Collateral Damage: A Tethered Novel

by Wayne, Jessica

  “Not this, see how the list is shorter?” Paislee compared her list to the one in Timothy’s hand. “There was something covered up at the bottom of this page.”

  “But what?”

  “Are you sure he hadn’t gotten anything out?” Paislee clarified.

  “Nearly a hundred percent, but I want to be sure.” His phone rang. “McGinley. When?” His body straightened, and his blood began to pound. Coincidence? Perhaps, but he doubted it. “On my way.”

  “What is it?” Aengus asked.

  “Someone broke into my building, it looks like something from crate one-forty-two was taken.”

  “One-forty-two?” Aengus began looking at the forms in his hand until Timothy tossed his sheet down on the table and pointed to the crate number.

  “Well, that’s one hell of a coincidence,” Paislee commented.

  “I need to get down there.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Aengus stood, and Paislee followed suit.

  “Paislee-”

  She put her hand up. “I get it. It might be a trap, stay put, don’t feed them after midnight.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Aengus wondered.

  “Have you never watched a movie?”

  He stared at her blankly, and she shook her head. “Never mind. I’ll be here. Unless, of course, you have any other ex-girlfriends who want to drive a dagger into my heart?”

  “None come to mind,” he responded sarcastically.

  “Good, I’ll get a shower and hang out here until you guys get back. I can keep looking to see if anything else pops up.”

  “Thanks.” Timothy kissed her on the cheek, and he and Aengus left the apartment. She watched them go and then walked in to wash the grime of the day away.

  * * *

  Paislee was drying her hair by the window when she noticed a man on the street watching the building. With how high they were, she couldn’t see his face, but he was the same build as Jake.

  He wore a dark jacket and cap over his head, but his eyes were focused intently on the apartment building. She rushed into the bedroom and finished dressing, before dashing downstairs and onto the street. She had managed to sneak out quickly, but she knew the guard was probably already calling Timothy, which meant she only had minutes to figure out who that man was and where he was going.

  Her hair up in a ball cap, she stepped out into the cold and searched the street for the man. She saw a dark jacket walking away and chose to follow. She kept her distance, and her head down as she walked trying to not draw attention to herself.

  The streets were crowded today, which could make for a quick getaway if necessary. After all, if there was anything she knew how to do at this point, it was run.

  The man turned down a corner, and she kept walking, only sparing a quick glance into the alley. There was only one exit, so she could circle around the building and wait for him to step back out.

  Just as she was stepping around the corner, her shoulder bumped into someone hard, but before she could say excuse me, she looked into the familiar blue eyes of the man she believed had been Jake Parish.

  “Isn’t this a treat?” He grinned, and Paislee turned to run, but his grip on her arm was strong. “Let’s have a chat, shall we?” He pulled her down into the same alley he had disappeared into only moments before and slammed her against the wall on the other side of a dumpster.

  “I could scream you know,” she growled.

  “You could, but anyone who came in here would have to be put down if you did. Can’t have any witnesses.”

  “You wouldn’t dare. Too many bodies would equal a hell of a lot of questions.”

  “Perhaps, but do you really want to risk it?”

  “What do you want?”

  “I told you, to talk.”

  “I don’t have anything to say to you. You’re a murderer.”

  He shrugged. “I do my job.”

  “Your job is to kill innocent people.”

  “Was Giselle innocent?” He asked her.

  “So, you were the one who pulled the trigger on her then?”

  “I told you, I only do my job. Although, I would be lying if I didn’t say I took some pleasure out of putting her down.”

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  “It should, it certainly surprised me. Typically, I have no emotions when it comes to performing my duties, but after seeing her on top of you, it did something to me.” His devilishly handsome face contorted slightly into a frown.

  “Why is that?”

  He shrugged, and it was gone. “Who knows. Maybe I grew mildly attached to you.”

  “You’re so full of shit.”

  “Am I?” He laughed. “It probably is because I want to be the one to kill you,” he growled and leaned closer to her. For the first time, she saw the glint of a blade in his hand.

  “Why is that?”

  “You and I aren’t so different Paislee. We both do our jobs right?”

  “My job isn’t to kill people.”

  “Oh, it’s not? Because I have a very vivid memory of you murdering my brother.”

  She paled. “What are you talking about?”

  “When I was about twelve, my brother and I went with our father to Malcolm Gentry’s house. You were on proud display in his living room, and my brother became rather interested in you. He was older, closer to your age, so I suppose about sixteen at the time.”

  She stiffened, she knew exactly who he was talking about now. The blade pressed against her jugular.

  “He wanted to get a closer look, and you coerced him into opening the cage. Do you remember that Paislee? Do you remember using him to free yourself?”

  “I didn’t kill him,” she choked out as his hand closed around her throat.

  “You might as well have. You nearly escaped, and Malcolm killed him for opening the door. Don’t you remember? He killed him right in front of my father and I. Do you know how it feels to watch your brother bleed to death on the floor?”

  “I’m sorry, but it’s not me you should be after!”

