“I never said that.” He winked and gestured toward a table. “We can talk there.”
The kelpie made his way over to the table, and Nita followed. It had a three-thousand-dollar price tag and was covered in bags of marbles, fifty-year-old Barbies, and a bronze helmet, among other things. He gestured for them to sit.
Nita sat gingerly, the old wicker chair groaning beneath her, and Kovit followed suit.
“Kovit.” The kelpie grinned again. Nita waited for his smile to change back to something else with more teeth, but it stayed firm. “It’s so nice to see you. And you’ve brought a friend. Be polite, introduce us.”
“Nita, this is Adair. Adair, this is Nita.”
“A pleasure.” Adair grinned at her and gave a half bow while sitting. He didn’t extend his hand, and neither did Nita.
“Yes, I’ve heard a lot about you,” Nita responded.
“Oh, has Kovit been talking?” Adair grinned. “It’s been what, three, four years?”
Kovit shifted uncomfortably. “Around that.”
Adair nodded sagely, closing his eyes slightly to give himself an aura of thought. “Yes, and such circumstances last time! Why, your friend had made himself quite a mess. I eat people, and even I didn’t know that three bodies could have so much blood in them.”
Nita turned to Kovit slowly, but he was avoiding both of their gazes. “Yeah,” he muttered. “Me neither. You always discover new things when Matt’s temper is involved.”
Nita mentally readjusted her image of Kovit’s friend. Again. She never wanted to meet him.
“But I hear there was some trouble in the Family. That temper get away with him again?” Adair asked, expression sly.
Kovit shrugged. “Something like that.”
Adair’s lips curled, and his eyes shone. For a moment, Nita thought they flickered too, no longer the round human shape, but tilted and elongated, like a cat’s eyes had been stretched too long and thin in Photoshop. They were also yellow and slitted, like a crocodile’s.
But then they were back to normal and Nita was once again left wondering if she’d seen it at all.
“You’re staring,” Adair said.
Nita blinked, and swallowed. “Sorry.”
“Do you not like this face?” he asked. “I can change it.”
Before Nita could protest, his skin began to ripple, like waves on the water, like someone had thrown a pebble in the chest of a hologram, and the changes spiraled out. For a moment, his skin was clear, almost translucent, and caught the low light and sent rainbow patterns spinning around the room.
And then Nita was staring at a completely different person.
A middle-aged man with a too-large nose, sallow skin, and bushy eyebrows looked back at her with the same smile as before.
“Is this better?” he asked. It was disconcerting, because it was still the same voice coming from a totally different face.
Nita wanted nothing more than to reach over and touch his skin and see if the illusion held, or if he skin would feel like water, or scales, or something else entirely.
Then he rippled again, and he was a pretty girl, around Nita’s age, with long blond hair and blue eyes. Piercings ran up one ear. Her face was pale, with rosy cheeks and plump lips, but her expression was all sly Adair-ness.
Kovit flinched away, and Nita wondered if this was a face he knew. “Change it back, please.”
Adair pouted. “Why?”
“You know why.” Kovit raised his eyebrows. “Besides, if you keep changing features, I’ll never recognize you.”
Adair laughed and changed back to the elderly man. “This the one you wanted?”
“You know it’s not.” Kovit rolled his eyes. “And besides, you look old now.”
Adair grinned and whispered, “How do you know I’m not old?”
Nita thought about that. He could look any age he wanted, and no one would ever know the truth. He could be anyone. But then she remembered that it had still been the same voice, young and masculine, coming from each of the bodies. It was nothing more than a surface illusion of some kind.
She’d love to figure out how he did it.
Kovit sighed. “Who cares how old you are?”
Nita nodded. “Your age has no impact on whether you can help us or not.”
He turned to her. “Of course I can. The more important question is, will I?”
