We’d made French radio everyone in the entire building and now they were all here. The lab workers and secretaries and even the intern that Axel had flirted with were all huddled up in one corner. Leigh was standing over them with a gun. French was with them too, seething.
Griffin was by the door, still dead to the world.
Enough time had passed that I was mostly healed, so Axel and I were going through the lab and smashing everything that we could find. All the glass bottles of various colored liquids. All the beakers. All the cabinets full of ingredients. It was all getting destroyed.
“So, Sloane?” called Silas. “You sure that everyone involved is here?”
“Unless someone’s home sick,” I said. “The regular workers at Costello Labs have no idea what goes on here.”
“Good day for a sick day,” said Silas, shrugging. He looked over the guards. “Guess you guys are probably all wishing that was what happened to you, aren’t you?”
None of the guards said anything. They were all giving Silas a defiant glare.
“Oh, fuck it,” said Silas. He pointed one of their guns at them and the loud rattle of gunfire exploded through the room.
Silas went back and forth over the row of guards, pumping bullets into all of them.
They writhed as the bullets hit them, like morbid stringed puppets, and then Silas stopped, and they all fell down. Silas took the scalpel back out again. He grimaced.
Axel swallowed, hesitating over a beaker of red liquid.
I knocked the beaker over, maybe more forcefully than I needed to.
“What are we doing?” said Axel. “Killing everyone?”
“We have to,” I said.
“But this is just a job for these people.”
“Yeah, and they’ve all been complicit in using human test subjects,” I said. “The fact that we haven’t found more people can only mean that—” I broke off. I turned around. “Knox?”
Silas didn’t even look up from cutting the necks of all the guards.
Leigh turned to me though. She shook her head. “Didn’t make it.”
“Fuck,” I said.
We both shared an agonized look.
Axel put a hand on my shoulder. “I think I’m out of my depth here.”
I covered his hand with my own. “It’s okay. It’ll be over soon.”
Leigh looked at the way we were touching each other. She furrowed her brow. But she turned back to the lab workers without saying anything.
Griffin stood up.
“Griffin,” said Leigh. “You okay?”
In response, Griffin tore across the room at her. He closed his hands around her neck and propelled both of them back into the wall.
Startled, Leigh dropped her gun.
French started laughing. “That’s it, Griffin. That’s your target. Kill her.”
Griffin’s hands tightened around Leigh’s neck.
Leigh tried to push him away. Her face was turning colors.
“Silas!” I yelled, darting across the room towards them.
The lab workers glanced at each other with terrified eyes.
“Axel, don’t let them leave!” I shrieked.
It was as if my words spurred them on. They all took off at once, scrambling out in all directions, running as quickly as they could.
Axel shook his head. “I… Sloane, I don’t I think I can…”
I hesitated, looking back at him.
He wasn’t moving.
Damn it. “Well, help Leigh then.” And I took off after the lab workers. “Back to the corner,” I yelled at them. “Get back now.”
They kept running.
So I shot one of them in the head. It was the woman from the front desk. The one who’d been on the phone when I’d come in posing as a delivery worker.
When she crumpled to the ground, there was a look of horrified surprise on her face.
The lab workers all stopped running and went back to the corner. The women were crying.
Silas was yanking on Griffin’s shoulders.
Axel was next to Leigh, his hand pushing on Griffin’s face.
French was watching the whole thing, glee in her eyes.
“I’m just going to shoot him,” said Silas, bringing up his gun.
“Wait, before you do that,” said Axel, and he hauled back and punched Griffin in the face. “Sorry. I’ve just wanted to do that for a long time.”
Silas brought up his gun.
But Griffin let go of Leigh. He was rubbing his jaw. “What’s going on? Where are we?”
Leigh massaged her neck, gasping for breath. “Griffin?”
Griffin knitted his brows together. “What was I doing? Leigh, what was I doing to you?”
She wrapped her arms around him.
I put my gun in French’s face. “You. Back with the others.”
* * *
The lab was in disarray. Everything had been completely destroyed. The guards were all dead. French and the lab workers were all still alive, and they cowered in the corner while I kept my gun trained on them.
Behind me, the others were talking.
“French needs to die,” said Silas.
“I know that,” said Leigh. “They all have to die. They all know about the serum. They all know about the brainwashing injection. They all could decide to recreate the research. They could make more assassins. Or they could come after us again. We can’t let that happen. But…” Her voice broke. “I don’t want to do it.”
“It’s okay, doll,” said Griffin. “You don’t have to. You don’t even have to watch. I can do it.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t want you to do it either. I don’t like what it does to you.”
“This is the last time,” said Griffin. “This will end the threat forever. I know it bothers you, but the last time you made me stop, French got away. And she almost made me kill you. I can’t let her live.”
French opened her mouth like she was going to say something. I jammed my gun into her face. “Shut up.”
“I don’t see why it matters if I speak or not,” she said. “You’re going to kill us anyway.”
“Well, you deserve it,” I said.
