3. Dane

Chapter three

Dane

There’s fuck-all chances of me sleeping.

As soon as Raegan locked herself in Aiden’s room, Jack retired to his own room to sleep off Cassandra’s healing. Aiden and Kellan stayed awake for a bit, each of them trying to talk to me about my sister, but I’m still so fucking angry at everything that I practically bit their heads off for even attempting to have a conversation with me.

If we aren’t leaving right now to go get her, then I have nothing more to say to any of them.

They would do the same thing if they were in my position, and they know it. If this were Raegan we were talking about, they would craft a rescue mission without hesitation.

I’m absolutely livid that we’re doing nothing.

Even if what Raegan said is true, none of that matters. She was clearly brainwashed then, and the longer she’s there, the harder it will be to break her out of it. But I know…I know she’ll come around if she’s with me. If she can be made to remember our family and that we could have a home to go back to.

Our parents are alive.

Through some dumb stroke of luck, GE hadn’t murdered our family after they’d taken us. Not like they had Kellan’s. I could have gone home to them after we got off the island, but I couldn’t bear to go without Vera. I’d felt like a failure as a brother. I hadn’t protected her on the island like I should have. Even if she was older, I still felt responsible for her when we were there. That, and I’d rather not ruin that luck by bringing GE back to their doorstep and testing my chances a second time.

Now that I know she’s still alive, there’s hope that our family could be whole again. Get her back, destroy every member of Gifted Enterprise until there’s not a crumb left, and then we could return home to tell our parents that we’re alive. They didn’t lose their only two children thirteen years ago.

Hours after Aiden and Kellan retire to their rooms, I’m still lying wide awake, glaring through the darkness at the ceiling. No matter how much my body may be tired, my mind and emotions are wild within me. I’ve played through the conversation on repeat and what it all might mean. I replay every word Vera spoke to me on that rooftop and what might have happened if we’d just been able to sit and talk without everyone else around.

I just need time with her.

I won’t give up on her. Never.

A door creaks open from the hallway, but I don’t react to it. If Kellan can’t sleep, he’ll often go out to tinker on his car, race, or check in at the fight club. Or Aiden might be trying to see if I’ve cooled down enough to speak to in private. I actually hope for the latter in case I can convince him to remove the chains.

Soft footsteps tap along the wood floors past the couch and into the kitchen. The light of the refrigerator illuminates Raegan in nothing but one of Aiden’s few and infrequently worn T-shirts. It barely covers her ass, and when she bends forward to check a lower shelf, her black lace panties are exposed.

I watch her like a man possessed. It doesn’t matter that I hate her with every fiber of my being. It’s like the ghost of my youth takes control of me in this moment. Just to get a glimpse of what younger me had wanted for so long, now flashing before me like it means nothing. Is she normally this risqué now, or is she dressing like this because she’s staying here?

Is it for Kellan? For Jackson? For Aiden?

Well, it’s definitely not for you .

With that stupid reminder, I clear my throat and sit up on the couch, curling an arm over the back of it.

Raegan practically jumps out of her skin and gasps when she either realizes I’m not asleep or remembers that I’m here. I’m amazed she made it as long as she did if she’s this skittish.

“Come here,” I order in a hushed tone so as not to wake the others. I’m not going to have a chat with her from the living room to the kitchen.

Her brow furrows at what I could possibly want from her, but I’m surprised when she does as I ask without a fight. It seems like all she does lately is fight us on everything, so I expected to have to threaten her to get her over here. She tugs at her shirt in an attempt to keep her underwear covered when she walks. I’m tempted to tell her too little, too late, and then ask who she’s dressed for, but bite my tongue.

Seeing her alone has given me an idea that’s too good to pass up.

I check the digital clock on the cable box and it’s nearly midnight. Good.

She stops just out of reach of me behind the couch, and I wonder if she really thinks I’d attack her. Then I remember I held a gun to her head a few weeks ago and let it go. I grab the chains to keep them from making noise and lift them in offering to her.

“Break these off of me as quietly as you can.”

Raegan looks from the cuffs and chains to me. “Why?”

My teeth grind with frustration, but I force myself to keep my temper and voice in check. “I thought my sister was dead for the last six years because of you. You owe me this, at least. Let me go find her and fix this.”

“Dane.” Her voice is soft and full of sorrow, like she’s already given up before anyone’s even tried.

“Don’t give me that. You didn’t even try to save her!” I hiss.

