It wasn’t perfect, but he let out a yelp and released me long enough to finish the job. My knee connected between his legs and I blasted him full force. Before I’d finished, a hand grabbed my shoulder, and ripped me away from my current victim. With no time to dodge the huge fist aimed right at my face, I concentrated on throwing my hands on his arm when he connected. It hurt like a son of a gun when he did, and I was afraid I’d lose consciousness, but I held on. I’d managed to throw enough juice at him that he was clutching his arm in agony. I wasn’t sure how long I’d have, so I took off at a run with no cell phone or purse.
I couldn’t find a single pay phone. Ever since cell phones, they’ve become increasingly harder and harder to find. An hour later, I was still jogging at a steady pace and had just made it to the Vegas Strip. I knew I must have looked a wreck because of the number of stares I received.
I’d given up on stopping to call, and just jogged the whole way over. My legs burned worse than the last marathon I’d run, and I never thought I’d feel so grateful to be back at Lacard.
No one questioned me as I walked in. They all recognized me. I wasn’t sure if Cormac handed my picture out or what, but lately I could do whatever I wanted without so much as a raised eyebrow.
My feet were sore by the time I stepped out of the elevator into the hallway that led to the penthouse. The hall was empty, which was slightly unusual, but not unheard of when Cormac was home. You couldn’t get off of his floor without entering a code, anyway, so it wasn’t necessary.
The moment I opened the door, I knew something was odd. I just didn’t know what. Then I noticed the smell of perfume that lingered in the air, and it clawed at my brain. I knew that scent.
I turned the corner to find Lacey’s back to me, her hand rested on Cormac’s thigh. Cormac’s eyes shifted upward to mine instantly and locked.
I wasn’t sure what he saw there, but I knew what I felt like. It stabbed right to the heart of me. While I attacked, he’d been trying to screw the only friend I’d ever had.
The other night suddenly made sense to me. He’d moved on. I said nothing, I knew I didn’t have any valid cause to be upset. I stepped out of the room before Lacey even noticed my presence, and closed my door as silently as possible. Then I lay on my bed in the dark.
When a knock sounded on my door less than five minutes later, I wasn’t sure who it was, Lacey or Cormac. It didn’t make a difference. I didn’t want to see either of them. Lacey was still the only friend I had and I didn’t want to not be happy for her, but it was hard and I needed a little time to adjust. And Cormac, well, I just didn’t want to see him.
“I’m just getting in the shower.”
“Let me in.” It was Cormac’s baritone voice.
“I’ll come out when I’m done.”
My eyes shot to the door as it swung open.
“What the hell happened to you? You’re a mess.”
I had a vague idea of what I probably looked like. I knew my nose had bled when the thug punched me in the face, I was also aware my torn shirt and who knew how much dirt clung to me.
“How did you get in? Where is Lacey?”
“I sent Lacey home. Told her I forgot about a meeting.”
“You never forget anything.”
“Yeah, well, she bought it.”
“How did you get in?”
“Hanger. Now what happened to you? You’re a wreck.”
“Two guys jumped me on my way back from a jog.” I gave him a complete rundown of the short events.
“Did they say anything else?”
“Nothing much. Just compared me to a photo they had and agreed I was the correct target.”
“Let me look at your nose.”
“My nose is fine.”
“It looks broken.”
“Ow! Get off!” I said as he leaned over me and started touching my face.
“We’ve got to get that set unless you want to look like a former boxer for the rest of your days. I’ll call the doctor.”
“I’ll do it myself.”
“You’ll never be able to do it yourself.”
He reached in again to touch my face and I knocked his hand away.
“Why are you angry?”
“I’m not,” I screamed.
I pushed off the bed and stepped around him into the bathroom. My reflection caught me a bit off guard; blood had dripped down my face and made a trail down the front of my ripped shirt. Cormac’s reflection over my left shoulder grimaced.
“We have to get that set. Your bones are already meshing together.”
“I’m handling it.” I gently ran my fingers along the crooked bridge of my nose, trying to determine the best way to proceed.
“You have no right to be mad.”
“I’m not sure if you noticed, but I don’t have a lot of friends. Do you have to fuck the only one I have?”
“I haven’t fucked her. She’s a nice girl. Did you want me to wait around forever?”
I didn’t want to admit it, but yes, that is exactly what I had wanted him to do. Just because I rejected him, didn’t mean he was supposed to move to the next girl. What kind of crap was that?
“Why her?”
“Why not? Did you have someone else in mind?”
Unfortunately, I did, whether I wanted to admit it or not. Not willing to go there, I ignored the question and tried to figure out what to do about my nose. He was right, if I didn’t get it straightened out soon, I would indeed look like an ex-boxer. I gripped the bottom portion of my nose and saw Cormac shake his head.
“You’re going to do it wrong.”
“Shut up. I’ve got this under control.”
I closed my eyes, took a large breath and tried to ram it into place. The pain was horrific and it took a minute to catch my breath and get control. Once I did, I looked at my handy work. It looked worse than when I had started.
