“No, what a bizarre thing to ask.”
“Yes, I’m the one acting bizarre.”
“Are you going to get a latte with me, or not?”
“Sure.”
“So, what’s the status with you and Cormac? Was he really pissed off at you after you and I ran the portal?”
“I thought he was going to knock me out. Thank god, he didn’t figure out the lead was fake.”
“Is that normal for you guys? Hitting each other?”
“No, but that’s how pissed he was. He got over it, though.”
“When I didn’t see you around for a couple, I was wondering.”
“What he do to you?”
“Nothing, really, other than I’m banned from anything to do with the portal.”
“That’s not good. How we going to get all these people back?”
“He’s going to have to cave.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Maybe since we did it last time with no problems, he’ll be a bit more relaxed. Plus, I signed some sort of fealty contract you guys have. That should make him feel more secure, right?”
“What did you sign?”
“That fealty contract. You know what I’m talking about, right? I thought it was standard?”
“Oh, yeah, that. It’s been so long I forgot about it.”
“So, then, it’s normal?” I asked, looking for a little more reassurance now that his reaction had been so strange.
“Completely, don’t worry about it.” The noise and proximity of the people in the crowded coffee house effectively stopped our conversation.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What’s going on?” I asked as I walked into the penthouse. Cormac was leaning over a table as he peered at papers splayed out in front of him.
“Have a seat.” He still hadn’t looked up at me.
Oh, god, this wasn’t going to be a good conversation. Great, what was his problem?
He finally straightened out and rubbed the back of his neck. He looked over at me, let out a sigh, and just shook his head.
“Let me start by saying that this does not change my opinion on your earlier actions,” he said.
I watched him walk over and sit on the couch opposite me. Normally, he stood when he talked. He’d walk over to the window and watch the skyline or walk to the bar. He didn’t sit that often and when he had, I never liked what he had to say. And if he did sit, he would lean forward, ready to pounce at any moment. He didn’t lean back and recline the way he was now.
“Unfortunately, I can’t see any way around it. I’m going to need you to get in the portal when we operate it again, like you did last time.” He leaned his head against the back of the sofa facing the ceiling, eyes closed.
Knowing he couldn’t see me, I didn’t try to temper the gloating smile. I wasn’t sure I could. Mr. Know It All just had to admit he needed me. This was definitely going to buy me some leverage.
“Well?” he said. “Let’s hear it.”
“I want my own place while I’m here.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I took off the tail. That will have to be enough.”
“Who cares if you took off the tail? You seem to know my every movement anyway. And how exactly is that?”
“I can’t disclose that information. But, once I dissolve the second contract you signed, that will end. How about a trust in your name?”
“How much?”
“Five hundred thousand. It will pay for all your student loans. You would have a fresh start after this is done.”
The idea made me want to do cartwheels, but I wasn’t going to admit it. If I verbally relented, god knows what else he’d try to gain. If you gave Cormac an inch, he took a football field.
“Agreed. What’s the deal with the portal? Still no idea what’s going wrong?”
He ran his hand through his hair, and I knew the answer before he even said the word no.
“The only thing I can figure out is that they must have one or more of us pulling the radiation from the other side. Pulling just enough that it offsets our force and stalls in the portal. That’s why what you did was so effective. I’m still mad that you did it. You had no idea whether it would work or not, but it seems to be the only option right now.”
“I agree. So what’s the plan?”
“You are now officially on the team. But, I want to be there every time. No exceptions. I’m still not completely comfortable with this. I think that whoever is behind this, is going to try a different tactic, soon. When they can’t shut it down one way, they’ll try another. I don’t want you to get stuck in the crossfire.”
“When I was out, I happened to notice Tracker.”
“You just happened to notice him?”
“Yes, it was a pure coincidence.”
He rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything else.
“So, like I was saying, I noticed Tracker, and I think he was meeting with another man. It seemed shady.”
“Well? What happened exactly?”
“It looked like he followed him into a doctor’s office.”
“I don’t want you following him again.”
“I wasn’t following him today.”
“Don’t do it again. He’s dangerous.”
“I can handle him.”
“Why are you so goddamn stubborn? What happened to ‘it’s not my problem’?”
“That was before I realized how much you and these people were going to mess up my world.” As I said the words, I realized how true they were. This was my problem. I couldn’t walk away, even if I wanted to, not when I knew the consequences. My whole life I had been about what was best for Jo, and this was when I had to decide to be a bigger person? Had my conscience simply been waiting for the biggest cluster fuck it could find?
“I’m going to handle it.”
“Whatever, Boss.” I dropped the subject. I had no desire to argue with him about an order I had no intention of following.
We sat in silence for a while before I decided to broach the next subject. “I saw a picture of your father once. It was in an article about how he started a real estate business that you grew and eventually used to fund building this casino. He was in his thirties in the picture. You looked just like him.”