She smirked. “The problem with all of you is that you were too soft to ever be assassins. You were too worried about the people you killed. Or worse. You were worried that it was ‘changing’ you. You’re all pathetic.”
“Yeah, I don’t care about that shit,” said Silas. “Fuck it, I’ll do it. Griffin can stay out of it, and Leigh can stay out of it, and I’ll get the job done. Stand back, everyone.”
I turned around. “That’s not true, Silas.”
“What isn’t?” He looked genuinely confused.
“You say you don’t care,” I said. “But I know different. You didn’t get into this because you like killing.”
Silas smirked. “Sure about that, sis? Because French sure seems to think I do.”
“It’s true,” said French softly. “Your weakness isn’t sentimentality, Silas. Your weakness is Sloane.”
Silas winced, like she’d hurt him somehow.
I shook my head. “That’s not true either. I’m your strength, Silas. You only did what you did because you care about me.”
His gaze darted away from me.
“You had to protect me,” I said. “I know you thought you did. And it changed you.”
“I do have to protect you,” he whispered. “You’re my sister. Now just stand aside, and I’ll get the rest of this over with. I don’t mind, really. I can handle it.”
“No, you can’t,” I said. “Not always, you can’t. Not everyone else knows, but I know. I know about the paranoia. I know about the dreams. I know what you’ve put yourself through for me. And… Silas, I can’t let you do it again.”
“You have to. Leigh and Griffin shouldn’t have to do this, and there’s no one else.”
“There’s me,” I said.
Silas’ face paled. “No. No, Sloane, I would never as
k you to—”
“I’m not doing it because you asked,” I said. “I’m doing it because you need me too. Because for once, I need to protect you.”
His jaw twitched.
I turned around. I brought up my gun.
I pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
We stood outside the secret lab, feeling the cool night air on our faces. My hands were shaking from cutting the necks of all the lab workers, just in case they had the serum. In the end, French had gone down just like the rest of them, just like everyone. She was just a human, just a bag of flesh and bone, and I’d stopped her from moving.
Killing always made it clear to me how fragile we all were, even those of us with the serum. It was so easy to end each and every one of us, and we were all just seconds away from it happening. Every day.
Axel tried to take my hand, but I didn’t let him. I didn’t want to touch anyone at the moment.
“What should we do?” said Griffin. “We need to clean this up.”
“Yeah,” said Silas. He nodded out at the parking lot. “We can hotwire a car, go get some supplies and level the place. Everything will be gone.”
Leigh shuddered.
Griffin put his arm around her. “It’s better not to leave loose ends. Why don’t you and Sloane get out of here, and Silas and I will take care of it?”
Leigh looked at me.
Axel cleared his throat. “Uh, what about that Christa girl?”
Christa! I hadn’t even been thinking about her. What had happened to her?
Silas and Griffin both turned to him sharply. “Christa?” they said at the same time.
“Um, she came to Boston.” I cringed. “She sort of got shot.”
“What?” Silas took me by the shoulders. “Why in the hell would you let her—”
“I didn’t!” I said. “She showed up without asking. And then the guards followed her to Axel’s apartment, and that’s how Axel and I ended up in here.”
“Shot?” said Griffin. “Shot where? Shot how?”
“In the shoulder,” said Axel.
Silas put a finger in my face. “You take us to where this happened right now.”
* * *
But there was no one in Axel’s apartment. The living room was completely destroyed. The furniture had all been shot to hell, the wall had holes in them, and there was shattered glass everywhere.
Axel stood in the middle of the mess, massaging the bridge of his nose.
Griffin and Silas tore through the rest of the place, searching through every room. Finding nothing, they came back.
“Where was she?” said Silas.
“I left her in the kitchen,” said Axel. “In the pantry. Sloane told me to hide her.”
“Well, she’s not there now,” said Griffin.”
“I know that,” said Axel, staring mournfully at his couch.
“It was pretty noisy,” I said. “There were a lot of gunshots and stuff. Maybe one of your neighbors called the police.”
Axel shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I have noisy things happening up here all the time. I actually bought out the level below this one as a buffer for that. But anyway, everyone in the building knows not to get the police involved. If they’re annoyed by the noise, they know to call my father instead.”
“Your father?” I said. “You think Christa is there?”
He turned to me. “What did you say before? You said she would have gotten herself to a hospital, didn’t you?”
“Well, if her shoulder was fucked up, how would she have driven?” said Silas. He was really mad. I could feel the tension coming off of him in waves.
“She didn’t have a car, Silas,” I said gently. “She probably took a cab or something.”
“Look, have any of you tried calling her?” said Axel.
Silas and Griffin both looked at each other.
“We don’t have phones,” Leigh spoke up.
Axel stalked out of the room and came back with a cordless. “Assuming you know her number—”
Silas snatched it from him and began to dial.
Griffin stood close as Silas held the phone to his ear.
We all watched without speaking.
Silas looked at us. “It’s ringing.”
I held my breath.
Silas clutched the phone, closing his eyes.
