I chuckled a little. “Right.”
* * * *
I was in the middle of a street. Black figures stood all around me. Lionshead. Why weren’t they doing anything? Why were they even here? I scanned around me, looking for anything. An escape or a clue. There was Silver. He was just standing there, eyes darting from side to side, and his nostrils flared. Why didn’t he even try to run out or attack? What had they done to him that he wouldn’t move?
I tried to run over to him, but I couldn’t move. He needed help, though. The Lionshead bastards had guns, and they were closing in. I tried to scream, but no sound came out.
Three of them came out of the ring and surrounded Silver. I was still stuck, and he still just stood there. What the fuck was this? Had they done something to me too? Were we both paralyzed through this? Nothing else made sense. One of the three grabbed Silver’s mane and yanked. It shouldn’t have been more than an annoyance, but he whinnied loud and high. I couldn’t make any sense of anything that was happening. My stomach churned at that sound, though. The other two kept their guns trained on him but didn’t fire.
One more of the Lionshead members stepped out of the ring. His face came into view. It was Carl. No no no. He pointed straight at Silver’s front leg, but then he looked at me. When he fired, he was smiling.
Silver was down. He was falling.
Silver.
Falling.
Silver…
* * * *
“No!” I shot straight up when someone touched my shoulder. My heart pounded in my ears as I looked around for my attacker.
No. I was in bed. Leon’s bed. I looked over, saw his rough fingers splayed and pressed into my bare shoulder, and stared into big dark eyes. Safe. No foals. No black-clad killers. Just Leon.
In here, at least.
Leon shook his head. “Come on, we need to get you home.”
“What? Home? No. I can’t go home.”
I expected an argument. I could win this. I had logic on my side. How was it a good idea to send me back to my apartment? Carl knew where I lived, for Christ’s sake. But Leon just squeezed me tight.
“Aunt Suz is forcing my hand,” he whispered. “Either I take you home, or she gets some other guards to carry you out. She won’t let you stay.”
“But Carl… It’s not safe.”
“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll keep in touch.”
“Keep in touch? You know where I live. I’ll have a key made for you—”
He pressed his index finger to my lips. “We’re going to be busy. If Lionshead figured out how to recognize us in human form, then we’re in ten times as much danger as ever.”
“Damn it, Leon!” I smacked him in the chest. “Why do you even have to have guards? Just don’t let anyone shift. You said you can control it, right? Your fucking aunt is sabotaging you.”
“Suz is high-strung, but she knows what she’s doing. Even if I don’t always agree.”
“So what? She has you brainwashed?”
He closed his eyes, but I saw his muscles tighten, shoulders go up, and lips purse. “We can control it enough to shift when we need to. But it’s almost impossible to keep from shifting once it starts. It’s an instinctual thing. Tied into our emotions, which means that, if things go too far, we shift.” He shook his head. “Even if we could all control it perfectly, we have the kids, and the unicorns we haven’t found yet.” He opened his eyes and looked down at me. “Tony, I’m so sorry. I’ll call you and text you ten times a day if you want me to, and I’ll make it over as often as I can. But…please understand this. I’m not trying to hurt you.”
I was back in my apartment. A few years younger, a few years stupider. Carl “wasn’t trying to hurt me” either.
“Let’s just go.” I could hear it in my voice. Monotone. Quiet. I didn’t even look at him. How could I? “Just get me home.”
“I wish there was another option. But this is just the way it has to be until things calm down.”
“Fine.”
“Are you mad at me?”
Fucking genius. “Nope. Not mad.” I pulled the sheet from the bed around my shoulders and headed for the doorway. “Can we just get out of here?”
“You know, this isn’t something I want. I want to stay with you and make sure everything’s okay. I want to guard you—”
“Just take me home, goddamn it!” He needed to hurry up. The longer we stood here having this stupid fucking conversation, the greater the chance of me breaking down.
“Fine.” He marched up to me with his lips set into a deep frown. “You don’t have to be a jackass about it, though.”
