Hired Hunter (The Rover series Book 2)

by Amelia Shaw

  “My sister is my priority. I know the black mage has her. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get them both at the same time. Although, with our run of luck, I doubt the Gods will favor us in this.”

  I snorted. “No, I told you I’m not helping. I’ll give you any information I can provide about Sol and the sendings, but I don’t want to end up in another hospital bed.”

  He placed the plate on the coffee table and leaned over his knees to put him more on my eye level. “Then you tell me, what would it take to get you working for me again? Name it. Anything at all you want is yours if you agree.”

  “Why me? Obviously on our last go, I ended up being bait more than help.”

  His brow furrowed, and he nudged the bacon toward me. “You forget you saved my life. If your powers hadn’t awoken, then we’d both likely be dead now. I don’t like that you think what you did means so little to me.”

  Maybe I wasn’t completely over the almost dying thing. I’d forgiven his part, sort of, but the trauma of it still haunted me. I shook my head. No, I wasn’t going there today.

  “Fin, I understand you want my help, but I already gave you my answer. No amount of crispy bacon or gray sweatpants is going to change it.”

  “Gray sweatpants?” he asked.

  My face flamed hot. “Never mind. I said no. Can we just leave it at that?”

  “No. I’m not walking away. I need you and you need me. We can help each other here and both end up happy.”

  I waved at him. “That coming from a man who is much harder to kill than me.”

  “Have you considered, with your newfound gifts, you might be equally resilient? That your power might have come with healing abilities or just good old-fashioned immortality?”

  I did not want to consider what immortality would mean for the life of my student loan debt. I hadn’t finished college, and yet I still had racked up a hefty sum. Then I remembered Fin had just given me a ridiculous amount of money. I could pay it all off, all my debts, and still have more than enough. I kept forgetting about it. Not because it meant nothing, but because my mind couldn’t wrap itself around the sum in my bank account quite yet.

  I stood, snagged some bacon, and glared at him. “Eating this is not my agreement. I’m just hungry.”

  I went back to my room and dressed, thankful he didn’t follow me to continue his sales pitch. With his payment, I had enough money to live for a while without needing to take any more work. But if I sat out here in my apartment all day with nothing to do, would I be content?

  Not until I ripped out Esteban’s teeth one by one with a rusty pair of pliers.

  I shoved my feet into a pair of sneakers and brushed my hair up into a ponytail. Fin sat exactly where I’d left him, chewing on a piece of bacon while he surveyed my apartment.

  I sat across from him and he smiled like he was happy I’d returned.

  “Say it. Anything you want and it’s yours,” he said.

  I snapped up a couple more pieces of bacon and shoved them in my mouth. It was a bad idea to negotiate on an empty stomach.

  “There is something I want that I didn’t get the last go round,” I said.

  He raised a perfectly arched brow at me but remained silent.

  “I want the Black Mage. I want to rip him apart with my bare hands. I want you to teach me to use my magic so I can claw into his brain too. I want nothing left of the bastard when I’m through with him. What he did to my parents was terrible, but now I have my own personal experience to layer on top. He’s going to pay for every scar.”

  Fin nodded. “He’s yours when we find Sol. But not until we find her. Can you live with that?”

  I took the last piece of bacon, daring him with a look to contradict me. “I can live with it. I’ll help any way I can with her but I’m also going to be training however I need to bring him down this time. I wasn’t prepared before.”

  “Anything else?”

  I shrugged. “A million dollars and a two-carat diamond.”

  He shoved off the couch to grab a jacket I hadn’t even noticed by the door. Underneath lay a large glossy white box. He carried it over to me and lay it on my lap. All I could do was stare up at him in confusion. Then he scribbled on a slip of paper that he pulled out of his pants pocket and handed it to me.

  A check made out to me for one million dollars.

  Shit. What would I even do with this?

  “Can I actually put this in my account? Will they just laugh at me?”

