Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series)

by Augustine, Donna

  "Jo! Stop staring at your phone and help me!"

  "I'm sorry. What's the problem with Cormac?" I left my phone on the counter and plopped down on my couch with her. I'd hear it ring, staring at it wouldn't do anything for me.

  "I swear you don't listen to me. He's acting all buddy buddy with me."

  "And?" I asked trying to figure out the problem.

  "I don't want to be his buddy." A pout appeared on her face.

  "I thought you said you were okay with just being friends? You didn't even used to want to be in the same room with him." I knew she'd been either lying to me or herself, but I couldn't help point it out.

  "That was when I thought he was scary. But then he seemed…I don't know, not as scary? Plus, you've seen him."

  Yes, a bit too much, but it was a little late to come clean on that. I'd always been so good at secrets but all I wanted to do now was spill the entire story to Lacey. I wouldn't. I was too afraid. The way things were getting so weird around here, what if that contract actually had some juice? And if I didn't tell her any of the weird stuff, it was going to be hard to explain the kiss. How do I tell her that I couldn't date the hot rich guy because he shot me in the head? She'd think I was a nut, because if I got shot, how am I still alive? And if I did blow my promise all to pieces then I'd have to hear it for even kissing the guy that had me shot. Nah, some things were better off as secrets.

  "Yeah, he's cute," I said trying to act disinterested.

  "You need glasses if you think he's just cute. There is something about him that makes me just want to jump him. I swear, we were that close a couple of weeks ago." She held up her fingers demonstrating for me. "Arnold asked me to run something up into his place. I got there and I was trying to chat him up and use my wiles on him. At first, I didn't think it was going to work, but then all of a sudden he's all 'come sit next to me' and stuff. Even put his hand on my leg. A minute later, he said he had to go and was giving me the bum's rush out. That was it. Nothing. Not even a hot kiss to show for it. Now we're in some weird yucky friend zone and I don't like it."

  "Did he say anything about it? The night you thought he was interested?" I looked at my nails, feigning interest.

  "Nothing, like it never happened. He's not always even that nice to me. Never mean, just disinterested."

  She lay there for a second, and I could tell she wanted to say something that she felt uncomfortable with. I just waited.

  Finally, it came out. "This is going to sound stupid, but I think he's nicer to me when you're there," she shot out quickly. "What do you make of that?"

  I wanted to talk but I couldn't. Her big brown eyes stared at me, and I could see all she wanted was for me to tell her she was be mistaken. Because, if he was doing that, it meant he was just be using Lacey to get to me and we both knew it.

  My phone started to buzz on the counter and I jumped for it and not just because I wanted to speak to Rick anymore.

  "Desperate much?" Lacey said as I grabbed it and hit the answer button and held it to my ear.

  "Caitlin?" the voice on the other side said.

  "Hi, yes!"

  "I'm so happy you called! I just got my phone back on. I dropped it in a puddle and I've been running from event to event. I just got it replaced and heard your message."

  "I was wondering if you wanted to grab a bite to eat? Catch up a little? I've got a break in about an hour."

  I saw Lacey's intent face and she mouthed 'who is that'?

  'Old friend,' I mouthed back.

  'Cute?'

  I nodded. He was cute, I wasn't lying.

  "Perfect. Just tell me where," Rick said with enthusiasm.

  He named a café on the strip that had outdoor seating. I agreed and hung up, already feeling guilty. I wasn't using him. I would want to see him even if he didn't have a connection to the senator, but I couldn't let an opportunity like this pass, either. We didn't know what he was and Rick was someone that had close contact.

  My mind drifted back to the day Rick had given me the book of Monet prints I still had. It was the first gift I'd ever received that hadn't been an obligatory doll. It was as priceless to me as the real Monet Cormac had given me, after I'd gotten sick, that hung above my bed .

