Page 170 of The Vigilante's Lover

“No no no,” Jovana says. “Do not transmit.”

“Cancel revocation of command?” the car asks.

She turns to look at me. “You are more trouble than you are worth.”

“Good,” I say.

Mark concentrates on the terrain as we bump from the dirt road onto the highway. My body jerks with the motion of the car, and I cringe, expecting a burn from the laser grid. But I feel nothing. It seems to know what movements are caused by the car and what is something I’ve done on my own.

I think they’ve forgotten in their panic that I’ve removed all the cloaking. I suppress my smile.

“Enough of this,” Jovana says. She turns back to the dash. “Kill prisoner.”

“What?” Mark shouts. “No! Cancel command.”

“Conflicting commands,” the voice says. “Control restricted to Vigilante 67309.”

Jovana sits back in her seat, angry. “Well, at least only you can command the car now,” she says to Mark.

I try to calm my panic. Each rise of my chest makes the lasers buzz me. Would it be that easy to kill me?

“We are not incinerating a special in my car,” Mark says. His voice has lost all trace of friendliness. “Now you’re starting to be more troublethan YOU’RE worth.”

Jovana switches tactics, rubbing Mark on his forearm below the rolled-up sleeve. “This is a bad situation,” she says. “I’m glad you’re here to manage it.”

Surely this Mark guy isn’t going to fall for that number. But I can see his shoulders relax. Whatever she’s doing, it’s working. I start wondering about mood-enhanced speech. What it entails. How it works.

Something seems off about Jovana’s hand. Her skin isn’t quite right. Does she have one of those fake skins on? Like Klaus used when he poisoned Jax? Is she giving Mark some drug to calm him, make him compliant?

“I’m glad you called me,” Mark says.

Gotta be drugged. Nobody calms down that fast.

The dash lights up with a transmission.

“What the hell?” Jovana says. “I thought we were cloaked.” She lets go of Mark’s arm to stab at the screen.

Mark’s recovery is instant. “No, princess in the back here had the last accepted command.” Mark looks down at the message. “I’m going to have to take this call before we go off grid again.”

“No!” Jovana says. “I don’t want them to know where I am.”

“Then you better jump out of the car,” Mark says, “because I’m not putting my ass on the line for you right now.” He punches the screen.

The face that I see on the screen makes my pulse jump. It’s Colette! Her information scrolls below, but I can’t take my eyes off her face. I can’t believe it’s her!

“I see you’ve got some interesting cargo,” she says. “How about you let me take one of them off your hands?”

“Don’t listen to her,” Jovana says. “She’s in league with Jax.”

“Jax is dead,” Mark says. “Isn’t that right?”

Colette’s face gets serious. “Yes. He was dispatched this morning. It’s all been very unfortunate.” She looks over at Jovana. “Trust me, I have no desire to take you. It’s the special I want.”

“You can have her,” Mark says.

Jovana smacks at the screen and ends the call. “Initiate all cloaking levels,” she says.

“Voice command not authorized,” the car responds.