“I know that my daughter’s own father was prepared to sell her to criminals for power, and you, a man who didn’t even know her, protected her.”
James shook his head. “I’m paying my debts. She helped me find my dog when he was missing. There’s nothing more here. I pay my debts so I don’t owe anyone. I like my life simple.”
“You told me about all the men you’ve killed.” She waved a hand around, “You’re trying to tell me this is just about paying a debt concerning your dog?”
He looked at the carnage around them and turned back to her, running a hand through his hair. “Like I said, things got complicated. I was trying to simplify them.”
Nicole weakly laughed. “Most men do everything they can to declare their honor and glory to the world. Are you so afraid of admitting you’re a good man, James Brownstone?”
James snorted. “I killed a lot of people this week. ‘Good man’ would be stretching it. Some might say I’m okay or useful, but I don’t think anyone would say I’m a good man.”
“James, I’ve lived on Earth for decades, and I still find human morality strange. You worry over the strangest things, while letting the meaningless and trivial things distract you.”
“Probably shouldn’t have moved to L.A. if you wanted a place with understandable people who aren’t easily distracted by meaningless trivia,” Shay interjected.
James shot her a harsh look.
She shrugged, putting up her hands. “Just sayin’.”
Nicole sighed. “It’s taking all my control to keep my power from consuming the last of me, but I will die satisfied, knowing that at least I saved you from these fake soldiers.”
James glanced at the dead mercenary company commander. Grayson had access to some heavy weaponry, and unlike the Harriken, they had hardcore battlefield experience. He wasn’t so sure he could have escaped unscathed from an encounter with them, let alone brought Shay through.
“We can still take you somewhere,” he whispered. “It doesn’t have to end this way.”
She shook her head. “No, it ended the second Walt betrayed me. There’s nothing anyone could do, even back on Oriceran.” Nicole wrapped her arms around herself and took a shuddering breath. “I need you to take care of my daughter, the new Princess of the Shadow Forged. I’ve harmed her by keeping her heritage from her, and I just hope she’ll forgive me.”
“I… Shit.” James rubbed the back of his neck. “All she wants is for you to come back.”
Tears leaked down Nicole’s face as she shook her head. “I know, but there’s nothing I can do. My time is done, and I must see to her future. And that’s why I need you.”
James didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like he was prepared to tell this dying woman that he wouldn’t take care of her daughter. After everything she’d gone through, the betrayal and the torture, she should at least be able to go to her death without worrying about her daughter ending up in some poorly-funded group home.
James sighed. He’d figure something out. Maybe Father McCartney could help after all, or at least point him in the direction of someone other than social services. Los Angeles wasn’t some stupid village. There had to be a good solution that didn’t involve James playing at being a foster father.
“I’ll make sure she’s taken care of,” he finally said. “You have my word.”
“Oh, I know that she’ll be taken care of, James Brownstone. I can see it in you.”
“Is...there anything we can do? I could call a priest to give you last rites. I don’t know if it works over the phone, but it’s something. Or is there someone else we can call?”
“It’s okay. What I believe is...quite different than you, even if ultimately it all goes back to the same source.”
Frustration boiled up in the bounty hunter. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. He’d armed himself—even using the damned necklace—and killed a lot of people to rescue her, but she wasn’t going to make it. He’d long since stopped believing in the fairness of the universe, but it didn’t make him any less angry.
Doubt gnawed at him. The Harriken at the first house had given him the location, but the bounty hunter hadn’t acted on it right away, thinking it had nothing to do with him. His jaw tightened as he wondered if Nicole could have survived if he’d realized the importance of the message right away.
Fuck. It doesn’t matter if I want to say it’s not my problem. The least I can do is make sure Alison is taken care of, one way or another.
The Drow princess placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I can see that this worries you, but don’t blame yourself. You’ve punished the people who have done this to me, and you saved my daughter. That’s all I could ask or hope for in this horrible situation.”
The bounty hunter averted his gaze, no quips coming to his mind for once.
Nicole looked at Shay with a sly smile. “I see so much now that I’m using my full abilities once more.”
Shay frowned. “Like?”
She smirked. “Even now your heart is choosing, and there isn’t a damn thing you’re going to be able to do about it when it is finished.”
The other woman narrowed her eyes. “Not to be rude, but what the hell are you talking about?”
James shot Shay another glare. The least they could do was be polite during the last few minutes the woman had on Earth.
Nicole stepped toward him, though she kept her focus on Shay. “I’m going to make it easier for you to choose.” A mischievous smile appeared on her face.
Total surprise was rare for the bounty hunter, but that was the only way to describe his reaction when Nicole threw her arms around his neck and stuck her tongue down his throat, giving him a kiss that made his damn skin feel like a lightning bolt had just hit nearby.
Indecision paralyzed him. He couldn’t just push her off, given that she was on the verge of death, but the woman was trying to suck his tonsils out. Shay loudly cleared her throat in irritation.
How the fuck did I end up in this situation?
Nicole’s hold on him slackened, and she collapsed. James grabbed her before she hit the ground and she shuddered, her eyes unfocused. Asking her about the kiss seemed inappropriate given the seizure wracking her.
