by Vivien Dean
Lucky for Cash, so was he.
“You just want to believe the worst.” He sauntered around the edge of the couch, thrusting his hands into his pockets as if he didn’t have a care in the world, as if his friends weren’t being held hostage in his so-called home, as if the woman he loved wasn’t standing ten feet away with blood on her hands. “I can’t say that I don’t understand it. You can’t suss out why Maddy would fancy me over you.”
Marty blocked the way, sweat gleaming on his mottled scalp. “Don’t even think I’m letting you anywhere near the boss again.”
Though Marty didn’t have his gun in hand, it rested just behind him, in easy, swift reach if he wanted to get to it. Cash kept from glancing in its direction, forcing Marty to stay focused on him.
“Maybe your boss isn’t the one I’m interested in right now. After all, he just tried to buy Maddy. You tried to kill her.”
Marty’s nostrils flared. His eyes gleamed in hatred, but beneath the roiling emotion was something else, something darker, something Cash knew he could easily exploit.
Fear.
“I tried killing you,” he spat. “And if your little bimbo hadn’t gotten in the way, I would’ve done it.”
Taking a step back, Cash tilted his head as he deliberately swept his gaze down Marty’s body. He wanted it to look like he was assessing his opponent, but what he really wanted was confirmation on Maddy’s declaration. He didn’t doubt her belief. He just needed to be certain that the life he was about to take would be the one to set them free. Anyone else, and he might fear for more weight on his conscience. But Marty had forsaken that right the second he’d hurt Maddy.
There it was. Black swirls etched into his hairy forearm, surprisingly elegant on such a burly man. Kate’s logic had been flawed. Mack was protected, yes, but he’d been easy enough for Cash to get to and hurt. They’d assumed because he had the painting, he had to be the safety, but H’roven must have granted him possession to throw Cash off the scent in case he figured out how to reverse the effects. Marty, on the other hand, was always prepared for an attack, always on the alert for danger. It was a fluke he wasn’t presently armed, but that was one fluke Cash knew he wouldn’t waste.
In his pocket, his hand curled around the bullet from Maddy’s wound. The metal absorbed the heat from his skin, its temperature increasing in steady degrees, but he kept his stance casual, keeping the others ignorant of his growing discomfort with it.
“Know what the difference is between us?” he asked.
Marty snarled. “Yeah. I don’t have a death sentence hanging over my head.”
Cash grinned at the irony. “No. My plans actually work.” With all the speed he could muster, he yanked his hand from his pocket and slammed it flat over Marty’s heart. “Percutio.”
The bullet welcomed the power Cash had summoned for it, taking on life of its own. As it took the magical command, the pressure of it against his palm vanished, and Cash watched in grim satisfaction as Marty felt it tear through his ribcage. Shock and confusion widened the man’s eyes. He grappled for Cash’s arms, as if that would somehow stop the bullet in its path, but Cash easily knocked his hands away, retreating a step when he felt the first warm rush of blood through Marty’s shirt.
He’d wanted the bullet as a reminder of how close he’d come to losing Maddy. Using it to avenge her injury instead was a much better use for it.
Nobody moved as Marty sank to his knees. The dark crimson stain of blood spread across the front of his shirt, but before he crumpled to the floor, a pulse of energy swept across the room. Gasps came from the others—out of surprise more than pain. The energy didn’t hurt. It left a tingling sensation across the skin, the aftermath of a spell being washed away. If he’d needed any further proof on the accuracy of how to reverse the H’roven, this was it.
An angry shout split the air. Though Cash had fully expected Mack to get angry about killing his hired thug, the cry hadn’t come from him.
It came from Sammy.
“What is it with you?” Sammy hissed. “Why can’t you just die already?”
Cash blinked. The little rat only ever talked to him to complain about his tardiness or to order him into Lombardi’s office. “Why is it you even care?”
“Cash—”
“How many dead bodies is it going to take for you to get the message?” Sammy barreled on, oblivious to Aaron’s interruption. “There shouldn’t have even been anymore, not after Dubai, but no, you had to go and mess that up too.”
