12
Mercy
There wassomething a little weird about having Gideon in my bedroom—and weird that it felt weird, considering how intimate we’d gotten on multiple occasions. But this was the room I’d slept in since I was a child until very recently, and I’d never had a guy over here. I’d never wanted to expose any of the men I got together with to my father’s unpredictable temper and the operations of his business through the house.
But Dad was gone now, and I decided what the rules were. And frankly, I liked being able to perch on the edge of my queen-sized bed next to the tech genius who’d proven to be so passionate under his analytical demeanor. He’d come in with his tablet already out, ready to get to work, but he paused for a moment to take in the warm violet walls and the maple dresser and vanity that matched the bedframe.
“The room smells like you,” he said.
“Itismy bedroom,” I pointed out. “I guess that’s to be expected.”
A corner of Gideon’s mouth quirked upward. “Mercy Katz’s natural habitat. I have to admit I expected something more fiery…”
I rolled my eyes. “Just because I don’t put up with any crap doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy getting to relax when, y’know, I’m actually trying tosleep.”
His gaze homed in on a photograph on the dresser of me when I was eight, standing on the lawn with my legs apart and my hands on my hips in clothes a little too big for my skinny body. His smile widened. “You were a badass even back then. I need to show this to the others.” Before I could protest, he clicked a photo of it.
I scowled at him. “I thought you had something important to go over with me. The druggies who were bashing up the stores haven’t started up again, have they?” Rowan had called me to fill me in on the latest development in our war against the Storm a couple of hours ago.
“No,” Gideon said, his expression turning sober. “But I took a bunch of photos of them while we were handing out the drugs to bribe them into laying low. Most if not all of them seemed to have come from the Bend. I wanted to run their faces past you in case you recognize any of them and know they’re more than just some random junkie.”
That made sense. I leaned back on my hands, my fingers sinking into the worn but cozy duvet. “Sure, I’ll take a look.”
He handed the tablet to me, and I crossed my legs to prop it on my lap. He’d already opened the Photos app. The first picture showed a haggard-looking man in grungy cargo pants. I flicked him away to study the next figure and the next, my stomach twisting with each image I dismissed.
They all had an air of desperation around them that I knew Xavier had taken advantage of. A lot of them looked as if they hadn’t had a square meal in a month or longer. The youngest ones, teenagers with scruffy hair or wild eyes, tangled me up the most. They’d barely gotten started in life, and they were already way too far down a bad path.
Maybe we could change that once the Storm was gone for good. We just had to get on with kicking him and his men out of here.
Without thinking about it, I pulled my childhood bracelet out of my pocket and twisted it between my fingers. The memory of Xavier looming over me on the backyard fence flickered through my mind, along with an echo of the momentary helplessness I’d felt. It was hard to fully concentrate on anything with his words running through my mind. Especially the way he’d talked about Mom and her supposed death.
I shook away those thoughts and focused on the rest of the photos as well as I could. When I’d reached the last one, I handed the tablet back to Gideon.
“A few of them look vaguely familiar, probably from seeing them around town. I’ve never had a bad run-in with any of them—nothing significant I can think of.” I paused. “Is Kaige okay? With the whole drug bribery thing, I mean?” I knew how much he hated seeing Glory distributed on the streets. Watching his own people hand it out must have been even harder.
“He understood why we’re doing it,” Gideon said. “He definitely wasn’t happy about it, but he managed to keep himself together. It’s only until this war is over with.” He sighed. “I wish we could have gotten more use out of the tracker I placed on Xavier. He must have realized we used it to trace him to the Storm’s secret facility, considering we blew it up the night after he went out there. It’s still active, but it hasn’t moved since last night. I think he’s just stuck it somewhere to throw us off his trail.”
“Figures.”
He glanced at me. “I particularly wish I’d been able to see that he was heading to your house so I could have warned you.”
I reached over and squeezed his hand. Gideon sometimes got it into his head that he wasn’t doing enough to protect me just because his ways were with data and devices rather than kicking ass, but that was ridiculous. “It’s not your fault. Anyway, maybe it’s a good thing that Xavier had a chance to vent at me so I could find out why he’s so obsessed with me and taking over Paradise Bend.”
“Yeah.” Gideon exhaled in a huff. “Him and your mom, way back when. Who would have thought?”
“Maybe weshouldhave thought there was some kind of connection like that considering the way he was going after me.” My thumb slid over the engraved panel on my bracelet, and a sudden inspiration sparked in my head. “Gideon, how difficult is it to dig up information on people who have been missing for a while?”
Gideon raised an eyebrow. “Do you have somebody in mind?”
I hesitated. I’d never talked about my mom much with the guys, and it wasn’t as if knowing the truth about what’d happened to her fifteen years ago was all that urgent. “I don’t want to burden you if there’s more work you need to do to get ready for our next assault on the Storm.”
“It’s no problem,” Gideon said. “I’ve already scoured the files the Long Night sent over at least a dozen times. Right now, we’re waiting on Beckett to get back to us with more information before we commit to our next moves.”
I clasped my hands together on my lap. “I’m hoping you can find my mom.”
Gideon blinked, and then understanding lit his eyes. “You want to find out if Xavier’s right about her.”
“Yeah. AllIknow is that she took off… or something… when I was six—fifteen years ago. She just vanished one day, and my dad claimed she’d skipped town. I’ve never been sure whether that was true, but with the things Xavier claimed—I need to know whether she’s out there, or if she’s actually dead. Just to get the questions out of my head.”