His skin rippled again, and Nita paid close attention this time, increasing the concentration of rods and cones in her eyes as much as possible to try and see beneath the watery surface. She thought she caught a glimpse of something black and multi-jointed, covered in leathery hide, but she couldn’t be sure.
Then the Adair of before was sitting in front of them, wavy black hair in exactly the same style as before, not even tousled.
“So, Nita, will I?” He tilted his head. “Kovit says the two of you need a place to stay incognito for a few days while you figure out how to get out of town. Is that right?”
Nita nodded, and Kovit said, “Yes.”
“Good!” Adair stretched like a lazy cat before a nap, eyes half lidded as he watched them. “So, what do you have to offer?”
Kovit leaned forward. “Information.”
“What kind?” Adair steepled his fingers on the table.
“I can tell you about my break from the family,” Kovit offered.
“Boo.” Adair made the whistling sound of a bomb falling and crashing to the ground. “I know alllllllllll about that already.” He looked at Kovit with something like sympathy. “Sorry about Matt, by the way. I know you were close.”
Kovit looked away. “It’s fine. I’ll see him again one day, when the heat’s cooled off and it’s safe to reach out.”
“Mmm.” Adair eyed Kovit. “That sounds nice. But you still don’t have any information for me.”
Nita sighed. “I have a list of corrupt INHUP agents.”
That got Adair’s interest. “Oh?”
“One name a day for as long as we stay.” Nita crossed her arms.
He shook his head. “Names alone are no good. For all I know, you’re making them up.”
“I’m not. The list was stolen from Reyes. Also known as the Queen of Parts, a player in—”
“El Mercado de la Muerte, yes, I know who she is. Was.” He considered, then shook his head. “Again, it’s just names I can’t verify.”
Nita hesitated again, then took out the two pieces of Reyes’ phone. “This phone had conversations and text chats between Reyes and some of the people on the list. But I can’t put it back together without setting off the GPS locator on it and bringing black market hunters down on us.”
Adair took the phone from her and turned it over in his hands. It took Nita a moment to realize he was doing what she’d done, looking for physical bugs.
Satisfied, he put it down, then tapped a finger on the table. “I have someone. She might be able to retrieve the information without setting off the tracking. I’ll bring her in tomorrow.”
Nita leaned forward. “Does that mean you accept my deal?”
Adair drummed his fingers on the table and nodded. “If we can get the information off the phone as well, I accept.”
“No. You can’t kick us out if your hacker turns out not to be good enough.”
Adair traced a finger over the phone and looked over at the two of them. Then he nodded. “Fine. You can stay here.” He leaned forward, and hissed. “But if you bring the black market hunters to my shop, I swear to God I will hunt you down wherever you run, drown you in Lake Ontario, and eat your rotting corpses.”
He leaned back, and his perfect smile returned. “Deal?”
Nita swallowed. “Deal.”
Fourteen
ADAIR LED THEM to the back of the pawnshop, into the “staff only” area, which consisted of a stairwell up and a stairwell down.
He led them up.
Nita looked back at the dark stairwell down and wondered if there really was a murder lake in
the basement. Not that she planned to go look.
The stairs were cramped and rickety, and led them to the second floor of the pawnshop. It was a pretty barebones room, slightly warmer than the pawnshop but still a bit too heavily air conditioned to be comfortable. A mini fridge sat in one corner, a fold-out couch bed perched against a wall facing a closed door she assumed led to the bathroom, and everything else was just creaky bare wood floor and peeling lime green walls.
Nita looked around at the room. “You get people staying here often?”
Adair shook his head. “No. I used to store business files up here, the ones I used for taxes.”
“You mean the ones that made this not look like a money-laundering scheme,” Nita clarified.
Adair grinned and touched his nose. “Yes, that.”
“So why the change?”
“I had an unexpected guest for a while. I needed somewhere for her to live, so I set this up. She’s since moved out, and I haven’t changed it back yet.”
Moved out, or been eaten? Nita wondered, but she didn’t say anything.
