by Мишель Роуэн
I blinked. “What did you just say?”
Another mouthful of cake disappeared. “Oh, come to think of it, she was looking for you, but I had no idea where you were. She wrote a note that she wanted me to give to you.” She reached down the front of her shirt and pulled out a small envelope.
I took it from her with shaking hands.
“Is everything okay?” Amy said.
“Yeah. Fine.” I tore my eyes away from the innocuous-looking envelope. I forced a smile. “Barry looks lonely. Better go back to him.”
She grinned and grabbed me to give a quick kiss on the cheek. “I think my thirties are going to be great.
It’s like a whole new start.”
She turned away to join her husband on the dance floor.
George touched my shoulder. “What’s going on?”
I shook my head, then, with shaking hands, opened the envelope to pull out a piece of lined paper,
holding it so both of us could read it at the same time.
Your ex-boyfriend is really hot. I might play with him a bit before I kill him. Would that hurt? If I ripped his heart out? Kind of an eye for an eye after what you did to my brother, Peter. Remember him? The vampire hunter whose eye you gored out before you murdered him? You may have fooled everyone else with your innocent act, sweetie. But I’m not everyone. And I guess I’ve fooled you up till now, haven’t I?
Want your boyfriend? Come see the show. I’m waiting for you.
She hadn’t signed it. I guess she figured that I’d know who it was from.
“Her penmanship is atrocious,” George commented.
“She has Thierry.” I was surprised I was able to talk, the lump of panic in my throat was so big. “She’s going to kill him.”
He looked worried. “What should we do?”
I glanced around the club. The music throbbed. The lights swirled. The alcohol and various on-tap blood types flowed. Nobody had any idea what had just happened.
“I’ll help you get your friend back.” Lenny approached and threw an arm around George’s shoulders. “I know Janie. I know how she thinks. And we’d better hurry if you want a chance to save him.” He gulped back another drink.
I exhaled deeply. “Thanks, Lenny. You have no idea how much this means—”
“I jess wish”—he hiccupped and swayed on his feet—“that I wasn’t so drunk.”
I watched as his arm slipped off George’s shoulders. Then the glass hit the floor and shattered, closely followed by Lenny’s entire tall, muscle-bound body. On the ground. Unconscious.
“Now what?” George asked.
This was bad. Very bad. I felt a wave of anxiety sweep over me and almost knock me over. What was I going to do? Who was I supposed to ask?
It didn’t matter who I asked. I knew what I had to do. Without question. I didn’t care that it was over between us, even though the thought still twisted like knives in my gut. I had to save Thierry. Janie wasn’t bluffing. If I didn’t get wherever she was and give her something else to focus on, she was going to kill
Thierry.
How the hell had she grabbed him, anyhow? He wasn’t exactly helpless.
I frowned deeply. Maybe she was lying. Maybe the note was just meant to get me to expose myself tonight on a wild-goose chase.
I ran over to the bar phone and dialed Thierry’s cell phone. It rang. Two times. Three. Four.
My throat felt tight.Answer, Thierry , I thought.Please answer. Even if you immediately hang up on me, I just need to hear your voice .
On the sixth ring, just before it went into voicemail, someone picked up.
“Thierry?” I said breathlessly. “Is that you?”
“This is a nice phone,” Janie said. “Really. I’ve been meaning to upgrade. But do you know how much it costs? Ridiculous, really.”
“If you hurt him I’m going to . . . to . . . ” I trailed off, frowning hard, my whole body trembling.
“What are you going to do? Tell me. I’m fascinated.”
My jaw clenched. “Thierry hired you to be my bodyguard.”
She laughed. “What the hell do I care? So it’s one job I won’t get paid for. This is personal, babe. God, you know what? Thierry isreally hot. When you said old, married and a heavy drinker, I had my doubts.
But, hello, cowboy! When he wakes up, he and I are going to have some fun.”
Every muscle in my body tensed up. “You touch him and I’ll . . . I’ll . . . ”
“Again. Still waiting for this master plan of yours. You know, I think I finally may have you figured out. I bet you didn’t even mean to kill my brother, did you?”—pain twisted her words into harsh sounds—“but you did. You made your choice. And now I have something you love. Even if he doesn’t give a shit about you. Isn’t that what you said? Well, you’ve got a choice now. Let me make your breakup a permanent thing, or come and get him. And then we’ll settle things just between the two of us once and for all. How does that sound?”
I tried to ignore the tight feeling in my throat. “Where are you?”
“It’s in the note. If you can’t follow simple instructions I think you’ve already made your decision. Bye, bitch.” She hung up.
When I hung up the phone my palms were sweating.
Simple instructions. I glanced at the note again.
Come see the show. I’ll be waiting.
See the show.
I shook my head, trying to concentrate with my mind racing in a million different directions. She said it was an easy clue.
Where would I go to see a show?
After another moment it clicked.
“We have to go to the Paragon Theater,” I told George.
“Where’s that? And what’s this ‘we’ thing you’re talking about?”
“That’s where Janie’s taken Thierry.”
“Bully for her. I don’t think this is a very good idea. Thierry can look after himself.” He gingerly rubbed his injured nose.
