Reaper

by Lena North

  “I need facts. Toby is the kind of dog common down in Thend, and he could be from somewhere else, but it seemed like too big a coincidence. The images made me remember the program, though, and the numbers it came up with. Spent most of the night piecing the puzzle together. Finding the pattern.”

  I swallowed and held Hawker's gaze with mine. The lump in my throat was too big suddenly, and I couldn't make myself say the words.

  “Just spit it out, Annie,” he said calmly.

  “Crapola,” I whispered hoarsely and felt a tear leaking out of my eye. “The man shouted crapola.”

  There was a stunned silence, and I heard someone move, so I turned to look into sad, blue eyes.

  “Jamie?” Jinx whispered.

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “I guess it had to come out after all. I’ve been giving information to Cameron Strachlan. About where most of you are. About what you do…” he turned slowly and looked at Dante. “And about the security and police activity around Marshes.”

  There was a brief silence, and then Jinx moved. Dante put a strong arm around her waist to hold her back, and she struggled, but he didn't let go. Everyone was at their feet suddenly, and I moved closer to Olly.

  “Bastard,” Jinx hissed, and Jamie paled, but kept looking at her.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry isn’t good enough, Jamie. What the hell?” Nicky growled.

  He clenched his hands into fists so hard his knuckles were white, and I could see a muscle work in his jaw, but he kept his anger in check and watched his cousin with an intensity that made his eyes turn almost completely green.

  Then Miller suddenly moved toward Jamie, pushing him backward and roaring, “They would have killed Mary. They held her in a small cell in the basement, and she got fucking pneumonia from inhaling cold, muddy water. If the fever hadn’t killed her, they would have.”

  “No!” Jamie protested. “He promised me –”

  Miller pushed him into the wall and hissed into his face, “I will kill you for this.”

  “He promised me he wouldn’t kill any of you,” Jamie shouted.

  The room went eerily silent, but not in a calm way. It was menacing, and I felt Olly move next to me.

  “He lied,” Snow said into the silence.

  Miller took a few steps backward, and Snow kept talking.

  “He lied because he did kill. He killed my Aunt Bee, and you know it. And he would have killed Mary.”

  “It was an acci –”

  “It wasn’t an accident!” Snow shrieked. “Don’t you dare, Jamie. He would have killed Mary, and he killed Aunt Bee.” She took a deep breath, and added softly, “Do you know how I know, James?”

  He made a hoarse sound, and she walked up so close to him they almost touched.

  “He shot Nicky!” she yelled right in his face. “I love him more than life, more than myself and beyond anything, and he shot him straight in the heart. You were there, Jamie, so you know. His heart stopped beating three times. Nicky died three times.” She took a step back and whispered, “That’s how I know he lied to you, and that’s how I know you are lying to us right now because you were there. You stitched that heart together again, so you know.”

  “It was…”

  “Why, Jamie?” she asked, sounding calm but tears were streaming down her cheeks.

  “I…”

  “Why?”

  When I saw the look on Jamie’s face, the pieces fell into place, and he might not tell them the truth, but I would.

  “You,” I said. “You were part of it, Snow. And Jinx. And so was your foolish pride, Jamie.”

  His eyes came to me then, and they weren't sad anymore. They were defeated.

  “Everybody – sit down,” Hawker barked. “Jamieson, that chair,” he ordered and pointed to a chair at the back end of the room. “Annie, explain.”

  While they moved around, I turned to Olly.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “You?”

  “Yeah,” I echoed and turned to look at Jinx.

  She was pale, and her lips were pressed into a thin line, but she held it together. I knew how I would feel and walked over to lean down. “Don't take this on, Jinx,” I murmured in her ear, and squeezed her shoulder. “Not your fault.”

  Then I turned around and focused on the only one in the room who seemed calm enough to understand what I was about to say.

  Hawker.

