Recycled Lives Page 16

  “Glass, don’t do this,” Jacques shouted. Her head snapped around to him; a smug look covered her pretty face.

  “This is all her fault. If it wasn’t for her, Dad would still be alive,” Glass said. There was no sense of sadness in her tone. Her words said that she cared, but her voice and her face didn’t give off any of those signs. She was saying what he needed to hear; he was sure of it.

  “No, Glass. It’s your fault. This is all your fault,” Jacques said. Whatever he had done in the past may have influenced who she was, but it was her choice to act on it. He was done taking responsibility for other people's actions. The hand gripping the knife started to lower. He was getting through to her. “You can stop this; no one else needs to die.”

  “No…no…it’s hers,” Glass said with a waver in her tone. Her brows lowered as she tried to fight whatever was going on in her own head. She paused with a look of determination on her face. “She has to die.”

  In a quick movement, Glass brought the knife up. His time was up. He hit the button on the EMP. There was an explosion of electricity from his hand and a surge of static in the air. There were cries and the sounds of thuds.

  He was confused for a second. He could still see the bar. He could still see Glass holding Ava. Had the EMP failed? That’s when he realized the final imprint of the scene had been imprinted on his augmented eyes. How long it would last, he didn’t know, but that image was there, front and center. The look on Glass’ face as she felt like she had her vengeance, and Ava’s face as she thought she was going to die.

  His heart started to beat fast in his chest. He was blind. Completely and utterly blind. There was still a cacophony of noise in the bar. It didn’t sound like fighting, but he couldn’t work out what was going on. He dropped the remnants of the EMP and stumbled forward grabbing the edge of the bar for support. He needed to know what had happened. He was starting to panic that he’d been too late.

  “Ava…Ava…are you okay?” Jacques shouted.

  “Yeah. I’m okay,” was her flustered response. He felt an impact on the other side of the bar and flinched, ready to jump away.

  “I…I can’t see,” he stuttered. Right now, he was actually scared, something he hadn’t felt for a long time. He felt hands grab both of his and squeeze slightly.

  “What was that?” she asked, her breath coming fast and heavy as she seemed to be trying to catch it.

  “A small EMP. It should have knocked out the augmentics. Did it work?” he asked, panic about to overtake him. He had to assume it did; how else would she be standing here?

  “Yeah. Most just collapsed. Some are still conscious, but their augmentics have stopped working,” Ava said.

  Relief flooded him. It had worked, they were safe, and the fight was over. Well, kind of. He still had to figure out what he was going to do with Glass. Hamish was the only one able to corral her, and now he was dead. All those feelings that he’d been suppressing were starting to bubble to the surface. He forced himself to swallow. This still wasn’t the time for that.

  “Glass. What happened to her?” Jacques asked.

  “She…she got away,” Ava said. His stomach dropped. No! How the hell could she have gotten away?

  “We’ll get her. You’ll be safe, I promise,” he said quickly.

  “I doubt the bitch is coming back after that,” Ava said with a forced chuckle. “Now sit down before you hurt yourself. I need to help the others, okay?”

  Her lips pressed against his for just a second before she pulled away from him. He felt completely lost and useless. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t even fucking see. He kept blinking, wanting to clear the image that was burned into his eyes. But no matter what he did, it was there. Was this the image he was stuck with for the rest of his days? He would welcome the endless darkness right now.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ava stood holding Jacques’ hand as she lied to his face. Glass hadn’t gotten away; she lay on the floor not far away. Her face was pale and quickly taking on a gray hue. She wasn’t breathing; she was dead. The second that static had erupted in the air, something had happened to her. Her arm had gone limp, then her body had started to tremble before she dropped to the floor in seizure. When she stopped jerking, that was it.

  When he’d asked about her, she wanted to tell him the truth, but that would tear him apart. The last time he had ended up killing someone, it had caused such damage that if he found out that he had killed someone he had once loved so much, then it would completely tear him apart. She wasn’t willing to let that happen to him.

  As she pulled away, she looked into those white eyes. It was ironic because he’d told her he used the blind eyes as decoys for many years, but now he was actually blind. Foreshadowing much? She wanted to focus on him, but she needed to act quickly if she was going to get rid of Glass’ body. If this was The Fringe, she would have just dragged her to the outskirts and buried her. In Seattle, things were very different.

  Everyone was a little frantic with what had happened, so no one was looking her way. The mercs were picking themselves up and dusting themselves off while the gangers were dragging themselves out of there, licking their wounds. Before anyone noticed, she quickly grabbed Glass’ body and lifted her into her arms before slipping her way into the back room. She ditched the body on her old bed, grabbed a sheet, and wrapped the body up in it before heading back to the bar, locking the door to her room in the process. If anyone asked where she had gone, she would lie her fucking ass off. When you loved someone, you protected them. Wait, had she just thought that? Yes, she had. She loved him. He was the first guy to have treated her as more than a piece of meat, and she was willing to protect him. Okay, she needed off this train of thought.

