As Aurora watched her sister disappear into the mirror, she felt as if she’d been hit by a train.
She’s right. If that’s what he wants, if that’s his choice, I can’t stand in his way.
And then a thought struck her.
She’s hovering because she’s anxious. She thinks I have a chance. She felt a surge of triumph. Thanks, sis. I needed that.
Chapter 14
Once again Luke found himself parked on the hill above the pier, looking down at the activity at Pier 94.
But today instead of darkness and silence it was a hotbed of activity. A huge container vessel was anchored in the channel between Piers 94 and 80. Twenty-foot gantry cranes worked busily to unload the colorful twenty-and forty-foot containers from the ship.
Luke knew from his work on the case that most cargo that came through the piers was stored on-site initially, rather than transferred immediately. But this cargo wasn’t headed for the warehouse; instead, it was being loaded directly onto flatbed trucks, which were driving straight off the dock.
“Someone’s trying to get something out in a big hurry,” he said softly to Aurora. He found a parking spot and they sat, watching the cranes work. Aurora was silent beside him, waiting, it seemed, to hear his next move.
He was just as interested as she was. The truth was he had no plan. But if there was anything Luke was good at, it was improvisation.
He reached for the car door to open it, and she reached for her own at the same time. He stopped, looked over at her. She stopped, too; it was almost like looking in a mirror. Except, of course, that she was female and gorgeous.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, exasperated.
“With you,” she said.
“You can’t do that.”
“I have to,” she said patiently. “You need me.”
This again, Luke thought. What am I supposed to do, go in there with her?
Then again, what was the plan? He couldn’t just walk up to Tomasson and glad-hand him: “Remember me? Old teammate you tried to kill last night? Wanna tell me why?”
No, that wouldn’t go over so well.
But the school connection...
He looked at Aurora speculatively, with a germ of an idea. Tomasson would be much more amenable to a beautiful woman approaching him. And the school connection was a great icebreaker. Tomasson would be more likely to talk indiscriminately. Luke was on a fishing expedition, basically: first he wanted to see Tomasson up close and be sure this really was the guy who tried to kill him. And he knew the high school connection couldn’t be random. He wanted to see how Tomas reacted to his name. If Aurora was working the school connection she could certainly mention Luke, get a reaction and then...
Well, he’d figure out what then, then. After all, there wasn’t much chance that Tomasson would just gun them down in broad daylight; there were too many workers on the pier. They couldn’t all be in on the plot.
He’d been silent for a long time, but Aurora was looking at him as if she had all the time in the world to spend with him, and he finally turned to her.
“Look, guardian angel, I really could use your help, if you’re up for it.”
Her blue eyes looked back at him, so trusting...
“Switch seats with me. You’re going to drive.”
* * *
Aurora drove the car on the access road out onto the pier, a sharp diamond of land and man-made abutment jutting out into the bay and bordered on the other side by the India Basin. Luke was scrunched down in the passenger seat, hidden.
She parked outside the gate, far enough away from it that the guard couldn’t see into the seats. As she reached for the door handle, Luke caught her arm.
“I’ll be right there with you.”
“I know,” she said, and looked at him with those eyes.
Luke watched Aurora get out of the car and walk toward the gate entrance to the pier. He had to admit he couldn’t have asked for a more perfect diversion; with that figure and her grace and her shimmering hair blown by the sea breeze, she looked like some dry-dock mermaid, so beautiful and pure she wasn’t entirely human.
No one saw Luke as he slipped out of the car and headed for the guard gate. The guard was completely fixed on Aurora.
Luke was close enough to hear when the guard finally found his voice and asked her gruffly, “Can I help you, miss?”
She stopped and smiled at him. “I’m here to see Tomas Tomasson. Can you point me to him?”
Luke saw the psychological dynamic going on instantly; she was so incongruous in the place that she must have a reason to be there. The guard stood silent, running through his options, undoubtedly fueled by fear of Tomasson.
As the guard stood looking at Aurora, Luke took advantage of the man’s dilemma and slipped through the gate on the other side of the guard station. He made a quick left, and another dodge into an aisle of stacked containers, out of sight.
Luke sprinted quietly down the aisle and stopped at the first intersection of containers, peering around the end one to look down the intersecting corridor. Empty.
He quickly started down that aisle in the same direction as Aurora. He had no idea if she had actually seen Tomasson or if that had just been a ploy to get past the gate, but she seemed to know where she was going. Luke followed, tracking her from inside the corridor formed by the solid wall of containers, his fingers tight around the Glock in his coat pocket. He was dressed casually enough to be a longshoreman and was burly enough to pass for one, so he forced himself to slow down and move in a casual slouch, as if he belonged there. Think Marlon Brando, he told himself. On the Waterfront.
Walking through the maze, he was having an eerie sense of déjà vu; he was right back where he’d started the night before, creeping through the container corridors...just before he got shot. He seemed to be living through recurring scenes, unnervingly like the spiral Aurora had been talking about.
