Griffin nodded. “Agreed. You’re going on wheels then?” He nodded toward Flynn’s bike. “I renewed the spell that keeps humans from seeing your sword, by the way.”
“Thanks. And yeah, I’ll take the bike. I can cover a lot of ground on it.”
“I’ll take to the air then. Stay in touch and we will meet up the minute one of us finds them.” With that, the mage shot up into the air, dissolving into sparkling mist as he flew.
Flynn liked that Griffin had said when we find them, not if we find them. Confidence was a good quality in a teammate.
Now all they had to do was find whatever rat hole the Dark Angels were using for their headquarters, pretend to offer to trade Eva to Snake in exchange for a place in the gang, keep Eva safe, destroy Snake, rescue the girls, and then fight their way out.
With or without one of hell’s high demons fighting them.
Piece of cake.
Flynn shook his head and swung a leg over his bike. Him; Griffin—a fairly untrained mage from what he could tell; Jake, if he really could get out of jail; and possibly this human named Zach who claimed to be P-Ops. Everybody knew that the Dark Angels assigned covert operatives to infiltrate law enforcement. Was it possible that law enforcement had agents infiltrating the gang?
And if so, just how many of them were double or even triple agents? It would have been helpful if Denal had spent less time sneering at them and more time giving them actual helpful information.
All of this analysis was making his head spin. He was definitely not cut out for a life of spying or espionage. He put a hand down to touch the sword resting in its special sheath affixed to the side of the bike. Griffin’s magic made it invisible, or least extraordinarily hard to see, to anyone who wasn’t from Atlantis. It wasn’t a metal sword, after all. Or at least not a metal that humans knew.
Flynn’s sword was made of orichalcum, a rare and precious Atlantean metal. Malleable enough to be heated and folded repeatedly into the shape of the sword, strong enough to survive years of battle. Flynn’s grandfather had given him the sword when the old man had finally accepted that his son was a useless drunk and would never deserve to wield it, let alone own it. The sword had been in their family for generations, since before Atlantis sank beneath the sea.
It had come in handy more than once in Flynn’s life, although humans weren’t much for swordfights these days. But there were times when a gun just didn’t work, and more and more demons and human magic-wielders had found new ways to detect metal in their proximity.
They weren’t going to detect this.
Flynn suddenly realized that, for the first time in his life, his grandfather would be proud of him.
“I’m going to do my best, Grandfather,” he whispered, and then he fired up the bike and took off.
It was past time to find those girls.
Chapter Eight
At six o’clock, Eva walked into the Copper Cantina for the last time. The first person she spotted was Noel, standing behind the bar yelling at some workers who were cleaning up bits of broken chairs and tables.
Tables too? What the heck happened in here last night?
Never mind. She didn’t want to know.
This was her last night at the Copper Cantina. Her last night of putting up with Noel. Forever. And if he really pissed her off, she had a backup plan in her pocket.
He caught sight of her and threw his hands in the air. “Where the hell were you? My bar was getting trashed—”
“Your daddy’s bar,” she interrupted. “You just work here.”
Noel’s mouth fell open. The he started sputtering, and she laughed. How had she never realized before how much he looked like a frog with his balding head, bulging eyes, and jowly cheeks? She had been afraid of this pitiful excuse for a human being?
Ha.
Not anymore. Imminent death apparently made one unafraid of any petty annoyances like slime ball managers.
“You’re fired!” he shouted.
She marched right up to the bar and held out her hand. “Fine. I didn’t want to work tonight anyway. Hand over my week’s pay and I’m out of here.”
Noel sneered at her. “If you think I’m giving you one cent, you’re out of your mind, you worthless piece of trash.”
Eva leaned on the bar and gave him a flat stare. “Oh, I think you will pay me. Or I’m going to pick up the phone and call your wife and tell her all about your roaming hands.”
The guys cleaning up the bar stopped even pretending to work and stood gaping at the spectacle. Noel turned a particularly virulent shade of purple, but he tried to bluff his way out of it. “Like she would believe a worthless loser like you.”
