by A. P. Jensen
Raven opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was closing up. Jackie grinned and chucked her under the chin.
“Don’t you see, Raven? This is all meant to be. We’re living Sunshine’s comic and you’re the hero. Isn’t that awesome?”
“I don’t want to be the hero,” she rasped. “I don’t want to be in the comic at all. I want a boring, uneventful life.”
Jackie blanched. “You better hope that doesn’t come true.”
“Hey! What’s the word?” Bam Bam shouted from the front door.
They were all watching her, waiting. It hit her at that moment that these men would do whatever she asked. She’d done everything alone and now . . . Now, she had a brother and countless cousins that would stand by her side and follow her orders based on a gut instinct.
Raven glanced at Jackie. “We stick together.”
He smiled. “Always.”
Raven got to her feet and strode toward the front doors. “We’re going to Louisiana.”
“How soon?” Ace asked, glancing at his watch.
“As soon as you all pack. I need to talk to Sunshine.”
Sunshine sat on the fountain in the foyer. He had a duffel at his feet and his sketchpad balanced on one knee. His electric blue Nikes tapped along to a song only he could hear. She searched for her telepathic link to him and rolled her eyes when she heard Yellow Brick Road from The Wizard of Oz. She crouched down in front of him.
“Sunshine, do you want to come?” Raven asked.
Sunshine nodded and didn’t look away from his sketchpad.
“I’m going to protect you, okay?” Raven added earnestly.
Sunshine looked up and smiled brilliantly. “I know you will.”
She blew out a breath and walked toward the elevator. She paused when Luester strode out, glaring daggers at her.
“I have to,” she said.
“No, you don’t. Sunshine’s never traveled anywhere without my dad.”
Raven tried to contain her panic. She felt like she was taking a five-year-old into battle. But Sunshine wasn’t five and they weren’t going into battle. They were just . . . looking. Who said their jaunt in the swamp would get violent?
“We need him,” Raven said.
A muscle leapt in Luester’s cheek. “Nothing can happen to Sunshine.”
“I know.”
Raven’s hand shook as she pushed the elevator button. She strode down the hallway to her bedroom and rushed around to make sure she had every weapon available. When she walked into the foyer, she wasn’t surprised to see a crowd of Unmemorables watching the others check their rifles.
“Where are you going?” Louie asked Bones.
When Raven strolled forward, Louie’s brows shot up.
“You’re helping her?” Louie didn’t hide his scorn. “You think she’s the one from the prophecy? She’s working for the Council!”
Raven clamped her mouth shut. Mouthing off wouldn’t solve anything and she was already on edge. She tapped Sunshine on the shoulder and when he followed her to the door, everyone froze.
“What’s going on here?” a muscular man demanded and blocked their way.
Before Raven could say anything, Big Daddy pushed his way through the crowd. He wrapped his arms around Sunshine who was so focused on his drawing that he didn’t look up. There was a long silence from the onlookers as they witnessed the goodbye. Raven and Big Daddy stared at each other for several seconds before he walked away. Raven blew out a long breath as Sunshine ambled outside. Raven followed and found her path obstructed by Bones.
“You’re riding with me,” Bones said.
“What?”
“You’re riding with me,” he repeated.
“Like hell I am!”
Ace, Jackie, Luester, Harvard and Bam Bam were loaded into their SUV while Bones ducked into a black BMW M5. The back door of Bones’s car opened and Sunshine waved his arms as if he were trying to land a jet.
“Raven, we’re going on an adventure. Come!” Sunshine hollered even though she was less than ten feet away.
Raven strode over to the passenger side of the SUV. Jackie rolled the window down and eyed her cautiously.
“Why are we riding with Bones?” she asked.
“Bones is the tracker, Sunshine is the guide. You and Bones are the best protectors for him, so...”
Raven grit her teeth and got into the backseat of the BMW with Sunshine. She was engulfed in the smell of leather and tried not to be seduced by the car. As soon as she shut the door, they were off. Sunshine had a light attached to his sketchpad and he drew with sure, confident strokes. She caught a glimpse of the GPS on the dashboard. It would take around twenty-six hours to reach Manchac, Louisiana. She made herself comfortable and tried to fall asleep.
***
The sound of her cell phone woke her up. Raven blinked and groped for it in her pocket. The sun was beginning to rise and they were parked on the side of the freeway. She was the only one in the car. She answered the phone even as she stepped outside.
“Hello?” she gasped as her body absorbed the cold desert air.
“Raven? Are you okay?” Cain demanded.
“Yeah,” she hollered over the sound of passing traffic.
The SUV was parked behind the BMW, and even as she squinted at it, she saw that it was also empty. What the hell? The landscape was bleak with distant mountains in the distance. A combination of sand and dirt crunched beneath her feet. It was the perfect environment to get bitten by a snake.
“What’s that noise?” Cain asked.
“Traffic. Where are you?” she asked as her mind lurched into gear.
Raven squinted when she saw movement up ahead. The guys were all lined up with their backs to her. She was about to call out when she realized what they were doing. She abruptly turned away and started back to the car.
