Black hat 8 gray seas, p.9
Black Hat 8 - Gray Seas, page 9
That was how Marita found him, straddling the witch like she was giving him a pony ride.
Rather than ask what he was doing, she snapped a picture and mouthed the word Mom.
A painful groan ripped out of Derry as he twisted the witch’s arms behind her back until I could secure them with a spell. He dropped her, and she fell forward, landing on her cheek with her butt in the air.
Eyebrows tickling her hairline, Marita took a picture of that for his mom too.
“Light of my life, moon in my night sky, I have an idea.” Derry scurried over to her. “Why don’t we pack up the goods while they do the interrogation thing?” He took her hand and tried to steal her phone, but he quit when she snarled up her lip. “Here.” He handed her a canvas tote with the store’s logo. “Bet I can bag ten pounds of chocolate faster.”
Thanks to Marita’s competitive streak, the distraction worked, and the wargs began dumping as much candy into bags as they could as fast as they could while shoulder checking one another to get to the best flavors.
“They might be spelled,” I warned them. “No taste testing until after I examine them.”
The witch glowered at the wargs and thrashed in her bindings. “You’ll pay for this.”
Easing into her line of sight, forcing her to focus on me, I admitted, “We hear that a lot.”
“You often rob candy stores?” She blinked at me. “Do you know how much chocolate costs these days?”
“No,” I said slowly, confused that was her takeaway from all this. “That we will pay for, yes.”
The owner was human, and she didn’t deserve to eat the bill from the Mayhews’ shopping spree.
“Where is Nan?” Asa crunched across the broken glass to reach me. “What brought her to Ogunquit?”
Behind him, Clay stood watch at the door, ensuring no backup arrived for her.
“The lobster rolls,” the witch spat. “What do you think?”
Most black witches were loners, to better hunt for their prey of choice, but some banded together in covens. Unlike white witch covens, where love, trust, and self-preservation bound them together, black witch covens existed only to aid one another in the pursuit of mutual power.
A visit from Nan didn’t make them coven, but it did make them something.
“That whatever brought her here had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Luca.”
The name jolted her, snapped her spine taut, but her blurry gaze melted onto the floorboards with intense concentration.
“What do you know about Luca?” Asa homed in on her reaction. “Does she belong to your coven?”
The witch remained mute, and that presented us with a thorny problem.
Turn her over to Black Hat, and she might tell them what brought us to her doorstep.
Let her go, and she would call Nan and warn her we were coming for her.
Since Nan was a technomancer, she might patch the hole in her wall of security that Colby had drilled to let her track Nan’s finances. The pattern to her spending made me think it was more of a business credit card. Which fit with the black witch mentality of nothing is for free.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept her receipts so she could bill Luca for her travel expenses.
“Call my lieutenants,” I decided, aiming the comment at Clay. “Get Isiforos or Fergal up here ASAP.”
Until we got a bead on Nan, and proof she was on the move for a job, we needed to secure this witch. I trusted my lieutenants to keep her, and her secrets, safe. Which, frankly, blew my mind if I thought too hard about it.
To call other agents with the expectation they would arrive and act honorably?
To give them a task they would carry out to the best of their ability versus doing the bare minimum?
Yeah.
Weird.
Almost like if you put faith in people, they invested it right back into you.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Fergal arrived three hours later to the hotel room we secured near Bald Head to fetch the witch.
She hadn’t spoken a word to us since I mentioned Luca, which made me question if she was that loyal, or if she was under a geas that prevented her from sharing what she knew. Geas made for handy NDAs for paras who valued their privacy, and Luca was little more than a ghost.
As it happened, Derry’s relatives owned a chain of hotels down the coast and offered us three rooms for free at the original hotel that kicked off the idea. They also invited us for a clambake and a game of beer pong, which made Clay’s eyes well with joy.
“You guys go.” I pushed Marita and Derry toward their cousin, Shea. “Asa and I have work to do here.”
The last thing I wanted for their pack was to bring danger to their home, so neither of us was attending.
“I’m not leaving you.” Marita braced her feet in the doorway. “I’m on guard duty.”
“Asa?”
A crackle of flames engulfed him, leaving Blay in his place. “Blay protect Rue.”
“Woah.” Shea ogled him from top to bottom. “That was badass.”
“Thanks, Derry friend.” Blay shoved a hank of his hair into my hand. “Rue pet, Blay protect.”
“As you can see—” I raked my fingers through the silky length, “—we’re good here.”
Within the next day or so, I had planned on cutting Marita loose. Now that Derry was here, and they were with family, I might come out better breaking the news tonight. They were already here, so why not turn this into a mini vacation for them before they headed home?
“If you don’t go,” Clay pouted at them, “I can’t go.”
Apparently, jealousy took the backseat when food was involved, which shouldn’t have surprised me.
“Again.” I gestured up and down Blay. “We’re good here.” I punched Clay in the arm. “Go have fun.”
“Bring Blay food.” He passed me more hair. “Bring Rue food too.”
Even Blay had his priorities sorted when it came to free grub.
“You good with that?” Clay put the question to Marita. “I understand if the invite was more for Rue.”