“Come closer,” she said quietly. “I have something to tell you.”
James lowered his head near her mouth. “What? Is there anything I can do?”
“I’ve transferred the wish to you,” Nicole whispered.
James’ eyes narrowed. “What the hell?”
She continued whispering, touching him gently on the chest. “I transferred the wish willingly and freely through the kiss. I’ve entrusted it to you for my daughter. Now you are bound to her.”
James furrowed his brow. “You don’t know me. I’m a bad man. The only thing that has ever truly loved me was a dog, and I couldn’t even keep him from getting killed by the Harriken. I’m a monster, and the only reason I’m tolerated is because people need me to fight bigger monsters. You can’t trust me, and you shouldn’t trust me.”
“If you believe that then you’re a fool, James.” She weakly patted him on the chest. “I can see it now so clearly. You have the brightest soul I’ve ever seen.”
“Maybe you’re just going soul-blind,” he grumped
Nicole coughed up blood. “You are the right one to entrust, and you will know when the time is right to pass it to Alison.”
“You can’t—”
James stopped as a black mist began to rise from Nicole’s body, which slowly grew lighter and less substantial as the mist continued to rise. He held onto what he could for a good minute, until there was nothing left of the woman except a torn and bloody hospital gown.
The black mist slowly floated into the sky. From afar a person could easily mistake it for the plume of smoke from the burning house. Up close, even though it no longer had a human shape, James would swear ever after that he could see Nicole’s face in it.
Shay walked over and touched his arm. “
Brownstone, let’s get the fuck out of here. We’ve done what we can, and at least everyone involved has been punished. Sometimes vengeance is all you can achieve.”
James nodded slowly, still staring after the black mist as it rose to the heavens.
22
The next morning, James and Shay stood in front of the Anderson home.
“You sure about this, Brownstone?” Shay said. “Not too late. We can let him skitter away.”
“Very sure. If you don’t want to be involved, you can walk away now. I won’t hold it against you. This has been my business from the beginning.”
She gave him a quick shake of her head. “After everything I saw and heard yesterday, I can’t walk away either.”
“I gave him a chance to get away. He should have taken it.” James knocked on the door. “Now his sins are gonna catch up with him.”
The door opened. Walt Anderson stood on the other side, his face and nose purple and black. His mouth twitched for a moment, revealing a wired jaw.
His eyes widened, and the man backpedaled so fast he tripped over a coffee table in the living room, sprawling onto his couch. He righted himself and threw his hands up in front of him as if they could somehow stop the pair from coming into his home.
Good. Be afraid, you piece of crap.
“Hope you don’t mind that I stopped by,” James began, walking into the house. “I just figured it’d be great to catch up with an old friend.”
Shay followed the bounty hunter in and closed the door.
“I...couldn’t leave right away,” Walt protested, his voice muffled and indistinct because of his jaw. “You hurt me too badly. I had to go to the hospital. I’ll leave today. I promise.”
James chuckled. “You can travel with a broken jaw. It doesn’t matter.” He strolled deeper into the house until he stood in front of the coffee table. “Know where we were yesterday?”
“I don’t know. I was getting my jaw wired shut and pulling money out of savings. What difference does it make? You made your point before. I’m not gonna stay in L.A.”
Shay leaned against the door and crossed her arms. “This ought to be fun. This little douche still thinks he gets to be pissy. Newsflash, asshole: garbage like you gets no pity.”
James nodded toward Shay. “She makes a good point.”
Walt groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What do you want from me?”
“Just want you to listen to a little story.”
“A story?”
“Yeah, about how I paid a little visit to your Harriken friends,” James said. “You can read about it in the papers. Big bloodbath. Real unfortunate. Lots of tears and bullets spent.”
“T-that was you? They said...people were burned alive and blown apart by magic.”
The bounty hunter managed to chuckle. “That part actually wasn’t me.”
A look of relief spread over Walt’s face.
“That was Nicole,” James told him.
The other man paled. He shuddered, and for a second James thought Walt might vomit.
“N-Nicole?”
“Yep. After we freed your wife from the torture room in the basement, she decided to give a little demonstration of her power. It didn’t end well for the guys who pissed her off.”
Sweat beaded on Walt’s forehead. “I-I’ll make it up to her. Somehow.”
“Too late, asshole,” James said through clenched teeth. “She’s dead.”
The traitorous husband let out a sigh of relief. “Then it’s over. It’s all over.”
“Oh, no, it’s not over.” The bounty hunter shook his head. “Because not everyone involved in this bullshit received their proper punishment. The Harriken are mostly dead, so they got what was coming to them. Funny thing is, they would have never known about Nicole if a certain asshole hadn’t told them.”
Walt swallowed, and his lip quivered. “We’ve all made mistakes. You telling me you’ve never done something you’ve regretted? I know the kind of man you are. You’ve got a lot more blood on your hands than I do.”
James looked over at Shay, and she faked gagging. The bounty hunter stepped forward and ax-kicked the coffee table, snapping it in half. Walt yelped, then winced.