  Jacques was sitting there behind the bar, and Lucinda was with him, which would buy her a little more time.

  In her time as a bartender here, she had gotten to know the usual mercs. Each of them had different sets of skills, and right now, she needed one in particular—body removal. She knew that one of the lead guys for it had been in the bar today, and for the right price, he would help her out.

  He was currently seated by the door. Sherrie had just served him a drink. All those who had fought were being given a drink on the house. She glanced around, making sure no one was focused on her, and when she was satisfied, she slipped herself into the seat opposite.

  “You alright?” he grunted as he pulled back a gauze pad to check a gash on his hand.

  “Yeah. I’m in need of your services,” she whispered. “I have a body I need you to get rid of.”

  The man glanced around the bar as if searching for the body. He zeroed in on Hamish for a moment before he looked back to her and narrowed his brow. Her heart was thudding away. If this guy didn’t help her, then she only had a few other options. The last thing she needed was to lose her freedom before she even started her life here in Seattle because she didn’t dispose of her man’s ex-girlfriend’s body properly.

  “Not Hamish. Glass bit the big one, and I need her to disappear before anyone notices,” Ava explained in a low voice. There was no point lying; as soon as he saw the body, he was going to know her. Pretty much all the mercs did.

  “It’s gonna cost you,” he said.

  When he reeled off the number, she inwardly cringed. It was going to cost her every penny that she had saved for her new apartment and the materials for her business. It was her fresh start disappearing down the drain. More money she could earn, but there was no other way to protect Jacques. She offered him her hand, and when he accepted it, she transferred all the money his way.

  “The body is in the back room; here’s the key,” she said, handing it over. “Needs to be gone ASAP.”

  The merc nodded before downing the rest of his drink. Then he was on his feet and on his way. One of the perks of working in the merc bar was that it was easy to get in touch with any illegal services you needed. With that issue dealt with, she needed to go and see Jacques.

&
nbsp; He wasn’t behind the bar anymore. Now he was knelt at Hamish’s side. Lucinda stood not far away just watching over Jacques. Ava went to his side and knelt down, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched.

  “It’s me,” she said, and his shoulders instantly relaxed. “Are you okay?”

  Jacques went silent for a moment. His eyebrows creased, and his mouth twitched as if he was trying to conjure up some words but was failing miserably. She sighed a little. At least she wasn’t the only person who was feeling this way. Not that she had ever been good with words, but right now, she couldn’t even start to think how to put her feelings into words.

  “He was the only parent I ever had,” Jacques said, swallowing hard.

  Ava had no idea what to say, so instead, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him against her. He came willingly. She tried to remember what it was like when her own mother died. What was sad was there was no real emotion. Death was such a normal part of life in The Fringe it was almost expected. When she looked at Hamish, though, she felt a pang of sadness, which was something that she hadn’t expected.

  “He helped me so much. I never had the chance to repay him,” Ava said. When she had arrived here, she had nothing. He had helped her get on her feet. He brought her clothes, a gauntlet, even an ID chip. He had never really asked for anything; all he had wanted was help in the bar from time to time.

  “He wouldn’t have wanted a repayment. When he found someone he cared about, he just wanted to help them,” Jacques said sadly.

  “Look, let’s get you home, okay?” Ava said. She really just wanted to get him away from this place, even for just half an hour. “We’ll get showered, sort your injuries out. Then we’ll sort out what to do next, okay?”

  It was selfish, but she wanted him to herself. Everything that needed to be done for the bar right now had been done. A coroner was coming for the body, probably the security, too, but Sherrie and Keith would cover that. They had been briefed on how to lie to the officers by some of the bar’s more experience patrons. She wanted to be away from the eyes of all the mercs and from his friends. Not just that, but she knew he needed to be away before he could process his emotions properly. She stood up and assisted him to his feet. Once again, he came willingly.

  No one asked any questions as they headed for the door. Her gauntlet had been fried in the EMP. Luckily, the ID chips were shielded, so she flagged down the first cab that passed them. There was no conversation as they made their way across the city. There was a lot to process with everything that had happened today. When the cab stopped outside of Jacques apartment, she paid the fare and led him up the stairs into his apartment.

  They settled together on the couch. Ava released a slight sigh. She had been trying to figure where everything had gone wrong, but then at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter. Now it was just about picking up the pieces. Jacques was just sat there with his hands clutched tightly together. All she could focus on was his bloody knuckles. She fetched the iodine from the medicine cabinet and sat on the floor before him. She took his hand.

  “This is going to sting,” she said.

  She gently jabbed iodine on the broken skin of his knuckles. His body stiffened with each touch, and once she was done, she brought his hand to her lips and kissed each one gently. She took a moment to lift her top, dabbing a bit of the iodine on the cut on her side before stepping up and taking his hand, bringing him to his feet.

  “Do you want to take a shower?” she asked.

  “With you?” he asked.

  “If that’s what you want,” she said.

  “If I ever say no to that, then I am ill as hell,” he said with a slight smirk.

