start to play,
The man wheezed out a breath in response.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
VAUGHNNE made it back to the area as quick as she could and the warning was still a scream in her head. The fire was out. Awesome. Gus was still crouched over the pyrokinetic.
He had his gun pressed against the man’s groin and Vaughnne grimaced a little. The man looked ghost- white and he was babbling out answers so fast, she could barely process them.
Gus didn’t look to have that problem. The man finally stumbled to a stop and Gus twisted the weapon against his scrotum. “You’re sure that’s all you know,
“No. Nothing.” His eyes were wide, locked on Gus’s face like he’d never seen anything so terrifying in his life.
It was a scary thing to look at a man and know he could, and would, kill you without any remorse, without blinking an eye.
“And what was the latest update on the website?”
“Not much.” The pyro licked his lips and wheeled his head around to look at Vaughnne. “Word is out about her.” Something that might have been hope bled into his eyes. “Hey, I hear tell you’re a cop . . . you . . . you can’t let him kill me.”
She lifted a brow. “Word is out about me?”
He nodded, a quick, awkward bob of his head. “One of the mods can see things. She gets all technical with it, calls it remote viewing and shit, but she knew there was law enforcement working this—described you, this place . . .” His words ended in a whine as Gus reached up and laid a hand on his throat, squeezing lightly.
“You need to be useful,” Gus warned. “Or you die. Tell me something I can use. Don’t look at her and expect her to help you.”
Vaughnne took a few steps closer and knelt down by the man, careful to stay out of reach. “I want to know more about the others. How many are still chasing after the boy, do you know?”
“No.” He whined and clutched at his bleeding gut. “We don’t work like that. But—” He broke off.
“But what?”
He hunched in on himself, refusing to speak.
Gus sighed. “This man, he likes having me hurt him, I think.” He let go of the bastard’s throat, but before he could do anything else, the man’s breath gusted out of him.
And he started to talk once more. “It’s Gemma. One of the mods on the board. The one who saw this place, who knew about you. She’s telling people they need to pull off the job ’cuz it’s death all over. People listen to her. The smart ones, at least. I wasn’t going to take the job. But it’s so much money . . .”
Taut, heavy moments of silence stretched out, and when Gus abruptly stood, Vaughnne almost came out of her skin. And when he lifted the gun, leveled it at the man on the ground, she had hers in her hand. It was pointed at Gus’s head. “Don’t,” she said softly.
He didn’t even look at her.
“Gus, if you shoot him, I’m shooting you. He’s bleeding out, you’ve now scared him shitless, and he’s getting too weak to do anything,” she said. The man was pale, and getting paler by the second. He’d die if he didn’t get medical help. And she wasn’t ready to cross that line. She didn’t
Gus’s finger tensed. She could see it. “Gus, please. Don’t do this.”
The man sobbed.
“He was ready to kill you,” Gus said gently. “He can, even now. With that ability to use fire? And you would try to save him?”
“It’s not about saving him. He hunts kids. He’s scum, and I know that. This is about saving me . . . and you.”
He looked at her now, and in the depths of those beautiful eyes, she saw a flicker of something. Surprise, maybe.
“Saving me.” He shifted the gun away from the man, but she didn’t think for a minute that this was done. “Saving me, how?”
“He’s not strong enough now to go throwing fire around. Pyros have to work harder, and if he’s weak, he can’t handle it. He’s not the threat he was a few minutes ago. He’s wounded, and he’s unarmed. If we go around killing the helpless, we become just like the monsters.”
Thick black lashes fell down, shielding Gus’s eyes. “Vaughnne, I already am just like the monsters. It’s one of the reasons I was able to keep the boy alive.”
She shook her head. “No.”
Another long, tense silence and then finally he knelt back down. She held her breath as he changed his hold on the weapon and swung out, using it to club the man across the head. Her breath gusted out of her and she almost went to the ground in shock. “You cannot save me, Vaughnne,” he said softly. “I’m already lost. But you can pretend to save yourself . . . for a little while longer.”
NINETEEN
THE hotel had seen better days, that was for certain. It was mostly vacant, on an isolated little strip along the Texas interstate. The terrain had gone from lush and green to flat and brown, with scraggly little bushes that looked like they struggled to stay alive.
Kind of like the hotel.
Punch drunk with fatigue, she looked toward the highway, half expecting to see another SUV, a sedan with black windows . . . something ominous. It had been quiet for more than a day, ever since she and Gus had left the pyro tied up on the porch of that tiny little shack back in Louisiana.
She’d called Taylor. He’d said he’d handle it.
No telling how he was handling it, but she’d kept an eye on the news in that area. No reports of fires springing up out of the blue, so she didn’t have to have
And nobody else had caught up to them yet. The best she could do was hope they could get some rest before anyone new showed up on her radar. A couple of hours, she thought.
That was all she wanted.
“Are you thinking about running?”
She looked behind her as Gus came out of the bathroom.
She’d already showered and changed into some clothes he’d picked up for her earlier in the day. The tank top and yoga pants were comfortable enough to sleep in, but if she had to move—or fight—she could.
The only direction she really wanted to move just then, though, was toward the bed. She was so damn tired. Turning away from the window, she decided she’d do just that. This might be her last chance to get any decent rest for a while, right?
“No,” she said, shooting him a dark look. “I’m not thinking about running. For the hundredth time. If I decide I’m going to run, Gus, you’re not going to see me doing something so obvious as staring yearnfully out the window.”
A moment passed and then he echoed, “Yearnfully? Is this really a word?”
“Oh, bite me,” she muttered. She stretched out on the bed closest to the door. She had her Glock on the table right next to her, and out of habit, she reached for it, checked it. Loaded. Ready. It didn’t do much to ease any of the weight on her mind.
She put it down and closed her eyes.
Five seconds later, she jerked up in the bed as Gus lay down next to her, shirtless, wearing nothing but a