  It took me ten minutes to appease Lacey's curiosity and get her out the door and another ten to pull myself together. It wasn't a date, and I felt a little bad letting Lacey think it might be. I felt worse about meeting him for his connection to the senator. He was one of the few people I held fond memories of and the idea of using him, in any sense, bothered me.

  The place I was meeting him was only a couple of blocks away but I had to get out of the casino unseen first. No one ever said I was being watched, but I didn't seem to be able to leave the casino without a tail showing up.

  The ramp. My guess is Cormac had people posted near the doors that kept tabs on me, but I doubted they were watching the ramp out.

  The last thing I wanted was for Cormac to come to this get together. As much as we were supposed to be working together, my past wasn't an area I was ready to lay open for anyone. I didn't know what tidbits might slip out if he were there with me. Who would I even tell Rick he was? There were things about my past I wasn't ready to open up about, things that Rick had knowledge of.

  It was a bit odd, making my way down the four story ramp designed for cars, but it was the best way out. I tried to duck near the sides every time I noticed a camera. Most of them appeared to be pointed toward the dead center of the ramp but I didn't know how wide a shot the lens might have.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was searching the café for Rick. As I scanned the crowd, he stood up and waved me over to the table he had claimed in the bustling restaurant. A large, striped canopy shielded most of the patrons sitting at the tables. I walked over and before I knew what he was going to do, I was enveloped in the warmest hug I'd ever received.

  "It's so great to see you," he said, still hugging me.

  "You too," I said and meant it, hugging him back. We let go and I settled into the wrought iron seat across from him.

  "I ordered some food. I hope your tastes are still the same," he said, motioning toward the food in front of me. That was Rick. He hadn't ordered it to rush the lunch, he had ordered it to show he still remembered, and prove what I had meant to him. I looked down to see a turkey club on the table. It had been eight years and he never forgot.

  "So, tell me what you've been up to? You look fantastic."

  "Just finished up my four year degree at UNLV. I'm thinking about Med school but decided to take a year off in between." I sipped my ice tea.

  "That's really wonderful, Caitlin."

  It was so strange to hear that name, from what felt like a lifetime ago. "So how are things going with you?"

  "I've been with the senator for about a year now."

  "Political life?" Sitting across café table from me in his navy blue suit with lapel pin, he looked the part.

  "Yes, but with the best of intentions."

  "I'd never think anything else." I wasn't lying. He'd always helped anyone he could. As refined as he seemed now, he'd been a tough kid but never a bully. When we had lived with the same family for four months it had been the only time I'd ever felt safe.

  I felt slightly skittish even bringing up the senator, but this was my opening. "Do you like working for the senator?"

  "Oh yeah! He's great! And honest. I truly believe in him." He took a bite of his burger, not rattled in the least by my interest.

  "I read in the paper he's a local, from right here in Vegas?" Which I knew had to be total crap. Humans didn't traverse wormholes like it was a stroll in the park.

  "Oh yeah," he nodded. "He still lives here with his wife and three kids." He waved his hand northward. "I can't remember the name of the development but it's about three miles north of here.

  I knew the house he was talking about, or Cormac did. The senator hadn't been there in weeks. This was a waste of time. Why did I even come?
He was buying into the senator's show - hook, line and sinker. What had happened to the kid I had known, that could see through any con you threw at him? And I'd know. I'd tried a couple out on him when we first met. Was he working with him? Could he have changed that much? I finished my meal, listening to the mundane minutia of his daily routine with the senator, attempting to appear like I wasn't disappointed. As he continued, I tried to get even a small hint of the truth behind the façade, but nothing was forthcoming. He believed everything he was saying. Worse, I think he believed everything the senator said.

  I'd loved seeing Rick, even though I knew I couldn't see him again. My life was too crazy now and his proximity to the senator was too close to risk, but I lied and told him we'd do it again. We hugged each other goodbye, and I held on a little too tightly and for too long, knowing that this might be the last time I saw him. Knowing exactly who he'd be in close quarters with.

  I was walking out of the gated eating area when he called my name. I turned, expecting him to tell me I had left something behind and was already feeling in my purse for my phone.

