Only Irene could get away with owning a mug like that.
When Jake didn’t answer me, I shoved the mug closer to his face.
“...Black, Jake?” I prompted. “Or are we doing the sugar and cream thing these days?”
Jake smiled sweetly, settling deeper into the plastic padded chair with his folded arms. “Cream, baby. Give me the cream.”
Jake had a lot of eccentricities. One of them was that he took his coffee however his current mistress (or boyfriend, as the case may be) took their coffee.
I guess since they paid for everything, it made sense to get the details right.
Still, it skeeved me out.
After sniffing the carton, I plopped a few dollops of cream into his cup and plunked the mug down in front of him dutifully.
With Gantry, I didn’t have to ask. He’d taken it black for as long as I’d known him. Adding a few generous teaspoons of sugar and a few splashes of cream to my own mug, I sat down heavily on a third chrome-legged chair around Irene’s lime-green, formica kitchen table.
“So, to what do I owe this glorious honor?” I asked, glancing from Jake’s face to Gantry’s, then back to Jake’s. “What are you doing here, Jake?”
“I told you I was coming,” Jake protested.
“...And I told you not to come,” I said, cutting him off. “Weeks ago, in fact. And besides, I never in a million years thought you would come, brother-mine, even if I’d begged you. So again, I ask, what’s up, Jake? It’s got to be pretty big, if it dug you out of the well-fortified beaches of Italy.”
Gantry smirked a bit, raising an eyebrow at me.
I saw genuine amusement in his eyes as he looked from Jake to me. I knew he thought Jake was a doof, so to even see the two of them together was strange enough. I watched Gantry take a sip of his coffee, then grimace from the bitter taste of the high-octane brew Irene tended to favor.
“I forgot about you and this gasoline you like to drink,” Gantry muttered, the bare traces of his accent audible as he stared ruefully down at the cup. “Just how wired do you need to be, anyway, chica?”
I laughed, I couldn’t help it.
When I glanced back at my brother, I saw that Jake continued to stare at me, wearing his mortally wounded expression. The expression deepened when I didn’t react to it appropriately, in Jake’s twisted view of how I was supposed to react. He looked about to answer me, though, when both his and Gantry’s eyes suddenly shifted to the kitchen doorway.
I had my chair back facing that way, so I was the last to turn.
When I did, I couldn’t help but wince.
Nik stood there. Stark naked.
“Jesus, Nik,” I said, even as I turned away. “Put some clothes on, will you?”
There was a silence. It was deep enough that I knew he hadn’t moved. The floor creaked too much even for Nik to be able to walk away that super-stealthy.
When I glanced back up at him, Nik’s eyes were a pale blue.
“I was concerned,” he said.
“Well, you don’t need to be,” I said, a little sharper than usual. “These are friends, okay?”
“Who are they?” Nik looked harder at Gantry, as if sizing him up with his eyes. “I recognize that one. Who is the other?”
“My brother. He’s only marginally dangerous.” Seeing the wary look deepen in Nik’s eyes, I shook my head. “That’s a joke, Nik...sort of. It’s all right, I promise. No one here is going to shoot me. Although I make no promises about me not shooting Jake.”
I winced when I saw Jake staring pointedly at Nihkil’s genital area, right before Jake raised an impressed-seeming eyebrow at me. Probably for the same reason, I ended up speaking louder than I intended when I looked back at Nik a third time.
“Look. Go put on pants at least, okay? There’s coffee in it for you, if you do. And you can join us...and see for yourself just how unlikely they are to murder me. And that I’m only marginally more likely to murder them. Probably.”
Nodding that time, and managing to look more or less human as he did it, Nik paused just long enough to aim more intent looks at first Gantry and then Jake.
Then, without changing expression, he retreated back into the dimmer areas of the attached foyer and living room.
The second he disappeared, Jake burst out in a high-pitched laugh.
I’d expected that, of course, but it still made me grit my teeth.
I didn’t look at Gantry at all.