She flinches at that. “I didn’t mean to—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I cut in sharply. “What’s done is done. This is your second chance. Are you going to take it, or are you giving up on her, and on me, again?”

It’s dirty. I’m playing her fucking dirty and I know it. She knows it. But I also don’t care so long as she frees me and I can seek out Vera again before it’s too late.

She chews on her lips while studying the determination on my face. There’s no way that I’m not going to go looking for my sister the second I can. She just gets to make the call if now is that time or not.

Raegan glances back at the hallway to make sure no one else is watching or coming out to catch us. My lips curve upward in a smirk when I see it because I know then that I’ve won. She holds up two fingers. “Two conditions.”

I hadn’t counted on those, but I’m willing enough to hear them out if they mean getting to Vera tonight. “What are they?”

“This is a rescue mission, not a sacrifice. You will, under no circumstances, go with her to any place of her choosing or to anywhere that brings you to GE. Either she comes to you and comes back here or you part ways. Or…escape, more likely. I’m not letting you go just to have you kidnapped by GE.”

I have zero plans of returning to GE, where they’d escalated to treating me like a lab rat in the last year of being there. One of the reasons I can’t completely dismiss what Raegan said is that there were a lot of times in the last year where they’d been taking more blood than normal from me. One time in particular that stands out.

I would pretend to go with Vera at the chance of getting her alone, but my plan tonight involves drawing her out to me, anyway.

“Deal. What’s the second one?”

“You take me with you.”

I chuckle without an ounce of humor. “You’re kidding, right? Why would I agree to that? I still don’t trust you, and Vera wants you dead. You being there just makes it all worse.”

Her face tightens at my words, but she can’t argue with them. I’m telling her the reality of the situation and why that can’t be a condition. “If you aren’t going to tell the others about this, then I need to go as your backup. I’ll make sure you aren’t walking into an ambush and that you get out. I also…owe you more than just breaking you free. I owe Vera, and you, to try to save her, like you said. I know this will never make it up to you or her, but I will do everything I can to get Vera back.”

Her words rock the world under my feet and light a fire in my soul. For the first time, I’m speechless. She’s surprised me, in a good way, and I didn’t think I’d ever feel that way with her again. I merely nod in agreement, raising my wrists again to show I’m ready for these fucking things to come off.

She reaches for them, but I drop my wrists before she can touch them as a thought occurs to me. “Wait. I have a condition too.” I lick my lips to prepare what I’m about to say. “You have to swear that you’ll never hurt Vera again. Even if she is brainwashed, or evil, or whatever, I have to know that there is no chance you’ll try to hurt her again. I can’t let you come with me unless I know that. Even if my life is in danger. You promise that you will do everything you can to save her.”

Raegan freezes. It’s a big ask if she cares about me at all, but I’m not expecting much on that front after the way I’ve treated her. I’m more worried that she and Vera will have some sort of vendetta against each other that’ll wind up with my sister killed again.

The fact that she doesn’t agree right away tells me she’s really thinking about it, which I hate to admit, but I appreciate. None of this should be taken lightly. When she answers, it’s like a lead weight of worry off my chest. “I don’t like it, but fine. I won’t hurt Vera no matter what.”

I nod and extend my hands out again. “Now get these off. They’re barbaric as fuck, and Aiden’s going to find some spiked glass handcuffs on his wrists the next time he tries to use these against me.”

Vera is a technopath. Which means she can touch any piece of technology and make it do what she wants. No typing, no coding experience. Just complete and utter control over technology.

Yes. I’ve considered the possibility that she was the one who cut the power on the Tower when it was attacked. And why the generators didn’t kick on as they should have.

I’m also nearly positive that she’s the one who has been blocking my attempts at getting satellite footage of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

It doesn’t make a difference to me whether or not she’s involved. People will do anything when they’ve been brainwashed. And I’m convinced that’s the case at this point. The alternative that she’s willingly letting kids be kidnapped and imprisoned to become GE’s expendable soldiers, all for power, would break me.

I can’t even consider that as a possibility or I’ll lose it.

Because of her crazy gift, all I do is hop on the web and send out an encoded message I know she’ll pick up and only she will be able to decipher. We had our own secret language as kids that we made up together. It was how we coped when we were first brought to the island and were separated by age and gender, so we passed notes. After the first one was found by a teacher, we created our own language so no one could read one of our messages again.

That’s what I send out.

