Tracey Ward - Backs Against the Wall

“I’m not as good as he was. I’ll die sooner rather than later.”

Marlow nods slowly, his eyes drifting around the room. “You’re right about that. You’re not as good as your brother was, but you’re still one of the best out there. And I do hate to see talent go to waste.” His eyes land on me again. “A sure fire money maker is so hard to find.”

“I’m not in the market,” Ryan tells him firmly.

“A shame. Well, then be on your way, I guess. If we have nothing else to say to each other.”

Ryan nods again, then starts to back out of the room. His hand grips mine gently, careful of my injured arm. I go willingly when he pulls on it.

“Hold on,” Marlow calls. “Leave the girl. I’ll return her to the Elevens.”

Ryan freezes, his grip tightening painfully. “I can’t. She’s checked out in my name.”

Marlow waves his hand. “I’ll return her for you. I’ll even pay your fee on top of my own. I’d like a taste of what they’ve got up there.”

Ryan is breathing fast and hard, his grip not loosening.

Marlow’s eyes shift to Ryan slowly. “Is there a problem?”

“She’s not staying.”

Marlow smiles. “Either she’s staying or we have a problem. Do you want to have a problem with me, Ryan?”

“She knows Vin,” Trent speaks up calmly. All eyes dart to him. “She has a message from him.”

Marlow doesn’t miss a beat, though his smile disappears. “Vin is no longer with us.”

“Not with you here, but he is alive.”

That’s a big maybe, I think, but I keep it to myself.

Trent looks at me with his intense eyes. They speak volumes, all of them saying don’t mess this up .

“Show him the ring.”

I look at Ryan meaningfully. He releases my hand but his eyes are tight, full of worry and regret. I smile faintly at him before I turn to Marlow, hoping it’s reassuring. I raise my hand, showing Marlow the large ring on my finger.

He eyes it without emotion, his face completely placid. I can’t tell if he actually recognizes it. Then he speaks and the entire room freezes from the chill of his tone. I know immediately I’ve struck a chord with the ring but the tension rolling through the room makes me worry it’s one I shouldn’t have hit. It makes me wonder if I’m making it out of this room with all my fingers.

“Out,” he says coldly, his eyes hard on mine. “Everyone out. Now. ”

“When did you steal that ring from him?” Marlow asks, his voice so low I barely hear it.

My heart is in my throat. I have to swallow to speak, but I hold his eye because I know to look away is to admit something. Guilt, lies, theft, murder. None of these will get us out of this room unscathed. It’s emptied out except for the three of us, Marlow and a few men scattered around the room guarding all the exits. Guarding the Boss.

“He gave it to me.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s not. I was in the Colony with him. I was in the van with him when he, Nats and Breanne were taken.”

Marlow watches me closely, debating. The fact that I know the girls’ names might give me some credibility. Or I might just be a pro with good listening skills on market day.

“You were in a Colony with him.”

It’s not a question. It’s a dubious statement. Like saying ‘So, you’re the tooth fairy’.

“Yes.”

“But you’re standing here now.”

“Yes.”

“Try again. How’d you get that ring?”

“He gave it to me,” I insist firmly, sticking to my story. “He told me to bring it to you. That you’d recognize it because he said it was his old man’s and it’s the only thing that’s ever meant anything to him.”

I’m spinning the ring nervously on my finger the way Vin did when he was thinking. I stop when I notice Marlow watching me do it.

“Why would he give it to you to bring to me?”

I breathe deeply.

Here we go.

“Because the people in the Colony, they want to make a deal. They want your help. Vin was supposed to be the one standing here telling you all of this. The Colonists were going to break him out with the promise that he’d come back with help.”

“What do Colonists need help with?” he snarls.

“Getting out. Not all of them are happy. They’re trapped just like I was. Just like Vin is. Slaves in their own home. They want to overthrow the leaders, take control of the building and get their freedoms back.”

“And Vin promised to help with this?”

“He said he’d try,” I reply weakly.

Marlow chuckles, shaking his head. “Now I know you’re lying. You never knew Vin. You may have met him, you certainly robbed him, which is impressive in and of itself, but if you knew him you’d know you’re talking crazy. That man wouldn’t lift a finger to save his own mother even if it wouldn’t cost him anything. He’s not what you call altruistic.”

I shake my head, feeling foolish.

“It means selfless,” Trent says quietly behind me.

My face burns with embarrassment, my temper flaring.

“He wasn’t going to come back to help us,” I say sharply to Marlow. “He was going to betray us all. He knew it, Nats knew it, I knew it. You seem to know it. But he messed up. He started sleeping with a crazy bitch who stabbed him, maybe killed him.”

Marlow blinks. “See, now that I believe.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” the bouncer who brought us in mutters.

“I was there when it happened. I was with him. She came at me and… and I killed her. Vin was injured, he couldn’t go and I had just killed one of their leaders so I couldn’t stay. We traded places. He gave me this ring, told me to come to you, told me that it would never work and then I left him there on the ground, bleeding.” My throat is closing again but it’s not from anxiety or fear. It’s from wondering. Worrying. Caring. “I didn’t leave him alone. One of the rebels from inside took the keys from the dead woman and got me out. He stayed with Vin. But I don’t know if he survived. I—I hope he did.”

“What do the Colonists want?” Marlow asks. He sounds genuinely curious but something else too. Distant somehow. Like he’s asking about things that have no bearing on his life in any way. Like I’m telling him an entertaining story. “What deal was Vin bringing?”

“They want you to storm the Colony in the north.”

“There is no Colony in the north.”

“Yes, there is. It’s in the old MOHAI building. The museum.”

“That Colony went down mo—“ someone begins.

“Shut up!” Marlow calls out at them, his eyes never leaving me. I struggle not to jump. He tells me softly, “Continue.”

I take a calming breath. It doesn’t help.

“The people will overthrow it from inside. It’ll be easy for you to take it down from the outside. They’ll give it to you in return. They don’t want it. All of them were brought there from other Colonies. From the stadiums and the south. They want to go home, they just need you to get them out. Then they’ll let you have the MOHAI.”

“Oh, they’ll let me have it? And they’ll just go home. Everyone will get what they want, no problem?” Marlow asks sarcastically.

“Yes,” I say, but I know it’s a lie.

“Here’s how that plays out in the real world. I send men to help overthrow the MOHAI. It goes down easy, just as you said. We take it over, the Colonists leave. Brilliant. Perfect. But here’s where it goes wrong. The people who leave, they go back to their homes. To the other Colonies. They show up, wanting to come in and suddenly the people running the big show are wondering what the hell happened to the MOHAI. So they come looking and find us there. Then they wipe us out. It’s happened before. Do you think they were the only ones with the idea of taking the stadiums? They weren’t! I will not risk a David and Goliath war over a pimp’s promise that he would have broken the second he got out.”