Beyond These Walls (12 page)

Then I thought nothing at all.

Chapter 24

“Indeara,” a voice shimmered at the edge of my awareness. I tried to focus on it, to pull myself from the haze inside my brain. “Stay with me.” Warm calloused hands caressed the side of my face.

The side someone had tried to bash in.

With sudden clarity, I returned to consciousness, my head achy but still functional. “Son-of-a-bitch,” I whispered, opening my eyes to stare into the hard lined face of Jake McClain. “Did you hit me?” I struggled to sit up.

“What?!” Concern quickly twisted to anger. “I found you bleeding on the floor and saved your sorry ass by getting you out of Resden.” I believe he added ‘you ungrateful bitch’ under his breath, but I decided to ignore it. “And you ask me if I hit you?”

When he put it that way…

“Can you walk?” Jake hooked his muscular forearms under my arms and lifted me up. I swayed slightly, but my mutated genes had already done their job, and returned me to my semi-healthy state. The ache in my head receded and an apology formed on my lips. And stayed there. I’d be damned if I’d apologize to Jake just yet. After all, how had he found me at Resden in the first place?

At best he’d been following me. The at worst…I didn’t want to even consider the worst. Not yet. “Where are we?” I asked instead as my eyes scanned the small room. It looked like a woman’s room, an overcompensating woman at that, with lots of feminine colors and lace draped over every surface. Figured. Jake didn’t strike me as a mutant who lacked for female companionship.

Stupid hunter.

Jake rubbed his jaw, and for the first time, I noticed how tired he appeared. Lines creased the corner of his eyes and his mouth. His clothes were rumbled too, as if he’d recently tossed them on in a hurry.

Explained the chick’s bedroom.

“We’re about a mile from the wall.” He paused. “At a friend’s brownstone.”

Friend? What exactly did that mean? Friend of mutants or of Jake McClain, man of mystery? And why the hell did the idea of Jake involved with a human woman annoy me? I was losing it. No other explanation. At least none I’d willing explore.

“What about Nobody?” I ran a hand through my blood-soaked hair. Flecks of rusty brown blood stuck to my fingers. I must look like hell, I thought, which Jake confirmed a few seconds later when he winced and avoided my eye.

“No luck.” He shook his head. “But I did get word the HOA’s also on his trail.”

My heart leapt in my chest. If the HOA was looking for Nobody then Resden didn’t have him, and maybe, for the moment, he was safe. “Thanks.” I grinned.

“So what did you find out?” Jake wiped a smear of blood from my cheek. “Something worth bashing your brains in for?”

I shrugged, not ready to tell him my suspicions about dear old Arthur. Not without proof. Besides, what would I say? My granddad had created a plague and was using it like a weapon against mutants? He’d think I was insane. Not that I’d blame him. It sounded pretty paranoid, even to me.

Speaking of paranoid.

“How did you find me?” I asked. “At Resden, I mean. How’d you know I was there?”

He flushed and an alarm bell joined the chorus of bells in my head. I wasn’t going to like whatever he said. He licked his lips and avoided my eyes. “GPS.”

“What?” I couldn’t have heard him right.

“Tracking device,” he repeated. “Right back pocket.”

“You bugged me?!” When? How? Oh God, our kiss. He’d slipped the device in my pants when I was draped over him like a cheap nightcrawler. A blush stained my cheeks, but rage quickly swamped my embarrassment.

Jake stepped closer to me, a smile touching his lips. “It wasn’t like that—.”

“Don’t.”

“Come on, Indeara.” He reached for me, but I slapped his hand away. His grin widened. “What’s a little GPS between lovers, huh?”

“We are not lovers,” I bit out each word.

He laughed. “Not at the moment.”

“Not ever.” I shoved him and stormed past. Since I had no idea where I was or how to get out of his friend’s house my dramatic exit suffered a bit. Yet blind fury propelled me from the bedroom and down a long hallway. If I’d been paying better attention, I could’ve saved myself plenty of confusion later on, but as it was, I only wanted to get as far as I could away from Jake McClain. The deceitful, deluded jerk.

After opening door after door, I finally located the exit. I stepped into the bright early morning sunshine and winced. Humans surrounded me, armed with Starbucks cups and business suits. They gave me a wide berth though. Not that I blamed them. There I stood, in the middle of the street with one pink boot, my hair and clothes mattered with dried blood, jumping up and down on top a small GPS device I’d found tucked in my back pocket.

