16 Blood Noir ab-16

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  Chuck nodded and gave me a much more respectful look. Im sorry, Miss Black.

  Its Ms. and its Blake, I corrected.

  He blinked at me, then said, All right, Ms. Blake. I didnt understand that you were more than agirlfriend. Im sorry, I didnt mean any disrespect.

  Yeah, you did, but my ego doesnt bruise that easy, Chuck. I admit to making his name sound a little choppy at the end.

  He frowned at me.

  Jason squeezed my hand again. Lets just get us to the hotel as quietly as possible. I want to go to the hospital today, just in case.

  Chucks face managed to look truly sympathetic. Your dad that bad?

  They gave him weeks to live, but Id hate to be in town and miss him by a day.

  Then lets get you in the limo, Mr. Schuyler, Ms. Blake. He put a little irony in that last part, and when he bowed to match, he flashed the gun on his hip. I realized hed unbuttoned the jacket so Id see it. Like a vampire that wanted you to see the fangs. Wanted your fear.

  I smiled sweetly at him. Your hands are a little big for a thirty-two, arent they, Chuck?

  His own smile wilted around the edges. It gets the job done. But he sounded uncertain, as if my reply didnt match the box hed put me in. Fine with me. I liked it when muscle underestimated me. Made it easier later if later got bad.

  Jason didnt push me into the back of the limo, but he made sure I didnt linger trading clever repartee with Chuck.

  The big man asked, What hotel?

  Jason named it.

  Chuck said, leaning in the doorway of the limo, Damn, thats the same hotel the wedding guests are staying at.

  Its the best hotel in town, Jason said.

  Chuck nodded. Yeah. He gave me a look as he closed the door. It was the first look from him that didnt think piece of ass. Which meant he was brighter than he looked. Id have to be careful not to underestimate ol Chuck.

  Why was I worried about him? Answer: he was a thug. Id been working with the police too long not to know one when I met one. What was a presidential hopeful doing with someone like that?

  Dont tease him, Anita, Jason said as the limo started. We rode out of the hangar and down a separate drive, a little distance from the rest of the main airport.

  Sorry, I said, Im not sure I can help myself.

  Try, for me. He patted my hand, but was already looking out the window. It was worth a look. There were wooded mountains rolling out, and out, like layers of soft dragon spines curled everywhere.

  For a few minutes I forgot about thugs and politicians and just looked at the mountains.

  Its beautiful, I said.

  Yeah, Jason said, I guess it is.

  You guess? I motioned at the mountains. There were hotels and fast-food places tucked in near the road, but it wasnt close enough to ruin the view. A river cut along the left-hand side of the road, all silver shallows and sparkling rapids, set in all that green, all those trees. This is prettier than the Smokies in Tennessee.

  Well, its the Blue Ridge Mountains, he said matter-of-factly.

  I had a smart thought. You grew up here, so its not spectacular to you, its just normal.

  Yeah, and have you ever noticed where its beautiful, theres a lot of pretty, but not a lot of jobs. Unless you worked for the university.

  University? I made it a question.

  University of North Carolina at Asheville. Jason didnt seem to want to talk about the scenery. Okay, I could stay on track.

  You dont seem surprised that the Summerlands have someone like Chuck working for them.

  Theyve always had someone like him working for them.

  Why? I asked.

  He looked at me. Dont do this, Anita.

  Dont do what?

  Dont play cop. Just let it be.

  You know something.

  Let me see my father, Anita. Let me see some old friends. Let me just try and keep out of the Summerland family mess. I dont want any part of them. Okay?

  Tell me why they have muscle and Ill let it go.

  What did Chuck think he was doing at the airport? he asked.

  I frowned at Jason. He thought he was keeping this Keith from bringing in another woman just days before his wedding.

  Exactly.

  I frowned harder, and then the light dawned. Hes their cleanup man.

  Jason nodded.

  Why does their cleanup man need to be armed?

