I looked down to see Peter Mercure. He was the oldest of the kingpins, by far, and his gray beard and gray eyes set him apart. They didn’t, however, make him look any less powerful. Hell, if there was one of the kingpins that looked as if he could stop an avalanche in place just by staring at it, it was Peter.
“Peter is a pain in the goddamn butt,” Joshua managed, but his voice was quieter than usual, as if he was scared Peter would pop up from the drain in the sink or turn out to be hiding behind one of the old cupboard doors. “But he’s still one of the kingpins. He’s the head of Security Incorporated. While the Hancocks happily take almost any witch into the construction industry, Mercure only wants the fighters. You know who he is, right?”
I nodded. “He’s the largest operator of private security in the country, isn’t he?”
“Gosh, maybe you do have a brain, after all,” Josh said, making it clear he’d only asked that question to get back at me again. “You’re right. Mercure heads up the largest private security firm in the country. He doesn’t just offer bodyguards to the rich and famous. He helps train the cops, runs a training facility for Army witches, and is a consultant for the government. He’s also the largest contractor of stronger warlocks – those with more fighting power. Now, I assume you know the rough distinction between a warlock and a witch?”
“I did go to school. A warlock is a witch with strong physical power. It’s got nothing to do with their sex.”
Josh actually clapped. “Gosh, you really did get an education, ha? Anyhow.” He flopped a dismissive hand at me. “Now, last but not least, Ming Chan.” Josh selected a photo of Ming and handed it over.
I picked it up and looked at him. Ming was handsome, in his early thirties, with a strong build, and an appreciably chiseled jaw. His eyes also had a certain sparkle to them – one that promised you he could charm the hell out of you. Which was appropriate, because Ming owned the largest entertainment company in town.
“Now, Ming is the largest contractor of witches employed in the entertainment sector. And when I say entertainment sector, it’s much wider than you think. Not just actors, but everything from street performers to goddamn go-go dancers. Ming, just like Helena, is less picky than Peter, and if you can shake it or wriggle it, you can probably get a job with Ming.”
“Okay,” I said as I handed him back the photo.
This caused Josh to arch an eyebrow. “That wasn’t me actually suggesting that Ming would hire you. He would not be interested in anything you have to wriggle. Plus, you’ve already been contracted out to me.”
I looked over at Josh and stared at him pointedly as I tapped one finger on the table. “I meant okay, I understand. And do you really need to take every single opportunity to insult me? Aren’t you meant to be a professional? Plus,” I added before he could snap at me and drag me into another argument, “I thought you had something to do? Some case that was waiting? You wanted this to take only as much time as it had to.”
Out of everything, that reminder seemed to work. Josh didn’t look happy, but he didn’t snap at me again. He grabbed all of the photos and placed them back in the Manila folder. “That’s it. I’ve explained everything.”
I looked at him sideways. “I already knew everything about the kingpins of Madison City – I wasn’t born yesterday. Plus, haven’t you forgotten one? What’s his name?” I looked to the side as I tried to dive into the memory. “Max C. Knights or something? I don’t know what the C stands for,” I added thoughtfully.
I looked over to see Josh staring at me stiffly. This wasn’t his usual anger – this was something else. “It’s Maximus C. Knights,” he insisted with a sharp breath.
I could have easily snapped at him, but I chose not to. I’d clearly just struck a pain point.
So it was time to keep pushing said pain point.
I leaned in, my expression crumpled. “Why do you care? And why isn’t he on your list? He’s one of the most powerful witches in Madison City. At least that’s what the papers keep telling us. Hell, I thought he was meant to be one of the most powerful—”
“He is the most powerful,” Josh emphasized the word is with yet another biting breath, proving that this was obviously a point of contention for Mr. Jerkface. “But to answer your question, he’s not on my list because he is not one of the primary contractors.”
“And why should I care about contractors?”
“Because that’s who we work for. While we primarily work for the courts, tracking down defendants who have skipped their bail, 40 percent of our work comes from the three contractors.”
I looked at him, suitably confused. “I don’t understand – do we have to pick up a spade or a gun or a… set of maracas if one of the three kingpins needs some help or something?”
I thought the joke was quite funny – but Josh’s face was still just as hard from my Max C. Knights comment. “No, nobody is picking up any maracas. When a contracted witch skips out on their contract with their employer, we go find them. It’s just as important – if not more so – than working for the courts. And our most dangerous cases, by far,” he leaned over and settled both of his hands flat on the table, “are tracking down wayward warlocks.”
I sat there and blinked. “I thought,” I began, ready to tell him that I assumed wayward witches were tracked down by the government, but I paused and realized that was pretty much what we were.
“Yeah, Missy, that’s us.” He brought up a hand and tapped his chest twice. “Falls down to us to find anyone who skips out on their contract. And speaking of which, we’ve got one already.”
