[Nix 03.0] Rise of a Phoenix

by Shannon Mayer

  “Does it matter at this point?” Killian asked, interrupting my thoughts. “He’s either there, or he’s not. If he is, we’ll deal with him and hope that he’s like Tommy, turning on Romano.”

  I blinked my eyes open. Killian was right. “Easy enough in theory, but it bothers me that he was at Vivian’s. That Magelore knew far more than she let on. I almost wish I hadn’t killed her.”

  Killian barked a laugh and Abe woofed as if he agreed. I didn’t laugh, and my thoughts turned inward.

  What the hell had Danny been doing at the Magelore’s home?

  I had a feeling the answer was going to be beyond important. And I didn’t like that I was going to have to base our next move on a hunch that involved my older brother and a dead Magelore.

  12

  Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The place where everything began and now here I was, looking for answers, yet again.

  “How are we getting into town?” Killian asked. His words trailed off as I headed toward the pay parking lot at the airport with the crook of a finger. I took note of a few new cameras here and there, but nothing I was terribly worried about. By the time I had a vehicle secured, and someone realized it was being stolen, we’d be gone.

  I led the way to a bigger truck, one with four doors and lovely shiny rims which told me it wasn’t someone who worked a farm for a living. The smells of summer in the prairies washed through me as I worked on the hotwiring, the wind blowing in through the open doors.

  “Damn you, Zee,” I whispered as I got the wires to spark and the engine turned over.

  “Who is Zee?” Killian asked as he slid into the passenger seat.

  “Zee was my mentor,” I said, feeling weird to have to explain who Zee was to a man who’d met him, “more like my father than the father I was born to. He always said I would come back here, that I would find my way home.”

  “And?” Killian prompted.

  I shrugged. “The wind smells like home to me.” I backed the truck out of the parking spot and headed toward the ranch. To the only place Bear had known as home, and to the place I swore I would never return to. But there was something waiting for me here. I knew it in my gut, and there was no way I could deny that my instincts had steered me right most of my life.

  Killian stared out the window as we drove, taking it in. “It’s pretty here. Quiet.”

  I nodded, feeling the strain between us again. The uncertainty. “That it is.”

  “Brikoff is at a fisherman’s lodge on Snake River,” Killian said. “Fly fishing. You know where that is?”

  I answered by taking the turn that would take us to the river. The road went from pavement to hard-packed dirt road, and then in the distance, I could see the sparkle of the water as it danced along, oblivious.

  I parked the truck and we got out. Abe leapt ahead of me, spinning and yipping. My heart panged for him. “He thinks we’re home to stay.”

  “Maybe you should leave him?”

  “No. He’s got to see this through with me.” Again, it made no sense but I went with it, this knowing without understanding. Whatever Abe’s role in this journey of mine and Bear’s, it wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. I just wish I knew what it was.

  I didn’t touch my weapons as I walked but I wanted to, which told me just how on edge I was. The more I touched them, the more anxious I was about the outcome of a situation.

  This Brikoff was a Russian mobster, but I had a feeling he was more than that. To be a small mobster and only have ten people working for you was one thing. To be courted by the other mobsters when you were that small was another thing entirely.

  “There.” Killian pointed to a thickly built man in waders out in the river, casting his fly.

  “Any suggestions as to how to deal with him?” I asked as we approached the edge of the river.

  “He’s . . . different than any other mob boss I’ve dealt with,” Killian said. “I can’t judge how he might react. Go with your gut on it.”

  I snapped my fingers, bringing Abe back to my side without a word, but I pointed him to Killian.

  “Bewache.”

  Killian raised an eyebrow at my command for Abe to guard him. I shrugged out of my coat and handed it to Killian.

  “Dinah, just you and I are going in.”

  “I’ve got your back.” She said.

  I nodded and took a step into the river. The shockingly cold water tugged at me the deeper I got, making each step an effort to stay upright. It got deeper before it suddenly shallowed where Brikoff stood.

