Darkness Falls(38)

He finally noticed Coll staring at his face, and sent him a questioning glance. But Coll just smiled back and said, “I’ll be in touch,” and left.
***
“You’ve got to get me away from him,” Maze murmured low. “He thinks he’s taking me to Vegas to find Blandman’s dad.”
They were huddled in a corner of what could only generously be called a kitchen.
“Blackman,” Jordan corrected. “And Vince is in serious danger at the moment.” She had put him there personally. The urgency to go back and find him bordered on panic. She would not be responsible for the death of another human being. No matter what Vince had planned for her, he didn’t deserve to be left out in the Scrape. No one did.
What if not-Joshua found him?
“I just need a little money,” Maze said with a sly smile, “and I’ll slip out the back. Steve can sit in his fucking car all day long waiting, for all I care.”
More games. “No, Maisie. You go to Vegas. You take care of this. Steve is your chance to get everything straight. To take your life back. Don’t screw this up for yourself. I can’t be there to clean up after you.”
“I never asked you to.”
Ha. “You just did.” Jordan grabbed her sister and hugged her close. “Don’t blow this. Go to Vegas and see it through. Try something different.”
It was time to let her go. Fall or fly, it was up to her. This had been coming for a while, and they both knew it.
When Jordan pulled back, Maze had a miserable look on her face. “I don’t wanna.”
“You will. Do it for me.”
Maze made her pouty face, and Jordan knew that her sister couldn’t do what was expected of her for long. She was driven to break out of every box she’d ever been put in.#p#分页标题#e#
So Jordan tried a little subterfuge. The idea had been kicking around in her brain since yesterday.
“Go to Vegas to solve the problem, but whatever you do…” She paused for drama. “…don’t get involved with Steve.”
Maze looked alarmed.
“He’s too old for you. It will only lead to disaster. So don’t even try.”
“I would never.”
“Good. Don’t.”
“I can’t believe you’d think I would.”
“Then there’s no problem. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
Jordan swatted her on her butt to get her moving out the door and down the stairs. At the last minute she yelled, “Call when you get there.”
She was going to worry. She couldn’t help herself.
***
Maze sat herself down in the front passenger seat of Steve Coll’s very boring silver sedan and slammed the door. “My sister just tried to reverse-psychology me into having sex with you.”
He started the car. Checked his goddamn mirrors. Slowly pulled out onto a street with no traffic. She was sure he was doing it on purpose. He couldn’t be this anal.
She expected a reaction. Got nothing.
He was making her crazy. She had to do something to piss him off, or this trip was going to be awful. She was tempted to jab him in the arm or ribs. Or be truly disgusting and grab his junk.
The thought made her laugh. She might have done it if Jory hadn’t made a little sense upstairs just now. Steve—what an irritating name—was her last chance to straighten out. The people she’d been working for had stopped being fun a long time ago. She needed out, which meant cooperating.
She settled for a mild rebellion. Music. Loud music would at least give him a headache. She reached forward, but before her fingertips could hit the On button, his hand tightened around her wrist. She tried to jerk free, but he was stronger.
“It doesn’t work,” he said in that mild tone of his. Yet his hand on her arm was not mild at all. It almost burned.
She didn’t believe him, but was startled enough to draw back. To frown.
To give him a second look.
***
The drive took more than three hours, but it felt like five minutes. The dread in Jordan’s belly was cold and oily by the time he finally pulled into a neighborhood.
This could make or ruin everything.
Rook had been mostly silent on the drive. Once or twice he’d attempted to start a conversation, mostly about Chimera and what her next steps were. She’d responded when he asked her something, and she had let the dialogue dissolve when his thoughts distracted him again.
She understood why he wanted to do this. Joshua had nearly killed them both. Malcolm had to take away whatever power the kid still had over him. And then they could go after Vince Blackman.
He pulled to a stop on the side of a suburban street with brick ranch houses widely spaced on both sides. His attention was on one particular house. She could guess where he’d grown up.