“I told you. Now turn around and let me see how much worse you made it.”
I complied out of a sheer panic of vanity. I’d always been pretty, and I suddenly realized I didn’t want to be any other way.
“We might not have time to call the doctor. You’re really starting to set up.”
“That quickly?”
“It happens like that sometimes.”
“You’re right, I can’t do it. Fix it.”
“It’s going to hurt like hell.”
“Just do it.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t want a crooked nose. Do it!”
I thought he was going to argue with me, but he just snapped my bones back. The pain shot through my head and I ran over to the toilet and threw up what little I had eaten.
A wet towel hung near my face after I finished.
“I thought you were going to give me a warning first.”
“Just makes it worse.”
“Not possible. It didn’t feel that bad when it happened.”
“You had adrenaline pumping through you. I’m putting the guys back on you.”
“No, you are not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You gave me your word.”
“When you weren’t being attacked.”
“So you are breaking it?”
He stood silently for a moment. I knew I had hit a nerve. “How about no guards as long as you are on the casino grounds? You take someone if you go anywhere else.”
I was about to open my mouth in protest.
“Work with me.”
“Fine. Now back up. You’re crowding me.” Every cell in my body was at full alert with him so close.
He didn’t move an inch. “Sooner or later, you are going to have to work on this intimacy problem you have. You wonder why I’m interested in Lacey, why I didn’t touch you on the rooftop? Because of this.”
I looked into his eyes. “Don’t you get it? I’m broken, and not the kind that can be fixed. This is who I am and who I’m always going to be. And I’m sick of hearing you tell me what’s wron
g, so either deal with it or I’m leaving.” His eyes were so intense on me it chilled my skin and I forgot any pain my nose had caused. Unsettled, I folded and moved first, leaving him standing alone in the bathroom as I walked out the door.
“So does that mean you are admitting there is a problem?” I heard him yell as I walked to the other room.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Maybe we should hold hands like we did with the radiation problem?” I asked as I banged the back of my head against the hard wall that was acting as my seat back.
“No, this part doesn’t work like that,” Dodd explained.
“Maybe I should jump in it before it slams shut?” I offered.
“Not a chance. It could crush you,” said Cormac.
It was almost two in the morning and they still couldn’t get the portal up and running for longer than a minute. The two people who were traveling back had been waiting in the other room for four hours now.
“Boss?”
“What’s up, Buzz?”
“They’re getting pretty impatient over there and Tracker just showed. He wants to know why his people haven’t crossed, yet.”
“Tell them it’s off for tonight. I’ll come over and talk to Tracker in a couple of minutes.”
I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. This had just gone from bad to disastrous. I heard the click of the door shutting and opened my eyes just in time to see Dodd’s hand slam against the table. Cormac stood deathly still, just staring at where the portal should have hovered open, displaying a beautiful lavender sky.
I stood and stamped the pins and needles out of my foot. “There has to be someone with answers. I can’t believe you guys don’t have an owner’s manual or something.”
“I wish,” Cormac replied.
“Well, who trained you? You must have had some sort of mentor?”
“That would be Hammond. The guy I can’t find. Let me go get this over with.” I watched Cormac’s heavy steps as he left the room.
“What’s he going to say?” I asked Dodd.
“I don’t know, but he’ll buy us some time. I’ll be right back. I’m going to see if I can help things along a little.”
“Yeah, go. I’ll be here doing nothing.”
Alone in the room, I ran my hand down one of the ebony monoliths, wishing I could unlock a problem that people so much more knowledgeable than me were stymied by, and I was frustrated. Knowing the room was soundproofed, I let out a scream that contained all my pent up anger at the situation, my repressed anger at always being the underdog, and most of all, I released my disgust of myself at being helpless.
The lights in the room flickered off, and were quickly replaced by the portal bursting open. I’d never seen it so large in any of the times I’d been there. It shot toward the ceiling and pressed from wall to wall, leaving dents where the walls strained to contain it.
On the other side, I saw two men, one I didn’t recognize, but the other was the guy in the suit who had gone into the doctor’s office with Tracker. Both of their faces gaped open in shock.
“Who are you?” the man in the suit hollered down the length of the portal.
“Who are you?” I hollered back. Who’d this guy think he was?
He stepped into the portal and started making his way to me.
I didn’t want to panic, but I had a real bad feeling about this guy. I considered making a break for the door, but I didn’t want to run. Something about the idea of running from this guy made me mad, so I stood my ground.
As long as he wasn’t immune to my skills, I could take him. He was about five feet ten inches and of average build. His appearance gave me the impression that he wasn’t the type to get physical, or at least, he didn’t look like he was used to getting dirty, might be a more accurate way to describe him.
His shoes hitting the interior floor announced his official exit from the portal.
“Who are you?”
His voice was deep, even now that he wasn’t yelling. I saw the silver at his temples and slight wrinkling at the corner of his eyes. Even without this display of age, I could sense his experience by his carriage and the confidence he held within himself.
“Not going to answer?” he asked.