  Why are you armed?

  I dont go out of the house unarmed, I said.

  Jason gave me a look. Maybe Chuck is as paranoid as you are.

  I dont

  Jason knelt on the floorboard of the limo at my feet. He took my hands in his and gazed up at my face with a look of pure begging. Please, please, God, let this go, Anita. I will do anything, you name it, if you will just not poke at the Summerlands. Because of the wedding and the family resemblance we are going to have enough trouble.

  He laid his head in my lap, and said, Please dont make more trouble, please, dont make this harder for me. Please.

  I said the only thing I could say. Okay, Jason.

  He raised his face up and flashed me that infamous smile. It wasnt his real smile. This was the smile Id seen him use on customers at Guilty Pleasures when he was trying to part them from their cash. Jason didnt want cash from me, he wanted peace. Id have rather shoved a twenty down his pants then let go of the niggling feeling that there was something wrong with the Summerlands. Something that needed an armed cleanup man. Something beyond a womanizing son. But I did for Jason what I wouldnt have done for almost anyone else. I let it go.

  If Chuck of the too-small gun would leave me alone, Id leave him alone. I wasnt here as a marshal. I was here to help Jason say good-bye to his dad. Id just keep repeating that over and over, no matter how many clues I tripped over. The question was, clues to what?

  None of my business. Id promised Jason, and it really was none of my business. Unless the Summerlands turned out to be evil vampires, it would never be my business.

  I went back to looking at the amazing scenery on either side of the road. There was no bad view. Jason was back to looking out the window, too, but he didnt seem to be seeing anything special. I thought the drive into Asheville, North Carolina, was one of the prettiest drives Ive ever been on, but then I hadnt grown up looking at it all. I guess you get jaded about anything you see every day. Was I jaded about zombies and vampires? Maybe. But the mountains were pretty.

  10

  T HE SCENERY STAYED all mountains and hills and green with more evergreens than we have at home until we turned off the Highway and onto Charlotte Street.

  Then we were in small-town America. No building too tall, nothing too built up, a lot of houses and small businesses among the trees.

  The limo had dark glass so no one could see in, but we could see out just fine. One of the interesting things you find out if you ride in limos. Jason was more interested in the scenery now. I guess he was just a city boy at heart.

  Theres the dance studio, he said in an excited voice. There was a sign with a silhouette of a ballet dancer outside one of the larger homes. Two little girls in leotards were being led inside by a laughing woman.

  I wish we could stop. Id like to see my old teachers again.

  If it had been our limo, or rather Jean-Claudes, I would have said stop, but we were borrowing. It would be the height of rudeness to ask.

  We can come back, I said.

  He nodded and pointed at a small mom-and-pop grocery sitting just doors down from the studio. I would have thought Sigliers would have gone out of business. I got my first cigarettes there.

  You dont smoke, I said.

  He turned and gave me a grin that filled his eyes with laughter. I dont smoke, but everybody tries them at least once.

  Something on my face must have shown, because he scooted closer to me. You never tried to smoke, not once?

  I shrugged, and moved a little in my seat to try to keep the gun in a comfortable spot. I was beginning to remember why I
seldom wore a gun there. It made sitting down harder. I had a couple of cousins who were bad influences.

  So you did smoke.

  I tried cigarettes, not the same thing as smoking.

  So you werent completely pure when Jean-Claude met you?

  I frowned at him. Id tried cigarettes, Jason; that didnt really prepare me for Jean-Claude.

  Jason was suddenly solemn again. No, I guess it didnt. Its hard for me to believe that youd only had sex with one other guy before Jean-Claude.

  Why? I asked, not sure I really wanted to know the answer.

  I told you, I slept with just about anyone who would have me. I cant imagine turning down all the guys who must have asked.

  Trust me, Jason, there werent that many.

  He looked at me like I was joking. Come on, Anita, I have eyes. You are sooo hot.

