Apostate

by Frankie Robertson

  After a short silence, Kellan asked, “Can you make out what they’re talking about?” Their target and his companion sat at a table halfway across the room, but as he’d been reminded, the Celestials had extraordinary hearing.

  “Just bits and pieces,” Jared said. “The other guy is asking for help with something, but they’re not being too specific.”

  Kellan looked at Gideon, who shook his head.

  “Too much cross-talk and ambient noise to get more than that.”

  Several minutes later Kellan was surprised that his bowl was empty. The minestrone had soothed his stomach even though he was still anxiously aware of their target finishing his meal and receiving his check. When the waitress took their subject’s credit card, Jared put his folded napkin on the table and rose. “I’ll return in a moment.”

  He followed the waitress to the servers’ station and asked her something while glancing at the clipboard in her hand, and then moved on. A few minutes later he returned.

  “His name is Brett Tupperman.”

  The server returned Tupperman’s card and credit slip. A few moments later he and his dining companion left.

  Kellan stood and the others rose also. “Let’s go.”

  “What about the check?” Gideon asked.

  Jared’s grin was wicked. “Pay it.”

  Outside, the December air was pleasantly cool. Tupperman was closing in on an Audi that was parked away from the other cars in the lot. He and Jared walked briskly to close the distance before he called out, “Brett!”

  Tupperman turned and Kellan lifted a hand in greeting.

  “Hey Brett, I thought that was you. Good to see you again.”

  The man assumed a half-smile in response to Kellan’s friendly greeting but his eyes held a cautious blankness as he tried to put a name to a face he’d never seen before. At least Kellan hoped he’d never seen his face. If this guy had met with Jasper, he might have info on Jasper’s associates.

  They were close now, and Kellan held out his hand. He was the one to make the first touch because his U’dahmi spells could mask his nature. Even if Tupperman was a Fey or Progeny he wouldn’t feel the tell-tale tingle of awareness—but Kellan would know if the other man was anything other than fully human. Reflexively, the other man grasped and shook his hand.

  Human. He gave a quick nod to Jared. “Have you met my friend?”

  Jared held out his hand which Tupperman shook as Kellan shifted his touch to the back of the other man’s neck. To any onlooker, they’d appear to be a group of old friends greeting each other. Fortunately, their mental interrogation shouldn’t take long.

  Kellan slipped into his mind.

  An attorney for just a few wealthy men, Tupperman brought people together and made problems go away. His employer wanted to meet Jasper—one way or another—and Tupperman knew how to make it happen. But Jasper hadn’t shown for their lunch. Tupperman had searched, but it was like Jasper had fallen off the face of the earth. His boss wasn’t happy.

  Jared probed a little deeper, but there was no sign of tampering in Tupperman’s mind. He didn’t know that Jasper was dead or that he’d been tortured, let alone who was responsible.

  Tupperman was strong-minded—he’d have to be to do the kind of work he did—but it took only a gentle nudge to get him to pull out his cell phone and unlock it for them. Leaving the lawyer under Kellan’s influence, Jared perused the texts and recent phone calls. He made notes on his own phone, then returned the cell to the fixer.

  With a quick glance, Kellan and Jared agreed that they’d gleaned all the pertinent information the man had. Kellan withdrew from Tupperman’s mind smoothly, covering their tracks and blurring his memory of them. It had all gone as smoothly as they’d hoped, but he was still enough of a Lightbringer that he felt a frisson of distaste at stealing knowledge from someone’s mind.

  “It was great seeing you again,” Kellan said with a cheer he didn’t feel. “Don’t be a stranger.” Then he and Jared walked away. They met Gideon beside the car.

  “I take it Tupperman isn’t the one who killed Jasper since he’s driving away.”

  “No, he’s not,” Kellan said. But we found out who sent him to find Jasper: Donald J. Landry.”

  “The real estate guy?”

  Kellan understood Gideon’s surprise. Landry’s companies owned or managed a significant chunk of the rental properties in Phoenix, Tucson, and Southern California. He played golf with the governor. What did a man that moved in those circles want with Jasper?

