J A K E

"Shires, what exactly did he say to you?" I asked the serious boy, needing to know more about the intruder that Hundsen had sent yesterday.

"Not much," he said, seeming much more calm about this than I would have expected. "He only said something about how Hundsen had sent him as a warning to...well, all of us, but mostly you. He wasn't sent necessarily to kill you, but he was intending to do as much damage as he could to the rest of us."

"And you took care of him?"

"He's dead." Interesting. I wouldn't have pegged Shires as a killer, but then again, he was different after what had happened with his brother. It happened to the best of us.

"How did he get in?" Hunt asked, inspecting the damage done in the room.

"Through an open window, we think. Riley saw it before I did."

"Riley and Finn," Arlo asked the director, "How are they doing?"

Hunt shook his head as he spoke. "They're both still being watched over for their injuries. Riley has a concussion and Finn had to get several stitches. But with enough rest and healing, they should be fine."

As if he'd suddenly remembered he had them, Jaxon pulled the Scorpion blueprints out of his back pocket and handed them to Hunt. "We found these when we went to investigate the weapons factory. Before we destroyed them, they had to have had at least twenty finished ones."

"We spoke to one of their engineers," the assassin added. "He informed us that there are many other factories working for Imperium just like that one. They have countless other weapons just like those." She gestured to the papers in Hunt's hands. "He didn't go into detail."

"I'll bring these to some of the engineers I have back at the ONNT. Maybe they can make sense of this weaponry Imperium is building." Hunt placed the papers in a pocket inside his coat. "Until I have more information on these weapons they're creating, stay here. If you're out and they try to attack you using these weapons, we'll have no information on how to combat them. It shouldn't be more than a few days."

The others kept talking with Hunt about trivial things that weren't necessary to me. So I went upstairs to my room, intending to jot down a few notes involving what had happened the past few days so that I could piece the information together perfectly. I needed to know exactly what Hundsen was planning.

Closing the door behind me, I turned around, only to see a body bag lying on the ground near my desk. Narrowing my eyes at it, I wondered whose body lay inside. Everyone in the crew was accounted for, even if they were in various places and circumstances. There was no one else that was necessary to me, so why would Hundsen kill someone and place them in my room?

Without wasting any more time, I approached the bag and unzipped it. The familiar smell hit me first: the stench of death. It followed wherever I went.

As I stared down at the woman's ghostly pale face, I realized that it was the ex-Club member I'd been intending to speak with the night Hundsen's men jumped me. Hundsen had known where I'd been headed.

Like the assassin that had attacked the compound when I'd been away, this was another warning from Hundsen. He'd somehow gotten into the compound and placed the body inside without the others realizing. It was an insinuation that he could do the same thing again, this time to kill or kidnap me. Hundsen had known that I wasn't home. He could have attacked any day, but he chose the time that I wasn't present. It was another way to show me his sheer power.

I zipped the bag back up over the woman's face. It was time again for me to show Hundsen mine.

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I marched through the winding hallways underground in the ONNT building. Though I'd only been down here a few times before, I knew where to go. Even if I didn't, two ONNT soldiers marched with me at Hunt's command.

The director had been more than accommodating once I told him I was going to see Benny. He believed that I could get information out of him about Hundsen. And of course, I could.

Imperium hadn't been working much with the Club since they kidnapped us, I knew that much. But I also knew that they'd clearly kept in contact. Benny had to know more about where Hundsen was and exactly what he was planning. I needed to know now, before the Club leader tried to do anything else to taunt me.

Benny was a problem for the others, I realized. They were wary of his power, both physical and mental, and what he could do as a high-up Imperium agent. It was clear enough that he was unpredictable, erratic and very dangerous.

But so was I. I wouldn't let myself fall prey to his threats and manipulation; I was too skilled at those things myself. Benny and I were much too similar for me to be very bothered about him.

The soldiers opened the door. It led to a different room, I noticed, after Tesla had destroyed the last one. They weren't taking any chances with this prisoner.

"Jake Evans," Benny said, looking pleased to see me. "I wasn't sure if you'd show."

I said nothing, waiting for the soldiers to exit the room and leave the two of us alone.

He quirked an eyebrow up. "Are you scared?"

The soldiers still weren't leaving. I turned towards the bound assassin impatiently. "No, I don't fear you. The shadows are mine and so is the darkness. You couldn't harm me if you tried."

