Page 24 of Lust
“As it happens, one of the Seven struck me.”
“Which one?”
“Lust.”
She mulled that over. “Tell me more later. We could use this. For now, do you have enough Faithful for our plan?”
His cold eyes searched the room and nodded. “It’s not ideal, but I think it will do.”
“And they’re aware of expectations?”
Another nod.
“Good,” she continued. “I’ll need them to be ready at a moment’s notice. You have your strength-inducing serum supply.”
Despair’s cell phone rang.
“Yes,” she answered.
Her father’s voice echoed down the line. “Are you there?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Hand the cell to Quarry.”
Frowning, Despair passed the handset to the Faithful leader. Since when did Julius go around Despair to talk to Quarry?
Since you started blacking out,said a little voice in her head.Since he’s already written you off.
No. Julius had Despair’s hair in his locket. If she was done for, then he would bring her back—perfect this time. Without the sickness in her gut every time someone felt despair. He promised.
Quarry handed the cell back to Despair. “He wants to talk to you.”
She pressed the handset to her ear. “Yes.”
“You have one chance, my darling. Use it well. If this doesn’t work, well, then we will have to resort to more drastic measures of obtaining the stem cells we need.”
“The pregnant whores aren’t enough?” she asked.
Julius’s silence betrayed his irritation. He didn’t think she knew Quarry had been tasked to catch prostitutes and send them to the Syndicate lab. And if it wasn’t hookers, it was teenage runaways. But he was getting sloppy, leaving evidence and a trail of dead bodies across multiple states. He already thought he was invincible.
The Syndicate didn’t care where their backup stem cells came from. These hookers were just for practice. The real deal would come from Wrath’s child.
And that important job was for Despair. It was why she’d waited so long to put it into action. She had to be sure everything went according to plan.
8
Liza wasin Joe’s car, patrolling the streets, looking for familiar people to question about the trafficking. But it was the middle of the day, and she was still worked up from the almost kiss they’d shared that morning. Joe hadn’t mentioned it once, but it was all she could think of.
This was Joe.Joey—the friend who used to sit next to her at baseball games and recite player stats by heart. He frowned at her when she booed the other team. He was the one who paled every time she mentioned getting her period, but always asked if she was okay when she cramped.
He was the guy she let pull her pigtails in middle school because he didn’t know how to be affectionate.
She’d always blamed his abusive parents for that. She’d tried to hug him once after they’d won a local kids’ ball game, but he’d stiffened. After that, she would punch him in the arm, he would tug her hair, and all was right in the world. How simple things were back then.
Liza slid her gaze to him and took in his rugged profile. Piercing eyes razed the streets as he drove. His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. His shoulders tensed. The suit’s stretch of fabric over broad shoulders and biceps reminded her of how he looked beneath it... and how he looked fresh out of the shower. She smiled quietly to herself, turned her gaze to the busy city street, and then realized they were a location known for prostitution. She hadn’t even felt a twinge in her gut, which meant sitting near Joe was canceling out her sin-sensing.
Her smile turned to a frown. She’d have to go out on her own if she wanted to make real progress. Catching Johns in the act was a great way to elicit information in exchange for a warning instead of an arrest.
