Hell Bent

Chapter 11

Davy was gone before any of the rest of us, slipping down the street and rumbling away in that big old truck. I figured he was going to report Joshua and Dessa and everything else to the Overseer.

We had maybe fifteen minutes tops before Clyde Turner found out and locked us out of the records, and any- and everything else he thought we shouldn’t be digging around in.

I swung into the passenger seat of Terric’s car.

“Fifteen minutes?” I said.

“Until?” he asked.

“The Overseer tells Clyde to lock us out of this case.”

“Clyde might say no.”

We were headed to the office. I noted it was still dark out, and checked the dashboard clock. Four in the morning. Jesus, I hated going to work this early. Or at least, I assumed I did. I didn’t think I’d ever gone into work this early.

“ . . . for me would you?”

“What?”

“Dash. Call him. Tell him to meet us down there.”

“At the office,” I said, taking Terric’s cell phone.

“Yes. Don’t you ever listen to me?”

“Every word.”

I dialed. Dash, that overachiever, answered before the first ring was done.

“Spade,” he said.

“Hey, Dash, this is Shame. Terric wants you to meet us at the office as soon as possible.”

“Trouble?”

“You could say that.”

“I’ll be there in five.” He hung up.

“Be there in five,” I said. “Where does that kid live?”

“Loft space just a few streets down. So, she poisoned you?”

“Well, yes. I let her poison me.”

“Uh-huh. Then what happened?”

“Nothing. Nothing happened.”

“Shame, I just told her she could be a part of this hunt. I want to know everything that happened, everything you know about her. I’m giving you three minutes to cover it.”

“Why three?”

“Because if I guessed wrong and she’s not what I think she is, I’m going to turn right and head straight to the police. When she follows us, I’ll knock her out and lock her up.”

“Brutal. Effective. Very double-crossy of you, Terric. Why are you suddenly playing by the dark side of the rule book?”

“Joshua is dead.”

He let that sit for a second or two. “He’s not going to be the last friend of ours we bury if we don’t stop Collins.”

So I filled him in. Every. Last. Detail.

He didn’t laugh. The only time he spoke was to clarify things like what kind of car she was driving, what other cars I saw parked next to the motel, and what kinds of guns she was carrying.

“Are you going out to lunch with her?”

“If she has something on the missing people around town, don’t you think I should?”

“She could be lying.”

“Sure.”

“Do you think we can trust her?” he asked.

“You’re asking me to judge someone’s trustworthiness?”

“Yes. Your gut feeling on her.” He glanced at me. “Honest gut feeling.”

I dragged my fingers through my hair, rings rubbing and snapping as I did so.

“She makes me want to trust her. I think . . . I’d guess that before her brother’s death she might have been a lot of fun to be around. She’s got . . . spunk. She’s calm under pressure, is trying to do the right thing. Plus, gorgeous. Her brother’s death isn’t a lie. She’s grieving. She wants his killer to pay—not just to die, but to pay—for killing her brother.”

“And she wants . . . us. Our information so she can take care of the killer and move on with her life.”

“She wants you,” Terric said. He waited. Waited for me to answer that.

“Who wouldn’t? This?” I pointed to my face and body. “Irresistible.”

The muscle at his jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. “Is that all she wants from you?”

I took a deep breath and scrubbed my hand through my hair again, trying to smooth it this time. “She wants what I am. What I can give her: Death. A horrible, painful death for the man who killed her brother.”

“Not exactly marriage material,” he noted.

“I’m not planning on marrying the girl.”

“Good.”

What kind of tone was that?

“Terric,” I said with a wide smile. “Are you jealous?”

“No.”

“Aw, c’mon, now, mate. You’re jealous I have a girlfriend. It bothers you that I like the look of her. The idea of being with her. And I would have done a hell of a lot more than kiss her if Eleano—”

I stopped. I didn’t talk about Eleanor. Hadn’t for years. Certainly not to Terric. I couldn’t believe I’d almost started talking about her now. Why remind him that I’d killed a perfectly nice person because I was weak and had lost control of the monster within me?

“If what?” Terric asked.

“Nothing.”

He didn’t push it. And yes, I was grateful for that.

He changed the subject instead. “So you trust her?”

“To a point. She has a goal. Right now it’s the same as ours. Or similar, anyway. I want the information she has. I think we can trust her to be truthful about what she knows. You know, until we can’t.”

He nodded. “So we don’t lock her up, until we have to.”

“This is nice,” I noted. “Just like old times. Think Davy’s ratted us out to Clyde yet?”

“He’ll give us an hour. He wants Collins dead more than any of us. And the Overseer tends to make cut-and-dry decisions. He might want to lock Collins up and excuse the Authority of any other involvement in the case. But if we investigate, we’ll let Davy come along while we take Collins down. The Overseer would never let a Hound into Authority business. Especially not a Hound with plenty of reasons for vengeance.”

