That containment spell was hard to cast, cost a lot of magic, and should, technically, have taken a while to generate.
It couldn’t have been more than 20 seconds between Jeremy making it out of the manhole and Josh pulling me out of it. Which meant Peter lived up to his reputation. He was easily one of the most powerful warlocks in the city.
He was imposing, too. He looked like an old Greek carving of Zeus with his long gray beard and his powerful gaze. He cleared his throat. “Security, I want a set of anti-magic handcuffs. Now,” he spat.
Though his voice didn’t bark out too loudly, I shifted my head to the side as I saw two black-clad bouncers pick up the command easily and scurry off from the edges of the garden party.
Ah, the garden party. It was packed. Utterly packed with some of the richest people in Madison City. And yeah, everyone was looking at me.
To be fair, I wasn’t doing myself a favor. I hadn’t bothered to stand up or even sit up. I was still on my elbows watching the show.
That’s when Max cleared his throat behind me. “Do you need a hand? Are you all right?”
There it was again, that tender familiarity, like we’d been friends all our lives.
I knew what would happen next – I would become drawn in by the tether connecting us. That magical pathway that opened up whenever he was in my presence. The one that hinted that we could be so much more.
Before it could show itself, I cleared my throat, shifted forward, and stood.
That’s when a dollop of old crap came off my jacket and splashed onto Max’s shoe.
I swear every single person stared at it.
I gasped and pressed my hands to my lips, then promptly realized what was on them, and gagged. Wiping them carefully on my pants, I winced. “I’m so sorry. We were in the sewer.”
“I’m aware of that,” Max said as he brought a handkerchief out of his lapel pocket, wiped the unmentionable substance off his shoe, then handed the handkerchief over to me.
I took it with a confused blink. “Do you want me to wash this?”
Max looked at me with a polite smile. “I thought you could use it,” he said kindly, gesturing toward my jacket and pants.
I made the mistake of looking down at myself. Somehow Josh had practically covered me with crap.
As for Josh, he arched his eyebrows, tipped his head to the side, and allowed a wash of magic to chase across his skin. The next thing, he was clean. He even smelt fine.
He also wasn’t paying a scrap of attention to me or Max – which was unusual. Because whenever Max was in my presence, Josh looked like a mother hen watching for a hawk.
No, Josh’s full attention was locked on Peter, instead.
I was starting to learn more about Josh every single day. Ever since I’d had that conversation with Susan, I kept a running list of Josh’s scars. He appeared to have a lot. There was definitely something going on between him and Max. And now, as I looked at Josh’s precise expression as he stared at Peter, I realized the two had a history.
A potentially dark history.
Josh took a stiff step toward Jeremy. “It’s okay. I’ve got this. I’ve got my own handcuffs, too.” Josh shoved a hand down the back of his pants, and even though they hadn’t been there a second before, he pulled out a set of magic-locking handcuffs.
Peter didn’t appear to listen. He looked over at one of his bodyguards and clicked his fingers, obviously indicating that they should hurry up.
The bouncer in question carried over a set of massive magical blocking handcuffs. These weren’t the standard ones Josh had. These looked as if they could stop a sorcerer in place. Sorcerers were the rarest of warlocks – those who had managed to get such fine control over their bodily processes that they could practice almost unlimited magic.
They were an urban legend. But that didn’t stop Peter from having a set of handcuffs that looked as if they were designed for one.
Josh stiffened. “It’s okay, sir,” he said in a clearer voice. “I’ve got this. This is my target, too.”
“I caught him,” Peter said flatly. “And I’ll be taking him to the police, as per procedure.” The whole time, Peter didn’t even look Josh’s way.
Josh stared at Peter from underneath his eyebrows, and Josh’s gaze became steadily darker and darker.
He was clenching his teeth, and it looked as if his jaw had turned into a vice.
I’d accepted the handkerchief from Max, but I wasn’t using it to clean myself.
I was far too busy watching this interaction.
Max cleared his throat. “The longer those… substances stay on your clothes, the harder it will be to get them off.”
I blinked. “Sorry.” I started to try to clean myself. It was an impossible task. And the stench simply would not be removed.
Though Max was standing by my side, everybody else had cleared off, despite the fact I was the hottest topic in the city at the moment.
I expected Josh to fight Peter. Josh would fight anyone if they tried to steal one of his bounties.
But Josh didn’t fight. He took a step back, turned on his foot, and walked over to me.
Just before he could open his mouth and presumably tell me to follow, Max cleared his throat. “There’s a matter I need to discuss with you. If you don’t mind?”
Josh slid his gaze over to Max. “I’m sorry for crashing your gala. That warlock was a hard one to track down.”
“No need to apologize. You were keeping the law in the city. That is not what I need to discuss with you. Do you mind?” Max repeated, his tone specific. It was careful but at the same time hard. And let me tell you, those are two emotions that are difficult to combine together.
Josh looked as if he didn’t have an option – because he didn’t have an option. I still didn’t know the exact relationship between Josh and Max, but I could tell that Max, at the end of the day, was the man holding all the cards.
