I felt zero surprise on him that Solonik had followed him.
Black might have even gone down there partly for that reason, deliberately baiting Solonik to come after him. Trying to lure him away from me. Or maybe trying to tempt him to try and move Lawless’s grandson, Pete, before Black’s people could get to him.
I decided he probably was doing at least one of those things.
Or more likely, all of them.
It’s fine, he assured me. Thanks for the head’s up. I’ll contact you in a bit, doc.
Goddamn it, Black––
But he’d pushed me firmly out of his mind.
Before I could try and speak to him again, he’d closed some kind of door between us.
After I tried a few more times to get through, I found myself staring at the water again, breathing harder as I fought to think. Farraday watched me with overt concern now, but I ignored his worried stare, looking over my shoulder and once more watching Kiko and the other guard where they sat under the shade of the building.
I didn’t have a lot of time.
Twelve
FAMILY
“HI,” I SAID, smiling as I approached their table.
I’d brought my second cappuccino with me, thinking it might make me appear calmer, more rational. I knew, above all, I would need to come across as both reasoning and non-reactionary, as someone thinking with their head, not due to trauma and fear. If they decided I was having some kind of PTSD panic reaction to what had happened to me, they would definitely blow off anything I said about Black’s safety.
From the wary look on Kiko’s face, and her glance at the broad-shouldered man sitting next to her, I could tell my attempted nonchalance didn’t really work.
I sank down on the chair across from the two of them, placing my cup and saucer on the table.
“I wondered if I could talk to you...the two of you,” I added, including the man with a glance when he looked up. “Farraday tells me you’re my protective detail.”
Kiko darted a second look at her companion, another of Black’s tattooed, ex-military-looking guys, an African-American man maybe in his mid-thirties who I also recognized from San Francisco. He smiled at me in a friendly way, giving me a chin-nod before he went back to decimating the plate of eggs, bacon, pancakes and sausage that sat on the table in front of him.
I guess I wasn’t the only one who’d been hungry.
“Talk away, doc,” he said, after swallowing another mouthful of pancake. He aimed his fork at my chest. “So long as it’s not, ‘I’d like to leave your sight for a few seconds later this morning,’ or ‘hey, can you two come with me to buy some new shoes anywhere but the hotel lobby’ or ‘can I go touring?’...we’re all ears.”
He grinned at me when I started, frowning. Then he gave me a wink.
“Black warned us about you, doc,” he said. “He said you’re smart enough to talk a rabbit into thinking it could fight a german shepherd. He also said he’d make sure neither of us was equipped to have children ever again if we let you out of our sight––or out of this hotel––for even a fraction of a fraction of a second. So don’t even think about using that smooth tongue of yours on either of us. The answer is no.”
He waved his fork over the pool.
“...You can go for a swim. You can get a massage, but we’re going to be right there with you, in the room. You can take a nap, but one of us will be planted on a chair next to the bed...the other will be right outside your door. Expect to get really really used to seeing us, Ms. Fox, pretty much anywhere you intend to be. Kiks here claims she’s even going to follow you into the toilet...and Kiks doesn’t joke, doc. Not about work. Not ever.”
Kiko nodded from next to him, stretching out her tanned legs and giving me an equally friendly smile. The look in her eyes was, if anything, even less compromising than the look in her partner’s.
“Dex is correct,” she confirmed. “I don’t joke.”
Exhaling in some irritation, I sat back in my chair. “This isn’t about me.”
The man Kiko called “Dex” looked at me in surprise. “The hell it isn’t,” he said. “Until that fucker’s in the ground, doc...or behind bars, something...it’s all about you. For me and Kiks, too. Sure as fuck for Black. You’ve become the center of our little world, isn’t that right, Kiko?”
“That is correct,” she confirmed. “The goddamned center.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t bring myself to smile at the joke, as much as I could feel them trying to pull me that way. Instead my mouth firmed in impatience.
