Present

"I told you that lying was a bad idea." Jacques said in the morning after Max read my notebook. Jacques and I were in the kitchen while Max was in her room. It was just past sunrise, so it didn't surprise me that Max was still either asleep or pretending to be. I assumed it was the latter.

"You want me to say that you were right?" I asked her, leaning my elbows on the counter with a cup of coffee between my hands. I hadn't slept since she threw the fucking notebook at my face. Not only did I have the image of Jake keeping me awake, but now I had Max crying and screaming at me in anger to add to the pile.

"Oui." Of course. I watched as she pulled her tight curls into a ponytail at the nape of her neck, an expectant look on her face.

"You were right." She tilted her head to the side.

"And what have we learnt?"

"That Jacques is always right."

"Good." She said before she took a sip of her coffee and looked at Max's door. "I should have told her. She's angry at me because I knew and said nothing." I didn't even think about that part of it; I assumed Max directed all the anger at me.

"No, I asked you not to tell her." It would be simpler if Max put it on me. I let my head hang down, staring into the coffee that was left in my mug.

"I should know better than to listen to you."

"You should." My eyes lifted to meet hers again. She had a small smile on her face, one that held pity in it, but before she could voice any other opinions, Max's door opened. The look in her eyes was pure anger.

"Are you okay?"

"Well, yesterday, I found out Queen murdered by dearest friend via zombification, and then in the early hours of the morning, I found out you're the reason for it. I'm as okay as you could imagine I would be." Max said in reply to my question as she walked to the kitchen island, leaning on it next to Jacques.

"Did you sleep?" Jacques asked.

"No. I was busy thinking, processing." Max replied, before her eyes landed on mine. God, the fury in them was making me shrivel inside. She had always looked right into my soul, and when she was angry, I felt it in the deepest parts of me.

"If it makes a difference, I am sorry." She just shook her head in response to me.

"He wouldn't do anything against his will. He went in, so I am just as angry at him as I am at you. Don't apologise, it won't change anything. You both did what you thought you needed to, no matter how stupid the idea was." She said, letting out a slow breath and pushing off of the countertop. That was when I noticed she was dressed for the day, not in her pyjamas like Jacques and I. It may have only been in a pair of jeans and a jumper, but it meant she was ready.

She made her first coffee, and she looked into my eyes again. The determination was obvious. While she might not be okay, she was still going to fuck up Queen as much as she could.

"Before we get too into anything else, I have a message for you, beau." Jacques said, her eyes on Max.

"What?"

"Well, my departure wasn't as... clean as I had planned." Jacques admitted. I crossed my arms in front of my chest as I prepared myself for what was to come.

"Jesus Christ, Jacques..."

"I only had to kill a few crétins, but uh... Queen caught wind. You know she has people everywhere. One stopped me in the airport, said Queen was already in London, knew about you being out of prison, some warden contacted her."

"That fucking bastard. I'm going to destroy him." I said, already pulling out my phone to draft my emails to news agencies.

"That's not the important part. She said she wants to meet with you at the club where you and Esmond over here first met. She knows how often you went there." Jacques said. Max sipped her coffee, seeming almost unbothered by the proposal. I froze my drafting to see what her response would be.

"Why would she want to meet with Max?" I asked when I realised Max was too far into her own thought process to speak.

"Queen didn't give me that information." Jacques said. Before we could continue the conversation, Max spoke.

"The only reason would be to kill me before I can stop her."

"Then you're not going." I said.

"You can't stop me. With Queen feeling at ease, feeling like she's in control, feeling like I won't walk out of there, her lips will be very loose." Max said, taking a sip of her coffee like it was just another day. Just another conversation.

"Yeah, she would be so comfortable because you would be walking into a death trap." I argued. She put the mug down.

"This is no different to you sending Jake into the Court. We are desperate for information. The only person who has it is Queen."

"We all saw what happened to Jake... I can't..." I didn't want to say the words. They would make me sound weak. And it would show that I hadn't moved on yet.

"What?" Max pushed.

"I can't lose you." I whispered, and Jacques once again had that smile of pity on her face. Fuck. She knew. She had to know I was still wrapped around Max's finger.

"Then help me make a foolproof plan that will get me out of there. I'm going, with or without your help." Max said, and although she was shorter than me, she stared down at me. A talent only she possessed.

"When?" I asked, looking at Jacques as I started thinking about how the fuck we could make this work. We needed more fire-power, but MI6 wouldn't be an option. The Mechanic stared at me, worry in her eyes. She knew the risk of going ahead with this, but we all knew it was the best way to get any worthwhile information.

"Tonight."

Max seemed unfazed.

"Then let's make a plan. And Jacques, you need to fill us in on everything you know about Dusk. Anything that could help us, so Es can transcribe it into his little diary."