Wait, I’d already gotten the new stack of bills. That was when I caught his scent.
I raised my head to see Kane walking around my office. I quickly tucked the basket underneath my desk, where I nearly tipped it over.
I went from not seeing him at all for months to seeing him daily. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing. Had he changed his mind? Did he want to go back to work? Why else would he be here? I thought we’d said everything that was needed yesterday. Had he really changed his mind?
He didn’t say hello as he took the place in.
I didn’t say hello, either. It wasn’t like we’d left each other feeling all warm and fuzzy. Plus, I’d already looked desperate enough, and it was understandable if I still had a bit of frost clinging to me after the way he’d acted. He’d shown up here. Let him state his case. If he wanted to work with me now, he was going to have to do some major groveling. Or a little groveling.
Who was I kidding? He’d have to ask, and that was about all the effort he would need to extend. But he hadn’t said a word yet.
He stopped beside a poster painting, then tilted his head as if trying to understand the point of it. I understood. I’d hung it quickly in an attempt to give the place a warmer atmosphere with little effort.
His attention shifted down to the braided area rug that did very little to enhance the white ceramic tile. If he didn’t get on with it, I was going to have to point out that his office at the Underground looked like the inside of a disorganized filing cabinet. But I’d let him ask me back to work first.
A really unpleasant thought popped into my head. Had he heard about my meeting with Collin? Collin wouldn’t have said anything—to Kane, anyway. But I didn’t put it past him to blab to all his people, many of which hung out in the Underground. It had only been yesterday, though. We hadn’t even set a time frame yet. How many people could possibly know?
I watched him finish his lap around my office. The chill of his expression had me mentally scrambling.
Zee knew about it too. Could it have been her? Why would she give me up? She was standing to benefit from it, and she didn’t even know who I’d be shadow walking with. Except that there was only one other person around that made any offer of being able to anchor someone. Still, why would she go run and tell Kane?
The bigger issue was it didn’t matter. Even if he knew, it didn’t matter. None of this was Kane’s business. And before I picked this fight, it might be a good idea to make sure that was why he was even here.
Finally, he came back around. He moved until he was on the same side of my desk as I was seated and perched a hip on it as he stared down at me. I glared right back.
Oh yes, there was definitely going to be a fight. I wouldn’t strike first, but I was preparing for a brawl.
“Collin isn’t going to be able to help you out.”
Stay calm. He could be bluffing. I didn’t think he was, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. I mean, I’d just talked to Collin yesterday. He’d said yes. Would he roll over that quickly? He had more fight in him than that…I hoped. Even if he had rolled over, it was surely lip service to Kane.
I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes. “According to you?” I leaned back, as if I had nothing to worry about. “My situation with Collin has nothing to do with you. You can’t dictate to me. I came to you first, even though I didn’t have to. If you don’t want to work with me then I don’t see how this is any of your business.”
He nodded and shrugged, listening in the most arrogant and placating way until I was finished.
“I spoke with him and he agreed with me that it was a bad idea.” He was so calm and condescending as he delivered what he knew was a huge blow.
Shit. So Collin had said he wouldn’t. But then again, this was Collin. I wasn’t sure how reliable his word was.
Don’t lash out. Stay as calm as Kane was, the arrogant ass, as he leaned and looked at me as if he had all the answers. Don’t let him see how you want to tackle him to the ground right now.
I slid my chair back and lifted my feet to rest on top of my desk as I leaned back. “Really? That’s what he said, is it?” I didn’t need to add because we all know how much Collin’s word is worth. Unless he’d suddenly become deaf, Kane heard it in my tone. He knew the score.
If he was skeptical about Collin, the confidence in his expression didn’t portray it. “I think you’ll find he’s fairly dug into his position now that we’ve discussed it. And if he does have a change of heart? It won’t last long.”
I was screwed. He’d officially boxed me into a corner. No, a bottomless pit. I might’ve been able to work my way out of a corner.
“Why are you making things difficult for me? Because I left without telling you? It wasn’t that bad!”
His expression didn’t change as he stood. He turned his back on me and walked toward the door, leaving without bothering to answer my question.
I waited all of two minutes, or however long it was for him to get in his car and pull away before I called Collin.
He didn’t answer the first call. I got dumped into voicemail and my mouth grew dry. It was the second time I got dumped into voicemail that my palms grew slick. It took two more tries before he answered the phone.
When he answered the phone with a generic “Hello,” as if he didn’t know who was calling, my hope was slipping down into the gutter.
“It’s Ollie. I want to start tonight.” I pressed my phone hard to my ear, afraid I’d miss his answer somehow and hoping it would prove Kane wrong—praying that Kane hadn’t really gotten to him yet. I paced to the back of the office, out of sight if you were looking through the front windows. I wasn’t sure if I was being careful or paranoid.
He wasn’t speaking. I looked down at the phone and checked to make sure I hadn’t lost my signal before putting it back to my ear. “Did you hear me? We should meet tonight.”
There was a long pause before he said, “Uhm, yeah…I’m not sure tonight is good for me.”
“How about tomorrow night?” I asked, swallowing down the acid that was gurgling up and threatening to choke me.