“Where are you?” Cain asked.
Raven ducked into the car and shivered as she burrowed into her jacket. “I’m on the side of the I-40. The boys are having a potty break.”
There was a short silence and then, “You can’t leave Las Vegas.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you leaving Nevada. Stay at the house or Unmemorable headquarters,” Cain ordered.
“I have a lead in Louisiana.”
“Wait until I get back.”
“No, I need to do this now.”
“You’re putting yourself in danger. Turn around.”
“I can take care of myself.” When Cain didn’t reply, she tried to gentle her voice. “Just focus on what you have to do. Do you know where they took Maggie?”
“They split up the hostages so I have multiple trails. Raven...” Cain cursed and she imagined he was probably pacing. “I’m not gonna tell you again, go back to Vegas.”
Raven didn’t like the guy he’d morphed into after he found out the Council had been attacked. He had no qualms about ordering her around. “I have the guys with me. I’m going to be fine.” She saw them heading back and pulled herself together. “Focus on what you have to do and come back to me, okay?”
“Raven...”
“I love you. I have to go.” She turned off the phone as Sunshine slipped into the backseat with her.
“Morning!” Sunshine looked as fresh and bright as if he slept in his bed at the mansion.
“Potty break done?” she asked with a little smile. Sunshine’s cheeriness was contagious.
“Yup! I’m hungry.”
Bones slipped into the front seat and revved the engine.
“We can pick up breakfast in the next city,” Raven said.
“We’re not stopping,” Bones said.
“Excuse me?” She wasn’t in the mood for his attitude, which was similar to Cain’s dictatorial one.
“No delays.”
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Why didn’t you go? We’ve been here for ten minutes. I think that’s enough time to find a place for any woman to do her business
.”
Raven leaned forward so her lips were less than an inch from Bones’s ear. “I don’t do my business in bushes, not when we’ll hit Albuquerque in a half hour.” He opened his mouth and she placed her knife against the vein in his neck. “And if you tell me no, you can drop us off and head back to Vegas. Comprende?”
“You’re wasting time,” Bones muttered.
“You wasted time. Why’d you guys need ten minutes, anyway?”
“Bam Bam ate too much and...” Sunshine began.
Raven waved her hands. “On second thought, I don’t need to know.”
As she settled back in her seat, she saw the finished sketch Sunshine had been working on. Instead of the outline of the swamp she’d seen in the dirt, the swamp was done in eerie, dark colors. The water looked oily and black and the trees that grew out of the water looked as if they’d been hacked to pieces. Alligators? There was no sign of a person in the sketch.
Raven? Jackie called telepathically.
She turned around to look out the back window at the SUV. What?
Cain just called. He says he’s going to kill me if anything happens to you.
Nothing is going to happen to anybody, she retorted.
Says you. God, my stomach is turning, Bam Bam groaned.
If you hadn’t been such a hog, maybe I could have eaten some of your food for you, Raven said sweetly.
Just so you know, I’m sticking the middle finger, Bam Bam said.
She lifted her middle finger so the passengers in the SUV could see it. Me, too.
***
Albuquerque’s freeways were full of morning traffic. The Unmemorables in the SUV cursed her through the telepathic link, but Bones didn’t say a word. She noticed his hands flexed on the steering wheel every now and then as he zipped between cars. Bones pulled up in front of McDonalds and she removed the leg/ankle sheaths for the knives, but kept the blade in her pocket and grabbed a gun from her duffel. When the SUV pulled up beside them, Luester, Ace and Bones walked in with her. Jackie, Bam Bam and Harvard stayed outside to guard Sunshine and the cars.
The aroma of hash browns and coffee wafted through the air when they walked in. While the guys ordered food, she made her way to the bathroom. She did her business, brushed her hair and put it up before she joined the others. She divvied up the food and was happy to see most of their sour expressions disappear.
“I can drive,” she offered to Bones.
He didn’t hesitate. “No one drives my car but me.”
Raven rolled her eyes and slipped into the back seat again with Sunshine who happily munched on a sausage biscuit and drank chocolate milk. She turned on her cell phone and put it on silent. The screen flashed as voicemails and texts lit up the screen. She listened with a stone face as Cain’s cold, furious voice commanded her to turn around and go back to Las Vegas. She couldn’t wait for him. She had to follow her gut, even if it agitated Cain. She pocketed her phone and said nothing as they made their way out of Albuquerque and continued along the I-40.
If she hadn’t spent so much time on the road, she would have gone stir crazy within three hours. Between Bones’s icy silence and the scratch of Sunshine’s pencil, her palms began to itch with the need to do something. She spent days on the road, but driving alone, and being in a car with others was a completely different experience. Sunshine fell asleep after they passed the border into Texas. She saw that he’d put more atmospheric touches on his swamp picture, but the next page was still blank. She mentally bitch slapped herself for wanting to wake him to get started on the next part of the story.
Raven got tired of sitting in the back and moved to the passenger seat, which Bones didn’t appreciate. He shot her an irritated glance before he returned his attention back to the road. He handled the BMW well. She really wanted to drive it. The interior of the car was so silent, they could have been in a library rather than pushing ninety miles an hour on the freeway.
