by Siobhan Muir
Yeah, Michael was right. Sometimes old school was the best way to go.
“Haley, are you still there?”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry. I was just thinking of the list of names that you gave me. What if they’re not just random guys in a crooked cop’s ring? What if there’s a larger problem, like a shadow group made of all levels of law enforcement? Do you think that group could’ve been responsible for ADA O’Donnell’s murder?”
Tori hissed into the phone as she took a breath. Her voice dropped. “You mean like Backlog?”
Immediately, my mind filled with the voices from the stairwell at the party. You shoulda thought of that before you went up against Backlog. You was warned. Now you’re gonna pay.
“How do you know about that, Tori?”
“I overheard the detectives who were here talking about Backlog not liking any loose ends. I can only assume it’s more of an organization than just a random reference.” She took a deep breath. “I did some digging just to see if there’s anything in any records about Backlog and came up with zilch. Literally nothing, which makes me think there’s a whole lotta something somewhere.”
“You know, if this is a real thing and a real shadow group, you have to be careful, Tori.” I bit my lip. “Hell, I’m calling you on a burner phone because someone is seriously looking for me. Don’t make them look for you, too.”
“I’m being careful. I’m not leaving electronic footprints or paper trails.” She sounded confident and I hoped she was right. “Here’s the thing. My source says the new ADA of Denver is Antoine Mitchem, handsome and slick, and shit don’t stick to him. O’Donnell wasn’t cold in his grave before Mitchem stepped in. It was like they’d paved the way for him.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because, silly, you want to be an investigative reporter and there’s a huge story here. It goes much further and deeper than just the death of Denver’s ADA. This is your chance, Hale.”
A combination of panic and excitement hit me and my breath shuddered in my chest. She was right, but digging into this was becoming far more dangerous than I’d originally expected.
So, are you just gonna curl up and forget about it? You’ll be running for the rest of your life.
I’d be running if I broke the story wide open, too.
Yes, but at least there’d be legitimate reasons for looking over your shoulder.
Another scary thought.
“So, you think Backlog set up Mitchem to step in because they were planning to take out O’Donnell and I just happened to be there when it happened?”
“Yup, you got it, sister.”
“Shit, you’re right. I gotta get on this, but I don’t have a car. I left mine at work and I’m sure those looking for me know what I drive.” I wracked my brain to figure out how to get some wheels.
“Can you get a ride from wherever you are to the airport shuttle depot off on I-25?”
I thought about it, wondering if I could convince Michael to give me a ride. “Probably. Why?”
“Because I can leave my old Datsun pickup truck in the parking lot there and no one will notice it.”
“Aw, I love that little old truck. It’s been running forever.”
Tori snorted. “That’s because I’m an ace mechanic. I’ll leave the key in a hide-a-key in the right front wheel well.” Suddenly she hissed. “Shit, I gotta go. I’ll leave the truck there when I got to lunch in a half hour. Take care of yourself and be careful who you trust.”
“Right. Bye, Tori—” But she’d already disconnected.
I stared at the phone and let the emotions rattle around in my chest a bit. Excitement and dread from the thoughts of investigating the new ADA. Gratitude and love for Tori leaving me some wheels. Worry at what Michael would say when I told him I had to leave.
I grimaced. I’d known him a week and already I was concerned with what he wanted.
Jeez, Michaels, get a grip.
I blinked. Damn, even my surname gave me a weird connection to the hot guy on the Harley. He’d never told me his last name, but then I supposed in his line of work he wouldn’t necessarily need one. Maybe his last name is Schnoz.
I snorted a burble of laughter before I shot a guilty look toward the front door of the cabin. Michael Schnoz was the silliest name and he was anything but silly. Sexy, hot, badass, powerful, but not silly.
I shook my head and scrolled through my contacts to find Jeff’s number. He picked up on the fourth ring.
“This is Jeff.”
