Page 29 of The Vigilante's Lover

It takes Sam the better part of an hour to undo the damage I did to the car in my attempts to get it off the grid. I spend most of it snarking back at him as he berates me for my hack job. Lots of “What the hell did you do to THIS?”

“Yes,” I reply. “It’s part of the GPS system, isn’t it?”

Sam rolls his eyes. “All you had to do was disconnect it, not yank it out like Mola Ram.”

“Who?”

“Mola Ram. Old Indiana Jones character. You know, pulled out a dude’s heart?” He holds his hand up in a claw grip and I shake my head.

“Never mind,” he sighs. “Just don’t do it again. This thing is a bitch to get back in.”

“I’ll remember that the next time I’ve got a dying woman in the backseat and enemies breathing down my neck,” I say.

Sam grunts in reply, then tosses me a transmitter. “Rewire and reboot,” he says and busies himself with finishing his more intricate work.

I snatch up a wire cutter and sit on an overturned wood crate to unsnarl the mess I made when I jerked everything free.

My mind turns back to Mia. She and Colette should be on their way to Tennessee by now. What will Colette tell her? She’s never been a fan of my exploits, but to my knowledge she’s also never badmouthed me to anyone in the past.

I shouldn’t care what Mia thinks of me. I don’t expect to see her again. It’s best for both of us if she stays far away.

I strip a wire and attach it back to the transmitter.

The Vigilantes keep tabs on everybody, and Mia in particular.

That bracelet they gave her was beyond anything I ever issued to anyone when I was a silo director.

It worked on doors that the skeleton key didn’t budge.

That kind of unfettered access was typically only available to top-level officials and special guests.

Sutherland would be the only one with that kind of power.

Mia was, by all evidence, just an innocent who got wrapped up in something over her head. An innocent with a wiped record. Which could only mean she had contact with the Vigilantes in the past. Unknowingly, most likely.

I shake my head. No, Jax. This is just wild speculation. She may have ambition and some raw talent, but she’s not Vigilante material. And if her wiped record and the bracelet are any indication, that was a decision made long ago.

She’s safer having nothing to do with us. With me.

“All right, I think I got it,” Sam calls out from the car. He pulls out a thin black slab from his bag as he approaches and hands it to me. “Your new Blackphone. Don’t lose this one. It’s completely blank. All untraceable materials.”

“So I’m solidly off grid?” I slip the phone into my pocket.

“Except to me and Colette,” Sam says, nodding. “Even then, you come up as unknown. Which reminds me,” he adds with a glance at his watch. “We need to get moving. My clone’s ticking.”

“All right,” I say, and slip into the driver’s seat.

Sam pulls out a tablet, then tosses the bag in the backseat. He slides into the passenger seat so recently occupied by Mia. I push the thought out of my head and start the car.

“All systems check out. We are clean,” Sam says as he taps on his tablet. “What’s the plan?”

“We need to find someplace we can log into the network anonymously,” I say. “We need to find out exactly what happened to Klaus.” My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “And find Jovana.”

“Yeah, about Klaus,” Sam says with a singsong lilt. “I’m not sure he’s actually dead.”

“What?” I stare at him. Is he joking? “I saw the record. He died at the Tennessee safe house. Mia’s house.” I even thought for a while she had done it, I add silently.

“Yeah, but something’s not right with that record,” Sam replies. “When you sent that message, I was shocked and starting digging. I couldn’t figure out how Colette and I had not seen that before.”

“It was hidden,” I say. “Carter, the director of that silo, had to search for editing flags to even find it.”

“And that’s just it,” Sam says. “Why hide something like that?”

I start to reply but stop. Sam’s nod tells me he’s already been down this path.

“So if you want to make someone disappear,” Sam continues, “a faked death is one way to do it. But the records are still there, so you have to hide those, too.” His face is solemn. “That’s some high-level shit, Jax. And why go to that trouble if the person is really dead?”

Of course.