WIN THE GAME

by Allison, Ketley

  Still, I chewed on the inside of my cheek all the way to Kai’s apartment. Picked my cuticles until they were bloody. I may be out of the woods—for now—but Theo wasn’t. And in the end, he had nothing to do with the drug bust years ago, the exact reason the police pursued Trace. Yes, he conducted underground game rooms, took illegal cuts from gambling, was associated with the Saxon name, but his takes under the table couldn’t be proven, his game rooms clean to any cop who searched it.

  Too much. You’ve taken on too much, Letty.

  I shook my head at the voice. If anything, this was the time to take on everything, because too many lives were on the line.

  It’s all because of you.

  No. “No,” I said again, aloud, drawing the attention of the driver.

  I clamped my mouth shut, thinking maybe the cab I’d hailed was employed by the Saxons, too, and was in the middle of taking me to my final, bloody destination.

  But, if the cabbie were doing as I asked, first thing to do was get Kai. Safety in numbers. Smartness in more than one head. Then, I wanted to see Verily, but knew that carried too much risk. She was better served without my presence anywhere near her, but perhaps Kai could help figure out a way to keep her safe.

  At any moment, I expected sirens behind me, to be swarmed by multiple cop cars as Chenko blasted over the speakers that I was a killer.

  Better sense took over and reminded me as to why I was so bull-headed in the interrogation room. Bo died on English soil. If Chenko were to admit what he knew, I’d be flown out of his jurisdiction and given over to the Scotland Yard. Completely out of reach. I’d gambled that he still needed me for something, or at the very least, didn’t want me mouthing off that he was dirty to his superiors, whether or not they believed me.

  And so, my mind clicked over to the idea that I was being tailed.

  Paranoia isn’t going to help you right now.

  “Neither is your fucking lecture.”

  The cabbie glanced at me in the rearview again, and I snapped, “As if I’m the only crazy you’ve chauffered around in New York City today.”

  He kept his mouth shut.

  When he turned onto Kai’s street, I sifted through the clear ziplock bag the Bureau had given back to me, containing what they’d collected off my body, and I was pleased to note my cash was still there.

  I was focused on counting the bills to ensure Chenko hadn’t skimmed a few hundreds for himself when a sudden CRACK fissured across the side of my skull, black spiderwebs coating the backs of my eyes.

  “What—”

  The rest of my sentence was cut off by squealing breaks, a screaming driver, and a high-pitched ringing in my ears with a sudden, immense spike of pain on the side of my head.

  Seatbelt. I hadn’t been wearing it.

  And we’d crashed.

  Crashed?

  Holding one side of my head, I rose from my crumpled position in the backseat, facing smoke seeping through the vents and an unconscious cabbie.

  “Sir?” I asked, reaching for him but wincing when I moved too suddenly.

  No response.

  I scanned the interior, then the exterior, to find the source of the accident. A biker, pedestrian, other car? NYC was full of random—

  It’s not random.

  I counted one, two, three men approaching the vehicle. Not to help, which my scrambled brain initially thought, because they were walking too calmly—swaggering—and when they came close enough, I spotted dark, gleeful expressions.

  “Shit,” I whisper-screeched, then made to shove open the car door closest to me.

  It was slammed back with such force I nearly lost fingers.

  “Not so fast, princess.”

  Chenko stood on the other side, his grin a macabre sneer against a clean-shaven face. “Allow me,” he said through the window.

  I’d scrambled to the other side, but there was another man blocking the door. Chenko lifted the lever and was inside, grabbing for me, in less than a second.

  I yelped, kicked, ignored the spears of pain in my skull and the suspicious wetness seeping into the collar of my shirt.

  “You fucked up my life,” he said between swipes at my ankle. His smile had turned feral, a sneer of a psychotic off drugs. “It’s time to fuck up yours.”

  “Get off!”

  His thick fingers clamped around my foot and pulled. The slippery leather of the seats did nothing to hinder my propulsion into his arms. When he wrestled me out, I scratched, bit and swiped, but his anger gave him fuel that was immune to a screaming victim.

