Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series)

by Augustine, Donna

  I stormed down his hallway; the various priceless paintings did nothing for my mood today, as I stared at the carved wooden door to his place. The handle was locked and I pounded on the door like a raving lunatic. I'd show him who's boss. I should have kept my key, instead of making some symbolic show of declaring my independence and leaving it in the middle of the table with a big note saying I didn't need it, on the day I'd moved out.

  He took his time answering the door so Ben must not have been around. He was another one of Cormac's quasi-servants. Ben was a lanky guy that liked to masquerade as a door man. He pissed me off too. He did anything Cormac wanted. They all did. That was enough to piss me off, stupid puppets.

  "Jo, I've been expecting you," he said when he opened the door.

  Whether I wanted to or not, I always got a little flustered when I saw Cormac. The term 'tall, dark and handsome' probably originated with him, way back when he was born, whenever that might have been. He looked thirtyish but when his pale blue eyes roved over you, it felt as if he were ancient. They were intense. And when he did it like he was now, a slow, roving appraisal, I always felt a tingle shoot through me. I tried to swallow back the lump in my throat and speak.

  "Cormac, I…"

  "Lacey is here."

  My words died as I watched him walk, dressed in his standard black slacks and white shirt that contrasted starkly to his tan skin and black hair, into his beige living room. He liked everything around him to be beige. I didn't really get it. He was the least beige person I have ever met. I wondered if he thought hiding in his beige penthouse and wearing expensive clothing made who he really was less obvious. Someone should clue him in; it was like a panther stalking his prey in a snow field.

  I walked in behind him, already annoyed. Cormac had formed some sort of indefinable relationship with Lacey, who was also my best friend. Actually, she was my only friend, which is what elevated her status to 'best.' If you only had one donut, wouldn't it be the best donut there ever was?

  "Hi Jo! Cormac said you might drop by. Want a glass of wine?" she offered from her seat on the couch. She must of spent hours fixing her bleached blond hair to get it that perfectly straight and smooth. Her little blue dress rode up just high enough to show off enough firm thigh without looking too slutty and, unless she'd gotten some work done without telling me, she had doubled up on the push up bras. I watched Cormac settle down on the other side of the couch as she smiled from ear to ear, her red lipstick showing off her super white teeth.

  Cormac had planned this well. I pretended my eyeballs had weights on them to stop myself from rolling them to the back of my head. Every time he pissed me off lately, Lacey wouldn't be far from his side.

  Instead of staring at the two of them, I'd rather stare out at the beautiful expanse of Vegas that was displayed by the wall of glass. But I couldn't, I didn't want him to know I might miss this place, even a little.

  They were ridiculous. The girl that played every man she knew was sitting there waiting for crumbs of attention. She said they were friends, but I could see in her big Bambi eyes how badly she wanted more. She might not if she knew everything I knew, but I hadn't told her. It was something that plagued me daily. She had no idea who he was, or how ruthless he could be. She didn't know the casino was a front, used simply to disguise the energy pouring out of the wormhole in the basement. I couldn't tell her any of it. I'd signed a contract that might have some crazy ramifications if I did.

  She also didn't know how close and personal I'd been with Cormac. She was my donut, she wouldn't go near him if she knew. I hadn't told her that either, even though I could. I don't know why. I just hadn't. I tried to not think about it because it made me feel things that I didn't like or want.

  "Why is my trailer in your garage?" I asked calmly; I refused to drop the subject simply because Lacey was there. This had nothing to do with secret stuff. He wasn't going to manipulate this situation on me, not again.

  "Oh that! Isn't that nice? I mentioned to Cormac how you always leave the casino so late after you're done in the counting room. I didn't think it was safe, so he came up with that. Wasn't it sweet?" She smiled again and sipped her wine. Lacey thought I was counting money in the basement since I wasn't good with customers. Confirming I sucked with people was a lot easier than telling her I could alter physics with my brain.

  I stood, legs spread apart and arms crossed, staring at them. "You did that for her?" I raised my eyebrows, daring him to lie to me.

