by Karen Lynch
At the back of the room was a door I hadn’t noticed when I came in. I had no idea if it led to a bathroom or to another office. There was no one sitting at the desk, and I stood uncertainly for a minute before I took a seat on one of the rickety visitor chairs. Levi must have stepped out briefly, or he wouldn’t have left the door unlocked. I would just wait here for him to return.
Five minutes passed before the door at the back of the office opened, and a very overweight man came out. His dark hair was peppered with gray, and he had so many chins I couldn’t see his neck. Wheezing, he lumbered over to his desk, without looking in my direction, and eased his body down onto his chair. Metal groaned ominously, and I held my breath as I waited for the chair to give out under his weight. Miraculously, it held, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was using some kind of Fae spell to support it.
It wasn’t until the man was seated that he finally noticed me. Surprise flitted across his face, but it was quickly replaced by suspicion. His hand went under the desk, no doubt to grip a weapon he kept there. With that in mind, I decided it would be prudent to stay seated and not make any sudden moves.
“Mr. Solomon, my name is Jesse James,” I said before he could speak. “I spoke to you earlier on the phone.”
It took a few seconds before I saw recognition dawn on his face. No one who knew my mother could miss my resemblance to her.
His posture relaxed a bit, but he kept his hand under the desk. What did he think I was going to do? “Miss James, you’re a long way from home, and I’m sure your parents would not be pleased to find you here.”
I had to bite back a snarky reply. If he’d been helpful when I called him, I wouldn’t have had to come here to see him in person.
I pasted on a smile instead. “You told me you had no way of knowing I was who I claimed to be. I came here to give you proof of my identity and to ask for your help.”
He pursed his lips. “I’m sorry you came all the way down here, but like I told you on the phone, your parents are more than capable of taking care of themselves. They haven’t even been gone twenty-four hours.”
“And I told you they wouldn’t stay out this long without calling me.” My stomach clenched painfully. “Something’s wrong.”
“You don’t know that.” He pulled his hand from beneath the desk and waved it dismissively.
I fought to keep my anger in check, knowing it wouldn’t help me. “Can you at least tell me what job they’re working on?”
“Your parents normally have three or four active cases, and they could have been working on any one of them last night.” He put up a hand. “Don’t ask me what those jobs are because we don’t discuss Agency business with outsiders.”
“Outsiders?” I shot to my feet. “I’m their daughter, not some total stranger. I can call up a dozen bounty hunters who will vouch for me.”
Levi’s expression changed to one of annoyance as he rested his thick forearms on the desk. “It wouldn’t matter if the Pope himself came in here on your behalf. If you aren’t in the business, no one is going to tell you anything. That’s just the way it is. You ask anyone in this building and they’ll tell you the same thing.”
I paced in front of his desk. “So, that’s it? People you’ve worked with for years disappear, and you won’t do anything?”
“Listen here, kid. I’ve been doing this since before you were born, and I think I know a bit more about this business than you.” His multiple chins wobbled. “I’m not going to raise alarms for two of the top bounty hunters in the state just because they forgot to call home. If we don’t hear from them in another thirty-six hours, I’ll report them missing to the Agency and they will send someone to investigate.”
“That’s all you’ll do?” Frustration and fear welled inside me. Mom and Dad could be hurt and unable to call for help, and no one would even start to look for them for another day and a half.
He tapped a finger impatiently on the desk. “That’s all I can do. We have rules I have to follow. Go home, and let us take care of things here. This is no place for a young girl like you.”
My anger flared again. “I’m eighteen, old enough to be a bounty hunter.”
“That may be, but you’re not one, which means you have no business here.”
I stalked to the door and threw it open. “As long as my parents are missing, this is my business. I’ll be back in thirty-six hours, Mr. Solomon.”
He grumbled something that turned into a hacking smoker’s cough. I’d be lucky if the guy didn’t keel over before he had a chance to send someone to look for Mom and Dad.
In the elevator, I tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for the car to reach the first floor. I couldn’t believe I had wasted half my afternoon on coming to see a man who couldn’t care less about my parents. I should have known better after he’d hung up on me. The jerk.
The elevator doors slid open, and I hurried out, almost running into the two sandy-haired men waiting to get on. I jumped back and let out a silent breath of relief when I recognized Bruce Fowler. He and Dad had gone to high school together, and like most of my parents’ friends, he was a bounty hunter. He was a nice man, and his family lived only two streets over from us.
“Jesse!” exclaimed the younger man with Bruce.
I suppressed a groan when my eyes met the brown ones of Bruce’s son, Trey. You might think that with our parents being friends, Trey and I would be good friends, too. You would be wrong.
Two years older than me, Trey had been one of those cocky, good-looking boys who loved being the center of attention and having a cute girl on his arm. That would have been fine if he hadn’t spent his time between hookups trying to get into my pants. Like that would ever happen. I knew he’d only wanted me because I had been one of the few girls from school he couldn’t have.
He’d only gotten more full of himself since he’d started bounty hunting with his father last year. You’d think he was some kind of superhero with the way he bragged about his job. I knew better.
