Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(74)
Tears welled up and she picked up a ladle to stir the soup even though it didn’t need it. Stupid. Her place was back in Seattle, so why be upset about not having the ingredients she needed to make Gabe nice things? And why think about long-term supplies or things like sourdough starter when she didn’t know what her future with him was going to be? Especially if he got his stupid self killed before they ever figured it out?
She couldn’t make a home here because the entire place was transitory, temporary by nature.
But she wasn’t sure she could go back to the home she had, either.
“You’ll be coming with me now.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maylin’s heart stopped. No way. Couldn’t be.
“Surprised?” Jewel laughed. The sound was low and almost a cackle. Theatrical.
The thought brought some courage back to Maylin, and she forced herself to continue to stir her soup pot, slow and unhurried. “Why are you still here?”
And how? If Jewel got hold of her for Edict, would they use her to bring An-mei back under their control? Maybe. Or revenge. Either way, it’d hurt An-mei...and Gabe.
“Final bit of insurance. Once I saw the squadrons deploy, I figured security on you would be lighter. My gamble paid off. And since I hear our Gabe was successful, you become even more valuable.” Jewel was continuing her villain act. “I know this base as well as any of the idiots here. I was a Centurion.”
And verb tense meant everything in that statement. Maylin glared at Jewel. “But you’re not anymore.”
Jewel shook her head and made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Doesn’t make me any less good at what I do, darlin’.”
“I think it does.” Maylin stuck her chin up. Refused to let Jewel frighten her out of thinking. She needed to get away, call for help.
“What do you know?” Jewel sneered. “You’ve met a handful of them over the course of a week. I’ve blown up three times as many in half the time.”
True. And what was she? A cook. If it’d been her stepmother speaking, she would have squared her shoulders and listed her accomplishments. She was an entrepreneur. She’d never had to ask her parents for money, and she was independent. But against a woman like Jewel, a woman capable of going head-to-head with Gabe, what was Maylin?
Stubborn. Headstrong. Too determined for your own good. Her stepmother’s words came to her at the worst of times. This was not the time to let the woman’s words get her down.
Besides, they were discussing the Centurions. And she could multi-task.
“They do the right thing even when the money isn’t there.” Deliberately not looking at something had never been so hard. “Greed isn’t a handicap for them.”
“How philosophical,” Jewel crooned. “Even a little Zen-sounding. Or some shit like that. You learn that growing up? Or do you have a crazy family uncle who vomits up pieces of wisdom? Maybe one with blond hair and green eyes. Did you ever wonder where you and your sister got them from? She is a geneticist, isn’t she?”
Maylin didn’t rise to the bait. She gave Jewel a serene smile instead. “My father came from northwestern China. There’s a possibility we’re throwbacks to a lost Roman legion. Or, we could be the result of a random combination of genetic factors plus environmental influences. Eye color is a complicated thing.”
Jewel’s eyes narrowed. “In any case, the Centurions as a whole are fools, Gabe and his team even worse than the rest, and their chivalrous code doesn’t make them heroes. What it does is make them suckers and makes you a fool for believing in them. They’re mercenaries, like me, and people like us have done awful things for no good reason.”
Jewel stepped forward, the grin on her face broadening when Maylin didn’t bolt. “You’re going to come with me as bait for your wayward sister. Let’s get going before the idiots on watch actually manage to pull together a timely response team. If they realize you’re in danger at all. You see, they’re used to bigger threats. A single woman talking to another woman? It’ll take them time to recognize the back of my head as not belonging to any of the Centurions on site. If they recognize me at all.”
Maylin hadn’t even known where the cameras were, only had faith they had to be somewhere. As much as Jewel knew, there wasn’t any hope of a miracle rescue in time to stop her.
Jewel raised her right hand, training a small gun at Maylin.
Don’t look away. Keep your eyes wide open and look for your own solutions. Maylin didn’t think her father had meant his advice for life-threatening situations, but hell if it didn’t apply.
She kept her eyes on the gun, with Jewel behind it, and yanked the ladle out of the now-boiling soup pot, knocking it over. Jewel screamed as scalding liquid splashed across her hand and the gun she was holding, and Maylin scrambled around the kitchen island as the stock pot clattered to the floor between them.
Jewel was cursing behind her, and Maylin sobbed as she bolted for the hallway toward the front door. Maybe she’d knocked the gun from Jewel’s hand. Maybe...
Her feet were yanked out from under her and her head hit the ground as she fell. Stars shot through her skull like a billion piercing needles, and she fought to keep conscious. She was roughly flipped onto her back and a frightening click sounded off right next to her head.