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“I’m not a reaper,” I inform him.
He gives me a look as if I’m slow. “I see the scythe tattoo on your wrist.” Ah, so the serum neutralizes reaper tattoos too. Good to know.
“Why are you doing this? Who put you up to this?”
He puffs out his chest a little. “We are trying to make Eden great again.” Yeah, I’ve heard a statement like that before. Nothing good ever follows it.
“Who is we?” I push. I need more information from him, but he is tight lipped.
“You’ll see. I’m waiting on the other reaper to confirm they got Aiden. I’m assuming he will come voluntarily because we have his girlfriend.”
I give him a look of exasperation. “I would rather you just tell me. I’m not particularly fond of surprises.” I look around, unsure of where I am, but I do know wherever he is going to take me is not a place I want to go.
I knee him in the groin, and he doubles over in pain. Not giving him a second to recover, I punch him in the face then sprint away. I run down the alleyway, not glancing back once. When I almost reach the street, I slam into something. Looking up, I see it is Mac. He roughly grabs me by the throat and throws me onto the ground.
“I was trying to be nice, but you are forcing my hand,” he says, then raises a fist and slams it into my head, causing me to blackout.
26
NOTE TO SELF:
NEVER TRUST SOMEONE WHO IS TOO NICE
I blink my eyes a couple of times. I look around, trying to figure out where I am, but my eyes are met with darkness. I groan as I try to sit up, which is proving to be a hard thing to do. My arms are tied behind my back, and chained to the wall. My first thought is Aiden.
“Aiden?” I call out. I swear he’d better be alright. I hear groaning, and then movement.
“Joy?” My heart jumps at his voice.
“Aiden!” I try to crawl in his direction, forgetting I’m chained to the wall. The chains painfully yank against my wrists. I fall back onto my ass. “Damn it to Hell. How many reapers are evil at this point?”
“I never expected Mac to betray me.” First, Joey. Now, Mac. The question we have to ask is who is not going to betray Aiden.
“Seems like a lot of betrayal is going around. What did you do to piss these people off?” I ask, seriously concerned about why we are mixed in the middle of all of this. Seems as though even when I try to mind my business, the business wants to mind me.
“Joyce.” I roll my eyes. He can never take a joke.
“Okay, okay. I’m joking. Let’s think about this. There’s no way a bunch of reapers are just doing this by themselves. There has to be someone more powerful.”
“Like a director?”
“Exactly.” I stand up. The floor is uncomfortable, and I want to pace a little. There is not enough give in my restraints for me to pace too far, but it’s enough.
“Aiden, can’t you just teleport yourself away?” I ask.
“I tried the moment I woke up, but it seems like they did something to me.” It was probably the serum. In all my readings about Eden, I did not come across anything about a serum.
I lean my head back in irritation. “That’s annoying. Who do you think is behind this?”
“Maybe Joey? It’s always who you least expect it to be. You mentioned that it could be him when we were at the hotel.”
I shake my head. “It’s not Joey. He’s just a pawn. It has to be a director.”
“I hate to say this…but could it be your father? We haven’t been able to find him.”
There are seven directors. The most obvious answer is my father. He went missing and is in trouble with Eden. But I know it’s not him. Not just because he’s my father, but because it makes no sense for it to be him. What would he have to benefit?
Until this point, we have been dealing with pawns. My father is very charismatic. Reapers love him and the directors respect him. In chess, he could be considered the king—the most important piece. You take out the king and the game is over.