I nodded. Pulled out cigarettes and lighter. Rolled down the window. Lit up. Knew Terric was really worried about all this when he didn’t even tell me not to smoke in his car.

I finished off three cigarettes, only getting five puffs in total by the time we pulled up to the office. This was becoming an expensive habit.

Terric parked along the side street and Dessa’s car rolled up just a few spaces down. Okay, the good thing about being downtown this early: plenty of parking spaces.

We got out, waited for her, headed to the doors.

“What kind of food do you like?” Dessa asked as we stepped into the elevator.

“For?”

“Lunch.”

“I’m flexible.”

Terric snorted and stepped into the waiting elevator.

He leaned against one side of the elevator, I leaned against the other, and she stood at the back wall. Eleanor kept her hands to herself.

“I’ve heard there are some great vegan places,” she said, “or sushi?”

“You like vegan, right, Shame?” Terric said.

“Pizza,” I said, giving Terric a shut-up look. “Let’s do pizza.”

“All right.” She leaned her shoulders back, more relaxed now that it was settled. “When?”

“Why not this afternoon?”

“Good.”

The doors opened.

Dash was there, waiting by the elevator. “Shame, Terric. . . .” His voice fell off as he saw Dessa step out behind us. “Um . . . hello. Have we met?”

“Dash, this is Dessa,” I said. “She’s some kind of government assassin or something.”

“Leeds,” she said, offering Dash her hand to shake. “Dessa Leeds. Ex-government or something.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said. Then, “Terric. Clyde is here.”

Terric paused just slightly in his stride down the hall. Enough time that I caught up with him.

“Want me to handle it?” I asked as we walked, shoulder to shoulder, down to the main office.

“Absolutely no, I do not,” he said.

“I heard yes.” I reached the door just a step ahead of him and pushed it open.

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Clyde Turner,” I said cheerily. “What the hell are you doing down here so early?”

What Clyde was doing was sitting at one of the empty desks to one side of the room, writing on a legal pad.

He’d taken off his Giants hat, but was still wearing a flannel shirt, T-shirt, and jeans. A thermos and cup of coffee rested near his elbow.

He looked up, and took in the party coming his way. “Shame. What are you up to?”

Funny how I was always the one suspected of trouble.

“I need a word with you,” I said. “Maybe in my office?”

By this time Terric had caught up with me. “We both need a word with you. In my office.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He stood. “You two boys working together again?” he asked as he lumbered between desks and down the short hall to Terric’s office on the right. Terric unlocked the door so we could go in.

Terric took his place behind the desk, and I motioned for Clyde to head in before me. I shut the door behind us. Then I pulled on magic and cast a Mute spell while I drew down the blinds on the big glass windows.

I trusted Dash to be able to hold his own with Dessa out there, but I didn’t want her hearing us or reading our lips.

“That’s a nice piece of magic there, Shamus,” Clyde said. “What’s going on?”

He settled in a chair against the wall across from Terric’s desk, and I leaned against the door, my arms crossed over my chest.

“We think Eli Collins is killing people,” I said.

“Collins the Cutter?” he asked. “You think he’s back in Portland?”

“There have been a string of murders here lately,” Terric said. “Which might be connected to him. There has been an even longer string of missing persons. Have you been briefed on them?”

“Detective Stotts mentioned the case when I stopped in yesterday after the meeting. Thought I’d check with you on anything else you know that he doesn’t.”

“I’ve been keeping him up to date on everything,” Terric said. “Except for what we just found out. Joshua Romero was found dead in his car down on Burnside today.”

Clyde exhaled and sat back.

“Did Joshua and Eli have history?” he asked.

Terric shook his head. “I don’t know. Other than the battles here a few years back, I don’t know if they ever crossed paths.”

“How did he die?” Clyde asked.

“Magic,” I said.

“Like the bodies that keep showing up in Forest Park?”

“There’s been more than one?” I asked.

Terric nodded to me. Then to Clyde. “Not quite. Joshua was cut—glyphs were cut into his skin. Death, Pain, and Binding.”

“And you think Collins did this?”

“He’s done it before—cut spells into people,” I said. “Davy Silvers.”

“I know about Davy.” Clyde rubbed at the bridge of his nose, then crossed his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you go to the police if you think it’s connected to the other deaths?”

“Because if it is Eli, then we have another problem on our hands,” Terric said.

“Go on.”

“He’s killing with magic,” I said. “Unless he’s come up with some kind of technology to increase magic’s power, then the only way one man can be strong enough to kill someone with magic is . . .”

“If he’s found his Soul Complement,” Terric finished.

Clyde’s eyebrows ticked up. “Damn.”

