by PJ Friel
“They’re not here to hurt you. They want to keep you safe. Just like I do.”
How could I believe that? I was stunned that I actually wanted to. I knew firsthand the kind of things people did when they tried to keep you safe. They erased your memory and made you believe that they actually cared about you, loved you.
I took a deep breath. “Safe from what?”
“It would be better if we didn’t discuss that here.”
He took a step towards me and I pushed my dress behind the knife sheath. I felt like a gunslinger preparing for a shoot-out.
“Well, that’s too bad, because I’m not going anywhere without an explanation.” I tried to blink away the blur of threatening tears. “Let’s hear it.”
“Baby, please…”
I jabbed a finger at the fuzzy figure in front of me. “Stop calling me that! Explain!”
His arms closed around me. I hadn’t even seen him move. Just one second he was over there and the next, he was here. I blinked hard and let the tears fall down my cheeks. His green eyes were glassy and his face was carved with deep lines of anguish. I wish I’d left the tears where they were, obscuring my vision and protecting my heart.
“I swear, I am just trying to protect you.”
“I want to believe you.”
“Brynja, I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
Brynja. He called me Brynja. I went rigid in his arms.
Oh, god.
That was the second time he’d called me that. The first time was a week ago, the night I’d flipped out after we’d found and then lost Drew. Until this moment, I’d completely ignored that fact.
Trygg’s eyes searched my face as if looking for even an ounce of mercy. “I swore I’d never let anyone hurt you ever again.”
Those words were like a punch in the gut. Someone else had made that promise to me. Nineteen years ago. It was one of the few memories I’d been left with after Frank and Eugenia had wiped every other one I had.
I pulled away from him, raised my hand, and let it hover between us. “What are you hiding from me, Trygg?”
His gaze narrowed on my outstretched hand. He understood the threat. ‘Tell me what I want to know or I will rip it from you.’
He looked behind me then right back. “Not here.”
“You don’t get to decide that. Answer the question.”
I felt his muscles bunch up. “Don’t do it. You swore you’d never do that to me again.” He wasn’t going to answer and he was about to restrain me.
I was out of time.
I shoved Trygg back against the wall and curled my hand around his throat. Releasing my power at the same time, I growled, “What are you hiding from me?”
A dark warehouse and a little girl strapped to a table.
I’d lived it, but I’d never seen it from this angle. Bile choked me. His? Mine? I wasn’t sure. This memory was too powerful, pulling me into the body of the man who had experienced it.
Trygg Mackenzie.
I have to save her. I hate her family, but she’s an innocent, a pawn just like the rest of us in this world. She doesn’t deserve this. No child deserves this.
Blood runs from the cuts on her belly, thin slices made by a lethal blade. They won’t kill her, aren’t meant to kill her. No, this is torture, experimentation.
Fucking animals.
I will slaughter every one of them. Not a single one will make it out of here alive.
The stench of fallen leaves and rotten earth grows stronger and I smile. I can’t see it yet, even with the night vision goggles I’m wearing, but I can smell it.
A Svartalf is about to step out of the shadows to my right and when he does…
Blood sprays across the goggles and the Svartalf’s neck smiles at me. I dance away as an explosion of death-like stench hits me from the left. Whirl, slash, dodge. Again and again.
All of us are silent, the only sound her sobs and cries.
Brynja Pruedatter.
She’s crying out for her mother, but that bitch isn’t here.
I am, though. Odin’s well-paid errand boy.
Fuck. I would have done this for free.
I screamed and staggered back, bounced against the opposite wall and caught myself before I fell. “It was you.”
“Baby, please let me explain.”
Trygg took a step toward me and I pulled my dagger. “You stay away from me!”
“Don’t do this. I’m begging you,” he backed away, but put himself between me and my only escape route.
“You’re just like all the rest of them! You don’t care about me. All you care about is sucking up to Odin.”
