by Tarah Benner
“What about our workers?” I ask incredulously. “We’re the ones getting blown up by the repurposed land mines.”
Jayden’s fake smile twitches. “That’s being handled. But in the meantime, I suggest you take a different route.”
“So it’s not being handled.”
“Why did you call us?” Harper butts in.
Jayden’s gaze snaps onto Harper, and I can see the delight radiating from her predatory eyes. She doesn’t care that Harper knows she ordered the hit. I think she actually finds it funny.
“I have another assignment for you. I already briefed Parker.”
She moves away from the flurry of activity and motions for us to follow.
“This gang of drifters may be the biggest threat the compounds have ever faced. In the last few years, we’ve had no trouble crippling their forces, but they are growing in numbers. And, if your reports are accurate, they’ve also made great strides with their technology. We cannot afford a wide-scale breach of the perimeter — not now when things are so . . . volatile.”
I roll my eyes. “Volatile” is the understatement of the century. Control has managed to keep a lid on violence within the compound since the tier-three riots, but finding more drifters in the cleared zone would definitely end the grudging truce between ExCon and Recon.
Jayden whips open the file Seamus brought and hands it to Harper. It’s one of the stills Constance captured from Fringe surveillance. I recognize the man in the photo as Malcolm Martinez, the cutthroat leader of the Desperados gang.
“I need you to locate this man and terminate him. He is your number one priority.”
I can practically see Harper’s wheels turning. She wasn’t there when Mina led me to Constance’s headquarters in Information. Before now, she had no idea how far Constance’s reach extended.
“Also keep a lookout for this man,” Jayden continues, flipping to the next photograph. It’s Jackson Mills, the man Owen feels he owes for his protection.
“He used to be the leader of Nuclear Nation — another gang — but his crew has been absorbed into the Desperados. The old Nuclear Nation members aren’t numerous enough to pose a threat, but some of the Desperados would follow Mills if Martinez was out of the picture.”
Harper swallows, still avoiding my gaze. I can almost hear what she’s thinking: If Constance knows about Malcolm and Jackson . . .
Jayden flips the photo over to reveal the last still. It’s the image that’s burned into my memory from the hours I spent in the Recon surveillance room.
Harper studies the photo for a moment and then drags in a sharp burst of air. She met Owen in person, so the few distinguishing marks visible in the still allow her brain to supply the rest of the face.
“What is it?” Jayden asks. “Have you seen him before?”
Harper swallows. She’s scrambling to come up with a good excuse. “N-no. I just didn’t know we had surveillance capabilities on the Fringe.”
“That’s no accident. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get a clear shot of this man. He’s done a decent job of flying under the radar, but you can identify him by that scar on his arm. He’s Mills’s right-hand man, and he needs to be dealt with.”
Jayden snaps the folder closed and glances around to ensure we haven’t attracted any unwanted attention. “Review these tonight. Learn their faces and then destroy the photos. This is your mission.”
“You want us to kill them?” Harper asks. Her voice is barely audible, but I can detect the undercurrent of fear and desperation there. She still hasn’t taken her eyes off the folder.
“I don’t expect it will be easy, but it is necessary,” says Jayden. “Don’t take too long, Parker. I am not a patient woman.”
“This isn’t our job,” snaps Harper.
I freeze, but Harper just glares up at Jayden with the boldness of someone who’s already looked death in the face once. Any normal person would shrink under that hateful expression, but it just fuels Jayden’s feelings of superiority.
“It is now.”
There’s palpable tension in the air as Harper reins in her defiance. I know Jayden doesn’t need to threaten Celdon’s life again to get her to do what she wants; Harper’s already seen what Constance is capable of.
Jayden leans forward — close enough to kiss her — and murmurs, “That is all.”
Harper pulls back with a withering stare, and I draw her away before she does something really stupid . . . like slap Jayden in front of all these people.
She follows me out of the loading bay at a brisk pace, and we’re barely out of earshot when she lets out an exasperated growl. “She wants us to assassinate Owen?”
“Keep your voice down,” I hiss, lengthening my stride to put a little more distance between us and Jayden. “At least she doesn’t know who he is . . . yet.”
“Well it’s only a matter of time!” she splutters. “You two could be twins! The only reason she didn’t see it this time was because half his face was hidden.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about that,” I say, feeling a smack of frustration.
My white lie about 119 may have damaged Harper’s trust in me, but it’s not as if everything is my fault.
“I didn’t even know Constance was surveilling the Fringe until the other day,” I mutter. “But I guess it makes sense. They have cameras everywhere else.”
We take the megalift back down to Recon, and when we disembark, the tide of people rushing in the opposite direction forces us to pause our conversation.
It takes lots of elbowing to break through the crowd, and when the sea of people thins out, I quicken my pace to get back to my compartment.
Then Harper’s hand closes around my arm, bringing me to a halt just outside my door.
“We can’t go in there. They could be watching.”
“They’re watching us everywhere,” I say. “In the megalift, in the training center . . . I don’t know if there’s a single place in this compound that Constance can’t find us.”
“What are we going to do?” she asks in a small voice.
I know she’s talking about Owen, but that isn’t what captures my attention.