“Go find somewhere to wait where you won’t be a nuisance,” Josh said under his breath as he turned to walk away.
I expected Josh to tell me to stay exactly where I was. Then I sniffed my own jacket again, and realized I was a public health hazard.
Max stared at me from over his shoulder as Josh and he walked away.
The Conservatory was just behind them, and they walked in through the main entrance.
As soon as they were gone, all eyes were on me again. Nobody wanted to get too close to me, considering the stench, but everybody knew who I was, and they all watched me as if I was an exhibit in a museum.
I hung around for a few seconds, watching Peter as he expertly applied the anti-magic handcuffs to Jeremy.
For Jeremy’s part, he didn’t say a word. Nor did he try one last-ditch illusionist spell. All Peter had to do was lock a large old hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, and the guy turned into putty.
Once the anti-magic handcuffs were in place, Peter brought his hand up, twisted it in a circle, and took a step back.
Jeremy promptly sunk through the ground, right through a portal spell which would exit in the remand center.
Hopefully this time they wouldn’t let Jeremy walk out so easily.
Now my actual job was done – even though Josh and I wouldn’t get the final credit for bringing Jeremy in – I did as Josh had told me, and I backed away, wandering around the side of the building.
People stared at me until I was out of sight, but fortunately I stank so much, no one followed.
I desperately wanted to get home, burn my clothes, and have a shower for eight hours.
Though Josh had told me to make myself scarce, I knew I couldn’t wander too far away. I was still under a protection order.
So I busied myself with walking around the Conservatory. It was a large, old building. It had been built well over 100 years ago, and with the rose gardens in front of it, it looked just as dignified as a castle.
With white walls and plenty of tall, arched, old glass windows, it was distinguished.
I heard voices.
That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. This gala was large, and beyond the guests and security, there would be a lot of waitstaff.
But these voices were angry.
Low and grating, one of them reminded me of a rasp over metal.
I came to a stop.
I was just around the corner of the building. It wasn’t an oblong or a handy square, and rather a complicated spread-out affair as if someone had built it with Tetris blocks.
If I had to guess, the angry voices were coming from one of the numerous small back alleyways that led to one of the equally numerous backdoors.
I almost turned away, then I reminded myself of what I was. No, I wasn’t a waitress. Not anymore. Nor was I a diplomat.
I was a bounty hunter. I’d made an oath to protect and serve, so I took a step forward.
Shrinking close to the side of the building, I placed a hand on it, pressed my shoulder against the cool multicolored brick, and inched closer.
Carefully, I peered around the wall.
There were two bouncers. The only reason I recognized them as bouncers was because they were wearing suits, but their suits were nowhere near as fine as those worn by the guests.
They also looked as if they were straight out of a military movie. One of them was massive, with such a close crew cut, it looked as if his hair had been shaved off by a laser.
The other was just a touch smaller. He was also being pressed up against the closed door behind him.
“You want out, then you go through with one more. Those were the rules. You can’t break the rules, Frank,” the massive guy spat.
Frank didn’t say a word. He simply looked up into the big guy’s gaze.
The massive guy shook him again, and Frank’s head banged against the door.
I gasped but crammed a hand over my mouth in time before it could echo out.
Yeah, I was a bounty hunter, and I’d taken an oath to serve, but I was also a smart lass, and I realized that if I weighed into this argument, it would be my head being banged against the door.
So I did something else. Something far smarter. With a nervous but quick hand, I grabbed my phone from my pocket. Thumbing it open quickly, I turned the camera on and started taking a video.
There was every chance I was violating these two men’s privacy. But there was every chance they were talking about an impending crime.
Once upon a time, I would never have snuck around the side of a building and videotaped two men assaulting each other.
Times had changed.
I managed to keep my nerves in check as I drove each breath deep into my belly. My hand was remarkably steady as I held the camera just beyond the lip of the building.
“I can’t do one more job,” Frank finally found his voice. “You know that, Bill.”
Bill grabbed Frank by the lapel and shoved him hard into the door once more. Bill’s face was the picture of male aggression, his lips twisted wide, his deeply set eyes blazing. He looked as if he wanted to nut a bull. “The only thing I know is that you signed up. You got your money, so you do the job. This isn’t a charity service, Frank,” Bill hissed.
What the hell were these two talking about? Though they could possibly be talking about something legitimate, I really doubted it. Not too many legitimate businesses included assault in their HR practices.
“You’ve got no choice,” Bill snarled once more as he brought his face right up close to Frank’s.
Frank, to his credit, didn’t turn away. He stared right into Bill’s looming face. “Fine.”
Bill’s expression changed in an instant. A smile crept across his lips – if you could call it a smile. It was still practically shaking with menace. He yanked a hand off Frank’s lapel, brought it up, and ruffled Frank’s hair. It was a hard move. “Good boy. Good boy. I knew we could rely on you. Now, you’ll be there at eight tomorrow night. You got that?”