  “You really thought I was gonna let you go?” He said into my ear when he got me into a headlock. His forearm pressed against my throat dangerously. Spit hit the sensitive skin around my temple. “Leaving you to the law would’ve been pointless.”

  He dragged me to his waiting car, angled in the cut-off position he’d used to derail my cab.

  “You know how it works at this point,” he growled, then kicked my legs from under me, growing tired of my efforts. “Days, months of processing. You already knew I was dirty. So, now you know I exact black revenge. Fucking Quentin Sawyer doesn’t know half the shit that goes on to collar gangsters. Or who needs to die.”

  “Let—me—” I gagged when his arm tightened.

  “You won’t be missed.”

  I crashed against his car when he threw me, the road tilting and growing frequency waves. I blinked, desperate to stay conscious.

  “No one’s here to save you now, stupid girl.” He hooked my elbow, hard enough to leave bruises, and tossed me into the back of his car. “Your Romeo’s incarcerated.”

  “No!” I cried instinctually, even though it would do no good. Chenko could not take me to the second location. Everyone knew once that happened, chances of surviving were ridiculously low.

  When Chenko’s back flew into the passenger side window so hard it should’ve cracked, I’d been busy calculating my odds of crawling over the console and taking control of the car.

  But the roar that sounded, the effervescent bubbling along the surface of my skin, paused everything going on in my mind.

  I lifted off the cushions, pressing my hands to the glass to see better, because Chenko had regained balance and charged at whoever smacked him into the car. Punches sounded, grunts, then more men came—the other two who surrounded my cab—and dwarfed the person who’d taken on Chenko.

  I grappled for the door, realizing it was on child lock, then crawled to the drivers’ seat to get out. It happened so fast—the bodily thwacks of fighting, the shouts of war—that by the time I got out, I was worried I wouldn’t have a chance to escape. That whoever came to my rescue would be outnumbered and Chenko would be back to trying to kill me.

  The men with Chenko, they had to be Gordon’s. No cops would be party to this…

  Get out get out get out.

  I shoved open the door into cool air, shivering at the sudden cold. The car rocked when another body was flung into it. My palms skidded over the side of the car as I launched myself away, but then—

  “You fucking coward!” came the voice.

  A sound I knew so well.

  I whirled. “Theo?”

  There he was, in the roadway with Chenko and his goons, fighting for his life through punches and flipping bodies, a man given incredible strength through rage.

  Wondering how did he get here gave me no advantage. Instead, I ran toward the fight, scouring the asphalt for any dropped weapons, any objects I could use to help Theo.

  There. By Chenko’s ankle. A crowbar.

  That must’ve been the reason for the showering of glass I felt in the cab. These were the things I thought of as I raced over, latched onto it, and raised it over my head in an arc.

  My aim was true.

  I hit Chenko in the center of his skull.

  He crumpled at my feet and the crowbar dropped beside him soon after, clanging in the deserted street.

  My chest heaved as if I’d run five blocks to T
heo, and I looked from Chenko to the crowbar to Theo.

  He stared back, two unconscious bodies on either side of him.

  Now, I thought. Now was the time to ask. “How did you get here?”

  He blinked, a beast-switch going off, and stepped around Chenko to me. “Take off your clothes.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “Take them off. Now.”

  His expression was pure hysteria—or, as hysterical as Theo could get. His mouth solid granite, the skin on his cheeks flushed pink, sweat dotting his temples. And that scar, flashing lightning in the middle of his face.

  “You need to explain—”

  “There’s no time.” He strode toward me and lifted my shirt. It wasn’t in anger, or with jerky movements. Inexplicably, I considered it gentle during such confusing pandemonium. And in response, I complied, helping him peel off my shirt, help unbutton my shorts.

  “Underwear, too.”

  “Theo, we’re in the middle of the street.”

