Chapter Forty-Eight - Harper
Since the day I met James under the pier, nothing has ever happened the way I thought it would. For instance, my apartment is not trashed. It looks exactly the way I left it. Of course, there’s not much to trash if people did break in. But the door jamb seems fine so I’m gonna assume that the people who came here looking for what I might’ve left behind were either very considerate… or they never showed up.
Reluctantly I admit that no one came looking.
And that stings a little. Because what the fuck? My father knew where I was all year and he couldn’t even be bothered to show up? It makes me angry. Or maybe it hurts. I’m not sure. But I am sure that it doesn’t feel good to run away for a year and not even the most valuable stolen property on earth can make him care.
I want to scream. But Sasha is looking at me weird as I stand in the middle of my puny living room. “What?” I ask her.
“Why are we here?”
“Just check the bathroom and the closets to make sure no one is hiding.”
She raises an eyebrow at me but she walks off to do that.
I grab a butter knife and a mini flathead screwdriver from my silverware drawer and then walk over to my one chair and tip it over. The floor in here is uneven, severely in places, so two of the legs have nickels glued to them to keep the chair from rocking. I pry them off with the knife and take them over to the kitchen counter and turn the light on so I can see them better.
One nickel is real.
One nickel is not.
Well, that’s not true, they are both real. But one is special.
“What’re you doing?” Sasha asks as she comes out of the bathroom.
I pick up the special nickel and then I stick the mini precision screwdriver in a groove that runs the diameter of the smooth metal on the side. There’s a barely audible click as the two halves of the nickel separate, and then I use my fingernail to split them apart.
I smile when the contents are revealed.
“What’s that?” Sasha asks.
“That important something I took when I ran away last year.” James was lying. Or he really was talking about some other files. Because these files are right here. This is the same micro-SD card Nick left hidden inside the USB flashdrive I took from the locker back in the UCLA library. I know this because he knew I wouldn’t be able to read the card, so he put a tiny red dot on one corner of the label so I could identify it.
The tiny red dot is right where it’s supposed to be.
They never found it.
I breathe out a huge sigh of relief. “This, Sasha”—I turn to look at her amazed face—“this has enough information on it to bring the whole Company down.”
“How did you get it?”
“I didn’t. Nick got it.”
“He’s smart, huh?”
“Very. But he’s also hot, you know what that means?”
She nods yes. She knows, she grew up with the hunters. I only grew up with one hunter, but he and I were inseparable. Even though we were not together on his missions, he told me about every single job. He told me every single detail. He told me every weakness he ever saw in every person he ever met on a job. Hot means he’s got a hit on him. Hot means he might already be dead.
So me and this little card might be the last chance there is to set things right.
Nick never mentioned James. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. If all the assassins are dead except James, Nick, and that Merc guy—and James was the one responsible for those deaths—and my father had me kill all his guests at my birthday party last year using James’ calling card, then James is being set up.
“I can save him,” I tell Sasha. “I can get James out of the Company, and probably you too.”
“How?” she says with an incredulous snort.
“You help me find Nick and we can give this to him. If I can find Nick, then he can make it all OK. He’s got a plan, Sasha. We need to find Nick. And you said he came to see you. Lots of times.”
Her face hardeners. “I’m not telling you what he told me. He said to tell no one.”
“I’m his sister! Besides, you already told me he was there, what’s the difference?”
She shakes her head. “Big difference. You’re just a girl. You can’t even shoot. You can’t even drive. How would we get there? We should give it to James.”
“I really like James, Sasha, but I do not trust James. I don’t think he’s on our side. Yet. He needs me to convince him to leave. I want to convince him to leave with me. And he won’t do that unless Nick and I can finish what we started. James is still a wild card, he’s not on the right side.”
Her eyes squint down and her gun comes up. It points right at my chest as she steps back a few paces. “You’re wrong. I’m on his side, so if you’re not, then it’s you who’s on the wrong side.”