“They are effective on the Shadow’s minions, and I used a bunch taking out the Stick Man.” Or at least trying to take out the Stick Man.
“We still don’t know where we are going,” Zee pointed out, his hand shaking. “And once we are there, I can’t guarantee how much I’ll be able to cloak us.”
Simon appeared at Zee’s elbow. “Here, I made some coffee. It’s the good stuff so drink up. I’ve made enough for everyone. We’re going to need it.” He all but pushed it to Zee and my mentor took it with a nod of thanks. I shook my head, as did Killian, surprising me.
“You sure you don’t want coffee?” I asked. Killian sighed.
“No, I need to sleep on the flight. Won’t be doing that jazzed up on caffeine.”
Simon sighed and put the tray on a side table. “Killian, you need to be on your game. Drink up, man.” He offered the cup again to Killian.
The Irish gangster glared at him. “Fuck off.”
My eyebrows arched upward at the exchange. At the insistence on Simon’s side.
I sighed. “I get it, you’re trying to help, Simon, but you’re pissing off the big guns.”
Simon blanched. “And what am I?”
I grinned. “The sidekick.”
His eyes flickered with anger and hurt. “You can’t say I didn’t try.”
I rolled my eyes. “Perfect little sidekick, aren’t you?”
The emotions fled and a grin wrapped his face as he handed me my spider silk suit. “You putting it on now?”
I shook my head, holding the material and staring at it. The note from Barron was a clue, and I pulled it from the folds of the material. “No, but this note, maybe Zee can decipher it? Something about a guy named Nash in a village. Barron was trying to tell me something here.”
Killian sat up. “Let me see.”
Before Zee could look, I handed it to Killian. Zee’s eyebrows went up but I didn’t mind him. Right now, Killian was our best shot at getting Bear back. I believed Barron when he said Killian wouldn’t hurt him. The fact that Bear himself had stood up for the Irish gangster went a long way in my books. But still . . .
“Why’d you kill Barron?” I said. Killian jerked, his brow furrowing.
“Why would I kill one of me own?” He shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. Who told you . . . Mancini?”
I nodded and Zee snorted. “Mancini always wants you believing the other guy is the bad one. And I think his lies could get past even you, Nix.”
Zee sipped on his coffee, watching us.
“Barron was my friend,” Killian said. “As much as I have friends, and I do my best to protect what is mine.” His eyes flicked to me and beside me I felt Simon stiffen.
Ahh, so that what all the posturing was about. Simon was jealous. Just what I needed. “What do you think of the note?” I brought the conversation back on track.
Killian read the paper quickly. “Nashville, Genzo is in Nashville, Tennessee.”
I felt like I’d been kicked in the guts. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, look at this. Nash in the village, 10, AC. Say it fast.”
Shit, there it was. Nashville, Tennessee.
“Yes. Does it mean something other than where Genzo is?” Killian stared hard at me.
“It was where my older brother Tommy went missing, at least according to the police reports I saw a few years back,” I said softly.
“And why would you care about your brother now?” Zee asked.
“I don’t. But he was my father’s go-to man. His abnormal abilities are slick, and even I don’t know the extent of them. Romano kept them well hidden.” I frowned, my mind racing. “It changes nothing; it just makes me wary. If Tommy went missing there, maybe he’s not on Romano’s golden boy list any longer.”
“Which means he’ll help,” Noah said with more than a little hope in his voice. I shrugged, and then shook my head.
“If anything, it likely means he’s dead. But if he’s alive . . . he may be willing to help. Especially if Romano tried to kill him.”
“He’ll help. I know he will,” Noah said.
I turned to him. “So certain?”
Noah blew out a breath. “He was feeding me and Justin information. He was helping us destroy your father. I thought he was dead. I lost contact with him before Justin died.”
Fuck. I stared hard at him and said nothing. Because there were no words for the depths of the deception around me.
“We’re going to need all the help we can get if that Magelore bitch is still with the Shadow.” Killian pushed to his feet, taking the lead. “She stripped through my people like they were untrained. The Shadow did nothing until he reached me and the boy.”