“Hi,” I said tightly, although the smile I gave Bruce was genuine.
Bruce’s brows drew together in concern. “Jesse, what are you doing here? Are you with your parents?”
I shook my head and swallowed past the lump that suddenly formed in my throat. “I don’t know where Mom and Dad are. They went out last night and never came home.” I told him about the weird call from my mother and that Levi had refused to help me find them.
Trey puffed out his chest. “It’s an Agency policy to wait two days. There are a lot of rules we bounty hunters have to live by.”
If I hadn’t been so worried about my parents, I would have rolled my eyes. Trey was harmless, but he could be a pompous idiot at times.
“I’ll talk to Levi and see what I can do. But the Plaza is no place for you. Go on home, and I’ll call you if I hear anything.” Bruce laid a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I’m sure your parents will be home soon.”
“Thanks.” I didn’t want to go home and sit around waiting to hear something, but I wasn’t going to learn anything else here. And if Bruce said he’d try to help, I knew he would. I just hoped he had more luck getting information out of Levi than I had.
I said goodbye and exited the building, having to step to one side at the door to allow three hunters to enter, carrying a shackled, thrashing female between them. The woman’s black hair was wild and matted, and her dress was little more than rags. A muzzle covering the lower half of her face did not completely mute her screeching, and my ears ached from the sound. It was my first time seeing a banshee up close, and I hoped I never ran into one that wasn’t gagged.
Outside the building, I descended the steps to the street and paused while I checked the subway schedule on my phone. I silently cursed my stupidity when I saw Trey had followed me.
“Come on. I’ll give you a lift home,” he said with a saccharine smile. “You don’t need to be riding the subway alone.”
My hackles went up at his insinuatio
n that I couldn’t take care of myself. “I’ve taken the subway plenty of times. I think I can handle it.”
He was a little taken aback by my tone but quickly recovered and tried another tactic. “Your father would want to know someone was watching out for you while he’s gone. Dad agrees with me that you shouldn’t be all alone in the apartment either. I’d be happy to sleep on your couch until your parents come home.”
I bet you would. “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary.”
“I’m serious, Jesse,” he pressed. “This city can be a dangerous place for a girl on her –”
“Do not finish that sentence, Trey Fowler, if you value your life.” I planted a hand against his chest and shoved him backward. “This girl is more than capable of taking care of herself, thank you very much. And if you don’t mind, I’ll be leaving now to catch my train.”
I spun away and stomped off down the street toward the subway station. The gall of him to suggest I was helpless because I was a female. I should go back there and kick his ass, just to show him how well I could defend myself. I wasn’t as good a fighter as either of my parents, but thanks to Dad’s rigorous self-defense training, I could hold my own.
My temper had cooled by the time I reached the station. I paid my fare, thinking I should probably buy a MetroCard if I was going to be taking the subway a lot. My old job had been within walking distance of home, so I hadn’t needed to take the subway to work.
I was waiting for my train when I got the eerie sensation of being watched. My gaze scanned the station and landed on a tall man in a long, dark coat leaning against one of the support columns about twenty feet away. A hood shadowed all but his lower face, so the only thing I could make out was that he was white. But I could feel his eyes on me. I stared back, hoping to make him look away, but his gaze stayed locked on me.
A cold tingle ran across the back of my neck as my creep alarm went off. I edged closer to the other people waiting for the train and out of his sight. When the train arrived, I got on with everyone else and made sure I sat with a group of passengers.
Daring a glance out the window as the train departed the station, I nearly sagged in relief when I saw the man standing in the same spot. He looked up when my car passed him, and all it took was one glimpse of his beautiful face to know he was a faerie. Our eyes met for the briefest moment, and the cold scrutiny on his face sent a shiver through me. It was a good ten minutes until I felt warm again.
By the time I got home, I had convinced myself that I’d overreacted to a stranger’s harmless stare. I was under a lot of stress today, and it was making me imagine things.
Finch was standing on the back of the couch waiting for me when I opened the door. The relief on his small face made guilt prick me. They were his parents, too, and he’d been here alone for hours with no idea of when I’d come home.
“Hey.” I tossed my coat over the back of a chair and faced him with my hands on my hips. “What? No dinner?”
I was rewarded when he made a face. Finch hated cooked food, especially any kind of meat. If it wasn’t fresh fruit or vegetables, he refused to touch it.
Mom and Dad? he signed, watching me closely.
I let out a long breath. “Sorry, buddy. No one will do anything until they’ve been missing for two days. But don’t you worry. I’m going to find them, with or without anyone’s help.”
How?
“I don’t know yet. I’ll think better after I get some food in me.”
I entered the kitchen and took last night’s leftovers from the fridge. Putting a large portion of meat loaf and mashed potatoes on a plate, I stuck it in the microwave to heat while I made up a small fruit plate for Finch.
When both of our meals were ready, I carried our plates over and laid them on the coffee table. Mom didn’t like us eating in the living room, but there was no way I could sit at the table and look at her and Dad’s empty chairs.