“What the hell was that?” Jake said, still giggling. “You pick up a new pet on your travels, Dakota, darling? You naughty, naughty girl...”
I winced at his choice of words, too.
They hit a little too close to the mark, considering Nik had been viewed pretty much exactly like a pet in that other place, meaning by the humans who lived in that dimension and owned morph as slaves. I’d just spent a not-inconsiderable amount of time trying to get myself out of that dimension and back to this one, so the reminder was still pretty raw.
In Nik’s world, people like him were called morph.
Morph weren’t human. They could shape-shift and travel the dimensional gates, but were kept on leashes by the local humans to be used as breeding partners, scouts, spies, workers, soldiers. Or pets, as Jake so helpfully put it.
They really were slaves, not even “as good as,” but the real deal.
So yeah, the humans in Nihkil’s dimension might have been more advanced technologically, with the space ships and the ray guns and the dimensional portals and whatever else, but their social policies hadn’t exactly been what I’d consider enlightened.
I found all of that out the hard way when I accidentally followed Nik home when he’d been sent on a scouting mission to survey Earth.
“Jake...” I began, more tired than angry.
“Why was he ‘concerned’?” Gantry said, his voice sharp. “What’s he so worried about, Reyes? There people after you two?”
I looked at Gantry, forgetting my brother briefly.
“He’s just jumpy,” I said, hearing the defensiveness creep into my voice. “We’ve had a rough few weeks. Months, really. Nik’s just looking out for me.” When Gantry seemed like he wasn’t going to drop it, I let a warning creep into my voice. “He’s got reasons to be cautious, Gantry...believe me. I’d think you’d want someone to have my back.”
Gantry frowned at that.
He looked about to say more, but before he could, Jake burst out, clearly unable to contain himself any longer.
“An extremely hot, naked guy just walked into your kitchen, Daks! Nude,” Jake added gleefully, glancing between me and Gantry, as if we both missed that critical point. Jake rubbed his hands together, still looking at me like he’d won a prize in some demented carnival. “...Like, completely, butt-naked nude. Hung nude. You really expect me to not comment on that? Where the hell did you dig him up? He’s positively yummy, sis...”
I leaned my forehead on my hand, sighing.
“He doesn’t have any money, Jake,” I said.
Gantry let out a low grunt.
Undaunted, Jake glanced at Gantry, as if remembering who Gantry was.
After studying my ex-boyfriend’s expression, Jake smirked again.
“No wonder you two are on the outs,” Jake said. “I get it now. Dakota brought home a shiny new boy-toy.” He waggled his finger at me mockingly. “And here we were, thinking you’d been all serial-killered. You really should have left a note, sweetie...”
Rolling my eyes, I bit my lip, glancing at Gantry, in spite of myself.
Gantry’s expression remained completely unreadable that time.
I wondered what lay behind that look, but I knew I likely wouldn’t know until Gantry himself was good and ready to tell me. There was a reason he always kicked my butt in poker. Still, I considered him one of my best friends, so I worried a little.
Gantry and I had never been exclusive or anything, so I honestly had no idea if Nik being here bothered him or not. It hadn’t even occ
urred to me until precisely that moment. I couldn’t entirely squelch the feeling of guilt that arose, though.
Gantry looked exactly the same as I remembered, which didn’t help.
I felt like I’d changed so much over those months I’d been gone, while in that other place with Nik and everything that happened to both of us there.
Maybe I assumed everyone else had changed that much, too.
If Gantry was different, I saw no hint of it anywhere on his densely-packed form, however. From his short-cropped black hair to the dusting of beard and the jaguar tattoo that climbed up his muscular neck, it could have been yesterday that we sat here last, drinking coffee and shooting the shit with Irene.
His skin glowed with that unusual copper color I’d always liked, too, contrasting with blue eyes so light, they almost looked fake on that face.
He caught me looking at him then, so I averted my gaze.
“Yeah,” I said, sighing as I blew on the steam coming off my coffee. “...Whatever. So do either of you bozos have news? A job? Dire prognostications of whatever kind? What?”