“No one will ever believe we knocked over a candy store if we don’t have a witness.” She chortled and waved him on. “You can also tell them how I saved Asa’s life during the explosion.”
“Small problem.” Pointing to his forehead, he reminded her, “I was unconscious.”
“Shh.” She gripped his wrist and dragged him into the hall. “They don’t have to know that.”
Once they had shuffled out of hearing range, I slumped against the door. “This week sucks.”
“Blay sorry week sucks.”
“It’s not your fault.” I ducked into the bedroom and located Colby. “Blay’s here.”
While they settled in on the couch, I brought them laptops and snacks so they could play while I dusted off my rusty information-seeking skills to poke around in the database on my own.
No sooner had I settled in before a knock rang through the room. I froze in place, gestured for Blay to guard Colby, and drew my wand as I went to answer the door. I summoned magic into my hand and gripped the knob, exhaling before yanking to expose who stood in the hall.
“Are you going to stand there, or are you going to help me?”
Clay was barely visible behind the mountain of paper bags and the drink trays in his arms.
“What are you doing here?” I pocketed my wand then rushed to halve the load. “I thought you left.”
“We should have let that nice doctor scan your head.” He shoved past me. “Do you really think I would leave you and Ace unprotected in the name of free food?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
“Hurtful.” He dumped his haul and started pulling out to-go containers. “But not entirely inaccurate.”
Inhaling the steam escaping the Styrofoam, I tried to peg what he’d bought. “What does that mean?”
“Marita had a fit of conscience halfway to the car and decided to hang back.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Again, hurtful.” He huffed at me. “I couldn’t let her out best friend me, so I volunteered to stay.”
“Ah.” I pried the lid off a bowl of clam chowder. “You’re here out of jealousy and not concern.”
Planting his hands on the back of his chair, he stared down at a wrinkled napkin on the table. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” I filled my lungs. “This smells amazing.”
“I’m serious.” He lifted his head. “You were the first real friend I ever had, Dollface.” The wood groaned under his fingers. “Plenty of people like me, and I’m sexy as hell, but you were the first one who cared about me.” He snorted. “Like I was a real person, you know? Instead of…what I am.” He wet his lips. “Thanks, by the way, for always bringing me back.”
“Always,” I promised him. “Do you seriously think Marita is a threat to our friendship?”
“Yeah.” He sawed his jaw back and forth like he might cut the rest of the words from his mouth. “I do.”
“Then you admit that you’re really still my bestie and not Colby’s?”
After making sure she was distracted, he cupped his hands around his lips and mouthed, “Yes.”
“That was pathetic and didn’t convince me whatsoever.” I crossed to him and initiated a hug. “But I don’t care. You’ll always be my first and best friend too. It’s healthy for us to expand our social circle—we get in way too much trouble when left unsupervised—but you’ll always be at the center of mine.”
With a laugh rumbling through his chest, he wrapped his arms around me. “Just don’t forget me, okay?”
A crack spread through my heart, breaking it clean in half, and I could have kicked myself for not seeing it sooner. Of course, he worried about any new relationships I formed tempting me away. I had already ditched him once before, when I met Colby and decided she needed me more. But this wasn’t that.
For Colby, and, yeah, for myself, I’d had to break the cycle. I had to escape the addiction and the violence. I thought back then the best way to accomplish that was to cut all ties period and start fresh. As much as I hated to even think it, I believed in my heart that had been the right call. Even if it meant I hurt Clay so much he got twitchy when I met new people.
Mom and Meg had been inseparable, and maybe he worried that was the path I was destined for too.
“I’ve never forgotten you,” I promised him, “and I won’t ever leave you behind again.”
“Okay, Dollface.” He cleared his throat. “We should eat before it gets cold.”
“You understand why I could have fifty best friends and it still wouldn’t touch you, right?”
“You’re not that social. Fifty is reaching. Even five is unlikely.”
“Friendship is an easier box to fit people in—” I cut through his bluster, “—but you’re family.”
If Clay sniffled, maybe wiped his nose with a napkin, I pretended not to notice by distracting myself with food. Given the size of the spread, I had to ask, “How much of this is for you?”
“You have chowder, mussels mariniere, cornbread, caramelized vegetables, and something else to do with bacon. I can’t remember what. I heard bacon and told them to add it to my tab.” He handed me a bag he had left unmolested. “That’s for Blay.”
A smile tugging on my lips, I delivered the food and topped off Colby’s pollen before joining Clay at the table.
“I put out some feelers.” He dug into his chowder. “Dirk Pendas was more than a body behind a dumpster. He was a fae assassin.” He shoved cornbread in as a chaser. “Not like a fae assassin, as in his specialty was assassinating fae, but as in, he was a fae who is also an assassin.”
“A fae named Dirk?” I relaxed as the warm meal hit my stomach. “That’s—”
“—an alias.” He sprayed crumbs when he spoke. “His real name is—”
“Please don’t say Shadow or Wraith.”
“Uh, no.” He waved his spoon. “It might actually be worse.”
“I don’t think it gets worse.”