“Yes, I did. He’s passed on now.”
“I saw that. I’m sorry.”
“As to that matter, I’ve got a few people working on yours, but they’ve been coming up dry. Is there anything you remember at all that might give them a lead?”
“No.” I’d said it too quickly. Just call me Captain Obvious why don’t you.
“I don’t know what secrets you’re holding on to, but maybe it could help. If you want this information, I would think you would want to tell them.”
“It’s not important.”
“You don’t know that. If you want to find them, you need to give us everything you have.”
“I’m doing my end, you do yours. I’m not obligated to hand over every little nitty-gritty detail of my life to you.”
“Really? Every nitty-gritty detail? Your life is a whopping black hole!”
“This conversation is over.” I got off the couch before he could continue but I didn’t make it out of the room in time to miss his last comment.
“Go ahead, Jo. Just keep running.”
I slammed my door in response. He didn’t know me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Why am I getting calls that you’ve been standing here all day?”
I turned to look at Cormac over the rim of my cup as I sipped my latte. “I haven’t been here all day. You should tell your spies to be more accurate.”
“You’ve been here a while.”
“I like watching the people.”
“Why watch them through the glass? Why don’t you go outside and sit on the bench, since you are becoming such a people person?”
“I’m happy right where I am.”
“Dod
d told me you were acting kind of funny the other day.”
“Do you know every single thing I do?”
He nodded. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“You’ll like it.”
I followed him up to the penthouse hallway, but instead of making a right, we made a left. He opened a door on the opposite end and I stepped in as he flicked the lights on. A staircase loomed in front of me but we were already on the top floor. And then it clicked. The roof.
“I completely forgot, I’ve got something I was supposed to do.”
I bolted toward the door but he stood in front and blocked my way. “You can do this.”
I dropped all pretenses. The gig was up. “No, I can’t. I really, really can’t.”
“You have to get past this.”
“Nope, I don’t think so. This place is really quite large. I can do everything I need to here.”
“Listen to me, if this was a phobia of something stupid, like snakes, we could work with it, no big deal. Even if it was a fear of something stupid, like, milk. Still not a big deal.” He grabbed my shoulders and angled my face towards his. “Jo, you won’t go outside. We can’t just avoid this!”
“I think I can.”
“I know you like to run.”
“You have a gym. You’ve really done quite well planning this place out. I have no reason to leave.”
“So you are agreeing to live here, forever?”
“You know what? You suck,” I said and plopped down on the stairs. I wouldn’t go up and I couldn’t go out.
He sat down next to me and I was extremely conscious of his side grazing mine.
“We have to do this.”
I didn’t say anything, just rested my forehead on my knees.
“Jo, you know I’m right.”
“I’m scared.” I didn’t look up.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened that night. I think you’ve been repressing your abilities so much that when you sleep is the only time your subconscious can let loose a bit.”
“I was stuck. What if that happens outside?”
“I think you got stuck because you woke up and panicked. Your subconscious didn’t realize it was feeling the ceiling. It thought you were stuck to the floor.”
“What if you are wrong?” I finally lifted my head to look at him.
“Let’s try. I promise I’ll hold onto you the entire time, unless you tell me to let go.” He held out his hand to me and I took it. It reminded me of another time he had held out his hand to me and I’d hesitated. I was starting to trust him.
I climbed the stairs to the roof with leaden feet.
“It’s going to be okay.”
I nodded but I was sick.
When he opened the door, I was awestruck. I expected to see a plain roof with a lousy tar floor. What I got was a nighttime wonderland.
Real grass covered the ground; a pool glistened in the center, with lights glowing all along a glass enclosure that ran the perimeter of the roof. Full-grown citrus trees grew next to arbors and stone pathways led to wrought iron chairs. It was magical.
The sound of Desert Rose by Sting filled the air. As we walked forward, I half expected a wood nymph to spring out in front of me.
“This is my favorite spot,” he said as we stopped about ten feet from the edge of the roof with its magnificent view. There were two giant weeping willows trimmed in such a way as to create an alcove, and clumps of wild flowers lay at our feet.
“How is this possible?”
“The trees?”
“Everything.”
“I’m the only one on the floor beneath. A huge chunk of it is taken up by the pool and the tree root systems.”
“It’s incredible.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
I felt his hand pull from mine but my panic was short lived as I felt his hand come around my back. He guided my other hand to his shoulder.
“I don’t dance.”
He pulled me into a soft embrace and started to move to the music. “Relax. We’re just friends hanging out on a rooftop.”
I started to move with him as I looked everywhere but his face. It was almost too easy. Our body’s fit together perfectly as we moved in sync. I could feel his heat surround me as we danced in a magical garden with the lights of Vegas around us.
When I finally looked up at him, I knew what I’d been avoiding. Even when he was relaxed as he was now, his intensity drew me. When I looked into his eyes, I felt laid bare. As if he could see right to the core of me. It drew me in as much as it frightened me.