“I’m being a jackass?”
He nodded. “A little bit. This isn’t easy for me, either.” He gestured me toward the front door. “We’re both pissed off right now, so I’ll call you tomorrow. Otherwise I’m going to end up saying something I’ll regret.”
“Fine.” Out the door I went. I didn’t even look back to check if he was following me.
I felt like shit because of it too.
* * * *
I got out of the cab and leaned against the wall of the apartment building. Leon handed some bills through the window. When the cab drove off, he came up. “Tomorrow?”
The ride had given me a chance to cool off, and I figured I had been a bit of a jackass. Just a bit. “Yeah. Just…can you please not forget to call? Please?”
He chuckled and took a step closer. “I promise you, I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
“And what if you can’t? If your aunt’s going to have you running all around the city risking your life, how on God’s green earth can I expect you to call?” In the middle of a fight? Or while he was rescuing some kid off the streets, maybe. I shook my head. “I changed my mind. Don’t call me. You don’t need that kind of distraction. Not now.”
“Tony.” He grabbed me by the shoulders. “You are not what I would call a distraction, no matter what Aunt Suz thinks. Which is why I’m going to call you first thing tomorrow, and I’ll text you as often as I can. Whenever I have fingers, anyway.”
I didn’t laugh at the joke. “I can’t have your death on my mind. I just can’t do that.”
“I don’t want to hear anything more about that. I’ve faced a lot worse than a cell phone break before. This won’t get me killed.” He leaned down and kissed me on top of the head. What could be worse? It was like mommy kissing her son off to school. Or kissing her son before he went off to die for his country. That was probably more appropriate.
Except I wouldn’t be doing the dying.
He left me with just that final touch. No good-bye, which was fine with me. I didn’t need an end that final. The last I saw of him was a streak of silver galloping down the road. I blinked, and it was gone.
Chapter Eight
I came out of the stairwell, around the corner, and locked eyes with Terry. After a second, he slapped his hands on his hips.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“I had to take care of some stuff.”
“Well, what about our date? You couldn’t even give me a ten-second call or shoot me a text or something?”
“I… Things just got a little out of hand.” What could I even tell him? “I’m sorry.”
“Well, you owe me.” Another few seconds and then he walked over and hugged me tight. “I was worried about you. Don’t go disappearing on me again.”
I squeezed him back. “I’m sorry. The police wanted me to come down and talk to them about that dead guy I saw again. Then I called Leon to try and relax and…I guess I lost track of time?”
He finally let me go. A pink tinge ringed his eyes. I thought for sure he’d see through my cock-and-bull story. It sounded bad to me, and I came up with it, for Christ’s sake. But he nodded.
“Well, I’m glad you’re not dead. Although I kind of want to kill you for not telling me what was up. With Carl and everything, how could I not be worried?”
“Carl?” Did he know? Was I
the last fucking person to find out about the unicorns and the unicorn hunters? “What about Carl?” My voice shook way too much.
“He was hanging around here looking for you. I came by to wait for you. See if you’d come back. I practically had to toss him out. It was scary. He was scary. I think it’s a good thing you got away from him when you did.” He pulled out his key and let us both into the apartment. “I actually had to call the cops before he’d leave the building.”
“Fuck.” How far would Lionshead actually go to get to the unicorns? I severely doubted that I would present much of an obstacle for them, and Leon had flat out said he’d come get me if something went wrong. “Thanks for being here.” I wanted to cry. Or hide under the bed. Or maybe hide under the bed back in Montana.
I knew all those were wrong. I knew what had to happen, and it fucking sucked.
I hugged Terry again. “Look, I’ll call you tomorrow. Today’s just been a long, bad day, and I want to go to sleep so I can get it over with.”
He opened his mouth to say something but stopped and nodded. “Okay. Just promise me that you’ll call me if anything else happens.”
