by Jaye Wells
Just when I was about to start squirming, the door opened and Gardner rushed in. “Sorry I’m late,” she panted. “Had to meet with Stone about the Bane case.”
I rounded to look at her. “H-hey.” Last I’d heard she was on her way to Detroit to give her regional director an update on the drama at the warehouse. “I didn’t know you were back in town.”
“Got in yesterday.” She waved a hand. “How’s the kid?”
“He’s good. What’s up with Bane?”
“Nothing you should worry over.” She shook her head and my heart sank. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing yet.”
She nodded and sighed. “Good. I didn’t want to miss seeing her reaction.”
My face contracted into a deep frown. “What?”
Eldritch crossed his arms. “Well, first, you’ve formally been cleared of the shooting incident.”
I nodded impatiently. Eldritch practically vibrated with excitement. Gardner was more subdued, but I sensed tension from her. Not bad tension, just … expectation, maybe.
“With everything going on with Danny, we’ve put through paperwork to retroactively pay you for the time you were suspended plus an extra two weeks of paid personal leave.”
My brows shot up. “Wow, that’s great.” Now maybe I wouldn’t go bankrupt paying off the hospital. Plus it gave me another five days to nurse Danny until I … did whatever came next. I looked at them both expectantly, waiting for them to fill in the blanks.
“Once that leave is up, you have a choice to make. You can either return to your old post at the BPD patrol division.” Eldritch glanced at Gardner and nodded.
She smiled. “Or you can represent the BPD on the MEA task force full-time.” My mouth fell open, but she held up a hand. “With a promotion to the rank of detective.”
All the blood rushed from my head. “Holy shit!”
Gardner cracked a smile. “Is that a yes?”
I shook my head.
Her face fell. “It’s a no?”
I sucked in a deep breath to collect my scattered thoughts. I’d walked in prepared to get fired and then move away to give Danny—and me—a more stable life. But the instant they’d mentioned a promotion, things suddenly didn’t seem too cut-and-dried. “I don’t know. I thought the mayor revoked permission for the task force to operate here.”
“He changed his mind after you brought down one of the city’s most dangerous coven leaders,” Eldritch said, all magnanimous.
“So the team is back in play for good?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say for good. But for the foreseeable future, yes. Captain Eldritch has also been generous enough to convince the chief to grant us a few additional officers for the team.”
“That’s great,” I said. “And you’re sure you want me on it?”
“What’s the problem, Prospero?” She tilted her head. “I thought you’d be thrilled.”
“Forgive me, but I expected to be reprimanded, not given a promotion.” After I’d admitted to going to see Volos without telling anyone, I’d been read the riot act.
Eldritch cleared his throat. “We all said a lot of things in the heat of this investigation that we didn’t mean. But the bottom line is you brought in the guy, and you deserve to be rewarded for all your hard work and sacrifice.” The words were nice, but they rang hollow. More likely, the promotion was to keep me happy so I never went to the media about the Hanson situation.
I looked Gardner in the eyes. “Are you being forced to take me?”
“Absolutely not.” She didn’t flinch or look away. “Has anything I’ve done given you the impression I’d let the mayor or anyone else force me to take a team member who didn’t have the chops?”
I snorted. “I guess not.”
“You’re dedicated to the job, more knowledgeable about the Cauldron than the rest of the team combined, and show the promise to be a great detective.”
My cheeks heated and I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from turning up at the praise.
“You’re also stubborn.” She shook her head. “And unpredictable. I thought you’d be jumping at this. Eldritch says you’ve been angling for detective for a couple of years.”
“I have.”
“So what’s the problem?” Eldritch’s tone was annoyed, as if he was worried he’d be forced to take me back on his staff.
“I just—” I swallowed. “I’ve just had a lot of shit going on. But you’re right. I thought this was everything I wanted—the promotion, the spot on the task force. But after Danny was hurt—” I paused and swallowed the unexpected emotion that suddenly clogged my throat. For a made-up excuse, my body was sure reacting to my words as if they were the truth. “After Danny got hurt, I started wondering if maybe I should be a cop at all.”