He took some time to think that through, while I exchanged meaningful glances with Terric. Was he going to tell Clyde we needed the files and some time to track Eli without every person in the Authority and on the police force knowing what we were doing, or was I?

“I wasn’t involved in Closing Eli all those years ago,” Clyde said. “Victor took care of that, I think. But I’ve briefly looked over his file. Especially after he was a part of the fight to rejoin magic you were all involved in. As I recall, he was instrumental in saving Soul Complements then.”

“That was then,” I said. “Allie was calling the shots and he listened to her, devil only knows why. As soon as he got the Soul Complements to safety, he disappeared.”

“Tell me what you have planned,” he said.

“It’s not much of a plan yet,” Terric started.

“Well, you should know that Ter here agreed to let an ex-government assassin in on this case.”

“The redhead out there?”

“We agreed,” Terric said. “And we don’t know that she’s an assassin, just that she’s ex-government.”

“With a sniper rifle,” I said.

Terric sighed. “She said her brother was killed by wounds similar to Joshua’s. She has a personal stake in finding the killer, and seems pretty intent on dating Shame.”

“It’s not a date,” I said. “It’s pizza.”

“She poisoned you.”

“Just a little.”

“Isn’t that what your kind call foreplay?” he asked.

“My kind?”

“So she’s a liability,” Clyde interrupted.

“She’s someone who has information we can use,” I said. “On the Breaker hunt.”

Clyde held my gaze, then shifted his look to Terric.

“She could be useful,” Terric admitted. What did you know? He actually agreed with me. “And I don’t think we’d have any problem handling her.”

“When was the last time you two used magic together?” Clyde asked.

“It’s been a while,” Terric said.

Which was good, because frankly, I couldn’t remember the last time he and I had actually used magic together, as in hand in hand at the same time to break it and make it do really dangerous things.

That little scuffle in the alley with the ox, Hamilton, didn’t count. I’d been angry, and while Terric’s proximity meant I could draw stronger spells, just like the Mute spell that was currently keeping this conversation from being overheard, we had not broken magic in a long, long time.

“I’d like to keep it that way,” Clyde said. “The Overseer is recommending Soul Complements get the hell out of Dodge. I agree. And if you are stubborn enough to actually stay in the area—yes, I’m looking at you, Flynn—then you’d better not pull on magic. And neither of you should break it.”

Terric frowned, and opened his mouth, but Clyde continued. “Because breaking it sets off sensors we think the government has developed. Sensors that will lead them to the people breaking magic.”

“That’s new,” Terric noted.

He nodded. “I’ve had some enlightening conversations with the Overseer the last couple days. Breaking magic will only paint an even larger target on your heads.”

“We weren’t telling you we were going to break magic,” I said. “We’re telling you—”

“Asking you,” Terric corrected.

“Fine,” I said, “asking you to give us a day or two to hunt for Collins.”

“Before we get the police or anyone else in the Authority involved,” Terric said.

Clyde shook his head. “No.”

“Come again?” I said.

“No,” he repeated.

The rings on my right hand crackled with red. I shut my mouth on what I hoped was a smile. “No?”

Terric sighed. “You don’t want us hunting Eli?”

Clyde kept his attention on me, even though he was answering Terric. “I don’t want you hunting Eli. I don’t want Davy involved either, in case you’re wondering. And I don’t want some unknown woman anywhere near our business. We work with the law, gentlemen. We are not vigilantes. We do not pursue personal agendas or revenge. Our job is to take care of Authority business as smoothly and discreetly as possible. We have never used Breakers as assassins. We aren’t going to start that now.”

“We didn’t say we were going to kill Eli,” I said.

“I heard you. But I know you, Shame. This isn’t your call anymore. Neither of you is the Head of the Authority. I am. If you want to remain on the payroll in some other capacity, then you’re going to have to get used to my orders and follow them.”

“Why are you always looking at me?”

“Because I know which of you won’t play by the rules.”

I gave him my best smile. “I like rules. They make that cracking sound when they break.”

“Shame,” Terric said. “He’s right. This isn’t our call. It’s his. Is there anything you need from us?”

“Your keys. Dash has already given me access to the files and everything else.” He paused a minute.

I was not paying attention to him. Because I was angry, and angry only led to hungry, and most days, like say when Clyde was not telling me what I could and couldn’t do, I liked him.

“...to see you both check in here if you’re staying. We’ll need to come up with protection plans,” he was saying. “You remember there’s a meeting in a few hours with the Overseer, right?”

“We’ll be there,” Terric promised, as if I weren’t standing in the room. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Clyde pushed up onto his feet. “You and I square, Flynn?”

“Not really.” Like I said, he and I did not bullshit each other.

“You know what I don’t get about you?” he said.

“How I get all the chicks?”

“How after years of doing jack-all, you finally decide that today, and this one thing, is something you’re going to apply yourself to. The one damn thing I have to tell you not to do.”

