I tried to hurry without looking too suspicious. Jace ducked out the window first, then turned to give me his hand. From his unhurried actions, I had a feeling they were exactly where I told them to be. I unfolded my body slowly from my crouched position and looked coolly onto the woman that had given birth to me then abandoned us all.
The man with her was just as tall as Jace and considerably older than her. Miranda should be thirty-five years old, and her companion looked like he was in his late forties early fifties. He was still attractive, with his russet colored hair liberally laced with gray, his ruddy skin and deep laugh lines around his blue eyes. He wasn’t laughing now.
“She won’t tell you where they’re are,” he said between clenched teeth.
Jace seemed frozen by my side. “Greg?” he asked in a confused whisper.
It took me a second to realize who Greg was. He had been partners with Horatio and Will long ago. He was also supposed to be dead.
Greg’s eyes narrowed on Jace for a moment before they widened. “Jace?” he asked quietly in surprise.
Jace nodded curtly. “You died. I went to your funeral.”
A corner of his mouth lifted in a rueful smile. “So, swi
tched sides, have you? Like your mother.”
Jace shook his head just as Jaxson, Drake, and Troy came running into the alley. “We gotta leave!” Troy insisted as he stopped at the bottom of the ladder. “They called in back up. There’s at least twelve of them.”
“Come with us,” I commanded them, not bothering to speak silently. I could feel both of them trying to resist me. Greg turned to glare at me before his jaw dropped and he looked between Miranda and me. His attention had been solely on Jace up until this point but even with my hair straightened there was no mistaking that we resembled each other… a lot.
“Amanda?” he asked mystified.
“It’s Blake now, we have no time. Go!” I snapped.
It was hard scrambling down the fire escape in my stiletto boots and skin-tight shorts. I was thankful to have Jace bracing my body with his. He grabbed my hand and started running in the opposite direction.
“We’re parked over here,” Jace stated in a clipped tone.
“Grab the jeep and meet us back at the cabin,” I heard Troy say insistently into his phone.
Jace already had the Tahoe started with his remote-start by the time we neared the vehicle.
“We’re not telling you anything. You’re wasting your time,” Miranda insisted as she warily looked at me.
I went to reach for the door and shove her in when my hands felt like I was stung by the biggest wasp imaginable. I hissed out in alarm and noticed what appeared to be a dart protruding from my skin. I pulled it out and looked around wildly. I saw a group of men advancing towards us.
“Get in!” I yelled just as another dart pierced my shoulder. My hand was already swelling the size of a softball.
I stumbled in after Miranda and Greg. Jace was already in the driver’s seat, ready to leave.
Jaxson! I cried out desperately in my head, afraid to distract Jace.
My vision was beginning to blur, and I was finding it increasingly hard to breathe. He looked over at me and his eyes widened.
“We need to get to Noah,” Jaxson clipped out into his phone. “Now!”
“No sign of pursuit right now. Pull off on that access road,” Troy stated as he looked back at me. He undid his seat belt and crawled into the back with me.
“Breathe, Blake,” Troy said. I could hear the worry in his voice. My breathing was coming out in a loud rasp now.
“You’re not with them, are you?” Greg asked in a heavy voice. “That man back there is full of poison, literally. He’s poisoned her.”
“We came to get Dr. Cornwall before Horatio found her,” Jace said in a hard voice. “I haven’t talked to Alison since she decided to leave my Dad for Horatio.”
“That’s no surprise. Their union always made me wonder about the validity of the connections. Alison was never good for Will. Not like Megan. Is Megan still around?” Greg asked dryly.
Jace whipped the SUV onto the access road and was out of the vehicle seconds after he threw it in park. “Can we wait for this discussion?” he asked in exasperation as he opened the rear door and pulled me out gently. Troy spread out an emergency blanket from the emergency bag equipped in each vehicle. Jace laid me down, and logically I knew the ground should be cold but I was burning up. I felt like my lungs were filling with water and I was drowning. My body was shaking with uncontrollable tremors. Everything was blurry.