  Lacey, so buried in the vision of what she wanted him to be, missed my sarcasm and simply smiled at him with an adoring look upon her face. I wanted to drag her off the couch and scream some sense into her.

  "I listen to her," he said as he leaned back on the couch.

  "Did you do this for her, Cormac? Is that what you are saying?" I took a step forward as I pointed in his direction.

  "I didn't want her to worry," he non-answered. His stare was intent and his voice a little softer when he continued. "I heard they were doing some rearranging at your development. I'd hate to see things floating all around and unsettled. This place is more secure for you." He put his feet up on the cocktail table and crossed his ankles.

  "I want it moved back. Today." I punctuated the word today as I stabbed the air with my finger.

  He said nothing, just stared at me at first. Seconds ticked by and I thought he wasn't even going to give me a response, but then he quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.

  I couldn't even think of a word that would satisfy the anger I felt for him right then and there.

  "Jo, why are you being so rude to him? He did you a favor. Your development was a dump," Lacey said in his defense as she set her wine glass down in front of her.

  I turned back toward her. "Because it's not his call."

  "Fine. Cormac, maybe you should put it back if she doesn't appreciate it." Her body language added if she's going to be ungrateful, as she leaned back against the couch.

  I watched him. He didn't even turn and acknowledge that she had spoken, just continued to stare at me as I stared back.

  And then he said only one word, "No." He didn't yell, simply shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner. He'd just drawn a line in the sand. Worse, he'd practically dared me to cross it. I had to decide if I would.

  I toed the line in my imagination but then I looked at Lacey. She'd sensed something too, even through that thick coat of adoration. Her body language stiffened a bit as she got a hint that the man next to her wasn't a kitten but a lion. I knew what the ramifications of her knowing would be; another reason I wanted her as far from him as possible. I could handle this, she couldn't. I should have gotten us both out of here months ago, but back then, I had been more alarmed and concerned by what was going on around me than what was happening right next to me.

  At the time, I'd just discovered two things about a man I thought I'd killed. Firstly, he was alive, and secondly, he was a U.S. senator, and a powerful one at that. I'd already known the third thing: he was dangerous. What made him dangerous? He wasn't human, that was for sure. Anything that could make it out of a collapsing wormhole and not be crushed was bad news. He also hated me. I wasn't sure why. I hadn't thought to ask before I kicked his butt.

  "Why do you keep playing with that nickel?" Lacey asked.

  I looked down at my hand. I hadn't even realized I'd pulled the nickel I always carried out of my pocket. I felt the cool metal in my hand and tested its hardness with my finger. Nope, still nickel. I could open a huge wormhole but I couldn't do the simplest of the Alchemist tricks. Having a pile of gold would make life much simpler in the future.

  "It's lucky," I said to try and explain this weird habit I'd adopted.

  "Why's that?" Cormac asked, as his eyes silently mocked.

  "Cormac, I swear you just like to rile her up," Lacey told him and as she playfully swatted at him.

  I shook my head. I couldn't watch this for one more second. "I'll see you later." I mentally ba
cked away from the line as I physically left the room.

  He'd played that hand well, knowing I wouldn't drag out this fight in front of Lacey. I wouldn't pull her any deeper into this gunfight. She couldn't take the bullets.

  Chapter Two

  "I know you're there. You might as well walk with me," I yelled back to Buzz, who was following me and not very well. The guy was so bad at tailing I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to know he was there or if Cormac was delusional about his abilities. He'd tripped on the stairs chasing me out of the casino front doors, for Heaven's sake.

  "It's not my fault. He told me to follow you," Buzz said.

  If Dodd was Cormac's right hand, Buzz was his left, and Cormac was right handed.

  "Where are we going?" he asked as he fell into step beside me.

  I looked up at the big blond. "I'll deal with you coming but you're on a need to know basis."

  "Shit. That means I'm not gonna like it." I saw a bead of sweat on his forehead. "What do I need to know?"

  "Nothing," I replied as I kept to my brisk pace.

  He silently kept step alongside me as we dodged between people on the busy Vegas Strip.