There was no disagreement coming from me on that. Had Vivian not used the full extent of her abilities on us at her house? Was that why we bested her? I felt like we were being set up, and I didn’t like it. She’d held back, playing the long game. Fucking Magelores.
Bear being at the center of the setup made me want to vomit.
I bundled up the spider silk suit, found an empty weapon bag and started stuffing things into it. Explosives, flashbangs, some good-sized knives I still was not convinced weren’t swords. “Killian, how far is your helicopter from here?”
“It’s waiting on us to give the call. It will take us directly to Nashville.” His green eyes were fatigued, but he showed no signs of relaxing.
Simon snorted. “Helicopter? Unless you’ve got a Chinook, we’re going to be hours away when we could fly there in thirty minutes on a private jet. I could call Mancini.”
I kept my head down, feeling the tension rise in the air. Simon’s jealousy was not unexpected, but I did not need to deal with his shit right now. Killian laughed and even Noah snorted.
“Ah, lad, I have the best toys, and even Mancini knows it. And you know what they say about men with the biggest toys, don’t you?” Killian winked.
I rolled my eyes, zipped up my bag and walked past the two men. Dinah barked a laugh. “I know the answer. The man with the biggest toys wins.”
Killian laughed again, tired, but laughing. “That he does.”
“Dinah, not now,” I said, touching a hand to the holster. “You’re not helping.”
Zee fell into step beside me, drinking down the last of his coffee and setting the cup on a side table in the hall. “You trust Killian, now? You trust your guns more than me?”
I slowed my steps and looked at him. “I trust you, Zee. What’s going on?”
“I don’t think Genzo is in Nashville.” He shook his head, his eyes clouding over. “And even if he is, taking these two with us is a bad idea. I say we ditch them and get the fuck out of here. Bear is probably back at the ranch waiting for us.”
I frowned at him, trying to figure out just what was going on. I took a step and he put a hand on my arm, stopping me. It was like his mind was slipping even while I looked at him, as if the cogs were no longer connecting.
“I mean it,” Zee said softly. “Leave them behind. You and I will figure this out. We’ll get out of here. We’ll take Phoenix with us and she won’t grow up with that bastard for a father.” His hand tightened and the look in his eyes softened, and fogged, his mind slipping the last few notches. “Please, Jasmine.”
My throat tightened and I bit my lower lip to keep from gasping. Jasmine was my mother’s name. He thought I was my mother.
His mind . . . finally broke on the remaining pieces that held it together. I put a hand over his. “Come with me, Zee.” I led him down the hallway until I found a bedroom and opened the door wide. “I want you to lie down. I need to take care of a few things if I am going to run away with you.”
“I can help you.” He caught both my arms and tugged me tightly to his chest, and the pain in my heart rippled outward. “We can get away. I’m sure I could Hide all three of us. Forever if I have to.” He stroked my back in gentle circles. As if I would break.
I looked out the door and down the hall. Killian lea
ned against the wall, watching, a few feet behind him was Noah, and beyond him, Simon. Three men to help me. But that meant leaving Zee behind.
Killian shook his head. “There is no one here. He’d be safe enough. Tell him to wait for you.”
I nodded. “I need you to wait for me, Zee. Can you do that?”
He blinked slowly and wobbled where he stood. “Yeah, baby, I can do that. I’m tired anyway. I think I’ll just have a lie-down. Then we’ll get away from Luca. Phoenix will be so happy. She hates it here. She deserves better.”
My throat tightened. “You’ll always be the father I needed.”
His eyes brightened for a moment as if seeing me. “And you’ll always be the daughter I knew was mine, even if not by blood.” He turned and took a step toward the bed. “I’m so tired, Nix. Fuck—”
Only he didn’t just lie down; his body seized, his arms flinging straight out sideways and his back arching as he dropped to his knees. My world spun at a pace I couldn’t quite catch.