Eldritch made an awkward huffing sound, like he was completely unprepared to deal with this much emotion. Gardner, however, tilted her head. “That’s bullshit.”
I reared back in shock. “Excuse me?”
“I get that your brother’s situation was scary. It would be for any of us. But I saw you, Kate. You didn’t act like a woman who doubted whether she needed to be in the justice business.” She chuckled. “You didn’t hide from the pain. You turned into a pit bull. Maybe you’re telling yourself you long for a nice, safe, easy life, but I think you know you’ll never be happy with a civilian job.”
The words were tiny daggers piercing my half-formed plan for a normal life. My ideas about moving to the ’burbs and getting a desk job had been a form of self-defense. I’d expected to walk in that office and find out I was officially relieved of duty. Instead, they offered me everything I thought I wanted. And it scared the hell out of me. What if I wasn’t good enough? What if I let everyone down? What if Danny got hurt again? What if I did and he was left alone?
“Kate?” Eldritch snapped.
I sucked on my teeth for a moment. Out of nowhere, his words from earlier echoed in my brain. “You Prosperos: You’re all fighters.”
He was right. But I didn’t learn how to be a fighter from Uncle Abe or his wizard pals who swaggered around the Cauldron like kings. Instead, I’d learned how to be strong from my mother. A humble woman who worked two jobs to support her kids. A proud woman who never got a fair shake but didn’t complain about it. A complicated woman who always told me she wanted Danny and me to have a better life than she had. A beautiful woman who died too early because I didn’t understand then that selling potions wasn’t the path to a better life.
In the days following Danny’s recovery, I’d tried to convince myself that a simple existence in a cookie-cutter house with a boring job was better. But deep down I knew the truth. A better life was one where I got to be that lion standing in front of the gates.
“Kate,” Gardner prompted, “what’s it going to be?”
I lifted my head and looked Gardner in the eye. “When do I start?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The stage stood in the center of what used to be the barren lot in front of the Arteries. Not ten feet from where I’d put a bullet into Ferris Harkins’s face, John Volos smiled like a politician as he addressed the crowd gathered to celebrate the ground-breaking of the community center.
Danny and I stood in the back, near the street carnival Volos had hired. Morales was with us, watching with his arms crossed. Behind us, calliope music and the occasional screams provided the sound track to Volos’s speech.
“Today is a new day not just for the citizens of the Cauldron, but for the entire city of Babylon. For too long, we’ve allowed criminals to rule these streets and prevent us from providing adequate services to the future of this city—our children.”
A smattering of applause rippled through the crowd. On my left, Danny stared up at his savior with wide, worshipful eyes. As far as the kid was concerned, any tarnish on Volos’s armor had been polished away the moment he rescued Danny. I tried to tamp down the spark of jealousy it caused, but just once I wished my brother w
ould look at me with that kind of admiration.
“It is my hope that the Cauldron Community Center will be a safe place for kids to go after school to learn a new hobby or practice a new sport or just hang out in an environment that fosters creativity and confidence. Every child deserves to grow up feeling safe—especially those who have been marginalized by circumstances beyond their control. For too long the Adepts of this city have been treated as second-class citizens.”
The Mundanes in the crowd shifted uneasily, but the Adepts burst into a round of enthusiastic cheering.
“Fortunately, Mayor Owens agrees that it’s time to start healing the rift that magic created in our community. In fact, he and I met just yesterday to discuss plans to build a free clinic in the Cauldron. The clinic will help those ravaged by addiction by offering discount antipotions, which will be provided by Volos Labs and subsidized by the City of Babylon. Our hope is that by next summer, we will be able to put a dent in the dirty magic problem in this city by addressing the demand side of the equation.”