He was also very aware of Aurora’s presence in the corridor parallel to the one he was in, and it occurred to him that he had felt some presence in the next corridor the night before, as well. There had been that feeling that the presence was looking after him—a guardian-angel kind of feeling—that he had to admit he had experienced throughout his life.
He took a breath and tried to focus on the present.
The wind coming off the bay was cool and bracing, and up ahead, above the walls formed by the containers, he could hear men shouting orders and directions. He saw the framework of the gantry crane doing the mechanical lifting of the huge, brightly colored corrugated metal rectangles.
Luke pressed against the side of the end container and took a careful look around the edge.
The ship had Bayside’s insignia on the side, and now he could see there was actually a crane built into the ship itself that was working in tandem with the gantry crane on the dock.
Interesting.
Luke stared up above him at the container being lowered onto the truck. He caught a glimpse of the numbers stenciled in paint in a vertical row on the container...and in the sunlight he could see that the shadows of another number under that one. The first number had been painted over.
Paint. He had smelled fresh paint on the men last night.
They’re changing the numbers.
He tore his attention away from the crane operation when a voice came suddenly from the other side of the container wall, an ominously familiar voice demanding, “Something I can help you with?”
And then Aurora’s sweet voice, “I was looking for you actually.”
Luke moved quickly to the edge of the last container to be as close to them as he dared.
He found a sliver of daylight between two containers that allowed him a very narrow view.
Aurora stood on the dock facing a tall, blond giant holding a clipboard. He was dressed in an expensive suit that only drew attention to his hulking muscles. His face was chiseled and he was not scarred, but looked as if he should be. All in al
l, a Viking of a man. Tomasson.
Luke was surprised to find himself tense with anxiety. The protective surge he felt was all out of proportion to the circumstances, and he didn’t know what to make of it. He drew his weapon and pressed closer.
* * *
Aurora was used to seeing mortals at different stages of their lives. She could look on an infant and see the man he would become, and she could look on a man and see the child he had been. To her, Tomas Tomasson had looked like this menacing giant even as a teenager; there was no real difference. So many of his choices had been made by the time he hit adolescence; he was locked into a path that it would have taken an immense act of will to change.
She also was familiar with his Norn, who was a Valkyrie like Val. She fell into that category of their kind that Nona had mentioned darkly: “A bad Norn”—one of the ones who pushed their mortal charges toward aggressive or even violent behavior. In Aurora’s experience godhood didn’t guarantee good behavior at all; there seemed to be every bit as many vicious, malicious deities as benevolent ones. Her sister...well, Val wasn’t terrible, but for her, life revolved around adventure and excitement and adrenaline.
But maybe that’s what Luke wants, too, a voice inside her whispered, and she felt a ripple of fear and anxiety.
And if that is his choice?
Then I’ll let him go, she promised. But tears stung her eyes and her heart hurt as she thought it.
Tomasson was looking her over in a way she was very familiar with; she experienced it every time she chose to be visible on the earth plane. It was not just insolence, it was a visual violation. His eyes were sweeping over every inch of her body and lingering on the most obvious and humiliating places. She didn’t know how mortal women could stand it, day after day.
But she repressed all those feelings and smiled gamely at Tomasson. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
He scowled down at her, but there was a hint of uncertainty in his face.
“Pacific High? Number forty-six, right?”
His gaze narrowed, and she added quickly, “I saw every game my senior year.”
Luke was dead right—it was a great icebreaker. Tomasson’s face softened, and she could see him puff up a bit. He looked her over less salaciously—well, slightly less salaciously. “Were you a cheerleader?” he asked.
I guess he means that as a compliment, she thought. “Not me, but my sister was.”
“Yeah. Yeah,” he said. She had no idea what he was thinking. Then his face darkened again. “What are you doing here?”
Behind the container wall, Luke was tense, every instinct on alert. He could hear the menace in Tomas’s voice. Aurora was in a dangerous situation—much more dangerous than Luke was comfortable with.
He listened intently as Aurora spoke again.
“You’re not easy to track down. I’m on the reunion committee, and we didn’t have any current information for you.”
Tomasson’s face was stony as he contemplated this. “If you don’t have any information on me, how did you find me here?” he demanded, and there was an edge in his voice.
Behind the containers, Luke stiffened, ready to emerge and lay Tomasson out if he made even the slightest move toward Aurora.
“I work at the Ferry Building,” Aurora said brightly. Tomasson looked blank.
“Just around the corner,” she explained. “And I’ve been calling around trying to find everyone on the committee’s list, and you were just being so hard to find. But then I was in line for coffee this morning and there were a couple of dockworkers in front of me talking about unloading for Bayside down at Pier 94 today. And I remembered that Bayside was your father’s company and I thought, ‘Well, fate is just pointing me right to him.’” She looked at him guilelessly. “I find fate does that sometimes, don’t you? So I decided, ‘I’ll just pop over and have a look around and maybe someone can tell me where to go,’ and here I am, and here you are.”
Behind the containers, Luke shook his head in admiration. She’s pretty good at this, he had to admit. As improbable as the story was, it was perfect.
Unfortunately, not perfect enough for Tomasson.