  “Cam told Jamie that Byron killed me and that you had hushed it up, Hawker,” I started and raised my hand when it looked like he wanted to protest. “Snow told me about those papers she and Wilder got out of the research center, and what it said in the margin next to my name. Remember the tapes, it said. I believe Cam blackmailed Jamie with a recording of how he watched what they did to me. I know Cam gave Jamie money for the information he provided. I have the bank records to prove that. And I have reason to believe Cam threatened to kill Jinx if Jamie didn’t cooperate, but I can’t prove it.”

  Hawker’s brows went up, and he turned to Jamie.

  “Which of the reasons Annie just gave made you betray us?”

  Jamie didn’t answer, so I did.

  “It was all of them. It started when Paolo Fratinelli died, and Cam needed another source, but it began for real when he first saw Snow,” I said. “It was that bright and shiny future, wasn’t it, Jamie? Famous scientist with your own lab, working with Jiminella Sweetwater and creating a family in Marshes… with Snow.”

  Jamie still didn’t say anything, so I pushed again.

  “Initially you justified it by saying that it was revenge for me. Hawker deserved it, and the ones around him did too because they'd helped. The money he gave you would set up that research center you want. As you became more involved, he went on to threaten you with the tapes, didn't he? You couldn't let him show them to anyone. All you did was to do nothing, but it looked bad, didn't it? It looked like you were a dirty little peeping Tom, and Jinx might have listened to you, but maybe she wouldn't have. Not a risk you wanted to take, James? You couldn't risk the girl of your choice, the family of your dreams, and that bright and shiny future –”

  “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “Yes, goddamn it. All I wanted was to belong somewhere. To be someone. He said he wouldn’t kill anyone. It was mistakes, accidents, he said.”

  Snow was crying silently, and Nicky had pulled her into his arms.

  “I'm sorry,” Jamie said again, looking at Jinx almost pleadingly. “I tried to get out, but he said he'd kill you. I know it isn't enough, but it's all I have. I swear to you, I'll find a way to make this right.”

  “There is nothing you can do to make this right. I don't ever want to see you again,” Jinx said hoarsely. “You are nothing to me except a small, ugly stain in my past and I will spend the rest of my life not thinking about you.”

  Jamie twitched as if she’d slapped him, and I was pretty sure that’s how it felt.

  “I liked you, Jamie,” Snow said quietly. “You should try to make this right again for yourself, but Jiminella is right. You are nothing to me either.”

  There was a long silence, and both Jinx and Snow stared calmly at Jamie. He turned to his cousin, but Nicky turned his face away from him and clenched his jaws.

  “Don’t,” he whispered hoarsely. “I can’t even look at you. I died three times because of you, and I’ll never forgive you for that.”

  Jamie made a strangled sound as if Nick had punched him in his belly, bent his head and murmured, “I'll tell you everything I know, Hawker.”

  “Damned straight you will,” Hawker said. “Everybody, sit.”

  Can we take a short break?” Dante murmured and moved toward Jinx.

  “Everyone will do what I say, right now,” Hawker said loudly, in an eerily calm voice. “Your girls both have spines of steel, they'll deal.” Nicky opened his mouth, but Hawker had had enough, and barked, “Don't make me tell you again.”
/>
  No one made him tell them again.

  “There’s another thing,” I said quietly as the others moved toward the chairs and couches.

  He turned his eyes toward me, and I almost took a step back from the force in them. I'd thought I knew him, but at that moment, I realized that I'd had no clue. Energy swirled around him, and the determination in his whole being was absolute. Jesus, I thought, if he told me to jump off a cliff I would. And if he'd lived a thousand years ago he would have been a warrior. A general, leading the troops into battle and they would have followed him wherever he went.

  “Give me the short version,” he ordered quietly.

  “There’s still something I don’t understand about the crystal and the swords. Something about a prophecy or legacy that we need to look into, but I don’t think Jamie knows about it.”

  “Shit,” he said.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “We’ll deal with the ass over there now. The rest can wait.”

  “Yes,” I repeated because really?

  Saying anything else wasn’t an option.

