26. Jace Holloway

Chapter 26

Jace Holloway

Nevermore was here. He was outside.

“Stay back,” I said to Theo, running directly to the front door. I had to catch this sick fuck. Now was my chance.

“Wait!” Theo ran after me. He grabbed onto my elbow and tugged me away from the door, fingers digging into my skin. He looked panicked. More so than when I’d first arrived. “Don’t.”

“But this could be it. I can catch them.”

“You’ll put yourself in danger.”

“That’s part of my job. We’re wasting time.” I pulled away from him, but his grip only tightened.

“Please, don’t.”

My eyebrows inched together. I looked down at the feathers on the floor. The same kind of feather I had found by Theo’s bookshelf.

“I have to talk to you. ”

Theo let go. I looked to the door. The banging stopped. I didn’t listen to him. This was a chance I couldn’t miss. I rushed to the door and pulled it open, lunging out into the hallway. I was met with empty air. I fell forward. The rest of the hall was empty. No one was there.

“I need to go to the front desk. I need to ask if they have any cameras.”

“We don’t,” Theo answered. “The cameras have been down for months, and they’re only in the mail room.” He rubbed the back of his neck. He’d gone icy pale. He started to gnaw at his fingernails. “Come, sit down.”

“What’s going on, Theo?”

“I have to talk to you. I just need you to understand.” Theo went to the balcony. He spoke under his breath; I couldn’t quite tell what he was saying. He opened the door to the balcony. The sound of wind and city and life drifted in. Theo turned. He was framed by the dark night sky, wearing only his pants, slung low on his hips. His breathing was rapid. I could almost see his heart beating hard enough to break through his chest.

He moved to the couch and sat down. I looked to the door, the pile of feathers.

“What the hell is going on right now?”

Theo dropped his face into his hands. “I haven’t been fully truthful with you, Jace. I’ve been getting involved. I’ve been… this Nevermore case. It’s been… it’s hitting close to home. It’s got me losing my mind. It’s… it’s a lot. It’s too much. I’m sorry.”

“Calm down,” I said, reaching over and placing a hand on Theo’s. I could see him spiraling. And the more he spoke, the more confused I became. Since when was Theo looking into the Nevermore case? And why was it hitting “close to home”? “Breathe. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

“I fucked up. Big-time. Fuck.”

“What did you do?”

“Everything.”

“Huh?”

Theo’s legs bounced up and down. Luke hopped off his cat perch and sauntered to the couch, gracefully jumping up and inching into Theo’s lap. His legs still bounced.

“I made myself a target, Jace. I was-I was attracted to the case after seeing it on the news, after finding out you were working it. I started to look into it myself. I started sticking myself in the middle. I thought I’d help. Thought I was doing the right thing. I think I figured out who’s behind it, why, I think I have it, but I’m not a hundred percent sure. And I think they’re onto me now.”

I could only blink through the shock. My jaw cracked, my mouth opening. “I had no idea you were looking into it. You should have told me, Theo. This is dangerous.”

“I know. I should have never done what I did. It’s… fuck!” He yelled so loud that it scared Luke, but he didn’t jump off Theo’s lap. If anything, he curled in a little tighter.

“Okay, hold on. So you’re saying Nevermore is targeting you?”

“I think I’m being targeted by the people Nevermore was hunting down. The blackmail ring.”

“Holy shit, you know about that too?”

“I put a lot of it together. And I think I know who’s at the top. I think… I just don’t know if… fuck. ”

“Who is it? And how did you find out?”

Theo’s typically sharp eyes took on a glassy expression. He was scaring me. What was going through his head? Why was this all coming out now? I wanted to help him, wanted to keep him calm. I hated seeing him like this. So far from the calm and cool and collected demeanor he normally wore as effortlessly as one of his many watches.

“I wish you would have told me this earlier,” I said, squeezing his hand in mine. “I would have told you to stop. I’m not even sure I should be working this case. It’s twisted. And it feels so far out of my league.”

Theo didn’t reply. He kept his eyes glued to somewhere out on the horizon. “You’re the only one capable of ending it.”

“Well, that sounds more ominous than I think you intended.” It was my attempt at injecting a little bit of levity into this suddenly dark situation. Theo didn’t even chuckle, only kept staring.