He forgot about Marty, dead at his feet. He forgot about Mack, lying bleeding on the couch. He blocked out everyone, tunneling all his concentration on the scrawny young man standing there, glaring at him with more loathing than he’d seen even in Marty’s eyes.
Sammy knew about Dubai. There was only one way that was possible.
“Who sent you?”
“The fact that you even have to ask that just goes to show how many people want you dead.”
“Cash…” The interruption this time came from Maddy, her voice low and questioning. “If he’s not from here, does that mean he can…?”
Her question trailed away, but he understood her intent.
So did Sammy. He scowled. “No, they had to suppress my powers, just like Katherina did for Cassius. It was the only way to be sure he wouldn’t realize I was here.”
In the face of his alarm, hope flared. Sammy didn’t know coming into this world had nullified Kate’s spell. He considered his magic useless, which meant he might think Cash’s was too, though that was a long shot since he’d just seen Marty get killed without an obvious weapon right before his eyes.
“So what you’re saying is you’re not a threat at all.” Cash smirked. “You’re still just an annoying little git, following someone else’s orders. Maddy, untie Ava and Gino. We’re leaving.”
It was a bluff, but it did the job. Sammy whipped out a small gun from the inside of his jacket, brandishing it across the room before aiming it at Cash.
“Will someone tell me what’s going on here?” Mack demanded. He struggled to sit up, groaning in pain, but somehow, managed to sway to his feet. Fresh blood seeped from his bullet wound, but if he expected mercy, he never showed it.
“Nothing you’re in any position to handle,” Cash said. To Sammy, “Ava and Gino have nothing to do with any of this. Let Maddy untie them.”
“Gino worships the ground you walk on,” Sammy scoffed. “I’m not stupid enough to give you more allies.”
“You’re not stupid enough to leave collateral damage, either. Take it from someone who learned that lesson very, very well.”
“You haven’t learned any lessons.” He waved the gun toward the group, his wrist loose enough to send a bolt of alarm through Cash. “You came through the painting with an entourage. You couldn’t fight your own battles even when your life depended on it.”
Bile rose in the back of his throat. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to lash out at Sammy, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. He’d used up the last of his juice on Marty.
“And this whoever it is who sent you here in the first place?” Cash said. “He’s risking your neck instead of his own. By your logic, he’s no better than I am.”
Sammy’s mouth thinned. “Nice try.”
“You’re going to kill him anyway,” Maddy intervened. “Doesn’t he have the right to know who it is who wants him dead?”
Cash shot her a frown, but she was fixed on Sammy, slowly advancing on him. She didn’t look scared, even with her hand still bloody from Mack’s wound. Instead, her proud chin was tilted upward, her blue eyes blazing with the fire Cash so adored, and his heart swelled as he realized she was trying to help, in her own inimitable fashion.
“Everyone wants him dead,” Sammy sneered. “Did he tell you how many deaths he’s responsible for? Probably not, considering your little speech to Mack earlier. He couldn’t even stick around for judgment. He had to run away and hide like the coward he
is.”
“He was protecting his family.”
“He was saving his own skin.”
“And he’s still in the bloody room.” Cash took Maddy’s lead and edged forward until he, Mack, and Maddy completed the misshapen square with Sammy as the fourth corner. “It’s not entirely true, you know. Not everybody wants me dead. Milo and Gordy’s families forgave me for what happened.”
He watched Sammy carefully, searching for any hint of recognition of his dead mates’ names, but nothing even flickered in the young man’s nervous eyes. So he hadn’t been sent by a grieving family. In Cash’s mind, that really only left one last option, only one other wizard with enough power and influence to pull off obtaining a H’roven.
“Dubai wasn’t just a setup, was it?” he said. “Alonzo never expected me to walk away.”