“Shit, Zee, what’s wrong?” I grabbed at his arms and helped him to the floor, then rolled him to the side and opened his mouth. Was he having a heart attack, a stroke? One of those seemed the most likely cause of the sudden seizing.
I pried his mouth open, and put my ear to his back. His heart galloped out of control with zero rhythm. Fuck, fuck, fuck. “Zee—”
His whole body heaved and he spewed green myst and puke from his mouth and nose. Green, violent death myst had been inside him, but how? It pooled and then began to move as it crept toward me, searching with tendrils, reaching for my skin to infect me, too. With a soft cry, I backed away as Zee shook and seized, dying on the floor without a single hand to comfort him. The green myst was all around his body, blocking me.
He gave a few last tremors, then convulsed a final time and all I could do was watch because that myst was still searching for me. Whoever had made it would know where I was if it touched me. They would pinpoint me and then I would have a whole host of new problems.
“I’m sorry, Zee.” I choked on the words as I backed out and shut the door, then leaned my head against it. Silence in the hall meant only one thing: no one else knew what had happened in there. Tears caught the edges of my eyes and I squeezed them shut as if I could block them. I had to be strong, more than ever I had to hold it together and get Bear. Zee would have kicked my ass if I let his death sidetrack me. Didn’t make his death hurt any less.
“Fuck,” I whispered and hit the flat of my hand on the door.
A hand touched my elbow. “He’ll wait for you, lass.”
I stayed where I was as I spoke quietly. “He’s dead. Someone gave him death myst.” I finally lifted my head as I fought the grief and shock that rolled around and through me. Bear still needed me. Zee did not, and so there was nothing I could do for him now. “We have to go.”
Killian nodded, his eyes far more understanding than I liked. Who had he walked away from to get what he needed done? “The stairs are this way,” he said.
“Where is Simon?” I twisted around to see Simon at the end of the hall in the office doorway. “Aren’t you coming?”
He shook his head. “No.”
I stared at him and then I saw him again handing Zee a cup of coffee and telling him to drink up. Saw Zee put the empty cup on the table in the hall. I looked at the tray of coffee still there, still steaming as Noah moved to pick up a cup.
“Put it down!” I yelled at him, raised Dinah and shot the cup out of Noah’s hand.
“Fuck, what the hell?” he roared, and then his clothes began to smoke with green myst.
“Clothes off if you want to live, Noah.” I was already striding past him toward Simon who hadn’t moved an inch.
“You motherfucker.” I had Eleanor out before I finished speaking and squeezed off a round.
Simon tried to dodge, but hit the wall, and the bullet caught him in the shoulder. He spun away and into the office out of sight, but he didn’t stop trying to convince me.
“I had to, Phoenix, I had to! Mancini wanted him dead, wanted Killian and Noah dead too, and my life is on the line. And so is yours. So is Bear’s. This will save all three of us.”
I didn’t move from my spot in the hallway.
His touch could peel the skin from my bones, melt it away like wax from a candle. It mattered not to me that he’d saved my life any longer. He’d killed Zee.
“I would have protected you,” I said. “From Mancini.”
“Ah, that might not be the best way to go about this, lass,” Killian said. “He loves you, but he’s still got some balls.”
“You offered the coffee to me, you piece of shit!” I roared.
“Yours was a sedative. Mancini wants you alive,” Simon said. “Go to him. Sign on with him. We can still work together. He will give you your boy and kill Romano. It’ll all be okay, you can trust me.”
None of it made sense. If Mancini could kill Romano, why didn’t he just do it?
“Try again, you whining bitch!” I yelled.
“It’s the truth. It’s what he told me!” Simon’s voice was panicked and I realized something in that moment.
He believed I truly cared for him, that he could get rid of Zee and Killian and I wouldn’t hold him responsible as long as he gave me a way to Bear. He thought he could just step into Justin’s role in our lives. I shook my head. “You are a fool, Simon. One, to believe Mancini, and two, to cross me.”