  Tasha was sitting on the couch sketching a dress that she thought would complement Cassie’s full figure when the other woman came into the room with Grace in tow. The little girl ran over to jump up next her. Tasha lifted her pencil away from the paper as Grace jostled her.

  “That’s a pretty dress. That’s for Mama?”

  Tasha smiled. “Thank you. Yes. I’d like to make this for your mama.”

  “Will you put your magic in it?”

  She blinked at the unexpected question. “No. I’d like to, but that’s not a good idea.”

  “Oh. Why not?”

  Tasha hesitated. She didn’t want to say, Because that might lead some bad people to me. The little girl didn’t need to be thinking about anything darker than not getting a second helping of ice cream.

  “Gracie, why don’t you draw some pictures for us?” Cassie interrupted.

  Her daughter looked at her with eyes that were too wise for a three-year-old. “Okay. You and Auntie Tasha can have a tea party while I draw.”

  Cassie went to the kitchen and put the water on to boil. “Do you need anything from the grocery store? I’m going to call in a delivery for a few things.”

  Tasha followed and sat on one of the bar stools. “No, I’m good. But maybe we could just go ourselves? It might be nice to get out of the house.”

  Bracing her hip against the counter, Cassie’s smile was sympathetic. “That’s probably not a good idea, is it?”

  “I can hide in the shadows. No one would see me.”

  “That might be difficult to pull off in a brightly lit store, don’t you think?”

  “Do you really think the Golden Path big-wigs do their own grocery shopping?” Tasha countered.

  Cassie laughed. “Probably not. But I still don’t want to explain to Kellan why I exposed his sweetheart to danger.”

  His sweetheart? An unexpected warmth filled her. Kellan cared for her and he hadn’t tried to hide that they’d become intimate. That would be a lost cause, anyway, when Jared and Gideon could read a thought with a touch. She liked that Cassie thought of them as a couple even if it was probably a just-for-now kind of thing. He needed a partner now that Jasper was dead, and Tasha wanted to be that for him, with him. But eventually the U’dahmi Council would assign him another partner, and he wouldn’t need her anymore.

  “Can I see your design?” Cassie changed the subject, redirecting her thoughts.

  Tasha retrieved her sketchpad from the sofa and turned it so the other woman could see. “I’d love to make this for you. Do you like it?”

  “Oooh, it’s beautiful.”

  The color-block dress had an asymmetrical hem and neckline. The blocks were arranged to give the illusion of a tiny waist even on a zaftig figure. “I’d make it with a variety of blues to play off the color of your eyes.”

  “Oh my God, you are so talented! I loved the wedding dress you created for Ana, but this is spectacular. It’s no simple thing to make a mom-bod look sexy. We need to find a way to get your creations out there.” Then Cassie’s eyes rounded and she covered her mouth with her fingertips. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to poke at a sore spot.”

  A wry smile twisted Tasha’s lips. “Don’t worry about it. Right now, I just think of my one-of-a-kind creations as being offered in a very exclusive boutique.” She’d accepted her situation—mostly. But that didn’t protect her completely from the grief of having her dream wrenched out of her hands.

  Chapter
Sixteen

  “Men like Landry don’t become that influential without owing debts to other powerful men.” Kellan paced the length of Jared’s office then returned to stand in front of the desk where the Lightbringer was staring intently at the screen. Gideon reclined on the overstuffed couch while Tasha sat in a club chair. Out of old habit, his first instinct had been to keep her as distant as possible from his investigation, but she’d insisted on joining them and being brought up to speed. He glanced over at her, meeting her attentive gaze. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at her. He was kind of glad she was so stubborn.

  “Yes, I thought so.” Jared leaned back in his chair. “The connection is attenuated, but Landry has associations with individuals in the Golden Path.”

  “I thought you damaged GP’s network in Arizona. Why is that guy still standing?”

  Jared grimaced. “Like I said, the connection is tenuous. It might be more accurate to say that the Golden Path reaches out to him from time to time. I didn’t see him as a major player before.”