In the distance, I could hear the sound of the wind whistling around the tall building.
“Baby?” said Silas, and his voice cracked.
I let out the breath.
* * *
Visitors’ hours were over at the hospital, and we knew that if we went over there, they’d never let all five of us in at once. So, Griffin and Silas went, figuring that if they wouldn’t let Silas in, they’d at least let Griffin, who was immediate family. Christa had told Silas that she’d be released in the morning anyway. The bullet had gone through and through, and it should heal well. Silas said she sounded a little loopy, probably from pain killers, but otherwise fine. He even hugged me and said he was glad that I’d hidden her in the pantry, because that must have been why she didn’t get captured as well.
I told him that Axel was the one who hid Christa. Silas gave Axel a look, and it wasn’t friendly. But he didn’t say anything.
That left Leigh, Axel, and me to deal with leveling the secret lab, so we went out for supplies, went back, and blew the place up, just like we’d done with the Auxiliary Unit of Operation Wraith. All the bodies were burnt up and buried in rubble. The entire place was gone.
Afterward, we came back to Axel’s building. Even though his apartment was a wreck, he did have the entire level below his penthouse, and there were four apartments down there. Axel had them made up like guest rooms.
We all took showers as the sun came up.
Silas and Griffin still weren’t back, so Leigh came to find me. Her hair was still wet, but I’d lent her some clothes from my suitcase upstairs at Axel’s. She looked clean, but her face was drawn and exhausted.
I was on the phone. I’d realized that someone needed to call Knox’s girlfriend and give her the bad news. It wasn’t something I wanted hanging over my head, so I just did it. It was only as I was standing there, listening to the phone ring and ring, that I realized it was probably too early to be calling people.
But before I could hang up, someone answered. “Hello?”
“Uh…” Jesus, what do I say? “I spoke to you before. About David?” That was the name that Knox had been using, right?
“You.” The woman’s voice got chilly. “What do you want?”
“I wanted you to know that he’s… he’s gone,” I said. “We found him, but we weren’t in time. I’m sorry.”
Silence on the other end.
Leigh gave me a confused but concerned look.
I gripped the phone tight, feeling ill. “I’m really sorry. I’m so very, very sorry.”
More silence.
Finally, a whisper. “I knew it. Somehow, I knew he wasn’t coming back.” And she hung up.
I yanked the phone away from my ear and squeezed my eyes shut.
Leigh was next to me. She put her hand on my back. “Hey. What was that about?”
“Knox,.” My voice sounded choked. “I needed to let his girlfriend know that he… that…”
She nodded slowly. “Of course.”
I sank down on a couch—which actually looked very similar in style to the one upstairs that the guards had blown to smithereens upstairs. I took a few deep breaths.
“What about Dixie?” said Leigh.
“Dixie?”
“Knox’s daughter.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”
She sat down next to me.
We didn’t say anything for what seemed like a very long time. The sun was struggling higher into the sky, and we could see it through the window across the room. It stained the room orange and bright pink. We looked at the sky, and we were quiet.
I turned to her. “You should get some sleep.”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll wait until Griffin gets back.”
I nodded.
And then we were quiet again. I ran my hand over the arm of the couch. The fabric was soft and white. I thought about pressing my cheek against it and closing my eyes, floating out into oblivion. But if Leigh was going to stay up, I felt like I should too.
“Actually…” She reached out and put a hand on my arm. “I wanted to ask you something.”
I raised my gaze to hers. “Yeah?”
“It’s probably the wrong time,” she said. “I know we’re tired. I know we’ve just been through hell. But… fuck, there’s never a good time for anything in our lives.”
“What?”
“Is there something going on between you and Axel?” It was as if she didn’t want to believe it.
I felt shy. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe.” He’d told me he loved me. Of course, he’d said it when he thought he was going to die, so maybe it didn’t count.
Leigh pressed her lips together. She turned away.
I sat up. “What?”
She shook her head.
“What?”
“It’s just… I don’t think you should get involved with him.”
I sank back into the couch. “Oh.”
She grabbed both of my hands. “Sloane, he’s bad news.”
I pulled my hands back. “He’s been helping us out, if you hadn’t noticed. And he was worried about you. He said he hadn’t heard from you in years.”
“Yeah, but you know why I stopped talking to him,” said Leigh. “Look. The last time I saw Axel, I had no money and nowhere to stay. And he was fine with helping me out as long as I wanted to sleep with him. And then when I didn’t, he practically threw me out. I had to beg him to let me work as a stripper at his stupid club just to try to make money. He’s not a nice person, Sloane.”
I toyed with the edge of my t-shirt and didn’t say anything.
“What happened between you two?” Leigh said. “Please do not tell me you slept with him.”
I blushed.
Leigh groaned. “Jesus, Sloane, I thought you had better sense than that. Besides, he’s fucking terrible in bed.”
Right. I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that Leigh and Axel used to be friends with benefits. Which mean we’d both slept with the same guy. I scooted a little bit further away from Leigh. That was a little weird to think about.
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