The Revenge by Tijan

“And yet you’re the one tied up here.”

His eyes went flat at the reminder. His hands jerked, but they didn’t ball into fists.

They remained flat, resting.

I was looking at him all anew, thinking back on everything. How he hadn’t fought. How he hadn’t asked questions or made demands. He’d been perfect … but those hands.

They never balled into fists. Not once. He jerked his arms, but they still remained flat.

Understanding dawned, and I stepped back from him.

Like he was preserving his energy.

Like he was waiting.

Like he was looking for his chance.

He knew how to fight. I bested him in the apartment, but had I?

That small knife.

“You knew,” I murmured.

Yes. He knew he would be taken captive.

He knew there were body scans.

He knew he’d have to go in weaponless or he never would’ve gotten in, but he needed to go in.

“You couldn’t stand going in without anything to defend yourself. That’s why you brought in the small switchblade. You hid it. We found the towel on you. You had it wrapped up, and there was tape. We had someone put it back together. You had the tape to cover the ends of it, to make it look like something else, not a knife at all.” Shit. Shit. I saw the knife taped back up, but I hadn’t thought about it.

I was thinking on it now.

I moved back another step.

He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t reacting. It was like he was just waiting for … what? For me to piece it all together?

And then I really thought about him, and about where he grew up.

Another step back, toward my gun. “I turned myself into a human living weapon, and that was just training in preparation for him. But you…” Yeah. I was right. I felt it. It was clicking all the way down to my bones. “You lived with him. You were under his thumb. He tortured our aunt. He killed our mother. Jesus. You were there. You endured that. What does that make you? No way could someone live through that and come out unscathed.”

He had to be unhinged. Had to be.

His eyes twitched. Not his eyelids, or his lashes. His eyes themselves. That was the real him. I was getting in there. I was digging all the way in there.

I just needed him to show his face, his real face.

I needed to see who I was really dealing with, because what I was seeing was a mask.

Had to be.

I kept on, my voice growing soft. “If he knew you were gone, he would be frantic. What was his plan with you? Because he had one.”

He didn’t talk.

His eyes flashed, then went dull. His head lowered. His shoulders slumped.

Fucking hell.

It was like I pushed a button and he was a robot, turning off.

Talking was done. I’d gotten the information I needed, and I grabbed my things, but I barked at Josh, “I want a tranq, now!”

I sensed movement behind me. While I was in the process of grabbing my gun, his head whipped up, and if I’d been questioning myself a second earlier, that was all gone. I was right. His eyes went feral and he simply stood up.

He simply stood up!

His restraints were gone.

My hands closed around the gun. I was swinging around, but then he was there. He caught at my shoulder, his hands going to my wrist, and he stopped me midswing. Then he looked at me and said, “You’re wrong, and I’ll prove it to you.”

Shouting.

Shots were fired.

Guards were streaming into the warehouse, but he let me go. He turned, and before I could incapacitate him, he was gone.

The door banged shut behind him, and the guards were running after him. But me, I was left with another realization. Despite him running now and despite him not trying to hurt me, I knew it in my bones. He hadn’t gotten free from our grandfather.

He’d been let free.

I had no clue why.

Then Josh was approaching, his phone to his ear. I heard him say, “I’ll tell him.” He put the phone to his chest, looked up at me. “It’s Matt. Something’s happened.”





NINETEEN

Bailey


We were pulling up to Phoenix Tech and not the Chesapeake.

“What is going on?” I leaned forward, a hand to the back of Fitz’s seat in front.

“We’re meeting Kash here instead.”

Matt was frowning, too, so I wasn’t the only one in Lostville, USA.

We got out, following Fitz. Matt’s guards fell in step right behind us. The front door of Phoenix Tech was opened. More guards were there, and we walked past all of them, all the way to the elevator and up to the top floor, and when we stepped outside, I was having a moment.

I knew where we were going, and I’d never been to my father’s office in this building.

I would’ve fangirled so hard going in there before this summer, but then the summer happened. But right then and there, I wasn’t the daughter of Peter Francis walking inside. Okay. Maybe there was still some fangirling happening in me. I was the little nine-year-old that got her first Computer Weekly with Peter Francis on the cover as a birthday gift.

I think my knees were knocking together.

Matt frowned at me. “What are you doing?”

“Noth—” Total nerd squeak there. I coughed, my tone lower and calmer. “Nothing. I’m good.”

My stomach was still doing loop-de-loops, but okay. We were here, and I saw my father, and the moment was done.