  I squirmed in my seat, which ground the gun into my back, which made me cranky, and the conversation had already made me cranky.

  I wont debate that with you. You know that sometimes I can see it, and sometimes I cant. There were guys attracted to the packaging, but they didnt want what was inside.

  I dont understand, he said.

  I had at least three guys in college say something along the lines of, If only your inside matched your outside. Or one of my favorite first dates, who told me I was perfect until I opened my mouth.

  Jason stared at me. I know youre serious, but damn, how stupid were these guys?

  I smiled and patted his hand on the seat. Thats sweet, but Ive always spoken my mind. Ive always been independent. That is not the trait that draws men to pretty, petite, delicate-looking women. They want to protect and coddle, and do stupid shit like that.

  You intimidated them, he said.

  I nodded. I know that now.

  I like strong women, he said.

  I smiled at him. Ive noticed.

  He flashed me the real version of the smile that parted women from their money at the club. If they thought the fake version was something, they should have had the full weight of the real deal. It was enough to turn a girls head. Or make them blush, damn it.

  Youre blushing, he damn near chortled. He bounced in the seat. I love that you do that.

  I covered my face with my hands. I dont.

  His hands on my wrists were the first clue I had that he was so close beside me again. I let him draw my hands away so he could look into my eyes.

  I love that Im one of the men you react to, Anita. I was like invisible to you. I mean, Im not in Jean-Claudes league, but there are women who would do a lot to be with me, and have, he said, with a look to the side that tried for humble and almost made it.

  Ive seen the fans at the club, and the women going in and out of the Circus.

  He took my hands in both of his and rested his chin on our joined hands. He wasnt exactly looking at me. More at the memory in his head.

  But you never saw me like that. I was a responsibility first. Someone else you felt you needed to keep safe, and then I was your friend. He looked at me with that mischievous grin. Youd seen me buck naked and you didnt react to my body. That was a real ego bruiser, let me tell you.

  I blushed again and looked away from his face. You were my friend, Jason, you dont look at friends that way.

  You dont, but I did. I thought I wasnt up to your standards.

  The homes are really nice here, I said. They were. The more narrow road was surrounded by lovely, older, expensive homes.

  Youre changing the subject, Jason said.

  Trying to, yes.

  I dont want to change the subject.

  I pulled at my hands. This conversation was too intimate for me. Id forgotten one thing Jason did that made me the most uncomfortable. He had a penchant for in-depth soul-searching talks. When I needed one, it was great, if sometimes painful. But I could not spend the next two days being analyzed; it would drive me mad. I kept staring out at the beautiful houses nestled into their green yards and trees. It was still pretty, but no amount of pretty was going to make up for being analyzed for days.

  He kissed my hands gently, then let me pull away. You know that wasnt it, Jason.

  I know you were trying to hold on to what virtue you felt you had left.

  I nodded, still not looking at him. Can I ask you a favor, Jason?

  Sure.

  Im not up to you analyzing me on this trip, okay?

  I wasnt

  I held up a hand. Just dont poke at my wounds too hard. Im supposed to be here to support you; if you make me face my demons too head-on, I wont be as good for you here. Do you understand? I looked at him at the last.

  He was solemn again, but he nodded. I have trouble when I realize something about someone, some secret thing I didnt know before. I want to know why, or what the other person was thinking, feeling. His face went from solemn to pained. Ive always been that way.

  Something about the way he said it made me wonder what truth hed pushed for as a child that he hadnt wanted to know. If our roles had been reversed he would have asked me, but it was me, and I was already out of my depth.

  Alone with Jason for a few days, Id thought the sex and his problems with his family would be the awkward bits. What I was realizing now, far too late, was that Jason himself was the danger. It was too intimate, this visit. I had trouble keeping my emotional boundaries up once sex was involved. What the hell had I been thinking?

