Page 80 of The Vigilante's Lover

The dash voice affirms my request to shut off the cloaking level to Mark’s Vigilante car. “Cloaking levels removed.”

“Cancel!” Jovana shouts. She turns to Mark in the driver’s seat. “Jesus Christ. Why did you let her have a command line?”

The dash voice says, “Please clarify the command to cancel.”

Mark stabs at the screen. “Restore cloak.” He looks at Jovana. “Car control is automatic when the system registers a Vigilante or a special.”

“You shouldn’t have let her be scanned,” Jovana snaps.

“If I had refused, it would have blown the cloak anyway.” Mark almost veers off the road as he punches the screen a second time. We’re approaching a major highway.

“I don’t see why this is such a big deal,” Mark says. “Everyone knows we’re headed to Washington. Who cares if they track us?”

“I don’t want them to track the special,” Jovana says.

I know she’s lying. Sutherland has cut her off and probably doesn’t want her in Washington. She must not want this Mark guy to realize she’s been left out.

And they still haven’t revoked my command privileges.

“Remove all cloaking,” I say.

“Cancel!” Jovana shouts again.

But still, the car says, “Please clarify the command to cancel.”

“It’s like you’ve never used a damn car,” Mark says angrily.

“I don’t let insolent people ride with me,” Jovana shoots back.

Mark slams his hand on the wheel. “I told you we had to kill her command line first. She’s just going to keep saying commands.”

“Revoke Mia Morrow command,” Jovana says.

“Revoking command,” the voice responds. “Reminder: revocation access of a special must be reported to headquarters.”

“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 trouble than 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.

Mark laughs. “You better talk nicer to me,” he says.

“Cloak it,” Jovana growls.

“Okay, okay,” Mark says. “Initiate all cloaking levels.”

The car responds. Still, my heart is in my throat. Colette knows where I am!

“So who is this Colette person anyway?” Mark asks.

I want to jump in and say that she is Jax’s friend, but I keep silent. If Colette says Jax is dead, doesn’t that mean it’s true?

But then, why would she want me?

Except to take me back to Jax.

“Just some Vigilante who took an interest in our prisoner a ways back,” Jovana says.

“What’s so interesting about this girl you’ve nabbed?”

Jovana shrugs, her hand gripping Mark’s arm again. “I was just instructed to bring her with me to Washington and to keep it quiet.”

Really? This is the first I’ve heard of this, although I’ve been drugged for most of the day with Jovana. Maybe Sutherland talked to her, and I don’t know it.

Mark commands the car to go super speed to arrive in D.C. in time for the Vigilante committee hearing.

Mark and Jovana start talking normally again, the argument between them seeming to dissipate. She really must be doing something to manipulate him. Maybe she did it to Klaus too.

And Jax too, back in their day. I doubt it’s her sparkling personality that reels them in.

“Show me the footage of the execution,” Jovana purrs. Her hand continues to stroke his arm.

Mark pulls up a video. I’m torn between watching it and staring out the window, unable to cope with the visual of Jax’s death.

But I’m a Vigilante now, and I don’t believe Colette would have randomly discovered me in Mark’s car. She was watching for me. Maybe Sam has been scanning the network for any trace of my identity.

And they wouldn’t do that unless Jax asked them to.

The screen shows the inside of a white room. Carter, the guy I met at the Missouri silo, stands next to Jax.

“It’s time to go off grid for good,” Carter says and clicks an invisible button on the table. A panel slides open, and he lifts a silver case from a hidden compartment.

“You going to fight or can I do this with just us?” he asks.

“I don’t need an audience,” Jax says.

My heart hurts. He’s just standing there, preparing for the end.

Carter pulls out a syringe, and Jovana cheers when he holds it up to the camera to show it is a yellow snuff dart.

“I’d ask for last words, but I don’t really give a shit,” Carter says.

“Do what you’ve got to do,” Jax answers.

I watch Jax’s eyes. I’m overcome with emotion. I love this man. He’s perfectly calm in the face of his own death. I don’t think I could ever be nearly so composed and strong.

Carter pricks Jax’s arm.

I’m glued to Jax’s handsome, perfect face. It’s bruised. They must have beaten him after they took him from the hotel. Jax told me they’d take his body to a crematorium. There would be no trace of him left. I’d never see his face again.

But then, I see something that gives me pause. A quick change of expression before the needle is fully in.

Jax crumples his face as the poison hits him. It’s not a natural look, at least not to me. It feels scripted.

Then there is a small genuine look of surprise.

“Ha!” Jovana says. “He didn’t think they’d really do it!”

Jax falls to his knees, then crashes face-first into the floor. It’s all I can do not to cry out, but even the single heave of my chest causes the lasers to singe me again. Maybe I should just flail, fight, let it burn me up.

“Rewind it,” Jovana says with a laugh. “I want to see him go down again.”

They go back to when Carter injects the drug into Jax. And I see it again, this strange face crumple.

I’ve seen Jax poisoned. I’ve witnessed how he reacts. It wasn’t a snuff dart then, but I suspect this expression he is doing isn’t real. He’s done it deliberately.

Like he’s faking it.

And suddenly, I know. I know it with the certainty of someone who loves the way I love Jax. If he were truly dead, I would have felt him go.

And despite the fact I’ve seen him fall to the ground, I know it.

He’s not dead.

He’s not.