Thrall

by Jennifer Blackstream

  Peasblossom looked up from her inspection of her new slippers to give her a reproachful look. “No one’s going to take your glass from you, you can take the time to drink it like a human.” She glanced at me. “And she’s not mad you snuck out when you were supposed to be resting. She’s just making conversation.”

  Peasblossom was wrong. I was mad Scath had gone out instead of resting. Fey with iron poisoning should stay in bed and rest, not go out doing…who knew what. But I clutched my mug of hot coffee like a squirrel treasuring a giant acorn and waited to hear what she had to say.

  “I took Majesty to see Borgia.” Scath put her glass in the sink, then returned to the living room to scoop the kitten in question off the couch. “She was performing last night.”

  Borgia was a fey opera singer with the ability to enchant with her voice. Her specialty was soothing a savage nature, something that assured her audience was always full. Even the most bloodthirsty of the Otherworlders could see the value in an hour of peace.

  Sometimes.

  “Oh.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “No, of course not.” I put my coffee down and opened the fridge to retrieve the milk. “Did you take him because of what he did to Liam yesterday?”

  Peasblossom glared at the kitten as if just remembering. “Oh, yes, that’s right. He went off and cost us two prisoners.”

  “You knew what he was when you used him to get inside,” Scath retorted. “I could have gotten us inside just as easily.”

  “Liam is a police officer, he can’t just go barging into someone’s apartment with no warrant.” I poured a generous helping of whole milk into my coffee, watching it turn pale. “I wonder if Kurt and Toby ever turned up at Fortuna’s.”

  Scath’s expression softened. “Liam would have called you.”

  My cell phone rang. I froze with my mug touching my lips, the scent of coffee wafting over my face. Scath and Peasblossom both watched me intently as I carefully put my mug down and reached for the cell phone tucked into the side pocket of my waist pouch. I frowned at the unfamiliar number, but answered it anyway.

  “Hello?”

  “Is this Shade? Shade Renard?”

  I stiffened. “Renee?”

  “Yes. I was wondering if I could ask you a question. It might sound strange, but you work with the police, so I thought…”

  She trailed off. I gripped the phone with both hands as if that would keep her from changing her mind and hanging up. “I’ll help if I can. What is it?”

  “Jamila’s body,” Renee said quietly. “How did you know who she was?”

  “I…” I looked at Scath. Her hearing was as good as Liam’s, I was sure she’d heard the question.

  The sidhe shrugged. She didn’t know what might have prompted the question either.

  “Renee, there was a lot of damage, but I could still see her face—”

  “I mean how did you put a name to her face? Renee didn’t have a driver’s license. She didn’t carry identification on her.”

  “We had a witness,” I said carefully.

  “What witness?”

  “Renee, could we meet somewhere to—”

  “So if there had been no witness, Jamila would have died nameless. No record to match her to, no way to find out her name?”

  “No, Jamila had a work visa. Her fingerprints would have been on file. And her picture.” A thought occurred to me, and I straightened quickly. “Renee, didn’t they take your picture and get your fingerprints when you got your work visa?”

  “I have to go.”

  “Renee, wait! Mr. Sideris said Jamila had a work visa. Did she? Do you?”

  “Goodbye—”

  “The answer is always yes, Renee!” I blurted out.

  There was a short pause. “What answer?”

  “When you asked me yesterday if desperate people should have a choice, or just take what they were given. The answer is yes, they deserve a choice. A real choice. And if they don’t feel they have one, maybe they just need to look harder. Someone might come along and offer a new choice they didn’t even know they had.”

  Renee’s breathing came faster. “Goodbye, Shade.”

  She ended the call before I could think of a way to stop her. I stared down at the phone.

  “What do you think the chances are that I can trace that phone?” I asked.

  “None,” Scath said.

  I grabbed my coffee and took a big gulp. A knock at the door almost made me put the mug down again, but then I thought better of it and took it with me to get the door. I managed two, strong, fortifying sips before I opened it to find Liam filling my doorway. The sight of him in his white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows was almost as good for my mood as the coffee.