“I know. I promise.” I felt like a shithead. Which made sense. I was pretty much being a shithead, pushing him out of the house. But I couldn’t do what I needed to do with him around. He’d ask too many questions. “Go home and sleep. It’s way too early for you to be awake.”
My phone buzzed. I looked down at it. A text from Leon. I almost lost it right there, which would have been super fun to explain.
Terry peeked at it. “Lover Boy. I shouldn’t keep you from him.” He hesitated in the doorway for a second, staring at me. “Night.” It came out strained. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Night.”
“Night, Terry.” I shut the door, flipped the lock shut, and brought up the message on my phone.
See? As soon as I could.
Fuck. I wiped the forming tears from my eyes and closed out the message. Did I want to do this? Or better still, could I do this? I pulled up my contacts and scrolled down and then hit on Carl’s number. Send a message.
Coffee. 8 AM. Same shop. Fucking be there.
* * * *
We sat across from each other, sipping coffee. I’d picked a table right in the middle where I knew for a fact that I had witnesses if anything went wrong. I totally expected everything to go wrong.
Carl set his mug down. “So, why did you want to see me?”
“Cut the crap.”
“No need to be so hostile.”
I grabbed his collar and yanked him toward me. “You and I both know why we’re here. We were both at the restaurant, and we both know about the unicorns. Then you show up at my apartment?”
Carl’s eyes widened for a split second, but that was it. A millimeter of dilation was all I got. “It’s best if you say elk in public. It’s less likely to draw the wrong sort of attention.” He sipped his coffee again. “So, what about the elk?”
“How can you hunt them? Just explain that to me. You’re not some evil bastard, I know that.” God, I hoped I knew that. “They’re just the same as you or me, and you damn well know it.”
“I don’t hunt the elk. I just figure out the most humane way to get what we need.”
My fingers tightened around my mug, slicing heat from the porcelain all the way down into my bone. I forced words past gritted teeth. “Humane murder. Really? You’re going to try pulling that shit?”
“It’s as humane as murder gets. Much better than the way things were when I first showed up.” He leaned in close and whispered, “Nothing you or I or anyone else in this whole damn world can do is going to stop Lionshead. I was just smart enough to accept that and try to make things better.”
“How do you make it better? How can there be anything ‘better’ about hunting elk like regular animals?”
He leaned away again and brought his coffee cup to his lips. Translucent white steam washed over his face. A death shroud. “I’m not allowed to say. Just trust me. If you knew, you’d thank me.”
“Thank you?” I shot to my feet, tipping my mug over. The coffee dripped to the floor. “I don’t see me thanking you anytime soon, do you understand? Leon is out there trying to protect the elk, and I’m not thanking you for making it easier to hunt them down.” I glanced around and saw everyone trying very hard not to look at me. I must have sounded like some crazy vegetarian activist or some shit.
I lowered myself back into the chair, grabbed a wad of napkins from the dispenser, and started blotting up the coffee.
“I defended you to everyone. Terry, Leon, Dana. I kept telling them how you made one mistake. How you were still a pretty good guy.” I ripped out more napkins and soaked up more brown liquid. “I’m done with that, and I’m done with you. And if you ever come to my house without my permission again, I’ll call the cops, and I’ll tell them whatever the fuck I have to to land you in a jail cell.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
I slammed the napkins down, squelching warm liquid between my fingers. “I’m really not, hard as that may be to believe.” This was a knock-down-drag-out over unicorns, after all. “I’m being completely rational about this.” I got back up, shaking all the way to my fingertips. “If I see you around my place, you’re in jail. Even if I have to have Terry bruise up my face to make it happen.”
“I am sorry about that. I only came to see if you’d made it back in one piece or not.” He swirled his index finger around in his coffee. “It is better since I got there, you know. That’s the only reason I’ve stuck around.”
“Yeah, more fucking humane.” Bullshit. I wanted to just walk out, but this wasn’t over. I needed one more answer from him. “Did you tell them where I lived?”
“I wouldn’t do that. Is that what you think?”
