by Amelia Shaw
I shrugged. I’d been alone half my life now.
What else was new?
Chapter Twelve
I didn’t have many regrets in my life. I’d learned when I made a mistake it was best to acknowledge it, learn from it, and move on. And yet, I couldn’t get Fin out of my mind. Or the few measly hours I thought I might finally exact revenge for my parents’ murder.
For a brief, perfect moment, I’d felt hope. Something the Black Mage stripped me of as a child.
Back in my apartment, a hut compared to Fin’s sprawling estate, I needed to come to terms with my decision to leave. Even worse, my bag with all my Black Mage notes was still there.
A few days ago, I’d wanted to start over; now I had my chance.
After I cleaned, I fell straight into bed. In the morning, everything seemed clear: I needed to rebuild my missing notes.
I cleaned off my desk, tossing a couple Coke cans and a few sandwich wrappers in the bin. With a clean slate, I could recreate what I’d compiled in the files in my bag.
I placed a blank composition book in the center of my desk, a black ball-point pen beside it, but all I could do was stare at them.
Starting over sounded simple enough, but the act of doing it made me want to puke. If I pulled on my big girl panties and asked Fin to give me my stuff, I might not have to.
That idea also made me want to puke.
I pulled my hair from its elastic and piled it up on top of my head, then stretched my neck. Time to get to work. I shifted forward, but the doorbell rang.
I’d been fending off door-to-door salesmen for the past year. It was like they had made a pact to annoy me just because I got so worked up about them.
I’d already started a tirade when I opened the door. “The sign says no—”
Fin, beautiful Fin, in jeans and a tight gray T-shirt stood on the other side.
“Soliciting,” I finished, softly.
“Would you consider an apology solicitation?”
I shrugged, hanging off the door. “I don’t know, maybe if it’s done naked.”
“Will you invite me in?”
“Are you going to accuse me of sabotage again?”
He ducked his chin to glance at his shiny black shoes, completely out of place with his fitted denim. “No, I won’t.”
I waved my arm and pulled the door wide so he could slip inside.
Brownie points for not looking at his ass.
He surveyed every inch of my home, his eyes roving over my belongings, my life.
I struggled not to feel embarrassed by how impoverished and dirty I must seem to him.
I crossed my arms over my chest. Fuck him.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He turned his attention back to me. “I came to apologize for my behavior. I should not have accused you of duplicity. In my defense, I was still in shock about Olivia’s death.”
With his lips turned down so severely, he appeared genuinely sorry. And yet, I couldn’t say I forgave him. I rarely offered people second chances to hurt me. And Fin did it so easily, slicing right into the heart of me with a few elegant words and a hard look.
“Thanks for the apology. See you around.” I refused to look at him while I opened the door again.
If I met his gaze, I would cave, so I kept my eyes on the threadbare carpet.
“Will you consider returning?”
Shit. I needed him out of here before I agreed, the hope in my chest too big a bloom to crush now.
His fingers cupped the bottom of my chin and lifted my face to his. “Please. Let me make it up to you.”
Damn him and his stupid beautiful eyes and oh-so-kissable lips. Damn him for giving me this feeling.
“How do you plan to do that? I’m pretty mad at you.”
“Angry enough to give up the chance I’ve given you?”
I jerked my chin from his warm fingers. “That doesn’t sound like groveling. You should start there.”
He dug into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a white box wrapped with a bow and handed it to me.
I snatched it and glared while I pulled the bright orange ribbon and let it fall to the floor. Nestled into white tissue paper sat a neat little row of shortbread cookies. I snorted and couldn’t stop the smile on my face.
Part of me had thought the rich fae would bring jewelry, but it seemed he knew me better than that.
“You play dirty, fairy boy. I assume whatever you have planned requires me in some way. What’s the next step?”
He settled his hands on the back of my lumpy, comfortable couch. “Do you mind if I take a seat?”
“Knock yourself out.” I crossed to sit in the old rolling chair in front of my desk. Better to keep a distance between us.
The thin line of his lips made me nervous.
He settled his elbows on his knees and met my gaze. “I need information. You have contacts we could exploit to find some missing puzzle pieces here.”
“Exploit?”
That one word gave me a world of knowledge relating to how Fin usually conducted business. People were pawns on his chessboard to be shifted and sacrificed for his advantage. Armed with that little nugget, I should have kicked him out.
“You know what I mean. There are avenues you haven’t pursued. I think you should take me with you to the Office.”
Even if I wanted to take him to my workplace—I didn’t—Hawk and the chief wouldn’t be excited to see me, especially with a fae on my arm. They would toss us both out and likely in the most painful way they could think of.
“Going to the Office is a bad idea. What do you need there? I can go get it and bring it back here.”
“The chief?”
Oh. Shit.
“You want my boss? He knows I’ve been searching for the Black Mage. Why would he share anything with you when he hasn’t with me for over a decade?”
The wheels turned in his head. “Perhaps you didn’t ask the right questions?”
The implication I missed something grated in my brain.
“What questions do you mean?”