  Almost.

  “Are you a good news first kind of person, or do you want the bad news straight up?” he asked.

  I held up my coffee. “Give me the bad news when this is empty.”

  Liam’s mouth quirked up, but that was as far as the smile got. Not a great sign.

  “I looked into Charity Moghadam. He is who he said he is. Kirkland, Katz, and Cromwell check out too, the firm has been practicing for over thirty-five years. Moghadam works a lot of immigration cases, helping get scientists, sports stars, and friends of the rich and powerful into the country for good. He’s also worked a fair amount of white-collar crime cases, especially money-laundering.”

  He tossed a file on the kitchen island. “He soothes his corporate guilt by handling pro-bono cases for the firm, helping immigrants file for asylum, that sort of thing. I did a little more digging, and it seems like most of the pro-bono clients he’s taken on have been Other.”

  “Did you say Charity Moghadam?” Peasblossom asked.

  Liam looked at Peasblossom, noticed the slippers and gave her a wider birth as he circled to the Keurig. “I did.”

  “Is anyone else at his law firm Other?” I asked.

  “Not that I can tell.”

  “What about Nikolaos Sideris?” I asked. “Were you able to find out anything more about him?

  “Now he is a much more interesting story,” Liam said loading a k-cup into the machine and opening cupboards to find the mugs. “Mr. Sideris is somewhat of a mystery.”

  “The lawyer does charity work and his name is Charity?” Peasblossom held up her hands. “No one else finds that strange? We’re not going to acknowledge it at all?”

  “Interesting how?” I asked.

  Liam turned to tap the file on the counter top. “He’s never been photographed. At least, not by anyone who’s willing to share the photo with me. I talked to every contact I have, and no one could get me so much as a family snapshot. And for every failure I had trying to get a photo of him, I got five rumors.”

  “Rumors like what?” I asked, lifting the cover of the file.

  “Oh, they ran the gamut. Some said he never goes out with fewer than five men of a similar appearance. Some say he’s one of quintuplets. Some say he’s never left his house, and any time someone claimed he visited him, they were lying. All his paperwork is done online.”

  “Not a people person then,” I murmured.

  “Until a few months ago when his business partner died, and Sideris came to America to pick up the pieces. Apparently his business partner had been the public face of the company, the one who did the meet and greets, and the day to day. As far as I can tell, Sideris handled the paperwork and the money.”

  “You keep saying ‘business partner,’” I said slowly. “Do you know his name?”

  Liam pressed the button to start the Keurig and turned to me, crossing his arms over his chest. “Stavros Rosso.”

  The floor seemed to heave beneath me, and I groped for a chair. “Stavros Rosso. Nikolaos Sideris was his business partner?”

  “Yes. But it doesn’t make sense.” Liam leaned one hip on the counter. “Let’s put aside the fact that apparently Sideris goes out of his way to hide his identity, then com
es here and suddenly he’s being photographed, he’s having company over—all attempts at solitude abandoned. You saw what his business is like now. Fortuna’s Stables is destroyed, complete chaos. If Sideris was Stavros’ business partner, and his death was enough to bring the mysterious Mr. Sideris out of hiding, then why is he ignoring it? Why did he let the goblins have it?”

  “Unless it suits his purposes as it is,” Scath pointed out.

  Liam didn’t seem startled when she spoke up from her spot on the floor of the living room where she’d gone to play with Majesty. But then again, even though he couldn’t see her from his vantage point, or from the door, his sense of smell would have alerted him to her shift in location. Another benefit of having a shifter’s senses.

  “Maybe,” he admitted. “How are you feeling by the way, Scath?”

  “Fine. Asher told Shade that Katie and Rafe were having people kidnapped. Either to learn their fighting style or to have them killed in the ring. Maybe Sideris is happier to let business get bloody than Stavros was?”