As she stares up at me with those earnest silvery-gray eyes, I realize Harper’s faith in me isn’t gone for good. She needs me to reassure her, but I have no idea what the fuck I’m going to say. She still doesn’t know about the other half of my discussion with Jayden. She doesn’t know how much is riding on this.
Jayden promised me that if I took out the gang leaders, she’d call off the attempts on Harper’s life. I don’t trust her or Constance to leave us alone, but now that Harper’s back from 119, I have no choice but to go along with Jayden’s plan until I come up with something better.
“I don’t know,” I murmur.
Harper is still gripping my arm, and in the seconds I was lost in thought, I managed to move even closer.
Her scent is all around me — that sweet vanilla perfume mixed with her hypnotic natural fragrance. I know that if I kissed her right now, her skin would be slightly salty from her run, and I have the sudden urge to bend down and taste her.
Harper’s lips part slightly as she watches my gaze, and I know we’re both thinking of the last kiss we shared in my compartment.
Without another word, I run my hand softly down her arm and cautiously interlace our fingers. She lets out a little sigh, and the look on her face is a mixture of relief and reluctance.
She’s still angry that I lied to her, but she’s glad that we’re a team again. She isn’t shutting me out, and I’m touching her the way I’ve wanted to ever since I put her on that supply train. This is progress.
I turn toward my door so I can punch in my code and pull Harper inside my dark compartment. She follows silently and nudges the door closed behind her.
I lean down to find her warm, soft lips, and she tastes even better than I remember. To my delight, she kisses me back without reservation, and we stumble sideways in the
dark.
I move my hand to her hip to pull her closer, and the unwelcome florescent lights kick on automatically.
A tiny startled yelp escapes from Harper’s lips. She yanks her mouth away and jumps back as though she was burned.
At first I think she’s come to her senses and decided not to forgive me so easily, but when I turn around, I see the source of her surprise.
Mina — the sexy, terrifying Information girl who works for Constance — is lying on my bed. She’s wearing a pair of skintight black pants and a geometric tank top that shows off her impressive cleavage. She’s lying back so her dark brown hair drapes over my pillow, and she’s got her feet up as though she owns the place.
The sight of a beautiful girl lounging on my bed should get me excited, but Mina just makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“What the hell?” Harper chokes.
“Sorry to break up the fun,” says Mina, flashing a sultry smile. Her gaze flickers between me and Harper. She isn’t sorry at all.
As I watch, she stretches her arms like a cat and lets out a soft sigh, digging the pads of her perfectly manicured fingers into my bedspread.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I growl. Aside from Jayden, Mina is the absolute last person I want to see right now.
“So unfriendly.”
Mina pulls herself into an upright position, shimmies her ass to the edge of my bed, and looks up at me innocently through endlessly long lashes. “I just came by to get what’s mine.”
Beside me, Harper stiffens, and I don’t even want to see the menacing look she’s giving Mina.
“What are you talking about?”
“My gun, silly,” she says, bouncing off the bed and landing on her feet. In her teetering black wedges with orange rhinestone heels, she’s nearly as tall as me. “I left it here the other night by accident.”
I open my mouth to protest, but Mina cuts me off by holding a finger to my lips.
“You look stressed, baby.” Her dark gaze flickers down to Harper. “Is it because she’s here?”
I can practically feel the shock and fury radiating from Harper, and I smack Mina’s finger away to put an end to this bullshit.
I cross to my desk and press my thumb to the drawer sensor. It beeps, and I reach inside to grab Mina’s compact handgun.
“Here,” I say, shoving it into her hand. “Now leave.”
Mina lets out a pouty little huff of air and juts out her bottom lip. “You’re not as fun as you were the other night.” She glances down at Harper and then back to me and cracks a dirty grin. “I’ll see you later.”
As she turns to pass between us, she scratches four long tangerine fingernails down my chest and brushes her bare shoulder against mine.
The door snaps shut behind her, and I run a hand down my face. “That wasn’t what it looked like,” I mutter, waiting for the stress to recede. “Mina is part of —”
“Fuck you,” Harper snaps.
I pull my hand away from my face and see Harper staring at me with a look of such intense betrayal that it breaks my heart.
“Harper, no,” I say quickly. “There’s nothing going on between me and Mina.”
She lets out a derisive laugh and gestures toward my pillow. The imprint from Mina’s perfect ass is still visible right next to it, and I realize just how bad this looks. “Oh, please, Eli. She was lying in your bed!”
“Yeah, because she’s an evil little sl—”
“Save it!” she snaps, wheeling around.
“Harper!”
I reach out and grab her arm, but she loads up her fist and shoots it out toward my nose before I even realize she’s going to hit me. I slip the jab purely on instinct, but Harper follows up with a nasty overhand right we worked on just last week.
Hot pain radiates from my nose to the back of my skull, and Harper takes the opportunity to yank her arm out of my grasp and stalk out of the room.
The door slams shut behind her, and almost on cue, I feel the hot trickle of blood gushing from my nose.
Under any other circumstances, I’d be thrilled by that punch, but now I don’t know how I’m going to fix things with Harper.