“I’m not sure why you think I owe you any answers?”
“It doesn’t matter. I might not know what hole you dragged yourself out of, but I know who you are, regardless.”
“Excuse me? Would you care to elaborate?”
“You stand there like your tough and confident, but I know the truth that lies beneath the act. Now, it’s time you crawl back to the gutter and get out of my business.”
“You’re right, I do come from the gutter, and guess what? That’s how I fight too.” Before I gave him even a second to react, I kicked him in the stomach. I threw everything I had into it and he fell backward into the portal. The rage over his words, and my fear that he was correct, fueled my energy as it shot out of me. He’d been so confident in his physical superiority his relaxed posture had made him an easy mark and he flew back a couple feet into the portal.
A second after he hit the portal, I heard the door swing open. As I turned to see Cormac and Dodd walking in, I felt a swoosh of air as the portal instantly collapsed with a force so strong it created an aftershock that shook the very walls.
“Oh, god!” I said frantically, looking from Dodd to Cormac. “I gotta get this thing back open!”
“What the…”
“Cormac, I just shoved a man in there before it collapsed!”
“What the hell happened in here?” Dodd finally articulated. The two of them circled the room, the smell of dust in the air.
“Whatever you did dented the walls.”
I turned to where Cormac stood, and I saw the cracks that were running floor to ceiling. It looked like an explosion had happened.
My hands started to shake violently and I started gasping for air. It felt like I couldn’t catch my breath no matter how hard I tried.
“It’s okay. Just relax,” Cormac said, his arm around me.
“I killed him.” I’d done horrible things, but this was a first. I’d hurt people, but I had never, ever, killed a single soul.
“Who?” His hand was rubbing my back, and as much as I wanted to fall into the curve of his arm, I thought of the man’s words before he died.
“The guy I saw with Tracker. I killed him. I pushed him into the portal and then it collapsed.”
“What did he look like?”
With shaky hands, I reached in and pulled out my phone, flipping through the pictures.
“This is him.” I handed my phone to Cormac, Dodd looking over his shoulder.
“I can’t make out anything. It’s a complete blur.”
“It’s not like I could ask him to stand still and pose.”
“Can you make anything of this?” Cormac held the phone closer to Dodd.
“Nothing.”
“You’re sure it was the same guy you saw with Tracker? One hundred percent sure?”
“Yes.”
“If she’s right, then it is Tracker behind all of this. How’s he been pulling it off? We’ve been trailing him for months,” Dodd said.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were watching him when I told you my suspicions?”
“I thought I had ruled him out. When he had us take his little brother through, I really thought he was innocent.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“He didn’t leave long ago. Call the guys upstairs and put a tail on him. I want every piece of property he has watched. I want anyone he’s ever spoken to in the last year watched. I want to know a complete list of the Keepers who are cooperating with him, every single last one who is involved.”
Dodd pulled out his cell phone, and walked off to make the calls. I turned and watched as Cormac ran his hand along the dent on the floor, then he turned and looked to me.
“What the hell did you do? It looks like a bom
b went off in here. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I just shrugged my shoulders. I had no clue.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It had taken a week for the Keeper construction crew and engineers to fix the portal room, which also served as a great excuse to shut it down. Unfortunately, Tracker had fallen off the ends of the earth in that week. After he left the casino that day, he’d vanished. He wasn’t answering any of Cormac’s calls and there was a feeling of impending doom that hovered in the air around the penthouse. The general consensus was that he knew the curtain had been pulled back and his time was limited. Tracker’s only option now was to pull out the big guns. Our problem was; we didn’t know how big those guns were.
As I waited in line to order my latte that day, the very last person I expected to see was Tracker passing by the window, right on the strip, in plain sight of the casino.
“Excuse me,” I said, to a woman I almost knocked over as I rushed from the coffee shop. My hand fumbled into my pocket for my phone to call Cormac while I pushed out the door to follow Tracker down the strip.
“Hello?”
“Cormac, I’ve got Tracker in my sights. I’m following him down the Strip.”
“No. Just give me your location and wait there.”
“If I do that, I’ll lose him.”
“I don’t care.”
“I’m heading east down the Strip.”
“Are you deaf? I said don’t follow him.”
“I’ll call you when I get a location,” I said and hung up the phone to the sound of him cursing. The ringer started chiming less than ten seconds later and I turned it off.
Why was Tracker walking? He had to be going somewhere close by, and then as if I jinxed myself, he got in a cab. I frantically waved down the next one I saw.
“Here, follow that cab, but don’t let him know.” I shoved two one-hundred dollar bills at him. Cormac liked all his employees to have a minimum of a thousand petty cash on them. I told him I wasn’t his employee. We had compromised with the term independent contractor. He then insisted that all of his independent contractors needed to have a thousand in cash on hand at all times. I didn’t feel like arguing anymore and just took the cash. Not that it wasn’t nice, I just resented his controlling nature at the time. Now I was glad. As it turned out, it wasn’t such a bad policy.
The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) Page 17
