Cuckoo (Kindred Book 3)

by Scarlett Finn

  “Hurry,” she said, holding the door open. “Swift, come on, you know, be quick like the name.”

  “Straight back to the manor,” he said. Striding over, he ducked to kiss her cheek. “And if you need me, call.”

  She nodded and gave him a nudge out the door. With two men out there to worry about, she should probably be twice as concerned. Instead, her panic halved. They would look after each other, and that made her feel better about their safety.

  Facing the room, she took in the view. Stage the place to look like there had been a party, then get home to the manor to tame her hair before she had to face Cuckoo. Cake.

  FOURTEEN

  Bringing their things back to the manor gave her something to do that didn’t involve worrying about Brodie and Tuck. It also prevented her from thinking too much about what Cuckoo might want from her. Zara didn’t see Zave at the manor, but she didn’t seek him out either. If Brodie or Tuck had gotten a reprieve from what they were doing, they no doubt would have clued their teammate into what was going on, if he needed to know. Given that he was hardly a Chatty Kathy, Zara couldn’t be bothered trying to force a conversation that would just be awkward for both of them.

  Zave was a world-class mind, she’d seen evidence of that herself in the gadgets she was given on a regular basis. Zave was the one responsible for building the Kindred tech that got them out of jam after jam, so she was grateful for him. There was no alternative; they needed him. But the guy still made her uncomfortable. It would just come off as peculiar if she made a point of trying to hang out with him while no one else was present.

  She made a note to ask Bess how she managed to live with the guy. Thad had his own place and his own job, so Bess and Zave had to spend most of their time alone in the manor that matched Brodie’s. It was probable that the kind, warm woman left the master of the manor alone as Zara had chosen to do. Despite what might be considered negative opinions, Zara did respect Zave. One of the most positive things about his character was his refusal to make himself out to be something he wasn’t.

  Zave didn’t put on false airs or make bullshit conversation. If he had something to say, he said it. If he had nothing to say, he stayed quiet. Her awkwardness came from his unvarnished manner. He was never mean, though some might consider him rude. But Zara liked knowing he would never present himself in a lie, even if he did do stoic better than anyone else she’d known.

  Her own curiosity made her want to quiz Brodie about his brooding cousin. Every once in a while, someone made a comment about Zave and all those occasional tidbits did was intrigue her further. When all of this was over, she and Brodie should get the chance to take a vacation, depending on how it all played out. Then there would be time for lingering conversation, and that was when she planned to get her answers.

  Brodie might not like her chatter, but there would be nowhere for him to run and hide if they were overseas together, providing that she didn’t make so much of a nuisance of herself that he ditched her in some foreign corner.

  Thoughts of Zave dwindled while she showered and worked to return herself to her usual appearance. Seeing herself in the mirror again was refreshing and gave her the invigoration she needed to face the new head of CI.

  If Cuckoo’s meeting was company related, Zara would take pleasure in showing the superior bitch how things were done at CI. Even if it turned out to be another gloating session, Zara was happy to partake, it beat sitting around the manor waiting for Brodie to return. One thing she’d learned about watching Brodie charge into potential danger was that she wasn’t good at being idle.

  Just as the cab dropped her off outside CI, her cellphone buzzed in her purse. Retrieving the device from beside her gun, she hoped that the caller would be her love. When an actual phone number flashed up on the screen, she knew it wasn’t him.

  “Hello?” she answered.

  “Miss Bandini,” a voice said, and although it was faint, she recognized it.

  “Mr. Samara?” she asked, assuming he’d want an answer for his proposal. Though if Brodie and Tuck had been captured, this mission could be taking a grave turn.

  Hurrying up the external concrete stairs that led to the CI main entrance, she diverted her trajectory away from the grand CI doors. Instead, she stayed outside and went to shelter herself in one of the steel arches that towered around the lobby of the skyscraper. Wishing that she’d heard from Brodie or Tuck, she didn’t know what they knew, which could lead to her making a mistaken assertion. Still, if her cohorts had been made, as she’d previously considered, this could be Kahlil calling to issue his demand of ransom.