“She must have knocked him out. Maybe he was distracted or something.” I thought back to our last words. Our last kiss and how he’d stormed away. How he’d overreacted to George’s obsession with party hats. This was all my fault.
I had to fix this.
“There’s no time to debate the issue. Will you come with me? I’m going. With or without you, but I’d really appreciate the company.”
“The boss is really in danger?”
I nodded.
He looked over at the dance floor, at all the people having fun at Amy’s surprise party. Then he nodded,
too. “I don’t think we should tell anyone. They’ll just panic. Make things worse than they already are.”
“I agree.”
He tucked his shoulder-length sandy blond hair behind his ears. “We’re going to do this. We’re going to rescue Thierry. Even though he punched me in the face.”
“Yeah.”
“Just you and me. The two of us.” He nodded firmly, his handsome jaw set in a square line. “We’re like warriors. I like that. We don’t need anybody else.” He looked down at Lenny. “We are a power to be reckoned with. And when people mess with the people we care about, they’d better prepare to have their asses handed to them on a platter.”
“That’s right. Well, almost right.”
He blinked at me. “What?”
“The part about you and me going alone.So not the way it’s going to go. Janie is dangerous. She’d mop the floor with us.”
“Really? She’s that tough?”
I nodded.
“Then maybe we should give this more thought.” He touched his nose again. “The boss did step over the line.”
I grabbed his arm. “No, we’re still going. But we’re making a quick stop for reinforcements.”
“What are we taking?”
“Not what. Who.” I swallowed. “We need to get Quinn to help us.”
He looked at me sternly. “Sarah, this isn’t a double date.”
“He’s trained. J
ust like Janie is. He’ll know what to do. Now come on. We can’t waste any more time.
We have to go to Clancy’s.”
“Clancy’s?Are you talking about the hunter bar?”
I didn’t reply, just stared at him for a moment before I turned away. I didn’t think he needed the confirmation. I wasn’t going to force him to come and potentially get hurt. But I was going. All alone if I had to.
I walked through the club, headed for the exit without a backward glance. Breezed past Angel the bouncer, who held the door open for me, and then I was outside. The cold wind whipped my dark hair over my face, covering my eyes for a moment until I tucked it back where it belonged.
George stood in front of me. I raised my eyebrows at him.
“Well, come on, then,” he said. “What are you waiting for? There are butts that need to be kicked.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Chapter 19
Less than fifteen minutes later, George and I stood, currently bodyguard-free, on the curb outside Clancy’s, looking at the hunter bar with a large serving of uneasiness. I nervously twisted the gold necklace around my neck.
“How do you even know he’s still in there?” George whispered.
“I just know.” I had my arms crossed in front of me. Strangely enough, my feet had stopped working.
Completely. They were a lot smarter than me, I guess, and didn’t want to go any closer to the pub than we already were.
“Why don’t we just shout his name? Maybe he’ll come out.”
“No, we’re going to have to go in.” Odds were that by now these hunters knew what I looked like. I’d be risking my life going into Clancy’s tonight.
But I needed Quinn.
I had to save Thierry. Nothing else mattered.
My feet, however, were still having their doubts about the whole situation.
“There’s a phone booth across the road,” George said. “Why don’t I call Clancy’s and ask to speak to
Quinn?”
I glanced at him. “You can wait out here if you’re scared.”
“Scared? I resent the accusation. I’m not scared. I’m simply trying to be practical. And this is a new shirt. I’d rather not get it dirty. Or get a huge hole from a stake in it. Call me crazy.”
“You’re not crazy. Okay, let’s just go. It’ll be like pulling off a Band-Aid, do it quickly and it doesn’t hurt.”
“Pulling off a Band-Aid, getting a wooden stake through the heart. Potato, Po-tah-to.”
I tried to smile but failed. I looked down at my feet.
Come on boots. Start walkin’.
And they did. It was a miracle.
I pushed the door open and got a big whiff of cigarette smoke. Despite the city’s going completely smoke-free, Clancy’s had obviously deemed itself to be the exception to the rule.
Trying to latch on to any good sign, I noticed that the club was fairly empty. Must have been an off night.
There were a few hulks playing pool off to the right. A hulking woman was yelling at her hulking boyfriend by the dart board. The hulking bartender was counting cash up in the till with a cigarette dangling from his hulking lips.
Nobody even looked at us.
George dug his fingers into my arm. “There he is.”
I looked over at the bar, through the smoky haze. There was Quinn. Sitting hunched over at the bar. In fact, it was the exact same bar stool he’d been seated at when we’d first met. He had a bottle of beer in front of him and was playing with the label he’d peeled off. He wore dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt. I could almost see the little black rain cloud hovering over his head. Then again, it was pretty smoky in there. He didn’t particularly look like he was investigating a series of murders, but maybe looks were deceiving.
I glanced apprehensively at the other hunters and quickly walked over to him. George didn’t loosen his tight grip on my arm. I swung onto the stool next to Quinn. He didn’t look at me.
“What do you want, Sarah?” he asked as he studied the shredded beer label.
