Fury of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 1)

by Shannon Mayer

In under two minutes, we’d cleared the house. Only two of the rooms had any obvious damage, and Zee agreed there was nothing more urgent than getting Abe to the vet. We wrapped him in a blanket and Zee slid him into the passenger side of the truck. “Just get him there.” I shut the door.

  Zee’s jaw tightened. “Shoot anything that moves. You won’t see the Hider until he’s on top of you.”

  I gave him a nod and he pulled out of the driveway, once more moving at a fast pace. I hoped Abe would make it, but it was out of my hands now. I stepped into the house and made my way to Abigail before I checked out the rooms that had been searched. I went to my knees beside her, touched a hand along her back and then slowly pried her mouth open. The dogs were trained to attack, grab any intruders and shake them until they were on the ground. From there, they were to work as a team, disarming or strangling the intruder. Inside Abigail’s mouth, caught on her back teeth, was a strip of material.

  I pulled it out and held it up to the light. There was a slight shimmer to it, and as I rubbed my fingers across it, I pinned it down. Black Gore-Tex, something you could find in a variety of clothing. Justin had some Gore-Tex leg gaiters, as did a lot of people in the area for keeping their legs dry in the deep snow.

  I slid my fingers over Abigail’s body again, pressing against her neck. She hadn’t lost all of her heat. I guessed it had been barely an hour since she’d been shot and we’d been gone for close to three.

  Whoever had done this had waited until they knew for sure we were gone. With Abigail’s body temperature, they hadn’t come in right away either. I frowned. Could it have been someone who had been at the funeral to make sure we were there? It would have been easy enough to check on us, and know that we were going to be at least another couple of hours. Even with that they’d have had time to drive all the way out to the farm, search and leave without running into us.

  The man in the suit was my first inclination. If it was him, he’d moved fast looking for whatever it was he had been looking for. Maybe the money in the barn? I doubted it, though I would double-check the stash later.

  I stroked Abigail’s fur. “I’m sorry, my girl.” I stood and pulled a blanket from the couch to cover her body. My ribs ached even with the painkillers, and moving her outside to bury her was not a priority. That could wait until Zee came back.

  I went to the kitchen and washed my hands clean of the dogs’ blood, my mind already working ahead, mapping out my next steps.

  Our bedroom and Justin’s office had been the two rooms that had been tossed.

  I’d check out the bedroom first, because I was sure there would be nothing to find in it. Then I would check Justin’s office. That was the most logical place for him to have hidden something that an intruder would look for.

  Unlike me, he didn’t have a barn or a shop that I would call just his, so the office would be where he’d have hidden something.

  I paused at the sink as I dried my hands, the distinct crunch of tires on snow turning me around. From where I stood, I could see out the window into the front yard, but whoever had arrived had parked to the right of the window, far enough that I couldn’t see the make of the vehicle or who stepped out of it without placing myself into full view.

  I pulled Dinah from my back with my right hand and crept along the edge of the kitchen to where I could see the front door.

  “Killing?” she asked.

  “Maybe.” I doubted whoever had tossed the house had come back this soon. At least, that was what I was hoping.

  Then again, whoever was coming up the steps was deliberately being quiet. Most people stomped their feet to remove the snow, which in turn announced their presence. And those who knew us, knew we had dogs that didn’t like strangers. It was important to not try to be sneaky with attack dogs on the premises.

  Whoever this was didn’t know us, and wasn’t here on a social visit.

  I brought Dinah up and waited with the red dot sighted on the front door at what would be gut level for the average person. I wouldn’t kill them right away. I needed answers. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to shoot this quiet, unknown person.

  Dinah sighed. “I am so looking forward to this.”

  Chapter Five

  I stood there, leaning against the kitchen wall with Dinah in my right hand, the left hand still in a cast tucked up underneath the right to help balance the hold.

  The front door eased open, slowly, without a creak. I sighted on the red dot, waiting for the perfect shot. I wanted whoever this was fully inside, and the door shut before I put a bullet in them. Easier than trying to drag them inside to interrogate if they fell backward onto the deck.

  A shaggy blond head poked in. “Bea, you here?”

  “Shit,” I muttered and lowered Dinah and slid her back into my holster while she grumbled, all before his eyes swept over me in the kitchen. I glared at him, keeping my position against the wall. “What the hell are you doing here, Noah? And since when do you just walk the fuck into my house?”

  He let himself the rest of the way in and shut the door behind him, as if I hadn’t just cussed him out. “I wanted to check on you. The chapel scene, not letting anyone come to the graveside . . . Justin would have wanted—”

  “I don’t care what he would have wanted.” I also didn’t care how hard my words were. “He isn’t here now, and I can take care of things by myself. I did before him, and I will again. Capiche?”

  Noah’s eyes widened, but I saw a flicker of something I didn’t like. That edge of untruth I’d seen in the chapel. He knew what Justin had been up to, which meant he knew what had gotten him and Bear killed. I could feel it in my gut.

  He took a step closer, one hand outstretched and his face a picture of sadness and grief. “Who are you? Where is the sweet wife of my best friend who always greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and fresh muffins from the oven?”