I snorted. Yeah, they’d be putting a dent in the magic problem by putting extra coin in Volos’s pockets. Was there any opportunity he couldn’t find a way to profit from?
John glanced back toward the end of the stage where the mayor and Captain Eldritch sat. “The Volos Corporation is also donating $100,000 to the joint BPD/MEA task force to help address the supply side of the equation.”
Morales nudged me with his elbow. I grimaced up at him. I hated the idea we’d be using Volos’s money to fund our operations, but since the task force was already on thin ice with the mayor, refusing the donation wasn’t exactly an option.
Eldritch came forward to accept a check from Volos. The men shook hands and smiled politely for the cameras. I thought it was interesting Gardner hadn’t been invited onstage, too. Instead she stood to the side, looking unimpressed by either the spectacle or Volos’s generosity.
“I’ve heard enough. Let’s go ride some rides.” I tugged on Danny’s shirtsleeve. “You coming?” I asked Morales.
“Will you buy me some cotton candy?” He shot me an amused look.
“No.” I smiled. “But I’ll let you buy me a beer.”
He held my gaze, his eyes sparkling with something that made me nervous. “Deal.”
* * *
The inevitable happened an hour later. I sat alone on a bench with a rapidly warming beer in my hand. The sun was warm on my face and the leaves were turning colors in the distance. Danny and Morales were somewhere high up above me on a ride that appeared to exist solely to induce nausea in its riders. I was smiling when the shadow fell over me.
“Having a good time?” Volos’s voice was warm like the sun, and just as likely to burn.
“Yeah.” I squinted at him. “I was going to call you.”
“Liar.” The corner of his lip lifted. “How’s the kid?”
“Better.” I shoved my hands in the pockets of my worn jeans and shrugged. “Thank you.”
He watched me for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out if I was thanking him for asking or for saving Danny’s life. Either way, he nodded. “Any side effects?”
“Low-grade fever for a couple days, but that’s cleared up.” I shook my head. “Nightmares, too, but I’m not sure if that’s a side effect of the potion or the ordeal.”
He nodded too quickly, as if he’d experienced the same problem. Instead of thinking about that because it might make me feel bad for him, I soldiered on. “But his appetite’s normal and he’s bitching a lot, which is a good sign.”
“If anything changes, be sure to let me know.”
“Of course.” I looked away because now was the time to offer my heartfelt gratitude. But I couldn’t do it.
Volos cleared his throat. “Thank you, by the way.”
I jerked my head up. “For what?”
His color was high and he couldn’t quite meet my eyes. He rubbed his chest in an unconscious gesture. “For shooting me.” His lips lifted in irony.
“My pleasure.” I smiled to let him know I meant it. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you survived and all because of Danny, but I kind of enjoyed it.”
“I guess I deserve that.” He sat next to me on the bench. I scooted over. He looked at me with a raised brow. “If you’d been able to, you would have killed me when I was freaking on that potion, wouldn’t you?”
I looked away quickly as the memory of his snarling face flashed behind my eyes. “No, but only because it would have meant Danny died.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Whatever. I did what I had to do.”
“Regardless, I know what it cost you.”
I clenched my jaw and said the words I’d been fighting. “Thank you for saving Danny. I wasn’t sure you’d send the antipotion.”
“I’m not all bad, Kate. Maybe one day you’ll accept that.” He rested an elbow on the back of the bench. Tipped his head back and watched the tracers of light from the rides overhead for a moment before answering. “You didn’t tell them about Abe.”
I turned toward him fully. “I didn’t have a choice, did I?”
“Sure you did. You just didn’t like the alternative.” He turned his head to look at me. “Besides, you know I would have sent that antipotion anyway. I wouldn’t screw the kid over like that.”
I glanced away. Maybe deep down I had known, but I didn’t want to admit that Volos was capable of that much humanity. It was too confusing. “No, I didn’t.”
“I have a theory.”
“Oh?”
“I think you didn’t tell them because you’re curious to find out what I’m going to do to Abe.”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “That’s ridiculous. I’m a cop, John.”