  “I trust you’ve had sufficient time to think about our offer,” Kahlil said. “Have you discussed it with your colleagues?”

  Taking a silent moment to appreciate her relief, she felt her heart return to its normal pulse. Kahlil wasn’t angry or accusing, he was a man making a business call. He could be playing her, except she couldn’t fathom any reason he’d have to deny discovering the Kindred tail.

  Talking business, whether legal or not, was something she had plenty of practice in, so she cleared her throat and matched his efficient, professional tone. “Yes,” she said. They’d talked about it, but they hadn’t come to any conclusions.

  She anticipated he would request a definitive answer. “I would like to meet to discuss it. I tried to contact you at CI yesterday and was told you’d been terminated.”

  Well, that was one way to put it, and at least she didn’t have to worry about Cuckoo begging her to come back to work. A meeting with Kahlil also bought her time to vamp and to maybe find out some new information from him.

  “New management,” Zara said. Cuckoo might not be within earshot, but she wouldn’t pass up a chance to make a jibe. “You know how it is.”

  “Yes,” Kahlil said, showing no concern for her lack of a position at CI. But he knew the Kindred had Game Time. CI was a conduit for him to get in touch with her, to get the wheels moving on this deal. They didn’t need the corporation, and Zara appreciated that she didn’t have to explain why she no longer worked there. “Can you meet this afternoon?”

  Yes, she could, she was out and about anyway. Lining up another meeting after her one with Cuckoo gave her a great excuse to depart CI on her own terms. Whatever Cuckoo wanted from her, Zara didn’t imagine it would take any longer than thirty minutes.

  “There’s a bar down the block from CI, Purdy’s. Meet me there in half an hour.”

  He agreed without hesitating. He had to be within thirty minutes of Purdy’s, he might have followed her here or been watching CI. Zara scanned the plaza for any signs that her colleagues might be around. If they’d been tailing Kahlil since this morning, then they should still be with him. If Kahlil was nearby, her people wouldn’t be in plain view, unless they wanted her to see them.

  Now she was thankful that she hadn’t heard from Brodie or Tuck, their lack of contact was inadvertent confirmation that they were still on Kahlil. They didn’t have time to talk and plan, but she’d been on enough Kindred missions to know the deal. Following Kahlil to the meeting meant that she would have backup because they’d be around to observe the meeting.

  Putting her cellphone away after disconnecting the call, she took out her compact mirror to reapply her lip-gloss. Facing Cuckoo’s perfection armed with a tube of lip-gloss wasn’t much of an arsenal. Their firepower might not be a match, but Zara was here now and refused to let this woman affect her emotions.

  It didn’t matter that this building was no longer her place of employment, it still felt like her territory because she’d graced its halls for more than five years. In the lobby, she got smiles and waves from the reception girls and security men. She was recognized, connected, and Cuckoo wouldn’t have the same relationships with the staff as she did.

  Holding her breath in the elevator, Zara reminded herself not to turn her lips into her mouth because of the gloss. There was no point in swiping it on if she was just going to lick it all off. Pressin
g her thumb to the security panel, she closed one eye and waited to see if it would flash or not. It did.

  The elevator began to ascend, and she smiled. Tuck was good, she’d have to get him a gift for fulfilling her personal request. Cuckoo might have tried to revoke her security credentials, maybe it was her goal to cause embarrassment when Zara had to go and request a guest pass. Tuck had made sure to thwart that objective.

  The moment she stepped out on the executive floor, she turned the face on her watch to record. She doubted Cuckoo would say anything relevant to their mission, but Zara was learning to be prepared for every possibility. Brodie would also want to know why she’d come here, and Zara didn’t trust Cuckoo to be honest.