“Hey, Jeff. It’s me, Haley.”
“Haley? Are you all right? Where are you?”
“Yes, yes, and take a breath, Jeff.”
“Sorry, I’ve been so worried about you, what with the weather and you not being at work.”
I blinked. “Whoa, wait. How do you know I’m not at work?”
“Because I went by to see if you wanted to get coffee and bagels, and ran into Tori. She said you weren’t there and the cops were looking for you. What the hell is going on, Haley?”
I opened my mouth to tell him what I knew, but the words stuck in my throat. I’d seen enough cop shows to know if the cops just wanted to talk to me, they wouldn’t hunt me down, trash my home, or track my phone. But they would keep an eye on my friends and family, and watch my vehicle. The problem was, I didn’t know which law enforcement officers I could trust.
“I’m okay, Jeff. I’m not at work because I’m on another story.” Or I would be soon. “It’s out of town and that means I have to be away from home for a bit.”
“Sweet glory, Haley. What have you gotten yourself into? Does this have to do with the biker?”
“No.” Well, not directly. “No, but he’s the one giving me a place to lay low after my apartment got trashed.” I squinched up my face and gritted my teeth. I hadn’t meant to tell him that.
“Wait, your place got trashed? Good glory, Haley. Is that why I don’t recognize this number? What aren’t you telling me?”
Lots of things. “Nothing you need to know, Jeff. Calm down a little and listen to me. I’m safe and I’m using a different phone. The story’s big and I needed a place to lay low while I research. I’m fine.”
He was quiet a few moments. “You’re there, aren’t you? With the Concrete Angels.”
“Shhh! Don’t say anything aloud. Those looking for me will be looking at my friends and family, too. The less you know the better. This story is worth the effort, but we have to take extra precautions.”
“You should call the cops. Right now.”
I sighed. “I can’t. Look, I don’t want to involve you. This is my story and it’s dangerous enough. I need you to know as little as possible so if anyone asks you, you can give them a straight answer without lying. Because I know you’re not good at it.”
Jeff’s voice changed. “I never said I wasn’t good at it. I said I refused to do it.”
The hard, cold certainty sent chills up my back. Granted, I didn’t know everything that had happened to him while involved with “Dick”, but I thought I knew enough. Apparently not.
“Okay, well, I don’t want you to have to make that choice, then.”
“Fuck that. I’m a big boy and I can make my own decisions. You’re my family and you need my help.”
“Yeah, but Jeff—”
“I’m coming up there and they better let me in because I won’t take no for an answer. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“No, wait. You don’t have to—”
But I was talking to dead air. That was the second time I’d been hung up on and I worried it was becoming a pattern. I stared at the phone in my hand, debating if I should call him back and get him to listen to me. But knowing Jeff, once he made his mind up, he didn’t back down.
I bit my bottom lip and shot a look out the cabin’s front window toward the gate.
This is going to be really interesting.
Chapter Eleven
Michael
I headed to t
he clubhouse ostensibly to talk to Loki, but first I needed to talk to my brother. Luke had been blowing up my phone with texts and missed calls, but until now I hadn’t been in the position to answer them.
Or I just didn’t know what the fuck to say.
I shot a look around the clubhouse main room, but Luke wasn’t at the bar or the pool tables. Someone watched a cooking show on the big screen TV. I almost stopped to see how they made the perfect chocolate ganache, but I needed to talk to my brother about Haley more.
Where the hell is he? Not in Hell, obviously, but not in the kitchen, Neo’s Black Room, the offices in the back or the bathroom. I headed out to the pool, covered for winter, and found him standing at the far west end, leaning against the fence. He’d once told me he sometimes got “hot flashes” and needed to be outside away from people and heat. Given the cleared space in the snow around him, I’d say he’d had one.
“You all right, Luke?” I made sure to let him know I was coming. Sneaking up on Luke wasn’t advisable.