“Have you ever asked the chief if he knows anything? I mean a direct question, not filtered through your misdeeds and his desire for a mentee?”
Oh, man, that therapy session wasn’t happening, not with the chief, and definitely not with Fin.
I shrugged, focusing on keeping my face neutral, but something told me he knew he’d touched a nerve.
“Fine, let’s go. But if you get shot by someone, remember this was your plan.”
He harrumphed. Like actually made the noise from his throat. “I’ll keep that in mind. Shall we go now?”
I stared at him. “My badge is in my bag.” Back at your mansion.
“Then I suppose it’s a good thing I brought it. It’s sitting outside your door right now.”
Had he brought it out of a sense of remorse, or because he knew I would agree to take him to my office?
I pointed to my beat-up boots by his feet, the ones I’d kicked off before falling face first into bed the night before. “Hand me those, please.”
“Shall I drive us to the Office?” He asked.
I shook my head. “No thanks. I want to walk.” The morning had a chill, and I needed time to plan exactly how I would approach this little interview. No matter what I asked, the chief would go on the defensive.
He’d never answered any question about the Black Mage. In fact, he’d warned me away on numerous occasions. Something dark and feral churned through me. Could he be working with the Black Mage?
Fin kept quiet as we walked through the streets to work. Few people were out, the biting wind a deterrent to the sane.
By the time we reached the door and I scanned my badge, my fingers were numb, and my toes were well on the way to joining them.
Five bounty hunters, people I worked with, stared as the door closed behind me. I wished Fin didn’t look quite so...different right now.
Hawk appeared out of nowhere
right in our path, not three steps inside. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Good morning to you too, we’re here to see the chief.”
He crossed his big beefy biceps. “Chief’s busy.”
I checked my non-existent watch and gave him my I’m-crazy-but-in-a-good-way smile. “No problem. We can wait.”
“Zoey!” The chief’s voice echoed through the warehouse.
Hawk tensed in front of us and I skirted him with a clap on his shoulder. “Looks like he’s free now. You have a wonderful day.”
Taunting him had always been more fun than it should have been.
I led Fin back to the chief’s office and closed the door behind me.
The chief stood on the other side of his desk glowering at both of us. “What are you doing here, Zoey? And what’s with the Fae?”
Fin took up a position behind the battered leather chair I’d grown up in. It always let out a tiny squeak as I slid into its embrace.
I ignored the Chief’s question and pushed on with my own agenda. “I want to know if you have any information about the Black Mage.”
The chief’s eyes narrowed. “Of course, I don’t. Why would you think I’d keep it from you if I did?”
“You have been warning me off chasing the man down for years.” I said. “Every chance you get to lock my investigation down, you do.”
He slapped his big meaty hand on the desk. “Because I’m trying to keep you from ending up like your parents.”
We all froze. He’d said the wrong thing, and now he couldn’t take it back.
“Fin,” I said sweetly, not looking at him. I glared into the hard eyes of the chief. “Can you do that thing you do that I hate, but will get us answers?”
His fingers closed over my shoulders, warm and steady. “I seem to do many things you dislike. Can you be more specific?”
I turned to glare up at him. If I said it out loud the chief might use some preventative measure. I cocked my head toward the chief and tapped my temple. “How are you not understanding what I want you to do here?”
“I am perfectly aware of what you want me to do. I’m giving you a chance to take back your request as I believe you will regret burning this particular bridge.”
The chief shoved his chair back and stood, fists pressed into the wood, his weight braced forward. “Zoey, you are pushing the far edges of my patience. If you don’t walk out of this office and stay away until I call you, I’ll see to it you never hunt again. Do you want to lose your license over this?”
Something warm and slippery wormed its way into my belly, sinking deep where his sharp words grazed. I turned back to look at him. The man who had raised me after my parent’s death.
This was the man I’d spent years trying to impress. The man I wanted to live up to. In this moment, he grew smaller. He knew something and he chose not to share it with me. As if I were still that impulsive teenager looking for something to tear and break and bend to vent her anger.
I sat down in the chair opposite the chief and twisted around to address the Fae in the room.
“Fin, I said what I said, and I’m not changing my mind. Get the information we need so we can be on our way.”
He gave my shoulders a pat and then came around to sit in the chair next to mine. The profile of his face caught my attention. He furrowed his brow, his lips drawn in.
“Are you doing it?” I whispered. “Nothing seems to be happening.”
The chief levelled his I’m-more-disappointed-than-angry stare at me. “Nothing is going to happen. Fae magic can’t touch me.”
Fin straightened beside me and gripped the chair arm so hard his knuckles whitened.
“How?” he asked the chief.
“As if I would tell you. You come into my office and use your magic on me... no. Both of you get out before I get the men to put you both in a box. Zoey, needless to say, you’re fired. Hand me your badge.”
Well, this hadn’t gone the way I’d planned.
No, I hadn’t planned. I’d come in, guns blazing because Fin flashed his pretty smile and said he was sorry in that midnight voice of his. Damn it. I tucked my chin, showing the chief the submission he wanted to see. The last thing I needed was both of us locked up.