  There Rick stood, about ten feet away from me. "Did I forget something?"

  He stood smiling at me and when I took a step toward him he finally spoke.

  "The senator says hello."

  I stared at him and froze. He smiled like nothing was amiss. I was so shocked, I didn't see the gun until it was against his head, blowing his brains all over the café.

  People stood screaming and crying as he lay in a pool of his own blood. I didn't rush over to him, I just stood there. I could see the gaping hole in his skull, even from where I was. And that was all I did as the chaos went on around me. Stood there for what felt like forever, the senator's words in the alley echoing in my brain.

  An arm wrapped around my waist, half dragging, half carrying me out of there. "Come on, snap out of it," I heard Cormac say.

  My legs moved but I was in a trance. One of the few people that I'd ever trusted had just blown a hole in his own head. And it was because of me. The senator was trying to get at me, at us.

  A new black Ferrari was waiting not even a block away and he opened the door and pushed me into the passenger side. The force of the car taking off, seconds later, pressed me further into the seat.

  "When was the last time you saw him?"

  "Huh?" I knew Cormac had just spoken to me but I couldn't process anything. I felt mentally frozen on the image of Rick, while my body felt sapped of all strength as I sat there limp. "I've got to go back there."

  "Not a good idea."

  "I've got to go back. They'll need someone to identify him. I can't just leave him there, a nameless body." I reached for the car door, even though we were moving; I was intent on getting back to do something for Rick, even if it was just the last simple deed of naming the dead.

  Cormac's arm pulled me back against the seat, his arm barring me from leaving the car.

  "Jo, don't lose it on me here. I'm sure he had ID on him. Going back there will just link you to this. I can't have your face on the news."

  His logic penetrated the haze and I nodded.

  "You need to tell me everything you can about what just happened." I felt the car turning this way and that, but didn't care where he was driving.

  "Oh god, Cormac, I don't know. It was so normal and I was so happy to see him doing well for himself. I know it was working for the senator …but it just didn't matter. People that come out of the life we had don't normally do well. He had pulled himself up and was working toward a career in politics." I shook off an image of his lapel pin, covered in blood.

  "What happened? I saw you walk away and then turn back. You need to tell me what happened." He voice was very monotone compared to how it usually sounded.

  "He called my name, I turned and he said 'the senator says hello' and then…he was smiling when he did it." I rolled down the window, looking for air. "I've got to get out of this car. Pull over." I leaned my face into the wind.

  "I can't."

  "I need to get out this car and …I don't know, I need to… Just pull over." Logic had returned enough for me to know it wouldn't look good if I jumped out of the moving car, even if I would be fine.

  "I can't. That's the senator, in the silver Mercedes, about half a block up. He was watching the entire thing." My eye flew over the cars in front of us until I found the one he meant. I saw the back of his head. He was alone.

  "Stop! Why are we following him? We don't even know what he's capable of."

  "Because we need to know where he's going. We have to follow him."

  "Why? Why us?" I already knew what he was going to say. I knew all the reasons, I just didn't want to.

  He turned toward me as we waited at a light, still in the heart of the Strip.

  "Forget the fact that I think this is somehow intrinsically attached to you, in a way neither of us can fathom, we are the only ones that can."

  "No, I don't want this life."

  He grabbed my chin and pulled my face in his direction when I refused to look at him. "Then why did you blow up that wormhole in the mountain?"

  "I didn't have a choice." How could he not understand the difference? "I don't want to chase bad guys. I want out of this. I never asked to be a hero."

  "The best ones never do," he replied in a soft voice and brushed his fingers across my cheek before he dropped his hand from my face. "Listen to me, a normal human won't even comprehend what's happening, let alone try to stop it. The wolves were involved with him, and might still be. The Fae? They care only about the Fae. If it doesn't touch them, they won't do a thing. Not until it threatens their life in some way. And even then, it's debatable. Vitor knew what was going down on the mountain that day. What did he do? Nothing."