“I guess you can take your chances. Of course, from what Missy has to say, there’ve been enough incidents in the past that Mrs. Noel might believe me a lot more than you think.” She smiled, showing all her teeth and enjoying every second of this. Probably she should be more worried that Monkey or the other Dark Angels would come back, but Scott had mentioned time and time again that one of the rules was they could never go back to a place after law enforcement came after them there.
Was she taking a risk to believe that was still true? Would Snake’s desperate obsession with her force Monkey to keep searching and probably come back here tonight? Probably, but what the heck. Maybe it would be better to confront them tonight and get it over with, her suddenly fatalistic mind told her.
She returned her attention to her sorry excuse for a boss, but he was still gaping at her.
Noel opened his mouth, but nothing except strangled noises came out. He finally got himself under control, reached under the bar, grabbed an envelope, and slapped it into her outstretched hand. “Fine. But Missy called in sick, and when she called, she told me she was sure you’d be happy to pick up the slack since she did the same for you when you had the flu.”
Eva closed her eyes and mentally groaned. It was true. Missy had picked up the slack, and she’d brought a tureen of homemade chicken noodle soup to Eva’s little apartment too. If Eva walked out now, Noel was likely to fire Missy out of petty spite, and Eva knew Missy needed the job. She and Bryce were saving up to buy a house so they could start a family. Eva wouldn’t have her friend get hurt on her account.
“All right,” she snapped, clearly surprising Noel. “I’ll do it. But this is my last night. You pay me in advance for the hours, and I take all tips home with me. You don’t put your slimy hands on any of them.”
One of Noel’s nasty habits was to try to make them hand over their tips so he could “fairly distribute them.” What it really meant, they’d all discovered, was that he was stealing a percentage of their money.
Unfortunately, it was one of those things that she’d had to let slide because jobs in Early were few and far between unless you wanted to go work in the copper mine. And, of course, Eva couldn’t easily find cash-paying businesses these days.
“Fine.” Noel opened the cash register to get some more cash and thrust it at Eva. “Satisfied? I’m only letting you stay because I have nobody else and it’s a Saturday night,” he told her, always determined to get the final word.
She just shrugged. She didn’t care about Noel’s petty tactics or his final words either. She was trying to figure out what her own final words would be.
Probably: “Scott! Please don’t shove that ceremonial dagger into my heart!”
The fact that she could still muster up some humor, even dark, dark humor, was oddly reassuring. It meant she must have some hope.
Her thoughts went to Flynn. Yes. She did have hope.
What a dangerous thing.
Eva put her money in her pocket and then set to work. Broken chairs or no broken chairs, the cantina was going to fill up. It was Saturday night, after all. She spent a relatively peaceful two or three hours pouring drinks and chatting with customers. Anytime she caught Noel looking at her, she bared her teeth at him, and he hurriedly looked away. Okay, so it might be a petty kind of revenge, but th
e important thing was she’d stood up for herself.
She’d faced down a bully, and it had felt fantastic. Almost like she was beginning to remember the real Eva—the Eva she’d been before Scott destroyed her life.
On the other hand, now he was about to destroy her life in an entirely different way.
No. No, she wasn’t going to let him. She was going to help rescue those girls, and she’d trust herself and Flynn and his odd group of allies to get themselves and the girls away from anything that an actual demon might have in mind for them.
She shuddered at the thought and then went back to pouring draft beers for Noel’s wife’s cousin Becky, who’d come in to help.
Becky leaned in. “I hear you let Noel have what’s what,” she said, grinning.
“Finally,” Eva said. “I hope it doesn’t cause you any trouble.”
“Nah. My cousin only puts up with him because his daddy’s really, really rich and Noel’s the only child. One day he’s going to inherit everything, and Tina likes the idea of having some money for a change. But she’s not above taking a broom to him once in a while when he gets out of hand.”