  “That I can’t tell you.” Liam retrieved his coffee from the Keurig and searched the counter. “Sugar?” he asked.

  I got out of the seat I’d collapsed into and circled the counter to retrieve a locked box from the cupboard. Liam arched an eyebrow as I used a spell to open it. I didn’t say anything, but I did glance back at Peasblossom before meeting his eyes. He arched an eyebrow, but didn’t comment as I slid the box of sweeteners over to him.

  “As for the anonymous trust,” Liam continued, “that’s going to be harder. I spoke to the lawyer that handles the bulk of the duties this morning, and he was crystal clear that he wouldn’t violate confidentiality. He wouldn’t tell me anything.” He added three spoons of sugar to his coffee. “I don’t have the evidence to force him to hand over the information.”

  My brain turned to thoughts of Connor’s remains and whether or not his brothers had ever shown up. Scath was right, Liam would have told me. But I still felt like I should ask. I stared at the folder, willing my brain to come up with more questions about the information within. Cold facts about Moghadam’s case history, maybe his clients. We could talk about Sideris, and what a coincidence it was that he’d employed two of the Emperor’s victims.

  “Oh!” I pointed at Liam. “I forgot to tell you. Renee called me.”

  Liam stopped with his coffee mug halfway to his mouth. “What? When?”

  “Just before you got here.” I bit the inside of my lip. “She was asking me about how we identify bodies when the victims aren’t citizens.”

  “That’s a strange question.” Liam put his mug down. “Did she say anything else?”

  “Not really. But I got the distinct impression that none of the women at Foundations have real papers. Not even a temporary work visa. Something about how certain she was that we couldn’t have used Jamila’s record to identify her makes me think she knows it’s all fake.”

  “That would explain why I couldn’t find Jamila’s paperwork,” Liam said grimly. “I called a friend at Immigration to ask him to look into it. But I guess there’s not going to be anything for him to find.”

  “So either Nikolaos was lying when he said he had Jamila’s paperwork,” I started.

  “Or the Emperor gave them fake paperwork, and Renee figured out it’s fake and wouldn’t be in the system to help us identify Jamila,” Liam finished.

  “There is a third option,” Scath spoke up. “Maybe Renee knew the paperwork was fake because she’s the one that provided them. And maybe she was at Nikolaos’ to keep an eye on Jamila.”

  I groped for my coffee. “Do we know whose purse it was Stafford touched yesterday? When he had the vision of Connor?”

  “You think it could have been Renee’s?” Liam asked.

  “I think we need to talk to Stafford,” I said grimly. “And Renee.”

  Liam downed the last of his coffee before responding. “Did you manage to figure out a way to talk to her without the Emperor listening in?”

  I slumped against the counter top. “Nothing I can do. All the spells I found were too complex. I’d have to study and practice to have any confidence in my casting. And these are not spells you want to mess with in the field when you don’t know what you’re doing.” I huffed out a frustrated breath. “I could stop him from scrying on us, but the problem is the tattoo just lets him jump into her body if he wants to. She wouldn’t know, we wouldn’t know. And I don’t know if he checks in periodically, or if he has some way of knowing when we’re talking to them.”

  Liam grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket. “Let me call Stafford. We need him to tell us exactly what he saw. And whose purse it was.”

  I started to get up to make another cup of coffee, then thought better of it.

  Liam held the phone to his ear for a minute, then frowned. “Hey, it’s Liam. We’ve made some progress on the case, call me as soon as you get this.” He ended the call and stared at the phone for a second. “I don’t like that he didn’t answer.”

  “Maybe he’ll call back in a minute,” I suggested hopefully. “He could be driving.”

  Scath snorted. “Cell phones. You’re spoiled. Maybe not everyone is available every second you want to talk to them.”

  “If she says ‘in my day,’ I’m going to laugh at her,” Peasblossom told me seriously.

  “Why don’t we try Renee?” I got out my cell phone and tried calling the number she’d called me from. “No answer,” I said after a minute. “The phone is off.”