  He shrugged and recapped the pen he’d had in his jacket pocket along with his check book. The old codger. “They might laugh, but legally they have to try to process it. It might give them a little shock when it all goes through.”

  I swallowed and stared down at the box. “And this?”

  I glanced back up at him towering over me.

  “That is for tonight. Instructions are inside. Don’t be late.”

  I wanted to groan out loud, but I kept it inside as he walked to the door, gathered his keys and jacket, and opened it.

  “You can leave my apartment keys here.”

  He turned, winked, and exited, taking my keys with him.

  Chapter Four

  The dress in the box didn’t contain an order to wear it. I considered, briefly, putting on my favorite sweats to attend to his grace at his convenience. But in the spirit of continuing our working relationship, I wore the dress.

  It was black cotton, with a slight sheen to it, with cap sleeves, a modest waist that gave me room to breathe, and surprisingly hid the wrap around my ribs as I healed from Esteban’s attention. It cut out into a bell shape over my hips and modestly stopped at my knees. I wasn’t sure if he’d invited me to dinner or a job interview.

  I pulled my hair into a tight chignon and pinned it in place. With it up, I tucked the pink ends inside the twist. I almost looked presentable.

  The black SUV that Fin’s instructions had said would arrive, pulled up outside my house in the evening. I arrived at the mansion after sunset. The guards were in place, all stony faced and not glancing my way. I couldn’t forget that too many of them had seen me flat on my back unconscious. I hated that.

  The inside of the house was the same. The fae royalty version of Downton Abbey. All polished wood, gold leaf, and soaring ceilings. I found Fin in the dining room.

  He sat at the long table next to a single empty chair with his phone pressed to his ear. He checked his watch when I entered, then scanned me from my simple black ballet flats to the crown of my conservative head.

  “You’re on time.”

  I took the seat to his left and settled into the chair. “Is that a question, or are you making an observation?”

  He held up a finger to me, which I debated slapping away. “The captain says nice dress.”

  I pasted on a sickly-sweet smile and said, “You can tell the captain to get pegged by a stalagmite.”

  Fin cleared his throat.

  “Zoey says hello,” he said into his phone. Then he hung up and shifted in his seat to face me. “You do look lovely.”

  Oh, I knew, and I was about to get some payback. “Why, thank you. I brought something for you too.”

  His forehead wrinkled as he scanned me, looking for the mysterious item. One guard brought in a white box, similar to the one he’d given me, but this one was larger.

  Confusion and amusement warred on his features as he took the box, set it on the edge of the table, and lifted the lid. “You brought me clothes.”

  I picked up the already poured wine glass by my plate and took a sip. “Observation or question?”

  He blinked at me a few times, then closed the lid.

  I used the glass to wave toward the door. “Please, take your time. I’ll wait.”

  “You want me to change?”

  “You get to dress me like a Barbie. Turnabout’s fair play. I recently came into more money than I need. This seemed like an entertaining way to spend it.”

  His hands flexed on the box. Part of
me wanted him to fight me on it; the other part of me wanted to see if he would follow my instructions.

  A few tense seconds passed, then he stood, buttoned his black suit jacket, picked up the box, and left.

  I laughed when he disappeared out the door. Definitely points in his favor. Just how much did he need me to work with him that he was willing to put up with this?

  How much did I want to be here, that I put up with it too?

  Ten minutes later, he returned, and I took my time savoring the look of him in a fitted navy blue suit, white shirt, and black tie. A pair of star-shaped cufflinks glinted as he walked, and he’d braided his hair the way he had at my house.

  “Do I meet with your approval?” he asked, as he resumed his seat.

  “Oh, this dress up thing is for approval then?”

  Wariness entered his eyes, causing them to crinkle at the corners. He’d realized his misstep.

  “No, of course not. Thank you for the thoughtful gift. How did you know my size?”

  I sat the wine glass on the table. “I’m observant.”