Now his constantly sparking aura made sense. The entire time he’d been with me had been one big undercover act. The stress of worrying about me touching him and having a vision, breaking his cover, must have been off the charts.
“That’s not true.”
“What do you know about the truth?” I snarled. “Wow, you must have had one hell of an ace in your pocket after that mission. Why do you even need a job? I would have thought rescuing Odin’s great-granddaughter would have netted you your own tropical island at least.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Oh, yes, it fucking was.” I laughed, derision dripping from the sound. “I was in your head, well-paid errand boy.”
Trygg flinched.
“So, what are you getting this time?” I taunted.
“All I want is you.”
“Fuck you. I’m not a prize.” Understatement of the year. “Get out of my way.”
“Baby, you’re going have to kill me to get by me.”
“Stop calling me that!”
Didn’t he realize that every time he called me that he just ripped me open even wider?
Over Trygg’s shoulder, one of the club bouncers stuck his head around the corner and frowned at us. I couldn’t blame him. I know I had to look a sight, a sobbing, furious mess, even without him being able to see the knife I was holding.
“Let me hold you, baby,” Trygg pleaded, his voice pain-filled.
I started to waver. The part of me that felt safe in his arms wanted to listen to him. If he got his hands on me, there was every chance that side of me would muzzle the paranoid asskicker. She’d wilt into his arms like some goddamn fairytale princess, waiting for true love’s kiss, and I’d be fucked.
Not today. Not this girl. Maybe I couldn’t fight him, but my fists weren’t the only resource I had. I was Damon Simmons’s protégée and before he died, he taught me many useful things.
Like diversionary tactics.
“Help!” I yelled, stashing my dagger back into its sheath.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” the bouncer called out.
“He’s trying to kidnap me!”
Trygg’s eyes widened, then he looked over his shoulder. “Son of a bitch.”
Jotun men were not small. Every one of them I’d ever seen had been at least six feet tall and built like a bull. Even DG and his father were muscular slabs, they just didn’t show it off. This guy was only part Jotun, but he was mammoth and he wasn’t hiding any of it. Pushing seven feet tall, his t-shirt stretched across a chest that easily made two of me.
“You don’t want to get in the middle of this, buddy,” Trygg warned.
“I do if what she’s claiming is true,” the bouncer said, his voice rumbling down the hall.
“Go ahead. Lie to him, too.” I tossed the gauntlet and Trygg flinched.
He stared at me for a long moment, then said, “She’s not lying.”
The bouncer pounced on Trygg. “Run, lady.”
I did.
Straight into DG.
“Bryn, what’s wrong? Have you been crying?” DG asked, gripping my shoulders.
For fuck’s sake. St. Joan save me from old-fashioned, chivalrous men.
I didn’t have time for this. I barely had enough time to round up Dezi and Jace and get the hell out of here before Trygg wiped the floor with
that bouncer and caught up to me. I needed more minutes, not fewer.
“Do you need my help?”
“No, I...Yes!” I jerked out of his grip and pointed to the hallway. Chivalry could be useful when directed. “I mean, I don’t need your help, but one of your guys does. Trygg is beating him up.”
“What? Why?”
“The guy was checking on my safety and Trygg didn’t like it.”
“That jealous son of a bitch needs to be stopped.”
No argument there.
DG barreled towards the bathrooms and I beelined for the next bouncer. As big as DG and that other bouncer both were, I knew now just what Trygg was capable of. He’d taken out a half dozen Svartalf by himself. A couple of Jotuns weren’t going to slow him down that much.
He killed them to save you.
Silencing the guilt, I grabbed the other bouncer by the arm and pointed. “Fight in the bathroom! DG needs help.”
The guy took off like a shot.
Three against one.
That should keep Trygg busy.
I raced down the stairs, ignoring the odd look from Naoko. The disco tunnel fireworked around me and I skidded to a stop on the other side.