“What if I told you Black is in danger?” I said. “What if I wanted you to put a protective detail on him? Right now, I mean...at the docks.”
Dex looked up. Obviously suppressing both surprise and a smile, he glanced at Kiko. Kiko didn’t return the smile part of his expression, or the disbelief, but she raised a questioning eyebrow at him in return. Shrugging, Dex looked back at his plate.
He didn’t manage to keep the humor out of his voice.
“Well, doc,” he drawled, still friendly. “I’d be prompted to ask you if you forgot who the boss is around here. And maybe whether you’d actually met Black, if you think he’d let us put a detail on him.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” I said, my voice equally even. “And I’ve met him. But Black doesn’t have all the information in this case. He also isn’t willing to listen to me about this right now because he’s too angry about what was done to me...”
Seeing Kiko and Dex exchange looks again, that time with discomfort in their traded expressions, I bit my lip. I hadn’t been playing that card on purpose, and wished I hadn’t said it, truthfully. It wouldn’t benefit me to remind them of what happened to me, not right now.
I deliberately calmed my voice again before continuing.
“What if I told you Solonik wants Black to come after him?” I said. “That he’s actively hoping for it, in fact?” Feeling Dex’s dismissal, I fought the frustration out of my voice with an effort when I added, “What if I told you he’s stalking Black right now?”
“I’d ask how you could possibly know that, doc,” Dex said mildly, giving me a level look.
“Because I know Solonik.”
Dex shook his head though, looking back at his food.
I pressed my lips together, looking between the two of them. I knew this was the rub. I had no way to tell them how I knew. Or how real-time my data truly was.
“What if I just asked you to trust me that I’m telling the truth?” I said. “That I’m not overreacting? That I’m genuinely worried about him?”
Dex let out an uncomfortable laugh, exchanging looks with Kiko.
“Look, doc. I know you’re fond of Black. We all are––”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“––And I didn’t mean that to be belittling,” Dex said, his voice warning. “But I don’t think you fully understand. It’s not just about you anymore. Or even just about Black.”
I looked between him and Kiko, frowning. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Dex sighed, watching me, his hands folded above his plate, his elbows on the table.
“Look, if you need me to pull rank on you, doc, I can do that,” he said, shaking his head. He went back to sawing into his pancake with his knife and fork. “You don’t sign my checks. Black does. You also seem less likely to stab me if I let you distract me from my job.” His coffee-colored eyes met mine. “But the truth is, I agree with Black, doc. I’d do the same whether he was paying me or not. Any of us here would.”
I looked at Kiko. Her face was harder to read. So was her mind for some reason. Even so, I could tell she agreed with what Dex had said. She agreed with Black, too.
“So you don’t even want possible intelligence from me?” I said, looking back at Dex.
“What intelligence would that be, doc?”
Both he and Kiko looked at me with sharper eyes.
I clenched my jaw, realizing that they both alre
ady thought I was having some kind of panic reaction from what Solonik had done to me. They didn’t believe my fears were real. They thought I’d made Solonik into the bogeyman in my mind.
Moreover, both of them thought I was sleeping with Black.
More than sleeping with him––they thought I was Black’s girlfriend.
Apparently that was unusual enough in and of itself that it was making Black’s entire team hyper-protective of me. On Black’s behalf, sure, but it was a strange thing to feel on relative strangers, regardless. Moreover, I knew it wouldn’t make this easier, it would make it harder.
I had no choice but to try, though.
“I know who he works for,” I said, frustrated. “Solonik. They aren’t the kind of people that even Black can take on and win, not by himself. Black has said as much to me––”
“Black can handle one asshole mercenary, doc. Don’t you worry.”
I started to argue, but Dex cut me off, resting his hands on either side of his plate.
“What makes you think this fucker could even dream about getting close to Black?” he said, gesturing with his fork towards the pool. “Are you really not paying attention to how seriously Mr. Black takes this issue, Ms. Fox?”
