Chapter 64

 

FREI LOOKED AT the text on her cell phone. Her brow dipped low until it made her head ache. She leaned onto the car for a moment, bracing herself, attempting some kind of calm.

She stayed there, eyes closed, head on the cold metal. Calm. Calm. She focused on centering herself. Calm.

She pushed up off the metal enough to look back at her screen. Her exasperation pulsed once more. Her hands shook from the need to, to . . . she sucked in the air. Calm.

She pressed call.

“Before you begin, I knew nothing of it until moments ago.”

“Huber, tell me that it isn’t true.” Her voice sounded unmoved. Her hands showed she was ready to erupt.

“That would involve lying. I see no point.”

Frei leaned on the hard metal again. “How did she escape?”

“Urs?” She heard Renee’s voice and tensed.

They needed to get back to work. Renee couldn’t know about Huber.

“Feminine wiles.” Huber sounded unimpressed beneath the bored tone. “Boy is in a cell in Michigan. I believe Jäger has been dispatched.”

Wonderful.

Frei understood why Huber was telling her. “I’ll get him out.”

“Good girl.” Huber cut the line.

Frei steadied herself. Renee wandered over with two coffees. Her gray eyes tracked over her face. She could tell something was different but she couldn’t see beyond the barrier.

“You okay there?” They’d been working together years. Frei had managed to cover up how she still worked for Huber too. Renee wouldn’t understand why. She saw black and white.

“Fine. Headache.”

Renee nodded. “You drink too much.”

Frei laughed at the accusation. She drank when she felt like it. Straddling two roles was stressful. Drinking herself stupid helped her sleep. It wasn’t a problem. “Good thing I have a spotter.”

Renee sighed. “I mean it, Urs, it’s not like it’s weak stuff either.”

No, it was what Huber drank. It was what Suz had drunk. It was the stuff the people who held her respect drank. It was a statement. It was a victory. She’d drink the same crap they did because she could, because they couldn’t stop her. “I have to visit a friend later.”

Renee took stock of the blunt switch. She was used to it. It didn’t mean she liked it. Her gray eyes glinted at the shut out. “Didn’t think you socialized.”

“Nice, Renee.” She yanked open the door. Renee hadn’t meant it as an insult, she was asking, she was showing she cared.

“I meant you don’t talk to anyone on the team, you barely talk to me.” Renee touched her hand. Frei recoiled. She knew Renee was kind, was caring, but she hated being touched. Why couldn’t people get that?

“I’m doing my job.”

Renee sighed. “Yeah, and you don’t give a crap about me.”

Frei started the engine and roared the car to life. It wasn’t one of her cars. It didn’t rumble through her; it didn’t move her like her own cars. “I told you I did.”

“Try showing it then.” Renee sounded confused, hurt, pleading.

“I rescued you. I work with you. Don’t expect flowers.” She cared more than flowers could ever show anyway. What was the big deal? Why did people outside of . . . just outside . . . want to know every single thing about a person?

“Right, so when will you be back? We have to leave for the base in a few days.” Renee sipped at her coffee. She’d placed Frei’s in the holder.

“It won’t take long. I’m not planning on staying there.” The boy, whoever he was, would need to disappear before Jäger got his hands on him. It didn’t matter that he’d been fooled by her sister. That she’d somehow turned into a woman since Frei had seen her last and used her “wiles” as Huber called them.

She tried not to think too much about that. She tried not to think how much she’d missed.

“Sounds like a close friend.” Renee was snappy now. Her hurt moved into anger. There was a surprise.

“You’re the only person I class as that.”

Renee snapped her head to stare at her. “Really?”

Frei kept her eyes on the road. “Don’t expect flowers.”

Renee nodded but the smile filled her eyes. Frei didn’t get it. Why was that so important? So she cared. Big deal.

 

The door appeared again. Renee beside it. She reached for the handle . . . Got it.

 

JESSIE PULLED MORE hay, or whatever the itchy stuff was, on top of the car and took another dose of her asthma inhaler. The night air was cooler but too cool and damp. She held her breath, tears stinging her eyes. The tickle, the prickly ache subsided and she let out a long, slow breath.