“Are you psychotic?” she asked Bones.
He didn’t deign to answer that and smoothly slid the car between two semis.
“Do you like to watch women in peril?” Raven didn’t attempt to keep the disgust out of her voice. Boredom was a dangerous thing. It sank its teeth in and convinced her brain that it would be fun to incite some kind of emotion out of Bones. Every now and then she tapped into the intense poker game going on in the SUV behind them to listen to their insults. Of course, Ace won every hand.
“You know, it’s not the women’s fault that they can’t remember you,” she told Bones conversationally. “Maybe you should speak to a psychiatrist or something. I think you have a problem.”
Bones shot her a hot-tempered glance, which she returned with an innocent look. If he didn’t look so psycho, she would have patted him on the shoulder to piss him off more. As it was, she decided to make him detonate.
“You know, that night when you watched those guys rip my clothes off, what ticked me off was the laughing. That’s what made me fight back. I never intended to kill them, but I’m not sorry that I did.”
Raven trailed off and waited for a response. She got nothing. Bones continued to drive with complete focus. She couldn’t stop the spurt of rage that boiled in her chest. How could he be so unaffected? Had Bones lost his humanity like Angel? That thought led to Maggie and her heart sank. What was Angel’s plan for the hostages? Would he let them live? She remembered Angel biting her neck and her hands fisted.
“I don’t know which side is worse. Rich uses pregnant women for blackmail and Angel kills whenever he feels like it. Then there’s the Unmemorables.” She paused and her eyes moved over his face. “You observe and calculate. You don’t get involved even when innocents are raped and slaughtered right in front of you. I think those that do nothing are the worst.”
Suddenly she wasn’t in the mood to antagonize him anymore. She felt mildly nauseated. She turned to crawl into the backseat and wasn’t prepared when Bones barred her way. She reached for her knife and realized she couldn’t gut him while he was driving this fast. They would all die.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed.
“You want a reaction, right? Well, you’re going to get one.”
That sounded ominous and her heartbeat skipped. The BMW accelerated and she gripped the door handle.
Get me out of here. He’s crazy! she shouted telepathically to Jackie.
You poke, you pay the price, Jackie responded. If Bones gets violent, we’ll try to intervene.
Try? You bastard...!
Sunshine snored in the backseat and mumbled something. She watched Bones as if he was a ticking time bomb.
“I can scent when people are near death,” Bones said, eyes trained on the road. “I was in a bar when you were attacked. I got there when they pinned you. They were Battalion soldiers. I took out the third guy who was recording everything. By the time I finished with him, both of the soldiers were dead.”
Raven’s hand spasmed on the handle of her knife.
“I walked away, doubled back and followed you home. You kept it together until you got into the shower in your dumpy apartment. You cried then. You didn’t call the police. I took care of the bodies and figured the Battalion soldiers were looking for fun and chose you randomly. You left Chicago two days later. I never thought of you again. If that’s a crime, sue me.”
Raven was silent for a beat and then, “You expect me to believe that?” His face haunted her for years and now he was trying to convince her that he’d been a guardian angel that night?
“I don’t hurt women.”
“You didn’t do a thing to prevent the slaughter at Council headquarters. What about those women?”
“I had my orders.”
“It’s a good thing you had orders to just observe or you might have gotten involved,” she said sarcastically. “That would have gone against your precious Unmemorable code.”
“Reacting emotionally doesn’t solve anything,” he said.
“And not reacting at all?
What does that solve?”
“You’re young and involved with Cain Henson. I’ve been watching the Council and Battalion for nearly fifteen years.”
“And?”
“And you don’t want to know what your boyfriend is capable of.”
She leaned forward. “Try me.”
Chapter Fourteen
Bones shook his head. “You’ll learn in time.”
“Tell me now.”
“All you need to know is that Cain is Rich’s most lethal and ruthless weapon.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“For your sake, I hope Henson’s feelings are genuine.” Bones glanced at her and shifted gears. “Are you trying to break the curse for Henson?”
Raven didn’t want to talk about Cain. She didn’t know where they stood right now and Bones was hinting at a side of Cain she was discovering for the first time. She didn’t want to believe Bones, but... “I’m not breaking the curse just for Cain. I’m doing it for all of us.”
“Not all of us want the curse removed.”
“Then why are you helping?” Raven growled.
“Because now that you’re here, there’s no stopping the prophecy. Change is here.”
“What do you mean?”
“What happened at Council headquarters was a declaration. I didn’t understand it until I saw you. The war’s already begun.”
Goosebumps rippled over her arms. “War?”
“Angel’s been trying to find you for a decade. If he gets ahold of you, we’re doomed.”
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“A woman holds the fate of the Unmemorables in her hands,” Bones recited and she stilled. “She will be coveted by many and has great power. She alone can control the Unmemorables and reverse the curse that has plagued them for centuries. Her coming shall start a war that can end the world as we know it.” When Bones finished, his hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Sitting on the sidelines won’t work this time. I know that.”