  Then I sat down next to Olly and watched as Hawker fired questions at James Jamieson.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Byron

  Jamie answered all Hawker’s questions quietly, slowly and sometimes after thinking through his answers for a second or two. Hawker was flanked by Dante who read Jamie’s mind and Nick who watched his every move, searching for signs that he was lying. Jamie looked and sounded honest. He also looked wholly and utterly devastated. There was a sheen of tears in his eyes, but he held it together, made no excuses, and answered question after harsh question.

  As they talked through every encounter Jamie had ever had with Cameron, I started thinking that he was either a fantastic actor or else he was genuinely remorseful.

  “I’m done,” Hawk said. “Anyone else has anything to ask?”

  I waited for the others because surely they would want to talk to Jamie about what had happened? Everyone else was stone-faced and silent. Jinx looked away, and Snow put an arm around her shoulders, whispering something into her hair.

  “I have a couple of questions,” I said when Hawker started to move.

  Jamie turned to me, and I swallowed. Maybe I was making a mistake, but I had to say something.

  “You were wrong, Jamie, but it all started with your anger for my alleged death, so I thank you for that, at least.”

  Jinx made a huffing sound, but I ignored her and relaxed a little when Olly put an arm around me for support. They were angry, and I was too, but there were two sides to every story. Everything he’d told us spoke of his betrayal, but he had mostly shared our locations and the police activity in areas where he knew about it. He hadn’t been involved in Hawker’s investigations, so he hadn’t known to what extent Cam had been a suspect. And he hadn’t shared things which would have been more devastating.

  “When you found out that I was alive, you didn’t tell Cam where I was. Why didn’t you?” I asked.

  He swallowed and moved a hand over his face in a tired gesture.

  “A long time ago I stood outside a locked door and watched Cam pleasure himself in front of you, Annie. And I did nothing. It was as if the world had ceased to exist and I couldn’t move. I tried to think about something to do, something that would help, but I froze. I could have knocked on the door. Screamed. Some of the guards were decent. I could have run to them, and they would have helped. And I did nothing. I lived with that, and when I heard you were dead, I needed to atone. I wanted to avenge your death because of those minutes outside a locked door. They felt like a lifetime then, and I still dream about those moments sometimes.” He wiped away a tear that had leaked out of his left eye, and said, “When I heard you were alive, I had to accept what I already knew. I’d been played. I still gave Cam information after that, but I lied. Made deliberate mistakes. Said Wilder was at Double H when she was in Norton. Didn’t tell about changes to guard rotations in Marshes.”

  “Okay,” I whispered. “How do you feel now, Jamie?”

  He reared back a little in surprise.

  “How I feel?”

  “Yes. How do you feel, right now?”

  He swallowed, and another lonely tear leaked out of his eye. He didn't wipe it away, and it trailed down his cheek and over a jaw where a muscle was working frantically.

  “You’re right. It started in anger, but I lost perspective. He told me lies and showed proof, but I knew Cam. I should have known... It was my goddamned ambitions. My dreams... And right now, I feel like a sad fool. I became someone I can be nothing but thoroughly ashamed of. I feel like I don't even deserve to live.” He sucked in air and turned to Hawker. “Can I leave?”

  “Sure,” Hawk said.

  Jamie got up and said without looking back, “I’m taking one of the cars. I’ll have it sent back.”

  “But –”

  Hawker shook his head and grunted something unintelligible, which stopped Mac’s protest. Then the door closed softly after Jamie.

  “He’s honestly devastated,” Dante said hoarsely. “He can’t lie, not to me.”

  “Not to me either,” Nick said. “And yeah, he was telling the truth.”

  “Why did you let him go?”

  “We’ll see where he goes. My bird will monitor his movements, so we’ll know if he stays devastated and honest or if he betrays us again.”

  “What if he goes to Cameron?” I asked.

  “Then we’ll know where the fucker is.”

  “He’ll hurt Jamie.”

  “Don’t give a shit.”

  “Hawk.”

  “I don’t accept betrayal.”