When Sammy paled, he knew he’d guessed correctly, but the relief he expected at finally having some answers never materialized. It didn’t change what had happened, or what he had to face once they got home. It simply gave him a direction and the means to put an end to it, once and for all.
“Why aren’t you killing him?” Mack complained. “I might not understand what’s going on here, but it’s very clear you want him dead as much as I do. You have a gun. Use it.”
“I’m not sure he can.” Maddy’s declaration seemed to surprise her as much as they did Cash. “He would have done it from the very beginning, otherwise. He had plenty of chances. But that’s part of the magic, isn’t it? This has all been set up to do one thing, to kill Cash, so you have to let it do its job.”
Once Maddy uttered the words, it all made perfect sense. The scorpion, the shooting, Marty…each and every one had been a construct of the painting. Sammy could direct from the background, but that was all.
“Maybe I can’t kill him,” Sammy conceded. His arm swung around to aim at Maddy instead. “But you aren’t even supposed to be here.”
Cash reacted on instinct. He had seen too many guns in this world already, and too many threats against the woman he loved. They had not gone through all of this trouble, come this close to going home and starting the lives together they both wanted, to be thwarted by some pimply-faced wanker who wasn’t even old enough to grow a proper moustache.
When he leapt forward, however, with fury like molten metal coursing through his veins, he was not alone.
Cash slammed into Sammy’s midsection seconds before Mack grabbed Sammy’s wrist. The gun went off, the kickback reverberating so strongly through Sammy’s skinny frame that the vibrations echoed into Cash’s. His ears rang from how close it had been to his ear, but as they fell to the floor in a heap, he felt no pain, no signs that it had hit him.
That was more terrifying than if he’d taken the bullet.
“Maddy!”
Fueled by fear and rage, her name ripped from his throat, and he pinned Sammy to the plush carpeting as his neck twisted wildly in her direction. The sight of her firmly in Aaron’s arms, his large, muscled body blocking her from any bullet’s trajectory, was only enough to drive Cash’s attention back to the wizard squirming beneath him.
Though his hand balled into a fist, the memory of how Maddy had looked when he’d lost it with Mack—even if he thought it deserved at the time—haunted his thoughts, enough for him to consciously choose not to pummel Sammy. “Someone get the handcuffs out of the bedroom before I decide not to play so nice,” he said through gritted teeth. As soft footsteps ran from the room, he lowered his face to within an inch of Sammy’s. “And so we’re clear, the only reason you’re alive is because you missed.”
Even defeated, Sammy sneered up at him. “And the only reason I missed is because you had help. Again.”
Cash only looked away when Maddy appeared at his side, the cuffs dangling from her hands. She waited until he flipped Sammy onto his stomach and pinned his arms behind his back before sliding the first of the bracelets around his wrist.
“I’m going to call the hospital,” she said without looking up from her task. “Mack needs to go back.”
When the other cuff snapped into place, Cash hauled Sammy to his feet and glanced at where Mack had slumped against the edge of the couch. “He didn’t get hit again.”
“No, Sammy’s shot went wild,” Aaron confirmed.
But the look on Maddy’s face said it all. As much trouble as Mack had caused, and as much as Cash hated the man, he’d leapt to her defense at the first sign of an immediate threat. Even injured, he hadn’t hesitated to try to stop Sammy. In Cash’s book, that didn’t make up for the fact that he’d tried to pay him off just a few nights earlier, but if this was what Maddy wanted, Cash wasn’t going to argue with her.
The flat door flew open to reveal a panting Kate, though her quick breathing slowed down as her discerning gaze swept over the room. By the time it met Cash’s, her frown had softened into a half smile, and she shook her head. “That’s my brother. Always with a story to tell.”
They congregated in the master bedroom, the door shut, the silence oppressive. Though Cash hadn’t let go of her hand since she’d made the phone call, Maddy pressed even closer to his side, unwilling to let him go for fear of something else attempting to yank him away from her. There might not be any more mobsters threatening their lives, or flunkies trying to bring them down, but until they were safely back in their world, she refused to risk him even getting a splinter.
