Lies(52)

“You?” She smiles. “Oh dear, no, not you. Charlie.”

He frowns. “What are you talking about?”

She looks at him hard, as if trying to gauge if his surprise is genuine. “I was wondering how he got you to come here, to your certain death. But you don’t even know. He’s been pulling your strings without you even suspecting.”

“You’re babbling,” Archie snaps, but his eyes look worried.

“Don’t feel bad. He fooled me too. Got me to place my entire estate into his hands two days ago, telling me we’d use it to put such a massive bounty on your head that, even if you got to me, you’d never sleep another night of your short life in peace. And I fell for it.”

“Bounties don’t scare me.” Archie’s nostrils flare. “Besides, I really thought Charles would no longer be an obstacle. Must have a word with my man on that job.”

Helene shakes her head. “You don’t understand. There will be no more words and no more jobs. Charlie’s already won, the cunning old fox. It never occurred to me that he was the only one who knew. He told me to come here. Off the grid and defensible, he said, and I never suspected.”

“Suspected what?” Archie looks furious now. The tip of his nose has turned bright red.

She smiles up at him, but this time her smile is sad. Almost sympathetic. “About the dynamite.”

“What?”

Slowly, she turns her right hand over, revealing a little black device nestled within her fist. It’s whatever Thom passed her, and when they see it, Archie’s whole little army stiffens. The two at the back exchange a glance.

I’m guessing Helene’s holding some type of dead man’s switch, so if she dies or releases her hand, everything goes up in smoke.

My insides clench in fear, and the only useless, stupid thought I have is that I wish Thom were next to me. So that if it all ends in a blazing inferno, at least I can be in his arms at the end. But he’s way on the other side of the room. He’d never reach me in time.

Helene continues, talking calmly, as if she weren’t holding everyone’s lives in her fingertips. “The whole property’s been laced with it ever since the 1990 renovation. All the way from the basement out past the driveway. And Charlie knew about it from the very start. He was the one who put me in touch with the team to rig it up.”

“You’re bluffing,” Archie says, almost spitting out the words. “You wouldn’t kill all your people.”

“Oh, please. They were dead the moment they agreed to come here, and you know it.” She lets her left hand fall to the floor beside her, the gun tumbling from her fingers. “Face it, Archie, we’ve been outplayed. Charlie got us to pool all our resources and people together in the one place he knew you could successfully attack, and I could successfully destroy. It’s over for all of us. You thought you were the one taking over, but it was him all the time. He knew I’d be willing to die to preserve the organization if pushed to it. Ah, well. At least I get to be the one who kills you. That’s some small consolation, I suppose.”

“Boss?” says Scorpion. She’s looking worried now.

“Quiet,” Archie snaps at her. Half his team is shuffling their feet nervously. “Just let me think for a moment. Let me think!”

“The only thing that truly makes me sad is the Vermeer. It’s hanging in the master bedroom.” Helene looks up at Archie hopefully, and then looks at me. “We’ve got a civilian here. None of us are getting out alive. But we could send her down the road with it. She could probably get far enough away in time. After all, there’s only thirty-four of his paintings in the world.”

“Wait, what?” I blurt, shocked by the sudden turn of events. “No! I’m not going anywhere.”

To be honest, with my injuries, I’d be surprised if I could even make it out of the house, much less all the way up the driveway. But no way am I leaving Thom. Whatever is coming, we’ll face it side by side. Or at least vaguely in the same room.

“Ah, well.” Helene nods and looks down at her right fist, knuckles white, grip tight around the detonator. “It was just a thought.”

“Wait, you stupid bitch—” Archie reaches out a hand toward her.

“Fuck this! I didn’t sign up for a suicide mission.” That voice comes from behind Archie, from one of his team stationed nearest the exploded wall. The guy turns and runs.

“What are you doing?” Archie turns in alarm. “Stand your ground!”

Four of Archie’s remaining team members turn their heads, toward the mercenary hightailing it out of here, the poor sap obviously hoping to get clear of the blast zone before Helene blows us all to kingdom come.

And without a word Thom, Bear, Crow, and Fox all raise their guns in unison. They start firing, in that tiny moment when all of the enemies are distracted. Several of the bad guys hit the ground and don’t move again.

But not Scorpion. She never turned her head. And as the shooting starts, she pulls Archie down behind the kitchen island and returns fire.

Everything is happening too quickly. Thom’s gun is shredding the kitchen island. Everyone is firing their weapons, running for cover, and generally all hell has let loose.

I get even lower, lying on the ground. But not because of a new injury. It’s what Thom told me to do. Only, while he’s busy trying to flush out Scorpion and Archie, I’m perfectly positioned to wriggle my way around the other side of the island to do some good. If trying to kill someone can ever be called good.