  Kellan ran a hand over his face. “I think he’s trying to move up. Why else arrange for the torture and murder of an U’dahmi?”

  “He might not have known that Jasper was U’dahmi,” Jared said. “He might have had another reason to want to meet him. And we don’t know that he’s responsible for your partner’s death. Remember, Jasper didn’t keep his appointment with Tupperman.”

  Tupperman, Landry, and now the Golden Path. Did they really think Jasper’s death right after being contacted by Tupperman was a coincidence? Kellan paced across the office and back.

  “Do you know what Jasper was working on, right before he died?” Gideon asked from the couch.

  “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “It didn’t have anything to do with his death. I’ve already checked it out.”

  Jared and Gideon exchanged a look. Did they really think he’d ignore anything that might help them solve Jasper’s murder?

  “So, we need to determine if Landry had anything to do with Jasper’s death or if we can cross him off the list and move on. How do we do that?” Tasha’s question drew all eyes to her.

  “We don’t do anything,” Kellan said, ignoring the way Gideon rolled his eyes at his statement. “The Celestials and I will take care of it.”

  Tasha’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t protest. For some reason, he found that to be more alarming than if she’d argued.

  Jared cleared his throat. “Landry will be a little more difficult to meet, but we might be able to make an appointment with him. Once we shake hands, we can get the information we need from him.”

  “Why would he agree to see you?” Tasha asked. “He’s kind of a big fish in this little pond.”

  “I own a large security firm. We can talk business about the new luxury condos he’s planning along the Riverwalk.”

  “Ana just pulled into the drive,” Cassie called down the hallway.

  Jared rose. “We’ll discuss this later, after dinner.” He and Tasha left to greet her sister, but Gideon held Kellan back.

  **You’re going about this all wrong.**

  Gideon had helped save his life so Kellan tamped down the irritation that flared at his bald reproof. **Going about what all wrong?**

  **Tasha. If she’s anything like my Ana, she won’t appreciate you treating her like an incompetent child. **

  “I vowed to protect her.” But that wasn’t all that was driving him. The idea of her being taken again by the Golden Path, of having her mind raped and being forced to prostitute her abilities gutted him.

  Gideon’s mental touch was sympathetic. **Listen, I get it. I feel the same way about Ana. But she’s a grown woman. You can’t put her in a box to keep her safe. She won’t stay there—and she’ll resent you for it.**

  Kellan broke contact with Gideon to pace across the room. He didn’t want to discuss his private life with the Celestial, but Gideon was offering advice that he needed. “I’ve loved before—but never a Progeny or Fey woman. This is… How do you deal with the intensity?”

  Gideon’s sharp laugh surprised him. “It’s never dull, that’s for sure.” Then he sobered. “I trust her—and then I hold on and enjoy the ride.”

  “But why do I have to memorize these stupid multiplication tables? I could just use a calculator and get the answer faster,” Alex asked in a tone that was just shy of a whine.

  Dave sat at the small kitchen table with his nephew while Julie made dinner. He knew she was listening to see how he’d handle the kind of interaction she probably dealt with every day. Hell, she was only four feet away, she had to listen whether she wanted to or not. “What if you don’t have a calculator?”

  “My phone has one.”

  “What if your battery is dead?”

  “I never let that happen. I charge it every night. Mom wants to always be able to contact me. Of course, I have to turn it off during class, but I have it on the rest of the time.”

  This wasn’t getting him anywhere. He glanced at his sister. Her lips were pressed together as if she was trying not to laugh.

  “Lots of things that are useful to know are boring to learn. Learn them anyway. There is a big wide world out there outside your third-grade classroom, and the more you know, the better prepared you’ll be to deal with it.”

  Alex’s brow furrowed. Dave was almost ready to fall back on, Because I said so, when Julie saved him by announcing, “Dinner’s almost ready. Alex, would you clear and set the table for me, please?”