  "How did you know I was at the café with Rick?" I rubbed my hands on the skirt I was wearing, annoyed with their moistness and what it represented.

  "You mean other than watching you walk down the car ramp for about ten minutes? Lacey told me."

  I just shook my head and sighed.

  "Don't be annoyed. She was excited for you. Said you hadn't had a date the entire time she's known you."

  He sounded just a touch too happy about that and it annoyed me, especially right now after what had just happened. No one was allowed to be happy as waves of anger at what had just happened to Rick churned and built inside me. "Remember, I don't tell Lacey everything. You, of all people, should know that." I watched the Mercedes up ahead. "You don't think that was because of me, do you?" As the shock ebbed away, the reality of his death crept in close on its heels.

  "Do you want the ugly truth?"

  "Warts and all." I wasn't even sure why I asked. I already knew the answer.

  "Then yes, I think it was to get at you."

  I had expected the truth from him. He wasn't a sugar coater.

  "But why? Because I kicked him into a wormhole? He made it out fine. He said I, we, turned on him, but I never even knew him." Him was still several cars in front of us.

  "I don't know. If I've learned one thing in this world, I don't ignore my gut feelings. And my gut is screaming that this - whatever he is - we haven't even seen the beginning of what he's capable of."

  I watched him open the Ferrari up as we headed off the main part of the strip. I knew he was trying to release some of the energy he had pent up inside. I knew he was as angry as I was, but I wasn't sure if it was for the same reasons. After he'd been shot by the sniper, he'd seemed concentrated but not this angry.

  As far as Rick went, I suspected Cormac had killed his fair share of people. Hell, he'd tried to kill me. This anger wasn't just about Rick either.

  "Don't get too close to him! He'll spot us."

  "I know a little bit about this."

  I leaned back in my seat as we hit the desert and tried to clear my mind. "Rick never would have shot himself, ever. He was tough. But what kind of thing could make him do that?"

  "I believe you. I've seen people lose it
. He wasn't on the edge. His movements, even right up to the end, didn't show any strain."

  My head snapped in his direction. "How long were you there?"

  "Does it matter?" He didn't bother looking at me.

  "Yes. It's creepy." How could he not know that?

  "I wasn't just watching you two, I was watching the senator watch you."

  My skin crawled at the thought of the senator watching us as well. "Thanks. That just upped the creepy factor another notch."

  "And I thought we agreed we were working as a team on this?"

  Now he looked at me. I guess this he deemed important. I wondered when he'd get to that.

  "I needed to do this solo."

  "Why?"

  "Because I did. Look, I've never done a team effort before, on anything, so you are going to have to cut me some slack here and there." I hoped that was going to be good enough because I wasn't going to elaborate any further.

  He turned his full attention back to the road and didn't say anything else.

  "Why would he be heading to California?" I asked as I saw the sign quickly approaching.

  The tires screeched and I banged into the side of the door as Cormac jerked the wheel and we skidded and swung around.

  "What's wrong?" The car finally came to a stop on the opposite shoulder, facing the other direction. I thanked god there hadn't been any other cars.

  "What the hell is wrong with you? You say we have to follow him, and sell me on all this hero shit, and now we're losing him?" I watched the senator's car shrink from a dot on the horizon to nothing. I knew he was right. We had to get the bastard or who knew what would come next. Even if I wasn't ready for a full blown confrontation, I still wanted to know where he was going. We needed information and Cormac had stopped in the middle of the best tail we'd had?

  He grabbed the key from the ignition and stepped out of the car, holding his phone.

  "Cormac! What the hell are you doing! We don't have time for a phone call," I screamed, as I followed him out.

  He held up a finger in a motion for me to give him a minute. I eyed the keys in his hand but I knew I didn't have a shot at getting them from him. Then I eyed the car. In my teens, I'd hotwired a car or two. Okay, maybe more like a couple of hundred, and I wondered if I still had the skills, if cars were still wired the same.