Page 101 of Pride
“Hopefully by the day’s end, we’ll be done with the bastards, once and for all.”
“Alice,” he said, and lifted her chin so their eyes met. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For never giving up.”
“You’d do the same for me. Youhavedone the same.”
His mind went back to the man his fist went through and couldn’t rouse an inch of regret. “I would do it again.”
Even if it landed him in prison.
36
It wasmid-morning as Alice and Parker walked along the docks. Seagulls squawked from their hidden perches on walls, their wings flapping about in the increasing rain. Wind buffeted. Ocean waves crashed against the harbor rocks. The day was turning out to be miserable, and Alice was not looking forward to where they had to go.
Parker removed his jacket. He tried to offer it to Alice, but she ignored him so he tossed it into a trash can and then rolled up his shirt sleeves to bare one metallic arm, one flesh and tattooed. The Yin-Yang symbol was balanced. Alice had foregone her Sinner uniform and simply wore black athletic attire, her hair poison-pinned into a low bun. Her short sword was strapped between her shoulder blades and gave her a sense of comfort. Parker continued to touch her in small ways, and she continued to swat him, despite knowing he probably needed her balancing influence. She was still passively pissed off at him.
Future wife.
Pfft.
First, he had toasksaid future wife for her consent, not justdecreeit so. This wasn’t Medieval England. She rolled her eyes and stuffed her anger deep down, vowing to deal with it after they rescued Daisy.
This sister meant a lot to Parker, and Alice knew a thing or two about never leaving a sister behind. So she was all in. The rest of the Lazarus siblings were still abroad, infiltrating and dismantling the overseas Syndicate bases, each with a Sinner to help. Joe had told Alice the Feds watched Lazarus House, so going back there to regroup was impossible. Alice had broken Parker out of prison, and they were about to rescue Daisy, but neither of them talked about what would happen after.
Even if they did succeed and saved Daisy, Parker’s identity—and the rest of the family’s—had been compromised. She’d broken him out of custody. That was a felony. If caught, they’d both go to prison for a very long time. The Sisterhood had a contingency plan, which was basically to fall on her sword and go to Hell, but she refused to go there—literally and figuratively. Not now when she had hope in her life, so she’d already come up with multiple options. They could leave the country. She could have one of the other family members dress up as Pride while Parker was incarcerated, proving that they couldn’t be the same person. They could bribe a judge. There were so many scenarios running through her head that she almost missed the landmark where Axel said to meet.
“There’s supposed to be a storm drain around here somewhere,” she murmured, scanning the rocky embankment below the docks.
A few fishermen walked around, still left from the early morning markets, but none had eyes on Alice or Parker. It seemed like a storm was coming, and everyone was finishing up. He hopped down onto the rocky bank and held out his hand to her.
She ignored him and lowered herself. His jaw clenched at her dismissal. They picked their way across the boulders and jagged limestone, avoiding the crashing waves, until they found the large storm drain dribbling water into the ocean. Surrounded by cobblestone bricks, the tunnel was big enough for a tall man to fit. An iron grate stopped wayward people walking into the underground system. The light tang of sewage and acrid mold wafted out, making Alice crinkle her nose.
“Cardinal City has a combined waste system. Both storm and sewage.” Parker scratched his scruff. With a sharp gaze, he searched around. “Interesting place for a Syndicate base.”
“Julius is insane. Maybe he moved Daisy here because he’s gone out on his own. He’s already ignored the Syndicate’s directives. He’s obsessing over the past—coming after us Sinners, blaming us for it all going wrong in the first place. And he’s been taking some kind of serum. What did he call it at the party?”
“Gene therapy,” Parker answered dryly.
“You all were created in a petri-dish, right? ”
He arched a brow. “That’s a gross over simplification.Gene therapyisn’t exactly the same thing as what’s happened to us. It’s possible Julius has been taking a modified version of the greed serum, making him strong and potentially able to sense sin.”
A rogue wave buffeted the rocks, spraying mist onto their faces. Along with the rain from the sky, they were well and truly soaked.
“Greed serum?” Alice frowned and cast her mind back over the reconnaissance she’d done for the Sisterhood and remembered an incident with Lilo and Griffin near the monorail. And a beast of some sort. “Wait. Thatthing-manthat kidnapped Lilo had the serum?”
“Correct. It’s nasty stuff. It allows the recipient to sense sin, but also amplifies every other sense. The user would become extra strong, extra irrational, and basically the sin incarnate. But the user would also burn up all their cells and die from serum. It didn’t take long for Donald Doppenger to die after ingesting too much serum. Days, if not hours after his overdose at the end. He still became a force before his final breath.”
“Jesus. I wonder if this serum is making Julius delusional. Axel said he’s been talking about seeing his family again.” The dead one.
Parker canted his head and squinted up at the rocky horizon to the docks. “Someone is coming.”
Alice couldn’t see anything yet, but then boots dangled over the embankment and Axel hopped down onto the rocks on the other side of the drain. She looked at her partner—fiancé, if he had his way—and wondered how far those senses could reach.
“Hey,” Axel greeted grimly, still in his CCFD T-shirt. Soot smudged his cheeks. The light rain had caused tracks of black to run down his skin, but Alice couldn’t blame the soot for the dark circles beneath his eyes. There was a sadness in the soul-deep brown depths. He flicked the torch on and scanned the drain through the grate.
