I arched an eyebrow, my body relaxing into a stance that would have me ready for him to throw something at me. Magic, a punch, whatever it was, I was as ready as I could be.
Stupid, I knew that now. But I’d been young and full of myself and so sure of my abilities that I could not see when I was outmatched. I suspected it was why I hadn’t lost a fight up to that point.
“Which ones are repelled by Mancini?” Simon asked softly, his voice that perfect tone that Zee used on me so he didn’t break the recollection. The tone that held me in the memory and helped me find every last detail that could be useful.
“His closest men, those I think that have seen him kill. Those that have seen whatever he is under the expensive suits he wears. My father is drawn to him, unafraid, and that bothers Mancini.” My eyes snapped open and I drew a lung-clearing breath. “You’ve done that before.”
“What?” Simon’s eyes were all innocence which did nothing for my irritation. And the realization that there was something in my coffee that had lulled me into that state of relaxation. I sat up, rolled down the side window and threw the coffee out. “You drugged me?”
“Not exactly. I just wanted you a bit on the slower side.” He grinned, but he was nervous. I plowed on even though my limbs were sluggish.
I tried a different tactic. “You know how not to break up a recall. You know how to help it along and send someone deeper.” I struggled to get to Dinah or Eleanor. My fingers barely twitched. Did Simon know how close I was to being totally unable to defend myself? Fuck, fuck! Noah was close, but he would do nothing until we pulled over. There was no way for me to signal him even.
“Ah, well, that’s an abnormal trick. Your Hider used it on you, I’m guessing, or you wouldn’t have slid into it so easily,” he said.
I wanted to reach over and grab him, but I tamed that need knowing it would show him just how dulled my reflexes were. Besides, he was right about one part of that. Zee had used that lulling trick on me more than once. And he’d warned me that in doing so, it opened me to being more suggestive, and if any other abnormal realized it, they could use it against me.
“Let’s do a recap, shall we?” Simon tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “Romano is probably sending one of his guardians after you at some point.”
I nodded, which by then, was about all I could do.
“By the looks of it, Mancini and/or the Collective have put an open bounty on your head that every abnormal in the country is aware of. And you aren’t worried at all about either of these things, which if you don’t mind me saying so, is stupid. You need to be smarter, Nix.”
I nodded again, a small smile slipping over my slowly numbing lips. “I wouldn’t say I’m not worried, Simon. I’d say that I don’t care.” It took everything I had to lean forward so I could rest my arms on the back of his seat with my mouth near his ear. “When you have lost everything that makes you whole, what is left? Your life? That is nothing. Your soul? I’m not sure I had one to begin with.” I let out a slow breath and he shivered. “No, I’m not worried.”
“Cocky,” he said. “That will get you killed, and me, too. I won’t let that happen. I like living. And I like money. In fact, the two together are amazing.”
“Then go your own way.” I blew a breath along the back of his neck, knowing already his answer. Simon wanted my body, and I was not above using that for my own help. “Go and find your money elsewhere.”
He pulled the car over suddenly, jerking the steering wheel to the side and I slid back, slumping against the seat. Adrenaline pounded through me, slowing whatever it was he’d put in my coffee. I managed to pull Dinah free from her holster and tip her muzzle at him.
“Tell me I can shoot him,” she said. “I never liked him anyway.”
Simon twisted in his seat, his eyes narrowed. “You want to go there with me? You want to see if you can take me on? That’s not how friends behave.”
I rolled my eyes. “You fucking drugged me, Simon. You are not my friend. Though I’m holding back shooting you just so I can find out what the fuck changed.”
His jaw ticked, but otherwise he didn’t move. “Mancini wants you.”
I blinked, adrenaline fading and my body sliding deeper into the no man’s land of unconsciousness. Shit. “We already covered that.”
He shook his head. “He contacted me, Nix. He asked me to bring you in for an enormous amount of money. It’s good that he wants you alive. And I’d rather see you alive with him, than dead because of some random abnormal who attacks you when you aren’t looking.”
I sat there and waited because the drug had fully kicked in. I pulled Dinah’s trigger as I slumped to the side. Simon yelled, Abe started barking and Dinah and Eleanor screamed at me to wake up.
I could do nothing but lay there and hope to hell I could wake up before Simon got me anywhere near a plane or other transport. That maybe Noah would manage to help, that he would be the friend he claimed he was. This was what I got for trusting anyone at all, drugged and taken off to meet a man who made my father look like a pussycat.
The darkness slid over me, and just like that, I was at the mercy of an abnormal working for Mancini.
The second I woke up, I was going to kill Simon.
Chapter Four
After the chaos in the car, I floated along in the darkness of forced unconsciousness for some time. I dipped in and out of being awake. I think at some point, Simon force fed me more of the bitter drug to keep me under. Warmth lay against my one side, which told me Abe was still with me and he growled every time Simon came close.
Noah made a brief appearance.
“She’s good and drugged?”
“Yeah. You working for Mancini?”
“No,” Noah said.
“Then why are you letting me take her?”
I had the same question and I fought to stay awake to hear the answer, but the dark of my mind sucked me under before I heard Noah’s explanation.
Then there was a sensation of losing gravity and I knew we were in the air, in a plane, headed for Mancini, which would likely mean New York.
When I finally began to rouse, the drug worn off, hours had fled. Hours lost that could have been used in getting to Seattle and the code breaker, Talia. I was awake, but I didn’t open my eyes, nor did I let my breathing change from the deep slow pulls that indicated unconsciousness.
“How much longer will she sleep?” a voice I didn’t know asked.
“She’ll be awake soon,” Simon answered. “Keep a close eye on her.”
I took stock of my body. Throbbing shoulder, same wounds as before, and a solid pair of handcuffs that kept my hands tight behind my back. Abe’s face was tucked close to mine, and mesh was wrapped over his snout. A muzzle then. He whined softly and I opened one eye a crack. From the paneling and the flooring, the struts on the seats strapping them down, we were still on a plane.
That was good and bad.
The two men’s voices were a few feet away. “Dinah.” I whispered her name.
No answer. If Dinah couldn’t hear me, then the two guns were likely locked away. Worming my backside, I slid my cuffed hands over my ass and pulled my legs through the loop. Thank God for limber muscles. I slid my fingers into the edge of Abe’s muzzle and slid it off.