Reborn(57)

“Lissy?” Chloe said.

“What?”

“I said, so which guy are you going to pick?”

I sighed. “Nick is going to leave town eventually anyway. So he’s not even a choice.”

“Good girl,” Chloe said, but there was no hint of humor in her voice.

If only she knew how badly I wished he’d stay.





29

NICK



I RAN FOR MILES AND MILES UNTIL I had no clue where I was. I brought up the GPS on the phone and navigated back toward town. When I was a few blocks from Arrow, the nightclub where I’d met Chloe, Trev called me.

“Where are you?” he asked.

I gave him my location.

“Good, you’re close. Can you stop by my hotel room? We need to discuss something.”

“Sure,” I said, and hung up without saying good-bye.

Fifteen minutes later, I was slumped in one of the chairs in the corner of Trev’s room. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

There were weapons everywhere. Two Glocks on the nightstand, a knife in between them. There were full clips on the table in front of me and more in an open bag on the floor. I saw the unmistakable curve of the mattress that indicated there was something shoved between it and the box spring. Probably more guns.

“Yeah, well, after you blow up the Branch, you realize there’s a permanent target on your back.”

“Technically Anna blew up the Branch. She was the one who hit DETONATE.”

“True, but the Branch doesn’t care who did it exactly. Only who was involved, and I was the one who planted the bombs, remember?” He sat in the chair across from me. “Anyway, I have bad news.”

I folded my arms on the table. “When do you ever have good news?”

Trev ignored the jab. “My contacts in the Coats lost track of Riley yesterday.”

I ran a hand through my hair, pushing it back. It was still damp with sweat. My shirt, too. “Where did they lose him?”

“Near Milwaukee.”

I let out a string of curses. “What time?”

“Around five p.m.”

He could already be here by now. Milwaukee was only a few hours north of us.

“Is he coming here for me? Have you been able to verify that?”

Trev shook his head. “He’s not coming for you. The Coats think he’s coming back to reestablish the old program here. He’s going to open up the lab.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“The Branch is broken,” Trev went on, “and Riley is scrambling. If that Angel Serum does what we think it does—reanimate the dead—then it’s worth a lot of money. And money is what the Branch needs in order to get back up on its feet.”

I lurched from the chair. “I have to get Elizabeth out of here.”

Trev nodded. “I thought you’d say that. Meet me back here with her in an hour. One of my Coat contacts can help talk her into leaving. I doubt she’ll just skip town with you without a good reason.”

There was something Trev wasn’t telling me about this contact, but at the moment I didn’t care.

“I’ll get her here,” I said. “Make sure your contact is here, too.”

“Good luck,” Trev called as I raced out the door.





30

ELIZABETH



“WHAT’S TROUBLING YOU?” AGGIE ASKED as she spooned me a serving of Stroganoff. “You have that look on your face.”

“What look?”

“Like you’re lost in thought.”

I tried to shake off whatever that look was, and set my chin in my hand. “I had one of those moments today. Where I thought I saw someone who looked like my mother, and then was immediately filled with despair when I realized there was no way it could be her.”

I grabbed a biscuit from the basket on the table. “Are you going to call Dr. Sedwick and tell him I’m having delusions?”

Aggie didn’t say anything for the longest time. I looked up. She stood over me, the pan of Stroganoff in one hand, the spoon in the other, both hanging there like she’d been frozen in place.

“Aggie?”

“Your mother?” she finally said. “Where did you see her?”

She said see her, as if it was a fact.

I frowned. “Crossing Washington Street.”

“Did you see her face?”

“No.”

“Was she with anyone?”

“Aggie?” I said. “Why—”

Her eyes were locked on something in the backyard, but when I followed her line of sight, I caught only a flicker of motion beyond the fence.

Aggie set the pan down on the table and raced around the peninsula with a speed I hadn’t thought she was capable of at her age, and with her ailing hips. She tore her cell phone from its charger, her fingers racing over the screen.