Shades of Memory

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  “Yes, you do, and you’re going to get it if I have to chain you down and force-feed you tranquilizers. This is serious. ”

  Clay flicked a glance at Gregg before glowering at Riley again. “Her magic is giving her trouble.”

  She flushed. “Lying around in bed won’t fix anything.”

  Gregg ignored her. “What kind of trouble?

  “It hurts to use. Enough that she can’t control it.”

  “Shit.”

  “You said it. I’m hoping Maya will have some ideas.”

  “Ahem. I’m sitting right here and I can take care of myself, thank you very much.” Her glare could have stripped paint.

  Clay pounced. “How? Like that?” He pointed to the laceration crawling out from under her blue sweater.

  Now Gregg knew how she’d been cut up.

  “I’ll figure it out.”

  “We will, and it won’t hurt to talk to Maya. And don’t bother telling me you don’t want sleep. You’re not that good a liar.”

  “Sure. I want sleep, so long as you’re in bed with me.” She gave him a smug grin. “What’s good for the goose and all that crap. But enough about me.” Riley focused on Gregg. “Let’s talk about what happened to you.”

  “Start from when you got grabbed,” Clay said, leaning over the table.

  Gregg had already given his brother the outline of all that had happened when the two had been waiting for Riley to call and tell them where to find her.

  “Tyrell was behind it.” His hand tightened on his fork. The sturdy stainless steel bent. He loosened his grip with an effort.

  “Jackson Tyrell? The trillionaire who’s been fighting the whole magic-talent registry thing that Senator Rice is lobbying for? He’s the guy Vernon said was behind the destruction of the Marchont building after we escaped.”

  Why? Gregg didn’t know, but he tucked that news in the back of his mind to consider later. “It’s likely the same person.”

  “What did he want from you?” Riley asked. “And how did he know to lie in wait for you here?”

  “No idea how, but as to the why, he wants me to take the city for him. I’ve got five days to take control of Savannah’s business. If I do it in three, he’ll tell me how he knew to wait for me here.” He paused.

  “I told him how I left the two of you at Ocho’s and he ordered up a strike team to rescue you.” He looked at Riley. “He knew about you. Didn’t say it outright, but I’m willing to bet if he finds you, he’ll lock you away for safekeeping. You need to stay nulled. He’s got at least the one strike team ready to move at a moment’s notice and a stable of travellers to take them wherever they’re needed. With any luck, nulls will keep them from using magic to find you.”

  Gregg couldn’t see how they would if the same magic that allowed Tyrell to find him at the diner could find Riley just as easily.

  Clay scratched the dark bristles along his jaw. “And you? Are you going to take the city for him?”

  “I don’t have a choice.” Gregg shoved his plate away. The food had turned sour in his stomach. Besides, he’d bitten his cheek in the fight with Tyrell’s two henchmen. Eating made it hurt worse.

  He shrugged. “I’ll play his game for now.” He scraped his lower lip with his teeth. The next news wasn’t going to sit well, particularly with Riley. “But I’m also going to take Brussard up on his offer to give me the resources I need to take over Morrell’s operation and the city.”

  For a moment Riley just stared, her mouth dropping. “My father?” She squeaked. She shook her head. “That’s a really bad idea.”

  “I agree, but he’s got resources I’m going to need to take on Tyrell.”

  “If he doesn’t cut your throat in the meantime. Or dump poison in your coffee. Or just rip out your mind.” Riley’s body had gone rigid, and her eyes gleamed with icy disgust. “You think he’s better than Tyrell? He’s not. You think you can handle him? You can’t.”

  Gregg jerked forward, black anger rising hard. The rage he couldn’t vent on Tyrell came frothing out.

  “I know I can’t trust your father worth a damn, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to give up Diamond City without a fight. I’ll use whatever and whoever I have to to make sure I win.”

  His words flew like bullets. She didn’t back down. Instead, she leaned in, her nose nearly touching his.

  “Find. A. Different. Way.”