Jayden must have sent Mina to my room to remind me in no uncertain terms that Harper’s life depends on me killing the drifter leaders. I hate hiding that detail from Harper, but I don’t think she’d be able to live with the guilt if she knew I was trading their lives for hers. I still don’t know what I’m going to do about Owen, but killing Malcolm and Jackson to save Harper is a no-brainer.
Even though I’m only lying to protect her, Harper has every reason not to trust me. And after today, I doubt she’s ever going to trust me again.
six
Harper
The heat of the Fringe isn’t enough to counteract the icy vibes I’m sending Eli’s way.
I didn’t say a single word to him after I left his compartment yesterday, and I barely made eye contact when he brought me my gun from the weapons room.
I could feel his eyes on me as Remy Chaplin read our deployment disclosure, but as soon as the compound doors shut behind us, I began to feel sick for an entirely new set of reasons: the fear of getting shot and the creeping dread that I may have to shoot someone else.
We barely make it ten yards before Eli broaches the suffocating silence of the desert.
“Will you just let me explain?”
“Now really isn’t the time,” I snap, scanning the horizon for any sign of movement.
I don’t know why Eli thinks it’s still a good idea for us to be partners. I feel off balance and distracted every time we’re together, and all our emotional baggage doesn’t exactly make for a healthy partnership.
“Nothing happened with Mina. She literally broke into my compartment the night you left and brought me up to Constance’s headquarters to see Jayden.”
“She seemed pretty cozy on your bed,” I mutter.
What is wrong with me? I am not this girl. I don’t want Eli to think I’m hurt and bitter — even if I am. I don’t want to give him that power over me, but my emotions are not cooperating.
“That’s just the way she is,” he growls. “She’s like Jayden. She just uses that shit to manipulate people.”
“Then why did you have her gun?”
“She gave it to me,” he sighs in exasperation. “She knew I wouldn’t come with her otherwise.”
“You expect me to believe that a woman from Constance — a woman Jayden trained — would just hand over her gun?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
I scoff in disgust. He can’t expect me to believe that.
“Do you really think I’d go down to Neverland and find someone to sleep with the night you go off to 119?”
I know he can’t see my full expression behind my mask, but I give him my best sideways glare.
Eli’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Really? Wow. Thanks.”
Now he’s pissed. Good. He deserves it after all the shit he’s put me through.
“Well, I guess that clears a few things up,” he growls, uncharacteristically flustered. “Only, I’m not sure why you’d even be with me in the first place if you thought I was such a scumbag.”
That strikes a nerve.
“I guess I didn’t know,” I say lamely.
“That’s bullshit, Harper. You know the type of guy I am. You know me better than anyone. What you see is what you get, so if you think I’d do something like that, you must have had a low opinion of me for a while.”
I open my mouth to retort but close it quickly. I do know him — at least I thought I did. It never crossed my mind that Eli might cheat on me until I saw that bitch sprawled out on his bed. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.
“You should know I’d never do something like that,” he says, filling the heavy silence with his reassuring voice. “There’s no one else I want to be with.”
Those words are enough to break through my wall of anger and co
nfusion. A pleasant warmth starts to spread from my chest to my extremities, and I feel my jealousy-induced icicles start to melt.
“Well . . . that’s good to know, I guess,” I say, fighting a smile.
He stops walking, and I stiffen, instantly on high alert for drifters. I don’t see anyone approaching, so I chance a look at his face.
He’s got a playful twinkle in his eyes, but I can’t read his full expression. Slowly, he turns toward me and runs his hands up and down my arms.
“You didn’t know that?”
His gentle touch is incredibly distracting, but I manage to blurt out a muffled “no.”
Eli’s breath hitches behind his mask, and he lets his hands wander up to my neck. It’s as far as he can go with my mask in the way. “This is when I’m supposed to kiss you,” he whispers.
I nod and try to pull myself together. This isn’t the time or the place, but Eli’s looking at me with so much affection and desire that I know if he pulled off his mask to kiss me right now, mine would be gone in a second.
Watching him watch me behind the heavy piece of plastic, I get the sudden urge to laugh. It rumbles up my chest and bursts out of my mic before I can stop it, and Eli’s eyes narrow.
“I’m sorry,” I choke, unable to contain my laughter. “I’m sorry! It’s just . . .” I reach out and tug on the bottom of his mask. “We’re having a moment out on the Fringe. It’s kind of funny.”
At first I think I might have ruined everything and that Eli is going to become sullen again, but then his eyes crinkle in amusement, and he starts laughing, too.
I decide it’s my favorite sound in the whole world.
Our little moment doesn’t last long enough. Eli regains his focus within a few seconds, but when his laughter subsides, he’s still staring at me with a disarming fondness that makes coherent speech impossible.
He redirects his gaze to the horizon, and we start walking again.
As we approach the land mines, I pull up my interface and study the three-dimensional map that shows where they’re buried. Dozens of new red dots crowd the path in front of me, which makes charting a safe course more difficult than usual. I can see the freshly packed dirt where ExCon installed the new ones, and I wonder if they’ll be able to keep the drifters at a safe distance.