Even if someone else stumbles across it, they won’t be able to read it to know what it says or who it’s from.

Raegan dresses back in her black cargo pants and black shirt, even though there’s still blood on them because she has nothing else to wear here at the safe house. I’m also in the same clothes from this morning. I never got the chance to change or shower since Aiden chained me to the floor while I was still unconscious as soon as they got back here.

I’d bitch that Aiden has no trust in me, but here I am, doing exactly what he thought I would.

It is what it is.

We slip out into the alleyway, and I shove trash bags and empty boxes aside to reveal my ride. It’s a Harley Davidson Softail Standard in vivid black with shining chrome accents. Aiden has his Aston Martin, Kellan has his rat-rods, and Jackson has his gift. But this? This is mine.

For the rare occasions I get to ride it.

I yank a tarp from the bike and roll it away from the wall so we have room to get on. Raegan’s staring at it with unmasked excitement until she looks at the seat. “Where do I sit?” I’ve never given anyone else a ride before, so this’ll be a new experience for the both of us.

I pass her the helmet and pull out a Halloween face mask with neon lights crisscrossing over the eyes and mouth. It’s my secondary option to keep my face hidden from street cameras with my hood tugged further forward over it. “Behind me.” I shift as far forward in my seat as I can, but I know it won’t be enough.

She looks at me like she thinks I’m kidding, so I raise an eyebrow in challenge. Either she can suck it up or walk, but she’s the one who wanted to tag along. As if reading my thoughts or the possibility that I could leave her behind, she shoves the helmet over her head and holds my sides when she throws one leg over.

I slip my mask on and hood up as she does it, then lean forward to grip the handlebars. Her entire body, from the side of her head down to the way her legs straddle mine, presses firmly against me, and I start to reconsider this plan.

My body tenses and heats at the feel of her wrapped around me. It brings me back to the movie nights we’d have together. How she would curl up against me or wrap herself around my arm. How many nights had I thought about kissing her? Of pulling her into my lap and giving in to the fantasies that filled my head instead of the movie I was supposed to be watching? The slip of black panties I witnessed tonight intrudes into my thoughts again.

Cursing under my breath, I throw my foot into the clutch to get us going. I don’t give her any time to adjust before I take off through the empty city streets. I focus on the wind whipping around us and the cool night air instead, taking every stretch of road at high speed so all my attention has to be on driving.

We make it to the location in record time, but I wanted to scope it out before Vera got here, anyway. I park the bike in the building’s alley, and we climb the rickety metal fire escape from the ground to the roof.

It’s the roof of an old strip club that shut down before we moved here, but the neon lights still turn on nightly for whatever reason. It stands out in the city and will be easy for her to find, which is just what I want. Raegan eyes the sign glowing red and then looks at me.

“L’amour?”

I shrug and walk around the perimeter. Aside from the giant letters across the roof, there’s nothing else. No entrance or exit other than the fire escape along one side. No big air conditioning units or any other sort of obstruction that people can hide behind. Once I get in a full sweep around the edge, I know we’re clear. “It was an old strip club.”

“Ah. Someplace familiar to you?” There’s no accusation in her tone, but I take it that way, anyway.

“The sign is recognizable. That’s all. This club hasn’t been around in decades.” There’s a rumor that this is where secret lovers will meet. When they have nowhere safe or hidden to go to be together, they come here. Away from cameras, people, the world.

I don’t know whether or not that’s actually true, but I am grateful to find no one else here while we are. I’d feel bad kicking them out of their secret spot, but I’d do it.

I sit down in front of the letter O and lean back against it. It could be hours before Vera gets my message and comes here. It could be minutes. I settle in to make myself comfortable for the wait with one leg stretched out and the other bent at the knee to rest my arm on. Raegan steps up to the O and leans against the other side.

“It might take a while. You should sit down.”

She looks at me and then back around at the city before she nods and sits next to me. I wish she’d chosen anywhere else to sit on the roof when her proximity has my body hyperaware of her. It pricks at my temper, and I look out over the city to distract myself.

We sit in complete silence for a long time. I would have thought she’d try to fill the silence with something. Excuses. Memories and nostalgia to try to win me over. How else had she tricked the others? I assume it’s my turn now and I’ll be subjected to her tricks.

She doesn’t say anything at all.

Her body shifts every now and again to find comfort on the cold concrete roof and hard plastic lettering, and the moment she does, my entire body laser focuses on it. All I can hear, see, think about is the fact that she’s moving.