  That took Gregg aback. He blinked in irritation. Who was she to tell him to do anything? His expression must have made his opinion of her opinion all too obvious.

  “I’ll think about taking your advice when you get a clue about what the fuck you’re talking about,” he snapped back, feeling goaded. He agreed with her, but he was stuck, and playing both men against the middle was the only way out he could see.

  Riley drew herself up straight. “Your funeral,” she said, her lip curling. She looked at Clay. “Let me out. I need to call Taylor and the boys.”

  Clay stood to let her up. “Where will you be?”

  She relented. “I’m just going into the back where it’s quiet.”

  His brow furrowed. “I don’t like when I can’t see you.”

  She snorted. “Get over it. The world’s full of disappointments.” But as she spoke, she was looking at Gregg.

  She spun and stalked away.

  Clay watched her disappear behind a swinging door, then blew out a breath and slid back into the booth. “You know you can catch more bees with honey than with gunpowder, right?”

  Relief shuddered through Gregg at his brother’s wry tone. Clay hadn’t taken Riley’s side against him. He hadn’t realized how much he’d feared Clay would.

  He rubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe. But that takes time and I’m fresh out. She’ll get over it.” Gregg waved his hand as if to dust the scene away. A stinging pain caught his attention. He pulled up his sleeve. Dried blood stuck it to his arm. He tugged it loose and folded back his cuff. On his wrist was a three-inch cut. Thin, like a scalpel had made it. It curved in a C shape.

  “Where did you get that?” Clay asked.

  Gregg frowned at the cut. “I have no idea.”

  “Maybe Tyrell’s thugs did it.”

  “I don’t think so.” Gregg’s mind raced, remembering all that had happened after. He’d been bound. Nothing could have happened then. There’d been the tasing and beating in the car, but Dreadlocks had focused on his face. The slice to free him from his cuffs had been clean. So when could he have gotten the cut? A sinking sense of foreboding, along with unfettered rage, rolled through him. Tyrell had sicced a dreamer on him, taking away memories. There was no other explanation.

  “I need Cass.”

  Clay’s face went hard, his mouth twisting. “Go. Travel to her. Better yet, bring her here. I want to be here when she works on you.”

  “Not here. Tyrell assigned the two bastards who kidnapped me to be my so-called bodyguards. They’ll be looking for me. Won’t be long until they come here. Them, or someone else in Tyrell’s network. I don’t want him finding out that I know he’s been fucking around in my head. Cass can work on me in private at the Lachia house. I’ll pick up Cass. You can meet us there.”

  He slid from the booth, digging his wallet out, and tossed five one-hundred-dollar bills on the table. His contribution to feeding the first responders.

  “What if he’s got a bead on you and is already waiting at Cass’s place?”

  “Then I’m fucked. I’m hoping he trusts the dreamwork and figures he doesn’t have to watch me too closely. Anyway, the clock’s ticking and I don’t have a choice. See you at the house. I hope.”

  Gregg opened up to dreamspace and travelled into the void, cursing Jackson Tyrell’s soul to hell as he went.

 
; Chapter 17

  Riley

  I MARCHED INTO the back room, yanking my phone out of my pocket as my teeth ground together. Tyrell was bad enough, but now Gregg was climbing into bed with Vernon? Was he insane? That wasn’t just stupid, it was suicidal.

  Certainty settled over me. Now, more than ever, I couldn’t trust Touray. He had his own agenda and didn’t care how many bodies he left in his wake, or what he might have to sacrifice to get what he wanted. Price was the only one he worried about, and even so, I was sure that sooner or later Touray’s plots were bound to get him killed. Hell, Touray was probably the reason the FBI had picked up Price in the first place. They likely figured they could leverage one brother against the other.

  Touray could do what he wanted, but I wasn’t going to wait to find out just how he was going to get me and my family killed. We needed to start protecting ourselves from him and his new partners. I was done being a little boat tossed around at the mercy of the waves. I was going to become one of the motherfucking waves.

