Page 84 of The Vigilante's Lover

Jovana doesn’t come around the back of the car like I expect, but flips her way to the roof and back down, landing right on Colette.

Shit, she’s good.

“Watch her arm, Colette!” I say. “Don’t let her grab you with that poison skin!”

The two of them scrabble on the ground. I drop my bag and circle them, kicking Jovana when I can get a shot in and making sure she doesn’t wrap her hand around Colette. I don’t want to jump into the fray since Colette is trained and I might get in the way.

Mark gets out of the car with a dart gun and before any of us can do anything, he shoots both Jovana and Colette.

“What the hell?” I say, lunging for him.

“Back off,” Mark says. “I don’t know what is going on here, but I’m not going down for it.”

“Jovana kidnapped me,” I say quickly. “I don’t know why. She couldn’t get Sutherland to listen to her, and Klaus isn’t answering calls.”

“Why is this Vigilante Colette so intent on getting you?”

“She’s a friend of Jax. He’ll want me.”

“But he’s dead.”

I don’t say anything, and he curses under his breath. “Sutherland’s not as solid in his plan as he would let us believe,” he says.

“What is his plan?” I ask, mentally trying to keep track of the minutes. Jovana and Colette will need an antidote if Mark used a Vigilante poison. Neither of them are unconscious, but clearly struggling with whatever he gave them, breathing heavily on the ground.

“Hell if I know,” Mark mutters.

“Are you going to give them antidotes?” I ask, my voice shaking.

He turns and kicks at his car. “This is fucked up.”

“What did you hit them with?”

Jovana starts convulsing, her stomach heaving like she’s going to throw up.

“The gastrointestinal one. It’s a torture drug.” He frowns.

“Well, get the antidote!” I say.

Colette starts to writhe on the ground as well. But still, Mark doesn’t move.

I stride over to him and punch him in the belly. “Do it now,” I say.

He doesn’t even flinch from the blow, but it does take him out of whatever pissed-off daze he’s in. He walks to the trunk and opens the lid.

“If you’re so keen on waking them up to fight again, you do it,” he says. He tosses me a red vial.

“I need two,” I say, but then turn away. I’ll dose Colette. He can worry about Jovana.

I yank the protective cover off the needle and stab Colette in the arm. The lovely navy and white dress is dusty and torn. Her short bob covers her face.

I drain the antidote into her and kneel down, the asphalt biting into my knees through my jeans.

Every day since I met Jax has been nothing but the most insane collection of events.

Colette shudders, her hand moving to her belly. Her eyes flutter open. “Putain, ca douille.” Her face is contorted.

“You okay?” I ask. I brush her hair back.

“I think I’d rather be dead,” she says.

Next to us, Jovana’s breathing is labored and pained. She lets out a long terrible groan.

Mark stays at the back of the car, leaning on the upraised lid of the trunk.

“You going to take care of her?” I ask. “You can’t let her die. She’s a special.”

“I’m deciding,” Mark says.

Colette pushes to a sitting position. “You had to use la putain de belly dart.”

“Sorry,” Mark says. “It was preloaded.”

“Stick to the green one,” Colette says, her hands still pressed to her stomach. “Much more civilized.”

Mark shrugs.

I stand up and help Colette to her feet. She staggers a bit, and I wrap an arm around her waist.

“Jax is going to be glad to see you,” she says.

“Shit, I should have known,” Mark says and kicks the car again.

It takes a moment for their words to sink in, but then my heart leaps. “He’s alive?”

Colette takes a step toward her car. “Yes. He’s with Sam. They’re on their way to Washington.” She points to the bag. “Is that yours?”

I snatch it up. My heart is hammering. Jax is alive! I knew it! I want to scream it out loud, but I just hang on to Colette as we hobble across the broken asphalt.

We make it to the BMW and she rests her hand on the hood. “I’m not ready to drive yet.”

“Let me,” I say. “I’ve handled a couple Vigilante cars at this point.”

“Not one for a Phase Six you haven’t,” she says with a pained laugh.

“First time for everything.”

She lurches toward the passenger side, and I help her get in the seat. “This one takes an hour to recover from,” she says. “Not, as you say, my first rodeo with this dart.”

“Just rest a bit,” I answer and close her door.

I go around to the other side. Colette has already started the engine, and it scarcely even vibrates beneath my seat as I slide into place. I toss my bag in the back.

Colette’s steering wheel isn’t a circle like other cars. It is made of two triangles with a rounded outer grip. It doesn’t just turn, but also tilts forward or back.

