The Girl Who Dared to Endure (The Girl Who Dared #6)

“Quess?!” My brother’s voice was closer, his exclamation telling me he had found Quess. That meant he was closer than I’d thought, and I had even less time than I’d hoped. Maybe I would get lucky and he would stop to help Quess before coming for me. But when he called my name again, I knew that it was a fool’s hope to think I could be that lucky. I blocked everything out—from Zoe’s desperate sounds to Eric’s choked, gasping breathing—knowing that if I looked away, even to check on them, or to tell my brother to stop, Baldy would shoot me, and then my friends.

His face darkened to a peculiar shade of purple, and he straightened his arm out at me, the gun shaking in his hand. “You’re hurting me right now!” he screeched, spittle flying from his lips. “You think I can’t feel you, digging around, in here?” He touched his head with his free hand, rocking back and forth for a second. “GET OUT OF MY MIND!” he screamed so suddenly that I took half a step forward, my finger tensing on the trigger for a second before easing back as I realized he could sense Leo inside of him.

That was a relief in some ways, because it told me that Leo was still there. But I had no idea what was happening, or whether he was okay. Baldy could clearly fight him, something Leo had insisted wasn’t possible, and maybe it had surprised Leo, caught him off guard. That would explain Baldy’s erratic behavior and gave me hope that Leo was fighting for control. He probably just needed time to… figure out how to hack Baldy’s brain. If I could just stall Baldy long enough, maybe Leo could re-exert control and take over.

Baldy gripped his head with one hand, his mouth open in a desperate howl as he began to scratch at his scalp, digging red furrows into the skin, as if he were trying to claw the net Leo was in directly out of his skull.

“Stop it,” I told him, fear for Leo radiating through me. “And we’ll help you! We’ll get it out.”

“LIAR!” he bellowed, his voice filled with fear. “I can feel the disgusting abomination in there, trying to pry my secrets from me. Well, you can’t have them!” He blinked, his brows furrowing slightly. His eyes stared down, growing unfocused in contemplation, and then brightening in some sort of realization. The shift was as blatant as it was rapid, and it unsettled me. “You can’t have them,” he repeated, nodding, his voice almost wistful, like he had come to some sort of great decision.

“Okay,” I said carefully, hoping that this was a sign that he was calming down. “We won’t take them. Just put the gun—NO!”

I held out my hand as he put the barrel of the gun up to his temple, his finger on the trigger. I could imagine the bullet tearing through his skull and brain matter, destroying both it and the net that Leo was in at the same time. Talking him down had clearly failed, but I desperately needed him to become very unconscious—very quickly. But how?

“This is my duty,” Baldy muttered.

“It’s not,” I said, my mind whirling. I was too far away to use my baton, and I didn’t have any sedatives with me to knock him out. If I started toward him, he could pull the trigger before I could get close enough to stop him. If I shot him, he might retaliate by firing at Zoe or Maddox. Annoyance flashed hot over me, along with frustration that I couldn’t find a way out. Leo was close to being killed, Eric was bleeding out, and I was fresh out of ideas! Why did it have to be this difficult? Why wasn’t Cornelius pitching me an idea, or—

Cornelius! He had nonlethal takedowns all over this place. I was certain that he had a way to do something. I immediately started to think my command to him, using the neural transmitter to relay the message so Baldy couldn’t see me give it.

“Put the gun down, okay?” I told Baldy soothingly. “I promise, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to die. I know we’ve treated you unfairly, but we’ll get the net out before it can take any of your secrets.” Meanwhile: Cornelius, can you electrocute him remotely?

Yes, I can electrify the section of floor plating he is standing on, came the virtual assistant’s voice in my ear canal, buzzing sharply. I hesitated for a fraction of a second. Would frying Baldy hurt Leo? It didn’t matter. I had to risk it. If I let him pull the trigger, Leo would be dead anyway. I had to.

Baldy stared at me hard, his hand shaking. “You’re lying,” he said.

“No,” I replied. “I’m not.” Prime whatever charge you have to and wait for my signal, I thought at Cornelius. “You don’t want to do that, do you? Pull the trigger? End your life? You want to get out of here, tell the others what we’ve done. You can’t do that if you’re dead.”

Baldy’s arm began to move down, then, his hand trembling as he slowly dragged the end of the gun away from his head. Suddenly he swung it back out at me, and I tensed, thinking he had changed to a target more appealing than himself—me. And then his arm began to drift lower. My heart skipped a beat as I followed it, my breathing tight, but hope beginning to blossom.

If he continued to lower his arm, I could just—

“Liana!” my brother said sharply, from directly behind me, and Baldy’s eyes flared wide in fear as he saw my brother.

“You!” he growled, and his eyes narrowed on me. “I knew you were a liar! This was a trap!”

“NO!” I shouted as he yanked the gun back toward his temple. I knew where he was going, what he was planning, and I squeezed out, Now, Cornelius, just as a strong hand grabbed my own hand around the gun… and squeezed. The gun kicked, the jerk of it reverberating through my wrist, forearm, elbow, and shoulder, and then blood blossomed in the middle of Baldy’s throat, his eyes going wide.

The gun in his hand flashed once, and then the hand around mine became two, pulling me down, tucking me under and behind my brother’s body. I was already pushing away from him, my heart in my throat as Baldy continued to fall, blood splattering on the stairs in the wake of his passing.

“LEO!” I shouted, shoving at my brother’s hands as he continued to grab at me, trying to pull me back to safety.





13





I scrambled forward as Baldy stumbled back and tripped on the stairs behind him. He gave a surprised and wet gurgle that I not only heard, but had experienced from his side, and my innards twisted as another jet of blood spurted from the hole in his throat.

“Liana, no!” my brother shouted, his hand clamping like a vice around my forearm and holding me back. “He could still be dangerous! I warned you something like this was going to happen, and…”

I couldn’t listen anymore. An intense anger twisted up inside me, forcing me to whip around and face him. His eyes widened, his grip loosening around my arm, but I shoved him back. He’d forced me to shoot at Leo. He couldn’t have waited—he just had to react. I didn’t care that he was saving my life, that he didn’t know that Leo was inside of Baldy. I cared that he had just barged in and ruined everything. I had been about to get Baldy to back down, and he had charged in without waiting, or listening to what was going on!

“Leo’s inside of him!” I shouted as he stumbled back. He came to a stop, some of the anger draining from his face.

“What?” he asked, but I was already turning away and racing toward the stairs.

“Maddox, grab some smelling salts and get Quess up to help Eric. And bring me a net transfer kit, now!” I shouted as I dropped to my knees next to Baldy. The gun had fallen from his grasp, and I shoved it aside and lifted my hands to… help him?

I stared down at him, suddenly transfixed by the blood spurting from his neck. He was bleeding out fast, and I had none of the dermal bonding agent on me to stop it. His arms struggled as his mouth opened and closed like a fish’s, blood gurgling in the back of his throat as he choked on his own blood, causing my own memories of being in his spot to flash before my eyes.

Did I look like that? I wondered as he continued to flop around, helpless. Did he look down at me and see that?