I blinked hard. “Um… I’m not necessarily certain I’m ready—”
“Certain?” He snorted derisively, the sound echoing through the kitchen. “You’re absolutely not ready. Your powers are only barely starting to show themselves. You’ll be nothing more than a liability for a while. But considering you’ve got a protection order on you, my hands are tied. So you’re coming along. It’ll be valuable experience. And maybe,” he stood up and clenched his teeth as he loomed over the table at me, “it will show you what happens when a witch becomes noncompliant.”
I looked right up at him. I swallowed.
And Josh? Noticed. He smiled, whirled on his foot, and pointed to the door.
Really? I’d only been tested this morning, and I was already being sent out on my first job.
The words this wasn’t fair wanted to burst from my lips, but I damped down on them immediately. There was no point in going over how goddamn unlucky this was. Because Josh was getting ahead of me, striding through the house like a bull on a rampage, and it was time to catch up.
Chapter 5
“If you can’t even get out of the car, you’re more of a liability than I thought. If only a lack of dexterity was an act of noncompliance, you’d be out on your ass.”
Josh jumped lightly out of his massive truck, shut the door, and walked around, muttering to himself. All the while I tried to clamber down myself. I was a little on the short side, and Josh was right – I’d never had great dexterity.
Eventually, I managed it without a hand from Josh. Not that he offered a hand. You see, though I still didn’t know that much about what it was like to be a witch, I could appreciate one fact in its entirety – Josh was a total and utter jerk.
Once I was safely on the pavement, I slammed the door closed, giving it too much of a swing as I stumbled over my own feet.
It banged shut loudly, the sound echoing across the pavement. I expected Josh to march around, shake his fist in my face, and demand that I respect his possessions.
He didn’t, which made me wonder if this was actually his possession, unlike the house.
Before I could settle my mind on trying to figure out who Josh’s rich benefactor was, he growled.
I scurried forward and quickly stopped as I reached his side, choosing to retain my dignity as I straightened my back and strolled the last meter and a half. “You can use English, can’t you? If you
want my attention, you can just ask for it.”
“Let me get something straight. I’m used to working alone. I’m used to running alone. I’m used to fighting alone. And I’m used to taking down bounties alone. More than anything, I’m used to not having liabilities wafting around by my side.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t waft. I didn’t get the chance.
We’d parked along a busy street, and Josh was far better at navigating crowds than I was.
“Come on, Beth,” Josh snapped as he shoved his hands into his pockets, looking for all the world like a disaffected youth.
I pushed past the crowd thronging down the street as best as I could. This was a busy area of downtown, cram packed with popular shops.
While Josh was an icebreaker with his massive form and don’t-mess-with-me expression, I wasn’t. He streamed ahead, and before I knew it, I pretty much lost sight of him.
I clenched my teeth, and I swore. Though not too loudly – I didn’t want anyone in the crowd thinking I was just as much of an irascible brute as Josh. I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes on the inside who didn’t like the idea of anyone thinking less of her. But still – this was insane. I’d only found out I was a finder this morning. Hell, I’d only had my med tests back a few days ago.
All of this was happening too fast, and Josh – unsurprisingly – wasn’t waiting around for me to keep up.
Just when I thought to hell with it, and wondered about getting back into Josh’s car and abandoning him to the case, someone pushed past my shoulder.
Thus far, I hadn’t shown my abilities, other than in the testing station. Even then, I couldn’t… I couldn’t really explain how or why I’d managed to find that guy. It wasn’t as if there’d been a handy voice in my head telling me which direction to go in. Nor had there been a sparkling, glittering path of magic pointing to where he was.
I’d just… found him. It had felt accidental and certainly not something I now had control of.
But as somebody bumped into my shoulder hard enough that I staggered to the side, something welled up within me. Something that felt like a rope connecting me with someone else – a path. A tether.
I’d never in my life experienced anything like it. For all the rest of reality seemed to narrow down….
I looked up to see the guy as he passed without even apologizing.
I caught sight of his face.
“Holy crap,” I muttered under my breath, this time apparently not caring that I was swearing in public. Still, my words were muted enough that they didn’t carry to the guy’s ears.
And who was the guy?
None other than Max C. Knights. Or should I say Maximus C. Knights.
He was in a three-piece suit, which looked – as it was probably worth – like a million bucks.
I could see a gold watch glinting on his wrist, then another pocket watch stuffed into the pocket of his vest – as if one timepiece simply wasn’t enough.
Though I’d seen Maximus enough in the papers, and plenty on the news and in the magazines, this was the first time I’d ever seen him in person.
And….
Somebody suddenly grabbed my arm, and I yelped.
“Don’t scream in public,” Josh spat in my ear, promptly patting my arm and waving dismissively at a guy who’d stopped to observe the altercation. “It’s okay, sir – she is with me. I’m a registered bounty hunter—” Josh added as he shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out a massive badge that hadn’t been there seconds before. A few crackles of magic dissipated over it and sparked down Josh’s hand as he tapped the intricate logo of the Justice Department.
The guy looked mollified and without a word walked away.
Josh immediately turned on me. “Are you being—” he began.