“You might be right about this,” I say.

“You’ll get it,” Colette says, pressing the side of her head to the cool glass of her window. “I’ll talk you through it. Once you have the basics, we can do auto-drive. I just want to make sure you can manage the car if we drop out of it.”

In front of us, Mark has bent down next to Jovana. He’s holding another red antidote vial, but he hasn’t given it to her yet.

“Shouldn’t we bring her in or something?” I ask.

“Can’t. She’s a special. And I’m not combat trained. It was everything I had just to put up a defense.” Colette’s normal French lilt goes darker, like she’s defeated. “I don’t know how we can take her out of commission.”

“Are you still in good standing with the Vigilantes?” I ask. “I think I may have gotten Sam in trouble.”

“He was decommissioned. Technically I’m still on duty, but until all this settles out, none of us are really safe.” She points at the steering wheel. “The gearshift is by your right thumb. Click and hold the top button to go into reverse.”

I do what she says.

“You can press the gas like normal with your foot,” she says, “but be careful about pulling the wheel toward you. That doubles your acceleration.”

“Is the brake like normal?” I feel around the bottom with my foot.

“Yes, there is a standard brake. But you can also stop the car instantly by jerking down on the wheel with deliberate force.”

“Okay,” I say. “Anything really stupid I could do?”

“Don’t mess with the switch on the base of the steering wheel. It is for the other modes of the car and changes all the actions of the buttons and wheel motions.”

“Like when you drive across water?” I ask.

“Yes, like that.”

I take in a deep breath. Mark still hasn’t moved from his position beside Jovana.

I ease the accelerator down, half expecting this specialized car to shoot backward like a rocket. But it rolls the way a civilian car would. I let go of my held breath.

Colette laughs lightly. “You look like you’re strapped to a missile.”

I press the brake. “I feel like I am. Which one for drive?”

“Go with the bottom one. It’s the equivalent of the automatic transmission in civilian cars.”

I press it. I check the mirrors. There’s no one coming. In fact, no one has passed us the entire time we’ve been out here. “What happened to the traffic? Surely there are at least a few cars along here.”

“I had a couple locals set up a construction detour,” Colette says. “The way that jerk was driving, he was going to kill a civilian.”

I pull out onto the road with a tentative push on the gas. Jovana still writhes on the ground. Mark has at least uncapped the antidote. As we come up beside them, Colette rolls down her window. “Civilians arriving any minute. Clean this up.”

Then we are past and the two of them get smaller and smaller until I can’t make them out anymore.

We approach a big orange and white roadblock. A few bewildered neighbors are standing beside this as if they don’t understand why it’s there. They’re even more confused when we swerve around it and move on.

“They’ll figure it out and move it,” Colette says. “We have to get to Jax.” She taps on her dash screen. “Uh-oh.”

I glance down at it, my hands tight on the wheel. “What?”

“I got a call from Sam’s Blackphone while we were tied up with Jovana.”

“Is there a message?”

Colette shakes her head. “I’m using an encrypted line, off network. Voice mail isn’t secure.”

She dials through. The pinging sound makes me shiver as the call tries to connect.

It picks up, the screen showing only an audiowave that rises and falls with the sounds.

But I’d know that voice anywhere.

“About time you bothered to answer,” Jax says. “You getting your nails done?”

Colette laughs. “Got a red dart to the belly,” she says. “Think I’ll choose a polish to match.”

“Ouch,” he says. “Hate the red darts.”

He pauses, and I can barely contain myself. I want to squeal but I don’t want to interrupt them.

“I could probably use a lift,” he says. “I jumped off the Interstate 81 bridge into the Potomac.”

“Jax!” I cry out. “Are you okay?”

“Mia?” he asks. “You have Mia?”

“I do,” Colette says. “I’d laugh but it really hurts when I laugh.”

“We’ll pick you up,” I say quickly. “I’m driving Colette’s car until she recovers from the dart. Where are you now?”

His voice is warm now, happy sounding. My heart skitters. I can’t believe I’m talking to Jax!

“I’m running along Route 63. There’s a funeral home ahead, but it’s not on the Vigilante books. So I’ll head into the cemetery behind it.”

“Got it,” I say. “How far are we?” I ask Colette.

“If I can coax Mia into super drive, we’ll be there in thirty,” Colette says. “She’s never driven like a Phase Six before, though.”

Jax chuckles. “She hasn’t driven like a Phase Six yet.”

“We’ll be there in thirty,” I say, and simultaneously slam the accelerator and pull the wheel toward my chest.

I’m getting Jax.