  "Can't we ever take a car?" I watched him eye up one of the many passing taxis longingly.

  "I like the exercise." It was true, even in the heat. I liked the feel of my muscles pumping and my body moving. All I needed right now was an iPod loaded up with some Imagine Dragons and My Chemical Romance. Too bad I was afraid to close off my hearing these days. I wanted to be alert to everything.

  "But you don't need any."

  I knew I was thin and I took that to be his meaning. "Everybody should get exercise. You do."

  "No, I never exercise. Hate the stuff," he said, emphasizing the word hate.

  "Then how are you so muscular…" My words died as realization hit me. My entire life, I'd always eaten as much as I'd wanted but I had always burned it off running. Well, I've still been eating like a pig but haven't been running at all. I'd also not gained a pound. "You're right. How does that work exactly?"

  "No clue. Ask Cormac."

  "I can't. I'm not speaking to him until my trailer is back where it's supposed to be. I've been living in his garage for two days and I don't like it." We crossed another street, nearing our destination.

  Buzz let out a deep belly laugh in response.

  "Why is that funny?"

  "Cause he's never gonna move it back," He said and continued to laugh loudly. A few people stared at him as we walked past thanks to his loud guffaws.

  "And that's funny?" I asked, getting a little more irritated with each second.

  "Yeah…isn't it?" He wiped a tear from his eye.

  I threw him a frosty glare as I sat on a bench across the street from the Paris Casino.

  "Now what are we doing?"

  "Waiting." My desire to enlighten him was even less so than before.

  "For what?"

  "Them." I tilted my head in the direction of the crowd. I watched as the large, blond, Viking throwback ogled the crowd.

  I pulled out sunglasses and a baseball cap, shoving my long blond hair through the hole in the back of the cap, and opened a newspaper. I watched over the top of the page as the people poured in and out of the casino.

  "If you are staying, can you try to be a bit less conspicuous? I'm not sitting here actually reading the paper." I shook it out as I emphasized my point.

  He sat down and crowded the small bench. "Sports?" He held his hand out to me as he waited.

  I handed him his requested section and he fell quiet for all of five minutes. "Why do we care about these people?"

  "I can't tell you. You'll spill the beans to Cormac," I told him as I scanned the travel section. Which part of the Caribbean was best…hmmm, decisions, decisions.

  "I won't." His voice sounded slightly hurt.

  I turned my head toward him and raised my eyebrows. "Really? I tell you and that's the end of it?" He at least had the courtesy to blush when I called him out on his lie. Why I felt bad about hurting his feelings was beyond me.

  "Maybe I've reported on you in the past, but I won't this time if you tell me." There was hope in his voice. I hated squashing hope.

  "You go running and blathering to him, I swear, every time you tail me we'll be shopping." I used my sternest schoolmarm voice.

  He visibly swallowed, remembering the two weeks he followed me around the mall. "That really sucked."

  "There's a town hall going on in one of the venue rooms in there." I looked back at the Paris Casino again, the crowds still filing in, and wondered if there was a back entrance he had used or if he'd already been inside when we'd gotten there.

  "What's that?"

  "It's basically when a politician holds court." There were Secret Service stationed by the doors; he must be in there.

  "And why would…Oh no, we gotta go. We gotta go now!" Buzz stood and grabbed my arm, pulling me with him. "Cormac doesn't like this guy and I was specifically told to not let you go near him!"

  I pulled at my arm, still firmly in his grasp. "I'm not going anywhere and if you try to drag me, I'll scream so loud, everyone within five miles will wonder how you're torturing the sweet little blond girl." I accented my words with the sweetest innocent smile I could fake.

  "Cormac…" his words died abruptly.

  "Cormac what?" I pulled at my arm again, stuck in his beefy unyielding grip.

  "Caitlin?" A male voice yelled from a short distance away. His voice rang in my head and nipped at my memories. "Caitlin! Oh my god, it is you!" his voice was as shocked as I felt.