  “You’re covered by the car. Quick.” He stomped over to a crumpled form, peeling off the black clothing of the man who, while skinny, was still a man.

  I tried to focus on covering my naked self and not on predicting Theo’s moves and that it was more than likely he was going to use a body to seem like me in order to buy us time.

  When Theo came back over, his arms heavy with clothing, I said, “We can’t kill anyone.”

  “We don’t have to.” He helped pull a black t-shirt over my head. When what felt like cold paint hit my chest, I knew before Theo had to say, “He’s already dead.”

  “Did you—”

  “No. Chenko. In an effort to escape.”

  I glanced down at Chenko. “Did I…?”

  “No.” In a fervor, he grasped the sides of my face and laid a heavy, emotion-laden kiss on my lips. “You don’t have to do that anymore.”

  The answer was in his gaze. “Theo, no. You can’t keep killing.”

  “I’ll do what I have to to get you out of this.”

  His attention tore over my shoulder. “Take her. Now.”

  I spun, denial already on my lips, but the determination stuck when I saw who it was.

  “Kai,” I said. A phantom necklace weighed heavy against my collarbone and the repercussions it caused. While Kai wasn’t responsible, he was a conduit, but in this moment I couldn’t reconcile the two—it was too confusing. I swayed on my feet.

  “You’re a cat’s incarnate, Scar. You really are. Come on.”

  “I can’t—”

  “You can,” Theo said at the same time Kai yelled, “Let’s go!”

  I turned back to Theo, feeling like I was being ripped away from something crucial, like I was leaving behind an appendage I’d have a horrific time living without.

  “Go,” Theo said, then again as Kai pulled me, “Go.”

  It killed me, but I went with Kai.

  The two of us raced to the next block, then up a side street until we reached Kai’s apartment. He ushered me in and scanned the immediate surroundings before shutting us both in.

  When we’d reached his apartment and Kai double-locked that door, I allowed myself the imaginative pleasure of leaping into Theo, my arms a vice against his neck, before we had to say what felt like our final good-bye.

  “What will he do?” I asked Kai while standing in the middle of his living room. The shirt that wasn’t mine fell heavy and wet against my chest.

  Kai ran into his bedroom without answering, though he didn’t have to. I heard the opening and shutting of doors, the sounds of efficiency, of continuing movement, while I remained bolted to the floor.

  Gas, probably. Theo was going to light the car on fire, with all bodies in it, and make it appear like one of those bodies—the smaller one—was mine. DNA would eventually figure out it wasn’t me, but that could be weeks, months, from now. Plenty of time to get me out of here and keep me away. For good.

  My parents. Verily.

  Theo.

  Kai appeared with fresh clothing, a hoodie and basketball shorts, and he motioned for me to strip. “Shower first, honey, then put these on.”

  “I … is there time?”

  “I can’t exactly transfer you anywhere with blood on your chest, so there will have to be. Hurry.”

  “Am I going into witness protection?” My voice sounded shrill.

  “Of a sort,” Kai replied, then pleaded with me to move. To keep going.

  This was the end result of all my actions. Being ripped from my family for their safety, cutting off all contact with Theo and never seeing him, any of them, again. It wasn’t a stranger’s clothing making me feel heavy now. It was consequence.

  And terror.

  “Gordon isn’t going to stop, is he?” I asked Kai when I reached his open-air bathroom. “He’s going to keep coming after me, even while in jail.”

  “He has people everywhere,” Kai agreed. “Even my department isn’t safe. No one can know where you are.”

  “Ever again?” My lower lip trembled.

  Kai slumped, for mere moments his hurriedness disappearing. He came before me, his hands warm on my bare shoulders. “Let’s take this one step at a time, okay? I know you’re scared. But all everyone who loves you wants is for you to be safe. And we’re gonna do that.”

  “I can’t vanish,” I said. “Please don’t let me disappear like my sister.”

  “I won’t,” he said. His hands slid off my arms and I stepped in the shower.