  The boy jumped up and scraped his worksheets into an untidy pile and then crammed them into his backpack. For a second Dave considered discussing the importance of organization and caring for one’s equipment, but dismissed the idea just as quickly. One battle at a time.

  While Alex clattered the silverware onto the table, Dave leaned over Julie’s shoulder. “That smells great! Is that mom’s Johnny Marzetti?”

  “I modified the recipe. I add garlic and mushrooms and cook it in the skillet. It’s faster that way after work.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  “You won’t have to. It’s ready. Would you grab the salad?”

  The three of them squeezed around the tiny little table and dug in. The first bite brought back a flood of memories, the good tangled with the bad. He focused on the positive. Times when their mother’s good cooking had filled the apartment with delicious smells and their father hadn’t been around. He glanced at Julie and Alex. They were relaxed and happy, not worried for the moment about Chad or what evil he had brought into their lives. That was how it should be.

  Dave took another bite. He needed to give Julie a heads-up so she’d expect Jack and company, but it could wait. He’d let them enjoy their dinner. Then he’d remind them they were still in danger.

  Tasha and Ana cleaned the kitchen while Cassie and Jared gave Grace her bath and read her a bedtime story. It felt comfortable, like old times, even though the kitchen wasn’t familiar. They finished about the same time Grace’s parents returned. Tasha refilled her sister’s wine glass and they joined the others in the great room.

  Tucson’s warm dry climate attracted a population of snowbirds and allergy sufferers so there was never a lack of patients needing the help of a respiratory therapist. Ana was tired from a long shift, but when she heard that Tasha wanted to go with Jared and Kellan to see Landry, she almost jumped out of her seat.

  “No! What if this guy recognizes you?”

  “Why would he? His connections to the Golden Path are through business. He probably doesn’t even know about the occult stuff they do. I doubt they sent out a newsletter with my face on a wanted poster.”

  “He’ll have security cameras, won’t he? Who knows who might see you?”

  A familiar exasperation at Ana’s overprotectiveness rose in her, stiffening her posture. Kellan put a hand on hers. **Old habits die hard.**

  She looked at Ana, really looked at her, and saw her sister’s fear. She’d taken on the res
ponsibility of raising Tasha when she was barely an adult herself and Tasha hadn’t made it easy on her. And it was thanks to her that Kellan and the others had rescued her.

  “I can’t live my life in a safe house forever.” Tasha softened her tone. “If the Golden Path has the kind of intelligence network you think they do, then they know that I haven’t remained the untrained noob that I was six months ago. I’m not the same attractive a prize I used to be.”

  **I think you’re an attractive prize.** Kellan winked at her and Tasha smiled.

  “You’re probably correct about that, but you’d still be useful to them. I think you underestimate what someone determined to use you might be capable of,” Jared said.

  “And I think you underestimate what I’m capable of. Somebody, somewhere, some time may recognize me. You can’t protect me from everyone for the rest of my life, but I can take care of myself. You let Ana go to work. I need to do something.”

  Her sister sat down beside Gideon as if her strings had been cut. “It’s just—I don’t want to lose you, too.” Her voice was so soft Tasha could barely hear it, and it broke her heart. Tasha crossed to the other couch so she could sit beside her sister and pull her into a hug.

  “I know. I don’t want to lose you, either. I promise I’ll be careful. And I really am capable of defending myself. My mentor taught me a lot.”

  “She has good mental defenses,” Kellan agreed. “Better than good. I tested them myself. And her power with Earth and Shadow is impressive.”

  Surprise jerked Tasha’s head up from Ana’s shoulder. Kellan was arguing for her going with them?

  He shrugged. “Keeping you in a box might keep you safe but it will also cripple your spirit.”

  Gratitude tightened her throat. “Thank you.”

  Jared sighed. “I don’t suppose my opinion matters at this point.”

  Cassie grinned and patted his knee. “I’m afraid not, dear.”

  “Fine. Tomorrow morning I’ll call to make an appointment with Landry. Kellan can pose as one of my managers and Tasha can be my assistant.”