I raised my face to his. Right now, I didn’t care what might come of us, I just wanted to feel him. I saw understanding in his eyes but instead of meeting me, he pulled back, and my world shifted on its axis. Had he just rejected me?
“How do you feel?”
“Hmmm? I’m fine.”
“I’m not holding your hand anymore.”
So wrapped up in the moment, everything else had fallen from notice. As I realized I now stood alone, I had to fight the urge not to cling to the closest tree, but I didn’t.
“You aren’t floating away.” He smiled but awkwardness hung in the air. Although nothing was said, we both knew what had just happened.
“Yes, I guess I’m cured. Mostly, anyway.”
“It’ll take a while to completely get over it.”
“Yes.” My mind was racing so fast it was hard to even keep track of what he was saying. “I’m actually a little cold. Let’s go back in.”
As we left the roof, I pondered to myself how quickly things change. The pursued to the rejected, and what a bitter taste it left.
Chapter Twenty-Five
While I cleaned out my trailer fridge, I thought of the last visitors from Festiva who had left this morning. I hadn’t been here in a while, and although I was about as far from Susie homemaker as you got, the milk and few other provisions I did have were long past their prime.
I’d come over here this morning to pay the rent for the next three months—working for Cormac paid generously. I also needed some space. It was hard getting use to this much togetherness, especially with how rejected I felt. I needed somewhere private to lick my wounds. I wasn’t used to having people around constantly. If it wasn’t Cormac, it was Dodd or Buzz. Then there was Ben. I don’t know where he had gone for the last week but he was there all the time, now.
I couldn’t even leave without the Cormac interrogation of where I was headed, another thing that drove me crazy, lately. I wanted to walk out the door for once without everyone having to know where I was going, and what I was doing. When I told him I was headed here, he couldn’t understand why. It was perhaps the stupidest question he had asked. Eventually this portal issue would be resolved, was I suppose to live in a tent in the desert, then? I knew he figured I’d have the money, but maybe I didn’t want to blow it on a place I didn’t need. Maybe I liked my trailer, even if no one else did.
It had been a little stressful getting here, since I still had my fear-of-floating-away anxiety going on, but it hadn’t happened once while I was awake. Since being on the roof the other night, I was starting to feel confident that maybe I wouldn’t drift off into space. I guess there was one positive thing that came out of it.
Walking around my little space, I was so glad I’d come. I lounged on my couch and flipped on my crappy little TV. It was a second hand couch, I stared at a twenty-inch screen, and I was happy. The setting sun filtered in a warm glow through my window, and I completely relaxed for the first time in weeks.
I heard my phone ring in my purse, and I wanted to ignore it. Only Cormac and his men called me. I wanted, no needed, a Cormac free zone, but I knew if I didn’t answer, I’d most likely have someone pounding on the door, soon. I gave up and dug my phone out.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at my place, Cormac. I told you I would be here.”
“When are you
coming back?”
“I’m staying here for tonight,” I said and then waited.
“Okay. When you coming back?”
I would have fallen over if I hadn’t been sitting. No fight?
“I’ll be back at nine.”
No argument, he just hung up. That was easy. Perhaps I was toeing the line too much. Nah, that couldn’t be it.
I looked out the window, knowing that there wasn’t much time before full nightfall, and quickly grabbed my worn out sneakers. I hadn’t been out running in weeks. I’d gone on the treadmill in the gym of the casino, but I longed to be outside. I wanted to feel my body moving, instead of feeling like a gerbil on a wheel.
I stretched my legs, then ran at a sprint because the world lay open and I could. I pushed all anxiety away, refusing even to think of it. I quickly became winded, and then fell into a slower steady pace. I didn’t make my way back to my place until a light sheen of sweat covered me and there was only the tiniest glimmer of light left in the sky.
My panting, and my complete physical relaxation from the strenuous exertion, added to my being oblivious to the two men until one of them had my arm wrenched behind my back.
The other thug, the one I could see, circled in front of me.
“You sure this is her?” He was huge, with a thick barrel chest, and greasy hair.
“She looks identical to the picture,” the guy who held me said.
“Okay, let’s get her to the car before anyone sees us.”
I fell limp, lulling the guy holding me into a false sense of security. I didn’t look like a threat, and I didn’t want to let them know I might be one. Might, I wasn’t sure, myself, how much of one I really was. I saw their car not twenty feet away, and I wanted to shoot myself for not having noticed it before. Didn’t matter, as long as these two weren’t Keepers, I could take them. I’d prefer the odds of one at a time, hell, I’d prefer a lot of things to be different, but that wasn’t working out too hot for me.
The larger of the two men walked ahead, clearly not concerned about me, which left me with just the one in near proximity. I’d never done it blind before, but I shot the energy through my arms, hoping for good contact.
The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) Page 16
