Page 93 of Pulling Strings
“We both know this should never have been my life,” I said. “The Bloody Hex changed everything about me. For the worse. I don’t know if I can ever go back, but I’d like to try. To make my father proud.”
She stared at me with her head cocked in open assessment until she said simply, “Don’t lie to me, Fitch.”
I threw up my hands. “What the fuck?” I blurted. “That’s exactly what you said before the trial.My dad was a great investigator. I could do what he did, be like him, yada yada.”
“Exactly. It’s whatIsaid. When I was still clinging to an idealized view of who you’ve become. It’s taken some getting used to, but I think I’m figuring it out.”
Disappointment became the theme of the day. Be it from Grimm or the investigator, I couldn’t decide which bothered me more.
Holland lifted her mug to her lips and spoke through the rising steam. “What about your brother? Does leaving the gang mean leaving him behind?”
I swayed back, shaking my head. “Donnie’s been dead for years—”
“I thought that until the prison break, when I heard them say his name.”
Shit.
“You misheard, then.” I crossed my arms.
“I saw him, too.” Her brows furrowed, and sorrow welled up in her hazy eyes. “He looks so much like your mom.”
Double shit.
I could hardly convince her that she was wrong. As much as I’d wanted to leave Donovan out of this, it didn’t hurt to have assurances on both sides. That way, if Grimm failed to uphold his promise, I could cash in on Holland’s.
“Okay, yes. Donnie’s alive.” I sighed. “But he’s innocent. Really innocent, not like me. He thinks he wants to be in the gang and all that comes with it, but I want him out. If you help me get him away from Grimm and out of the city, somewhere safe, I’ll help you destroy the Bloody Hex once and for all.”
She chewed her lip while staring as though she could x-ray my thoughts. “That could be arranged,” she said.
Relief washed over me.
“And immunity,” I blurted the afterthought that should have been my first one considering my brother had murdered a man not twenty-four hours ago, and the phones that I destroyed may well have been livestreaming the whole ordeal.
Holland’s face pinched with fleeting suspicion as I added, “No one goes after him. Ever.”
She nodded. “Fine.”
“It’s a deal, then?” I extended my hand only for her to look down at it, unmoving.
“You’re a dangerous man, Fitch,” she said slowly. “You say you don’t want to be controlled, and I have thoughts about that. People feel like they need to control you because they don’t believe they can trust you.
“Out here—” she gestured to the bustling Main Street beyond the window—“without antimagic, or shackles, or prison cells—I can’t control you. I know that. So, I need assurance that Icantrust you. Can I?”
Even I looked at my hand, then, hovering above the table, ready to close a deal I didn’t fully grasp.
Grimm wanted me to work with the Capitol. Keep close while he cozied up to Maximus Lyle. That ploy would end in Maximus’s death and Grimm’s succession to the would-be throne of our city. Teaming up with Holland meant delivering on my promise to take down the Hex. Maybe not all at once but, if she didn’t see progress, she would doubt my allegiance. And now Donovan was caught in the middle of it. Though, if Holland came through with her end of the bargain, I might sell my soul to the Capitol for good.
Ultimately, she had asked a question I didn’t want to answer because I took the notion of trust far more seriously than did Grimm or any of my criminalcounterparts. From what I knew of Holland, she took it seriously, too.
My lengthy hesitation didn’t faze her or scare her off shaking myhand when I said at last, “You can trust me.”