“Regretted?” James growled. “You’re right, I’ve got enough blood on my hands to fill a river. My whole life is nothing but regrets, you piece of shit, but you know what I wouldn’t do? Sell my wife and child to gangsters.” He stomped through the debris of the table to loom over the cowering man. “You know what they did to try and get that wish out of her, don’t you, Walt?”
The other man waved his hands in front of himself. “Y-you don’t understand. She’s not even human. You said it yourself…she used magic to kill people in twisted ways. She’s practically a demon.”
“So it’s so much better for your Harriken buddies to stab and shoot people to death?”
“She lied to me.” Walt shook his head. “From the beginning, she lied to me.”
“I’m thinking that, considering what happened, she should have stuck with that plan.”
Somehow the asshole managed to work up enough courage to try to sneer, but then he winced again. “You should be on my side, right? You’re human. She wasn’t human. From the very beginning she was laughing at me, pretending to be human and not some magical freak from Oriceran.”
“If you’re pissed about your wife lying to you, you get a divorce.” James yanked Walt up by his collar. “What you don’t do is turn her over to psychopathic criminals who will spend days torturing her to get her to give up something that doesn’t belong to them. Don’t you agree, Mr. Anderson?”
“That wish belongs to me!” Walt tried to shout. “She was my wife. She swore to honor and cherish me, and then that inhuman bitch lied to me and hid—”
James threw him against a wall. Not hard. Well, not hard by his standards. Walt cried out as he smashed against the wall, groaning and holding his arm.
“Wrong fucking answer, douchebag. Very wrong fucking answer.” The bounty hunter punted half the broken table into the wall next to Walt and splinters shot through the air. “She suffered torture and intense pain to protect something she planned to give to your daughter. Who gives a fuck if you didn’t get it?”
Shay pulled out her gun. “The only thing worse than a shitty husband is a shitty father, and you’re two for two. Congrats, Walt.”
“No, please,” he said, his hands up. “I deserve a second chance. If she had been human, none of this would have happened. It’s not my fault. She lied to me. You should be taking my side. We have to maintain the purity of our planet. They’ll come here with all their weird magic and freaky races, and it won’t even be Earth anymore.”
“Keep talking, asshole.” James reached into his pocket, took out some latex gloves, and slipped them on. After that, he pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of his pocket. He tossed it in front of Walt.
“What’s this?”
“Cops showed up in force yesterday at the old Belmont House resort, which just happened to be a major Harriken base. The place had mostly burned down,” James shot a meaningful glance at Shay, who grinned in response, "except for the basement. Cement doesn’t burn like wood. Big surprise. They found this torture cell down there, with all sorts of blood and evidence for forensics.” James leaned forward. “That paper right there is your little confession, all typed out, where you admit that you sent your wife to be tortured by the Harriken and how you feel guilty for her death.”
Walt shook his head. “I won’t sign it. I didn’t kill her, and I didn’t want her dead. I just wanted the damned wish. She was the one who was being stubborn.”
“You fucking turned her over to criminals to be tortured to death, you motherfucking piece of shit!” James roared. “Don’t even try and pretend you’re not responsible for what happened to her.”
The other man whimpered.
James took a deep breath. “Anyway. It doesn’t matter, because that confession talks about yo
ur connections with the Harriken. I talked with your daughter, you know. She overheard you talking to some Takahashi asshole. The police will pull the phone records and put two and two together. Then they’ll know you were behind your wife’s disappearance.”
Confusion replaced the fear on Walt’s face. “I… What? I don’t understand. You’re going to turn me over to the police?” He licked his lips, some of the tension visibly leaving his body. “Sure, yeah. Okay, I’ll sign it then. Turn me over to the police.”
James looked at Shay, and she rolled her eyes.
“No, you stupid moron,” the bounty hunter said. “We’re not going to turn you over to the police.”
“You aren’t? But I said I’d sign it.”
James snorted. “No, you’re gonna die here in the next few minutes. I just wanted you to know that when the police investigate they are going to realize you sold your wife out to the Harriken, so as far as anyone who will know, you were a worthless piece of shit whose death will be celebrated. Maybe if you get real lucky, your name will become famous and end up as a common saying.”
Shay laughed. “Like, ‘My boyfriend’s such a Walt Anderson.’”
James grinned. “Exactly.”
Walt stared at James, disbelief on his face. “No, no, no. You’re a bounty hunter. Can’t you make some money off me or something? Take me to the police. We can go right now.”
“I have a wish, Walt,” James intoned. “And that wish is for you to be dead.” He pulled his gun out and aimed it at Alison’s father. “Say hello to the Devil for me. Let him know my arrival time’s still up in the air.” He squeezed the trigger, and a single shot rang out.
Walt fell over, a bullet hole in his head and his brains splattered behind him on the wall.
Shay walked over and put a single shot into his heart.
The bounty hunter and the tomb raider holstered their weapons and walked to the door.
“This still may bring heat on you, Brownstone,” Shay reminded him, opening the door. “The cops might figure out it was you.”
The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone Boxed Set One (Books 1-3): Feared By Hell, Rejected By Heaven, Eye For An Eye (The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone Boxed Sets) Page 18