She frowned and shook her head.
“When I left you at Ace’s, one of the loose ends I wanted to tie up was Lucas. I went to check his condition—his head injury wasn’t nearly as severe as they said. I’d decided, again, to kill him if the opportunity presented itself. But it didn’t. He wasn’t alone. Three was with him.” Reyes used the familiar term for the Councilor. “Lucas was conscious, and they were talking.” His eyes became hooded. He wasn’t telling her something. He shook his head and gave a small shrug. “The reason Lucas got away with so much for so long is that his grandfather is Councilor Four. His forged identity papers showing he was born and raised in Zone Three were so damn good they didn’t even change his surname. Brayer. Strings have been pulled from above.”
“Is that the only reason?” She pushed for the something he wasn’t telling her.
“You think there should be another?”
Another non-answer for an answer. She didn’t push this time. She’d find out somehow. She’d use the answer to get to Lucas, and then she’d take care of him herself.
He must have seen something of what she planned on her face because his voice turned soft and persuasive. “C’mon, Lena. Don’t pull away now. Let us help you.”
“I don’t want anyone’s help. I never have. I don’t need you.” She glanced around the tiny safe house and grimaced. “Okay, so I need you to help me get out of the city.”
He grinned knowingly.
She pushed on. “But afterward, all I want is an opportunity to be in a room with the people responsible for my parents. I can finish this. And then I’m disappearing again.”
“Okay,” Reyes conceded. “You can. But you’re one person. Why not use what we have to offer? Education. Training. Resources. We’re Sparks. All of us. We’re like you, and we can help you. We can give you all of the knowledge you missed while you were hiding. You can be a part of us, an important part of us, long term.”
“Uh-huh. And you’d do all of that out of the goodness of your little Spark hearts?” Her pointed question hung between them.
He seemed to be enjoying the beat of silence. His lips turned up in a slow, devastating smile. “If you decided to show your appreciation by helping us, we wouldn’t turn you down. You could offer to teach us your wonderful tricks. But we’re not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to.” He shrugged. “Look, I’ll get you out of the city. At that point, you can decide for yourself. I’d like it if you stayed with us.”
“Said the spider to the fly.”
Reyes cocked a brow at her. “Hardly. I’m fairly certain I’m in far more danger the more time I spend with you than the other way around.”
Hmmm. Is it wrong to like the sound of that?
She leaned on the stool, stretching her spine and pushing her clasped hands far out in front of her over the table. Her back eased with the stretch. She leaned forward again and sighed. The food was gone.
Reyes gathered up the detritus and swept the crumbs into his hand. He dumped it all into the cloth bag then lifted the bag across his back. “You ready to go?”
Lena blinked. “What…now?”
His eyes crinkled. “Are you waiting for a better time? I wanted to make sure you were fed before we headed out. You’re fed. Are you ready? Do you need anything else? Do you want to use the bucket?”
She glanced at the bucket and then back at him, mouth opening to answer, but he laughed at her. She closed her mouth and shrugged.
Her boots were kicked half under the cot. She sat to pull them out. As she did, she noticed a corner of the book of poetry. It must have slid out of her hand at some point in the sleepless night. She pulled it out and held it up to him. “Is this yours?”
His eyebrows rose, and his face lit in recognition. “Yes! I wondered where I’d left it.” He retrieved it, flipping through the pages in delight. “No idea how it got here.” He sat back on the stool, his head nodding with familiar pleasure as he skimmed one of the early poems while she tugged on her boots. She tried to guess which it was.
“I kind of thought maybe it was left here to entertain anyone who might need the room. It came in handy.”
His head lifted. “Not hardly. Do you know how much this thing is worth?”
At her shrug, he laughed. “A lot.”
“Well, it helped anyway. I spent a lot of time on that poem you marked.”
“The poem I—” Alex’s brows dipped in puzzlement as he flipped it open to the page marked by the slip of paper.
His eyes moved as he skimmed it and noted the underlined lines. The lines hadn’t been by his hand, then. He closed the book.
“Never mind. I know exactly how it got in here,” he murmured to himself. “Would’ve been the last time I came through here. Can’t believe I didn’t notice, even if I was distracted.” His face clouded over at some memory. Reyes shook his head, physically shaking it away.