Hellbent (Orphan X #3)(62)

Evan looked at the Snickers wrapper on the kitchen counter, the T-shirt pillow on the couch. “Pack up your stuff,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“I just came up with a new Commandment.”

At this her eyebrows rose. “A new Commandment? What is it?”

“‘Don’t fall in love with Plan A.’”





42

Undone by Target

Joey stood in the great room of Evan’s penthouse in Castle Heights, staring at the tall ceiling, her mouth gaping. After the places she’d lived, it probably seemed like the Serengeti to her.

Watching her, Evan felt discomfort beneath his skin, an awareness of his posture, how he was holding his arms. He could count on his fingers the number of people who had been inside 21A, and not one of them had known Evan’s real identity.

“By bringing you here, I am giving you my absolute trust,” he said. “Trust I have given no one before. Ever.”

Joey was taking a pass through the kitchen, trickling a finger across the countertops, the island, the Sub-Zero, like a housewife at an open house. But at his words she paused and looked over at him. The weight of the moment was potent enough that it quieted the air between them.

“What if I don’t deserve it?” she said.

“If you didn’t deserve it, I wouldn’t give it to you.”

“This place,” she said. “It’s like something made up.”

“What did you expect?”

“Judging by your taste in motels and your lovely safe-house decor, I thought you lived in … I don’t know, a shoe.”

“A shoe.”

“Yeah. But this? This is like a Louboutin.”

“What’s that?”

“A fancy shoe they talk about on TV.”

“Oh.”

“Where do I stay?” She looked around. “I guess I could sleep on the dumbbell rack.”

He hadn’t thought about it. “There’s a couch in the reading loft.”

“The reading loft. Of course.”

He pointed at the steel spiral staircase. “Full bathroom, too.”

She gestured tentatively. “May I?”

“Yes.”

She twisted up the stairs and disappeared.

Another human. Out of sight. Inside his place. Doing whatever humans did.

He looked over at the vertical garden. It looked back. He wondered if the plants were as uncomfortable as he was.

“This might be a very bad idea,” he told them.

He thought again of David Smith in his frayed school shirt and swallowed his own discomfort.

After a moment Joey came back downstairs, running a hand along the curved handrail as if she wasn’t sure it was real.

“Is it okay?” he asked.

“It is,” she said, “more than okay.”

“Let’s get to work.”

“Okay. Quick question: Where are the extra sheets? And pillows?”

He looked at her.

“Like for guests,” she said.

“Guests,” Evan repeated. He gave a nod. “We’ll figure that out later.”

Joey turned to the east-facing windows, gawking at downtown in the distance. The discreet armor sunshades were raised, the glass tinted. She took a step closer. The entire wall was transparent. At least in one direction.

She said, “You can see into so many apartments from here.”

Evan said, “Yes.”

She set her palms against the Lexan pane. He made a note to wipe off the smudges later.

“Did Jack teach you about the Mangoday?” she asked.

“Genghis Khan’s cavalrymen.”

“Yeah.” She laughed, her breath clouding the glass. “He said they were the first elite special-operations force. They fought without fear, beyond the limits of the human body. Know how Khan trained those warriors?”

“Built a regimen based on starving wolves.”

“Yeah,” she said. “The hungrier a wolf is, the braver and more ferocious he gets.”

“You’re saying that’s what we are.”

“Yes. That’s what we are. And this place? This place looks like the home of someone who’s always hungry.”

“For what?”

She looked back at him, her hair flicking over one shoulder. Her hands remained on the window. “For everything out there.”

Evan broke off her stare, heading down the hall to the master suite. “Let’s get to work,” he said again.

He could hear Joey jogging to catch up. He opened the door and stepped into his bedroom. She crossed the threshold and halted.

“Um,” she said. “Your bed is floating.”

“Yes.”

“You have a bed,” she said. “That floats.”

“We’ve covered that.”

“Why?”

Evan blinked at her. “Can we please just get to work?”

She looked around. “Where?”

*

When they stepped through the hidden door into the Vault, Joey actually gasped. She circled the cramped space, checking the equipment, noting the monitors. “Is this…? Am I in…? This is heaven.”

She picked up Vera II in her glass bowl. “Cute.”