  “Bull,” Olly muttered, and added calmly when Hawker straightened, “Allie.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t be an idiot just because you’re pissed, Hawk,” Olly said. “Allie betrayed us, and talked to Cameron about us. Almost got Mill killed. You had her at your dinner table a few days ago.”

  They glared at each other and then Olly sighed.

  “Ma didn’t die because of him. Nick didn’t die three times because of him. They died because of Cameron Strachlan. Jamie was wrong to do what he did, but don’t blow this out of proportion.”

  “Olly,” Snow started but stopped when he got up and pulled me along.

  “Let’s find some food. I’m hungry.”

  Sloane got up and led us to the kitchen where she promptly pulled out sandwich makings and started making coffee. The mood was tense, but Olly had been right. We needed to calm down, and we needed sustenance, and as we ate, we slowly started talking about what had happened.

  “We need to find who in Thend he's been hiding with,” Mary said quietly.

  “We’ll eat up and go home to ask Reuben, baby,” Miller murmured. “He’ll give us names to look into. He probably knows who sells hooch, at least, so we’ll start there.”

  “Home?” Hawk asked.

  “He’s at our place, helping Vera to look after the girls.” Miller made a face and added, “I think he has a crush on her.”

  No one laughed, but the mood lifted a little. I didn't know Reuben, but I’d met Vera, so I smiled, although it faded when my dragonflies called out to me, urgently and loudly.

  “See!”

  I shifted my vision to their eyes and gasped. Jamie had gotten out of the black SUV he’d taken and was yelling at a short man with long white-blonde hair.

  “Shit,” Hawk muttered, and I knew he watched too, through the eyes of his bird. “Jamieson is just down the mountain, yelling at Francesco Fratinelli on the side of the road. What the hell is that idiot doing out of prison?”

  Without warning, the blonde man suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Jamie. It looked like the bullet hit him right in the chest and I gave up a soft scream.

  “What the hell... Fratinelli shot him,” Hawker said. “Lets –”

  Everyone was moving restlessly, and
I saw both Wilder and Mac turn away, probably to communicate with their birds. As I watched, Jamie was dumped in the trunk of the other man's car, and then they sped down the road, away from Norton. I let go of my dragonflies when the car disappeared around a corner.

  “Is he dead?” Nick asked.

  “Don’t know,” I answered when Hawker didn’t share any details. “Looks bad, Nicky.”

  “Let’s go,” Hawker said. “He put Jamie in his car, going south now. Not many places he can hide, so he’ll head toward Marshes. Dante, get your men out to meet him. We’ll try to catch up from behind.”

  Dante already had his phone out and was murmuring in it, Snow and Nicky were moving toward the door, and I looked at Olly who seemed to talk to his bird as well.

  “Mill,” Hawk barked. “Take Mary and go home. Talk to Reuben, see what you can find out. Olly, Annie, you go with them. Sloane, you’ll take Jinx and our boy, go to Da. Everyone else, three cars, let’s go.”

  Miller held Mary close to his side, and we watched in silence as they sped down the road, Hawker taking the lead with a light flashing on the roof of his car.

  “Jesus,” Miller said hoarsely. “I said I'd kill him, but I didn't –”

  He cut himself off, and I knew what he meant. He'd been furious, but he hadn't wanted Jamie to die.

  “Let’s go to your home,” I said, thinking that having something to do would be good for all of us. “We might find something that’ll help so we should get going too.”

  Jinx didn’t want to stay with Hawker’s father and argued fiercely with Miller who tried to convince her she needed to follow orders.

  “Wasting time on a battle you’ll lose, man,” Olly said when it had gone on for a while.

  Then he handed Jinx her jacket and walked toward the door. Miller growled something about geniuses, dropped the f-bomb a few times, but pushed his wife and Jinx in front of him. Sloane waved at us from Gilmore’s doorway, and then we left.

  It took five minutes to reach their house, and I let the cold wind clear my head. I'd need to use all my abilities in the coming hours.

  “Blood!” a dragonfly chirped angrily in front of me when I got off my bike. “Bad.”