by Karen Lynch
I chewed on my lower lip. I did miss my old guitar, but I’d been trying to save every cent I could. Our building needed new pipes in the basement, and most of the tenants’ rent went to the mortgage payment, utilities, and insurance. The estimates I’d gotten from three different plumbers were enough to keep me awake at night.
“It can’t hurt to go in and see what they have,” she said.
I gave in. “I’m only going in to look.”
Thirty minutes later, I left the store with a worn acoustic guitar case slung over my shoulder. “You are a very bad influence, Violet Lee.”
She laughed and pointed at a coffee shop. “I’ll make it up to you. The coffee is on me.”
We entered the shop and found an empty table. I watched our bags while she went to order the coffees.
“By the way, how are your mom and dad doing at the new treatment center?” she asked as she set our coffees on the table.
I took a sip of my coffee and sighed happily. “They’re doing great. You should see the place. It looks more like one of those rehab centers rich people go to. I still can’t believe our health insurance covers a place like that.”
I had done some research on goren treatment, and there was another facility in Newark that looked more like an institution than the resort my parents were at. Mom and Dad had a comfortable suite with windows overlooking a park, and the cafeteria resembled an upscale restaurant. Residents were not allowed computers or cell phones, and the televisions only played non-violent movies because too much stimuli was not good for recovering goren addicts. But there was a library, a state-of-the-art gym with an Olympic-size swimming pool, and beautiful grounds for anyone who didn’t mind braving the cold. I’d brought Mom and Dad some of their clothes and things from home, and they looked more like themselves every day.
“Have you told them yet?”
“No. I’ll do it soon.” Every time I saw my parents, I wanted to tell them about my bounty hunting, but their doctors continuously warned me stress and emotional upset early in the program could cause a setback. Mom and Dad were doing so well, and the last thing I wanted was to cause them any anxiety. I also knew the longer I waited, the more upset they were going to be that I’d kept it from them.
Footsteps approached our table, and I looked up to see two thirtysomething men in suits coming toward us. I didn’t recognize them, but their appearance screamed Agency. I tensed because I didn’t exactly have a good history with agents seeking me out.
“Can I help you?” I asked before either of them could speak.
“Are you Jesse James?” one of them asked in a curt tone.
I looked from him to his companion. “Who is asking?”
He produced a leather badge wallet and showed me his Agency ID. “I’m Agent Collins, and this is Agent Howard. We’d like to ask you a few questions about the raid on Lewis Tate’s house.”
“I wasn’t there for the raid. I was called in after to round up the verries.”
Agent Howard nodded. “We’re talking to everyone who was at the house that night.”
“Why?”
“It’s routine. Nothing to be concerned about,” said Agent Collins.
Something about his smile made my scalp prickle. In my experience, when people said not to be concerned, the exact opposite was usually true. And the Agency didn’t track down hunters at coffee shops for routine questions. They showed up at your home or called you and requested you come to headquarters to talk.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, aware of Violet watching us.
Agent Collins glanced around the coffee shop. “Let’s talk outside.”
I hesitated briefly before I stood. If they wanted to discuss sensitive information, it made sense to do it where we were less likely to be overheard. Grabbing my coat, I followed them out of the shop, making sure to position myself in front of the large window where Violet could see me. I didn’t care if they were agents. I had good reason to be suspicious of strangers.
Agent Howard spoke first. “According to the report, you were the first bounty hunter to arrive on the scene after the raid, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And you went into the house alone,” Agent Collins said. “Why didn’t one of the agents accompany you?”
I furrowed my brow at the question. “Because it was too dangerous with all the verries on the loose in there.”
He nodded. “And you spent two hours alone in the house?”
“More like an hour and a half.” I wondered where he was going with this line of questioning.
“Where did you go in the house during that time?” he asked.
“Living room, hallway, cage room.”
Agent Howard cut in. “That’s it?”
“That’s where the verries were. I had no reason to go anywhere else.”
“I see.” He stuck his hands in his coat pockets. “Did you observe anything unusual while you were in the house?”
“Like what?”
“Objects that look like they could be of Fae origin,” said Agent Howard.
Could these guys be any vaguer? They had to know bounty hunters had been briefed on the missing ke’tain.
“There were some Fae objects, but I didn’t see anything that looked like the ke’tain,” I said.
They exchanged a look, and then Agent Collins said, “So you searched for the ke’tain while you were alone in the house?”
Their questions were starting to bug me. “No, I was too busy trying not to get stung to death.”
Irritation flashed in his eyes. “And after you had caught the verries, what did you do?”
“Then I helped the man who got stung.”
“I thought you said you were alone in the house at that time,” Agent Howard cut in, suspicion coloring his tone.
Little alarm bells went off in my head. How could they not know about Brian Kang if they’d read the report from that night? I would think they’d want to question Lewis Tate’s friend and possible accomplice over me. This didn’t add up.
