All Tied Up

“Your sister is going to work with them now, isn’t she?”

“My file has a little of everything, doesn’t it?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I don’t want her to but she won’t listen. She wants to be the defense attorney no one can beat and have a paycheck that proves it.” She shifted the conversation back to him. “Do you have any siblings?”

“No,” he said, his tone clipped, as if she’d asked something offensive. Perhaps a sign he was done with the personal talk.

Either way, all this chatter about the darkness hidden in his past, in her past, took her mind back to something he had said right before falling asleep. “Everything doesn’t always work out no matter how hard we try.”

A shadow flashed across his face. “This will,” he said, his gaze locking with hers, that edge of danger she’d seen in him on other occasions igniting like a sudden flame. “I walked away from too many chances to kill that man for us to fail now. I’m getting you to that trial, and you’re going to convict him. I won’t let him walk away.”

Nicole’s eyes went wide. Something about his last words, his promise that Alvarez wouldn’t walk away, bit into her nerve endings. What exactly did that mean? Was he saying he’d kill Alvarez if she failed to convict him?

Before she could reply, a beeper on Constantine’s watch went off and he pushed to his feet. “Time to go.”

She stood, feeling lighter with the prospect of escape from the cave, but no less concerned about his comment. “I’m all for that.”

“Stay here,” he ordered, as he had so many times in the woods. “I need to check the surface for unwanted visitors.” He didn’t wait for an answer; he started up the wall. All the warmth of before had fled. He was cold, calculating, a soldier on a mission.

Constantine was willing to do whatever it took to take down Alvarez—even become a murderer himself. She’d walked the line between right and wrong, and it was a dangerous place to balance. A place that would steal your soul if you let it and she almost had. Nicole realized why Constantine scared her so much. He was walking that line just as she had. He was walking it and she was afraid he’d pull her along with him.

***

AN HOUR AFTER traveling in the pitch-black night, Nicole found herself, once again, hiding in the bushes, Constantine by her side. The rain was gone, but a starless, moonless sky spoke of more to come. Eerie silence thickened in the humid night air, heavy and ominous.

With an incline of his head, Constantine directed her attention to what appeared to be a small trailer park only a hill beyond the cover of the woods.

“We’re meeting Agent Flores there?” she whispered.

He pointed, indicating lights bobbing and weaving down the old dirt road leading to the trailers. She swallowed hard, her stomach fluttering with worry. He thought something was wrong. She could tell by the stiffness of his body, and by the uneasy vibe he gave off since departing the cave.

He didn’t look at her when he spoke. “Stay low and let’s move.” And then he was gone. Nicole scrambled forward as he disappeared beneath the waist-deep grass, making fast tracks down the hill. She bent down, following his lead. The possibility of another snake crossed her mind, but she shoved the worry aside. She had to keep up with Constantine. He was moving so fast that she had to push to catch up. And then, as if slamming into a wall, he stopped. Chest heaving, Nicole skidded to a halt and kneeled beside him.

She watched in silence as a nearby car’s lights went off, and the passenger’s door opened, inviting them inside. A safe haven was only a few feet away.

Nicole grabbed Constantine’s arm, silently asking for confirmation that this was their ride. He gave her a quick nod. Before she could fully embrace the glory of being saved, he took her hand and pulled her forward, making a beeline toward the car. And that was when all hell broke loose.

Out of the silence, the sound of motorcycle engines blasted the air, and Nicole knew without being told, they were in trouble, about to be found. Their ride was so close. Nicole clung to the hope of shelter, but to her horror, Constantine tugged her in the opposite direction, detouring from the nearby safety that merely taunted her.

Moments later, Constantine maneuvered her behind a trailer, completely out of Agent Flores’s view. “Why aren’t we with Flores?” she whispered urgently, watching as Constantine bent down and yanked a piece of underpinning from the trailer.

“They didn’t find us on their own.” He motioned her forward, into the darkness beneath the trailer. “Go.”

She would have argued but gunfire filled the air, followed by the sound of a motorcycle engine growing closer. Without further hesitation, she scrambled beneath the house, Constantine at her heels. Cobwebs skimmed her face and she bit back a yelp. Constantine quickly put the siding in place not a second too soon, as a motorcycle sped directly by their location. Any fear of what was in the darkness disappeared as Nicole realized how close they’d come to being discovered.