Maddie stood. “Then I won’t fix anything for you. You kill her and I won’t do another thing to solve this problem.”
Jane’s eyes rolled and she started to back away. “So much drama.”
That was the moment MaeBe’s eyes came open and she reached up, gripping Jane’s wrist.
Maddie’s heart rate tripled as she watched MaeBe bend Jane’s hand, the gun coming out of it and hitting the ground.
Jane flattened the palm of her free hand and brought it down on MaeBe’s arm, the cracking sound sickening to Maddie’s ears.
MaeBe gasped and fell back, her arm bent at an impossible angle.
Jane calmly picked up the gun and holstered it. “Don’t try that with me, honey. I know Taggart trains you all, but not the way I was trained. Trust me. Taggart is a preschool teacher compared to my handlers. And I bet Kyle protects you so you don’t ever have to fight for your life. That’s your fault. Don’t ever expect a man to protect you. When he says he will, he’s lying, and what he really wants is for you to be weaker than him.” She looked back at John. “Now we have to fix her fucking arm. You remember any of your medic training?”
“She’s a long-term project then?” John asked.
“As long as I can keep her. She’s going to be fun to play with,” Jane replied. “And she’s also how I’ll control Kyle and Drake when I need to. Madeline, do your job and I’ll give you a shot at getting out of this alive.”
Deke was her best shot at both of them getting out of this alive, but now she worried. “You know he works for Ian Taggart. You know who Kyle is.”
“Of course, I do, but Nolan has no clue and that’s the way I like it. I’m playing chess and everyone else is playing checkers,” Jane announced. “Except for Nolan. He’s not smart enough to even play the game. He actually thinks he’s in charge. He slapped me. Like full-on, telenovela, girl-fight slap. I hope Deke kills him slow.”
She expected Deke to kill him? “I thought you were working with him.”
“I was and now I’m not. That’s what I meant by giving you a fighting chance,” Jane explained. “I’m not unfair. I like a love story just as much as the next person. But you’re not going to get it if you don’t finish that integration.”
“But if I live, I can tell people about you.” She wasn’t following Jane’s logic, and that meant Jane was probably lying. She wasn’t about to give up the work if this woman was going to kill her anyway.
“And no one will believe you because I don’t exist. You can talk all you like but no one will listen. Everything you’ll say will sound like a conspiracy,” Jane continued. “You’ll tell them I walked out of here with a dangerous weapon, but you’re not absolutely sure what it does or how I’ll use it.”
“You’re going to use it to assassinate heads of state while they’re flying.” The longer she kept Jane talking, the longer she gave Deke.
“Well, no one said she was a dummy,” the guard said under his breath.
Jane simply sighed. “It can be used for many things, especially once I take the schematics for the satellite. If you wouldn’t mind downloading those, I would appreciate it. Believe it or not, I haven’t been able to get on that system until tonight.”
“Sure, I’ll get right on that,” Maddie replied.
Jane moved to stand in front of her, a frown on her face. “I’m not joking, Madeline. Do this for me and I’ll pull my guards out. Deke can walk in here and take all his frustrations out on Nolan. I never meant for the weapon to go on this satellite. I simply needed the integration to work. I’ll be taking all of it back to my bosses and then if you really want, you can tell the world and we’ll start another game, you and I.”
Well, that felt like a threat. It might be time to stop asking questions and play along. All that mattered at this point was ensuring Deke had his best shot at saving her. “I’ll have it done soon.”
“You know what you’re doing?” the guard asked, the question directed at Jane.
“Calculating risk is part of this job,” Jane replied as she backed away, moving toward MaeBe. “And for what I’m doing next, it’s necessary to clean up old messes.”
Maddie’s gut twisted. She looked back down at the laptop and started working on the problem. She hadn’t lied about what the issues were. She could see where Justin had tried. He hadn’t understood how to connect the systems, probably hadn’t even understood what he’d been trying to do, and he’d died for asking questions. Pam had died for this, too. She had to make sure she and MaeBe weren’t the next to go.
“You have to admit, though, the guy has a nice view.” Jane stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. This high in the canyon, a person could look out over the grounds of the estate all the way to the ocean. The grounds were meticulously kept, with trees on either side offering an unobstructed view if one stood in the right place. “This house was designed to be as luxurious as possible. Nolan made sure he had excellent views, but there are other features. Did you know he has an eleven-car garage on the other side of the property?”
Maddie wasn’t sure if the woman was talking to her or the guard. “Yes. He brags about it often.”
“I’m sure you haven’t gotten the full tour I have. The man has a couple of secrets he likes to keep.” Jane looked back at the guard. “He’s got a Maserati in the garage. One that’s not for sale. We should try it sometime.”
The guard nodded. “Yes, that sounds like fun.”
Jane moved away from the window and looked down at MaeBe. “I feel sorry for you. He doesn’t love you, you know. I’m afraid he’s with you because you’re not me. You’re pretty much the opposite of me, and that’s what attracted him to you. You’re a reaction, not an actual relationship. Kyle needs a strong woman, one who can set him on his ass from time to time, and that’s just not you. I would bet you don’t even know the real Kyle Hawthorne.”
“I know him better than you,” MaeBe managed to reply, tears streaming down her face.
“Did he talk about me, then?” Jane asked.
“I know he thinks he killed you, Julia. I know you were the biggest mistake of his life,” MaeBe said between gritted teeth. She cradled her broken arm as she tried to sit up.
“The biggest mistake he made was thinking he really could kill me.” Jane, who turned out to be Julia, stepped back, watching MaeBe. “I don’t think he tried his hardest. Believe me, that man knows how to kill, and he’s excellent at it. If he truly wanted me dead, I would be. He’s had time to think about it, and I’ll give him a little more. I’ve been playing with him for a while now. His whole family, actually, but it’s time to stop playing. I’m ready to deal with our problems. A love like ours isn’t something you simply walk away from.”
The door slammed open and Nolan strode in, a wild look on his face and a pistol in his hand. “There’s a fire at the building where the satellite is being built.”
Jane/Julia turned his way. “A fire?”
“Yes.” Nolan ran a hand across his head. “Someone fucking firebombed my satellite five weeks from fucking launch. This is a disaster. You have to do something.”