Page 66 of The Devil's Pair

“Him?" Michael repeated.

“Gideon’s son.” Briley lifted her shirt to show her gently swelling stomach. ThankGodshe was showing in all the right‘mother-to-be’ ways, instead of looking like she’d just eaten too much Chinese food. Carrying twins meant that she already looked bigger than her actual four months, so it was all the more convincing. “His – his progeny. The future of The Garden ishere.”

“Shutup, cunt,” Crusher snarled and raised his closed fist again. “I asked you a question.”

Briley closed her eyes, dreading the body blow to come, steeling herself for impact. She waited, holding her breath, covering her stomach with both bound hands – but the punch didn’t come. She cracked open her eyes. What she saw what would, under normal circumstances, be utterly terrifying – but at this moment, it was the best possible scenario.

The best for now.

Crusher was clawing and groping at his neck, at the knife sticking out of his neck. Blood gushed down his throat, soaking his upper body, and for one sickening second, all Briley saw was Rebel standing in front of her, his chest blown open. She blinked hard, and Crusher reappeared. He was staggering around in a circle now, kicking at furniture, fighting to stay on his feet.

“Web.” He gurgled the name, but his rage was still audible under the gasps for air. “What thefuckhave you done?”

“You dickhead,” Michael said quietly, almost affectionately. He produced a second knife, and without any hesitation, he jammed it in the other side of his oldest friend’s neck. “My name isMichael,and I don’t listen to you. I serve Master Gideon as he takes his appointed place on the throne of righteousness on the Ethereal Side, and it’s now my duty and honor to protect his scion inthisworld.”

“You fuckinglunatic,” Crusher sputtered. “You can’tseriouslybelieve in any of this cult bullshit?”

“Hal,” Michael said, watching as the other man fell to his knees, then keeled over sideways onto the filthy wooden floor. “It’sallI believe in.”

**

Eight minutes later, Briley and Michael were in a truck, heading slowly down what she now knew was a lonely mountain road. It was stunningly beautiful even in the pitch black, she idly noticed, and she took a deep, calming breath, happy that part one of her plan had gone so well.

Time for part two… choose your moment.

“Are you OK?” Michael asked her. “He hit you very hard.”

She turned to look at the man who had saved her from that monster Crusher, knowing full well that she was in a moving vehicle with a different breed of the exact same nightmare. Michael was a murdering bastard – she’d assumed that before she’d seen it with her own eyes less than ten minutes before, but now it was totally confirmed – who was now so solicitous and concerned for her, anyone would think thathewas the father. He’d cut the tape from her wrists, then buckled her into her seatbelt, his hands so careful and gentle that she was shocked. Briley had to keep playing on that side of him until she saw her opportunity.

“He did,” she said, holding a towel to her nose, deliberately making her voice weak. “I hope Gideon’s son is all right.”

His eyes flashed. “He will be. Gideon’s offspring is destined to survive and lead The New Garden.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “I feel the same way. I think it wasmeantto be that I was brought to you today – that Gideon’s baby has been returned to where he belongs.”

“It was fate, indeed.” He stopped at a junction to a major, paved road, and she realized that civilization had to be near. “I think that sinceyoutook Master Gideon from us, that it’s karmicbalance thatyoushould carry his son. It’s a penance, but it’s also a divine form of forgiveness.”

She froze for a second, stunned that it hadn’t evenoccurredto her that of course Michael knew about what she’d done to Gideon. She hadn’t seen him that night after she’d knocked him out in the basement, and things had been a whirlwind one way or another ever since, and she just hadn’t clicked the puzzle pieces together in a ‘big picture’ kind of way. That was the problem with careening from crisis to crisis: all you ever saw was the chaos smack in front of you.

Well. Time to crawl and scrape and beg, especially since he seemed to be fully into the baby thing, so much so that he was willing to overlook her killing his precious master. This was nothing but a gift, and she wasn’t going to look beyond that, not for one second.

“I was very wrong to do that,” she said, keeping her head carefully bowed. “I was listening to evil people, men who had stronger wills than my own. I’m sorry, Right-Guardian.”

“Well, youarejust a weak female vessel, it’s true… but now you have met your destiny. You will be redeemed.”

“Yes,” she agreed, mentally rolling her eyes at the blatant sexism. “I know my role. I welcome it.”

“Then we start fresh,” he told her. “For now, I need to gethimto safety, then contact my brethren. We will have to change everything,allof our plans, in light of this joyous news.”

“Yes.” She gave an experimental little cough and was gratified to notice his worried glance over at her. “Most joyous.”

“How’s your head?”

She raised a shaking hand to her temple, made sure that he saw the tremor. “It hurts a lot. My eyesight is all blurry, and I think – I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“You think you have a concussion?” He sounded horrified. “Do you need a doctor?”

Thiswas what she’d been hoping for, and now that it was on the table ashissuggestion and nothers, she could start to use it as leverage… carefully.

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