Thorn
Katia was grinning at me as I walked into the national headquarters the next day, and I couldn't help but feel chills run up and down my body. Dorian had done everything that he could to try and dissuade me from actually meeting up with Katia and Silas, but he'd ultimately been unsuccessful. I owed Jess at least this much, for getting her caught up in all this mess.
Anyway, I didn't think my emotions would allow me to leave her there, caught amongst these sick bastards.
Gabi had supported the plan too, when she'd come over the previous day. Or at least, she had agree with me that it was the most plausible option that we had. That didn't really make it any better, but it was good to have that vote from her too.
I squared my shoulders and marched over towards Katia. “Where is she?” I asked. Despite the fact that I was bartering away my life, all I could think about right now was Jess, wondering if she was okay, wondering what sort of state she might be in after a week as Silas's plaything.
“She's fine,” Katia said, rolling her eyes a little. She gestured with the flick of her hand and Jess was led out of one of the other rooms.
They had her collared, and they were leading her along on a leash. She was stark naked, and I could see goosebumps on her flesh even from here; she must be freezing. But she held her head high, seeming to look straight through everyone around her. I was surprised to see how strong she looked, how little this captivity seemed to have taken out of her.
Her eyes finally focused on mine, and she looked mildly surprised to see me there, but just for a moment, before that flicker of emotion was gone again.
“Doesn't she make a lovely pet?” Katia asked, reaching over to stroke Jess's hair as though the woman really were, in fact, a pet of some sort.
Silas leered at me. “But I sense that you're going to make a much better pet for us.”
“What?” Jess asked, sounding shocked, and I took that to mean that they hadn't told her exactly what deal I had struck to get her freedom. “Thorn, what are they talking about?” she asked. “They can't be taking you as a pet, can they?”
I shrugged a little. “It's my life in exchange for yours,” I told her. I wished I could tell her the rest of it — how Dorian was trusting in me to kill Katia, so that the Sigma Saints could start over again. I wished I could tell her about these feelings that I had for her, about the way I had been thinking about her all week while she was in here, feeling more and more guilty about the whole thing with every passing second. But I couldn't say any of that in front of Katia and Silas.
I turned to Katia. “All right, you have me here, so that means she goes free. Where are her clothes?”
Katia laughed a little. “I didn't say I was going to clothe her before putting her free. She can walk out just like that.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You wouldn't dare,” I said, a warning note in my voice.
Katia just shrugged, though. Finally, I stripped off my shirt and tossed it to Jess, figuring that that at least would give her some amount of decency. She gave me a grateful look and quickly pulled the shirt on over her head.
“What's in that box?” Katia asked suddenly, pointing at the box that I'd brought with me.
I shrugged a little. “Just a package for you,” I told her. “You can see what's inside it soon enough. But for now...”
I pulled Jess into my arms, knowing that this was probably going to be the last time I ever got to embrace her. I held her there for a long moment, trying to memorize the way her warm, sumptuous curves fit against my body, the way she clung to me as though I were a life-raft and she were drowning. “You're going to be okay,” I murmured.
“But what about you?” Jess asked, sounding scared.
“Head back to the hotel,” I told her, ignoring her question. “You'll find help there. I promise. You're going to be okay.”
Jess shook her head, clinging even more stubbornly to me. “I can't let you do this, Thorn. I can't let you sacrifice yourself for my sake.”
I rolled my eyes a little, surprised still by how stubborn she was proving to be. “You can let me do this,” I told her. “There's nothing else for it. Now go.”
Finally, finally — with one more sad look into my face — Jess started to walk away. I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched her go. Now for Katia…
I turned towards the woman right when I was sure that Jess was far enough away. I reached down and grabbed the box I'd been carrying, fidgeting with it. Inside were the explosives that Dorian had brought for me to use on Katia. The goal was to bring down as much of the headquarters as I could with Katia. I wasn't worried; I figured Dorian must have done his job well.
But before I could detonate the explosives, suddenly there were people swarming out f seemingly every available opening. I cried out in surprise as I was jostled left and right by armed ... FBI agents?
Somehow, they must have tracked down Katia Sin already, and they were here to arrest her. I could practically weep with relief. I dropped the box of explosives and put my hands up above my hand, ready to comply with anything the FBI agents said to me.
Katia flung herself at me, her eyes flashing maniacally. “You little—” She started to say.
But before she could make contact with me, one of the FBI agents intervened, pulling her back away. The man was reading her her rights before I even knew what was really happening.
I looked around, trying to figure out just what was going on. One of the agents separated from the crowd buzzing around Katia and Silas and came over to me. It was Gabi, I realized, staring at her in shock.
“So we meet again,” she said wryly, a small smile twisting her face. She nudged at the box with the toe of her boot. “All the packages were already delivered, so what's in the box?”
I paled a little as I looked at her. “Explosives,” I admitted. “Pretty low-level explosives, and I haven't started the timer or anything yet.”
“What were you planning to do?” Gabi asked with a bit of a frown.
I shrugged, looking away from her. “The only way Jess could ever truly be free was if Katia and Silas were both dead,” I told her. “So I planned to, uh, take care of that problem.”
Gabi narrowed her eyes at me. “You mean to tell me that you were actually planning on dying for Jess's sake?”
Before I could respond, two of the other agents were there as well. “We'll need to ask you some questions about your involvement in all of this,” they told me. “Right now, you're being arrested under charge of...”
I hardly listened as the man droned on about my rights. Instead, I fixed my eyes on Gabi. I wanted to say that she owed me one, that I needed her help to get out of this situation, but at this point, I'd lost track of who owed whom. And I knew I probably deserved to go to jail, after the role I'd played in delivering the packages to Katia. It was about time all of this caught up to me.
I let them handcuff me, not fighting back at all.