Chapter Fifteen

Helena heard something through a fog.

“What?” Helena blinked against the hot sun.

“Are you okay? I’ve been yelling your name?” Myers stood over her, hands on his hips. “I was trying to see if you could stay back while we go scout.”

She nodded.

“Great, see you later tonight.” Myers kissed her and then joined the rest of the crew in the SUV.

Sure, why not? I am always good for staying back, fetching supplies, whatever is the least threatening adventure. If this were a real relationship, where she didn’t have to play nice, things would be way different. Often, she was overlooked. Her thin frame and diminutive statue made her appear weak and innocent. Both were hardly true.

She had scored extremely high on her IQ test, was the equivalent of a black belt in martial arts, and could toss a knife at any target with exact precision—not that she would ever let this group know that. It wasn’t the plan. She had almost given herself away back at the cabin last year when she fought Laura. Harding would not have been happy. But all of this made her ill.

Always endeavoring to establish she was better than everyone else was a constant battle and put her on Harding’s radar in the first place. After a bar fight went wrong, she ended up in a Mexican prison. There she met Alicia—a younger girl with a big attitude. Like her, she looked about five years younger than she was. Most thought she was maybe fifteen, but in reality, she was twenty-one. She never told anyone the truth. Her mind flooded with memories of the last year and all that had happened.

Alicia and she were recruited by S.I.U. for one purpose—to destroy Laura Black. At first, it seemed simple enough. Helena was sent to shoot Julio and hang out there until Laura appeared. Harding assured her Laura would come. To this day, she still wasn’t sure why that worked. He said it had something to do with a “dog always returning to its vomit.” Gross.

But it was prophetic. Unsure why, but she did come. Pretending to fire on Laura and Bryce and miss was hilarious. In seconds, both of them could have been dropped by her hand. However, Harding commanded they were to be taken alive. The plan was for Laura to kill Greenstone and then join them. Amazing how most of it fell into place. The crew’s suspicion was short lived, and Helena and Alicia were officially on the team.

Helena shifted on the ground and drank from the water bottle in her hand. Nothing was perfect. In some ways, it backfired. Unable to get word to Harding about the final raid, S.I.U. fell, and he was captured. Thankfully, she suggested the mental institution, as it was likely easier to break out of than jail.

After the smoke cleared, Alicia went back to free him. It took much longer than they thought to get him out, but once they did, everything was back on. Together, the three of them began to torture the Black Squad, as they had begun to call them. The idea was to kill off their team one by one until the only one left was Black. Still harboring a grudge for locking him up, Harding wasn’t sure if he would kill her yet, thinking it would be better to let her live with the pain.

But killing everyone on the team had been harder than they thought. Twice, they had failed. It wasn’t looking good—until today. Helena sighed. Bryce was dead—the one who would hurt Laura the most. If his passing was all that happened, it may be enough.

Helena turned on her phone and dialed Alicia.

“Yeah?” Alicia said.

“They’re gone. Are you extracting me?”

The sound muffled, and Alicia spoke away from the earpiece. “Are we getting her?”

Harding came on the line. “I’m not sure that is the right play. It helps having you there.”

“If you take me, they will think you kidnapped me and come looking for you. It’s the perfect scenario.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Plus, it’s been almost a year. I can’t do it anymore.”

The line was silent for a moment. “Fine. Meet us latitude 24.02775 and longitude 104.65319 in two hours.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Helena rumpled through her stuff, seeing if there was anything she couldn’t live without. Then grabbed her passport and a GPS, tugged on her boots, pulled her hair in a ponytail, and donned an olive-green cadet hat. A knife sat on a small table by the door. Helena cupped it in her hand and willed herself for the next part. Big breath in. She lifted her pant leg and cut an inch slice. Blood ran down her calf. Scooping it up, she smeared a handful on the counter, down the wall, across the bed and pillow, and ended with a few drops by the door. She kicked a lamp, shattering it across the room, and then pulled the blankets from bed. That should do it.

She glanced around one more time and headed out the door. In the distance, she could see a billow of dust. That could be them. No time to waste. Helena took off across the desert, GPS in hand. A part of her felt sad. This had not been the best day. Though she signed up for this long-term assignment, knowing she would betray them, it still stung a little.