After I’d washed up our plates, I headed for the only place that could give me a clue to my parents’ whereabouts. Mom was meticulous about record keeping. If there was anything to find, it would be on her computer or somewhere in her desk.
Luckily, Mom had given me her password ages ago. “Just in case,” she’d said. At the time, I couldn’t imagine ever having a reason to go into their work computer. I think, at the back of my mind, I’d always known there was a chance one of them could get hurt or worse on a job. But I had never let myself consider the possibility of something happening to both of them, and at the same time.
I logged in and thanked Mom for her amazing organizational skills when I easily located the main folder for the business. Inside was a directory of subfolders, all titled by year, and in the folder for the current year, I found a spreadsheet containing every job my parents had worked on since January. Each job was color coded by level, with links to other tabs that contained more detailed notes.
I scrolled through the spreadsheet, amazed by how many jobs my parents had done this year. And not level One jobs either. All of these were Threes and Fours.
All bounties were categorized by threat level, according to Agency guidelines. Level One was the easiest, and the bounty for that one was a thousand dollars. Level Two carried a bounty of two thousand. Level Three jumped up a bit with a bounty of five thousand. A level Four was a whopping ten thousand dollars. There was a level Five, but I had no idea what the bounty was for that one. If my parents had ever brought in a level Five, they hadn’t told me about it.
Experienced bounty hunters competed for the Threes and Fours because they were the most lucrative. Beginners and junior hunters took most of the Ones and Twos until they were ready to move up to the next level.
According to the spreadsheet, Mom and Dad had two open jobs, a level Three and a level Four. The Three was for a goblin that had been burglarizing houses in several Brooklyn neighborhoods for the last month. The Four was for a dealer peddling a highly addictive drug called goren.
Goren was made from a Fae plant of the same name that had been banned in our realm. Faeries ate it as a garnish on their food, and it was harmless to them. For humans, it created a state of intense euphoria. It didn’t harm them physically, but once they tried it, all they cared about was getting more of it. They would sell everything they had just to get more of the drug.
“Aha!” I almost shouted when I spotted a name I’d heard before in the contact list for the second job. Tennin. Mom had mentioned him yesterday at dinner. I rubbed my chin as I tried to remember what she’d said. Tennin was in town for a day, and they had to talk to him before he left again. He was the one they’d gone to see last night.
According to Mom’s notes, Tennin was a photographer, and she’d flagged him as a trusted confidential informant. Wondering what was so special about a photographer, I did an internet search for photographers named Tennin in New York City. It didn’t take long to find out that he was a paparazzo, and a damn good one, if his website was any indication.
I sat back in the chair and stared at the monitor as I contemplated what to do with this new information. I could call Bruce and Levi and ask them to talk to Tennin, but there was no guarantee either man would take me seriously and actually reach out to the photographer. Or that Tennin would confide in them about why my parents had gone to see him. He was listed as a confidential informant, so he might not take too kindly to being outed to others.
And then there was the fact that Mom had said Tennin was only in town for a day. I only had today to talk to him before he was gone again, for God knew how long.
I was standing before I realized I’d made a decision. I would go talk to Tennin myself. If I explained the situation, he might open up to me because of who I was. It was worth a try, and it was all I had right now.
Taking a piece of paper, I jotted down Tennin’s address and logged off the computer. I called goodbye to Finch, and I was about to leave the apartment when a set of car keys hanging beside the door caught my eye. Dad’s keys. I hadn’t noticed them ea
rlier, but their presence meant Mom and Dad had taken her car last night instead of his Jeep. They always used the SUV when they expected to do a capture, which told me they hadn’t planned on anything big going down last night.
I hesitated only a second before I grabbed the keys from their hook. Then I hurried from the apartment for the second time that day.
Chapter 3
I stared at the tall, blond male who opened the door of the Williamsburg apartment. My gaze took in his stunning blue eyes, full mouth, and perfectly symmetrical face, and I knew immediately that Tennin wasn’t human. No human gene pool or plastic surgeon could produce such flawless beauty. He certainly looked nothing like those scruffy, unkempt paparazzi I’d seen glimpses of on TV.
“Hello, gorgeous,” he drawled appreciatively as he looked me up and down. “When you buzzed up and said who you were, I was dubious. I guess I don’t need to see your ID to confirm your identity. Has anyone ever told you that you could be a clone of your mother?”
“I might have heard that before.”
Tennin smiled and waved me inside his sparsely furnished apartment. In the living room, there was a white leather couch with a matching chair and some small glass tables. The walls were mostly bare, and the place hardly looked lived in. It was a nice apartment, but a lot less grand than I would have expected for the home of a Court faerie. Not that I’d ever been in one of their homes before, but I’d imagined they lived more luxuriously than this.
“What brings you to my home, Miss James? I’m delighted to have such alluring company, but I am reasonably certain your parents don’t know you are here since Patrick isn’t beating down my door.”
I turned to face the faerie. “I’m here because my parents came to see you last night, and now, they’re missing.”
The playful smile fell from his face. “Missing?”