  Robotically, I cleaned while my mind spiraled. That moment on the roadway, with bloody bodies and broken cars in a silent street, was the last time I had with Theo. My last words were … I can’t, when really, all Theo did was can.

  I couldn’t be weak. After all I’d been through, now wasn’t the time to fall apart. I’d leave to keep my family out of trouble, to keep attention away from Verily. If I were considered dead, Gordon would have no reason to come after them. Maybe Theo’s reach went to DNA tampering, possibly Kai would be involved.

  But then, Mom and Dad would have to think me dead. Verily would have to be at peace with the fact that she could never save me.

  Could I do that to them? What was the alternative—have Gordon exact revenge through their torture?

  There was no right choice.

  Just as there was no rhyme or reason for me to still be in love with Theo.

  Life had no treasure map.

  A strange calm washed over me when I turned off the tap. My movements were lithe and smooth as I combed my hair into a ponytail and pulled on Kai’s clothing. I’d been appearing as someone else for years. Wearing others’ clothing, donning opposite personalities, multiple hair colors, walking like a dame and hiding the true peasant underneath. It all started with the car crash and my sister, and it wasn’t about to end here and now.

  I desperately wished time would stop moving forward, so I could have time to process, to mourn. I blew out a long, drawn out breath, staring at myself in the mirror for a few precious seconds, allowing myself to say good-bye, for the last time, to Scarlet Rhodes.

  Maybe she’d been gone for a long time before this.

  Sifting through Kai’s bathroom cabinet, I found what I needed. Kai was the type to play Sudoku while on the can, or do crosswords, or brainstorm active cases. With the small notepad and pen, I scribbled out a note, smearing the tears that stained the page with the palm of my right hand.

  The squeak of the shower taps must have clued Kai in that I was done, because he was standing in the living room when I exited the bathroom, a full duffel bag at his feet, and—

  And—

  Theo at his side.

  * * *

  “Theo, I…”

  “Don’t,” he said, then turned and paced the apartment.

  “I’m gonna get some ice for your head, Scar,” Kai said quietly.

  I lifted my fingers to my temple. They came back sticky and red. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re definitely not. Sit down before
I slide a pillow near you in case you fall,” Kai replied.

  I rolled my eyes, then covered the dizziness that caused by jutting out a hip. “I’m not a damsel in dis—”

  “Sit down, Scarlet.”

  Theo’s snap drew both Kai’s and my attention.

  “You’re hurt,” he continued. Theo was a looming presence in the middle of the small main room, the windows behind him putting his form in blurred shadow. But I didn’t need to see him in high definition to know his hands were burned, he was covered in ash. “And all your posturing will make it worse. We’re already narrowly alive. Don’t lessen our chances by becoming weaker.”

  “Weak?” I asked, shock turning my body rigid. “You think I’m some kind of liability?”

  A finger twitch. That was all I received in answer.

  I stalked over to the couch and sat, and hell if I was going to show any sort of pain by doing so.

  “If you’re mad at me, just say so,” I seethed at him. “But don’t cover it by tossing out lies, or statements that would make me so angry I’d forget the purpose of your smoke screen. That’s right, Sax. I know you better than you think. Even after all this time.”

  Kai came around the side, gently laying ice covered in a dishtowel on my head until I took over.

  Theo remained in stony silence.

  “Fine,” I said, leaning back with the ice pack. “I’ll just go ahead and get to the point. How are you here? How’d you get out of custody?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It sure as fuck does,” I said. “Considering how your unexpected freedom just saved my life.”

  Of all the statements, I doubt he was expecting such frankness.

  “You saved my life, Theo,” I repeated. “You—those men back there…” I couldn’t finish, so changed tactics. “Despite the very real fact that I betrayed you.”

  There. A brief flick of emotion, a line forming near his lips then disappearing. The most I could expect.

  “I turned you in,” I continued. “Your family, your brother and father. And I walked out of that precinct without a scratch. So, what made you chase me down and protect me?”