Love in the Land of Fire, Brochu, Rebecca [best free novels .txt] 📗

and moving in the next second, striding down the hall and into the room where Rafe’s just now stirring on the bed.

“W-What’s wrong?” His voice is rough with sleep, his eyes heavy and unfocused and his hair a disheveled halo around his head. Josiah’s heart clenches painfully at the sight of him.

“I need you to listen to me, Rafe, and listen well.” His urgency must shine through in his tone because Rafe’s out of the bed and standing in front of him in seconds, eyes alert and body tense.

“What’s happened? It’s N-Frisch, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

6He sees the fear flash across Rafe’s eyes at his easy admittance and he reaches out and pulls Rafe against his chest, tangling a hand in his hair and wrapping an arm around his waist in reassurance.

“I need to take that data chip to Marcel. She can’t come here and we don’t have much time. I want you up, awake, and alert. I’ll be back as soon as possible, but you need to be careful, Rafe. Don’t leave the apartment, and don’t take any unnecessary risks. Keep yourself safe no matter what, do you understand me?”

“Y-Yes.”

Josiah pulls back, uses the hand in Rafe’s hair to tilt his face up and takes his mouth in a hot, devouring kiss, tongue and teeth working to remind the other who he belongs to. It’s also a promise, a promise that he’ll be back and that everything will be alright. They’re both breathless when he lets go and runs the fingers of his free hand tenderly across Rafe’s face.

“Be careful, Josiah.”

Josiah smiles at Rafe gently before pulling away completely so that he can turn on his heel and march out of the room. He doesn’t look back, only stops to gather his weapons and the data chip before he’s out the door, locking it and engaging the security system after he pulls it to.

He won’t let himself look back because if he does, if he has to see Rafe watching him leave he might not be able to go. This is far too important to mess up.

He’s in his transport, firing up the starter sequence almost before he realizes it, peeling out of his space and speeding towards Marcel’s location. When he’s close, about five minutes out, he pings Marcel on a secure channel, his hands tight around the steering wheel while he waits for her to respond.

“Josiah, are you close?” Her voice is sharp and the tension in her tone bleeds over into Josiah, wrenching his nerves even tighter.

“I’m five minutes out, Marcel. You set fire to the fucking building if you have to. Just buy me five minutes.”

“Right. Just hurry, Josiah.”

He ramps up his speed, going entirely too fast, but not able to actually find it in him to care as long as it gets him to the tribunal in time. He skids into a spot outside of the old ornate building with a minute to spare, cutting the power and jumping out of his transport in a single fluid movement. He pushes past the few people who don’t immediately clear out of his way, the urgency he’s feeling clearly being telegraphed in his every move.

He spots Marcel easily, her signature hair swept up into an elaborate design, and he calls her name even as he makes his way towards her at a quick pace. She spins around, face fierce and determined, and starts towards him. When they meet they’re both steely-eyed and blank faced, their eyes transmitting their every thought to each other as he slips the data chip into the palm of her hand.

“Stop this, Marcy. Do whatever you have to do to stop this.”

“Trust me, Josie. I have every intention of doing just that.” She whirls around and takes off, long legs and dangerously spiked heels eating up the ground in front of her at a pace that’s almost unbelievable.

Josiah lets himself relax a bit, lets some of the tension ease from his shoulders as he readjusts his belt and the lay of his rapier and pistol. Marcel has what she needs, has everything to put Frisch away for a very long time 6and to make Jean Zweil pay as well. Rafe will be safe after this, will no longer be tied to a sadistic dominant or a manipulative old woman.

His oricula pings again with an incoming message from a blocked address and curious he reaches up to accept the connection as he makes his way back towards his transport. He blinks in shock when Gar’s smoky voice, all whiskey smooth and ocean deep, floats into his ear.

“Josiah, I’m sorry. I wasn’t fast enough. I didn’t expect them to make a move this quickly and I wasn’t fast enough.”

“Gar, it’s fine, I swear. I got Marcel the chip and she’ll take care of everything. No matter what smooth tricks Frisch tries to pull, Marcel will have all the evidence she needs to counteract his moves.”

There’s a beat of silence, much like the one with Marcel, and when Gar speaks again his voice is tight, the low tone hard and cold with the icy rage that Gar was so well known for.

“I’m not talking about the tribunal meeting, Josiah! I’m talking about Zweil himself.”

Josiah freezes, ignores the crowds of people that move around him on all sides as he focuses on Gar’s voice, ice settling in the pit of his stomach.

“What are you talking about?”

“They got him, Josiah. They set off some kind of pulse that took down anything that runs on electricity in almost a block radius and they broke in. Frisch has Zweil, Josiah. He has him and I was too slow to stop it.”

Josiah doesn’t give himself time to think, time to feel anything. He just breaks into a flat run towards his transport, Gar’s voice ringing in his ears and his mind