She laughed. “Oh yeah, I did do that. Hurt like a bitch when I came to.”
“Weren’t you afraid you wouldn’t survive a hit like that?”
“No. Side effect of the Angel Serum—probably why they wanted me gone—I don’t feel fear anymore.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that. Like a light switch. It’s just gone.”
So not only could she survive blowing off her own head, she didn’t fear anything. Which made her the most badass opponent the Branch had ever seen. No wonder they’d wanted her eliminated.
“So that night, in the forest,” I said, “I did shoot you, and then you healed while I took Elizabeth to the hospital.”
“I’d already died fifteen times by then. Healing from a bullet wound took less than three minutes.”
“Why would you stick around here, though?” I asked. “With the lab so close. Why didn’t you run?”
“I did run the first time I escaped.” She must have seen the confusion on my face, because she said, “That’s why you were sent here? To hunt me? Do me bodily harm? Ringing any bells?”
I scowled. “But you were in the lab that night, the night Elizabeth got out. You’re in my flashbacks.”
She blinked and looked away. “Let me tell you a story. It’s a short one. I think we have time. There once was a girl who broke free of the Branch, but her escape was scarred with regret. There was another girl, a girl she’d left behind, someone who needed saving.
“So the first girl hatched a plan, and when she returned a few days later, she broke back in and freed the girl with big green eyes because it was the right thing to do.
“But not just that. You see, the green-eyed girl was—” She stopped abruptly. “Well, I don’t want to ruin the ending.”
I buried a grunt of annoyance. “But you could have left after that. After Elizabeth was free.”
“No. I had to know if they returned. I had to know if they took her again.”
My scowl deepened. “So you could use her to save your own ass, you mean.”
She sent me a cutting look. “It’s not as simple as that. You of all people know how deep this game is we’re playing. This story is stitched with revenge, Nick, and we all have a seam to make, even Elizabeth. And besides,” she added, “the game has changed. Now I have you.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, and even if I asked, I doubted she’d explain.
I shifted my leg, trying to take as much pressure off the wound as I could. “They’ll kill you, you know. Riley isn’t a man of his word.”
She grinned. This girl could change emotions quicker than anyone I’d ever met. “Oh, I know. And I’m not a woman of mine.”
An SUV skidded to a stop twenty feet away. Branch agents spilled from the vehicle and formed a line on either side of us, semiautos up and ready.
Before Chloe got to her feet, she muttered to me, through clenched teeth, “Don’t screw this one up.”
Riley slid out of the passenger side of the SUV and walked over to us.
Clearly, he was in charge now. Awesome.
“You did good,” he told Chloe.
Chloe grabbed the hem of her skirt and curtsied, with a sly grin on her lips.
Riley scowled.
If the girl wasn’t so damn psychotic, I might actually like her as a fighting partner. She knew how to piss people off, and how to make herself look innocent while doing it.
“Get them in the car,” Riley said, and the agents swooped in, grabbing me beneath the arms and dragging me to the SUV. I was tossed in the backseat, and sandwiched between two agents. Zip ties were tightened on my wrists.
“Am I free to go now?” I heard Chloe ask.
Riley didn’t say anything at first, and I thought for sure he’d make her come. Instead, he nodded, and Chloe climbed back into her car.
Elizabeth was gently sprung from the backseat and put in the trunk of the SUV, still passed out.
As Chloe stomped on the gas and barreled past us, she looked at the back window of the SUV, even though the glass was tinted and there was no possible way she could see me.
She grinned again and winked.
The short ride to the barn lab was a bumpy one, and my leg throbbed with each hit. The pain had lessened, though, so it was only a dull ache in the bone. Two gunshot wounds in less than twenty-four hours. That must have been a record.
Riley didn’t say anything to me as we made our way back. Which was fine, because I wasn’t sure what I’d say in return. Probably something smart and civil, like, Fuck off.
The SUV was pulled inside the barn, and the door closed behind us. A lock slammed into place.
“Carry them down,” Riley ordered, and I was lugged from the SUV and dragged down the winding stairs and through the lab.