  11

  T HE NARROW, TWISTING road was edged by evergreens, and other trees, but mostly evergreens. There were still a few nice older houses, and some newer expensive houses dotted along the road, but mostly trees. We were climbing, though. Climbing out of the valley that most of Asheville sat in. The rich always seem to live up.

  The first hint we had that the hotel was ahead was the cluster of news vans blocking the road.

  The curving drive that led between the trees and the vans was being kept clear by men in uniform. Not police uniforms, but really nice valet uniforms. They kept the photographers, reporters, and cameramen at bay long enough for the limo to slip by.

  The gently curving driveway spilled out among yet more trees, and suddenly we could see the Grove Park Inn.

  The setting in the hills was lovely, but the building helped make it lovely. It was all stone and sort of pseudo-Bavarian, as if men in eighteenth-century clothing should come striding into view with dogs and servants. It should have looked overdone, or silly, but it didnt.

  The inn looked like it had sprung up from the rocks and trees around it, perfect in its setting, organic and right.

  Ive loved this place since my parents brought us here for Mothers Day when I was seven.

  I see why you want to stay here, I said, and I did.

  The window between the driver and Chuck and us whirred down. Chuck turned and said, You saw the media out front. There is no way they will let you explain, or believe, who you really are. If you go in there, it will be all over the news that Keith Summerland is cheating on his fiance days before the wedding.

  What did the publicist want us to do about that? I said, and my voice wasnt friendly when I said it.

  Chucks eyes flicked to me, then back to Jason. If you would change hotels, wed pay for your stay as long as you are in town.

  I can pay for my own hotel, Jason said.

  I can see that, but you see the problem from our end, right?

  Jason sighed, and settled back in the seat.

  Look, I said, we need to check into the hotel and get to the hospital today.

  How about if we drive you to the hospital? Well wait outside. You visit with your dad, and well drive you back to the airport. That way theres no confusion with the media.

  The limo had stopped a little short of the front of the building, where more well-dressed valets waited. We idled at the side of the parking lot.

  I stared at him. Are you telling us to get out of town?

  No, Chuck said, but his eyes were all on Jason.

  Im not sure one hospital visi
t will do the job, Chuck, I said, getting angry and not caring that it showed.

  Mr. Schuyler, Chuck said, voice soft, almost deferential.

  Jason shook his head. No, Im sorry; tell the governor that I dont want to be a problem. But I havent seen my dad in three years. Were estranged, thats why he wouldnt let them tell me sooner. Now he has weeks to live and Ive got to try and make up with him. Hes a bastard, and always has been, and Ive got a few days to try to get that Hallmark moment. He looked at Chuck. Tell the governor Im sorry, but one hospital visit wont get the job done.

  Will you change hotels then? Chuck asked.

  No, Jason said, Ive earned the right to be here. Not because my daddy paid for it, but because I earned it. Im not going to slink away because Keith Summerland is a dick. Talk to your publicist, try to figure out a way to do damage control that doesnt include me being hidden away at some cheap motel.

  You could stay with your family, Chuck said.

  No, Jason said, I couldnt.

  Chucks eyes hardened. Just a flash of a look, but it was one Id seen before. He had just put Jason in the problem box. A box that men like Chuck usually took care of in unpleasant ways. Maybe I was overreacting, but he just made my bad-guy radar go off too loud to ignore.

  I had to repeat Chucks name twice to get him to look at me. Even then it was a dismissive look. He, like most of the guys in college, was looking at the physical package and making assumptions.

  Chuck, lets be very clear with each other. We will do our best to stay out of your hair, and the wedding, but Jason needs to see his dad. Its bad timing that it happened on the same week as this wedding, but that is not our bad.

  You are going to give them fodder to trash Governor Summerlands family in the media.

  Well do our best not to, but if it happens, then Summerland is paying people to do damage control. Let them do their jobs.

  She always this pushy? Chuck asked.

  I hated it when men did that. Asked the men I was with why I was such a pushy broad.