“I’m paying attention.” Frustration and now anger gritted my teeth. “But anyone can get hit by a sniper...you know that as well as I do.”
“You think Black doesn’t know that? Why the fuck do you think he’s got eyes on every entrance to this building?”
“I’m saying it might not be enough,” I said. “More than that, I’m saying I might not be the target. Are you hearing me on that at all?”
“I heard you.”
“But you’re just going to completely blow me off?”
Dex stared at me from over his plate, his lips sliding down in a puzzled frown. He glanced at Kiko, who was watching me with an even denser scrutiny.
Dex sighed then, turning back to his food. After taking a bite of bacon, he waved the fork at me again. “Stop angling, doc. Just spit it out. What is it you want from me, exactly?”
I bit my lip harder. “There’s no goddamned angle,” I said unable to control my temper that time. “I’m being as transparent as I can possibly be. Black’s not safe. He should not be out there alone. He’s playing right into what Solonik wants...”
Dex let out a disbelieving laugh. “So fucking what?”
“So what?” I stared at him. “Are you really willing to risk your boss’s life like that?”
Dex shrugged, focusing back on his food. Even so, something about his non-answer made me look between him and Kiko again.
“What happened this morning exactly?” I said. “When Solonik came to the hotel? Did he and Black communicate in any way?”
Neither of them answered me.
Anger slowly built in my chest. I found myself picking bits and pieces off them, using my psychic ability deliberately now. I felt enough off both of them to know I was right.
“Did Solonik call Black out? Challenge him in some way?” When they didn’t answer me again, I had to fight to control my anger. “You know I served too, right? That even more recently, I worked for the police? Homicide, no less. I’m not just some piece of furniture you’re guarding for Black. I have experience in this. Almost ten years.”
Dex stuffed a piece of pancake into his mouth and winked at me with coffee-colored eyes as he chewed. Swallowing, he said, “Doc, I’m telling you, you don’t need to worry. Really. No disrespect...we all know you know your shit, and Black has said repeatedly that you’re smart as fuck, like I said. But I also know you’ve been through a lot, and you’re new to how Black does things. Trust me. He knows what he’s doing.”
“What exactly does that mean?” I said coldly.
“It means this confrontation was going to happen, doc,” Dex said, aiming his fork at me again, his eyes serious. “With or without your consent. Maybe you haven’t figured it out yet, but Black protects his own. You’re family now. Because you’re family, this vodka-swilling fuckhead crossed a big goddamned line with all of us...but especially with Black. The guy needs killing. End of story.” Waving his fork vaguely again, he focused back on his food. “Not a single one of us disagrees with Black on that, doc. Not one.”
I glanced at Kiko, and saw a similar fire blazing in her eyes.
Exhaling, I leaned deeper into my chair, fighting back my fury for real, knowing it would only make them even less likely to listen to me. I could feel enough off both of them to know they weren’t stonewalling me to be assholes. They both felt sorry for me. They were both worried about me. They both took their jobs deadly seriously, too––including, if not especially, the job of protecting me for Black while he went after Solonik.
They also both thought I was being completely alarmist.
They thought the idea that Black might be in danger was ludicrous. Dex had been telling the truth about Black threatening them in regards to me, but he’d also been telling the truth when he said the whole team took what Solonik had done personally.
Dex and Kiko weren’t even the only ones Black tasked with guarding me. They were just the two doing it out in the open.
There was no way I could get past all of them.
Truthfully, I didn’t want to. I wanted their help.
“What if you just sent part of the team out there to keep an eye on Black?” I said. “If you’ve got as many people here as you say, you don’t need all of them at the hotel, right? Send a second team out to watch his back. That’s all I’m asking. Do it to humor me, for fuck’s sake.”
Dex dropped his utensils again, staring at me. “What are you smoking, doc? There is no ‘second team.’ There’s the one team. The one line. You are behind it.”
I looked away, gripping the arms of my chair. I’d gotten that, too.
I was behind the line, as Dex said.