“Hey, it’s my little brother. Where the hell you been? Neo said you lit outta here like your ass was on fire.” Despite his jovial response, the twinkle was gone from his eyes.
“Yeah, I got to talk to you about that, but first tell me what’s going on. You look like the world is ending and you had no hand in it.”
Luke snorted, but his lips didn’t curl into a smile. “It’s Angelina.”
My gut sank. Angelina was the love of Luke’s life. She was a “fallen” angel, one of the Goddess’s messengers who’d chosen to live among the humans to do her part to make their existence better. But she’d settled in a little town in northern Michigan called Three Lakes and wouldn’t leave.
“What’s going on with her?” I settled against the top rail of the chain link fence.
“She told me my minions have overrun the world and she can’t keep up with it, and I need to do something about it.” He shook his head and scowled. “I don’t have minions. I work with Karma. What can I do about humans being awful to each other? They blame me, but I have no control over them.”
I frowned and rubbed the back of my head. “Have you told her about the real reason you became the Devil?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Whyever not? She’s your lady, your partner. Why haven’t you told her?”
“Because no one is supposed to know. That was the deal.”
“Except you told me.”
“You’re my brother and you’re here with me doing what we’re supposed to do.”
I clapped a hand to his shoulder. “So is she. You might try offering her that little tidbit about your past. She deserves to know about you.”
“Yeah.” Luke took a deep breath and shoved his emotions aside. “You figure your shit out about that woman you had hidden in your cabin?”
“About that.” I let my gaze slide over the snowcapped hills above us and tried to figure out how to tell my brother I’d found my One-and-Only when he was struggling with his own love. “I found a new tattoo.”
He narrowed his eyes. “A new tattoo? Of what?”
“A writing quill stabbed through a heart.”
“Where?”
“On my chest, under my warrior’s tattoo.” I tried to say more but the words wouldn’t come.
“What does it mean?” He met my gaze and held it, his expression stoic.
I shrugged, trying to downplay its significance.
“Come on, Michael. I know that look. You only get tattoos when it’s something significant that has either happened to you or you’ve done.” Luke narrowed his eyes. “What does it mean?”
I shifted my gaze away up the snowy mountainside. Karma had once told me Eric sat up there and watched the pool when he was trying to figure out how to talk to her. It could’ve been romantic or creepy, depending on which way he meant. I just wished there was a neon sign up there telling me what was coming because it felt like I’d stepped in some deep doo-doo and it wasn’t just gonna wash off my boots.
“I’m reasonably sure it means that Haley Michaels is truly my One-and-Only. She’s a journalist after all.”
“Fuuuuucccckkk.” Luke’s expletive came out on a long sigh. “Guess you were right about her scent. And she even has your name as a surname.” He shook his head. “You’ve known her, what, maybe fifty-four hours? When did the tattoo show up?”
“Early this morning.”
“After you did the horizontal mambo with her, I bet.” He smirked.
I nodded, not wanting to encourage him. “Yes.”
He sobered when I didn’t rise to the bait. “Have you told her who you really are?”
I sighed. “No. She’s not ready for that. She’s not even ready for the knowledge that we’re now bound for eternity, not just her lifespan.”
“You stupid tosser. She’s not going to like that the decision was taken out of her hands.”
I nodded again. “I know.”
“Have you talked to Loki?”
I shot him a dry look.
“Bloody hell.” He shook his head with a rueful laugh. “I’m not really surprised, you know. I figured she was someone special when you asked for my help getting connected with her.”
“You mean when you manipulated your way into “helping” me.”
He shrugged. “Hey, whatever works.”
“There’s another thing. People are after her because she witnessed a murder. One I reckon was perpetrated by Backlog.”
“Oh, good, I thought this was going to be easy.” He threw his hands out. “Now you gotta tell Loki.”
“What am I going to say? No worries, mate, it’ll be fine since she’s a reporter and we’re Elder Races, but she’ll keep the secret? Oh right, that’ll go over well.”