“Let me check my calendar and get back to you. I think I have a couple of bad weeks coming up.” His voice held none of his normal swagger, and was bordering on brittle.
I stopped pacing and thudded my hips into the wall, rattling my cheap poster prints. “Check your calendar or check with Kane?”
“Olivia…he says he’ll kill me. When Kane says he’ll kill you, it’s not a saying. It means. He’ll. Kill. You.” He sounded as desperate as I was feeling.
Neither of us spoke, and the silence was thick.
I was screwed, completely. I took a couple of deep breaths before saying, “I get it. Let me know if anything changes.”
There was a quick “sure” and then an even quicker hang-up. I pocketed the phone and then scrubbed my face with my palms. What was I going to do now? I had no money. No options. Going back to work was useless, as I had more debt than a cashier could even hope to keep afloat. I didn’t have a spell to my name, and Asher’s magic dried up the moment he’d crossed out. He was in worse shape than me in that department. I’d at least been able to set some butterflies to flight. He couldn’t even say the words.
I’d had such big plans. I was going to save all Shadow Walkers, help them have normal lives. Instead, I couldn’t even save myself. I was about to lose the roof over my head because I didn’t have a dime to pay the tax bill and the utilities were going to be shut off.
And then there was seeing Kane again. I’d thought—hoped—he was going to say he’d changed his mind. That he wanted to work with me. When he didn’t, I realized, things weren’t going to be the same between us, not now and probably not ever.
“Ollie?” I straightened as I looked over to where Asher was standing beside the stairwell that led to the apartment above. “What’s wrong?” He made his way over toward me.
The hurt was still too tender to speak of at all, let
alone hash over for hours, as was Asher’s way. I forced a smile. “Nothing at all. Just a long day and I’m tired.” I straightened and made my way back to my desk, where I sat down and started flipping through some of the papers there, as if he’d merely caught me in a momentary break.
I could see him wavering between stepping forward and turning around. “Okay. Well, dinner is done.”
I nodded, afraid to ask what we were having tonight and where he’d gotten the money. “Great. I’ll be up in a few minutes, after I lock up.”
I turned back to the stack of bills, praying he’d leave. I didn’t breathe until I heard the door shut and his footsteps on the stairs.
I got up and walked out of the room and then out the back door, my breathing even and my spine straight. Squinting into the dark, I didn’t see another soul, and I didn’t hear any sounds.
That was when I sagged against the brick of the building. I wasn’t going to cry. It was stupid to cry. I’d been in worse situations, way worse.
So why was I acting like such a ninny over some bills?
Then I pinpointed the problem. For a while there, I’d had hope. Mountains of hope. I was going to become the magical phenomenon who would save all the Shadow Walkers. I’d had the resources to do it.
Now here I was. I hadn’t saved one. Kane wouldn’t work with me. I had no magic left and I had no money for bills. I’d had windows of opportunity months ago and I’d failed epically.
And Kane hated me.
I let the sobs shake my body, not caring about holding back anymore.
Chapter 5
I walked out of the car lot with slow steps, leaving my pretty little Mini Cooper behind, along with another chunk of my pride. It had been one of my first purchases after I left the Underground. I remembered it hitting me, that not only could I drive in peace without crawlers rubbing shoulders with me, I had the money to buy a car. I’d had lots of money, courtesy of Kane.
I’d taken a hit on the car, but because I’d paid cash, at least I had enough money to feed me and Asher…for a bit. I was on foot but we’d be eating dinner tonight. Plus, cars weren’t much fun if you didn’t have gas for the engine. Without gas, they were more like awkward street sofas that blocked the wind, and this would buy me some time to come up with another solution.
The one thing I’d been good at doing, the thing that would’ve paid the bills, was over unless I could find another anchor. There had to be more anchors out there. Except I didn’t know exactly what made an anchor. Might’ve been a good thing to ask before I left the Underground months ago while Kane was still speaking to me.
Until Kane scared them off too. Bottom line was he wanted to screw me, and if Kane wanted to screw with you, you might as well hand him the screwdriver yourself, because it was over.
I could always sell the building. I’d overpaid, but it had been another cash deal. These were all things that would be pondered after some chicken chow mein.
I popped into Mr. Lee’s, grabbed the Chinese food I’d ordered before I left the car lot, and was back out walking in under five minutes. That was when it became obvious that I was being followed.
The guy all the way at the end of the street, in the dark blue sweatshirt and white cap, had been walking behind me before I’d went in for Chinese. After going in and getting my dinner, he was again walking behind me at the exact same distance. A couple of right turns confirmed the guy was following me, unless he’d also meant to do a U-turn at the exact time as me.
Damn, Kane. As if screwing me with the Collin situation wasn’t enough? I had no choice but to slowly sell off everything I could, but that wasn’t bad enough. Now he was having me followed.
He was really pulling from the bottom of the barrel now, though. The guy was sloppy, really sloppy. Butch and Leon might have their faults, but I’d never seen them until they wanted to be seen. They’d managed to leave a note in my apartment, an apartment I’d barely left, without me knowing.
Or maybe it wasn’t Kane? He had better people than this. But if it wasn’t him, who was it?