  I stabbed the speed dial for Taylor. Surprise, surprise, my hands didn’t shake. As pissed as I was, not to mention terrified, I was keeping my shit together. I probably deserved a trophy.

  Her phone rang once, and she picked up like she’d been waiting for my call. “Riley? Are you okay?”

  Not even a little. I didn’t say it, nor did I explain anything. I didn’t want Price or Touray walking in and overhearing me. “Meet me at my place. Bring everybody.”

  “When? What’s wrong?”

  “Now. I’ll explain when I get there.”

  I hung up before she could ask anything else. I stood there for long moments, staring blankly at the coats hanging on hooks along the wall. Was I really going to attempt this? Six months ago I would have laughed at myself, or checked into a loony bin. A lot had changed in six months, though. I had to protect the people I cared about, and the only way I could think of was to fight fire with fire. That meant founding my own Tyet. It was the only way to protect my family and friends, short of nuking Tyrell and Vernon from space.

  The audacity of my plan made me shake. Start a Tyet? Run one? Me? Riley Hollis? The tracer who’d spent her time scurrying around the city’s shadows so nobody would notice her?

  The entire idea was patently ridiculous. As bad as Mickey Mouse running for president. But what choice did I have? It wasn’t like I had to do it alone. Taylor knew her shit. She’d run her own business for years, and she’d flown in Iraq for mercenary companies. She could more than handle herself, and she knew management. Leo and Jamie did too, with their own businesses, plus they had the magical talents to help me enforce laws. I snorted. Laws. God, was I serious? But I was. It was the only way. I needed my own damned army.

  I considered Dalton. He had skills, too. I needed him, or someone like him. He knew the underworld of the Tyets, who the players were and their politics, and he knew Vernon. He likely knew a lot about Tyrell, too. I just didn’t know if he was going to be willing to give up the information. Neither did I know if I could trust him, but I didn’t have a choice. I refused to do anything as evil as asking Cass to flip a guarantee switch in Dalton’s head so I didn’t have to worry about it. Not that she would. But still. There were lines that I would not—could not—cross. Fucking in people’s heads was one.

  That’s when Arnow’s name came to mind. Instantly I shook my head at myself, but my brain refused to back down once I latched onto this idea. My brain was all in. I scrunched my eyes shut. Was I really thinking about reaching out to Arnow? The FBI agent knew as much or more than Dalton about the local Tyets, and she knew the ins and outs of the local criminal justice system. If I was going to be honest with myself, I needed her. Plus, I still owed her. I’d promised to trace her missing people. That was one way to convince her to help me. If she got on board, it would speed the process up and then I could help her. Once my magic healed up.

  I refused to consider that it might not.

  Before I could argue myself out of it, I dialed the FBI agent.

  “Special Agent Arnow,” came the other woman’s sophisticated voice. She sounded like she’d been educated at Vassar, which likely she had. She also sounded like she had a stick sideways up her ass, which she also likely had.

  “Come to the diner,” I said and then hung up before Arnow could demand an explanation. This would go better in person. Plus, there was the bonus of driving her batshit crazy. Two birds with one stone. My lips curled in a smile.

  Just then Price appeared in the doorway. He looked angry and worried, like he was the bearer of bad news. My stomach tightened, and my smiled faded. My tongue clung to the roof of my mouth. How was I going to tell him what I was up to? I wanted and needed him by my side, but I couldn’t ask that of him. I couldn’t ask him to choose between me and his brother. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this so soon.

  I reached to lace my fingers through his. He tugged me forward until he could wrap the other arm around my waist, pulling me against him. His body was hard, the muscles knotted tight with tension. He pressed his forehead to mine, eyes stormy.

  I was a total bitch for being grateful for anything to delay me from telling him of my plans. “What’s wrong?”

  “Gregg went to get Cass.”

  I didn’t have to ask why. It only made sense to get screened by a dreamer after a kidnapping. But Price didn’t look like this was just precaution. My stomach twisted. “This is more than a checkup, isn’t it?”