It’s stupid.

The third time she does it, I’m ready to break the silence just so I can focus on anything else.

“Even though she’s alive,” I begin, my voice rough, “I still don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive you for what you did. I still don’t trust you.”

I keep my gaze trained on the lights of the city in front of me. I don’t know what I expect to see if I look at her face right now, but I don’t want to see any of it. Not until I say it all.

“I know,” she answers softly before I can continue. “And you shouldn’t trust me.”

Surprised by her admission, I break my internal promise not to look at her. Her bright blue eyes are filled with fierce determination as she looks at me. My chest constricts under that stare, stealing the air from my lungs.

“Because if I had to do it all again, if I were ever faced with the same choice of watching you die or saving you…I would choose you every time.”

She smiles sadly and finally looks away from me. I realize I wasn’t breathing while she’d looked at me that way and take a deep breath again through parted lips. I pull my other leg up to give myself more privacy, and then grip the fabric at my chest to will my heart to calm the fuck down.

She’s doing it again.

It’s what I tell myself, anyway, but I also know better than to believe any of that was fake. There was so much conviction in her tone and truth in her eyes that I’d be fooling myself to say that she was lying. It’s a jarring difference from how I’d imagined her after Vera died. When I’d pictured her as a traitor or one of the Gifted Enterprise members all along.

She’s acting just as she had when we’d been together on the island. When it had been all for one and one for all between the five of us.

She still killed Vera .

Even if it was an accident or her attempt at saving my life. Those reasons are much better than the original ones I thought she’d done it for, but it doesn’t change the fact that she took my sister’s life away.

“You shouldn’t have made that call on your own. You should have let whatever happen to me happen, and then we would have figured it out together. You should have told me what was going on with my sister.” My tone is steady, belying the storm of emotions raging in me at this conversation.

Raegan huffs and gives a slight shake of her head. “Letting whatever happen to you was letting you die. There wouldn’t have been a figuring it out together later.”

“I can’t believe that Vera would have let me die. Maybe if you had waited a little longer—”

“No!” she shouts, then she shoots me an apologetic look and softens her tone. “Sorry, but no. Waiting as long as I had and trying to get her to stop was already too much. Your monitors were all beeping and going off and no one was coming to your rescue. Either I did something or it would have been too late.”

I still can’t believe it. I won’t. My sister isn’t a monster. We cared about each other and looked out for one another.

“Anyway, I was going to tell you about her and Gordon, but she made me promise not to, so she could tell you first. I gave her a week to tell you on her own before I stepped in. And then…well, she died before that happened.”

I nod slowly. This part is also hard to believe. “So, she was sleeping with the enemy, huh? That Gordon guy you kneeled for at the Tower?”

Rae makes a face and looks away so I can’t read anything else on her expression. “She told me she was in love with him. But I think” – she chews her lip and flicks a brief glance my way to gauge my mood before she continues – “maybe she was…coerced or groomed or whatever into it. GE made out too well under that arrangement. And when he was with her…it didn’t look like he cared much for her.”

My hands clench and unclench with restless energy and the need to beat the living shit out of this Gordon guy. If any of that is true…I won’t need any gift or weapon to destroy him. I’ll do it with my bare hands.

“I’m sorry about everything, Dane. I wish I didn’t have a gift that killed so easily and that I could have found a better way to stop her. Even if I stopped her without killing her, though, I’m afraid it would have happened again when I wasn’t there. So long as we were on that island and she was being controlled by Gordon, she was a danger to you and everyone else.”

I sigh and run my fingers through my hair, tugging at the ends that are dyed blond for Vera. Before, it was in remembrance and because I couldn’t let go of the past. Now it’s something that ties us together again. Makes us look like siblings, because otherwise, it wasn’t always easy to tell.

“If she wasn’t my sister, I would get it. But she was—is,” I correct myself. “I’m not ready to forgive you and I don’t know if I ever will be. But none of that matters to me right now. All I care about is getting Vera back and saving her.”

Raegan nods. “I promise that I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back and save her this time.”

We both share a tenuous smile and nod, then fall back into silence.

The sound of something against metal grabs my attention from whatever thoughts I’d been lost in. A quick check on Raegan shows that she’s fallen asleep. I’m not sure yet what I heard, maybe something from down below on the streets, so I don’t wake her just yet. We’ve been up here for hours and the sky is lightening. If Vera doesn’t show by the time I can see the sun, we’ll head back.