“Now,” he said, turning to Nita. “My first name from your list.”
Nita didn’t pull the list out. She’d memorized it by now. “Agatha Washpenny.”
He clicked his tongue. “Knew that one already.”
Nita shrugged. “Not my problem. One name a day. That was the deal.”
“So it was.” Adair tossed a key onto the mini fridge. “This will get you into the shop when it’s closed. Which is most of the time.” He paused. “Also, don’t eat anything in that fridge.” He considered. “I mean, you could. But I reallllly don’t think you want to.”
Nita made a face. “Anything else we need to know?”
“I don’t live here, so you’ll have a ten-minute head start if you blow my shop up. Make the most of it.” He smiled, and this time when it flickered to that impossibly long, thousands-of-Alien-style-teeth image, she was reasonably sure he did it on purpose, because beside her, Kovit flinched.
Adair turned to leave but paused, “Oh, and you know the story of Bluebeard? Marries a lovely young lady, invites her into his home, says don’t open the basement door, she ignores him and finds a bunch of skeletons of his ex-wives?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’m Bluebeard, and I’m telling you upfront the basement is full of rotting skeletons so please don’t go down there unless you want to join them. In which case, you’re more than welcome! If you’re going to kill yourself anyways, best to donate your body to my food stores.”
He laughed, and Nita wasn’t entirely sure how much of what he said was true, how much was him mocking her and Kovit.
“Understood?” Adair asked.
“Yes.” Nita pursed her lips. “What time should we expect your hacker tomorrow?”
“In the morning. I’ll call her tonight.” He nodded at them. “And if that’s all, I’ll be off.”
Without waiting for a response, he turned around and tromped away down the stairs, whistling softly.
Nita stared after him when he was gone. The stairs creaked as he descended, and after a few moments, the front door slammed. Nita walked to the small window that looked over the street, just catching a glimpse of Adair walking away, toward Lake Ontario.
Nita shook her head and sat down on the bed with a sigh. They had a place to stay. They were safe, for now. Adair probably wouldn’t betray them until he could see if his hacker could crack the phone.
So, they had until morning at least.
Nita flopped onto the bed, suddenly exhausted as the day caught up with her. Kovit lay down beside her. His hair tumbled into his eyes and Nita resisted the bizarre urge to brush it away.
She turned away and cleared her throat. “Can I borrow your phone? I want to check something.”
Kovit frowned. “You’re not downloading a browser for the dark web are you? I don’t know how secure the Wi-Fi is.”
Nita shook her head. Accessing the dark web required a specific browser so that your actions were untraceable. But if you set it up wrong, you could end up compromising your computer or phone. Nita wasn’t willing to risk it, since they only had the one phone left.
“No, there’s no point. I have no reason to think that man was lying. My phone’s GPS coordinates are probably for sale online.” Nita pulled up a regular browser. “But the bigger question is, who put them up there?”
Because Nita had a suspicion. And she wanted to confirm it.
She logged into the email she’d given INHUP, and there was a message from Quispe waiting for her.
Nita, I hope you and your aunt are having a good time. Shortly after you left, I learned Fabricio had regained consciousness. He’s going to be fine. And he was touched by your message, and sent one of his own, below.
Nita scrolled down to Fabricio’s message.
Nita, I was deeply impacted by your words about INHUP and safety. It’s so nice that you’re thinking of me.
I’ve been thinking of you too.
And while I can’t see you in person right now, I know you’ll make many new friends everywhere you go—friendships just like ours. I’d bet money you’ll meet lots of new ones in Toronto.
That. Little. Shit-weasel.
He’d just all but confessed to sending all those people after her. Friendships like ours? And that line about money at the end—he was profiting off it. He was the one selling her location online.
Nita nearly threw Kovit’s phone into the wall, but resisted at the last moment. They only had the one phone.
Fucking Fabricio. Not only was he alive and getting other people to try and kill Nita, he was getting them to pay him for doing it.
