Shadow Bound
Page 111
“Mr. Holt, may I offer you a ride?” Her head was tilted slightly to the left, but her cool smile was on straight.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You say that like I have some choice in the matter.”
“In fact, you have three choices. You may ride in here with me, up front with the driver, or in the trunk.”
“And if I decline all three options?”
“My brother Jonah is in a basement cell right now, hoping that’s exactly what you’ll do. The young woman with him is no doubt praying you’ll show better sense.”
“Vanessa?” I asked, and Julia nodded. “What makes you think I care what happens to a woman I’ve never even met?”
“I know you care, because I know the real Ian Holt—the man who doesn’t own a personal computer and doesn’t even know what kind of systems he supposedly analyzes.” She paused a moment to let me truly experience the shock of her words. “I know Ian Holt, the soldier who defied a direct order to pull an injured friend out of the line of fire. The brother who rose from the grave—feigned though that grave was—and stepped back into his own identity to save his twin from certain agonizing death. That Ian Holt can’t help himself—he’s at the mercy of a ruthless hero complex.”
“How…?” I started to ask how she knew. Then I realized that didn’t matter. What mattered was, “How long have you known?”
“Mr. Holt, we would never have asked you to become one of us if we didn’t already know how many fillings are in your teeth and how you broke your arm in the third grade.”
I had broken my arm in the third grade… “Lila Sobresky—”
“Pushed you off the slide. I know.” She folded her hands in her lap, and I couldn’t take my gaze from her face. From eyes that saw more than they should and ears that seemed to hear my very thoughts. “I also know that your mother is first-generation Irish-American, which is where you get those striking green eyes, and your father is fifth-generation African-American, the source of your lovely dark skin. You and your brother are fraternal twins, but you looked virtually identical until he began wasting away in excruciating pain two weeks ago. Steven was named for your paternal grandfather, who spelled his name with a ph instead of a v. Your mother named you after her older brother. Sweet, but stupid. Almost as stupid as it was for you and your brother to keep the names. But switching them…?” Julia laughed, and the sound bounced around inside my head like nuts and bolts clanging in the dryer. “That was clever. We might never have figured that part out, if you and your brother hadn’t already pinged our radar years ago, thanks to the younger Miss Daniels.”
Her gaze trailed over my face and down the front of my shirt, like she could see the flesh beneath, and my teeth ground together so hard my jaw ached. “You are quite a prize, Mr. Holt. A soldier with a philosophy degree under a stolen identity. A thinker and a fighter, with a strong, thick—” her gaze traveled lower “—protective streak. No wonder Korinne fell for you.”
My anger built with every word she spoke, like my secrets were worth less than the lipstick staining the mouth that spilled them. I’d rarely wanted to punch a woman, but I wanted to drive Julia Tower’s straight, white teeth through the back of her skull, just so I wouldn’t have to hear another word come out of her mouth.
“Get in the car, or Vanessa loses a finger.”
I hesitated, gripping the car door where the window had receded into it, letting my anger swell a little more. Grow a little more useful. Then I opened the door, not because Julia had told me to, but because she represented the most direct path through Tower’s heavily guarded headquarters to the basement, where Vanessa and Kori needed me to be. But before I could sit, Julia held up a hand to stop me. “Place your weapons in the front seat.” Where they would be beyond my reach, thanks to the panel separating driver from passengers.
But that was not unexpected.
I opened the front door and dropped both guns on the seat, then slid onto the backseat next to Julia Tower. Before I’d even closed the door, I wondered if I’d made a tactical error. If bending to her will, even for my own purpose, was the first of many steps in the devouring of my soul by the beast that was her brother’s organization.
“Kori didn’t know any of that, did she?” I asked, twisting to face Julia on the bench seat. Why would they keep their recruiter in the dark about her own recruit?
“Korinne knew only what she needed to know,” Julia said as the car pulled away from the curb. “But Jake and I knew why you really accepted our invitation from the beginning. And we knew you would never go through with your cold-blooded mission because at your core, pulsing where your heart should be, is a stubborn kernel of chivalry, rotting you alive like a cancer. You didn’t kill Kenley Daniels when you had the chance because you couldn’t. And you fell for Kori like a schoolboy in love the moment you got that first glimpse of her poor, abused, damaged heart. Just like Jake knew you would.”
My fist clenched around the door handle. “If Tower knew I had no intention of joining, why send Kori to recruit me?”
Julia laughed, like she’d never heard anything truly amusing until that very moment. “Korinne wasn’t recruiting you. She was living out her sentence. Jake got bored with her in the basement.” Julia frowned in thought. “That’s what he says, anyway, but he’s lying.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You say that like I have some choice in the matter.”