Then I hear the slide of a gun.

I dive over Raegan, knocking her to the ground beneath me just as a gunshot sounds. She moans under me and then curses. “Dane?”

I ignore her and look over my shoulder, my pulse racing with hope.

It’s her. Vera.

“Vera, don’t shoot. I want to talk.” I keep my body covering Raegan’s while the gun is still aimed our way. I still trust that she wouldn’t shoot me. It’s Raegan she’s after.

“Why is she here, Dane? Why are you still hanging around the girl who killed me? She’ll probably try again now that she knows I’m still alive.”

“She won’t. I made her promise she’ll never try to hurt you again. I swear to you, you’re safe. You can put the gun down.” Raegan makes a noise of disapproval under me, but tough shit. I know it puts her at a disadvantage for Vera to know that, but I need my sister to feel safe more than anything when she’s with us .

Vera laughs, but it’s nothing like the one I remember. It’s cold and sends a chill up my spine. “And you actually believe her? I love you, but you’re an idiot, little brother. The only way I’ll stop pointing my gun at her is if she’s already dead. So how about you move aside and I take care of this little speed bump, and then we can catch up like old times?”

Raegan stiffens. Her eyes are wide with fear when she looks at me. She’s looking at me like she thinks I’m going to do what Vera wants. I mean, I did say I’d do anything to get her back. Her big blue eyes look up at me and my gut reaction is to hold her tight. My arms tense with the urge, but I don’t move to console or touch her.

“No.” I look back at Vera. “She’s under my protection while she’s here. No one is killing anyone tonight. I just want to talk. She can go on the other side of the roof so you can pretend she isn’t here, but you have to put your gun away.”

“You’re an even bigger idiot than I thought if you really think I would let her live after what she did to me. I’m not going to pretend anything. Either I kill her, you kill her, or I’m leaving.”

Fuck. I knew this was going to happen, but I thought she might look past it enough just to see each other again. I’ve underestimated her level of hatred for Raegan.

“Please, Vera. I thought you were dead for years. I need to hold you to know that it’s really you. We need to talk about everything that’s happened. I’ll do anything. Just leave Raegan out of it.”

“Fine. Come with me then and she stays here.”

I close my eyes to get ahold of my emotions and then open them again. “I can’t do that. ”

Vera scoffs and walks away.

“Vera!”

She pauses at the edge of the roof. “Either bring me her dead body next time or be prepared to come with me. Think it over and decide. Don’t reach out to me again until you’ve made your choice.” With that, she hops over the edge of the building.

My lungs seize. I leap up and race over to the edge. She’s gone. There’s no sign of her on the fire escape or on the ground. I breathe a sigh of relief and then collapse to the ground against the edge of the roof.

She wouldn’t even talk to me. All because Raegan was here.

Raegan slowly moves until she’s squatting in front of me. “I’m sorry. Dane, we’ll figure this out.” She reaches for me, and I knock her hand away.

“Don’t,” I snarl and then push to my feet. I shouldn’t have agreed for her to come with me. Or I should have had her hide so she could have my back like she wanted. Then Vera might have been willing to talk. How am I supposed to save her, to remind her of who she is, if she won’t let me talk to her?

“We’re leaving.” I start down the fire escape without another word.

She drops from the last ladder right after me and silently dons the helmet and mounts my bike behind me. The drive back is miserable in my head because I can’t see any way out of what Vera wants. I don’t want to give her either option, but I’m also not going to give up on her. I know I can get my sister back no matter what GE may have done or said to make her believe she’s on the right side .

I try to ride my anger out on the rest of the drive, but it does nothing to temper my mood. I practically throw the boxes and tarps back over my ride to hide it while Raegan stands back and just watches me. I can’t imagine what she’s thinking as she sees me right now, but I'm too fucked to care.

Once we’re back in the apartment, she pauses on her way back to Aiden’s room. “Dane, we should talk about—”

“Nothing,” I interrupt harshly. “There’s nothing to talk about. I need some sleep and the others will be up soon making a ruckus.”

“Are the others going to know we went out?”

“No. They’ll never know.” They don’t need to know about our deal or about me trying to get Vera back. She nods and retreats to Aiden’s room, closing it softly behind her so that I’m left alone in the living room where the sun has breached the horizon and is already brightening the apartment.

Fucking perfect.