“There’s someone looking for you,” Gantry said, blunt. “There’s a bounty this time.”
That got my attention.
I lowered my coffee cup, staring at him.
“Yeah,” Gantry said, giving an apologetic shrug.
“FBI?” I said.
“No,” Gantry said, blowing out his cheeks. He quirked a puzzled eyebrow at me. “I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
I ignored the question.
“Then who, Gantry?”
“I honestly don’t know. But I’m working on finding out.”
Emotion bled a little more into his eyes that time. Gantry scrubbed a hand over his half-inch of dark hair, leaning back in a chair that looked kid-sized under his bulk.
“Whoever it is, I hear they’re not government,” he said. “You’re looking at a private interest. Regardless, someone will be knocking on this door relatively soon. I wouldn’t even know about it, but the client was casting around for private contractor bids and we got a call. They must not know much about you...personally, I mean...or they’d have known better than to ask for me. But they’ve got money. A lot of it. Too much, maybe.”
Staring at the floor, I didn’t answer. Those few swallows of coffee I’d gotten down seemed to be going cold in the pit of my stomach.
“Any idea what it’s about?” I said finally. “Is it a revenge gig? Ex-client’s property? Did they say why they wanted me?” I glanced at Jake then, remembering him. “And again, why is he here? Is anyone going to tell me?”
Gantry laughed a little. “Coincidence?” He shrugged at my skeptical look. “I ran into him downtown.”
I frowned, looking at my brother, who only stuck his tongue out at me, making it clear from his expression that he was still mad at me and not telling me anything.
“I brought him here,” Gantry added, ignoring me and Jake’s sibling thing. “I admit, I thought maybe Jake here could get you out of the country. Until I sort this out.”
I let out a disbelieving snort.
“No,” I said. “No way.”
Gantry gave me a level look.“You might not have a choice, chica.”
I shook my head, feeling a vein start to throb somewhere in the vicinity of my temple.
“No way,” I said more vehemently. “I didn’t spend the last six months or whatever to get back here only to go underground. Or to end up in some Italian sex scam involving one of my brother’s sugar mamas...”
“...Daddies,” Jake corrected me primly.
“...Whatever,” I snapped, giving him a scathing look. “Find out what they want, Gantry. Find out who’s paying the bills, if you can. But I’m not leaving here. Not unless I know for damned certain that I have to.”
“When would that be?” Gantry asked politely. “When you get shot?”
“Maybe,” I said, refusing to back down. “Why do I have to run, Gantry? Why me?”
“You want to risk being picked up by the FBI?” Gantry said.
“I thought you said it wasn’t FBI?”
“Some hit squad then?” Gantry pressed, undaunted. “Or worse. Some pissed off mark who saw you on the news, figured out it was time for some payback? They showed your face on the news, chica...you know that, right? That story they ran about you being found after the campaign we had going to find you? It was just a little personal interest thing, but I saw it. That means other people saw it, too...”
When I only grunted, frowning at the memory of that dumb reporter firing questions at me a few days after the golf course fiasco, Gantry pressed again.
“...What about that guy you set up the last night you were here?” he said. “The night you disappeared? He’s still around, you know.”
I looked over at that, my lips once more pressing together in a hard line.
At my expression, Gantry grunted. From the look on his face, I could tell he’d had some one-on-one time with my favorite Ted Bundy in training.
“...He’s a real piece of work, that guy,” Gantry said, confirming my guess. “I thought for sure he’d killed you, Dakota. For months, honestly. Chopped you up into little pieces and fed you into the Sound. I had someone on him most of the time you were gone. I was trying to nail him for going after other women, since I couldn’t find your body.”
“Why should I be the one to leave?” I said again, leaning back in the squeaky chair. “I didn’t do anything! Why not go to that guy’s house, ask him to leave?”
“I doubt he’d listen to me,” Gantry said mildly.