  “Gregg has a cut on his arm he can’t remember getting.”

  Crap. “Cass will take care of it,” I said confidently. She’d yanked out all my dad’s twists and traps. If she could do that for me, she could do it for Touray. I wondered who’d been screwing around in his head. Vernon or Tyrell?

  Price stepped away, turning to pull me back into the dining room. “We need to go meet him. It’ll take us a while with the traffic. We should get going.”

  I dug my feet in, pulling back. “I have to go see Taylor and my brothers.”

  My stomach churned. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it neither was it the whole truth. I swallowed my guilt. I couldn’t put Price between me and his brother. Maybe I could figure out a plan that would let me establish a power base and not screw over Touray. Once I had something concrete, I’d tell Price and let him figure out what he wanted to do. Right now, he needed to be with his brother.

  I almost threw up then. Did I honestly think I could keep him from having to choose? No. It didn’t have to come to that. I could figure this out. I wasn’t going to compete with Touray. I just wanted us to be able to protect ourselves.

  Right. It wasn’t going to be that simple. If Touray pushed against me, I’d have to push back. Sooner or later it was bound to happen, what with him working for both Vernon and Tyrell.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing away tears. God, what a mess.

  “Riley, what aren’t you telling me?”

  Price’s voice held warning. I looked at him. His penetrating gaze was shrewd. He’d been very good at his cop job. How had I thought I could hide anything from him?

  “I can’t trust your brother,” I said. “Tyrell would be bad enough, but Vernon? No way. If it became necessary to throw me or my family under the bus, Touray would. For the greater good, as he sees it.”

  The pressure in the room dropped, and my ears popped. The door behind Price slammed shut, and wind picked at the coats hanging on their hooks and teased my hair. I pushed the loose strands behind my ears. No need to ask how he felt. Price had his personal emotional barometer going on.

  “So what—you were planning to just take off? Disappear on me?” His voice had gone deadly soft, the edges of it like jagged metal.

  I shook my head. “No. I really am going to go see my family. I want tell them what’s happened and talk to them about what to do. And yes, I may have an
idea in mind, but if I tell you, you’ll have to tell your brother. If you don’t, you’ll feel like you’ve betrayed him. Anything I do to protect me and my family at this point is probably going to go against him in some way. Hell, just putting myself on the opposite side of the fence is a problem, if only because he needs me to trace Kensington’s blood to the hidden workshop. As soon as we figure something out, I plan to tell you and let you decide.”

  My fingers twisted together as I tried to explain. Ha. Fat chance. I was standing here telling him I wasn’t going to disappear, but at the same time, we might not be able to have a relationship. I couldn’t imagine having to choose between Price and Taylor or Leo or Jamie. I wouldn’t be able to. I loved them all too much. And yet, what if I had to? What if the only choice was to choose?

  “Decide?” Price repeated in a deadly soft voice.

  I just looked at him. He knew exactly what I meant. I’d already told him back at the cabin I didn’t think I’d come out the winner when it came down to me and Touray.

  The muscles in his jaw knotted. His eyes fogged white. The wind around us whirled faster. I didn’t try to touch him. What comfort could I begin to give? It would be all right? That was an empty promise. The odds were that everything was most definitely not going to be all right.

  Finally he spoke, his voice dripping condemnation. “So you’ve already figured what I’ll do. Without even talking to me.”

  “Could you ever forgive me for forcing you to pick between me and your brother?”

  “It won’t come to that.”

  “I don’t want it to, but I can’t live in a fairy tale.”

  “He wouldn’t hurt you. He’s promised me. Gregg knows how much I love you. He knows I’d never forgive him if he went after you.”

  I nodded. “But he might do something like lock me up—for my own good. Or maybe tamper with my head. Or blackmail me into doing something I don’t want to do. He’s not above threatening my family or Patti, even. You know I’m right. He’s a driven man and he’s not going to let me or anybody else get in the way of saving this city. I admire that. I really do. But I also don’t want any of my family to become a casualty of his war.”