Forgotten Destiny 4

by Odette C. Bell

  Though I’d been walking away, I stopped, back straightening. I took a hard breath and tried to shake off his comment.

  I could feel Josh’s gaze on the back of my neck. “He’s just busy – seriously busy after the fall of the Cruze Gang.”

  “… I know he’s busy. And it doesn’t bother me. I don’t—”

  “What, care? Look, Bethany Samson,” he said, using my real name, underlying the seriousness of what he was saying, “I may have really only known you for a couple of months or so, but I can tell what you’re thinking.”

  I stopped in the only shaft of moonlight making it through the clouds above. I looked up at Josh. “Then what am I thinking?” I challenged quietly.

  “You want to get this over and done with already,” Josh said. His voice was different, quiet now, as if he actually cared about my reaction.

  I pressed my lips together. I’d been the one to challenge him, but now I felt like turning and shrugging this conversation off.

  Maybe he realized what I was thinking, because he nodded at me hard. “I get it, Beth – I really do. You’re sick of waiting,” he said with the kind of tone that told me he understood my predicament 150 percent. “But there’s nothing you can do. You can’t speed this up. You can’t click your fingers and get what you want,” he added bitterly. “So you just have to wait. But while you’re waiting,” he suddenly slapped me on the back hard enough that I staggered forward a few centimeters, “you can make some money, do some good, and keep the city safe. Now, what do you say?”

  “To buying you dinner?”

  “To keeping yourself distracted until whatever happens next happens?” he asked quietly.

  I looked at Josh, and I smiled. I nodded.

  Together, we turned and walked away.

  Behind us?

  There was the faintest crackle of magic over the remnants of the circle Josh had created. A crackle that should not be there. A crackle that suggested a competing spell.

  Nothing was ever simple in Madison City. And even distracting yourself was a dangerous thing.

  Chapter 2

  “Why are you holding your stomach like that? I already fed you plenty. Don’t you dare tell him I haven’t fed you plenty,” Josh suddenly said as he waggled a finger at me in the elevator.

  I frowned at him, my hand locked hard on my belly. “I’ve eaten fine,” I managed.

  “Then why are you holding your stomach?” he demanded, a frown marking his lips.

  “I—” I began, about to tell him the truth.

  Then I reminded myself who I was speaking with. Though Josh sometimes appeared to be a friend, he very much wasn’t. He wasn’t Susan, and there was no way I could confide in him now and let him know what was happening to me.

  And what was happening to me?

  Max.

  Even though my feelings for his brother had become as complicated as all hell, my feelings for Max hadn’t exactly disappeared. They’d just shifted. Shifted until I had two brothers in my heart at the same time.

  While I hadn’t seen Jason for the past two weeks, I’d seen Max fleetingly. And every time, he’d been… God, I couldn’t put my finger on it. I wanted to say that he’d been searching – almost as if he’d been searching for an opportunity with me – but… dammit, I didn’t know.

  “You don’t need to use the bathroom, do you?” Josh asked as he made a face. “You do know who we’re going to see, don’t you? I don’t need any rumors going around town if you go mess up Madison City’s number one venture capitalist’s bathroom.”

  “Do you mind?” I asked.

  “Yes. And so will Max. He seems to like you, but if you—”

  “I don’t need to use the bathroom. I’m just… feeling a little off,” I managed.

  “You don’t look off.”

  “Can you just leave it?”

  “No, as your employer, I cannot. Max has called us in to find someone. Max,” he emphasized. “I shouldn’t need to remind you that I have an exceedingly complicated history with Max.”

  I frowned and looked up at Josh. “You hate talking about your history. Why are you—”

  “I am trying to distract you from throwing up all over the elevator. Is it working?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you finally going to tell me—”

  He snorted, the move so hard, his shoulders shook. “Of course I’m not going to tell you about my history with Max – or anyone else, for that matter. But your hand has dropped,” he said as he nodded at my hand, which had dropped to my side, “so my mission here is done. Now,” he pointed at the lift doors just as there was a ping and they opened, “forward, trusty steed.”