Lady luck was on my side for once. My bestie and her hunk were standing at the bar, canoodling, drinks in hand. I grabbed Dezi’s arm and spun her around, splattering her drink across the front of my dress as the glass shattered on the floor.
Dezi grabbed napkins from the bar. “Oh my god, Bryn! Your dress is going to be ruined.”
“Forget that. We have to get out of here. Now!”
“What’s wrong?” Jace asked, looking behind me. “Where’s Mackenzie?”
“Hopefully, getting the shit beat out of him in the bathroom.”
“What?” Dezi dropped the napkins and clutched at my arms.
I pulled her against me and whispered into her ear, “Trygg is a berserker, Dez. He lied to me. I overheard him telling someone on the phone that he’d bring me to some hotel.”
Jace pulled Dezi away from me. “Was he talking to Grimm?”
He heard that? How did he hear—horror and dawning understanding froze me to the floor.
“Oh my god. You’re one of them, too?”
I snatched Dezi back to me and kicked Jace in the gut. He stumbled backwards, knocking into a woman behind him and sending her to the floor. Her male companion grabbed Jace and spun him around, started to scream in his face.
“Come on, Dez. While he’s distracted we can take the limo and—”
“Bryn, stop!” Dezi yelled, yanking away from me.
“There’s no time!”
“Bestie, please. Listen to me. They’re just trying to protect you.”
She didn’t touch me, but her eyes held me captive. Pain and tears swam in her brown eyes and her aura looked like she’d been hit with a nuke. My knees went weak, the bottom dropping out of my world. I grabbed onto the bar.
“You knew and you didn’t tell me? No. Dezi, no.” I sobbed. “You were my best friend.”
My throat closed up, no breath and no words. All I could do was shake my head.
“I still am.”
She stretched out her hand towards me, but she couldn’t reach me. She was never going to be able to reach me again. I shook my head at her. “No.”
“Yes, I am!” She repeated. “But Jace made me promise—”
Rage ripped away the lock on my vocal cords and I screamed at her. “What about the promise you made me? No secrets! No secrets ever!”
“I swear, it was just this once.”
We were drawing a crowd. Jace decked the guy who was holding him, sending the man skidding twenty feet across the dance floor, then turned back towards us. The frozen bubble of time I stood in with Dezi popped.
“I don’t believe you,” I told her. Then I turned and ran.
What are you most afraid of, little Brynja?
This. I was most afraid of this.
CHAPTER 39
TRYGG
I was in a jail cell.
An hour ago, I’d watched from the bottom of a pile six bouncers as Bryn jumped in the front passenger seat of the limo, flashed her dagger at Levi, and sped away. The only thing that kept me from zerking out had been Odin’s ironclad, break it and you die rule about exposing Outlanders to humans. No amount of arguing from Jace and Dezi had dissuaded DG from calling the cops. As the boys in blue perp-walked me out of the door, DG gleefully told them he’d be down in the morning to give his statement.
When I got out, DG was a dead man.
The clock on the wall tick, tick, ticked, the seconds away, echoing in my brain and racking up years against my immortal lifetime. I paced, like the animal in a cage that I was.
“Grimm and Harry are on their way, Trygg,” Jace said.
Jace had been right behind me on the walk to the cruiser. The guy Jace punched had been waiting his turn to file a report while DG had chucked me under the bus. Poor Dezi was beside herself, torn apart by losing her best friend and watching her boyfriend taken to jail.
What a night.
I would ask if it could get any worse, but the Norns hated me so I didn’t push my luck.
At least Jace had made his one phone call and someone was coming for us. The only person I wanted to talk to would never answer her phone for me again. Didn’t matter. As soon as I got out of here, I was going after her.
I buried my face in my hands and welcomed the pain of my broken nose and shattered cheekbone. They’d reassemble themselves soon enough. Until then, I’d wallow in it.
Jace dropped his hand on my shoulder. “Let me heal you.”
I shrugged him off. “Fuck off.”