“I got—”
“What are you doing?” Josh’s snarling, irritating voice came from behind me.
I jerked back, gasping.
Instantly Frank and Bill stopped.
“Where—” Josh began.
I pushed up onto my tiptoes, threw myself at Josh, and slammed a hand over his mouth.
Yes, that same hand still smelled like crap. But no, I really didn’t care.
Josh could easily have yanked my hand from his mouth and continued snarling, but he didn’t. He looked at me from underneath scrunched eyebrows.
Then there were footsteps.
Really heavy footsteps. It wasn’t such a stretch to believe they came from Bill.
I shoved my phone into my pocket, pulled my hand off Josh’s mouth, grabbed him by the wrist, and turned him around. “I was looking for a bathroom. I couldn’t find one. Let’s go.” I kept my hand gripped around Josh’s as I hauled him forward.
For Josh’s part, his suspicious gaze was locked on the side of my face, a legitimate question blazing in his eyes – but he didn’t stop me, and he didn’t question what I was doing.
I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck as Bill’s heavy footsteps stopped around the corner of the building.
He would be staring at me.
Shit.
Hopefully he wouldn’t think anything of it, though. There were plenty of guests at this gala, and it was legitimate for one or two to go astray.
I didn’t let go of Josh’s hand until we’d pushed away from the conservatory and into the botanical gardens. Then I peered over my shoulder in both directions until I dumped Josh’s hand with just the same care he’d used to push me off him when we’d escaped the sewers.
I stood back.
Josh arched an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side. “I’m waiting,” he said.
“Do you have any finesse? I mean, any at all?”
“I find subtlety doesn’t actually catch bounties. What the hell is your point?”
“That I was witnessing two bouncers potentially talking about an upcoming crime. I was videotaping them. And then you came along.”
“You know you can’t videotape people without their permission, right?”
My cheeks reddened. But only slightly. “They were bouncers, and they were both warlocks. And they were talking about something that was meant to go down tomorrow at 8 o’clock. I was about to find out what that thing was, then you came along.” I gestured to him angrily as I took a step back and clamped my hands on my hips.
Josh stared at me, his expression unconvinced. “How do you know they were talking about a crime if you don’t, in fact, know what they were talking about?” He offered me a snide smile, obviously thinking he’d shot a hole through my argument.
“Because one of them was bashing the other one against the door, and I really doubt it was because he’d backed out of a dinner date.”
“Whatever. It’s not our business, anyway. We’re bounty hunters. We track down people who have already committed crimes. The police go after those who are about to commit them.”
“Don’t you have any sense of justice? Any sense of service to the city? Don’t you have a passion for your actual job – which is keeping the peace?”
Josh continued to stare at me from out of his narrowed eyes. “Since when did you become so zealous about your job? You’ve only been working for me for less than three weeks, Missy.”
“How many times have I told you not to call me Missy? Stop patronizing me,” I said through clenched teeth. “And damn well listen to what I’m saying. Those two were discussing a crime, I’m sure of it. I have video footage of them discussing something going down tomorrow at 8 o’clock,” I repeated.
Josh sighed. He appeared to drop the act. He looked up to the left, making it clear he was thinking through the possibilities. “If that’s the case, I’m not sure that’s enough to go on.”
Before I could open my mouth and snap at him
that I was certain something was about to go down, he brought up a hand in a placating motion. “Think about it, Beth,” he said, for once actually using my real name and not one of his pathetic pet names. “If the two of them don’t actually discuss what they’re doing in that video, then you’ve got nothing.”
“Apart from assault.” I brought up a finger and waggled it.
“I doubt the guy would press assault charges. If he really is in on some crime, he’ll brush it off. So you’ve got nothing.”
I opened my mouth. “Don’t you even want to see the video?”
Josh brought a hand out.
I slammed my phone down in it triumphantly, then stood there with my arms crossed as Josh watched the short video.
I waited for realization to spring across his face as he recognized I was onto something. It never did. Once the video was over, he handed the phone back to me. “Like I said, Miss—” he began, then cleared his throat, “Beth, you’ve got nothing.”
My shoulders sagged. “But these two are clearly going to commit a crime.”
“Probably. But we don’t have a remit to do anything. And even if we took this to the police, they wouldn’t have anything to go on, either. They’d also ask you why you were taking footage of people without their permission. There are very clear lines between bounty hunters and police officers, and our good relationship relies on us not crossing them.”
My shoulders sagged even more. “This isn’t fair.”
“No one said the justice system is fair. Now, I think it’s time to take you home before you stink out the entire city and bring my business an undeserved reputation.”
I frowned at him. “You were the one who dragged me down that sewer.”
It was his turn to bring up a finger and waggle it in my face. “Incorrect – you were the one who correctly located Jeremy in the sewer. So technically, you started it.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that was a stupid argument. Then my mind ticked back to what had just happened. Before the assault I witnessed, that was.
I pressed my lips closed and stared at Josh as I tried to make up my mind about something.
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