You ruined everything.”
“Me? I haven’t done jack.”
He rammed the barrel of the gun against my forehead so hard I nearly fell. “Don’t lie to me!” he roared. “You got Vivian involved. You went blabbing to her, turned her against me. She came to turn me in. You made me do this to her!” He jabbed his finger toward her unconscious form.
I opened my mouth, but he didn’t stop. “But that wasn’t enough, was it? You talked to Andrews’ bitch. You’re in with them.”
I stumbled back away from the gun, but Todd advanced on me.
&nb
sp; “I’m with no one. But I had to do something.” I sidestepped away, moving closer to Vivian. I had to check she was okay. “I had to try to make someone see sense.”
He stared at me with widening eyes. “You fucking bumbling moron. What the hell did you think would happen when you talked, huh?” He bared his teeth. “You told them my name!”
I needed to get out of here. Todd was off his rocker. But Vivian was cuffed, and I couldn’t leave her alone with him. Who knew what he’d already done to her?
I glanced around for something—anything—to distract Todd. God, why wasn’t there anything?
“Andrews hit my home, worked over my wife…ex-wife.” He clutched at his silver hair with his free hand. “That lumpfish fucker found my distributors. Was that you?”
I held up my hands and backed into the wall. “No. Maybe O’Neil talked. I found her body.”
He shot a look out the window. I don’t know if he even heard what I said. “He’s controlling the Chroma. All of it, except the little I distributed before he attacked. He got my imports, he got my suppliers, he got everything. You understand me now? You see what you’ve done?”
My head pounded. I prayed that Todd was bluffing, trying to throw me off, but I could tell by the fear in his eyes it wasn’t true. This wasn’t Todd’s war anymore. It was Andrews’.
Jesus, I’d been stupid. I’d all but delivered Bluegate to Andrews with a strip-o-gram and a can of whipped cream. With that much Chroma, he could do anything. He could play the other gangs off against each other and finish off the winner if he wanted. He could buy and sell anyone he felt like, right down to the guy picking up his garbage.
What the hell was I supposed to do now? The cops could’ve taken down Todd. He was operating under the radar; he didn’t seem to have many people with him. But how the hell could anyone take down John Andrews with an army of gangsters and jacked-up Tunnelers at his back?
Vivian’s head rolled to the side, her eyes flickering. She was drugged off her face.
“Let Vivian go,” I said. “Let me get her to the hospital. She didn’t do this. She trusted you, the stupid woman.”
Todd shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that, Miles. You should know that.”
“Then let’s go outside and you can kill me in the alley. It’ll save her having to clean my brains off her floor.”
“I ain’t killing you. Not yet.”
“I haven’t got all day. Get the fuck on with it.”
“I’m not killing you because you have to do something for me. You’re gonna make amends for selling me out to Andrews.”
“Yeah?” I sneered to cover up with quiver in my cheek. “Like hell.”
“You’re gonna get my Chroma back from Andrews. All of it.”
I stared at him. “You really are a complete nutjob. I’d rather save the trouble and take your bullet here.”
He shook his head slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “No Miles, you’re going to do it. You’re going to do it for her.”
He waved his hand at Vivian. Right on cue, a horrible noise came groaning from her mouth, one long, awful monotone note.
The gun was against my ribs before I’d even realized I was moving. “Back up.”
I watched, helpless, as a tremor ran through her limbs. Her wrists were raw where the handcuffs cut into them.
My hands formed fists, for all the good it did them. “What the bloody hell did you do to her?”
Then I caught sight of the puncture wounds in the crook of her left arm, the same ones that Tania had. No. Oh God, no.
Todd read my mind, his face twisting horribly. “I had to. I didn’t want to, but you made me, Miles. This is your fault.”
“Tell me you didn’t, you son of a bitch.”
“Five vials of Chroma,” he said, his eyes fixed on me. “All at once. The chemist told me that would be enough to kill someone, but not quickly. She has…” He checked his watch. “…about five or six hours, give or take.”
“No.” I reached for her, and he shoved me away. I stared at him, pleading. “No. This is ridiculous. You’ve lost, Walt.”
“Not yet.” He absently fingered his gun. “Not yet. She doesn’t have to die, Miles. You hear? She doesn’t have to die.”
My gaze snapped back to him, and he nodded.
“Davies gave me an antidote,” he said, “something that’ll absorb the drug in her body, stop it killing her.”
“Give it to her.”
He glanced at her once, then returned his eyes to me. “That’s not how it’s going to be. You think you’re a good man? Prove it. Save her.”
I grabbed my hair and tugged, letting out a frustrated scream. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to strike out. I wanted to make a Tunnel and run away and never return. It would be so easy. All I’d have to survive was my guilt.
“You know what you have to do,” Todd said.
I nodded.
“Get me what I want,” he said, “and I’ll give you what you want. My information says he’s running everything from his mansion. That’s where you’ll find him and the stockpiled Chroma. You might want to dress up a bit. Andrews is picky about who he lets through the door.”
“You know this is impossible, Walt. But you know what? I’m going to stop Andrews. Not just because you’ve got yourself a hostage. But because there’s good people in this city. And they deserve better than a piece of shit like you or those gangsters you think you’re so much better than.” My voice came out cold, emotionless. I didn’t think I had anything left in me. I couldn’t even look at him as I spoke. “But one day I’ll make you hurt for this.”
“Tick fucking tock, Miles.”
I gave Vivian one last look. She’d stopped shivering, and now she lay still, breathing heavily. I still didn’t know what she was to me, but that didn’t matter. She was a good person. Better than me. If I had to get myself killed saving her, then so be it.
I pulled my coat closed around me and walked out of the room. Todd didn’t say anything, and I didn’t look back. I knew the deal.
A good cop for a lousy Tunneler. It was a fucking steal.
The Man Who Crossed Worlds (Miles Franco #1) Page 24