  I made a suitable face at that. “I am not your trusty steed. Nor am I your sidekick. Nor,” I said, voice dropping down low, “am I your secretary.”

  Josh laughed at that, clapping his hands hard as we strode out of the elevator. “Secretary. I really like the ring of that. I feel like if you were my secretary, I’d have to feed you less. Maybe I can look into changing the terms of your contract,” he said as he continued to waggle a finger in the air.

  Now I was onto his game – specifically, distracting me – I ignored him. I tilted my head up, stared at the perfect ceiling, and shoved my hands into my pockets. I was still wearing my leather jacket – though thankfully I’d washed it carefully last night – and it was large enough that as I shoved my hands into my pockets as far as they would go, I managed to press my fists against my stomach. It wasn’t exactly the same as collapsing my palms against my belly, but it was close. It reminded me I had to anchor myself.

  “Do you have any questions, anyway? This is usually the point in the game where you snap at me for not telling you more about the bounty we’re going to go pick up.”

  “Do you know who Max wants us to track down?” I asked.

  “I don’t, actually. He just told me he has a witch who’s gone missing. Unusual, considering he’s not allowed to contract anymore.”

  I stopped, my shoes actually skidding against the polished marble. “Sorry, what? Max isn’t allowed to contract people? I thought—”

  Josh paled and straightened. “That’s not what I meant—”

  “I’m an emotion reader, Josh,” I pointed out quietly. “That’s exactly what you meant. Max isn’t allowed to contract witches? That’s not what you told me. You told me he doesn’t usually contract witches because he doesn’t need any magical help. What does that mean—”

  Josh brought his hands up, and he was no longer playing at distracting me. His expression was serious, and he also ticked his gaze from left to right. “Look, can we not discuss this here? That’s a significant secret I just shared with you involuntarily. You’re going to need to keep it quiet,” he added as he demonstrated his urgency by letting his voice drop to a whisper.

  I could not drop this, and I took a tight step toward him. Fortunately there were no offices this close to the elevator, and there wasn’t a reception desk, either. It was just a long, uninterrupted corridor, almost as if it was a tunnel leading to a lair. Well, a tunnel that had great views of Madison City from a penthouse level of one of the highest office blocks in the city, that was.

  Josh swallowed hard until his Adam’s apple pushed against his collar. “Beth, you’re going to need to drop this. We’re already late, and… you just don’t want to know, okay?”

  My eyes widened.

  “Shit, I shouldn’t have said you don’t want to know. That’s only going to make you want to find out the truth more, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. “Now, just cut to the chase – why isn’t he allowed to contract witches? What happened?”

  Josh took a step back. He shot me a look that said the conversation was over. “I’m not going to tell you—”

  “Then I’ll just find another way to find out,” I said, emphasizing the word find as I looked at him seriously. “You can make this easy, or you can make this hard. I’m a sorcerer—”

  “Are you a
bout to threaten me?” Josh asked, and though there was a playful edge to his tone, it was hard at the same time.

  “No, I’m just about to tell you that I’m a finder, and there’s nothing I can’t find,” I said.

  There were soft footsteps from behind us.

  I jolted hard to the side to see Max walking out of the elevator.

  I hadn’t heard it arrive, and I hadn’t heard the doors ping as they’d opened.

  There were two elevators side-by-side, and he’d exited from the one we hadn’t used. So technically, he could have been standing there the entire time.

  Josh looked, quite rightly, as if he’d just been sprung.

  Me?

  Though I briefly felt embarrassed, as soon as I looked at Max, I….

  He had his hands in his pockets, and he took a quiet step toward us. “The reason I’m not allowed to contract witches is that the last contract I had, I lost,” he said. He didn’t look at me, and he didn’t look at Josh. He looked at his feet, his eyes wide, his emotion real.

