Phoenix. Hearing him say a name reminded me of the familiarity he had with these girls. “You know them?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately.”
“I’m getting tired of this, Erik,” Phoenix, the leader, growled. “You can’t hold us off all night.”
“Listen, we both know I have information you want. You’re not going to rush in and fight me.”
“You used to be one of us,” a new voice proclaimed.
Erik stiffened. A look of absolute defenselessness passed over his expression. “Cara?”
“Yeah,” Cara said, her voice hard, stiff. “I’m here, too. You almost killed me with your stuntman driving.”
Why had he stiffened? Why the defenselessness? And he’d once been an A.I.R. agent? He did seem to know a lot about them. And I’d never seen anyone use a weapon quite so expertly.
“You may not want to fight us,” Cara said, “but I’d love to smash your face in.”
Ex-girlfriend, I decided with a twinge of jealousy. “How long have you two been broken up?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Erik shrugged, pulling his attention back to me. “How’d you know we dated?”
I tapped a fingertip to my temple. “Smart.”
“A few months,” he said with a small grin.
“What’d you do to make her so mad?”
His lips pursed, destroying all hint of that grin. “Not a good time to discuss that.”
“Just like you know we won’t kill you,” Cara added as if there had never been a lag in their conversation, “we know you won’t kill us.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” he growled darkly. “Not anymore. Maybe not ever.”
Pause.
“I’m approaching, and if you singe a single hair on my head I’ll kill you the way I’ve wanted for months,” Cara said.
“Sure you want to risk it, babe?” he said to her. “I’ve wanted to hurt you, too. I’ve dreamed of it, in fact.”
Babe? Babe! Did he still have feelings for her? None of my business, it didn’t matter, shouldn’t matter, but…obviously, he did still care and obviously I did, too. He’d kissed me, after all.
Plop.
My brow furrowed. What had made that sound?
“I dropped my gun,” Cara said, answering my unspoken question. “I’m weaponless.”
Erik snorted and peeked over the car window. “But you’re never defenseless.”
I, too, peeked through the window and watched as a beautiful Asian girl stepped into the light. She had smooth, caramel-colored skin, almond-shaped brown eyes, and rich, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was medium-size and lithe, her smooth curves encased in tight, black syn-leather.
My head tilted to the side and I frowned. She’d been at the Ship. She’d been in that group of girls who had watched Erik so intently. She hadn’t watched Erik the whole time, though. She’d mostly watched me.
Had she suspected me of working with him, even then? Dear God. Maybe the night had been doomed to fail no matter what I’d done. The girls as they’d walked up to the bar replayed through my mind…one of them had a blue trident tattooed on her face, one had pale hair and pretty features. One had brown hair and a sharp gaze. I couldn’t recall the others, though. I only knew that there had been others.
Were they all here? Probably. My stomach twisted with the thought. That meant we couldn’t see them all; some had to be hiding. Maybe even sneaking in behind us.
“There’s more, Erik. There’s more!”
He understood what I was saying. “I know. Three have already worked their way in front of the car. The building is keeping them from having a clear shot, though, so don’t worry.”
Don’t worry? Don’t worry!
If Erik knew these girls so well, why hadn’t he left the Ship the moment he’d spied them? I know he’d seen them. He’d stiffened and moved his meeting with Half-Mask to another room.
To save innocents in case a gunfight broke out?
“Damn it, Cara,” he suddenly snarled.
Cara continued to walk toward us, maintaining a slow and steady pace. Strands of her dark hair wisped around her lovely face. “That isn’t what you used to say to me. You used to be happy to see me.”
No wonder Erik hadn’t ever asked me out; he used to date perfection.
“That was a long time ago,” Erik told her.
“And a lot of things have changed since then. Including your appearance. Thought we wouldn’t recognize you with a different hair color? Thought we wouldn’t find out you’d had eye surgery, replacing your own peeps with someone else’s? You looked better with green eyes, I must say.”
“Stop!” he shouted, gruff. “I don’t want you any closer.”
If she reached us…Lord, I didn’t know. What would she do? Nothing good, that much was obvious. There was fury in her pretty brown eyes. And what would Erik do? He obviously didn’t want to hurt her or he would have fired by now.
For the first time since this night of terror had begun, Erik appeared deeply and unequivocally scared—and that frightened me all the more.
I mean, if he was scared, something terrible was about to go down. Every warning he’d given me about A.I.R. flashed through my mind. Pain. Torture. Death. So far, he’d been right about everything else.
If he wouldn’t protect us, I had to.
Gulping, I searched the area for some sort of weapon. I saw dirt, gravel, brittle blades of grass. A few rocks. Then I saw the handle of a gun sticking out of the waist of Erik’s pants. I’d never handled a gun before. They weren’t even allowed in my house because my dad abhorred violence of every kind.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed the weapon and aimed it at Cara. I didn’t fire, just shouted, “I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it.” That’s so lame, Robins!
Erik jerked in surprise, reached out for me, then thought better of it and stilled. Cara, too, froze in place.
“He might not shoot you,” I said, “but I will.” Maybe. Oh hell. What are you doing?
“Innocent, huh?” A look of disgust washed over Cara’s delicate features. “Get control of your girlfriend, Erik,” she snapped, stepping forward again.
My hand trembled. “I’ll shoot. I will. I just want you to stop and listen to what I have to say. Don’t threaten us anymore. All right?”