Present

My apartment was exactly as I had left it. Paying off the right people meant it wouldn't be sold while I was in jail. I knew I would get out at some point, and I wanted to come back home. Packing a small suitcase took a few minutes, and changing out of the idiotic clothes he had arrested me in took seconds.

I now wore a cream cashmere turtleneck, grey skinny jeans, a pair of Doc Martens, and a black trench coat. London during winter was a pain in my ass, and I hated feeling the cold. I really should have moved somewhere else by now, but I kept London as my home base. Tied myself here repeatedly...

When I walked out with my suitcase, I found Esmond waiting on the white leather couch. His jacket was off, his white dress shirt had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. There was something about how he wore his shirt like that. It used to have a hold on me and I would have to touch him, kiss him without a care of who saw. Even now it stirred a part of me I thought was destroyed when he arrested me.

Okay, maybe that's a lie. It didn't get destroyed until after that, because even him cuffing me and controlling me-

"When we get to your apartment, you're making me coffee." I said to announce my arrival and to cut off my train of thought.

"What took so..." He trailed off as he looked at me. "Of course. We are short on time, have a lot riding on this fucking situation working out, but you decide right now is the best time to cut your hair." I couldn't decide whether to berate him or just stare at him.

"Are you done?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. I had taken the hair shears and cut off the length of my hair, cropping it to my collarbones. Throughout my imprisonment, the only thing I had wanted to do was cut it off.

"You couldn't be serious for two fucking hours? We need to focus, and here you are-"

"Es, I understand you're desperate to save your career and whatnot, but my hair was getting in the way. The lovely women you imprisoned me with liked to use the length against me, so I wanted to cut it off. I didn't realise I needed to ask your permission to change my hair." I said, putting a hand on my hip and staring him down.

"This isn't about that. Time is of the essence with this case."

"Yes, we have until New Year's. That's ten days away. Whatever Queen has planned won't come down to the thirty minutes I took to cut my hair. We either stop her, or we don't. This late into the game, we probably won't." I said, just trying to be honest.

"We need to." He stood up and walked over to me.

"We can do our best, but ten days isn't a lot of time considering who we're dealing with. You should have come to me earlier. Better yet, you never should have thrown me in prison." I said, going to walk away, but he took hold of my wrist. My eyes shot down to the contact.

His skin burned against mine like gin down my throat. An addictive type of fire that I had already been hooked on once. I couldn't stoop that low again.

"Don't touch me." I growled the words, but he didn't let go of me.

"Or what? You'll kick my ass? We both know you can't." This mother-fucking bitch.

"Don't fucking touch me." My anger was stronger, more venomous now. I might not win hand to hand against him or anyone really, but I had stores of information I could use against him. Words to trigger him and make him regret everything, to make him step back and re-evaluate the whole situation.

"Or what?" He asked as he stood closer to me. Feeling his breath fan over my skin...

"Don't make me do it." I threatened.

"Come on, you've never held back from me before." Oh, so this was a challenge?

"I will run back to Queen. We know she would take me back. They would deal with you in a matter of days, if not hours. You made your choice over where I stand with you. I'm still on the fence after the shit you pulled to throw me in prison." He backed off a bit but still held my wrist. "You decided that even though I flipped sides for you, I still wasn't good enough. Best place for me was as far away from you as possible, so I couldn't remind you of the mistakes you made."

"That's not why I put you in prison, Max." He said, finally letting go of my wrist.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. That my perfect information wasn't good enough to keep a place by your side. That even though I risked my life and worked as a double agent for you, I still wasn't good enough." I hadn't meant to unfurl the hurt that had been sitting in my chest for this year and a half.

"You want to know why I had to put in prison?" He asked.

"Had to? Don't fucking bullshit me-"

"It was the only way I could think to keep you safe." He said. I shook my head and laughed. "Queen was becoming erratic, unpredictable-"

"I know. I was there too, in case you forgot, you got that information from me." I cut him off.

"My other sources were telling me she was trying to cut you out, Max."

"Cut me out? Don't-"

"She was getting afraid of the following you were gaining, that her people liked you more than her."

"And we already know that's why she didn't give me combat training. Tell me something I don't know, Es."

"What she's planned for New Year, it's been in the works since before I took you off the field. She kept you out of it because she wanted to use it to get rid of you." He said, I didn't believe him, and it showed clearly on my face. "It's a drug, gives you a high so good you never want to come down. When you do, you become mindless, a host to a virus that's hidden in the drug. It makes you want to eat other people. Only other people. You become a slave to it."

"A zombie virus?" I asked in disbelief, but his expression didn't change. He was serious.

"She knew you would take it if you didn't know what the after affects would be. She thought you were still doing drugs by that point. That's how she was going to get rid of you, along with most of the entire population." He explained.

"How do you know that's what the drug does?" I asked him. He looked pale as he stared into my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Jake was helping me look into it. He helped me come up with the idea of getting you into prison to keep you out of her reach. He kept helping me while you were behind bars. I got an email after he vanished for a month. No subject, no text, just a video attachment. I watched it."

I took a slow step away from him as I shook my head.

What he was saying meant that...

"I know what the drug does because it was a recording of him in a cell. They forced him to take the drug, and they recorded him over the month. I sped up the footage but..."

"Did he make it?" I know the question was so beyond naïve that it was stupid.

"Max, the virus-"

"Did they keep him alive?" I asked.

"The final stage of the virus is that it attacks the host. Kills them." He said. I shook my head.

"No, Jake can't-"

"She killed him, Max. Queen killed Jake to get to you."