  My emotion-reading magic told me that. Then again, you wouldn’t need emotion-reading magic to figure that out, anyway. Just looking at his expression would do it. The way his shoulders were hunched, the way his gaze was fixed.

  This was a hell of a wound for him.

  But it wasn’t just a wound for him.

  Josh straightened, and I felt emotion washing off him too. I turned to him in time to see his cheeks pale. He cleared his throat. “Let’s just get to the matter at hand,” he said.

  “You don’t want her to know?” Max asked.

  “… Don’t want me to know what?”

  “Let’s just get to the matter at hand,” Josh said. With every word he said, his emotions became more turgid, flowing through him like a storm. I even saw him shift a hand behind his back and tightly clench it into a fist.

  Whatever they were talking about, it had to be a significant wound for both men. And there was only one wound I knew that had cut Josh this deeply.

  “Your sister,” I said. “Max… lost your sister?” I managed.

  Josh ticked his head hard to the side. “Sometimes I wish you wouldn’t do that,” he said harshly. “You don’t need to find everything,” he added.

  I blinked hard at his biting remark. He had been the one to let slip that Max had been banned from having witch contracts, and at the time, I hadn’t read emotion like this coming off him.

  But that was Josh. He was a man used to hiding his true feelings and pretending everything was a game until it became clear to everyone that it wasn’t.

  I took a step toward him.

  He took a step back.

  Max looked between us. “I—” he began.

  “She doesn’t need to know,” Josh said, his voice hard – perhaps the hardest I’d ever heard him use on Max.

  I should drop this. I should clearly drop it. Josh was pulling in on himself, not just emotionally, but physically. His shoulders were hunched, his hands were clasped, and his head was tilted down as his blazing gaze was locked on the floor.

  But… there was an opportunity here, wasn’t there?

  Max looked at me sharply, and I wondered if it was because he could sense that I had just used my finding magic.

  I had made a promise to Josh that I would help find out who’d murdered his sister. But to do that, I needed to know more about his sister in the first place. Yet every time I broached the subject, he’d always do this.

  Why?

  When I’d offered it, he’d wanted my help. But something had changed. What?

  I took a step forward, deciding to go with the opportunity I could sense. Before I could open my mouth, Max shook his head and looked right at me.

  I was now certain Max could sense the same opportunity I was sensing, so why was he telling me to drop it?

  I opened my mouth wider—

  Max cleared his throat and nodded forward. “I’m afraid we don’t have much time on this case.”

  “But—” I began.

  “I’m going to have to request you both use your full skills,” Max continued, talking right over the top of me.

  What was he doing? Why wasn’t he allowing me to ask what needed to be asked?

  Josh turned hard, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked ahead. I caught a glimpse of his expression, and it was… crushed. The kind of crushed expression that gave you the impression it didn’t matter how many times the owner of said expression had been stepped on, he’d still find a way to walk forward carrying all that emotional baggage with him.

  I felt sick as I used my emotion-sensing abilities to gauge the depths of Josh’s sorrow.

  He continued to stride ahead until he’d left Max and me far behind.

  I turned to Max, intending to ask one thing – but as soon as I looked at him, he shook his head hard.

  “What may be an opportunity for you may not be an opportunity for others,” he said quietly.

  … His comment struck me like a battering ram to the chest. I honestly felt as if someone had pried open my rib cage and shoved a hand into my heart.

  I blinked hard. “What?”

  “Maybe that was the first lesson I should’ve taught you about opportunity magic. An opportunity for you may not be an opportunity for others.” He had a seriously hardened look about him as he revealed that.

  It made me sick. “I just want to help,” I tried.

  “What may be an opportunity for you, may not be an opportunity for others,” Max defaulted to saying. Then he shot me one last look – one last unreadable look – and strode off.

  We reached his office, though I remained several steps behind both men.