“A detective now, right? Congratulations, by the way.”
I grimaced because I wasn’t about to let him wriggle out of this conversation with flattery. “Cut the shit. What are you planning?”
“What makes you think I’m going to do anything?” At my don’t-bullshit-a-bullshitter look, he shrugged. “I can’t tell you that, detective. But rest assured, Uncle Abe’s going to experience a reckoning.”
I looked down at my hands. A sort of shameful excitement filled my midsection at the idea of John’s exacting vengeance on Abe. I told myself the feeling was a normal reaction for someone who’d almost lost a loved one because of a bad man’s actions. But something deeper inside me whispered that I’d just plain enjoy watching that bastard burn.
Still, as a cop, I couldn’t exactly condone a citizen’s targeting another citizen for murder. Even if I thought the target deserved it. “If he dies, I’ll have no choice but to report that you’ve threatened him.”
“I’d actually love to see you try to fast-talk your way through that discussion.” His lips quirked. “But you can relax, Kate. Having Abe killed isn’t on my agenda. It’s far too easy a punishment for the crimes he’s committed against me and people I care about.”
People I care about. I cleared my throat, trying to exorcise the spike of pleasure that comment conjured, but it didn’t do any good.
John brushed my arm in an almost caress that could easily be written off as an accident. “Forget Abe for the moment. There’s something else we need to discuss. A favor.”
I didn’t want to talk about Abe anymore, but I knew we’d have to eventually. But I also knew pressing him would only earn me a brick wall of silence. “What is it?”
He crossed his arms, as if he was uneasy. “I need you to be my trump card.”
I didn’t bite. Just raised my brows and tried to look bored by his flair for drama.
“It won’t be long before the MEA task force turns its microscope on me. I need you to warn me when that happens.”
“Why, Mr. Volos, I thought you were a legitimate businessman.” I raised my brows. “A pillar of the community.” I batted my eyelashes like a Southern belle and used my best sweet-
tea voice. “Why on earth would the MEA investigate you?”
“Cute.” His lips stretched into a tight line. “I’m not interested in playing coy here, Kate. The bottom line is that if you want to keep your job on the task force you’ll tell me what I need to know.”
Boom.
There it was. The other shoe I’d foolishly convinced myself would never come just dropped like an anvil into my lap.
The ride Danny and Morales had been on stopped and people started weaving out of the gate like drunks from a bar. Eventually I saw Morales’s dark head looming over the group. His lips were spread into a wide smile as he teased a very green-looking Danny.
I crossed my arms over the raging bile in my stomach. “What do you mean, keep my job on the task force?”
I kept my eyes on the pair exiting the ride. When Morales’s eyes landed on me sitting next to Volos, he jerked and started over. I shook my head. The last thing I needed was for him to add his gas to the already highly flammable situation. He nodded and steered Danny in the other direction, toward another ride.
Apparently, Volos saw Morales spot us, too. “What do you think your new partner would do if he found out that you lied about the reason you were at the brewery that night? Or that you willingly performed illegal magic? Or that you intentionally omitted information about your uncle’s involvement in the case?”
Our eyes met and held. Electricity zinged between us. Unlike a decade earlier when that look would have resulted in a passionate kiss and a roll in the sack, this time the energy made me want to put a gun in his face and finish the job I’d started back in that warehouse. His bulletproof magic wouldn’t stop a shot to the forehead.
I snorted. “Your word against mine.”
“Wrong. Your word against the security footage of you reading Gray Wolf’s energy signature in my lab.”
“You fucking filmed me?” All around the bench, passersby jerked their gazes in the direction of my raised voice. I cringed and slid down a little. “Your video also shows you helping me.”
“No. It doesn’t, actually.” He crossed an ankle over his knee, all casual, as if he weren’t a shark circling everything I held sacred. “Don’t look at me like that. I’d prefer not to have to do this, but it’s unavoidable.”
