Page 176 of The Vigilante's Lover

The light on the buckle by my hip blinks out. I press the releasebutton and the lock unsnaps. I sit forward on the seat, stretching. It feels amazing.

I turn around to see if Colette is behind us. She’s driving the same silver BMW that I rode in when Jax made me go with her after escaping the Missouri silo. My heart warms with the memory, even though I was mad at the time. He can’t be dead. I won’t believe it. Colette will know for sure. She’ll tell me.

But suddenly I don’t want to know. I want to hold on to the hope that he is fine. That what I saw in the video was right, that he was doing it for show. I whip back around, wanting to just keep going, driving forever so I don’t have to face facts if he is dead after all.

Jax went down so hard. Is he that good? Could he fake that?

Fear curdles in my belly. Mark and Jovana sit silently up front. She’s stewing, arms crossed in front of her body.

“Here she comes,” Mark says.

I turn again. Colette closes the door to her car with her hip, a dart gun held out front with both hands. Her dark pixie hair blows around her face. She looks like something from the Roaring Twenties with her pert nose and lined eyes, her body encased in a fashionable low-waisted dress in white and navy.

She makes Vigilantism look good. I am happy to see her, despite my worries about Jax.

“I’ll handle this,” Jovana says. She fiddles with something on her wrist. I spot the edge of where the prosthetic skin must begin.

“You changing your drug to a poison?” I ask her.

Mark glances down, eyes wide. He grabs at her arm. “You WERE drugging me!”

“It was for your own good,” Jovana snaps. “You need to complete this mission well if you want to get anywhere in the new network.”

Colette approaches the windows. I know she can’t see us, as Vigilante cars have fake windows that make it appear you can see the interior but you can’t. She takes one hand off the dart gun and opens theback door.

Sunlight blasts in. Colette takes a step back, the gun out, until she sees me. “Come on, Mia. You’re leaving with me.”

I grab my backpack and start to slide across the seat, but Jovana decides to make a break for it, opening her door and dashing around the car.

“Colette!” I shout. “Watch out!”

11: Jax

The frigid water bites into my skin. I feel like I’m breaking through ice, even though the temperature is well above freezing.

Despite the recent rains, the river isn’t terribly deep, and I almost scrape the bottom with my chest and belly before moving upward toward the light.

I’m actually grateful for the cold as my body slows down, as all the cuts and contusions from Paulson blast like fire as I sluice through the water.

The splatter when I break through the surface is like a million brilliant gems. The fact that I am alive and able to swim through the river weeds and debris blows away any pain.

I’m going to get to Mia.

I clutch the Blackphone in my hand, glad Sam thinks of everything and the electronics are protected. I pause in the reeds beneath the bridge, watching for any sign that someone is coming. Paulson will want to pull off and look for me. Sam, if he’s any sort of friend at all, will recognize I’m not interested in their plan and will put him off.

My feet bump against the river bottom and I drag myself out of the water. I’m wearing nothing but pajama bottoms and shoes. The onlysolution for the cold and my lack of protection is to keep moving.

I jerk the Vigilante watch from my wrist. I am about to chuck it back in the river so they can’t track me, but then I pause. It’s another way to communicate if I need to. I decide not to burn the bridge I jumped from, and instead of tossing the watch, I fasten it to a tree where I can find it again later if I need it.

I take off in a fast run, away from the interstate and through the dense trees. Everything in the immediate vicinity is woods, lining the shores of the Potomac.

I spot a telephone pole and run beneath the wires where the ground is easier to manage. I know I’ll get to some sort of landmark soon enough where I can contact Colette. It should be the last call on this Blackphone, although I know how to reach her from memory.

The wind blasts my face, and I begin to relax into the run as my muscles warm up. I feel better than I have in a long time despite the fact that I’m half-naked, running in dress shoes, and have nothing on me but a secret phone.

I’m getting closer to Mia.

I’m going to walk away from all this. Sutherland. Jovana. The network. I don’t need it. I don’t want it.