“Before you accuse me of being noncompliant again, you walk too fast. I don’t know where we’re heading – because you haven’t told me. I don’t know what we’re about to do – because you haven’t told me. I lost you in the crowd. So I stopped until you came to find me. What exactly about that is noncompliant?”
Josh opened his mouth, no doubt to rebuke me once more, but maybe, somewhere buried deep within the idiotic bounty hunter was a single grain of reason. A grain he used now. He shrugged. “Just keep up. Do you need me to hold your hand?”
I snorted. “Absolutely not.”
He snarled at me, proving my theory that he was nothing more than a six-year-old bully, then he shrugged me forward.
This time he didn’t stride ahead as if he were going to war. He stayed exactly by my side until, a couple of shops later, we reached a bottle shop.
I glanced in, arched an eyebrow, and looked at him. “Is this a shopping trip? Did you pretend that you had an important case just because you want to go get sloshed?”
“Firstly, yes, they are doing a very good deal on whiskey,” he said as he pointed to a sign in the doorway, “and secondly, no. It’s time to catch our first contract breaker.”
He grabbed hold of my elbow and shoved me forward.
I staggered into the store, bumping a lady as she carried bags of wine. “Sorry,” I managed.
She grumbled and walked off.
I grabbed my jacket and straightened it, turned over my shoulder, clenched my teeth, and shot Josh exactly the kind of look he deserved.
He had his hands back in his pockets, and he was pushing up and down onto the toes of his feet. The guy was more than tall enough to see over the neat, lined up rows of alcohol. He peered from left to right, then the smallest smile spread across his lips. “This way, sidekick. Actually, who am I kidding? Stay there until I’ve got him.” Without another word of explanation, he walked off, slowly drawing one hand from his pocket. I caught a glimpse of magical crackles sparking along it.
My stomach bottomed out, sank through the earth, and landed somewhere near China.
What did he mean this was a risk?
Was I in any danger here?
I didn’t know anything about who we were tracking down, but he’d said the words contract breaker, and from the little he’d taught me, that suggested we were going after a witch who’d jumped their employment contract.
It was my turn to tilt up onto my tiptoes to try to see where he’d gone, but I certainly wasn’t tall enough to see over the shelves.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. If I spent any more time with the infuriating Josh, I’d start swearing like a sailor and spitting at little old ladies.
I… stood there. It wasn’t that I was keen to follow Josh’s command and stay put – it’s that I appreciated one fact. I knew enough about noncompliant witches off the news to—
Out of nowhere, I heard an angry growl. It was sharp and direct, and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
Then there were raised voices – and one of them was Josh.
“Dammit,” I said, curling my hands into fists and pushing up onto the tip of my toes as I tried to sight where Josh had gone.
This was a really long, deep, winding shop. There were rows upon rows of alcohol. It was the biggest shop in town.
I had no way of knowing where Josh was—
Suddenly the aisle several meters in front of me exploded. Sparks of magical blue flame erupted out of it as alcohol and glass spewed everywhere.
I shrieked at the top of my lungs as I pitched to the side, brought up an arm, and protected my face.
The next thing I knew, I saw a man rounding the aisle beside me, and he headed right for me.
He wasn’t an ordinary man. I didn’t need to ask for any medical tests to confirm that he wasn’t human. Nope. He was glowing green.
There was a rough distinction between the magical practices of witches. Those warlocks who were more suited for security, as Josh would’ve put it, usually had green-tinged magic. The stronger the physical spell, the more toward the green spectrum it would tip.
And this guy?
He looked like a forest. A forest that was bearing
down on me.
Though there were other patrons in the shop, they’d all wisely run for the door.
I pivoted on my foot, but I could feel the break of his magic behind me just like a swimmer desperately trying to get out of the way of a tidal wave.
I knew I wouldn’t have a chance—
Just before the guy could collect an arm around my middle and use me as a hostage – I felt somebody push in beside me. They caught my shoulder, shoving me out of the way just before the crim could make a grab for me.
I struck the floor hard on my hip and looked up to see none other than Max Knights. He reached forward, and he weighed a hand on the crim’s shoulder.
And the crim? He didn’t try to blast through Max as if he were nothing more than a wall made of paper.
Nope. He stopped. Dead.
It wasn’t that Max used magic to force the guy to stop – it was that the guy suddenly froze, his eyes bursting open as wide as two large moons.
Rapidly, the warlock’s magic diminished until it was nothing more than a slight green tinge covering the crim’s skin.
There was the sound of rubber-soled shoes squeaking on polished concrete, and half a second later, Josh threw himself around the aisle. He too was charged with magic – though his had a more yellow tinge. He came to the same abrupt stop that the crim had upon seeing Max.
I was still on the floor, and I didn’t bother to move, thank you very much – because I had no idea what was going on.
Josh’s face went through a gamut of emotions. I’d never seen someone show so much in so little time. It was like every damn thing Josh had ever felt all sped up into the space of a second and a half. Everything from joy to grief to anger to pain to emotions I couldn’t even begin to recognize.
Forgotten Destiny Book One Page 4