  In that brief pause just outside the elevator door, Grant’s other assistants spotted her and began to surround her. It started with one noticing her, then another, and another. They came from offices and desks until she had pulled a dozen women into her orbit. But she couldn’t stop and answer all of their questions, it wasn’t her job to do that anymore.

  She kept on trying to walk and got as far as the CEO’s office, where she was pleased to see the blinds were open. Cuckoo would be able to see how people around here trusted and respected her. Zara knew her former colleagues well enough to understand they wouldn’t take to Cuckoo’s superior attitude kindly.

  Her entourage couldn’t come into the meeting with her. She had a time limit here, as Kahlil would be waiting in Purdy’s for her soon. “Hold on!” Zara called.

  Some of the women were asking questions, others were shaking papers at her. They all wanted answers, and she was so unaccustomed to this type of concentrated attention that for a moment she felt like a celebrity being hounded by the paparazzi.

  She didn’t like to see these women floundering, full of questions. Losing their beloved CEO was enough of a shock for them, now they were working without their director. Under Grant, she’d delegated tasks and guided staff. They could always come to her for help or advice, except it wasn’t her responsibility anymore.

  “Sorry, guys,” she said, raising her hands to squeeze out from the throng. “Direct all of your queries to Ms. Corvi. Good luck.”

  Pushing into the office, she was greeted by Cuckoo glaring across the room from behind the desk. Her tight expression betrayed how unamused she was. “Isn’t that cute,” Cuckoo said.

  “You should get someone into that office next door,” Zara said, nodding toward her old office. Pretense fell and she sidelined her ego. Zara did care for this company and those people. Someone needed to be looking after them. “They’re used to working from one set of instructions. A single go-to gal, you know? Do they have those in Italy?”

  “My focus is not so narrow. I have worked in corporations all over the globe. I was educated at Oxford. I’m far more worldly than you,” Cuckoo said, folding her hands on the desk, but her shoulders were too tense for Zara to believe she was relaxed. “And they do work from one set of instructions, mine.”

  Cuckoo was on form, so Zara donned her snide cloak again. Cuckoo wasn’t interested in putting their differences aside for the good of the company, all she wanted to do was play games. “Grant never had time to delegate all the things he needed done to run this office smoothly,” Zara said. “I suppose you’re not quite up to speed. You probably don’t have that many balls in the air. The board is probably going easy on you, you know, because you’re…”

  “Italian?” she offered.

  Zara began to walk across the room. “No, not that.”

  “A woman?” Cuckoo offered another option, but Zara shook her head and continued to ponder until she reached the desk and sat in the guest chair.

  “A bitch,” Zara said with a triumphant smile. “That’s the word I was looking for.”

  “Raven didn’t think so last night.”

  Scanning the room, Zara understood that this woman didn’t like to be ignored and was used to commanding attention, so the less of it she could give her, the better. “He’s been distracted recently with real life. You know, actual important concerns. He doesn’t have the time to consider your attributes negative or otherwise.”

  “If you’re not curious about the time we spent together last night, why did you come?”

  Now Zara couldn’t avoid looking at the European or absorbing the satisfaction reeking from her. It was pungent beneath the expensive perfume she seemed to have bathed in. “I came because you told me the world depended on it. If your preferred topic of conversation is Raven’s cock, I think the sun will rise tomorrow whether we discuss it or not. I’m going with not.”

  Preparing to stand and leave, Zara began to think about her next meeting. Cuckoo spoke before she was all the way up. “Game Time,” Cuckoo said, and the temperature dropped in the room by twenty degrees.

  Sinking back into the seat, she watched Cuckoo push back and unfortunately, she had everything to be smug about now. “What?” Zara asked, and the time for playing was a distant memory.

  “Tell me everything you know.”

  She owed this woman nothing. Cuckoo was the perfect example of a person they didn’t want to be in command of Game Time, so Zara had no intention of telling her anything that may titillate her unwanted attention.

  “Not a chance,” Zara said, exhaling a snigger behind her words.