  “Oh, Paislee.” He pressed his lips to her throat just above the blade. “I have every intention of killing Malcolm as well.”

  Her neck began to sting, and she could feel drops of blood on her skin. She knew she only had moments, so she did what Timothy had taught her, and attacked.

  * * *

  “Shit, this is a mess,” Timothy commented as he stepped around the mess of crates in his storage room.

  “It is,” Aengus agreed. “Any ideas as to who it was?”

  “One. But now I’m thinking it may have been someone else.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Jake knew exactly where that crate was, he wouldn’t have needed to make such a mess looking for it.”

  “Perhaps he did it on purpose.”

  Timothy thought about that for a moment and then shook his head. “No this was done by someone in a hurry, someone with no love for antiques.” He looked disgusted at the nearly three-century-old vase that had shattered on the ground.

  Ashton nodded. “Someone cut the feeds, so we’ve got nothing. I’m going to pull from the ATM on the street to see if it caught anything, but as of now we’re blind.”

  “We need to know what was in that crate,” Timothy insisted. “Can you look into it?”

  Ashton nodded. “I’ll put a call into the company that shipped it.”

  Timothy handed him the roster with the contact information, and Ashton turned to leave the room.

  “I’m sorry your business has been harmed like this,” Aengus offered.

  “I’m just disgusted at the amount of damage to the antiques. These are priceless artifacts from history, and some asshole came in here and destroyed them.”

  “We’ll get whoever did this”

  “I know we will.” Timothy stood, and Aengus clasped a hand on his shoulder.

  All in all, Timothy was glad his friend was there. He still worried abo
ut Aengus risking his life, but it was nice having someone he knew he could trust completely.

  He trusted Paislee, sure. But there were some things he couldn’t tell her just yet. He couldn’t risk her running off after Malcolm by herself on a whim. Aengus was level-headed though, and for once Timothy wasn’t the oldest thing in the room.

  Ashton rushed back into the room. “We’ve got a problem.”

  “What is it?”

  “Paislee snuck out of the apartment. Andrew tried to stop her, but she ran out quicker than he could get to her.”

  “Fuck,” Timothy growled, and headed towards the door. “Any idea where she is going?”

  “Andrew said the reason she managed to get out, was that he was studying a man who appeared to be staring at the building. He had focused in on him with the camera, and was running facial recognition software when she left.”

  “Whoever this man is, she must have recognized him.”

  “My guy couldn’t get a hit, but he believes it was Jake.”

  “Son of a bitch.” Timothy quickened his pace, Aengus, and Ashton right beside him.

  * * *

  Jake groaned as Paislee kneed him in the side. He had been blocking his groin otherwise that’s where she would have aimed.

  Once he had pulled the knife away, she brought her hands up to break the grip he had on her throat. He slammed his fist into the side of her face, and she saw stars.

  “I will bleed you bitch.” He gripped the back of her hair, but dammit she wasn’t going down that easy. Knowing it would hurt like hell, she twisted in his grip and bent over to wrap her arms around his waist. She used all the strength she had and rammed him backward.

  When he fell to the ground, she released the magic she had instinctively been holding back.

  “Feel like an asshole now?” She grinned as the magic sparked on her fingers.

  Jake grinned at her, his teeth bloody from biting his lip as he fell. “I’m not the one who should be feeling like an asshole.”

  Paislee’s skin began to glow as she knelt in front of him, the fear in his eyes would have made her smile, but she knew all too well the anger he was feeling. “I was not responsible for your brother. His death is something that weighs on me every single day.”

  Jake’s mouth turned up in disgust. “You are a liar. You and I both know you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.” He charged her again, and her magic shot him back the second he touched her.

  His head cracked against the wall behind him, and he slumped forward. Paislee knelt in front of him and was checking his pulse when Timothy, Aengus, and Ashton burst into the alley.

  “What the fuck happened?” Timothy demanded as he dropped to his knees beside her.

  Ashton checked for a pulse. “He’s alive.”

  “I kicked his ass, that’s what happened,” Paislee’s voice held no humor though. Truth was, she couldn’t blame him for hating her.

  “You could have died Paislee, this is not a joke,” Ashton scolded her for the first time.

  “I know it was dumb, but I needed to know who he was. Now I do, and now we have him in our custody.”

  “We need to get out of this alley, can you call a car and have them come get him? He may know something, and we don’t want him falling into the hands of the police. At least not yet,” Timothy added.

  “On it.” Ashton pulled out his phone.

  Timothy turned his attention back on Paislee, and using his fingers, tilted her head up to see the bruises already forming on her throat. “What happened?” he asked her softly.

  She shook her head. “Not here.”

  Moments later a car pulled into the alley, and after zip-tying his hands, Aengus and Ashton loaded Jake into the backseat.

  “I’ll go with Ashton in case he needs my help.” Aengus climbed into the backseat as well, and the car left the alley.

  “Come on.” Timothy tugged the ball cap back onto her head and tucked her into his arm. “Don’t look up, the last thing we need are nosy people asking why you look like you just had the shit beat out of you.”