  I glared at him. “She died with her husband and son. Who are you, Noah?”

  His face paled.

  I arched an eyebrow. “What was Justin doing? What was he into that killed him and Bear?”

  His eyes darted down and he shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  “What was the big score the two of you were into? Not skiing promos. I’m not that blind now.”

  He cleared his throat. “Listen, I know you’re grieving—”

  “Did he tell you who I am?”

  That seemed to catch him off guard. His jaw dropped and he stood there as though I’d hit him with a stun gun.

  “What?”

  “DID HE TELL YOU WHO I AM?” The words reverberated between us, echoing in the vast, empty house.

  Noah let out a slow breath, opened his mouth, and I cut him off.

  “No more lies. You owe me that. My husband is dead because of lies. My boy is dead because of lies. Tell me the truth or get the hell out of my house and never, ever, come back if you value your life.” I breathed the words, almost growling the last of them. I wasn’t sure he would be honest with me even now, but I would give him this one last chance.

  His lips pursed and he shook his head, finally letting out a big breath. “I know who your father is, yes.”

  I nodded, wondering just what he meant by that. Did he know I was not my sister? Did he know I was Phoenix? “And?”

  He shrugged. “Justin told me one night after a competition. We’d been drinking and he told me because I asked about your family. Said you were treated pretty badly.” His jaw ticked.

  I’d told Justin about one incident with my older brother Gabe. About how he and his friends had beaten me so badly one night that I didn’t remember what else had happened. I didn’t know if there had been a rape at the time. I’d suspected, but wasn’t sure. That’s the thing when you’re only twelve. You don’t know. Looking back, I knew the truth. I’d been sore, aching between my legs in a bad way that could only mean one thing—that the beating had led to at least one of the men raping me. For all I knew, it had been my brother.
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  I wouldn’t put it past him.

  I shook my head. “You going to tell me what you and Justin were doing?” I threw the question at him again, bringing him back to the conversation at hand.

  “Bea, I get that you might think this is some conspiracy, and it’s probably easier than believing that what happened was an accident with your family history—”

  “It’s time for you to go.” I folded my arms and tipped my chin at the door behind him. “If you don’t want to be honest with me, you can just fuck off.”

  I didn’t think his eyes could widen further but they did. “Bea, I know you’re grieving but this isn’t you. Don’t let this change you.”

  My right hand twitched, and I let him see me put it to my back. “Go, Noah.”

  “Where is Zee?”

  “Out.”

  The standoff was obvious to me, if not to him. He frowned further. “Where are the dogs?”

  “Abe is with Zee.” Not a lie.

  He frowned. “And Abigail?”

  “In the barn.”

  His eyes narrowed further. Almost like he knew I was lying. But why would he care?

  “Bea, is there something going on you want to tell me about?”

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “Something you want to tell me about? Like why you couldn’t wait to get into Justin’s office now that he’s dead? Is there some fake sponsorship deal hiding the truth of something else? Maybe about that big score? Or something else?”

  His jaw dropped. “What? No, of course not!”

  I pointed at him for the third time. “Go. I don’t want you here right now, and if I find anything for sponsorships, I will send them your way. Justin would have wanted me to do that for you.” I couldn’t help but throw his own words back at him.

  He flushed. “Grief is ugly on you, Bea. Don’t let it be the part of your life that defines you.” He backed away and shut the door behind him. I waited for the sound of the car to leave before I let myself breathe.

  “You are no therapist, and your bullshit psychoanalysis won’t work on this girl. Not when I know you’re lying about something,” I muttered to myself as I walked down the hall to my bedroom.

  “He was lying,” Eleanor said. “You could almost smell it on him.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “Think he’s an abnormal?” Dinah asked.

  “No. Zee would have known.” I sighed as I looked around the room at the mess.

  The mattress was flipped and shredded, every piece of clothing had been tossed out and the drawers and the closet had been busted open, shards of the thin wood spread across the room.

  There were holes in various parts of the walls, as though the intruder had randomly chosen spots to try out his fist. I went through the few books laid on the bed that had pages torn out. Justin’s family bible was missing, but nothing else that I could see. I closed my eyes, thinking about what was in the bible. Some of his family history in the front, but nothing other than a notation here and there. None of the few pieces of jewelry I had were missing, none of the coins that Justin collected in his travels had been taken. Nothing of value was gone.

  Not that I thought it was a random robbery, but those details confirmed it. I sat on the edge of the box spring and let myself take the room in, let it soak in that whatever had caused my two boys’ deaths wasn’t over yet. Whoever had killed them wasn’t done with this place.

  If they’d been willing to hire a Hider to break the wards, there was money involved, and more magic than I would have liked.

  “What the hell was going on, Justin? How deep was the shit you were in?” I ran a hand over the edge of the box spring.

  The more I thought about the situation, the more certain I was that this was directly tied to something Justin had been doing. There was no denying it now. Zee had been right all along, if they—whoever had done this—were after me, they’d have killed me in the truck. Or the hospital. Both times, I’d been helpless, and yet I’d been spared.