“Let’s go,” I told Fin and threw my badge on the chief’s desk.
Fin didn’t say anything. He slipped his hands casually into his pockets, and led the way out of the warehouse.
Back on the street, I expected to feel some sort of loss. This had been the only home I’d known for years. The chief was the only parent I had. Except, the chief had never been a parent. He’d never shown me compassion when I needed it, love when I craved it. He’d locked himself away from others the same way I did now.
We walked three blocks before Fin spoke. “I’m sorry you lost your job.”
I tucked my hands into my jacket. “I guess it’s a good thing I have a new job offering to pay me the cost of a small country when I complete it.”
“Indeed.”
We crossed the street and headed back toward my apartment. His car idled on the curb in front of my door.
“Back to your place?” I asked.
He opened the door to the car for me to climb inside first. “Actually, we have some shopping to do.”
“Shopping?” I buckled my seatbelt and settled in.
When the door closed behind Fin, the car pulled away and Fin buckled himself in as well. “Yes, we need to go find a dress.”
He had to be fucking kidding. “Oh, really? I think you’d look good in red. Something with a sweetheart neckline, maybe. How are your tan lines? Can you pull off a strapless?”
My humor missed the mark.
His lips turned down. “Can’t say I missed these little chats we have. Obviously, we need to find you a dress.”
“Does the place we are heading have a no pants rule? Women can look very nice in pants these days.”
“Do you have something against dresses?”
Didn’t we have a talk about the bimbo act?
“They are hard to fight in. I can’t wear boots. The soft meaty parts of the thighs are very susceptible to chaffing. Need I continue?”
He lay his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes. “I think you’d actually look good in red.”
“Sure, if it’s your blood.”
We didn’t talk for the rest of the ride to the dress store.
Chapter Thirteen
In the end, I wore the damn dress. And the heels. I loved getting my hair done, and my nails. I loved feeling feminine and pretty. Except in probable life-threatening situations where someone might shank me in satin.
In all reality, I would probably get murdered by some magic spell meant to remove my heart without a cut. But the dress cost five thousand dollars, and I feared getting blood on the black shiny material.
The dress draped across one shoulder and hugged my curves as if it were custom made. The cook, Holly, who seemed to be multifaceted, had experience in hairdressing. I appreciated a woman who knew her way around a set of rollers.
I stared at my reflection and adjusted the pin up curls Holly had given me, along with almost an entire can of Aqua Net. The actual test would be if I had to do some hand-to-hand combat and the mass of curls and pins stayed put.
I bent over and clasped the black strappy heels around my ankles. A diamond necklace that a guard had hand delivered earlier, sat in a velvet box on the vanity table. I hadn’t worked myself up to clasp it around my neck yet. It looked more expensive than my car.
Holly bustled in, her hips swinging in the apron she wore over her black chef uniform. “Put it on. Diamonds are meant to be worn.”
She grabbed the necklace and snapped it around my neck before I could squeak out a response.
“I suppose I could use it to put someone’s eye out if need be,” I said, eyeing the necklace in the mirror. “Or throw it in a corner and distract the women as they grapple for it.”
She shook her h
ead and slid an errant pin into place near the nape of my neck. “You’re ready. Go with Master Fin and have some fun.”
Something told me she didn’t know the purpose of this party. Apparently, before Olivia had died, she’d gotten us both on the invitation list to this A-list party, and the Black Mage might be attending. I wouldn’t ruin Holly’s sunny smile, though.
I stood and checked my level of movement. The slit in the right thigh allowed me to move my legs reasonably well. The sharp points of my heels made a decent enough weapon. Fin had said the security staff at the party would likely have metal detectors and scanners, so I couldn’t bring a knife. Yards and yards of satin, and I felt completely naked without a weapon.
I descended the stairs, a small clutch Holly had pressed into my hand, held tight in my fist. The guards still lined Fin’s halls, and they kept their eyes fixated on the walls opposite them. Good, because I was in the mood to hurt someone.
Fin stood facing the door and turned when the clack of my heels hit the tile floor of the entry.
Damn.... The man could wear a tuxedo. A classic white and black ensemble hugged every single muscle-bound inch of him. He’d brushed his hair away from his face into a neat ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore that tuxedo like he’d been born to it.
“You look incredible,” he said.
“Remind me why I have to play the arm candy and you get to be the dashing wealthy benefactor?”
He scanned me from head to toe with a sigh. I shouldn’t have liked it so much.
“Because you are arm candy, and I am a wealthy benefactor.”
I glared and walked toward the door. “Why do you have to ruin my complaints with logic? How will they know I’m just arm candy?”
He held the door open, and I marched toward the car in my towering heels, praying I didn’t break something before the night ended. And by break something, I meant Fin’s nose.
Once we settled into the back of the car, it pulled away and I faced Fin.
“Let’s go over the plan again, please. First dinner where I have to pretend to enjoy your company. Then dancing, with more of the same. Strictly a recon mission. How are we even going to know the Black Mage is there if he shows up?”