  They walked quickly, and he relaxed slightly once they were back in his building. He guided her out of the elevator and then over to the couch. After pouring them both a drink, he took a seat.

  “Tell me what happened?”

  “I saw him staring up at the building, so I rushed downstairs to get a closer look.”

  “You didn’t think that perhaps that would be a bad idea?”

  She shot him a glare. “Want me to tell you or not?”

  He nodded and lifted his glass to his lips.

  “I followed him down the street and saw him disappear into an alley, so I continued walking past it and was going to catch up on the other side. As I was turning the corner, I bumped into him.” She took a drink and savored the warmth the whiskey offered her. “He dragged me into the alley and told me he just wanted to talk.”

  “About what?”

  Paislee swallowed hard. “About how I was the reason his brother was killed.”

  “How so?”

  “When I was about sixteen, a man came to see Malcolm. He had two sons with him and the older boy, I would guess was about my age, kept staring at me. Malcolm had told them, of course, that I was a witch, he loved to brag to everyone who came to see him. Most didn’t give me a second glance, but this boy did.

  Whether it was because he was fascinated by the idea of magic, or he felt bad for me, I’m not sure, but I saw an opening, and I used it. I convinced him to open the cage and let me out. It took some coercing, but I promised I would show him some magic if I did, so he opened it.” Tears stung in her eyes at the memory.

  “I made it as far as the front door before I was caught and dragged back to that cage. Malcolm reviewed his security tapes, and learned it was the boy who set me free, so in front of me, the boy’s father and his younger brother, Malcolm killed him, and made us all watch as punishment.”

  “Sadistic son of a bitch.”

  “No question about that, but it worked because I never tried to convince anyone to set me free again. I still remember giving the boy a hug and thanking him. He’d had kind eyes, I don’t think he ever would have harmed anyone, and now he’s dead because of me. I can’t blame Jake.”

  “He was the younger brother?”

  She nodded. “I would hate me too.”

  “None of that is your fault Paislee, you’re a victim in this too.”

  “I understand that, but the guilt of that boys’ death is on me, and nothing you say will ever change that.”

  Chapter 32

  “Your man failed, again.” Allison scolded.

  Malcolm’s hand tightened on the receiver.

  “He was captured by McGinley and his men after he went for the girl.”

  “Can you get to him?” he asked, studying the object in his hand.

  “Not yet, but I’ll keep looking for an opening.”

  “Good.” Malcolm ended the call. Idiot! He had been so close to having Paislee back, and because his vengeance was more important, Jake had ruined that chance. He had always known who the boy was, even though he had gone to great lengths to hide his true identity.

  The fact that he had sought out Malcolm had pleased him. It was a great feeling to have those you knew hated you under your thumb. Malcolm smiled down. He had gotten it! If that jackass had done nothing else for him, he could still call his employment a success. It wouldn’t be long now, mere hours before he met his goal, and the world would be his.

  Chapter 33

  “Anything?” Timothy asked Ashton into the receiver.

  “He’s awake, and so far, the only thing he has said is that he wants to talk to Paislee.”

  “Not happening.”

  “I don’t want her near him either, but if we want to get a handle on Malcolm, he may be our best bet.”

  Timothy ground his teeth together. This was a bad idea, he knew it was, and yet it was the only one they had. He looked at Paislee w
ho stood staring at the darkening sky, she was tired of being treated like a victim, and if he weren’t careful, she’d tire of him as well. He knew that feeling of needing to do something. Knew that it could eat at you.

  “I’ll bring her down.” He hung up the phone just as she turned to face him. “Jake wants to talk to you and only you.”

  She nodded.

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  “I do. I have this horrible feeling that we don’t have as much time as we think we do.”

  They made their way downstairs into the basement, Paislee was surprised they were keeping Jake in the same building, but she supposed it made sense. Keep your enemies close, and all that.

  They stepped into a room behind a hidden panel, and Paislee looked through the one-way glass at Jake whose hands were chained to the table. It reminded her of the interrogation rooms in police stations on TV.

  “I don’t remember hitting him that hard,” Paislee commented at the fresh blood and bruising on Jake’s face.”

  “I questioned him earlier,” Ashton said easily. She looked down at his bloody knuckles.

  “Learn anything new?”

  He shook his head. “He’s a tough son of a bitch.”

  Paislee stepped towards the door. “I’m going in.”

  Timothy stopped her. “Not alone.”

  “I don’t think he will talk if you’re in there with me. You can watch the entire thing from right here.” Paislee pointed to the glass. “Or stand right outside the door, and I’ll scream if he comes at me. Deal?”

  Timothy ground his teeth together. “Deal.”

  She stepped into the interrogation room, and Jake grinned at her. “I’m surprised to see you.”

  “Why? You asked to talk to me.”

  “Didn’t think your master would let you off your leash.”

  “He’s not my master.”

  “Oh, my mistake, your fuck buddy then.”

  “What do you want Jake?”

  “First off, stop calling me Jake. That guy was a loser, a waste of intelligence. Who has that many degrees, studies overseas, and then decide to play fucking video games?”