Twelve
Parker

“Let him go!” Jack’s voice cracked across the empty space so loud and hard it almost scared me more than the cold metal pressed against the back of my head.

Forcing your body to hold perfectly still when every instinct is screaming at you to RUN is a seriously underrated skill.

“I don’t think so.” Cooper’s voice came from behind me. “Since your pain-in-the-ass chemist decided to blow up our base and most of our leadership with it, I’ve taken on more of a … decisive role. I’m in charge now. I’m finally going to make things happen.”

Jack gestured for Randall to lower his weapon, and Cooper relaxed the pressure a bit. Seeing a possible opportunity, I tried to jerk forward, but his grip on my shirt was too tight and he dragged me back, smashing the gun even harder against my already-throbbing skull.

“Not smart,” Cooper growled. “Don’t do it again.”

I could tell from the expression on Jack’s face that finally getting a good look at Cooper wasn’t making him feel any better. I glanced backward and caught a glimpse of him too, before Cooper nudged me with his gun to turn back around.

It hadn’t been much of a glimpse, but it was enough to see what was bothering Jack. The skin on Cooper’s face hung loose and the circles under his eyes were so deep and dark that they could’ve been tattooed there. Those details weren’t what scared me the most, though. The worst part was his eyes.

They reminded me of Darkness’s eyes. There was a desperate madness to them that was terrifying. I released an involuntary shudder.

I didn’t miss looking in the mirror and seeing that.

Finn spoke up. “What did you mean when you said that Chloe chose us, Cooper?”

When I slid my glance to him, his eyes were glued to me. His voice and hands were trembling, and I immediately shook my head in a slight no. I knew him well enough to be certain that he was working himself up to do something brave and stupid. Somehow Chloe seemed to recognize it too, because she reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. Finn was so intent on me he barely noticed.

Cooper shifted his weight, and I could tell he’d turned his demented gaze on Finn from the way Finn’s skin paled. Spitting the words out like they disgusted him, Cooper answered. “She turned her back on her kind and her family when she helped set you free. She knew she shouldn’t, but she did anyway. Being in your mush of a brain made her weak.”

Moving his gun to my back, Cooper released my shirt, grabbing my arm instead as he stepped next to me. When he turned his eyes back on Chloe, they were ice cold. “And we don’t tolerate weakness.”

Finn eyed Chloe with surprise. None of us had known what she’d sacrificed when she helped us free him. She hadn’t even hinted about it, and now that I knew, I didn’t understand why she’d cooperated with us. Yes, she’d been trying to save herself, but she also knew that the odds weren’t great of the separation actually working. It could’ve killed both her and Finn, and a lot sooner. Chloe had held all the power, being in his brain. Sure, we could have tied up Finn’s body or killed it, but I’d seen it firsthand—we never would have gotten Finn back alive if she’d chosen to fight us. Yet helping us had cost Chloe her family and everyone she knew.

Why had she helped, at such a cost?

I lifted my eyes to Chloe and what I saw stopped me. She wasn’t cringing and looking down anymore. She stood up tall, her shoulders pulled back. Dropping Finn’s sleeve, she stepped in front of him. “Let Parker go! Right now, Cooper.”

“Oh, he’s coming with me.” Cooper smiled lazily and took a step backward, pulling on my arm until I had no choice but to move with him. “If you want him back, I need something in return.”

“What do you want?” Jack took a stumbling step forward. His face was pale, his mouth a grim, painted line. Jack was always confident, but now he looked … scared. The thought of Jack not being prepared for something was terrifying.

“I want Eclipse.”

When Jack frowned and started to shake his head, Cooper kept talking, leaving no room for anyone else to speak. “Don’t tell me you can’t do it. I know you worked with Danny. I even know you lied to everyone and that he was actually your father.”

A soft groan came from Chloe, and Cooper gave her a wicked grin in return as he said, “That bit of information was the last useful thing little sis ever gave us.”

Jack’s gaze hardened, and his hands clenched and unclenched at his side. He’d wondered about if and how much Chloe had contacted the Takers, and now we knew it was at least enough to tell them this.

I saw Randall and the rebels with him turn questioning stares on Jack, but no one spoke. They all knew that questions could wait.

Jack’s shoulders slumped forward slightly. “I can’t make it. He made sure I couldn’t.”

“Ah, but I have more faith in you than that. If there’s one thing my father taught me, it’s that your … family is very stubborn.” He dragged me back another couple of steps—away from Finn and Addie, away from my brother, away from my life. “I’m sure you can figure it out. With the right motivation … ”

Jack whipped his knife out of its sheath and I jerked back, thinking he might be throwing it again. Instead, he grabbed Chloe. Wrapping his left arm around her shoulders, he held the blade against her throat. She didn’t struggle at all. She didn’t even look surprised.

“I can’t possibly do what you’re asking, but I’ll trade you. You know he’s my brother, good for you, but I have your sister—a sibling for a sibling.” Jack’s jaw clenched so tight his words came out rough as the gravel beneath our feet.

Chloe closed her eyes and I saw a single tear roll down her cheek. I wasn’t sure if it was because Jack was offering her up on a platter to a monster … or because she already knew what Cooper’s answer would be.

I listened, and waited. Afraid to breathe or even blink. I hoped Cooper was bluffing, that his heart wasn’t this cold. When he started laughing, my heart dropped to the earth at my feet. Each cruel chuckle only crushed it farther into the dirt.

“Keep her, use her, kill her … I don’t care. Your sibling is worth so much more than mine.” Cooper’s expression filled with what could only be described as disgust as he looked at Chloe one last time. Then he jerked me back toward the end of the trailer. “Don’t try to stop or follow us or I’ll shoot him.” He glanced pointedly at Libby. “You obviously have other people I could use to motivate you.”

A low growl came from Jack and I knew Cooper had hit a nerve.

“Better get focused, Jack.” Cooper kept backing away, pulling me with him, and there was nothing I could do to stop him. “It only took your dad four days to mix up some Eclipse after we convinced him that Parker’s life depended on it. I’m feeling generous, so I’ll give you ten. You have ten days to bring me Eclipse, or Parker is dead. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” And then he was pulling me back even faster.

In one brief moment of clarity, I remembered who was taking me … and that I was a Watcher. I quickly made eye contact with the only person I knew for sure in this group was a Builder—Libby. Her teary eyes watched me from beside the van. They were distant, almost looking through me. The connection only lasted a second, but it was long enough for me to be certain it had worked. Then Cooper yanked me around the end of the trailer.

Twenty feet away, two headlights turned on in the shadows beneath a huge tree and shined straight in my face. I squinted and tried to slow down so my eyes could adjust, but Cooper dragged me toward the old model Ford as it pulled into the sunlight. I caught sight of Thor’s hulking form behind the wheel and groaned.

As if things weren’t bad enough already. Joey Thornton, a.k.a. Thor, seriously had a knack for showing up anytime I was in deep trouble. He’d attacked me in the hall at school, in the parking lot at the mall, and even once on the soccer field. If there was anyone in this world I wanted to see even less than Cooper, it was Thor.

Cooper forced me into the backseat and made it impossible for me to see anything or anyone by shoving a paper bag over my head. I felt the car lurch into motion as the guy who hated me drove us away from the people I cared about.