  I turned to see Rick's face and I was speechless; sweet Rick who had shared a foster home with me. The same Rick who had given me a Monet book I had duct taped together and still have to this day. My childhood protector, alive and well, and fully grown. I hadn't seen him since he was a teenager, but even then, he'd been something special.

  "Is this guy bothering you?" He eyed Buzz warily as he stood next to me.

  "No, he's a friend," I said, once I finally found my voice. I pulled my arm from Buzz's now loose grip.

  "Yes, I'm Caitlin's friend," Buzz said.

  "You look fantastic!" he exclaimed as he looked me up and down.

  "So do you." And he did look good. He had the same tawny hair and warm chocolate eyes, kind eyes. My child's heart recognized the boy in the man. I remembered looking into those eyes and feeling just slightly less alone in the world.

  "I really want to catch up with you but I'm working right now. If I don't get inside in the next couple of minutes my boss will have my head! Here, take my card and please call me." I took the card and he embraced me suddenly.

  "I will," I said as I hugged him back, not remembering the last person I'd hugged.

  He left and I watched him walk briskly into the Paris Casino and my mouth grew dry as foreboding filled me. I looked down at the card. Rick Tabarnink, Aid to Senator Core.

  "Caitlin. And I don't have to keep that a secret because you didn't tell it to me." He gloated and all my feelings of guilt disappeared.

  "Buzz, you're really pissing me off today. I swear, keep it up and I'm going to need some new shoes." I walked away from him, leaving my observation post. If a man I hadn't seen since my teens spotted me, I needed to find a better place to perch, because my disguise wasn't cutting it. I couldn't take the chance that Rick would draw attention to me if I was in the same place when they came out.

  "Yeah, Boss?" Buzz answered his phone as I scoped out a good hidey hole that could fit him as well as myself.

  "Gotcha." He shoved his phone in his pocket and looked at me. "Cormac wants us back."

  "You head back. I'm busy," I told him as I eyed up smaller spots. If he was leaving, finding a spot would be easier.

  "Jo, the boss wants you back. Please don't make this hard on me," he pleaded.

  "We are standing in the middle of the Vegas Strip. You can't man handle me back there without drawing one hell of a crowd. I'm do
ing my thing. Deal with it and go handle yours."

  Then I made the mistake of turning my back on him.

  "Just remember this wasn't my choice," he said.

  I turned, a bad feeling forming with those words, just in time to see him hit me over the head. My vision went fuzzy, then black.

  Chapter Three

  "What did you think you were doing?" Cormac's voice pierced my brain.

  I was just coming to. How did he know I was even awake yet?

  "I can't believe that bastard whacked me on the back of the head. That's just wrong." I felt along my scalp but couldn't find the bump that rightfully should've been there.

  "He knows how to follow orders." I loved the deep timbre of Cormac's voice, even when what he said pissed me off.

  I felt a bed underneath me and, even though I wasn't ready to look at him, I opened my eyes to see where the hell I was. My trailer? That was a bit unexpected. And there, at the foot of the bed, loomed Cormac, one foot resting on the frame of the bed as he bent over slightly, leaning his crossed arms on it. His crisp white shirt sleeves were rolled up, as always. I couldn't decide if he didn't button them to show off his muscular arms or because he hated the confinement of civilized clothing. Not that he came off as ill mannered, but there was something just beneath the surface that pricked at my senses in the most disconcerting way and whispered of baser origins.

  "Aren't all of you people really old? That's what Tracker told me. So, are you like chivalrous type old? Or are you club a girl over the head kinda old?" I watched his stone expression, which didn't crack a bit. "Because between the shooting and now the hitting, I'm starting to harbor some suspicions about what era you people really come from. Chemists, my ass."

  His face was still stone.

  "Get up, Caitlin. I want to talk." He pushed off the bed and straightened to his full height.

  "First off, don't call me that. My name is Jo, and I'm not going to be civil to you until this trailer is back in its proper location." I threw my arm across my eyes as I lay there, knowing it was futile. These guys never took the hint. "I don't know which is worse, that you had me shot or that you moved my trailer. You know what, Cormac? You need to learn boundaries."