I frowned at him, letting him know what I thought of that remark.
“So you didn’t do anything.” Gantry shrugged, his eyes unmoving. “So what? Since when do you stand on principle when it might get you killed?”
“I don’t want to leave, Gantry.”
“It would be temporary.”
“Yeah. Right,” I said, more frustrated now than angry, especially since I could tell this was Gantry being concerned. I could also tell I was confusing him, because frankly, he was right. I was usually more practical than this.
I didn’t care.
“...Temporary,” I said, my voice a mutter. “Just another eight months in purgatory, not working and waiting for the same guy to find me in Italy so he can blow me away along with my brother. No thanks. I’d rather deal with him here. Where I have back-up, at least.”
“And if I’m wrong?” Gantry said, raising an eyebrow. “...If it is military intelligence?”
I knew he was fishing, but I pretended not to catch it.
Instead, I threw up the hand not gripping my coffee mug.
“What in the hell would military intelligence want with me?” I said. “They’re not going to throw me in some terrorist interrogation center because I had the audacity to go missing for a few months, Gantry. I didn’t do anything, okay? Even the news story was a pure puff piece. I don’t even know how they got my name...”
Gantry frowned at that, too, then seemed to let it go.
“There are too many coincidences here, chica,” he said finally. “I don’t like it.”
“And you’re trained to be paranoid, Gantry,” I reminded him. “And to see coincidences and connections when there’s just a lot of random shit swirling around...muddying the water.”
Gantry seemed to concede my words without actually agreeing to any of them.
Instead he hesitated for a few beats, as if thinking, or maybe trying to read behind my expression. He raised the mug of high-octane coffee back to his lips.
I saw his eyes shift then, focusing on the opening for the kitchen door, where Nihkil had stood, only a few moments earlier. Feeling him look past that to where Nik likely dressed somewhere on the other side, my own frown deepened.
“He didn’t do anything either, Gantry,” I said, my voice warning.
Gantry shrugged, wearing his ex-special forces face, even as he kept his voice businesslike.
“Yeah,” he said. “Okay. But he was pretty banged up when you brought him here, is all I’m saying. According to Irene, you both were...but him, especially.”
“So? Does that automatically make him guilty of something?” I said.
I knew I sounded defensive again, but I didn’t care.
No way was I going to explain who Nik really was in front of Jake, of all people.
I was pretty leery of telling Gantry alone, to be honest.
In some ways, Gantry’s years of military service could make him unpredictable when it came to certain things. Like national security-type things. He might decide it was his duty, for example, to turn Nik in to some of his buddies in the Pentagon. Especially if he perceived Nik as a threat. Which, yeah, okay, from a certain “aliens who can shape shift and cross-breed with humans” perspective, Nihkil probably was a bit dangerous.
But Nik was a good guy.
Of that, I was completely certain.
Not everyone of his race would fall into that category, but Nik himself fell solidly in the plus column. The problem was, Gantry might fail to grasp that nuance in its entirety. Especially if he found out that Nik wasn’t the only shape-shifting alien I’d just set loose on Earth.
“...Nik helped me get out of a really bad place,” I said, fighting to subdue some of the defensiveness from my voice. “I don’t want to get into the details right now, Gantry, but trust me, okay? Nik’s all right. I don’t want him punished for helping me out.”
Gantry held up a calming hand.
“No one wants that, chica,” he assured me. “...I’m not gunning for the guy, I promise.”
“Then why don’t you take the contract?” I said. “Hold them off for awhile? Instead of sending me overseas with the wonder-gigolo?”
Jake laughed, but Gantry frowned.
Even so, I could tell from the look on his face that the idea had already occurred to him.
Tilting his head a little in a half-nod, he met my gaze.
“Yeah,” he said, confirming my guess. “I might do that.” Sighing, he gave me a harder look. “But it’ll only buy you and your new friend time...and that’s best-case. Also, I’ll need more information, before I put my neck out like that.”
Crash Morph: Gate Shifter Book Two Page 2