  Spared because I had no connection to whatever it was they were looking for. Bear and I were fodder. It had been Justin and something he’d hidden that they were after. They needed him out of the way first? Or had that been punishment?

  The only questions now were why and what were they after? A family bible was hardly a find.

  Unless it held something important. Numbers, a name . . . I shook my head. Too late for that line of thinking now. It was gone, and I doubted I’d be able to find it anytime soon. But was that the only thing they had come for? Somehow, I doubted it.

  I pushed up with my good hand and headed slowly to the office at the front of the house. There were wet spots on the floor where the boots of the intruders had tracked in snow and ice, the warmth of the house melting it into puddles.

  I made myself put my feet in the imprints that had been left, as subtle as they were. Wide, they were spaced wide apart, like a big man. Bigger than the one who had been watching me. That one had been tall, yes, but slender. This man . . . he was built like a brick shithouse on steroids with the straddle of his legs. Like the man in the Santa suit? Possibly.

  Unable to stop myself, I considered Noah. He was a bigger man, but he didn’t straddle his stance like this one did, which was the only thing that kept me from tracking him down right then and putting Eleanor to his temple.

  The office door was kicked in, breaking the lock on it. Not that the lock was anything tough, just enough to keep Bear out of the only room with WiFi. We’d been doing our best to keep us all off grid. I avoided the Internet like the plague, afraid that even a single picture of me or Bear would be enough to tip off those who could still be looking for me.

  I shook my head as I stepped inside the room. Whoever tossed it didn’t have experience looking for things. A newb at best. I slipped my coat off and laid it on the floor.

  The office doubled as a library, and the built-ins along the two sides had been full of books that Justin and I had collected in our years together. Older books, some signed, some rare. They’d all been thrown off the shelves, some of them with pages torn out. It would be difficult to tell which books were missing until I started putting them back and even then . . . “Sons of bitches, you are making this hard, which means you are going to die terribly.”

  The two ladies in their holsters laughed, bouncing in unison.

  I started with the empty shelves. I slid my fingers over the edges, looking for a lip, an indent, anything that would show me a secret hiding place Justin had kept from me.

  I grabbed a stool from the kitchen in order to reach the top shelves. The top shelf would seem the obvious place to put something secret, which to me meant it was the last place I’d put anything, but I checked anyway.

  My fingers slid over the smallest of cuts in the corner of one shelf at the back. I pushed up on my tiptoes and peered in as I hooked my finger and pushed and shoved at the space. Nothing happened. I shook my head. The whole idea that Justin had been doing something shady was . . . out there, to say the least. I was adept at picking out a liar, and I struggled to fully believe he’d been doing something that had made this all happen.

  But the evidence was piling up against him. And I was not blind when it came to the people I loved.

  “Justin, help me out here. Where did you hide your shit?” I spoke out loud because I couldn’t make sense of what was going on inside my head.

  I could almost hear him laugh. Like this was a game. Only he wouldn’t have laughed if he’d understood that it had cost our son his life, too.

  “What about behind a picture?” Dinah offered.

  “No pictures in here.” I did a slow turn of the room.

  “Floor boards?” Eleanor asked.

  Again, I shook my head. “No, we had them replaced just last year and I helped lay them.”

  I kept at the shelves even though they gave me nothing.

  Half an hour later, the only land line phone in the house rang.

  I stared at it a moment, thinking of
how it could be rigged to explode, or to have some sort of spell woven into the earpiece. I leaned over it and saw the number calling.

  Zee. I scooped up the receiver and held it away from my ear.

  “Tell me something good,” I said.

  “Abe will live. I’m on my way back.” He spoke quickly, the sound of the truck in the backdrop, the rev of the engine through the phone line. “The police are on their way to the house right now, I just picked them up on the scanner.”

  “What? Why?” I didn’t think for one instant that he’d tipped them off.

  “Don’t know, but someone said they thought they heard gunshots out our way.”

  I stared around the room. That was a long time since the gunshots. This was a god damn set up. “Are you going to make it back before them?”

  “By minutes, if I’m lucky.”

  I hung up the phone and started slamming the books back into the shelves, as fast as I could. The police were in on this; we knew that. And if they wanted a way to keep someone quiet or out of their way, or a scapegoat . . . the spouse of the person killed was a great one to pin something on. I couldn’t bring any sort of justice to my boys if I was locked up.

  That was assuming they were human and that I wasn’t about to face a couple of abnormals for the first time in years.

  I scrambled to get the books shoved in, barely finishing the haphazard job when the first set of tires crunched into the driveway.

  I hobbled to the living room as Zee burst in through the front door.

  “Zee, take Abigail out back to the barn!”

  He ran to the living room, and I followed him. There was blood all over the floor from her and Abe. There would be no hiding the stains, not in the time I had left.

  Another set of tires crunched over the snow.

  The only chance I had was to keep them outside.

  I hurried to the front door and stepped out, shutting the door behind me as the two police officers reached the bottom steps of the porch. I wrapped my arms around my waist, cupping my cast with my good hand and gave a full-bodied shiver. “Officers, can I help you?”