by Мишель Роуэн
I twisted the cord around my finger. “I don’t know what to do.”
“What you do, my dear, is to move on. You will find the strength within yourself. Time is a great healer.
Also, I find that buying a new shade of lipstick is an excellent distraction.”
“I don’t know. Veronique—”
“I do hate to cut this off so soon, but I am rather busy. I certainly hope you are feeling better soon. Call again whenever you wish. I am always here to help.Au revoir .” The line clicked dead as she hung up on me.
My back straightened and I let the phone slip back onto the receiver.
Maybe she was right. Maybe I was just a silly schoolgirl with a crush on an unattainable dark hero.
Maybe I needed to give myself some time before I could see this situation clearly.
Maybe I just needed a good stiff shot of Moonshine.
Yeah. That sounded like a plan.
I stood up from the desk and then sat down hard again. No. She wasn’t right. Why did I even call her?
Did I really think she was going to make anything better? She didn’t know Thierry any better than I did.
I wished I could hate him. It would make things so much easier. Why didn’t I? After everything I’d learned about him. After seeing his dark side, why was I having such a difficult time with this?
Why did he have to kiss me like that? It wasn’t fair.
It might not be fair. But it was over. It was clear to me. He didn’t love me. He never did and he never would.
I absently searched the top of Thierry’s desk for some Kleenex. I needed to blow my nose, wipe my tears, pull it the hell together, and get back out to the party. I didn’t want anyone seeing me like this.
No tissues. Great.
Just a lot of stupid papers. Faxes. Photocopies. Phone records.
I frowned. Some of the papers were from the sale of Haven. Some weren’t. Some had my name on them. That’s what caught my attention. I picked one up and stared at it, trying to make sense of it.
It was an agreement. The address of George’s house. A picture of me.
I flipped the stapled page over. It was for a bodyguard service different from the one I had now. Not
Janie and Lenny this time. Thierry had hired an agency to keep an eye on me starting tomorrow. And he was paying a very hefty fee. Indefinitely.
There was a notation at the bottom:
A bonus if Ms. Dearly remains unaware of your presence to ensure her continued safety.
Thierry had hired bodyguards to keep me safe. Even after he left town.
First the shard. Now this. Everything Thierry did seemed to be in my best interest, whether or not I ever found out he was responsible for it. What did it mean? Did he feel guilty that he was leaving? Or was it something else?
I gripped the side of the desk. It wasn’t hopeless. Itwasn’t . I clung to this small sliver of light.
I had taken one shaky step toward the door when the phone rang. I glanced at it apprehensively. Was that Veronique calling back?
I grabbed the phone and swallowed hard before speaking. “Haven. Can I help you?”
“I need to talk to Sarah.” It was Quinn. I could hear a lot of background noise and voices. Music.
“Quinn? It’s me. Where are you?”
“I’m at Clancy’s.”
My eyes widened. Clancy’s was a bar widely known to be a hangout for vampire hunters. After a big day of busting vampire heads, they’d go there and shoot some pool, yap about their conquests, throw some darts, and drink some beers. A real classy joint.
“What are you doing there? Are you insane? If they find out who you are do you know what they’ll do to you?”
He laughed, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Why do you think I’m here?”
“Quinn—”
“Listen, Sarah. I’m not in a good place right now.”
“No, obviously. You have to get out of there right now.”
“No, I don’t mean here. I mean, in my head. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. I’m all messed up.”
“So you’ve gone all kamikaze on me? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry about the other day, but this is no way to handle things.”
He laughed again. “I guess I’ll have to handle things the way I have to handle them.”
“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. As in, not at all. Are you drunk?”
“If I could be, I would be. But unfortunately no. I’m here trying to get more info on the vampire killer.
Three more victims died last night. But I . . . I called for a reason. Are you going to listen to me or what?”
“Yes, of course. What is it?”
“I overhead some hunters here talking. They were discussing that female bodyguard of yours.”
“Janie?” The cord was twisted so tightly around my finger that it was cutting off circulation.
“That’s right. She and her partner aren’t just bodyguards. They’re also Mercs.”
“A Merc? What’s a Merc?”
“A mercenary. Usually ex-hunters, who now sell their services as bodyguards or assassins to vampire or hunter . . . or even regular humans. They don’t give a shit who they work for or what the job is as long as there is a great deal of money involved. They’re scum, Sarah.” He paused while I was trying to find my voice. “Where are they right now?”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “She’s waiting outside the club. I don’t know where Lenny is. But, Quinn,
she’s not bad. We’ve talked lots of times. Even if she is one of these Mercs, she’s probably just got a lot on her plate. She says she’s working a bunch of different jobs.”
“Yeah, I bet she is.”
“I like her. And I think she likes me, too.”
He snorted. “Then you’re in more trouble than I thought. When I saw her yesterday, outside Haven, she seemed familiar to me. I couldn’t place it at the time. I thought she just had one of those faces, you know? But I was a little distracted and wasn’t looking at other women at the time so I didn’t pay much attention.”
I twisted the phone cord more tightly around my finger. “Quinn . . . ”
“But listening to the hunters tonight talking about her it finally hit me just a minute ago. Who she is.”