“Madden Hatteras.”
Knowing Clay, I got the joke immediately.
Mad Hatter.
“Ha.” I laughed so hard chowder went down the wrong pipe, and I choked. “That’s so much worse.”
“On a serious note, he had a solid reputation. The ignoble way he died is causing talk.”
“This means we know who bombed the restaurant, but we have to find who hired him.”
“That’s the thing.” He paused to slurp his drink. “He’s got a signature, and it doesn’t go boom.”
“What’s the signature?”
“He slits his targets’ throats then drinks their blood from a teacup he leaves on the scene.”
Credit where credit was due, Madden had embraced his namesake.
Or, depending on how old he was, might have inspired an author who got it very wrong.
“That’s…disturbing.”
“Whatever his personal kinks, he was a solid guy to hire if you needed to off someone.”
“Are you trying to tell me this guy was sent to kill me or Asa but the bomber got to him first?”
“You can only kill a target once, so mercenaries have a bit of a competitive streak.”
“Okay, so we have a fae assassin, the bomber, and four black witches in an SUV.”
“Sounds like the start of a great joke,” he teased but sobered quickly. “I don’t buy the timing of your sudden popularity as a result of your position as deputy director. Your promotion is old news. However, you just cost Stavros big time. He lost his heir and took hits to his reputation when you recovered Callula and killed one of his favorite generals. Seems more likely this has to do with that.”
Giving up on food, I slumped onto the table, resting my cheek on the cool wood. “Ugh.”
“Eat.” He thumped the back of my head. “You’re not going to die any slower on an empty stomach.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.” I stared up at him. “That truly restored my appetite.”
“Now that we’ve dumped our witchy prisoner on Fergal, we’re continuing on to Salem, yes?”
“I’ll get Colby to check on Nan in the morning, see if she’s still in the area.” I picked at my food to make him happy. “We can firm up our plan then.”
“Are you sure we should be chasing Luca and not maybe trying to figure out who’s trying to kill you?”
“Luca is the first step to bartering with Calixta.” I shoved away my bowl. “She’s the priority.”
“Kind of hard to get Aedan back if you’re dead.” He lifted a shoulder and dropped it. “Just sayin’.”
A persistent vibration in my pocket had me fishing out my cell. “Hollis.”
“Hey.”
The spit dried in my mouth at the sound of her voice, and my tongue rolled around several possible responses before settling on, “Hey, Camber.”
The room fell silent as I pushed to my feet, unable to hold still, unsure what came next.
“Do you have contact information for Aedan?”
The question struck me with the force of a knife through the ribs.
“I know he quit working with us because of friction with Arden.”
A croak was the best I could manage, but my lack of coherent response didn’t slow her down.
“She’s been holing up in your office during lunch breaks to mope over him. She thinks I don’t know she’s bawling her eyes out in there, but I’m not an idiot. Plus, you know how her nose swells and her eyes get puffy after a good cry.” She pushed out a sigh. “They need to resolve things so Arden can move on.”
The knife lodged between my ribs twisted at hearing how my actions had broken Arden. But what Camber no longer remembered—by her choice—was why Aedan left and I did too. Arden might not be crying over him so much as mourning the loss of what she had before, back when things were simpler.
Except I couldn’t tell Camber that, or explain any of it, really, because she had chosen not to know.
Anything I confessed put her in jeopardy of recalling what she had opted out of after learning the truth.
“They decided on a clean break.” I gave the best answer I had. “I don’t think we should meddle.”
“Even if it needs meddling?”
A brief smile touched my lips, a wish it was that simple. “Even if.”
“What about you?” She dove into a new topic. “When do we see you again?”
If you ask Arden, she’ll say never.
“I’m not sure.” I gave up on the room, and the pity etched onto everyone’s faces, and indicated to Clay that I was stepping out into the hall. “I’m up north, so it’ll be a while.”
“I miss the old days.” She blew out a long sigh. “When it was just the three of us against Mayor Tate.”
“How is our dear friend?” I lengthened my strides. “Does she miss me yet?”
“Hard to say.” She pretended to think it over. “She does cup her hands on the glass and stare in on occasion. I can’t tell if she thinks you’re breaking child labor laws leaving the shop in our hands, or if she’s pining after her nemesis.”
“That does my heart good.” I managed a laugh. “It’s hard to find a quality nemesis these days.”
The act lasted a few more minutes, but my heart ached too much to keep going.
“I should let you get back to work,” Camber said into the awkward silence that had never been a thing between us. “I know you’re busy, off saving the world.”
“I miss you,” I rasped, my throat tight. “And Arden.”
“We miss you too.” She swallowed audibly. “Come home soon, okay?”
Home.
The word gave the knife a final twist before ripping it free.
“I’ll do my best,” I lied, blinking back tears. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
The call ended, and I stood in the middle of the hall to unravel the breath knotted in my lungs. I had to get back before Clay started searching for me, but unless I wanted to ruin everyone’s night with a pity party, I had to let the sting in my eyes ease first.
“Rue Hollis.”
A chill swept down my spine as I pivoted to find a young man staring at me. “Who’s asking?”