I crossed my arms. “I’m sorry, but why are you asking me this? It should all be in Agent Ross’s report, and the security camera footage will show you exactly what I did in the house. I’m not sure what else I can tell you.”
Agent Collins took half a step toward me. “We will decide what is important and what is not.”
“I think you should accompany us to headquarters for a full debriefing.” Agent Howard moved closer, boxing me in.
I pressed my back to the window. “I’ll make an appointment.”
Agent Collins laid a hand on my arm. “We’d prefer to talk to you now.”
Chapter 9
MY HAND WENT to my pocket and closed around the stun gun I always carried now. Assaulting an agent was a federal crime, but my gut told me I wasn’t talking to real agents. They might look the part, but no agent would question a witness without doing their homework first. It was obvious these two hadn’t laid eyes on the report or the security footage.
“Jesse.”
The three of us looked at Violet, who stood outside the door, waving her phone.
She smiled apologetically. “Sorry to interrupt, but you have a call from someone at the Agency. I told him you were talking to agents, but he insisted.”
“It must be Ben Stewart. Tell him I’ll be right there.” I turned to Collins and Howard, who had taken a step back. “I have to take this call. You don’t keep the head of internal affairs waiting.”
“Certainly not,” Collins agreed hurriedly. “We’ll call you to continue our debriefing.”
“I’m happy to come in tomorrow,” I said, knowing I’d never get that call.
He nodded and held out his hand. “Thank you for your cooperation, Miss James. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
I shook Howard’s hand, too, and then I watched the men walk swiftly down the street. They moved like they couldn’t get out of there fast enough without running.
Violet was bouncing in her seat wh
en I returned to our table, her eyes wide with nervous curiosity. “What the heck was that about?”
“I don’t know, but thanks for the rescue.” I pulled my phone from my pocket. “How did you know I needed help?”
“I didn’t,” she confessed. “But I didn’t like the look of them, and I could see they were getting pushy. Are all agents like that?”
I opened my contacts. “They weren’t agents.”
Her hand shot out and covered my phone. “What do you mean? They had Agency IDs.”
“Forgeries.” I lifted my eyes to meet her shocked ones. “The Agency raided the house of a black market dealer a few nights ago, and I was sent in to clean up. Those guys asked me things about the raid that they should have known.”
Her brows drew together. “That doesn’t mean they weren’t agents.”
“They also didn’t blink an eye when I said Ben Stewart is the head of internal affairs. There is no way any agent in this city doesn’t know who he is and that he runs the Special Crimes division.”
Violet gasped. “Oh my God, Jesse! What do we do?”
“We do nothing.” I pulled up Stewart’s name in my contact list. “I’m going to call him and let him know there are two men walking around pretending to be agents.”
“How can you be so calm?” she asked breathlessly. “I’m about to freak out.”
I smiled and kept up my calm front as I put the phone to my ear. On the inside, I was having my own mini freak-out. I was certain those men would have tried to force me to go with them if Violet hadn’t intervened. They were looking for the ke’tain, and clearly, they were willing to use any means to find it. Impersonating an agent was a serious felony.
I was expecting to get Ben Stewart’s voice mail, so I was surprised when he answered on the third ring. I lowered my voice and told him about my encounter with the fake agents, careful not to mention the ke’tain by name.
“I need you to come in to work with one of our sketch artists,” he said when I finished. There was an edge to his voice that hadn’t been there the first time we’d talked. “Do you feel safe there? I can send agents to pick you up.”
I walked over to the window and scanned the street for any sign of the men. “My Jeep isn’t far away. I need to drive my friend home, and I’ll come there right after.”
“I’ll expect you here within two hours.”
I hung up and went back to the table. “He wants me to come in, so I have to cut our day short.”
Violet’s face fell. “We didn’t even get to have our coffee.”
“I know, but he wants me to give a description to their sketch artist.”
She let out an “Eep!” and waved her hands excitedly before she picked up her phone and turned the screen toward me. It was a photo, taken through the window, of me and the two men. My back was to the camera, but she’d gotten a good picture of them.
“You took a picture?” I stared at the men’s faces on her phone.
“I wasn’t getting a good feeling about them, and I thought, ‘What would Jesse do?’”
“You are a genius!” I beamed at her as I took her phone and sent the photo to myself. Then I texted it to Ben Stewart. He replied immediately, saying they didn’t need me to work with the artist now that they had a clear picture of the men. They would run the faces through their facial recognition software, and hopefully, they’d get a hit.
“Looks like I’m off the hook with the Agency.” I stood and gathered up her shopping bags. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Don’t you want to stay and have coffee?”
“Let’s go home instead and decide on an outfit for your audition.”
She jumped up and pulled on her coat. “I’ll get our coffees to go.”
Violet chattered about the audition all the way to the Jeep. I smiled and responded when it was required, but I was on high alert, paying close attention to our surroundings and the people.
