Page 84 of Edge of Control

I looked over the balcony again. The call of the void was loud. Louder than the wind that roared in my ears. I could hear its seductive voice whispering to me.

“Jump, Theo. Jump. Make it easy for everyone.”

I tensed. Went on my tiptoes. I shut my eyes.

All I could see was Jace. The night we met, the nights I watched him, the nights I spent with him.

The love I felt for him.

He had fixed me. Albeit, a little too late. But he did. He allowed me to feel like a human again.

I wondered where he was. Could he be back at home? At the police station?

I stepped away from the banister. My heart hammered like a drill in my chest. I was sure it could break through concrete. I couldn’t call him, but I could at least check in on him. Maybe that would satiate my curiosity. It was wrong, but what part about any of this was right? It was too late to be right. I was fucked-up, broken. I might as well lean into it as my last moments of a free man.

Jace’s name was still large on my screen. Instead of tapping his number, I tapped to find his location instead.

Hmm.

His little circle popped up on a map of New York City, but it wasn’t in any of the locations I’d been expecting it to show up. It wasn’t in his apartment, or at Stonewall, or at the police station.

He was somewhere in Brooklyn. What was he doing there?

I pinched the map, making it zoom in on his bubble. The building names appeared on the map. There was a salon and a bookstore and a sneak shop and a… a bar.

A bar named Marielle’s.

His bubble was directly underneath my sister’s name.

Jace was at Marielle’s.

What the fuck was he doing there?

Chapter 32

Jace Holloway

The rope cutinto my wrists. I tried pushing against them, working my fingers up through a loop, but the knots were too tight. And the cloth stuffing my mouth was making it difficult to breathe. Saliva accumulated in my mouth, dripping out and down my chin. I tried to keep calm but felt myself losing my grip. This situation had gone from dire to completely and totally fucked. I wasn’t even sure where I was. I’d been blindfolded before they escorted me out of the car, tossing me down a flight of stairs.

I didn’t break my nose or my ribs through some kind of miracle, although I did bang my head hard against a step. Hard enough for me to lose consciousness for an hour or so. It was difficult to tell just how much time had passed. When I came to, I was strapped to the chair, gagged and still blindfolded.

Theo’s father.

He was the one who’d abducted me.

It still didn’t make much sense. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Was he the man behind the blackmail ring? And how did he know Theo was Nevermore?

Was he the reason Nevermore existed?

“He’s awake, Leo.” The voice came from somewhere to my left. I craned my head but couldn’t see anything through the thick blindfold. I pulled against the ropes around my wrist, but that only made them slice deeper into my skin. It burned. A wet streak of blood dripped down my palm.

“Good.” That was Theo’s father. His name must have been Leo. He stood directly in front of me.

A thumb landed on my chin. I reeled back. I wanted to spit directly in this man’s face.

“Smile if you can,” he said. “I want to keep this as a souvenir. Maybe send it to Theo once we dump you in the Hudson. Something for him to remember you by.”

I wanted to shout, but all that came out was a muffled whimper. This wasn’t how my life was supposed to end. I’d put myself in danger hundreds of times before, but I never imagined I’d be dragged into the middle of a sadistic family rivalry, used as some kind of emotional pawn. I felt helpless.

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