  “You have an obligation to this company—”

  That was a joke, it had to be. “I have no obligation to you,” Zara said. “If you want to get the majority shareholder in here, he can ask me all the questions he has and I’ll answer every one.”

  Brodie knew everything about Game Time and would take Zara’s side in this fight. Cuckoo didn’t appreciate being reminded of her former lover’s allegiance.

  Zara sensed anger simmering around the frustration. “I am in charge here,” Cuckoo said.

  Examining the fraught nerves trembling below Cuckoo’s perfect exterior, Zara noticed the lock grip of her interlinked fingers was making her knuckles white. Zara would like to take credit for causing Cuckoo’s state, but it had come too quick and too intense to be all her responsibility. The only person who would have the skills to affect the European so deeply was Brodie. This random meeting and Cuckoo’s insistence took on new significance.

  Zara smiled. “You asked him last night, didn’t you? At the meeting you’re so desperate to pretend was something more than it was. You asked him about Game Time, and he didn’t tell you anything, did he?”

  “Why would you think that I—”

  “Because you would never ask me for a favor, and that’s what this is,” Zara said. “You’d rather rip off every one of those acrylic fingernails and set your hair on fire than admit you needed something from me.”

  From the tension radiating up to Cuckoo’s jaw, Zara knew she was right. Resting back in her chair, she crossed her legs. The power was shifting. Zara could take her time and enjoy erasing the smugness from Cuckoo’s aura. Tilting her head, she was going to recount the play-by-play of what she envisioned had happened last night.

  “Let me see if I’ve got this right,” Zara continued. “You hear those two words somewhere, I don’t know, maybe you hacked a computer or someone came in asking about it. Then just as you get interested, you’re intrigued, Raven shows up. Wow, you think you’ve scored, he’ll tell you everything, right? He resisted, maybe reacted the way I did and laughed in your face. So you offered a little incentive, you got on your knees, maybe did a bit of rubbing, batted those sultry eyes at him, it always worked before, didn’t it? This time was different. He shut you down or he had no reaction to you. He wouldn’t be manipulated. Not only did he refuse to give you answers, but he refused to screw you too. It’s driving you crazy that he won’t give you what you want.” Zara smiled but furious fury was building in her adversary. “Isn’t it? Cuckoo?”

  “Do not call me that!” Cuckoo exclaimed, flying up from her seat and smacking a hand on the desk as she lunged over toward Zara.

  Zara took her time to breat
he and admire the beauty with her feathers ruffled. “Art was right about you all along. You are a complete nut job. You agreed to come here, to manage CI, because you thought Raven would come back to you. That he’d owe you one, so maybe he’d take you along for the ride when he was working. But it’s not working out, because he has me and we have something real. Something that involves actual emotion.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cuckoo said, lowering herself back into her chair and smoothing her blouse. But she’d already cracked, the damage was done, Zara had seen her true jealous, erratic nature.

  “Don’t I?” Zara asked. “Which part? The part where I said he loves me or when I said he couldn’t get it up for you?”

  It took a bit of time, but Cuckoo surrendered a smile. “I should feel sorry for you. He might be interested in you now, but it won’t last. We’re a part of a vast web of darkness that you don’t understand. Our paths intersect and then we fade from each other’s lives, but we always come back.”

  Zara had not gotten specifics on the last time Raven had been with Cuckoo, but she knew not to trust this woman. After letting Caine get into her head, she wouldn’t fall for the same ploy again. “Like you and Griffin Caine?” Zara asked. Bringing him up startled Cuckoo, which was the response she was going for. “You fucked him before you fucked Raven. How many times have you come back to him?”

  “You think my not getting back together with Caine somehow proves that Raven and I won’t reconnect?”

  Yes, that was Zara’s point. Raven had said his feud with Caine had started because of Cuckoo. The temptress had chosen Raven, and Zara couldn’t blame her for that, but it had left Caine vengeful and obsessed with his rival.

  “I don’t think that you and Raven are destined to be together,” Zara said. “He won’t come back to you.”