“In fact, you have three choices. You may ride in here with me, up front with the driver, or in the trunk.”
“And if I decline all three options?”
“My brother Jonah is in a basement cell right now, hoping that’s exactly what you’ll do. The young woman with him is no doubt praying you’ll show better sense.”
“Vanessa?” I asked, and Julia nodded. “What makes you think I care what happens to a woman I’ve never even met?”
“I know you care, because I know the real Ian Holt—the man who doesn’t own a personal computer and doesn’t even know what kind of systems he supposedly analyzes.” She paused a moment to let me truly experience the shock of her words. “I know Ian Holt, the soldier who defied a direct order to pull an injured friend out of the line of fire. The brother who rose from the grave—feigned though that grave was—and stepped back into his own identity to save his twin from certain agonizing death. That Ian Holt can’t help himself—he’s at the mercy of a ruthless hero complex.”
“How…?” I started to ask how she knew. Then I realized that didn’t matter. What mattered was, “How long have you known?”
“Mr. Holt, we would never have asked you to become one of us if we didn’t already know how many fillings are in your teeth and how you broke your arm in the third grade.”
I had broken my arm in the third grade… “Lila Sobresky—”
“Pushed you off the slide. I know.” She folded her hands in her lap, and I couldn’t take my gaze from her face. From eyes that saw more than they should and ears that seemed to hear my very thoughts. “I also know that your mother is first-generation Irish-American, which is where you get those striking green eyes, and your father is fifth-generation African-American, the source of your lovely dark skin. You and your brother are fraternal twins, but you looked virtually identical until he began wasting away in excruciating pain two weeks ago. Steven was named for your paternal grandfather, who spelled his name with a ph instead of a v. Your mother named you after her older brother. Sweet, but stupid. Almost as stupid as it was for you and your brother to keep the names. But switching them…?” Julia laughed, and the sound bounced around inside my head like nuts and bolts clanging in the dryer. “That was clever. We might never have figured that part out, if you and your brother hadn’t already pinged our radar years ago, thanks to the younger Miss Daniels.”
Her gaze trailed over my face and down the front of my shirt, like she could see the flesh beneath, and my teeth ground together so hard my jaw ached. “You are quite a prize, Mr. Holt. A soldier with a philosophy degree under a stolen identity. A thinker and a fighter, with a strong, thick—” her gaze traveled lower “—protective streak. No wonder Korinne fell for you.”
My anger built with every word she spoke, like my secrets were worth less than the lipstick staining the mouth that spilled them. I’d rarely wanted to punch a woman, but I wanted to drive Julia Tower’s straight, white teeth through the back of her skull, just so I wouldn’t have to hear another word come out of her mouth.
“Get in the car, or Vanessa loses a finger.”
I hesitated, gripping the car door where the window had receded into it, letting my anger swell a little more. Grow a little more useful. Then I opened the door, not because Julia had told me to, but because she represented the most direct path through Tower’s heavily guarded headquarters to the basement, where Vanessa and Kori needed me to be. But before I could sit, Julia held up a hand to stop me. “Place your weapons in the front seat.” Where they would be beyond my reach, thanks to the panel separating driver from passengers.
But that was not unexpected.
I opened the front door and dropped both guns on the seat, then slid onto the backseat next to Julia Tower. Before I’d even closed the door, I wondered if I’d made a tactical error. If bending to her will, even for my own purpose, was the first of many steps in the devouring of my soul by the beast that was her brother’s organization.
“Kori didn’t know any of that, did she?” I asked, twisting to face Julia on the bench seat. Why would they keep their recruiter in the dark about her own recruit?
“Korinne knew only what she needed to know,” Julia said as the car pulled away from the curb. “But Jake and I knew why you really accepted our invitation from the beginning. And we knew you would never go through with your cold-blooded mission because at your core, pulsing where your heart should be, is a stubborn kernel of chivalry, rotting you alive like a cancer. You didn’t kill Kenley Daniels when you had the chance because you couldn’t. And you fell for Kori like a schoolboy in love the moment you got that first glimpse of her poor, abused, damaged heart. Just like Jake knew you would.”
My fist clenched around the door handle. “If Tower knew I had no intention of joining, why send Kori to recruit me?”
Julia laughed, like she’d never heard anything truly amusing until that very moment. “Korinne wasn’t recruiting you. She was living out her sentence. Jake got bored with her in the basement.” Julia frowned in thought. “That’s what he says, anyway, but he’s lying.”