Eva took a moment to enjoy the visual of some sturdy country woman going after Noel with a broom, and she caught herself smiling. “As a matter of fact, there’s something I’d like to tell you. This is my last night, so don’t worry about me, but if you could maybe make sure that he’s good to Missy, I’d appreciate it.”
Becky’s gaze sharpened. “What do you mean, don’t worry about you? Has he been getting handsy with you?”
Eva said nothing, but her face must’ve given it away, because Becky narrowed her eyes and turned to scan the bar. She saw Noel across the room and started to take a step but then stopped. “Oh, no. That’s too easy. I have a better idea. I’m calling Tina.”
Eva grinned. “Is it really wrong of me to say that I really, really hope I’m here to see it?”
About twenty minutes later, when Eva was turned around with her back to the bar, rearranging bottles and switching out a full vodka for an empty, the very air around her changed and grew charged. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck shivered to attention, and she knew.
Flynn had arrived.
She looked into the mirrored panels on the wall and directly into his beautiful ocean-blue eyes.
Damn, but she was gorgeous. He wasn’t sure why he thought so, but he did. She wasn’t someone he’d necessarily notice walking down the street, except for that incredible red hair. She wasn’t bold or brash, and she was too thin—too pale. But something about her—the force of her personality—infused her face with a quiet beauty.
Except when she smiled. When she smiled, she was vividly, gloriously radiant.
He’d found himself thinking about her all day long. Wanting to learn more about her. Wanting to feed her Atlantean delicacies until she lost that thin, haunted look. Wanting to show her the wonders of his home.
He even wanted her to meet his brothers and their new wives. Of course, he needed to meet their new wives too. They could have a great big family dinner and introduce everybody to everybody and—
Family dinner? Was he already thinking of her as his family?
Talk about ridiculously premature.
And yet…
She looked up and met his gaze in the mirror and smiled. Just for a moment, she smiled at him. A private smile, only for him. A warm smile that held welcome. That said she was glad to see him. But it only lasted for a heartbeat, and then the realization of what they were going to be walking into hit both of them all over again.
Eva whirled around. “Did you—”
Flynn held up a hand to stop her from saying anything in public. “No luck yet.”
Her shoulders slumped, and Flynn again found himself wanting to pick her up and carry her out of there. Carry her far away from any danger.
But first they had to find and rescue those girls. Damn the Dark Angels. Flynn wished they’d all fall into a pit and burn in hell.
Eva put her elbows on the bar and leaned toward Flynn. “I think we should—”
The front door slammed open so hard that the glass in the little window shattered. Flynn spun around and reached behind his head for the hilt of the sword that wasn’t there. It was still in its sheath on his bike.
Damn. He had his knives, but he suddenly, urgently wanted every weapon in his possession within reach so he could protect Eva from… three women in cotton dresses?
Was one of them carrying a broom? Maybe they were the cleaning staff?
What was happening?
“Noel!” the biggest of the three bellowed. Although, to be fair, they were all three big. At least six feet tall each, they all looked sturdy enough to pick up a cow. Or, at the very least, to deal with Noel the scumbag.
The steady drone of voices and laughter went completely silent. Flynn, Eva, and everybody else in the bar watched as the woman stomped over to Noel and poked him in the chest with the broom handle.
“I hear you’re up to it again,” she screamed in a voice that surely could be heard all the way to Atlantis. “I warned you. I warned you what I’d do.”
“Now, honey,” Noel began ingratiatingly, cringing away from the broom.
“Don’t you ‘honey’ me.” Mrs. Noel, for that’s who she must be, looked around the bar and then pointed her broom handle in a sort of sweeping way that encompassed them all. “Okay, you’re done. Bar’s closed. Get out.”
There was one or two mumbles of disagreement, but that quickly died out when the angry woman fixed her stare on any dissenters. The customers fled with varying degrees of haste, all of them openly staring at the drama as they went.