“A lot of trouble to go to,” he said, his voice low. “For a reunion committee.”
Aurora’s heart froze as his ice-blue eyes stared into her face. “You’re right,” she admitted. “It was more than the committee. I wanted to see you.”
His stony face didn’t change. “I guess I never stopped thinking about you,” she said quickly. “I only volunteered for the committee because, well, I wanted to make sure you would come...”
“Where were you looking?” he demanded, and she flinched at his intensity.
“Just in the usual stupid places. Facebook. I searched you. But I couldn’t find anything.”
Tomasson didn’t seem to be buying it. “How did you know about my father’s company to start with?”
“I remembered from school,” she said a little breathlessly. “There was an ad in the back of the yearbook one year, I think.”
“And you came by because you’ve had a thing for me all these years,” Tomas said with an edge that Luke didn’t like at all.
“Yes...”
Tomas’s voice was suddenly ominously quiet. “You just happened to show up today.”
Behind the container, Luke tensed and gripped the Glock. He didn’t know what Tomas was talking about, but this wasn’t sounding good.
Aurora began, “Today? I don’t know what...” Luke heard her gasp and knew that Tomas had put his hands on her somehow.
That’s enough of that, he thought grimly, drawing his weapon and moving forward.
“I want to know what you’re here for,” Tomas snarled at Aurora.
Luke stepped out from behind the container, Glock leveled at Tomas. “Take your hands off her,” he said.
Tomas actually jolted back in shock. Aurora twisted away from him and rushed to Luke’s side.
“You,” Tomas said hoarsely, staring at Luke with obvious recognition. “You’re dead.”
“And I’m back to haunt you for your sins,” Luke said.
Tomas flicked a murderous glance at Aurora. “I knew you weren’t for real.”
“You have no idea,” Aurora replied calmly, and Luke almost laughed. Instead, he kept his face and his aim straight.
“You’re under arrest,” he told Tomas. “On your knees, hands behind your head.”
“For what?” Tomas sneered.
“You just said it. Attempted murder.”
Tomas looked homicidal, but started to lower himself to his knees. As his first knee touched the ground, Luke felt the cold kiss of steel against his neck, just exactly as it had happened the night before.
“Drop it,” a hoarse voice demanded.
Luke went still. Not good.
At the same moment, he heard Aurora cry out beside him, as someone grabbed her roughly from behind and pulled her away from him.
He turned instinctively and a third assailant whipped down a gun, crunching into Luke’s wrist and sending the Glock flying. The man behind him kicked his knee and shoved Luke down, was instantly on top of him with his own weapon shoved into the base of Luke’s skull. But Luke had managed to land with his palms flat, his elbows bent. He stayed still, realizing he might only have one chance...
Tomasson scrambled up to standing. “This time you’re going to stay dead, cop.”
“Kill him,” he ordered the goon with the gun.
Luke pushed hard into the ground and shoved himself upward, knocking the man hovering over him off balance for just a second, just long enough for Luke to roll and catapult to his feet.
But standing, he found himself facing the thug with the gun. Who smiled at him and calmly fired...straight at his chest.
Chapter 15
In that split second, Luke realized and accepted he was going to die. Again time seemed to stop completely and he saw his life, in flashes like a film. He saw himself as a child, playing with a lit
tle girl with hair as flaming red as fire. He saw himself as a teenager kissing Aurora in the library. He saw himself as a man, holding Aurora in his arms with the scent of roses all around. And he realized that the only thing about his life that he regretted was not realizing until that second that he was meant to be with her, that his whole life meant that.
And he sighed and prepared to feel the bullet entering him...
But it didn’t.
And then he realized that in some crazy, impossible way, time had stopped. Not just time, but also the bullet: it hung in the air in front of him as if by a wire, mere inches from his chest. The man who had fired the gun was also frozen, as was Tomas, with an ugly, sneering anticipation on his face. And the man who held Aurora was also frozen. As Luke stood, stupefied, Aurora wriggled out of his grasp as if she were extracting herself from the grip of a statue and she rushed toward Luke.
“Are you hurt?” she demanded, breathless. Luke didn’t answer her; he was too busy staring at the three frozen men and the frozen bullet.
Several frozen bullets, as it turned out; it looked from the frozen tableau like all three men had fired simultaneously.
“Luke!” she shouted at him, desperately. He looked at her. She was pale as a ghost.
“What the hell...?” he managed, dazed.
“We need to go. I can’t hold this for long.”
Hold it? Hold what? he wondered.
She grabbed his arm and pulled. But Luke decided right there that if he’d just gone crazy, he might as well take advantage of the situation. He bent to the ground and scooped up his Glock. Then he stepped to Tomas—God, those staring eyes—and gingerly reached into his coat, patting the man down. He found a wallet, flipped it open to find a driver’s license with Tomasson’s ugly mug and a completely different name. Fake ID.
“Luke!” Aurora pleaded.
“Get their weapons,” he told her, and continued his search of Tomasson’s frozen body.
There was a Sig Sauer tucked into the back of his pants, and Luke relieved him of that, as well.
Goddess of Fate Page 13
