Page 91 of The Vigilante's Lover

I got Mia out.

The silent gas hasn’t gone anywhere. I don’t doubt this even though it is odorless and invisible. Mia got a puff of it before I shoved her out, and it definitely affected her.

I’m on my knees, trying not to breathe, slowing my heart rate on purpose to buy me time. The panels are on lockdown now. The only thing that allowed me to part them in the first place was the last jolt of energy in the pass key. It’s dead now.

I know how these elevators are made. It’s why I never, ever get in one. No hatches. No trapdoors. Just solid steel. And jets.

My chest burns. There is no point in using my phone. No way to call anyone. These elevators are black holes. No communications can get through.

I can hear the murmur of voices. I think one of them is Mia. A human must have run the gas. The system should protect her, especially now that she’s away from me.

I got Colette and Sam out of detainment. Hopefully they’ll make it.

I don’t think I’m going to win here today, but maybe they’ll escape at least. If the Vigilante network goes down, it goes down. My parents are out of it. Sam and Colette are out of it. Mia can’t get hurt by it.

I’ve done my job.

I have to take a breath. I know this. My lungs feel like they are going to explode.

It’s a sleeping gas. The old-fashioned kind. Silent, deadly, but a peaceful way to go. Among deaths, it’s not the worst.

I sit down in the corner. If I’m going to think last thoughts, they’ll be of Mia at least. Who would have known that this random girl holed up in a decommissioned safe house would be the perfect fit for a workaholic risk-driven Vigilante?

I picture her from that first meeting, how she slept so innocently as I slid the ropes around her body, tightening them inch by careful inch. I was so angry, so sure she was the cause of Klaus’s disappearance. I couldn’t see what she was. What she would be.

My vision starts to blur.

I can picture Klaus and his screwed-up blond hair. We were once friends. The betrayal stings one last time.

It’s like he’s in front of me. I want to strike out at his image, rage filling me. I throw a punch and realize with a jolt that it has connected.

“I know how you feel about elevators,” he says.

There’s a rush of air being sucked out. I realize we’re moving, silently, down. I risk a breath, and it’s clear. Klaus stands over me, tucking his cuff more neatly inside his suit jacket.

“I’m not here to save you,” he quips and gives me a hand to stand up. “But I do need you to be alive a little longer.”

“Who ordered the gas?” If it wasn’t automatic, then I’ll know Mia is still safe.

“Some Phase Four with an itchy finger. She’s been dealt with.”

So Mia will be fine. I take in another deep breath. Time to finish this.

The minute I have enough energy to throw a punch, I do. We wrestle, falling out of the elevator and into a steel-lined hall. I slam my elbow into his face. I’m not full force, not after the gas, but it’s enough. I pin him to the ground. I’m ready to kill a second person with my bare hands.

I encircle his throat.

“It’s Jovana,” he gasps. “In the War Room. Go in. Jovana’s got her.”

I look up. There’s a door with no markings. But we’ve gone down a long way. Easily six floors below. The hallway is silent and empty.

I let go of Klaus. He sucks in a breath and rolls closer to the door. A green line scans him. “Klaus approved for entry to the War Room,” a voice says.

Then it scans me.

I plan to jump into the room as soon as it opens for Klaus, but when the scanner is done, it says, “De Luca approved for entry to the War Room.”

My suspicions are pricked. Why is the system allowing me in?

The question is moot as the door slides open.

We enter a room with a long oval table. A hush falls over the people seated at it as we walk in. I don’t recognize anyone there, as I’ve had no cause to meet them, but I know this is the committee. They are watching a presentation.

Then I see her.

Jovana.

She’s wearing a red dress, tightly fitted. Her hair is perfectly coiffed, like she’s ready to go on a movie set. She’s been talking. Her arm is still upraised, pointing at a towering screen behind her.

When she sees me, she drops her hand. “Well, look who has arrived. Exhibit A in how Sutherland has failed to keep the U.S. syndicate in line. Let’s welcome Mr. Jax De Luca back from the dead.”

I feel all the eyes on me.

Jovana keeps talking. “When Sutherland approached me with this idea for a global network, I saw the brilliance behind it. I helped him from every stage, recruiting the operatives to identify the weaknesses in the network.”

She walks closer to me. “But Mr. De Luca here is a prime example of Sutherland’s failed leadership. Jax broke out of Ridley Prison even with Vigilante surveillance.”

An image behind her shows footage of me clocking the guard outside the prison.

“He also walked right into a high-security silo in Missouri, despite his fugitive status, and then he escaped it.”

Another image shows me emerging from the hatch.

Mia is noticeably missing from these photos. She’s been digitally erased.

“And as the final blow to the security and information integrity of this network, we have a dead man walking.”

A few seconds of my crashing fall during the supposed execution play onscreen.

She leans forward, both hands braced on the table. The committee is rapt, hanging on her every word. “This is why Sutherland needs to be removed from power immediately.”

Klaus rocks back on his heels. He seems very pleased with how everything has gone.

And that’s when it hits me. I was chosen on purpose. Someone they could count on to beat the Vigilantes at their own game. To show their flaws, their weaknesses.

This was never about Sutherland.

It was always Jovana.