The problem was, Black was on the other side of it.
“You have more people than you need here just to guard me,” I said, clenching my jaw. “What could be the possible harm of sending a group out to spot Black?”
“Black doesn’t want our help, doc,” Dex said, shaking his head, adamant. “He’ll welcome this fucker coming at him with open arms, don’t you get that? None of us is going to deprive him of that. Certainly not me.”
I felt my jaw harden more.
When I glanced at Kiko, she was looking at me more thoughtfully, but I still saw shimmers of that anger in her dark eyes, as well. Not anger at me. Anger at Solonik. Anger that, in her view, Solonik had made me so afraid. And she was right of course...I was afraid. But she wasn’t entirely right, and that was where the circular conversation was making me nuts.
As far as they were concerned, the situation was simple.
They were going to sit here and wait for Black to kill Solonik.
They weren’t going to do anything that might get between Black and his right to take care of the Solonik problem personally. Their job, as they saw it, was to make sure Solonik didn’t get near me while Black was out hunting. They saw themselves as guarding the home nest while Black got revenge for the rest of the family.
They were proud of that.
I was still trying to decide what to say, how I might come at it differently, when a burst of static from Dex’s walkie-talkie caused me to look over.
“Receiving,” Dex said, once he’d lifted the microphone to his lips.
“He’s back,” the voice on the other end said. “Code red. Rasputin’s here.”
I didn’t have to ask them what that meant.
Thirteen
CODE RED
TERROR POOLED IN my gut, turning my body cold, even under the noonday sun. I barely knew where I was as hands caught hold of my arms, pulling me to my feet and then steering me through the glass doors and inside the hotel building. I’d barely managed to focus my eyes, to pull my mind back on line, when Black’s voice rose in my head.
Miri! Miri! Are you there?
I
’m here, I told him. ...I’m here.
Fighting an irrational wave of relief at feeling him there, I swallowed when a sharp wave of his fear hit my mind. My own fear worsened in those few seconds, thickening my tongue when it echoed against Black’s. I started to say more to him, to calm us both down maybe, when another voice rose loudly in my head.
Beautiful, ilya...you are waiting for me?
I let out a low cry, biting my tongue hard enough to taste blood.
Next to me, Kiko gripped my arm, alarm bleeding through her fingers. I barely felt it. I might have blacked out for those few seconds. I felt more happening around me, some kind of struggle in the silence around my mind.
I felt Black in that, and I felt...
Him. The other.
I couldn’t even make myself think his name.
Black’s mind once more rose in mine.
Miri...listen to me. His voice came out low and cold, hard as metal. Miri, he’s in the building. We don’t have much time. I need you to get the fuck out of there. Now. I’ll tell Kiko and Dex..they won’t want to leave you, but they’ll listen to me. You need to go now, while I’m shielding all three of you. If Solonik hacks their minds, they’ll do what he says. Do you hear me? You won’t be able to trust them anymore, Miri...I need you to understand that...
I felt my fear turn into full-blown panic.
Black’s presence strengthened, steadying me.
You can do this. Kiko will give you a gun. Take it. And take the money they give you. Use it to get as far away from the hotel as you possibly fucking can...
I felt my panic worsen, wanting to turn back into paralysis.
Immediately, Black’s presence grew stronger.
He smacked me in some way I almost felt, snapping me out.
Miri! His thoughts grew harder, as clear as if he stood right next to me. You can do this. I’ll guide you out. If you lose my voice, take alleys and backyards. Don’t look at street signs. Don’t look at anything that might be a landmark, Miri...anything Solonik might use to find you. Don’t look at faces. Don’t get in a cab unless you can do it without interacting with the driver. You’re better off with buses...or better yet, trains. Don’t interact with anyone that Solonik can gear into and use to hold you. Let me find you through the GPS, okay? I’m coming for you right now. Right now, Miri...I swear to the gods, I’m on my way.
Black As Night (Quentin Black Mystery #2) Page 19