  “Well, she works for Sideris, so maybe she’s there?” Peasblossom suggested.

  Liam grabbed the file and pulled it closer. “I have his number here.”

  This time when he got no answer, Liam grabbed his keys. “All right, something’s going on.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “To see Sideris. It’s time for him to track down that paperwork or I’m bringing him in for employing an undocumented immigrant.”

  Scath scooped up Majesty and slipped him into her pouch as she made her way toward the door.

  Liam stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “Leave the kitten.”

  “No,” Scath said evenly.

  Liam dropped his hand from the door. “I can’t afford another incident like yesterday. Unless you can tell me you have control over it now, it’s not safe to bring—”

  “He’s a him, not an it,” Scath interrupted.

  The tension in the room shot up to Shade-can’t-breathe levels as the two shifters faced off. Liam’s aura flared against me, and Scath narrowed her green eyes.

  I hadn’t had enough coffee for this.

  “Liam, I’d like to leave him behind too. But the fact is, if we leave him behind, he might find me anyway.” My stomach twisted itself into a knot. Liam was an alpha, and a cop. The combination amplified his desire for control and order. He’d been willing to work with me on this case, despite my still being under contract to a sidhe, but after yesterday’s events, I suddenly wondered if Majesty might not be a deal-breaker.

  The silence dragged on too long.

  “He should be good if Scath keeps hold of him,” I said quietly. “I can calm his energy, and she can make sure if he does go off again, it’s away from us, somewhere safe.”

  “I’ve never heard the words ‘go off’ applied to a kitten before.” Liam didn’t sound amused. He looked like he was thinking. Making a decision. Finally, he opened the door. “Let’s go.”

  I spent the drive to Nikolaos’ thinking about my working relationships. I’d started out with Andy, and then he’d started to pull away from me. If I were completely honest with myself, he’d never completely warmed to me, always held himself back. Our relationship had been better these last few weeks, but we’d also spent very little time together. And we hadn’t worked any cases together. He’d worked on building a case against Flint, and I’d spent most of my time in Dresden, catching up on my witching duties. And the odd case.

  As far as Lia
m went, he hadn’t liked the idea of working with a witch from the get-go, in no small part thanks to the circumstances of our first case together. Then he definitely had warmed to me, but that was ruined when he found out about my contract with Flint. And now, just when I thought that might not be the same impediment, Majesty had to go and show his scary side.

  “I’m worth the trouble.”

  Liam glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “What?”

  I lifted my chin. “I said I’m worth the trouble. As a partner. I mean, for work. I’m worth the trouble.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Liam murmured.

  Suddenly he sat straighter in his seat. I looked ahead and spotted Nikolaos’ house.

  And Stafford’s car in the driveway.

  Chapter 11

  Liam parked beside Stafford’s car, and we all quickly climbed out of the truck. As soon as his feet hit the driveway, he tilted his head as if he heard something. A cold wind gusted against my door, nearly ripping it out of my hand. I winced and gripped the door, holding onto it so I could close it as quietly as possible.

  The wind must have been carrying away whatever sounds Liam had picked up, because he broke into a run on the next gust. When we got closer to the door, I realized I could hear Stafford’s voice, but not enough to make out the words.

  Suddenly the door swung open and Ms. Piper appeared. Liam came to a halt so fast he rocked back on his heels. If it had been me, I’d have fallen over.

  “May I help you?” she demanded.

  Peasblossom’s wings buzzed in annoyance, but I summoned up a polite smile. “We’d like to speak to Mr. Sideris, if possible?”

  Ms. Piper’s frown deepened, but just as she opened her mouth—no doubt to remind us we needed an appointment—Detective Stafford called out from behind her.

  “Let them in, Piper! I’ve got news they’ll want to hear!”

  Ms. Piper shot a glare over her shoulder. “You are not the master of this house, Detective Stafford, and I’ll thank you not to give me orders.”

  “It’s all right, Ms. Piper,” Nikolaos said tiredly. “You may let them in.”