If only she’d added more poison. She remembered that moment when she’d heard he wasn’t dead, where part of her had sagged, relief slipping through her, a traitorous sliver in her soul. It was gone now. There was only regret that he wasn’t dead left.
“I’m going to fucking murder you, Fabricio,” Nita hissed.
And this time, she wouldn’t fail.
Kovit leaned over to read the message over her shoulder. “Translation?”
She translated it for him. He’d only been living in South America for a month when they met, and it hadn’t been enough time for him to pick up much Spanish.
He rested his chin on his hands. “That is a very passive-aggressive friendship message.”
Nita glared at him.
Kovit sat up. “So what’re you going to do?”
Nita closed the phone and tossed it back to him. “I’m not sure yet. But I’m going to send Fabricio a message he won’t soon forget.”
He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t question her further.
Nita looked down at the phone. She had the start of a plan. But it wasn’t ready yet.
“So, Adair’s quite a character,” Nita commented. “You have interesting friends.”
“I wouldn’t really call him a friend,” Kovit replied, rubbing the back of his neck.
Nita raised an eyebrow. “How do you know I wasn’t referring to Matt?”
Kovit winced.
Nita raised her other eyebrow. “Are you interested in telling me what happened there?”
Kovit sighed. “We were supposed to be up here on a business thing. My . . . services were being loaned out to another group.”
Nita raised an eyebrow. “Just another day at the office?”
“Welcome to my childhood. Matt came because he was”—Kovit’s smile was tight—“good at dramatics.”
Kovit looked away, and Nita remembered Adair’s comment about bodies and blood.
“And what went wrong?” she asked.
“Matt got a little . . .” Kovit made a face. “Into things. He killed an important person in the Family. He said it was an accident.”
Nita kept her expression neutral. “And do you believe that?”
“No.”
Nita raised an eyebrow.
“The man was an evil shit.” Kovit ela
borated. “He was the nephew of the head of the Family, and when you’re related to the head of the Family, there’s nothing you can’t do. When I was eleven, he asked me to torture a girl who called him ugly.”
Nita was tempted to ask if Kovit had done it, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.
Kovit was lost in memory. “The whole Family—they’re all really fucked up. The head of the Family’s daughter has a grudge against unnaturals, thinks they’re all monsters. Which, given the type of unnaturals the Family hires, isn’t too unbelievable. She once tricked a vampire we hired for an assassination into the sunlight and then lit her cigarette on his body as he burned alive. And the head got famous for murdering families of police officers investigating him.” Kovit looked away. “Mostly children. He always went for the most vulnerable.”
“Sounds like a great group of people.” Nita snorted. “So, you think Matt killed this guy on purpose?”
“Probably. This wasn’t the first time they’d worked together, and there was no love lost between them.” Kovit shrugged. “Anyway, this guy died. So we called Adair and asked him to make it look like the man disappeared, ran off with some money and left us hanging.”
“It seems it worked.”
“Yeah. Adair’s good at what he does. He somehow managed to even fudge security camera footage at the airport to make it look like this guy got on a plane to the Caribbean.”
“Impressive.” Nita considered. “Did you guys get in trouble?”
“For not ‘stopping’ him from running away?” Kovit shook his head. “No. One good thing about the Family is that they don’t have a tendency to blame you for other people’s actions. Not like some of the other criminal organizations I know of.” A bitter smile crossed Kovit’s face. “I was too valuable to punish, anyway, and it would’ve been pointless to punish Matt. He got away scot-free.”
“That time.”
Kovit’s mouth thinned. “Yeah.”
There was a crisp finality to the word, and Nita decided not to press for more details on the incident that had led to Matt’s punishment. She didn’t think Kovit was ready to answer yet.
“Why didn’t you leave?” she asked instead. “You’d killed your supervisor. You were paying Adair, he probably could have faked your deaths. You could have started a new life.”
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