  He tipped his head. “What are you doing out here without waders?”

  “Having a talk where no one can overhear us,” I said.

  I pulled Dinah out, but turned her so she was on display in my palm. “You made my guns.”

  He twisted his upper body and I got my first good look at him. Mid-fifties, his hair was bright blond so any silver that might have been there was not visible. He wore big sports sunglasses that covered his eyes, but I’d have guessed at blue. There was a scar on the upper side of his lip that pulled his mouth into a smirk. His accent was so light, I had to work to catch it.

  “You think I made this gun? I have no such talent—”

  “Stuff it, chubby,” Dinah growled. “I bought the guns from you, and you designed them for me to Mancini’s specifications.”

  Even in the sunlight, I saw Brikoff’s face pale. “My God. Bianca?”

  “Not anymore.” Dinah shivered. “My name is Dinah now. But it’s still my soul inside here.”

  He reached out to touch her. Normally I would have yanked her away but I held still. Like fly fishing, this would have to be the exact right moment for me to set the hook. He ran a single finger over her muzzle and she shivered again.

  Without another word, he tipped his head and started to walk farther out into the river.

  Well, that was unexpected. Killian was right about that much.

  I followed Brikoff with only a single glance back at Killian and Abe. Abe sat there, his eyes glued on me but he didn’t move. Good dog.

  We reached a small island in the middle of the river and Brikoff turned to me. “Where is the other gun?”

  “Don’t worry about her,” I said. I was not about to tell him that Eleanor had been stolen from me.

  He shook his head, awe creeping into his voice. “I was not sure that the weapons would hold a soul so well. Dinah . . . how do you feel?”

  I kept her in my palm so she could speak clearly over the rushing of the water. “I’m fine, but I need your help one more time.”

  Of course . . . she’d dealt with him before. I should have asked her for help in this. His lips tightened. “You paid me, and that is that.”

  “Yeah, well. We’ll pay you for this too,” she said.

  “I am no longer for hire. I am retired.” He moved as if to go past us. I spun Dinah and had her back in her holster in a flash. Pulling a gun on this one wouldn’t work.

  “And if I told you I could give you a million dollars for one small thing? What then?”

  He’d slid his sunglasses back on so I couldn’t read his eyes, but his body was tense. “What exactly do you need?”

  I slowly put my hand into my pocket and pulled out the coin I’d taken from Killian’s trove of goodies. “I need you to turn this into a bullet for Dinah.”

  He reached out and took the coin, a sigh slipping though him. “This coin has been held by bloody hands. It has soaked into the metal.”

  A snap of cold air in the summer sunshine whipped my hair. A blood-soaked piece of the past. Clever.

  I waved my hand at Martin, but said nothing. He was right. Brikoff pulled his sunglasses off. “Did you hear that?”

  I blinked up at him. “Hear what?”

  “I could have sworn . . . never mind.” He turned the coin over in his hand, staring at it. “A million dollars for a single bullet. That is a great deal of money to offer without even negotiating a lower price.”

  “It’s worth it to me
to have it done right.” My guts clenched at the bullet not working. At it failing, or getting stuck inside Dinah’s chamber. That would kill her, what was left of her soul anyway. This would be a one in a million shot, and Brikoff knew Dinah’s inner workings better than anyone. Which meant he would be the only one to make the bullet.

  “I can have it ready in a very short time. You have the money?” He arched an eyebrow. I nodded.

  “I have to go get it. A million is no small amount to be lugging around.” I took a step back, paused and then nodded at him. “You’re not the small potatoes they say you are. Are you?”

  He smiled wide. “No. But it is best to let the idiots kill each other.”

  I snorted. “I don’t disagree.”

  “But you are going to help it along, aren’t you?” he called out to me.

  “Have that bullet ready in two hours,” I called back, ignoring his question. “I’ll be here and I’ll expect it.”