“Man, you done fucked up real good this time.”
“Thanks for the support, Luke.”
“Anytime, little brother.” He grinned and thumped me on the back before he sobered. “You know he’ll make her sign one of his creepy contracts.”
I nodded. That was what I was afraid of. The problem with Loki’s contracts was he always managed to find a way to weasel out of them. Or rather, uphold them his way, which didn’t benefit the signer at all. Haley was human and she wouldn’t understand what it meant to sign it.
Not unless I tell her who I am.
“So it seems to me you have a choice to make.” Luke shot me a sharp look. “You can either tell her who you are and all that entails, especially if Loki gets wind of it. Or you can let Haley go and walk away forever.”
I barked a disbelieving laugh and pointed to my left pec. “Did I mention the tattoo? There is no sodding walking away. She’s my One-and-Only, Luke.”
He nodded. “Then the choice is easy. You’re gonna have to tell her who you really are.”
“How in the bloody hell am I going to do that? It’s not like archangels are everywhere.”
Luke snorted. “Actually, they are. People pray to you all the time, don’t they?”
“Yeah, but they don’t actually believe we’re there, standing next to them. She’s not going to believe me.”
“Would you rather Loki told her?”
“Sweet glory, no. That would be a disaster.”
“Right, so when are you going to tell her?”
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to find a text from Haley. “Bloody hell. Haley’s cousin Jeff is coming here to ‘rescue’ her from us.”
“That’ll be entertaining.” Luke’s countenance had lightened and while I was glad he was feeling better, I wasn’t thrilled with his amusement. “Sounds like he’s got a white-knight complex for her.”
“I suspect it’s our reputation that calls for this kind of heroism.” I rubbed my hand over my face. “I gotta got talk to Loki.”
“You definitely need to talk to Loki. This shit’s only gonna get more complex if you don’t.” Luke clapped me on the shoulder. “I’ll let Flint and Quan-Yin know that a guy’s coming who
’s gonna make a stink at the gate and to let him in to talk to you.”
“Thanks.” We both headed back toward the clubhouse.
“Oh, don’t thank me. I’m gonna make popcorn ’cause this is gonna be good.” He grinned and ducked as I swiped at him.
Once inside the doors, we split ways and I looked for Loki. Normally, I had no problems dealing with the President of our club. Yes, I knew he was the true Norse God of Mischief, but he and I shared a level of understanding. He’d always be chaotic neutral and I’d always be lawful good with Luke being lawful evil. We balanced Loki out and made sure the system didn’t tilt one way or the other.
But I’d never had to face him with this kind of request on my own behalf before. The humans had relationships left and right, some settling for a quick shag and moving on while others settled with one or two others and stuck with them. But I’d never found anyone who captured my attention like Haley, and I had no earthly idea how Loki would react.
I found the prez in the kitchen poking at Grub’s cooking and irritating the daylights out of him. The chef stood back with his jaw tight and his beefy arms crossed over his chest, his eyes narrowed as he watched Loki stir something on the stove.
“Loki, might I have a word?”
The prez glanced up at me with his mixed color eyes and raised his russet eyebrows before lifting the spoon and tasting whatever bubbled in the pot. He grimaced and shot a look at Grub.
“Too much salt.”
Grub snarled. “Yeah, I know this. Because you added it. Get out of my kitchen.”
Loki grinned and sauntered out the door, nodding to me. As I drew abreast of him, he winked his pale green eye and shot me a secret smile. “He will now improve on the recipe. I just hope he remembers to write it down, ja?”
I snorted. If there was anything Grub didn’t joke about or mess up, it was cooking.
“So, what do you need to talk to me about, Michael? Might it have something to do with the pretty brown haired woman shacking up with you in your cabin?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised he knew about Haley already, but I thought I’d been discreet. The last thing I wanted was for him to take the piss out of me so I nodded.