  He adjusted in his seat a few times and I could tell he wasn’t sure how to take me dressing him for a change. “It’s actually impressive how well it fits. Did you steal one of my other suits?”

  I cocked my head and narrowed my eyes. “I don’t have to steal your suits when I know the name of your tailor.”

  Thankfully, Holly arrived with dinner before he could dig himself into more of a hole.

  As usual, the spread was huge and delicious. I ate as much as I could and watched Fin from the corner of my eyes. He settled about a minute into the meal and stopped fidgeting so much. His willingness to wear what I brought him thawed something in my chest that had frozen over since the night at Esteban’s ball when I was almost killed. I did like Fin. I liked him a lot. As dangerous as that prospect would be for me, I decided to enjoy it while it lasted.

  Fin refilled my wine glass and settled back into his seat while I dug into the cheesecake Holly brought for dessert.

  “You look better today,” he said. “I’m glad you came.”

  I shrugged. “I had a million reasons to be here.”

  His gaze racked over me, the crystal shards scoring my flesh and leaving fire behind. I ignored my reaction to him and focused on my dessert.

  “Is that all I am to you? Money?”

  It was my turn to rake him with my gaze. “What am I to you, Fin? Your friend? Your employee? There is nothing wrong with a relationship built on financial gain. It’s called working. You should try it sometime.”

  Now I didn’t even want the damn cheesecake.

  I sat back and crossed my arms. “Why do you ask? I want to be your friend, I think, but a tiny part of me still has a hard time trusting you.”

  He tucked his chin. “That is understandable, given our past. I want to work on repairing that trust.”

  “To be fair, I never completely trusted you. What happened at the party just steamrolled over the bridge we’d started to build.”

  Why did I care so much? As I’d said, he was a job. It wasn’t like I’d been daydreaming about his lips, or what his hair felt like between my fingers. He was fae, some kind of royalty of his kind, and I was apparently some kind of half-breed mage. Above anything else I knew about Fin, I knew he hated mages.

  By their definition, mages absorbed magic by killing or destroying people with magic. The fae had magic and a mage could take it.

  His fingers curled gently around the stem of his wine glass. “Why are all your metaphors so violent?”

  A chuckle burst out of me against my will. “I don’t know if you realized this, but I’m kind of a violent person.”

  Thankfully, he let that one go without a colorful comment. He stood and held out his hand. “Should we discuss where we are in the investigation and how we should proceed?”

  As it turned out, he hadn’t put me completely off the cheesecake. I shoved the last bite in my mouth and stood. But I didn’t take his hand. I refilled my wine and headed toward his office. He trailed behind me with a quiet chuckle.

  His office had heavy dark wood walls, with books lining both sides of the room, and an enormous window the backdrop to his desk. I turned one of the leather chairs in front of his desk to face the other, plopped into the opposite one, and slung my feet up on the other.

  “Please, make yourself at home,” he said.

  I saluted him with the wine and flipped my shoes off at the heel with my toes.

  He took the seat behind the desk. “Have you seen any activity from your sources on the Black Mage?”

  I turned my face so I could peer over the desk at him. “Nothing on my front, but I wasn’t exactly digging.”

  The image of Sol sitting on a boulder, legs crossed under her, purple tulle pooling over the rock and moss below, popped into my head. Fin’s calm acceptance of all of this had been nagging on me, and I would not be able to review things until we cleared some of the air. Only his, of course.

  “Before we do this.., I need to know why you’re taking things so well. Your sister makes a sending to me.., which for you viewers at home, means she has to be some kind of mage now...but it seems like you don’t even care.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat a few times, and then finally he raised his gaze to mine. “Because I don’t think my sister is the one who is contacting you.”

  The words assimilated in my head and I dropped my feet to the floor and spun to face him. My heart burst to life, a burning ember, beating fast and furious against my ribs.

  “If your sister isn’t the one tinkering around in my head, then who the hell do you think it is?” My voice had risen to a higher register.

  “More importantly...”