It wasn’t my finest hour.

Or next couple of days for that matter.

Chapter 25

“Truce,” Jake said, handing me a cup of coffee and my other combat boot. I took his peace offerings and nodded. My anger had faded somewhat, and I had to admit I would’ve done the same thing had I thought of it first. Hell, I pretty much had done the same to Quinn and his wallet. Of course, Quinn had deserved it while I was an innocent victim.

“So where do we go from here?” I nodded up the street toward the concrete of the wall and the mutant world behind it. A part of me wanted to head home, to regroup, but I couldn’t leave. Not without my only friend.

“Home,” he said as if reading my mind. “The way I figure it, we’re not finding the answers here, so they must be back there.”

“No, if Nobody was in the mutant world, I’d know it.” I shook my head. “He would’ve contacted me.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way.” Jake winced and rubbed at the hard line of his jaw. “But maybe the guy needed a break. I’m guessing you’re not the easiest person to live with.”

“Not Nobody.” I refused to let Jake’s words hurt me. What did I care what a stupid hunter thought of me? “Besides Caren said she saw Quinn that night.”

So why did I trust Quinn when he said it wasn’t him? I had too many questions, and not enough bloodshed in search of answers to satisfy me.

Jake stared at some invisible spec on the blacktop, his fingers drumming against his leg. “I got it,” he said after a few minutes of silence. “Caren she saw a man from a photograph in your room, right? Until now we assumed that picture was of your ex, but what if it was of someone else?”

My forehead wrinkled as I mentally flipped through the nearly empty photo album I kept in the drawer of my dresser. Most of the pages were devoted to fading images of my dead parents with a few exceptions, a page or two of holidays with the Daniels family, a couple of photographs of Quinn stretched across my bed, his grey eyes burning with secrets. And a few photographs I’d inherited from my mother. Pictures of her family. Pictures of Arthur.

“Damn.” I snapped my fingers. “What if Caren was referring to a photograph of my grandfather, and not Quinn?”

But that didn’t make sense either. Arthur was an old man, a sick old man at that. And for all my teasing Nobody wasn’t a shrieking violet. He had skills, muscles, and height on his side. He had put up a fight.

No, Arthur wasn’t the man.

So who was?

“It had to be Quinn,” I said.

“I wouldn’t put it past the asshole.” Jake shrugged. “But it feels like there’s more. Like we’re missing something.”

I raised an eyebrow. Did Jake and Quinn know each other? And if so, how? Were they in cahoots, feeding me tiny crumbs of information to keep me happy, while they tracked my every move?

Damn, that sounded even more paranoid than the belief my grandfather created a plague to destroy the man who married his precious Emily. Soon I’d be wearing tinfoil hats and wandering around the city in my pajamas.

Jake grinned, misinterpreting my grimace. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m good at my job. I’ll find your Nobody.” He winked. “And when I do, we’ll both get what we want.” As he finished his sentence, he clasped his hand around my neck and pulled me into his powerful body for a rough, passionate kiss. I stood still in his embrace, enjoying the pleasure of his lips and muscular body against mine. His hand slipped south, caressing my backside with vigor.

“Stop.” I shoved him away and quickly jumped to my feet. “Are you planting more bugs?”

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head.

“So what was that about?”

“Honey,” he drawled. “If I have to explain it, I’m not doing it right.”

Oh, but he was.

And I’d be dammed if he’d do it again.

Chapter 26

A mutant with at least eight extra arms called to Jake from the opposite side of the gate. “Hey Daniels,” he said, waving a row of arms. “Over here, Quinn. I got the info you wanted.”

Quinn? What the hell?

My eyes cut to Jake.

“Keep your mouth shut and I’ll explain everything.” Jake didn’t wait for my agreement, but dragged me toward the mutant once we cleared security. Shaking hands with the mutant in some fancy guy code handshake, Jake nodded in my direction, but didn’t introduce me. In fact, he tried to use his body to shield me from the mutant’s view. I hated that and made my point by stepping around him and introducing myself.

“Hi, I’m Indeara Adair.” I held out my hand, and the mutant stepped back as if I was diseased. Which I was, but he didn’t know that. My dislike for Jake’s eight-armed friend increased. “And you are?”