There were some real feelings for Myers and even for Bryce. That probably hurt the worst; it pained her to kill him. But it was the job. The hate for Laura was real. All of them had been indoctrinated to despise her—some through hypnosis, some through suggestion. For Helena, her hatred came from one very important reason. Her real father, Ignacio Perez, had been murdered by Laura’s hand five years ago.

Tears pooled in her eyes, blurring her vision. Helena blinked to clear them. The memory of that night was still fresh in her mind. She had just received news she had been accepted into an American university. Excited to share the news, she ran up the stairs to her house, whistling. But then stopped. Something was not right. The lights were all off, and the front door was slightly open. A stream of blood smeared through the entryway and down the hall. At the end of the trail was her father. She deduced shot in the back as he tried to escape with a final kill shot to the head.

For three years, she tried to find the killer. No one knew who until that night when she was arrested. Harding knew. He showed her the case file, where Greenstone had ordered the hit, and Black had carried it out.

Helena sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand. From then on, whatever he had in mind, she was his girl. No matter what, this would happen. Often, it was hard. At times, she actually started to like Laura. But one flash of memory from that night, and all the feelings returned. It took everything in Helena to stick to the plan. Several times, she had had to restrain herself. One night, she had actually stood over Laura’s sleeping body with a knife in hand. If Bryce hadn’t rolled over, she would have stabbed their leader in the heart.

A pebble rolled under foot, causing her trip. She grimaced as the dried blood on her leg separated from her jeans. How much farther? She glanced down at the GPS. Almost there. The sun beat down hot burning her nose and exposed arms.

Almost there. Something shiny shimmered in the distance. A vehicle, maybe. She squinted to see it in the bright landscape. Yes. A truck. She smiled through parched lips. With arm extended high, she began to wave. “Hey!”

The truck circled around and gunned its engine, before driving to her spot.

Alicia leaned out the side window and waved back. “Hello, my sister. Ready to do some real damage.”

“I’m just glad to be free.” Helena smiled. “Could use some water though.”

“Get in.” Alicia opened the door and shifted over the seat, sitting in the back. A Hispanic guy Helena had never seen sat at the driver’s wheel.

“Hola,” Helena said, climbing in.

He nodded and revved the engine.

“This is Gael.” Alicia handed her a canteen. “He doesn’t talk much, but he’s got mad fighting skills. He’s the one who nailed Bryce with that bullet.” Alicia patted his arm, then turned to Helena and pointed at her leg. “You’re bleeding. What happened?”

“I left them a gift.” She winked and took a long drink. When she pulled back, she said, “Better they think I was hurt.”

“Smart.” Alicia leaned forward and folded her arms around Helena’s neck. “This is going to be so fun.”

“How’s Harding?”

Alicia sat back, licking her lips.

“Alicia?”

“He’s good. There might have been a slight development.”

Helena tried to turn around in her seat, but the belt kept her from going far. “What?”

Alicia stared out the window, a slight smirk on her face. That infuriated Helena. Even though they didn’t really share DNA, they had been partners for three years. Often, they fought like sisters. And right now, Helena was in no mood for the girl’s game. “What happened?”

Her head slowly turned to face Helena, the joy of what she was about to say plastered on her expression. “We hooked up.”

Helena’s eyes went wide, and then she grimaced. “Gross. He’s like, how old?”

Alicia crossed her arms, obviously determined to fight that resistance. “Um, only twenty-five. Remember, I’m twenty-one, not fourteen like the crew thought.”

“Fifteen.”

“Whatever.”

“You hooked up with the boss? I thought romance was forbidden in S.I.U.?”

She shrugged. “It is. But he’s in charge and makes his own rules. Besides, this whole thing is rogue anyways.”

Helena glanced out the windows and watched as cracked earth scattered with yellow bushes rolled by. Inside, she knew this was not sanctioned, but pretending it was made it easier to complete.

“It’s about revenge, Helena. About all of us getting our due.” Alicia slid the window behind her open and stuck her hand through the opening.

That Helena could understand. That she could appreciate. Laura killed her dad. Until she had suffered enough, Helena would be Harding’s puppet. That was one thing she would endure. When it was over, maybe she would kill him, too. How else would she find true freedom? It was about using people to get what she wanted, right?