“Give me your wallet,” Mrs. Noel ordered her husband, who hastily complied. Then she stomped across the bar toward Eva.
Flynn moved to stand between the two women, but Eva’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“I’ve got this,” she said, gently but firmly.
When Mrs. Noel reached the bar, she looked Eva up and down. “Are you Eva?”
Eva nodded. “I am, but you don’t have to worry. I quit. I was just filling in tonight because Missy’s sick.”
The woman frowned. “I was worried about you, honey. I want to apologize for that perverted little jackass. He swore he’d stopped bothering the help. If I’d known sooner, I’d have done something about it.”
She opened Noel’s wallet, took out all the cash inside, and thrust it at Eva. “It’s not much. Maybe a thousand bucks. And if you want to sue him, I totally understand. I’ll even testify about the crap he pulled in the past.”
Eva hesitated, but then she took the money and nodded at Noel’s wife. “I won’t be suing. I’m moving on. But maybe, on my behalf, you could make sure he never does this to anybody again.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Mrs. Noel said grimly. “Noel is out of the bar business now. I’m taking over the cantina. Noel is gonna be a farmer from here on out.”
Flynn looked across the room to see how Noel was taking this news, and he was unsurprised to see the asshole trying to sneak out the door.
Too bad for Noel that it was nearly impossible to sneak out a door when it was guarded by two more Amazons the size of his wife. They each grabbed one of his arms and held on tight. Noel wasn’t going anywhere except back to the farm.
Flynn laughed for the first time in a long, frustrating day.
Noel’s wife glared at him. “What are you laughing about?”
Flynn smiled at her, keeping an eye on the broomstick that was propped up against the bar. There were certain parts of his anatomy he preferred to protect. “I just love it when a good woman happens to a bad man, ma’am. And you seem to be a very good woman.”
She sniffed at him but seemed placated, which meant that she didn’t decide to ram her broomstick into his balls, which was good. She nodded to Eva, who nodded back, and then Mrs. Noel stormed across the room, grabbed her wayward husband by the ear, and dragged him out of the bar
. They stopped at the doorway, and she looked back. “Eva, do me the favor of locking up and just drop the keys back through the mail slot, if you would?”
Flynn thought it said something about the woman’s judgment—which had obviously improved in the years since she’d married Noel—that she trusted Eva to close up the bar. But clearly she did, and just as clearly Eva deserved that trust.
“Yes, I will. Thank you,” Eva added, glancing at Noel and then back at his wife. “Thank you.”
The woman nodded, took a firmer grip on her husband’s ear, and the four of them left the bar.
“I’m kind of glad I got here in time to see that,” Flynn admitted. Eva’s face was set in proud, stern lines, like the face of an avenging angel, and he wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. His warrior princess.
Instead, he tried for casual. “But now that you’re off duty, how about we go get some dinner? I’ve been driving all over this corner of the state, and I’m starving.”
“I could eat,” she said. Then, with brisk efficiency and a bit of help from Flynn, they got the bar closed up in no time. Just as they were walking out the door, however, Eva saw an older woman walking by on the sidewalk.
“Mrs. Arnold? Will you please do me a favor, ma’am?”
Mrs. Arnold, who looked to be in her sixties—not that Flynn was all that good at judging human ages—was walking a fluffy dog on a sparkly pink leash. She looked over at Eva and smiled.
“Oh, hello, dear. I haven’t seen you since I got my Muffin here from the shelter. Are you still volunteering there and helping out?”
“I am,” Eva said, but Flynn saw a flash of pain cross her face. “In fact, though, I have to leave town for a while, and I’m just closing up the bar for Noel. Will you please do me a favor and look inside and verify that everything looks the way it should before I lock up? I don’t mean to be paranoid, but you know Noel…”
Mrs. Arnold nodded sharply. “I most certainly do.” Without another word, she walked in the bar and looked around a bit. When she came back out, Eva handed her a zippered bag.
My Paranormal Valentine: A Paranormal Romance Box Set Page 28