Damn if my fingers didn’t want to reach into my purse, grab my cell phone, and call up Kane to ask. If someone would know why I was being followed, it would probably be him. But that wasn’t our relationship now, and I doubted if he’d answer my call. This was my problem, and I was fully capable of working it out myself.
I started checking off the list of who could be following me and realized there were quite a few potentials. I not only had monetary debts, I had magical debts. I still owed the dwarves for the clothes, I owed the fae for the location of the retired shadow walker, and I owed the gargoyles. Some of them were probably getting tired of waiting to be paid. If I had access to magic, I would’ve settled them all, but as it was, unfortunately for everyone, I had nothing.
I didn’t have to owe the vampires. Alexandria, queen vampire, hated me either way, and it was dark out, so they were contenders. Couldn’t forget that the shifters hadn’t been particularly fond of me, and the witches downright hated me. It would be great if I knew who was tailing me, but it might have been any number of supernatural breeds.
When I really thought about it, it was surprising I hadn’t been followed before now. Bunch of slackers.
I picked up my pace as much as I could without it being too obvious. There was a row of stores coming up on the right, almost all of which I’d been in, and at least some of them had a back exit. Luckily, I knew this area. Hopefully the guy following me didn’t know it nearly as well.
I held my jacket closed with one hand as a cool spring breeze off the harbor nailed me, and resisted the urge to check if he was still there. It was better if they thought I was oblivious. If he knew I was watching my back, it might make it that much harder to figure out who was watching me.
There it was, the candle shop I liked, and it definitely had a back exit they let the public use. Unless you were a regular customer, you wouldn’t know about it.
I ducked in and got a smile and a wave from one of the workers as she was helping another customer. I walked around and sniffed for a couple of minutes so they didn’t think I was using them for their back door, while working my way farther into the shop.
I sniffed my way through the store for another ten minutes as the smell of the Chinese food clashed with Sugar Cane Candy.
Maybe my luck was changing—the alley was clear except for a cat by the dumpster. I didn’t make it two steps before there was a blow to the back of my head and I went crashing to my knees.
There was a rough bag over my head when I came to. I was lying on my side with my hands tied behind my back. I could feel the rope digging into my ankles. Whoever had done the tying must’ve thought I was Houdini.
I could feel the cold of the floor seeping through my clothes, and from the musty smell, I was definitely in a basement. There weren’t any voices, but I heard the shuffling of feet a short distance away.
I had no spells, no magic. I was as vulnerable as I’d ever been in my life. At a complete loss of what else to do, I did nothing. I pretended I was still out cold.
More feet shuffling, and this time they were closer.
“She still out or is she faking?”
There was a strange accent to the man’s voice. Similar to an Irish brogue, but different somehow. Was it distinct to the individual or his race?
“Hasn’t moved, but I think she’s awake.” A second male voice, same accent. So, seemed it was connected to the race. I’d never heard it before, but I’d guess it was the leprechauns. Yes, I owed them a debt for getting Flip the address of the Shadow Walker, but wasn’t this overkill on collection? Flip had warned me they were hardcore.
I heard someone’s phone ring and then muffled words, like the person who called was talking really loudly.
“Leave her for now. She’s not going anywhere, and it might be a long night.”
Both sets of feet moved, and then I heard the sound of a door, one that sounded horribly heavy.
I wi
ggled the loose bag off my head and tried to get my bearings. Definitely in a basement. There were two windows down here, and they both had bars over them. Inching backward, I used the wall to help edge up into a seated position.
There was nothing down here, not even a heating system. The place had dust and dirt piled up in the corners, but nothing that was going to cut through these ropes.
There was also a crawler in the corner, a smaller one in the furthest corner from me, its attention completely focused on me, as if it knew my thoughts.
Could I talk to it without someone anchoring me and not blow this place up, taking me with it? It was a risk, a huge one, but it might come down to that. If I could, and I managed to shadow walk, alone and unanchored, would it matter if I got a spell if I couldn’t make it out?
Was I that desperate yet? No. Not yet, anyway.
The door swung open and I met my captors face to face. Not too scary looking, though one had a scar running diagonally across his face, as if he’d come out on the bottom of a knife fight. The other guy’s nose looked like it had tried to take a left turn halfway toward his lips. They wore the appearance of violence the way Zee wore lipstick.
Scar came and kneeled a foot away from my side. His reached a hand out toward me, and I jerked my face to the side. His hand followed me, gripping my chin with his fingers. “How the mighty have fallen.”
My eyes shot to him and then shifted away.
“Oh, we know all about you. Us leprechauns are always keeping our ears to the ground. You’re the Shadow Walker no one was allowed to touch. Kane’s precious.” He let go of my chin to run a finger down my cheek.
Weren’t leprechauns supposed to be short? Probably not the time to ask. “Is this about the debt? I was going to pay you next week,” I said, hoping they weren’t looking for a different type of payment.
Crooked squatted next to Scar, nudging him with his elbow in a cut it out manner. “Where did you put it?”
Huh? “Put what? Money? I told you I’ll pay.”
Walking in the Dark: Ollie Wit, Book Two Page 3