“Why shouldn’t I think that? Can I really put anything past you anymore?”
“I’ll swear on whatever you need me to swear on. I don’t want you involved in this. I still care about you, even if we’re not…”
“Fine.” I believed him. A small comfort. I walked away, shouting over my shoulder. “You can pay for the coffee, right? Lots of blood money to play with.”
About a block away, my phone rang. Leon.
Left something at your place. Hope you like it.
* * * *
When I made it back to my place, a bag hung on the door. It wasn’t quite what I was thinking. Of course, I don’t really know what I was expecting to see there at all. I wasn’t about to complain, though. A little green gift bag with a latte, a biscotti, and a note.
Since we probably can’t do coffee anytime soon.
I unlocked my door and set the coffee on the table. I didn’t need it now and had to get to sleep. But damned it if it wasn’t some rom-com level shit. I slipped out my phone and pulled up Leon’s number.
Thanks. I’ll need it when I get up.
As soon as I hit Send, a weight shot straight through my middle. I shouldn’t text him. I really shouldn’t. Not now. Not until he came back off this stupid, bullshit job. Fucking Suzette.
My phone buzzed again. I knew it had to be Leon. I didn’t bother looking or answering. He didn’t need it. I just went to bed.
* * * *
I was back in Montana. I could tell it was a dream right away, just as soon as I felt the cold air in my lungs and heard the horses whinnying. I walked through the field, long dewy grass brushing against the bottoms of my arms. Good Lord, they needed to cut this crap. Except it was a dream.
I let it carry me along, closer to the whinnying. It sounded horrible. I didn’t know this horse…did I? I had to. It sounded familiar, for sure, but it wasn’t a horse I remembered from the ranch. Every time it cried, it was louder. There. Around the corner. I could help.
When I turned, it all flashed away. All except the whinny. I lay in bed, staring at my ceiling. Light bled through my curtains. There came the whinny again. It was here in my real world. Not in Montana. Ca
lifornia. The whinny, again. Not terrified, though. Not like I thought it was. I sat up and looked out the window.
Silver. Leon. He cantered in circles on the pavement, gleaming in the sunlight and then back into the shadows. I watched for a while. A few minutes later, he came back out and another whinny pealed through the air. He looked up and locked eyes with me. Three floors down. I felt like I was looking into an abyss, those huge dark horse eyes beckoning me and threatening to swallow me up if I let them.
I would definitely let them.
He gestured over his shoulder with his horn a couple of times and then slipped back into the alley. A tiny spark of cold flared through my gut. What if he got seen or if he got hit? Dumb-ass. He was being a total dumb-ass. I ripped the blanket off my bed and headed downstairs. Took it two steps at a time. If he was shifting back like I thought, he was about to be naked and possibly heading across the road.
I got downstairs in time to see him slip through the front door. He turned and smiled at me. “Hi.”
“Are you nuts?” I walked over and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. “Why would you do that?”
He kissed my cheek. “I wanted to see you. If you hadn’t woken up soon, I would have left. I kind of expected a better response than scolding, though.” He winked. “Unless this is some kind of sex game.”
We moved up into the stairwell. “Is that what this is about?”
“That was kind of my plan, but you’re putting a bit of a damper on it.”
“I’m sorry. But I just can’t believe you did something like that. What if something had happened?” I lowered my voice. “Carl knows where I live, so he could have people watching my apartment waiting for you.” Whatever Carl had told me and whatever I believed to be true, I had to accept the fact that he could have been lying. There was too much risk for blind trust.
Up another flight. “Trust me,” he said. “I took care of everything first. Lionshead is off and away somewhere else right now.”
My guts tightened. “You didn’t kill them, did you?”
“No, I didn’t kill them.” He rolled his eyes like a teenager getting questioned about his plans. “There were a couple of shifty-looking types hanging around outside, but I got some friends to help me distract them.” We came out onto my floor. Leon sighed. “I got us enough time for a quickie, but that’s about it. Sorry.”
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