Those men could have been working for anyone, but I suspected they were on Davian Woods’s payroll. Had he discovered I was a bounty hunter or were his men following their own leads? Either way, I was afraid I hadn’t seen the last of them or him.
* * *
“And then he hid in the tree house for a whole day. Finch did not take that well. You’ve never seen a temper tantrum until you’ve seen a sprite kicked out of his house by a drakkan.”
Faris threw his head back and laughed. It had been almost a week since my first visit with him, and I was happy to see he had a little more color in his cheeks. He still had shadows under his eyes, but they were less pronounced than a week ago.
We were sitting in the living room today because he didn’t think it was appropriate to entertain me in the library, which was essentially his bedroom. I had been anxious about seeing the others – especially Lukas – but so far it had been only the two of us. Faris hadn’t mentioned my run-in with Lukas, and I had no intention of bringing it up.
“Sprites are docile in Faerie,” Faris said, still grinning. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen an angry one.”
“That’s because you’ve never met my brother.” I took a sip from the bottle of water I’d brought with me. There had been another coffee and a plate of pastries waiting for me upon my arrival, but I’d politely refused them.
“I hope I get to meet him someday.” He picked up a glass of green juice and drank it down. It was a cocktail of juice from fourteen different Fae fruits and vegetables, and it helped to provide many of the essential nutrients he needed to heal.
“Maybe you will.” I took the empty glass from him. “Let me refill that.”
Before he could protest, I went to the kitchen and poured him a fresh glass from a large carafe on the counter. I carried the glass back to him, and he frowned as he took it from me.
“I’m the host. I’m the one who should be getting the drinks.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “We shared a cage. I think we’re past formalities, don’t you?”
His smile returned, and I realized it was the first time I’d ever mentioned that night without feeling the usual pang of hurt or anger. Maybe Faris wasn’t the only one benefiting from our visits.
“So, you’ve given up on trying to remove the drakkan from your apartment?” he asked.
“For now. I’ve been so busy with work that I’ve barely been at home this week. And he’s been less trouble than I thought he would be.”
Aside from feeding, the drakkan required very little care. I’d picked up a large litter box for him, and it had taken me two days to figure out there were no droppings in it because he’d been unlocking our tiny bathroom window to go out whenever he wanted. For the most part, he stayed out of sight, except for when he snuck in every night to sleep on my bed. I never caught him, but the red scales he left behind were evidence he’d been there. That and I’d been having weird dreams since his arrival. I had no proof, but I was pretty sure he was somehow the cause of them.
“Why are you so busy?” Faris asked.
I made a face. “I discovered adulting is not always fun, and plumbers make a lot more than bounty hunters. Thankfully, there are a lot of extra jobs available these days.”
“Is there a sudden shortage of bounty hunters?”
“The opposite actually. We have three times as many hunters in New York than we normally do. They just aren’t interested in doing the usual jobs.”
He tilted his head to one side. “Why is that?”
“They’re all after a huge bounty the Agency put on the ke’tain.”
His eyes widened. “You’re searching for the ke’tain?”
“Everyone is. The Agency put a one hundred-thousand-dollar bounty on it, and hunters all over the world are after it. Since New York is one of the top entry points from Faerie, a lot of hunters are coming here looking for the ke’tain. I’ve already had one run-in with some out-of-towners who thought I might be competition, and it’s only going to get worse.”
He nodded grimly. “Money makes people
do insane things. And the people who want the ke’tain for their own purposes will go through anyone who gets in their way. I wish you were not involved in this.”
“I wasn’t at first. I planned to work on all the other jobs and let everyone else fight over the ke’tain.”
“Why did you change your mind? Was it the money?” he asked.
“The money would help my family, but that’s not why I’m doing it.” I pressed my lips together, wishing I hadn’t mentioned the ke’tain.
He frowned. “Why would you take the risk if not for the money?”
“For her parents,” said a voice from above that made my stomach dip.
I looked up at Lukas as he descended the stairs, and my mouth went dry at the intensity of his gaze. He looked even more serious than in our last encounter, reminding me of the cold, hard faerie I’d met at Teg’s two months ago.
He went to stand by the fireplace, and having him in the same room made me keenly aware of him. Had it always been like this with him, or were my emotions amplified because of the emptiness where our friendship used to be?
Kaia ran down the stairs and joined her master. Standing there with his hand resting on her big head, Lukas looked so powerful and regal that I couldn’t believe I’d ever mistaken him for anything but royalty.
“Jesse would do anything for her parents,” he said to Faris, but his eyes stayed on me. “Even if it means pulling a dangerous stunt like snooping around the home of Davian Woods.”
I clutched my hands in my lap. “What are you talking about?”
“After you left the party, I returned and spoke to our host,” he informed me.
A pit opened in my stomach, and I felt some of the blood drain from my face.
Lukas stroked Kaia’s head. “I told Davian one of his guests had taken ill and left, and I wanted to let her date know. Imagine my surprise when I learned that person was none other than Tennin.”
“Tennin?” Faris echoed.