“I had a sister. I told you about her. I called her Em, but her full name was Marielle. She was my best friend. She always had my back. She lived through all the hurt, all the bullshit that my father inflicted on us. She was one of the only people who understood me. So when she killed herself—when I found her body—I was permanently broken. Ruined. There was no coming back from that.

“I vowed to make things right. I promised her I would somehow make her death mean something. When I started looking into Nevermore, I realized the people being killed were linked to the same blackmail ring that she’d been a victim of. She told me shortly before she died that she’d been secretly filmed during a private moment. It devastated her. Pushed her to the edge. So I made it my mission to make these people pay.”

It was as if Theo had dropped a bucket full of TNT inside my skull. “Jesus… fuck.”

Marielle Rodriguez. The same Marielle who worked for the mayor. The same one who’d been close to bringing the entire thing down. She’d also been a victim? And Theo was her brother? Holy fucking shit.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

“So… fuck, Theo. But how did you know Nevermore was targeting these people?”

“I figured it out.”

Something wasn’t quite adding up, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I glanced at the feathers on the floor again.

“So you know who’s at the top of the blackmail ring? And do you know who Nevermore is?”

Theo was about to speak but swallowed his words. He bit at his tight fist, eyes snapping shut. What the fuck was going on? I rubbed his back, feeling like I suddenly needed those three shots of tequila he had taken earlier.

“I… I don’t know,” Theo said. “I just think I’m getting close.”

“How?”

“I think you should go.”

“What?” I was becoming extremely confused and extremely worried. Something about this felt off. Theo wasn’t telling me everything. But what did he have to hide? It sounded like we were after the same thing, so what was he being so fucking cagey about?

And why did that scare me? Nothing about Theo scared me, but this situation, it made a shiver crawl up my spine.

I couldn’t imagine sitting on a subway train to get home, crammed with people, flying through the underground tunnels curling and slithering through the city. I took an Uber. It’d get me home faster. I lowered the window and looked out at the blur of lights and people, my mind racing faster than the car.

Theo was involved. How long had he been involved? Why wouldn’t he tell me from the start?

Why did this all feel so wrong? Why was there a sinking feeling in my gut that wouldn’t go away?

My thoughts were consumed by Nevermore, by the blackmail ring, by Theo. His own sister had been involved.

The feather.

Nevermore.

Marielle… the poems. He didn’t mention her name being in the poems. Why?

“Sorry, can you pull over?”

The driver inched toward the sidewalk. I leapt out of the car and ran to the trash can, where I threw up everything in my stomach. She leaned out of her window.

“Dude, are you okay?”

“I’m good,” I said, face still in the trash can. “I can walk from here. ”

“You sure?”

“Mhmm.”

I stood up, wiped my mouth with my forearm. Had I been tricked this entire time? Was it all right there, right in front of me?

Something else was tickling the back of my brain. I had to get home. I started to run. It felt good, my feet slamming against the concrete, the wind pushing against me. All this energy inside me had to come out somehow. Someone shouted at me as I almost pushed them to the floor. I ran across the streets, earning honks and more shouts.

Holy fucking shit.

I reached my apartment building. I ran into the elevator bay and frantically pressed the button, as if that would make the ancient elevator move any faster.

The scratched and dented steel doors dinged open. I ran inside and hit my floor, willing the door to close. Hurry. Please. I had to get inside.

I ran down my hallway and into my apartment. I went to my computer and turned it on.

My stomach gave another twist. I gagged. I swallowed. This couldn’t be happening. Could I have been that fucking stupid? Had I really made such a colossal mistake?

I opened up my files holding all the evidence I’d collected on the Nevermore case.

Went to the poems. Opened the first one. There was Marielle’s name. Opened the second one. Then the third.

A single word jumped out at me.

Chained .

I googled the original poem. Had them next to each other on the screen.

The word had been changed to “chained.”

Nevermore had made that change. He’d been sending a message.

Chained.

The bathhouse where Theo and I met.

My head felt light, my vision filling with dark stars as blood rushed away from my brain. Fight or flight.

Flight.

Theo.

Nevermore.

Chained.

“Holy shit. Is Theo Nevermore?”