I didn’t look back at Killian but kept my eyes on the opening into the office. To get out of the pub, Simon would have to go through me first. I tucked both guns into their holsters and held my hand out to Killian. Without having to tell him what I wanted, he gave me one of his short swords.
“Sneak attack, that’s good,” Dinah whispered. “Then I get to shoot him. I let him touch me.”
“Done,” I whispered back.
I didn’t creep forward. I took a breath and leapt into a run, bolting down the hall on the balls of my feet as quickly and as silently as I could. I slid through the doorway, caught movement to my left and swung the sword as fast and as hard as I could.
The blade glimmered in the light and time seemed to slow as Simon’s eyes met mine. He wasn’t even trying to fight back, wasn’t trying to defend himself. His hands were at his sides and he didn’t move as the blade laid across his neck.
“Why, Simon?” I held the blade steady, knowing I was taking a risk. But I had to know why he’d done what he’d done.
“I wouldn’t have, but,” his eyes flicked past me, “Killian will be the death of you, Phoenix. I have to try and save you.” I stared at him, unable to believe what I was hearing.
“You think I won’t kill you?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“I know you won’t.” He smiled. “I know you, Nix.”
“No,” I said. “No, you don’t.” I stepped back and dropped my arm. He took a step and I spun, driving the blade through his neck, slicing through the vertebrae and silencing him for the last time.
His head rolled to one side, and his body slumped to the other and the spurt of blood fountained in a geyser that spilled over the floor. I stepped back and made myself stare at his still-twitching body.
“Damn, is he dead already?” Dinah shivered. “That dirty bastard, he turned on us after everything.”
“Yeah, he did,” I said softly. “That’s what trusting your emotions gets you. Dead.”
I bent and wiped the blade over Simon’s shirt. “I would have protected you, Simon. You knew it and you made the choice to turn. I don’t tolerate disloyalty.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Killian said from the doorway. I handed him his sword.
“Thanks. It’s damn sharp.”
He grunted. “Magic blades, they have their uses.”
“I need new clothes,” Noah said. I looked past Killian to see Noah down to only a pair of boxers and his boots.
“Weapons room,” Killian said. “There’s a second spider suit, my size so it should
fit you.”
I stood there still breathing hard from killing Simon, Killian beside me as we waited on Noah.
“You trust that one?” Killian asked softly, his breath tickling the skin of my ear.
“I trust no one,” I said.
He grunted. “Good.”
I really did not want to like this man more. But he was like me in enough ways that he understood.
With Noah finally dressed, the three of us walked together through the house, up a set of hidden stairs, and onto the rooftop.
The empty rooftop.
“I don’t see a helicopter,” Noah said.
“Invisible,” Killian said.
I’ll admit, my jaw dropped. He laughed. “It’s on its way, lass. Even I can’t hide a bloody fast helicopter. My strengths lie in other areas.”
Noah chuckled and I put a hand over my eyes. “Fuck, I can’t believe I fell for that.”
“It happens.” He smiled at me.
“You’re trying to make me laugh,” I accused him. He held up both hands.
“Guilty. You just saw your best friend die, and killed a man you thought was your friend. Thought a smile might be worth a punch or two in the kidney.”
A laugh bubbled up in the back of my throat. “You thought I’d punch you in the kidney?”
“Likely.” He shrugged and my laughter turned more than a bit maniacal as I bent at the waist and roared until I cried, until the tears streamed down my face for the man who should have been my father. The man who’d helped me find myself and my strength. A set of arms wrapped around me.
“He was a good man, even I knew that,” Killian said. “Zee was a legend in my circles. The only Hider strong enough to get away from Romano, to protect those he loved from a madman. Even I couldn’t manage that.”
“He gave everything to keep us safe,” I whispered into his shirt, for the first time needing someone to just lean on. To let someone else carry a bit of the burden even if it was only for a few minutes. I didn’t care that Noah saw me break down. He’d seen worse from me after I first lost Justin and Bear.
I pulled back and rubbed a hand over my face. In the distance was the sound of helicopter blades drawing closer. “I think I hear our ride.”
Blood of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 2) Page 24