C.A.R.M.A

14

His words clanged around my head and followed me into the car, chasing behind me as the car accelerated home.

I could feel Max's anger radiating off of him the entire drive back to our headquarters. My breathing came in short anger huffs as I braced myself for Max's temper to boil over and explode.

But he remained silent the whole drive back. His only movement was occasionally whipping the dried blood off his face with his suit jacket sleeve.

He wouldn't meet my eyes.

I let out an audible sigh and Max cut me a dry look. I raised my eyebrows at him, and he rolled his eyes and resumed looking out the window.

Well then.

If I was being honest with myself, I knew why Max was furious. Hell, I would be furious if it was the reverse.

Letting yourself get trapped in the web of a mark is dangerous and could completely ruin the entire mission. It could ruin the months of preparation and scheming that it took CARMA to get to this point.

But I was free falling anyway.

I've seen the eyes of killers, rapists and both. I've watched the life drain out of those eyes as I gutted them.

Tyler did not have killer eyes. And it was time I told Taylor.

The car slowed to a stop in front of Witch's Brew and we stepped out of the car. Max charged forward and into the coffee shop without looking back.

I trailed after him, feeling my body lock up in preparation for the fight and doing a mental inventory of my weapons.

Max was leaning against the door leading to the hidden elevator when I walked in.

"Want to settle this here or in the elevator?", I asked, my heels clicked down the hall as I walked to him.

"Elevator", He grumbled, opening up the door for me. "No weapons." he hissed as I walked past him, my dress swaying a bit.

"I wouldn't want to get blood on this dress", I smirked.

Max stepped in with his hands in his pockets, and the doors slid shut behind him. He didn't lean down to press the floor button. Instead he just stared and stared at me.

"Can you really be this stupid?", he asked in a flat, cold voice.

A voice I haven't heard since he told me he was leaving.

It snapped something in me, made me roll my eyes and gave him the advantage he was waiting for.

I leaned forward and pressed the top bottom.

Faster than I could react, Max grabbed my wrist and spun me around, locking his forearm around my throat. I just managed to duck my chin to keep him from cutting off my air, as the elevator began rising.

"Don't you see that he's playing you?", he hissed in my ear. "He's manipulating you like he does all his other victims."

I opened my mouth, but not to retort. Instead I sunk my teeth into Max's forearm and bit down. Hard.

Hard enough that blood began popping into my mouth and Max released me grasping his arm.

"Are you serious?", he growled.

My only answer was to spit his blood in his face.

Max lunged, feinting high with his fist but aiming low with his leg.

I grabbed him by the bit mark and brought him tumbling down to the elevator floor with me.

Max got the advantage and managed to wiggle on top of me pinning my arms to the floor.

"Listen to me, Thea", he pressed my arms down as I continued to struggle. "You're not thinking like a Revealer, you're thinking like a weapon and it's going to get you hurt."

I hissed, lunging forward with my shoulder and knocking him onto his side. Max still had a grip of my arms while I kicked and struggled to find purchase with my legs.

And we were still fighting and clawing at each other when the doors opened.

And Taylor was staring down at us.

She tossed each of us a white handkerchief before saying, "You're late."

"Let me make one thing clear", Taylor looked down at us as Max and I gaped up at her from the floor. "This is not what I expect from the people who will run this organization one day. Brawling like feral beasts instead of using your own cunning. Cunning I trained you both to have."

With that she turned on her heel and marched down the hallway, her long dark ponytail dancing in her wake.

Max and I scrambled to our feet and dashed after her, both of us stooping to pick up the handkerchiefs.

Max pressed his to the mark on his arm, hissing, "I can't believe you actually bit me."

We stalked past the giant golden globe in the center of the watch room, some agents on duty nodded to us. The blue lights notating each agent's current location glowed like sapphires in a mine. I felt the phantom touch of my tracker between my exposed shoulder blades like a cold wind.

I shook off the feeling and shrugged back at Max, "I can't believe you didn't see it coming."

To his credit, he smirked at me.

My mouth twitched to mirror him until we turned into Taylor's office.

Until we saw Becca and the woman she'd been talking to at the gala.

And how red-rimmed her eyes were.

I knew at that moment that our agency's suspicions about Red Wolfe were about to be confirmed as I stared and stared into this woman's broken face.

A small traitorous voice whispered over and over again in my mind: Not Tyler, please don't be Tyler.