  I slogged through the water, the icy chill numbing my legs again while Martin’s touch on my back numbed the skin there. “Martin, knock it off.”

  I must be close to you if I am attached to you.

  Whatever he was going to help me with, it had better be soon so I could see him off with whomever he needed to be with. His savior. I snorted again to myself as I stepped out of the water. Dripping wet, I slogged toward Killian.

  “He’s going to do it.”

  Killian gave a quick nod. “And the price?”

  “A lot of money. But I’ve got it tucked away here.” I headed to the truck, calling Abe to me once more. He happily bounced along. This was the place he knew, the fresh air and the wide-open spaces. Not the tight-knit crush of city buildings or pressed down by gunfire.

  Back in the driver’s seat, I hotwired the truck again and we left the river behind in moments.

  “Where to now?” Killian settled into the seat. “And I remember the bathroom, and our discussion there.”

  I almost hit the brakes, and I managed to keep my face straight. “I suppose that’s good.”

  “You think I’m a bad man.” He chuckled. “I like it.”

  “Focus, Killian. Fucking later.”

  He let out a long laugh and I smiled though it was tentative. I knew what survivor’s guilt was; I’d dealt with it after I lost Justin and Bear. This was more of the same. The feeling that I didn’t deserve to have any moment of relief from the crushing drive to get Bear back, to kill Romano. Smiling and even laughing with Killian along the way wouldn’t stop me from doing either of those things. Even if it felt like it.

  Back through town, I turned in the direction of my ranch.

  It wasn’t long before we crested the hill that had changed my quiet life and thrust me back into the skin of a killer. Dinah was quiet; in fact, she’d said nothing since we left Brikoff. Why? Was she worried about what he thought? Or was she upset that I hadn’t thought to ask her for her help and insight?

  I wanted to talk to her but I knew now was not the time. Later, we’d discuss. For now, we had a job to do.

  As we rounded the last corner of the road that led into my ranch, I got my first glimpse of the house post-fire. I’d left when it had still been raging, the flames too hot for me to do anything about, and a murderer to find. There had been no thought in me then as to what would happen to the house after. Because I’d had no plans of coming back at any point.

  Charred timbers stood up here and there, held up by whatever amount of cement still clung to the footings. The rest of the house lay in a crumpled heap, as if someone had pulled the pins holding it together and it collapsed where it stood.

  The once rich wood was black as night, scorched, the life sucked right out of it. But all of that was peripheral. Because there was someone at the site, someone I had not expected to find here.

  My middle brother, Daniel.

  I stopped far enough back that there was no way Daniel could see it was me in the driver’s side, not with the way the light was hitting. He stood on the rubble and turned toward us, a hand raised to his eyes but it wouldn’t help him.

  “Lass?” Killian leaned forward. “Who is it?”

  “Daniel. And if Dinah is correct, he can manipulate the dead. As far as I know, he’s still working for my father.” I clenched my fingers over the steering wheel, thinking as fast as I could. “Would he recognize you, Killian?”

  Killian shook his head. “Not likely. Why?”

  “You get out and go have a chat with him. Find out why he’s here under the pretense of trying to get him to flip to your side of things. Tell him you need him for a job. Don’t engage him if he wants to fight.” The plan whipping through my mind was only half formed but it felt right. Like it would be our best shot.

  “Then what?” Killian undid his seatbelt, twisted, and looked at me. “Report back?”

  “Yes.”

  He slid out of the truck and walked toward Daniel.

  My brother was built slimmer than the other two boys in the family, but his hair and eyes were as dark. I just hoped that darkness didn’t include his soul. I hoped for a turnout like Tommy, that Daniel had seen how corrupt and maniacal Romano was and wanted out. I hoped, but at the same time I knew that the chance was strong Daniel was still with him.

  I watched with my hand on Dinah as Daniel took a few steps toward Killian. They shook hands; Killian’s head bobbed as he spoke.