“Who is she?”
“Her last name is Parker, isn’t it?”
I tensed. “Yeah. Janelle Parker. How did you know that?”
“Because I already know her. Because I . . . I knew her older brother.”
“Her brother,” I repeated. “She told me her brother was murdered. That that’s one of the reasons she’s in Toronto, because she wants to avenge his murder. She seemed really broken up about it.”
He swore under his breath. “Sheknew . This whole time. I know it. That must have been why she targeted you. I can’t imagine that Thierry would have known when he hired her. He couldn’t have.
Probably got her through an agency. Butshe knew. She’s wily. I haven’t seen her since she was a kid.
Probably when she was no more than twelve or thirteen years old.”
“What are you talking about? Who is she?”
“Sarah,” Quinn paused, his tone a little strangled. “Janie is Peter’s sister.”
“Peter?” My stomach dropped. “Don’t kid about something like that. It’s not funny.”
“No, it’s not. And I’m not kidding.”
My mind flashed to the horrible dream about Peter I’d had the other day when I fell asleep in Starbucks.
“Oh, I’ll get my revenge, darlin’. And you won’t even see it coming.”
“She’s the one who bombed your apartment,” Quinn continued. “That’s what the hunters here were saying.”
I felt the color drain from my face and I sat down heavily in the chair again. “No.”
“You’re in danger. I don’t know why she hasn’t done anything yet. She must be waiting for the right time.”
I shook my head slowly. This was crazy. It was. It couldn’t be t
rue. But . . . but it was. I felt it. It made a sudden awful sense. And I’d liked her, too. Even though the necklace guy said she wasn’t to be trusted. I hadn’t completely trusted my gut.
She must hate me.
Of course she did, I thought.I killed her brother .
Self-defense. It was self-defense.
But it must have looked as if her brother Peter, the brave vampire hunter idolized by his little sister, had been killed by an evil vampire. And the rumors about me being the Slayer of Slayers definitely didn’t help to clear my name.
She blew up my apartment.
Because I killed her brother.
“Sarah? Are you still there?”
My mouth was dry. “Yeah. I’m here. I don’t understand. We’ve been alone a few times. She’s saved my life. Why wouldn’t she just kill me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she wants to finish the job of being your bodyguard. Get paid. Before she . . . ” he trailed off.
“Before she really finishes the job her brother started.” I rubbed my forehead hard, frowning, then looked up. “Wait a minute. Her name is JanieParker .”
“That’s right.”
“So that means that Peter . . .” I swallowed. “That his full name wasPeter Parker ?”
“Yeah.”
I burst into tears. “Oh, my God! I killed Spiderman!”
“Sarah, get a grip.”
“I need to go. I need to tell—”
“Thierry?” he said it with a generous helping of bitterness.
“No. I don’t know. I don’t know who to tell. I just need to go now. Quinn?”
“Yeah.”
“Get out of there. Don’t get yourself killed.”
“Yeah, you, too. I’m just going to try to get some more information before I take off.”
He hung up.
Chapter 18
Janie was Peter’s sister. There were no words to describe how I felt about that. Wait a minute.Flabbergasted . That was a word. A couple more words would bestunned andbewildered . Right. Scaredandshitless ? Yeah. That pretty much summed it up. I killed her brother. A shiver shot down my spine. It was true. Ikilled him. And now she’d come for a little dose of revenge.
All this time I’d been scared of the hunters, hell, even of this Gideon guy I’d never heard of before. And all the time I should have been the most afraid of the well-dressed blond bodyguard lurking in the shadows.
My grip tightened on the door handle of Thierry’s office and I felt hot fury start to creep up inside my chest.
I might have killed her brother, an act that filled me with major daily guilt, but it had been self-defense.
She’d tried to kill me when I was asleep—in the middle of the night. All she ended up doing was destroying all my worldly belongings including my irreplaceable DVD collection.
Somebody had to pay for that.
So what was that outside today? Our little heart to heart? Her advice on my troubled love life? She must have been laughing at how unbelievably stupid I was.
Real freaking funny.
I just wondered what the hell she was waiting for. She and I had been alone a couple of times. She’d saved me from hunters and from a dangerous bus. Why hadn’t she tried to kill me?
It just didn’t make any damn sense.
It didn’t have to make sense. It was true. Janie was Peter’s sister. No matter what else she was here in
Toronto for, even if it included being my bodyguard, hired by Thierry of all people, it didn’t change what her real purpose was. What she really wanted.
Me dead.
And since I didn’t particularly want to die any time soon, I took issue with that.
But what was I supposed to do?
Thierry would know.
My heart twisted at the thought.
Could this night get any worse?
Probably.
I finally, uneasily, entered the bar area to rejoin the party. I scanned the crowd to see if Janie had come in for that piece of cake she wanted. I didn’t see her.
Amy bounded toward me with a drink in her hand—pink to match her new hairdo—smiling merrily.
“The new bartender made it for me.” She raised her glass. “It’s calledThe Amy . You want?”