  I stood and gently sat the wine glass on his desk, away from the edge. Then I walked around, turned his chair to face me, and met his eyes.

  “No, there is no more importantly. Who the fuck do you think is mucking around in my brain when I go to sleep?”

  His eyes softened as he met mine and captured my hands, still clutching the arms of his chair. “Who else can assume someone else’s visage?”

  I jerked away. “Esteban. The Black Mage.”

  The words sunk in and I spun away as bile rose in my gut. The food I’d eaten, the wine I’d enjoyed, surged up, and I caught the trash can by his desk right on time. Everything came up, and I sunk to my knees to stabilize myself.

  His cool hands met the back of my neck and he dug his fingers in and massaged gently. The wave of nausea dissipated. I closed my eyes and sunk all the way onto my ass.

  Fin continued a slow roll of his fingers against the back of my neck and someone came and removed the trashcan from my grip.

  It would seem the Black Mage kept finding new ways to brutalize me.

  “Can I get you anything?” he asked, his face way too close to my ear.

  I shivered and said, “Some water, please.”

  He left, the warmth of his body behind mine going with him, and he returned with a glass of cool water. I downed it all and sat the empty glass on the floor.

  I held out my hands, and he gently hauled me to my feet. A little voice in my head told me to apologize, not to lose this opportunity. But fuck no, I wouldn’t own a single bit of guilt here when it all belonged to Esteban.

  Fin guided me to the chair and sat across from me this time. “I’m sorry for being so blunt about it. I’d assumed you’d come to a similar conclusion.”

  Was he fucking kidding me?

  I surged to my feet and spun away before I did something dumb like slap him or kiss him. The satisfaction of my teeth grinding against his in one glorious, angry fuck sounded like an excellent way to blow off some steam.

  I shook away the thoughts and swallowed another wave of nausea. “Don’t you think I’d be trying to stop the dreams if I knew? I would have come to you. The only reason I didn’t stop them was because I thought they were Sol and I wanted to help you find her.”

/>   He approached from behind and turned me around. “You can still do that. He would have to be able to see her, and the place that sets the scene. These can be clues. I can help you control the sending more, and maybe you can get more information from it.”

  I shoved him away, letting my anger rise and invigorate me in a way I hadn’t been in a while. “No, that isn’t something you get to decide. I won’t be your bait again.”

  A flash of something—pain, or anger—crossed his face. “I wasn’t proposing you be bait again. I’m only saying that you allowing the dreams to come through wasn’t a waste.”

  “How do I stop them?”

  “Are you sure you want to?”

  I narrowed my eyes and stepped up to him, poking him in the chest while looking up into his face. “Tell me how the fuck to cut him off. Do you realize how long it’s been since I had a good night’s sleep?”

  He held up his hands in surrender. “I’ll help anyway I can.”

  His proximity messed with my head, and the way he smelled like ozone and bad decisions. I put distance between us and took a minute to compose myself. Once my heart rate settled down and I could speak without screeching at him, I met his eyes again.

  The way he looked at me made me feel like he knew everything that had just gone down in my mind, and how conflicted I’d become about everything having to do with him. For both our sake’s, he didn’t call me on it.

  “I don’t want Esteban in my head. But, if Sol is doing the sending, and your sister is now a mage, how are you going to handle that?”

  He shifted his shoulders and flexed his fingers, but his face remained neutral. I envied him that trick. “I’ll cross that bridge when I reach it, as you humans say.”

  “Why do fae say?”

  His eyes darkened, and it was his turn to reach for the distance there, use it as a shield between us. “They say, watch out for the trolls underneath.”

  Well, fuck.

  “I need a drink,” I said, dropping into the armchair again.

  He stripped off his suit jacket and carefully hung it on a coat rack by the door. Then I supervised while he poured us a couple drinks and sat opposite me. If we really were friends, I would sling my feet up onto his lap and sip my drink in peace. But, no, I would never be friends with this man. Not after everything we’d been through and how much more we had to get done together.