Then, I told the soldiers, "Leave. I will take care of this."

"We can't," one of them answered, "We have direct orders from-"

"You have direct orders from me to get the hell out," I commanded, cutting through his statement. "I don't need protection." Frankly, the fact that they even thought I would was insulting.

Giving each other hesitant looks, they crossed the platform and left the room reluctantly. The door clicked shut and it was perfectly quiet again. At least until the prisoner broke the silence by saying, "Well, you don't strike me as the type to waste your own time. What are you here for?"

"You already know what I'm here for. I need information on Hundsen."

"Ah, yes," he said, throwing his head back to look up at the high ceiling, "I did hear about your blood feud with Hundsen."

"Good. Then you already know that I want to hear everything you know about him. Start with his whereabouts."

"That I do not know," he answered, and I couldn't tell if he was lying. "Your guess is as good as mine. But after what you did to his wife, he's certainly not still in that town." How could he have known what I'd done to Hundsen's wife? Was someone feeding him information?

I crossed my arms. "What is he scheming?"

"Other than the usual gang happenings? To destroy you, of course."

Even from the first time we'd questioned Benny, I noticed that he never really gave new information out unless it benefitted himself, like in the fight between Gigi and Delphinium the other day. But when he was answering a question, he twisted the words around and made it seem like a valid answer. It wasn't going to work on me.

"No shit," I said, not amused. "How is he planning to do that?"

"The way you're doing to him, of course. By taking everything that makes you powerful and crushing it in his palm for you to see."

"How exactly does he expect to do that? He can't take anything I have."

He cocked his head in indifference. "You might not have a gang anymore, but you always have something to lose."

I gave a dry laugh that echoed in the large, cavernous room. "I have nothing to lose and everything to gain from Hundsen's downfall."

Benny regarded me through intense brown eyes. "You might be right. You know the reason why you're so hard to take down? Why no one can get a good grip on you, even without a gang?"

He didn't flinch under my flat stare. "Enlighten me." I already knew what the answer was. I also noticed that he was subtly changing the subject.

"Because, Evans, you're nearly untouchable. I've heard the stories. I know how you garnered that famous reputation of yours. You're so hungry for power, so ruthless. I think there's little you won't do, no depths you won't sink to in order to achieve your goals. It makes you a very difficult enemy."

I narrowed my eyes. "You don't know me. You may have heard the stories, but the only way to become truly acquainted is if I freeze your idiotic mouth shut. I can assure you, I'm very close to doing it."

"I know you," he insisted, not listening to my threat. "I know that you're so power-hungry because there was a time that you had none."

"Is that not how all leaders start out?" He wouldn't shake me.

But he continued on. "I know that you care for no one but yourself. That makes you difficult to control." I wasn't going to object to that.

"Well," he added after a second's pause, "Except for maybe one other person."

Slamming my fists against the glass surrounding him and finding satisfaction in the way he flinched, I hissed, "I care for no one." With that, I let him feel the cold lick of my power on his skin. "Especially not a conniving piece of shit like you."

His smug smile enraged me. I knew that my anger was what he wanted and this time, I'd give it to him. "You know my power can seep through this glass. I wouldn't be baiting me like that if I were you."

"Why?" He asked. The look in his eyes was pure insanity. "Because you're now realizing that I'm more than you bargained for?"

I let the coldness engulf him, ice crystals beginning to form on his eyelashes and short hair. "I knew everything I needed to know about you in the first five minutes after your capture."

He was shivering uncontrollably now. "Is that so?"

"Yes," I answered curtly, ready to be done here.

"Can I just ask you one more thing?"

I wanted to staple his mouth shut, but he kept talking before I could object. "Who do you hate more," he asked through blue lips, "Your mother for leaving you, or your father for making you this way?"

That was it. I was going to kill him. "I made myself this way," I hissed through clenched teeth as ice crystals formed all over his body. His tanned face was now stark white. I lowered the temperature inside the glass even lower. He'd be lucky if he didn't lose all his extremities to frostbite.

"No-" he managed to get out between chattering teeth. I didn't stop the onslaught of freezing water on his body, didn't stop until his eyes nearly glazed over and he could barely move. Then, when I was satisfied, I walked smoothly up the platform and out of the room, not particularly caring about what I'd left behind.