The painting leaned against the wall, glowing in the muted ambient light. The vibrant hues she remembered from the one back at the museum brought this one to life now, the strokes bolder, the canvas practically pulsing. A fresh energy radiated from it, tangible even from several feet away.
Aaron cleared his throat. “So, who’s going first?”
Kate stepped forward, dragging Sammy along with her. “I’ll go, and I’ll take the rubbish with me.”
Low laughter rippled around the room, dying down as she crouched and touched the edge of the canvas. The colors bled into her fingers, creeping up her arm like water rushing through a pipe. Sammy tried to tear away from her grasp, but within seconds, both of them were gone.
Smiling, Aaron stepped forward and took her place. “Nothing like visual proof to give a guy confidence. I better go through before your sister disembowels him for breakfast.” His disappearance happened even more quickly.
“Can I try?”
Gino’s deep baritone took them all by surprise, three heads whipping around to stare at him in disbelief. He shoved his hands in his pockets and studiously avoided Ava’s astonished gaze.
Cash spoke up before Maddy could question the request. “You sure about that?”
Gino nodded. “All I’ve been able to think about since I found out about you guys is what it was going to be like around here without you. Without…Ava. Would I remember you? Would it even be worth it? And I thought, maybe, if there was a way for me to go back with you, then I’d do just about anything to make it happen.”
“It might not work, you know,” Maddy said gently. “This is the world you belong in.”
“No, Ava’s is the world I belong in.”
Maddy caught Ava’s embarrassed flush at his vehement tone before her friend ducked her head. Before anybody could say anything, though, Ava linked her arm through Gino’s, tugged him forward, and pressed her hand to the canvas.
Both were gone within a minute.
Cash pulled Maddy to his front, crushing their bodies together. His mouth was on hers before she could speak, hard and possessive for the briefest of moments before softening into something else, leaving her clinging to him when he finally pulled away.
“I want you to go first,” he said. “I can’t go thinking of you alone on this side.”
Maddy nodded. She didn’t have the fight left in her to argue with him. “I love you,” she whispered. “That’s not going to change, no matter which side of the canvas we’re on.”
“I know. I never planned it to.” He surprised her by grasping her wrist and tuggi
ng her toward the painting. “I changed my mind,” he said with a grin. “If Gino and Ava can go together, so can we.”
Before she could argue, he reached out and touched the front door of the museum in the painting.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The scent of turpentine and rubbing oil had never smelled so good. Running her fingers along the worn surface of the worktable, Maddy circled it with a small smile on her face, trying to contain her satisfied sighs as she did so.
“Five bucks she makes a there’s no place like home joke,” Ava whispered behind her.
Maddy heard Cash’s intake of breath to reply. “Ha-ha,” she interrupted, shooting them a quick glance. “Very funny.”
Everyone but Aaron, Kate, and Sammy had shown up in the main storage room, dressed in the same clothes they had left in. Even Gino had come through all right, though if his constant fidgeting was anything to go by, his new attire made him more than a little uncomfortable. He stood awkwardly behind Ava, pulling at the sleeves of his black button-down shirt, every once in a while picking up a foot to scowl at the tennis shoes he sported. Maddy wanted to go over and give him a hug, but she was still too wrapped up in the simple pleasure of being home to step away from her work area.
The door to the storage room opened, and Aaron and Kate stepped inside. “There’s no place like home,” Aaron quipped, spreading his arms wide as if to embrace the room. When everybody burst into laughter, he frowned. “What did I say?”
“Please tell me you’re here to give us the night off,” Cash said. Stepping up to the table, he wrapped his arm around Maddy’s waist and pulled her back against him. “Some of us have had a really long day.”
Aaron nodded. “I have to figure out some logical way to explain where the hell we’ve all been for the past few days so we don’t lose our jobs. We might as well get a good night’s sleep at the same time.” His eyes flickered to Gino, and he nodded in greeting. “Good to see you made it through in one piece. How are you feeling?”
