Wildcard (Warcross #2)(47)

“Walk.”

What? My feet feel rooted to the floor.

Jax seizes my arm and shoves me once. Her nails dig hard into my skin. “If they know you’re here, you’re dead,” she growls in my ear, shoving me forward. “Go.”

Her words register through my chaotic mind, and I manage to shoot her a confused glance as she starts pulling me along the shadowed wall of the main lobby. “Where are you taking me?” I whisper.

Jax leads me down another dark hall on the opposite end of the lobby. “Less talking, more walking,” she replies.

Whatever shred of silence I’d managed to hold on to now breaks, and my words come spilling out. “And then what? Will you take me out, too? A shot to the head, just like Tremaine? Where are you taking his body?”

She turns those pale gray eyes on me again. “So, you did see.”

I shake my head repeatedly, trying in vain to get Tremaine’s crumpled body out of my mind. “What are you all doing here?” I say over and over again. “What is that robot Zero was controlling? Where is he?”

Jax doesn’t answer me. We reach the end of the hall and a small side entrance that opens into the back of the building, where a few cars are parked.

Here, Jax suddenly shoves me up against the wall and presses a gloved hand over my mouth. She looks as cold as ever, but there’s tension in her eyes now, and she keeps glancing around to make sure we’re alone. “In a minute, I’m going to tell you to go outside and get in the car farthest to your left. It’ll take you back to the hotel. The guards out front are busy with Tremaine’s body. Keep your head down and don’t try to come back here. Do you understand me?”

I struggle out of her grip. “But you—”

She shoves me again hard and puts her gun right against my head. Ice-cold metal. I hear it click at my temple. “But I hit your stupid friend Tremaine with a grazing shot to his head. I’ll direct his car to a hospital. Don’t you dare visit him tonight, unless you want Taylor to find out that you somehow knew he’d be there the instant he arrived. Wait until tomorrow morning.”

None of this makes sense at all. “What? Taylor?” My whisper turns hoarse. “You shot Tremaine. Zero’s the head of—”

Jax lets out a quiet, surprised laugh and lowers her gun. “You think Taylor works for Zero, don’t you?”

A note of hesitation enters my voice. “She tried to warn me. Zero—”

Jax’s smile is cold. “Zero doesn’t run things. Taylor does. We follow her command.”

Taylor leads the Blackcoats. I blink. That can’t be right—she’s far too quiet and uncertain for that. Her soft voice, her delicate shoulders, and thoughtful look . . . Hadn’t she deferred to Zero the first time I met them? Hadn’t she let him talk?

Let him talk. Like he worked for her.

“But,” I try to say, “Taylor doesn’t seem like . . .”

My voice trails off at Jax’s expression. She is dead serious, and in her eyes, I see an emotion I’ve never seen before on her face. Real fear. Fear of Taylor.

Jax, the girl who can eat a snack and then shoot someone in the head, who doesn’t bat an eye at the sight of blood . . . is terrified of Taylor.

Now I’m truly frightened.

Jax tears her gaze away and leans close. “Once you get back to the hotel,” she murmurs against my ear, “I’m going to send you an invite to the Dark World. You’re going to meet me in there, and then I can tell you more.”

“Why should I believe you?” I spit each word out, relying on my anger to keep my tears at bay.

“Because you’re still alive,” she replies, “and not bleeding out on the floor.”

There are so many things I want to say back to her. That I saw her standing on the balcony with Zero; that I don’t know why she’s sparing me right now, or why she’s going behind Taylor’s back on Tremaine. But this is no time to press her. All I can do is follow her instructions—even though nothing’s stopping her from hunting down my car the instant I get inside it.

Maybe this is her strategy for killing me tonight, too. She’ll talk me into getting into the car and then run it right off the road. Call it an accident.

Faint footsteps come from the other side of the main lobby. Jax turns her head sharply in their direction, then looks back at me. “You get one warning from me. If you ever come back here again, I’ll put a bullet in you before I can even think it through. Now, shut up and go.”



* * *





* * *



MY NUMB LEGS somehow carry me to the car. I sit in silent shock as it starts up, then takes me back to the hotel. I want to scream at the car to bring me to Tremaine instead. I want to figure out wherever he’s been taken to. Tell him I’m sorry and beg him to forgive me.

He’s lying in a hospital somewhere, fighting for his life, because of me. If he dies, my hands will be dipped in his blood.

Jax’s last words to me ring in my head. Part of me expects my car windows to shatter from gunfire—that she’s set me up and is just waiting for me to turn my back.

But everything outside my window looks exactly as I’d left it; the cosplay parade is still in full swing, the streets still neon-colored. Some are cheering the final two top-player announcements as excitement for the closing ceremony builds to a fever pitch.