  “What do you think they’re talking about out there?” Dinah asked.

  I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter unless Killian comes a running back here with a horde of the dead on his heels.”

  “That’s why I didn’t want my body to be found,” she said softly. “I knew Danny would bring me back to life, or at least my body would be brought back and I . . . I couldn’t stand the thought of rotting to pieces. Even if I wasn’t technically there.”

  “That’s the most you’ve said since we left Brikoff,” I said. “You want to tell me why?”

  “Strike.”

  That surprised me. I’d been sure it was her maker Brikoff that had set off her silence. Then again, Strike had helped to put her into the gun in the first place. But more than that, what she said next stopped me in my tracks.

  “I can’t stop thinking about him and . . . our daughter.”

  13

  The interior of the truck held a heavy silence as Dinah dropped that little bomb. My ears buzzed as I stared at Killian still talking to Daniel at the site of the burned-out ranch house. I finally found my breath to speak, or at least some of it.

  “Wait, what?” I spluttered. “Why wouldn’t you say anything about this before?”

  Dinah didn’t answer so I just kept going. I sucked in a sharp breath, my heart squeezing on her words. “You had a daughter with the guardian?”

  “It was in secret. Not even Father knew,” Dinah said softly. “I went away in my fifth month, before I was truly beginning to show, and I was induced early so I could go home as soon as possible. The plan was always for me to go and get her, later.”

  “Later never came,” I said.

  “No. When I realized I was going to be killed anyway, I decided to take matters into my own hands. And because of the curse that came with this sentience, I couldn’t even tell you about her.”

  I did something then I knew was stupid. I knew it was nothing but emotions talking and yet I did it anyway. “We’ll find her, Bea.” She startled when I used her real name but I continued. “After Bear, we’ll find her. Did you name her before you gave her up?”

  “Yes. Her name is Emerald. Her eyes were green even then.” She sucked in a deep breath as if holding back more emotion than she wanted to show.

  Killian turned away from Daniel.

  “Here he comes,” I said, ending the conversation about a niece I’d never known existed before that moment. He wasn’t exactly running, but he wasn’t taking his time, that was for sure.

  Killian slid into the truck. “Your brother is . . . interesting.”

&nbs
p; “What did he say?” I asked as I backed the truck up slowly.

  “Wait, we’re leaving?” Dinah barked. “Why come all this way then?”

  “Killian?” I prompted him.

  “Long story short, he gave me nothing. I tried to muscle him into working for me but I didn’t scare him in the least, and he’s one creepy fucker. There were dead things working through the salvage of the house, digging around.”

  I frowned as I put the truck in park over the crest of the hill, just out of sight.

  “Wait, are we or aren’t we going?” Dinah asked. “I’m confused.”

  I ignored her and kept my attention split between Killian and the road back to my brother. “He say anything useful?”

  “No, only that I should fuck off and leave him or he’d make me one of his pets. Not real friendly-like at all,” Killian said. “I don’t think your family likes me.”

  I snorted. “Any more than yours likes me.” I stepped out of the truck and he followed suit. “Killian, can you give me a charge?”

  “I can come with you, Lass. No need to give you a shock.” He shut the door behind him and I nodded. I wasn’t here to protect him. He could come if he wanted to. Even with his memory loss, there was enough that he wanted to be at my side. That thought warmed me a great deal. I had a bad feeling about this one, which was why I’d backed the truck up. We’d need a way out after whatever happened. “Come on, Abe.” I snapped my fingers and he heeled to my side.

  I started down the road, Killian on the other side of me.

  “Why did you back us all the way up if you were just going to walk in?” he asked.

  Dinah laughed. “Because she knows that Danny has a thing about being bothered when he’s working. The more times you poke at him, the more pissed he gets. He can lash out, and he’d wreck the truck just to spite you. You sent Killian in there to irritate him, didn’t you?”