19
Mercy
When Wylder finished layingout what his father had ordered him to do, for a moment my head just spun. My mind was foggy from interrupted sleep. I hadn’t wanted to stick around any one place for even a whole night now that I was on the run, since I had no idea how easily Xavier might find me. I hadn’t gotten enough rest in days.
Maybe I was hallucinating due to sleep deprivation, or this was all a bad dream.
“Your dad… wants you to kill me,” I repeated. It didn’t sound any better coming from my lips.
“He says that’s the only way I can prove I’m loyal to him,” Wylder said with a grimace. “Obviously I’m not going to do it.”
He looked straight at me, his green eyes shining with the truth of that statement. Tendrils of warmth wrapped around my chest and squeezed me. I nodded at him, hoping he could tell how much I appreciated what he was doing for me no matter what it might cost him in the future.
I looked around at the other guys and Anthea, who I’d met in the back of Gideon’s van just ten minutes ago. They all looked as shocked and upset as I felt. I wasn’t at all worried about Wylder’s intentions, because he’d never have admitted any of this if he was even considering going through with it. But still…
This was Ezra Noble’s twisted revenge for crashing into his life and supposedly leading his son astray. As the initial surprise wore off, I found I was almost numb. It wasn’t really that much of a surprise, was it? He’d gotten to be the head of the Nobles by knowing how to hit where it hurt.
Kaige swore and smacked the bench with his fist. “So what happens if—when—you don’t do it?”
“I don’t know,” Wylder said, and grinned in a humorless way that made me wince. “Maybe he’ll kill me.”
Anthea’s head snapped up. “Don’t talk that way. He values you more than that. We’ve simply got to find a way around the problem.” She rubbed her mouth and glanced at me. “What if you just took off? I could give you enough cash to get you a hundred miles away from here and set you up in a hotel for a while. You lay low, Wylder can say he couldn’t find you, and hopefully it all blows over.”
Gideon raised his eyebrows. “Since when does Ezra let things just ‘blow over’?” His tone was typically cool, but his hands had tensed around his tablet.
Anthea let out a huff of frustration.
Even with my life on the line, I couldn’t suppress a yawn. Kaige’s anger faded in the wake of concern. He passed me a packet of M&Ms from the bag of food they’d brought for me. “Here. Sugar plus caffeine is a great combination.”
“Thanks,” I said, but after I ripped open the package, I just stared at the brightly covered candies. My stomach had balled tight.
I looked at Anthea. “I’m not leaving my home anyway. Even if that home is pretty crappy right now.” I held back yet another yawn and scowled at the thought of the early morning rain shower that’d soaked the hell out of me on the terrace where I’d spent the second half of last night.
“It wouldn’t necessarily be for that long,” Rowan started.
“No,” I said firmly. “The Bend needs me—it needs all of us. The way Xavier came at us the other day just proves that. He knows we’re the best chance the city has of stopping him and the Storm’s people. I’m not cutting out on them.”
When I rustled the candies in the bag without taking any out, Gideon held out a steel thermos to me. “Would coffee go down better? This is my own blend.”
I blinked at him and accepted it. “Don’t you need it?”
He shrugged, but there was a fondness to the gleam in his eyes that warmed me more than the thermos in my hands. “I already drank some, and I think you need it more.”
“Thank you.” I unscrewed the cap and sipped some of the still-hot liquid. The bitterness seared down my throat—clearly an acquired taste—but it did jolt me into a higher state of alertness. Mission accomplished.
Kaige cocked his head. “In all the years that I’ve known you, why haven’t you ever offered your special coffee to me?”
“You never asked for it,” Gideon said simply.
Kaige grumbled something half-heartedly about inconsiderate friends, and I laughed. I’d missed their presence and their banter. Heck, I even missed watching Wylder lose against Gideon in their stupid continuing games of chess. I missed the whole stupid Noble mansion, not because of the huge rooms and fancy furnishings, but because it was where I’d been able to live with them.
Too bad Ezra lived there too.
“We can’t do nothing,” Anthea said, getting us back on topic. “There are other ways, if I pitch in. A little messy, but… we could find a corpse that’s the right stature and age to pass for Mercy. I have contacts who could help with that. Then we disfigure it beyond recognizability and tell Ezra it’s her.”
Kaige made a gagging sound.
Wylder just shook his head. “No.”