  Ava couldn’t help the small smile as he took her hand. They made their way into the bathroom. They stripped each other slowly. Even with his blindness, Jacques had no issue taking her clothes off. When they stepped under the water, a calming sense overtook her, like everything that happened was being washed away and was replaced by his touch. A touch that for the first time in her life felt right. A touch she didn’t resent but, instead, encouraged.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  “And I you,” she replied, the admittance bringing a wave of euphoria from within.

  After what felt like hours, she stepped from beneath the spray, her legs weak and her head sated. She could live in that moment for the rest of her days. The moment that she felt like a person, not an object. The time a person showed her what a loving touch was. A time that she would remember for the rest of her days.

  Epilogue

  Lucinda grabbed the final box off the back of the moving van and carried it into the house. After the fight in the Oaken Casket, Lucinda had realized a few things about herself that she hadn’t been expecting. One of them being that she could kick ass now, and the other being that whatever happened in life, she wanted Zane by her side. Even with the fights between them, the sticky fingers, and the endless school meetings, she wanted to be part of his family.

  When they had gotten back from the Oaken Casket, they had all been beaten, bloody, and bruised. Sawyer hadn’t hesitated to get out the first aid kit and go about fixing their injuries. Apparently, when they had lived in The Fringe, she had been a little nurse for the family and was more than accustomed to cleaning up her brothers after a fray.

  She had slid into bed with Zane at the end of the day, and she had told him that she wanted to live here. More than that, though, she wanted to be a part of his family and everything that entailed. Most people would think she was moving too fast, but when it felt right, you just had to go for it. Too much of her life up to this point had been carefully planned. This was where she let her heart take over, but her head agreed that she had made the best choice for herself.

  “Is that the last one?” Zane asked as he met her by the front door.

  “Yeah, just this one, and I’m all moved in. I handed my keys to my old place over on the way out. I officially live here now,” she said with a smile.

  “We are glad to have you here,” Zane said as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

  “Where does this one go?” Caspian asked as he took one of the boxes from inside the door.

  “What does it say on the box?” she asked.

  “Uhh…kitchen,” he said. He poked his tongue out at her and headed through to the kitchen. She chuckled before grabbing another box.

  When the kids came home from school, she hoped to have all of her stuff moved in, and with Zane, Dare, and Caspian’s help, she doubted that would be a problem. She looked around the living area. Even though it was so different from when she had grown up, she could still see what it used to be. She could see her Mom in the kitchen cooking dinner, and Dad flicking through the channels looking for something to watch.

  It had taken one day for her entire life to come crumbling down around her, and to this day, she didn’t know what had happened to her parents. She doubted she ever would. Now she realized it was time to put that behind her. No amount of wishing would bring her parents back to her, but here she had the family that she had so desperately craved. She had a group of people who cared about her and she knew would have her back. In this world, that was all that mattered.

  Even with all the darkness in her past, she was now looking forward, and all she could think was that her future felt a whole lot brighter. Even if she had given up any sense of privacy she could have. She wouldn’t give this family up for anything. She thought about that picture that Blair had drawn last week, and that brought a smile to her face.

  “We should get Blair a chocolate fountain for her birthday. I think she’d like that,” she said to Zane as he came up to grab another box. He snorted.

  “I don’t doubt it. She’s a sweet fiend,” Zane said before he laughed. He turned away and took a step before he turned to look at her again.

  “Lucy, thank you,” he said without an explanation.

  “Thank you for what?” s
he asked.

  “For being you. You’re more than I could have ever hoped for,” he said.

  The gesture made her swell with happiness. After leaving the children's home, she couldn’t really imagine any happy future for herself. Everything seemed so bleak and hopeless. Now here she stood in her family home with a new family at her side. With these guys, she felt more powerful than ever, like she could take on the world. There wasn’t anything that she would change.

  *****

  Ava had spent the last few days helping the staff at the Oaken Casket clean up the bar and come to terms with the loss of Hamish. The physical damage to the bar was minimal; the few broken barstools and smashed glasses could be easily replaced. Hamish not so much. Everyone was still reeling from the shock of it all. Seattle Security’s investigation had been wrapped up pretty swiftly. The staff had stuck to the half-truth that the gangers came looking for trouble, and Hamish was a victim of the cross fire, and omitted the fact that kidnapping Glass had provoked the attack in the first place. The number of dead gangers in the bar had confirmed this story, and the officers had written the incident off as another example of gang violence in the area.

  The Casket was pretty quiet tonight with only the most stubborn regulars in sight. The Security presence over the last few days had kept most of the clients away, but they would be back once they were sure the Security interest in the bar had quietened down. Ava had clocked out early and allowed herself some time to sort her things out. With both Hamish and Glass dead, the future of the Casket was uncertain, and she wanted to make sure all her shit was ready to go if the shit hit the fan. She was just sorting through the pile of fabrics she had recently bought when there was a knock on the door. She crossed the room to see who her unexpected guest was. On the other side of the door stood India wearing Ava’s jacket.