  I shoved my hands into my pockets, and my head was directed at the ground as I stared at the marble with wide eyes.

  What the hell was going on here?

  And why did it feel as if Max wasn’t just talking about this situation?

  Max opened the door and held it wide as we walked in.

  He shot Josh a pressed-lipped smile as Josh walked past him, but Max appeared to ignore me completely.

  There were two expensive chairs in front of Max’s equally expensive desk, and Josh flopped down in one.

  At first I didn’t want to sit, but then Max shot me another look. It was so damn complicated – and came along with so much frigging emotion – that I couldn’t help but take a seat. I thumped into it as Max walked around and fell into his own seat. He smoothed down his tie, briefly looked at some papers on the table, then straight over at me. “I need you to find an informant for Internal Affairs.”

  “What?” I asked, nose scrunching up high. “But you don’t work for Internal Affairs.”

  Though Max had been a river of emotion before, he was back to being the man I knew so well. Somebody who was controlled down to their last fiber. “I need you to find an informant,” he defaulted to saying without explaining anything at all.

  Josh was slumped in his chair, his gaze elsewhere as he appeared to be trapped in his thoughts. This was where he should jump to my defense and point out that Max couldn’t exactly give us a contract for someone else.

  I sat straighter as I realized I was on my own here. I began to shake my head, but then I stopped. “Why should we find this person for you? You have no ability to contract us.” Hello, I knew this was Max, and equally hello, I knew I owed him so much. He’d come to my defense so many times, and if he was asking for a favor, I should do it. But at the same time, we were on taxpayer dollars, and I was a stickler for doing the right thing.

  Maybe Max could appreciate this, because the smallest smile marked his lips. “You are correct – I have no ability to contract you,” he said, and he emphasized the word you. “But I was hoping—”

  “We’ll do it,” Josh said. “Of course we’ll do it. Who do you want us to track down?”

  I spluttered, but I didn’t say anything. While Max had gone back to being completely controlled, Josh was still practically crumbling underneath th
e surface. If I pushed him, God knows what he would do.

  “Aren’t you interested in who I want you to track down first?” Max asked.

  Josh wouldn’t even look at Max. “You know I owe you – so just lay it on the table. Who do you want us to find?”

  “What—” I began.

  Max looked at me sharply, obviously knowing that I’d been about to ask what the hell was going on. But once more, everyone appeared to want to keep me in the dark.

  I thought back to the way Max had looked at me when he’d told me that an opportunity for me might not be an opportunity for other people. What the hell did that mean?

  Was he accusing me of being self-serving? Thus far, I’d pretty much only used my powers in order to save others. From Max himself, to the freaking city.

  And yet, though I was happy enough to rant about that in my head, I didn’t dare push.

  I just wondered what the hell had happened between these two that Max had seemingly lost Josh’s sister, and yet Josh owed Max.

  … Had Josh crumpled? Fallen apart after the murder of his sister? Had he done something that only Max had been able to erase?

  My mind ticked back to when Josh and I had been kneeling on the bathroom floor of Isabella’s apartment. The way he’d looked at me as he’d told me he’d been there, and there was no point in me doing drugs just to increase my power.

  … Could this have something to do with that?

  Max looked at me sharply once more, and I wondered if he could tell I was using my powers again. But if I was using finding magic to find out the truth of this situation, it was only subtle – most of this was pure deduction.

  “I need to find Olivia,” Max said plainly.

  Though Josh had been slumping for most of the conversation, as if he were some surly teenager who’d shut down, he suddenly straightened and frowned. “Your ex-fiancé?”

  … Max had an ex-fiancé?

  That fact… shouldn’t have surprised me. It really shouldn’t. I’d only known Max for a little under two months. Before that, he’d been one of the city’s most successful businessmen. Of course he’d had an ex-fiancé. But there was a hell of a lot of emotional subtext behind what Josh was saying, suggesting there was something else going on here.