“I think I’ll pass.” I glanced over at the bartender, who gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Ah, yes. My loyal fan from the other night.
“This is a super party,” Amy said. “Don’t you think?”
“Yeah, it’s fantastic.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Have you seen”—oh, kill me now—“Thierry anywhere? I need to talk to him. And then I may need a few dozen of those drinks, preferably made with Moonshine and razor blades.”
She frowned. “Hmm. I saw him a minute ago. George tried to get him to wear a party hat and I think
Thierry punched him in the nose.”
I scanned the room for George. He was over at the bar holding a wet cloth to his face. I walked directly toward him.
“My nose is broken,” he said. “He’s damn lucky he’s so old or I might just take him down one of these days.”
My eyes widened. “Thierry did that?”
“I get it. Okay? He doesn’t want to wear the hat. A firm and repetitive no would have been more than sufficient.”
“Where is he now?”
“Gone. Took off. I don’t know and I don’t care.” He pulled the cloth away and looked at the blood. “If this place wasn’t closing down I would quit. Or I’d go all Sally Field inNorma Rae and demand we start a vamp union. What did you say to him to put him in an even fouler mood than normal, anyhow?”
I crossed my arms and looked away. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah, sure.” He studied me for a moment and his brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
I told him everything Quinn had just told me on the phone about Janie. “She knows I killed him and she wants to kill me back. She’s the one who blew up my apartment.”
His eyes widened. “You’re kidding! And what about her megacute partner?”
“Lenny?” I said. “He’s probably in on it, too. He’s just as corrupt and devious and secretive as she—”
“Excuse me.” I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Lenny standing behind me. “Did you just say
Janie is trying to kill you?”
I took a step back and pressed up against George. “Get away from me.”
Lenny raised a finger and took a swig from his glass before speaking again. “Janie didn’t know what she had. She didn’t until it’s gone. I’m gone. Gone, gone, gone.” He hiccupped. “Excuse me.” He looked at
George. “And did I just hear you call me cute?”
“Well . . . ” George glanced at me. “That was before I found out that you’re in cahoots to kill Sarah. But yeah. Megacute. I’m a sucker for big and brawny. And you can take that sentence any way you want to.”
“Why would I want to kill you?” Lenny said, then drained the rest of his glass. “I was hired to protect you. I’m here because I wanted to wish Amy a happy birthday. Janie told me about the party. I thought
I’d come in for a few free drinks.” His bottom lip wobbled.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he didn’t give me a chance.
He smashed the glass down on the bar top. “You know what? I’m sick of it. SICK OF IT! I give and give and give, and what do I get? I get trampled on. Like I’m dirt under her designer stupid dumb shoe. I would have treated her like a queen. Butnoooo .”
“I’m thinking you might be a little bit drunk,” George commented.
“You’re wrong, buddy. I’m a whole lotta drunk.”
“Listen, Lenny,” I grabbed his wrist. “Janie wants to kill me.”
He frowned. “Well, that blows.”
“You need to help me. She told me earlier that Gideon Chase is in town now. Is it true? Maybe she was lying. What should I do?”
“I’ll tell you a little something about Janie Parker,” he s
lurred. “She’sevil . The woman is an evil vixen who has stolen my heart and locked it away. Do you know what she does with the poetry I’ve written her? Do you?”
I shook my head.
“She throws it away. In the garbage can. Like it means nothing to her. Nothing!”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Would you like to hear some of my poetry?” He felt around in his pockets.
“Can I take a rain check on that? Look, Lenny . . . is Janie still outside?”
He shook his head and signaled for another drink, which the bartender quickly made for him. “She came in here a minute ago. Where she is now? Anybody’s guess.”
I froze. “She was here a minute ago? Here. As in . . . here?”
“Yeah. I turned my back for one moment and she was gone. Poof. She’s like Houdini.” He pouted. “A beautiful, untouchable Houdini angel. I saw her talking to your friend just before she disappeared.”
I glanced around, feeling extremely uneasy. “Who was she talking to?”
“The birthday girl. Pink hair and the big piece of cake.” He took the new drink and downed it in one big gulp, then sniffed and rubbed a big mitt of a hand under his nose. “Janie loves cake.”
I strained to look around the club, feeling panic rising in my chest. But then I saw Amy, who’d obviously just requested a country song and was currently “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”-ing it on the dance floor with
Barry.
I waved at her until she spotted me. She gave Barry a big kiss that made me only a little queasy to witness, and came over to stand in front of me.
She frowned. “You don’t look happy. Are you mad at me?”
“You? No. Not at all. Was Janie here?”
She smiled and nodded. “Yes, a few minutes ago. She’s super nice.”
“She’s not. She’s evil incarnate. Did she hurt you?”
“Of course not. She told me she liked my hair.”
“That lying bitch.”
“What?”
I bit my lip. “I mean . . . your hair is great. Really. So she was here and she left?” I let out a long sigh of relief. “Well, that gives me a little time to figure out what the hell I’m going to do now, I guess.”
She shoved a forkful of cake into her pink-lipsticked mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “Yeah. She took off right after Thierry did. Said she wanted to take care of him. What does that mean?”