“I could come up with other damn things you wouldn’t want me to do.”

“I’d rather you put your energy into staying alive.”

“Yeah. Well, that’s not really my thing.”

“When you decide what your thing is?” He stepped toward the door and fixed me with a look. “Warn me, okay?”

“Now, where’s the fun in that?” I asked.

I dropped the Mute spell with a slash of my hand, and black light snapped across my rings.

Clyde shook his head and walked out the door.

“Shame,” Terric said before I could take a step. “You and I have a meeting this morning.”

“I heard. I’m not going anywhere until then.”

He nodded. “And lunch. With Dessa.”

“Don’t need you to be my secretary, Ter.”

He was still sitting behind his desk, fingers resting lightly on the surface. “Good. I’ll be out in a minute.” He swiveled his chair so he could stare out at the city.

Dawn was rubbing the black off the sky. Looked like it wasn’t going to rain for a change.

I left him to his moping and joined the others in the main room.

Dessa and Dash seemed to have hit it off pretty well, laughing over something—I think a recent movie.

I wondered how much information she’s gotten out of him. Knowing Dash, zero.

She was drinking a cup of coffee, and looking . . . well, comfortable.

When she saw me coming and gave me that smile? Something inside me went warm and my heart tapped a hard beat.

What was wrong with me? It’s not like I’d never seen a beautiful woman before. But her smile. That smile. For me. It was undiscovered country and I wanted that. Wanted to make her smile.

Those thoughts set off alarms in my head. The warm feeling in my chest felt a lot like happiness. Maybe even hope. Two things that had never worked out well for me.

Things that might be best ignored.

“You two seem to have gotten chummy,” I said.

Dash leaned against one of the empty desks. I wondered, not for the first time, why we had so damn many desks that no one ever sat at.

“Good coffee, good company,” Dash said. “So, what’s the word?”

I shook my head. “We’re not going to pursue this.”

Dash nodded and took a drink of his coffee, keeping an eye on Dessa. He had excellent instincts.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

I sat on the edge of an empty desk and stuck my hands in my jacket pockets. “I don’t know how much research you’ve done on the Authority, but you must know that we have rules, structure, policies. We work inside the law. Yes, we kept Joshua’s death quiet for a few hours, but we’re getting the police involved. We’re turning the investigation of his death—and who killed him—over to them.”

Dash stood. “I’ll start making calls.” He strolled off to his office, stopping to talk with Clyde, who was on his cell phone near the far window.

“Really?” she said. “This is how you’re going to play it?”

“Isn’t a game, darling. We’ve had our see of things, and we’ll be turning all information over to the police. You’re welcome to come along if you’d like.”

She stood. Left her coffee behind. Stepped up in my space.

My body responded to her: heartbeat, blood, breath. Pounding. Needful.

I didn’t let it show. But I wanted to. Wanted to smile, and draw her in, and kiss her again until her clothes fell off.

“If you’re lying to me,” she said.

“I’m not.”

She studied my face, the corners of her mouth pulling just slightly downward. Searching for my tell.

“This isn’t my poker face,” I said. “This is my truth face. We’re off this case. Now, if you want to make everyone’s life a little easier, you could go talk to Mr. Turner over there and tell him what you know about . . . everything.”

She placed her hand on my knee. Heat scorched across my body. And I held my breath on a groan.

Keep it cool, Shamus. Keep it cool.

“You’re going to take orders from him?”

“Today I am.”

“What about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow looks good too.”

For a second, her mask slipped, and the woman who was grieving for the brother she loved was standing there, with hope breaking in her eyes. “So you’re telling me no. Again.”

“That’s the way it has to be.”

She glanced over my shoulder. Terric was still in his office watching the sun rise on the end of his career. Dash and Clyde had closed themselves in Dash’s smaller office.

No help there.

“Shame,” she began. “You could give me a list of names, and I’ll take it from there. I can stay out of the way. Out of your way, out of the way of the police investigation. Please. You won’t even see me.”

There she was again, the woman behind the mask. The one who was willing to do anything to see that her brother’s killer was taken down. The one who rescued purple turtles for babies.

“Who says I don’t want to see you?” I said softly.

“Do you?”

What was I thinking? The best thing I could do for her—the best thing I could do for anyone—was keep them far away from me and my hunger.

“Well, we do have a lunch date,” I said, trying to keep it light.

“Yes,” she said. “We do.”

“I’m not going to give you any information, though,” I said.

“I understand that. I’m sure we’ll find something else to talk about.”

“Good. Oh, and, Dessa, if I were you, I’d give up on the revenge business.”

She shook her head and lifted her hand away from my knee. “No,” she said quietly, “you wouldn’t.”

I gave her half a smile before she turned to walk away. She was absolutely right. When it came to revenge, there was nothing on this earth that could stop me.