“World peace.” I sighed. “I’d also really love one of those tiny teacup Chihuahuas , you know, like Paris
Hilton has? And . . . I don’t know, maybe longer hair. It gets a little limp if I grow it too far past my shoulders, but it would be a nice change.”
That earned me a sideways glance. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“You’re probably right. Listen, Quinn, I don’t have much time here. I need you.”
He frowned. Then he looked up at George, hovering behind me.
George nodded. “I need you, too. Group hug?”
Quinn returned his attention to his beer label. “Why are you here?”
“How can you even ask that? You’re the one who called to let me know Janie wants me dead. Or was that somebody who just sounded like you?”
“I just wanted to give you a heads-up. But I’m sure your boyfriend can keep you safe.”
I tensed. “Maybe it was a mistake coming here.”
“Maybe it was. Now why don’t you take your little buddy and get out of here before my friends over there—” he nodded in the general direction of Hulk Central “—notice that public enemy number one is in the house.”
I let out a long sigh of exasperation and looked at George. “Could you give us a moment?”
“A moment?”
“Yeah, I need to say a few things to Quinn in private.”
George glanced around the bar. “Um. Okay, I’ll just be over by the coat rack, trying not to die.”
He shuffled off to the side, trying to stick to the shadows, which there were plenty of in Clancy’s.
I looked at Quinn. “Listen, I don’t mean to sound unfeeling. I get that you’re in a ‘bad place’ right now.
I do. I know you’ve been through hell the last couple of months and I haven’t exactly lightened your burden. But you know what, Quinn?”
“What?”
“Suck it the hell up.”
He blinked at me. “Pardon me?”
“I said suck it up. You say you’re here investigating the murders? Looks more like you’re indulging in self-pity and tempting fate by dangling yourself in front of a bunch of hunters. I’m worried about you.”
He frowned. “I thought you said you didn’t want to see me again? That you didn’t care what happened to me anymore.”
I sniffed, and found that I was starting to cry.Again . Alert the media. “I care.Of course I care. How can you think I don’t?”
“But Thierry—”
“Stop it. Just stop it, would you? He dumped me. Today. He says it’s over between us. Does that make you happy? That now I feel like a pile of discarded crap?”
He blinked. “Well, actually, it doesn’t hurt.”
“Glad to help.” I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand. “Janie has taken Thierry and plans on killing him if I don’t show up and take his place.”
His eyebrows went up at that. “She kidnapped Thierry?”
“She has him at an abandoned theater and if I don’t get there soon it’s over. I need you to help me because without you, I have no chance against her. Sure, George has those muscles, but they’re really just for show.”
“So let me get this straight. If I don’t help you rescue your ex, Janie will probably kill him.”
“That’s right.”
“Not exactly seeing the problem.” Then he sighed. “By the way, not that it’ll be any surprise to you, but
I’ve ruled him out as a suspect in the murders. Too many similar murders in too many cities. Not just
Toronto . It’s not him.”
“I already told you that.”
He took another gulp of his beer. “So let me get this straight. He broke up with you, and you still want to rescue him? You’re a lot more noble than I’d be.”
My jaw clenched
. “So you’re saying you’re not going to help me.”
“I’m saying that you need to think about things before you go off running haphazardly all over the city.
Janie wants to kill you. From what I’ve overheard around here tonight, Gideon Chase is really interested in finding you, too.”
“Oh, yeah. Didn’t I already tell you that? Old news.”
“No, the subject didn’t come up. You already knew this?” His jaw tensed. “Honestly Sarah. Gideon is an asshole of the first order. Usually funds everything and doesn’t get his hands dirty. His father was way more hands-on, but maybe he’s trying something new.”
I tried to shake off the reminder about Gideon, which was nothing but a distraction now. “I don’t care about that right now. I can’t let Thierry die.”
“Why not?”
“How can you even ask that?” I stared at him for a moment. How could I convince him to help me?
“Listen, Thierry told me something . . . he . . . he thinks you and I should be together.”
“What?”
“You and me. He doesn’t like you, and I know you don’t like him. But he knows you’re a good man. At least, when you’re not being a total pain in the ass like right now.”
His lips twitched. “Compliments will get you anywhere, Sarah.”
I tried to pick my words carefully. “So maybe he’s right. Maybe I did make the wrong choice. Maybe I should be with you. Because you’re wonderful, Quinn. You are. And even if you don’t see it, it’s the absolute truth. I know that you’ll do the right thing, even if it’s difficult. I know you feel guilt about what you did in the past. Thierry saw all that. And he saw how much you wanted to protect me from him.”
“It’s true.”
I crossed my arms. “So, maybe . . . maybe we can make this work. If you want to. I know I’ve been a total bitch and I wouldn’t blame you for telling me to go straight to hell, but I don’t know. It’s totally up to you now, I guess.”
He stared at me for a moment. Then he took a swig of his beer. “Let me get this straight. Thierry has given his permission for you to be with me. And you’re okay with that.”
I swallowed hard and nodded.
“And you want me to help save his life. After that, you and I can be together. Is that what you’re saying?”
I nodded again.
