Blood and Bone | 1

3 | 5

      As usual, I didn't sleep well that night. My dreams were plagued with visions of Hundsen slowly torturing me to death and Jake betraying me like I feared he would. It wasn't exactly the recipe for a good night's sleep.

      When I finally woke up, I went into the same empty train car that Jake and I had conversed in the night before. He stood as soon as I entered the car.

      "You gave me your word that you would give me something in return for my information on Hundsen," he stated bluntly, getting straight to the point.

      My heart skipped a beat. I hadn't forgotten; I had been trying to imagine what he would have me give him, and none of it had been good.

      "I remember."

      "In that case, I want answers."

      Forcing myself to stay calm and neutral-faced, I said in a cool tone, "You're going to need to be more specific."

      "I want answers about you. You're hiding things," Jake answered. "There are things that don't make sense about you."

      My skin felt hot. That was one of the worst things he could have ever asked me. One of my greatest fears was someone questioning me like this and digging to find information that I had tried so hard to forget.

      "Why?" I choked out, trying to keep my voice even.

      "I was under the impression that it was my turn to ask the questions."

      "Why do you want to know?" I repeated, my heart beating hard in my chest.

      Giving me another one of his intense stares, he finally replied, "I don't want to be on the run with someone that I know nothing about." I could have said the same thing about him, but I stayed silent.

      "First things first, Hundsen mentioned that you're an assassin. Who are you really working for?"

      That was easy. "I work for no one. Only myself."

      "Assassins don't work for themselves."

      "The ones that aren't assassins anymore do."

      Jake raised a dark eyebrow. "Keep telling yourself that."

      I narrowed my eyes at him, but he was unfazed. "Who trained you?"

      "I mainly taught myself."

      "Liar. Who are you covering up for?" He asked, cocking his head to the side a bit.

      "I am not covering up for anyone." Well, no one but for myself. I needed him to believe me so that I wasn't left to fend off Hundsen on my own.

      But he pressed on. "There are a lot of rumors swirling around with you as the subject. You disappeared from the public eye for three years."

      "Maybe the pressure of fame got to me."

      "Or maybe you became a mercenary working for someone that you're still working for now."

      I shook my head, allowing him to know the small tidbit of information. "They're all dead now."

      "So there was someone you worked for. How can you be sure they're dead?"

      "Because I killed them," I stated flatly, not caring if he knew that part. It would serve to make him believe that I was truly not working for anyone.

      If he was surprised, he didn't give it away. "They must have done something you didn't like for you to kill them all," he remarked somewhat lightly, but I knew that he was just trying to piece it all together.

      "They must have," I agreed vaguely, determined to not give anything away that I would regret later.

      "Maybe you lost your nerve for killing?" Jake suggested. The way he was prying at me for information made me feel exposed and vulnerable.

      The burning flames of a destructive fire flashed through my memory. "Maybe it was the opposite."

      "What was your master's name?"

      "I had no master," I retorted hotly.

      "Fine. The people you worked for, did they have a name?"

      "They had a name that I vowed never to speak again. They're all dead, and they should stay that way."

      Jake crossed his arms and leaned back, noting, "You were scared of them, whoever these mystery people are. You still are."

      I looked him straight in the eye, hating that he had seen that in me. "Everyone should have been scared of them."

      "Uh huh," he said, clearly not caring.

      I pushed off of the train car wall I had been leaning against and limped over to the open sliding door to peer out of it. "That's enough questioning. We need to figure out what we're going to do about Hundsen's gang."

      I could see that Jake obviously wanted to drill me for more secrets if been hiding, but he said, "Agreed. The Club consists of the best of the best. They have spies, thieves and expert trackers. They will find us."

     "It's what they're going to do with us when they find us again that we need to be worried about," I reasoned. "Why would they only ship the two of us out  here to one of Hundsen's connections? Why not the others?"

      "Because the others weren't a threat to Hundsen," Jake stated in a tone that told me it should have been obvious.

      "Exactly," I said. "If there was someone that was a threat to me, I'd want to be rid of them. Why didn't he kill us?"

      "Hundsen doesn't want us dead, he wants to see us suffer. He's also very cunning; he doesn't get rid of people that are of use to him."

      A feared assassin and a calculating boy that may or may not have been a gang member. I could see how our respective talents could be useful for Hundsen. I also remembered the cold fury that had been in his eyes when I had defied him. The severe beating he had given me was still fresh in my mind.

      "It seems as if the only way he'll stop coming after us is if we end him. But the two of us can't do it by ourselves. From what I saw in their lair, Hundsen has at least fifty people at his command."

      Jake stayed quiet. He was probably trying to plan a way to singlehandedly bring Hundsen and his entire gang down. I didn't see how it could work with just the two of us, especially since we were both highly suspicious of each other.

      "I think," Jake said slowly, "That we need to get as far away from here as possible."

      I looked down at him incredulously. "Is that your entire plan?"

      Giving me a flat look, Jake shot back coldly, "Do you have a better one?"

      "Touché," I said, looking away from him and back outside into the distance, hoping that I wasn't making a severe mistake by teaming up with an enigma like Jake.