“What is your malfunction, dude?”
“I don’t have a malfunction. Dude.” I said, dropping my hands to glare at him. “But I certainly have a problem. I was doing just fine until you guys showed up. Now, Bryn hates me, she’s in danger out there all by herself, and I’m stuck in here with you where I can’t do jack shit to keep her safe.”
Jace loomed over me, jabbing a threatening finger at my face.
“Don’t blame this bullshit on us. You’re the one who dropped the ball tonight...or should I say bomb? Because that’s what it felt like. You nuked our whole operation in the middle of a damn dance club.”
“I didn’t mean to tell her there,” I yelled, shoving Jace out of my grill and standing up.
“It should have never gone down like that. God, the look on Dezi’s face when Bryn left her.” He grimaced and walked away from me, his shoulders slumped.
“I’m sorry, man.” I collapsed back down onto the bench. “Dezi didn’t deserve any of this.”
“Neither did Bryn.” His words were said without rancor, but a punch to the gut would have been kinder.
“Did Harry say how long it would take them to get here?”
“Forty minutes tops. Hopefully less.”
Forty minutes. Bryn had already been out there on her own for an hour and now I had to wait for another forty minutes, drowning in the stench of drunks and hookers past and present. I needed to get out of here.
A keycard buzzed and the outer door leading to the row of cells opened and slammed closed. Human. I recognized this human’s scent, though. It was attached to someone I’d rather not see ever again.
“You,” he called out. Jace moved to the bars. “Not you, blondie. The other one.”
I sighed and looked up at Detective David Shelton. “What?”
“You were at my son’s...at the crime scene of Gideon Shelton. I’m Detective David Shelton.”
I almost laughed that he apparently didn’t remember me from when he’d dumped his accusations all over Bryn at her apartment. What the fuck did this guy want from me? I didn’t have anything to say to the man, not after what he’d said to Bryn, and especially not tonight.
“Yeah. And?”
“What were you doing there?”
Truth or lie?
“Go ahead. Lie to him, t
oo.”
Bryn’s voice was in my head, but she wasn’t here to keep score. Didn’t matter. I’d know and I was done losing points with her. “I drove Bryn there.”
“You didn’t drive her home.”
I stared at him and waited for an actual question. A full minute stretched out. Cute. He thought he could stare at me and I’d squirm and fill the silence. Feed me rope and I’d hang myself. Too bad for him. If David Shelton wanted information, he was going to have to ask for it. This dead horse wasn’t about to whinny.
“Why would Bryn tell a bouncer at The Prodigal Lair that you were trying to kidnap her?”
“Because I wanted to take her someplace and she didn’t want to go there.”
“So you were going to force her?” His gaze narrowed.
“No. I expected her to listen to reason and do what I told her.”
Shelton burst out laughing. “You’re a special kind of stupid if you thought she’d take orders. I’m surprised she didn’t kick your ass.”
“She did, via proxy.”
“Proxy?”
“She sicced a bouncer on me.”
“Wow. Okay, guess I’m done here. I thought this might all be connected to my son, but it looks like you’re just one of her meathead boy toys.”
I saw red.
Jace grabbed me in a chokehold, stopping me from going through the bars after David, but I dragged him behind me in my surge. Fuck air. I didn’t need it to rip this guy apart. All I needed was about twelve more inches of covered ground. Shelton just stared at me. He looked bored.
I still had enough air left to rock his world. “Your gay son.”
Shelton gaped and backed away from the bars. Jace dropped his hold on me. I gasped for air, face pressed against the metal bars. I wanted to chew through the them. Gnash, claw and crush everything that stood between me and freedom. I needed to get to Bryn. I would say anything, do anything, kill anyone to accomplish that goal.
“What did you say?” Shelton asked.
“Your son was gay, dickhead. Now who’s the worthless fuck?”
He shook his head at me as his mouth worked. No words came out, but I could see the gears whirling in his head.