“Running out?” Miss Locks had woken, barely, her face pale and clammy. She smiled up from her slumped position on the ground.

“I have a few more doses, I’ll be okay,” she lied. She didn’t want Miss Locks to try to do anything physical.

She noticed something on the ground as she picked up another bale of hay and felt a trickle of dread seep through her stomach: A tracker?

“You know, when I was your age, I lost someone I cared about . . . a lot.” Her voice held a strong German lilt, Jessie knew a bit about Germany but her first language was English. The people who held her papers had been Dutch, her “adopted parents” or so she’d thought. They’d been kinder than they should have been for owners. Had been. She’d been in Caprock since they’d been shot.

“Because of school?” She helped Miss Locks to her feet and did her best to lend her support but it wasn’t easy. She was smaller in frame and a lot shorter in height. Aeron had made her a lot fitter but she still struggled sometimes.

“Jäger.” Miss Locks grunted, gripping her side. “She tried to help me get my sister out . . . I lost them both.”

Jessie heard the hurt. It made her scowl. “He’s . . .” She let out a frustrated growl.

“I haven’t let many people in, kid.” Miss Locks staggered as Jessie led her up a dirt track. There was some kind of boathouse next to the river. “Didn’t stop it hurting.”

Miss Locks dropped to her knees. Jessie glanced behind her. The area, the road had been quiet but she could hear a rumble of an engine or engines.

“We have to move,” she whispered, trying to pull Miss Lock’s to her feet.

“Not sure if I can.”

Jessie shook her head. “No, you have to move. Please . . . I can’t do this without you.”

Miss Locks smiled up at her. “I haven’t done a lot. You got us out. I’m proud of you.”

Jessie felt tears brimming. “Stop it.”

Miss Locks raised her eyebrows, her eyes glazed.

“Move it.” Jessie poked her in the shoulder. “I can’t carry you. If you don’t move and that isn’t Aeron, you put me in danger too.”

Miss Locks laughed, then coughed. “You’re kind of bossy when you get going.”

“Good.” Jessie helped her and they staggered up the dirt track. The rumbling sounded like more than one vehicle. Fear prickled at her. “That means I take after you.”

“Should have known you read my file while you were there.” Miss Locks stumbled and Jessie had to use all her strength to right her. “There was me thinking you couldn’t speak German.”

“I can’t but I can read it.” Jessie met her eyes for a moment. “And he’s a bad man.” She felt so strange, such a twisting of guilt that she was a reminder. She wondered what Miss Locks thought of her, really, when she looked at her. It showed her heart that she had been so warm and kind.

Miss Locks held onto the wall of the boathouse as Jessie picked the lock and pocketed it.

“You don’t have to be like him,” Miss Locks whispered.

Jessie glared at her. She didn’t mean to but it hurt to think it could even be a possibility. She hoped she would never be like him. Ever.

She opened the door and helped Miss Locks into a corner of the boathouse. The only boat in there was half filled with water but there was a cooler. She hurried to it, broke the lock, and lifted the lid.

“Beer?” She sighed, scrabbling through for water. Miss Locks needed hydration not more poison.

“Sounds perfect but I’m on duty.” Miss Locks called her over and Jessie sat beside her, tucking herself in. It felt right to do it. She wished she’d been able to do it growing up. “I didn’t know about you . . . I’d have never have left you there if I’d known.”

Jessie snuggled in. “I know. You’re a hero. You would have come and rescued me if you had.”

“In a heartbeat.” Miss Locks shivered and Jessie held her close. “You need to follow what Aeron told you.”

She nodded.

“You need to keep yourself out of sight.” Miss Locks pulled the gun out and checked it over.

“I’m not leaving you.” Jessie poked her again. “Aeron and Renee will be here.”

Miss Locks chuckled between shuddering breaths. “Stubborn and bossy.”

Jessie smiled. “Like you.”

Miss Locks shook her head with a wry smile. “You say that like it’s a good thing.”