Jake answered for him. “This is Baker. He sells information.” Jake’s voice softened, a sure sign he was anything but pleased. “To either side.”

I dropped my hand and glared at the traitorous informant, but it didn’t seem to faze him.

“So Daniels, you want what I got or what?” asked Baker.

Hearing the mutant refer to Jake with Quinn’s name freaked me out more than I could explain. After all, Quinn was a body dweller. He could be anyone, anywhere.

Jake squeezed my hand, and I glanced into his clear blue eyes. Instantly, my suspicions vanished. Quinn couldn’t hide from me, not in any body. It was something about his stare, his smell. I’d know him anywhere.

Pulling a couple of twenties from his pocket, Jake passed them to the traitor. “Okay, give me what you got.”

The mutant smiled and counted the bills, his grin slipping a notch. “Know why the Resistance always loses? Because you don’t pay for shit.”

At the mention of the Resistance my ears perked up.

“Yeah, well, your intel’s usually crap anyway. So spill it or give me my money back and fuck off.” Jake cracked his knuckles. As an intimidation method it worked wonders. Even I cringed.

“That cyclops you’re looking for,” Baker said. “He was spotted yesterday. In Reptoe territory.”

I glanced at Jake, checking to see how he took the news. I prayed the mutant was lying, but I doubted it. He was too afraid of the hunter to lie.

“Where at?” Jake peeled off another twenty from the wad in his fist and waved it in the informant’s face.

“Underground.” He paused to lick his fat lips. “The sewers to be more precise.”

“Is he okay?” I grabbed the mutant’s jacket and gave him a small shake. Appearing too stunned by my bold move, he said nothing. So I shook him again. “Was he hurt?”

At my second shake the mutant reached for me, four out of eight of his fleshy hands making contact. His fingers dug into my skin, bruising my alloyed flesh. Internally I winced as they burrowed deeper, but I refused to give any outside indication of pain. Instead I went for my PM40. The traitorous mutant bastard would tell me what I wanted to know, or he’d lose an arm or two.

He could spare it.

Before my weapon cleared my bra holster, Jake punched the abusive mutant in the throat. With a small shriek Baker dropped to the ground gasping for breath. Since he still had numerous hands attached to me, I started to tumble with him but Jake caught me in time.

“You’re a disaster waiting to happen, you know that?” Jake shook his head. I couldn’t decide if he was truly angry or just annoyed with me. Well, that was until he shook me. “Because of your little trick I lost a prime informant. Why did I take this fucking job?”

His stance ignited my fight of flight response. Fight, of course, won out. I kicked him in the knee. My foot stung from impact. “I wondered the same thing. Who are you really?” I didn’t wait for his answer, but kicked him again. “You’re not any kind of hunter, that’s for sure. Can’t even find a 7 foot cyclops…”

“Enough.” Jake set me down and rubbed his knee. “I’ll tell you who I am, but you have to promise me something.”

“What?”

“That you won’t interfere.” His ice blue eyes turned colder. “No matter what.”

Like that would happen.

“I swear.” I held up three fingers in Mutant Scouts honor. I’d never been a Mutant Scout, but Nobody had, and he’d showed me the secret handshake along with how to help a old mutant across the street.

Jake rolled his eyes. “My name is Jake McClain. But you’re right, I’m not a hunter.”

Dramatic pause.

Enough of this crap, I thought. “So who the fuck are you?”

“The man you’ve been looking for all your life.” He grinned flashing stark white teeth. “The leader of the Resistance.”

Chapter 27

“Using, deceitful bastard,” I muttered for the third time in the last ten minutes. Not that Jake paid me any attention. He was too busy trying to coax Baker back into his informant stable. Every time I thought about Jake and his revelation, my blood heated, and I wanted to kick the snot out of him. He’d used me. Weaseled his way into my search for Nobody so he could keep an eye on me, all to protect his precious Resistance.

“Time to go,” Jake said from behind me. I didn’t want to go any where with the likes of him, but a kitty-rat curiosity got the better of me.

I followed Jake to a beat up minivan, and we climbed inside. It smelled of sweat and lemonade. Of summer days. Days spent watching tiny mutant kids play while their oblivious mutated parents watched on. I shook my head, saddened by the truth. The leader of the mutantity’s last hope drove a minivan. Was the mutant world even worth saving?