“And who might this be?” she sniffed, touching Huxley’s arm as if to warn Dani that he belonged to her.
“Miranda Worthington, I’d like you to meet my wife, Dani.”
****
It was all Miranda could do not to clutch her heart. She turned to her one-time favorite boy-toy. “What is going on here, Huxley?” she demanded angrily. “You are not allowed a wife until I am through with you,” she snapped. “You know the rules.”
“And I’ve told you already, Miranda.” His mouth curled up in a snarl. “I am through with you.” Huxley moved away from her and hitched an arm over the pretty bitch’s shoulders.
“That is not for you to decide,” Miranda hissed. She turned to Dani and looked at her down her nose. “He has no money, you know,” Mrs. Worthington warned snappily. “I’ve given him everything he’s ever earned.” She took Dani’s measure once more. “And unless you can give him everything he wants on a waitress’ or prostitute’s salary,” she sniffed, “then I suggest you walk away for the eight months that young Mr. Abelard owes me.”
“Actually,” said the woman. “I’m a doctor.” She paused as if to let that settle for a few seconds, then added, “A surgeon to be exact.” She got right up into Miranda’s face as if taking a good long look at her. For some odd reason, Miranda felt like flinching, but she held herself erect. She’d be damned if the chit would get the better of this confrontation.
“Well, then, dear, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that makes me certain that you don’t know who you’ve hooked up with. There are certain things Huxley should have told you about himself before marrying you under false pretenses.” She couldn’t wait to tell the pretty young doctor that her new husband is a gigolo.
“Oh.” The young thing tapped a finger lightly to her plump little lips. “You mean the fact that some dried-up, old bitch, who can’t get a man to go down on her, paid Huxley money for a bunch of pity fucks?” She paused. “Or maybe the bitch has no actual skills or real friends so she resorted to selling him to make money and have people come to her parties?” She sent a wide-eyed look at Huxley. “Did I miss anything, dear?” The bitch of a doctor drew out the last word.
“No. That about covers it…sweetums.” Huxley blew his…ugh, wife…a kiss.
For the first times in her life, Miranda Worthington couldn’t find her tongue. What a horrid young lady. Miranda refused to listen to a word that came out of that filthy mouth. She recovered her aplomb, and spun to face Enlil. “So what are you doing here?” she asked, gathering back her dignity.
Enlil’s smile scared her to death. It appeared ancient, evil, and all knowing. Miranda suppressed a shiver.
“I’m here to make sure that you’re through bothering Huxley,” he said with a malevolence she couldn’t mistake. “You…” He cracked his knuckles purposefully. “Can make it easy or difficult.”
Miranda swallowed. She noted by his face which one he’d prefer. But she was not a stupid woman. “Well, of course.” She laughed, and noted that her voice came out in a rather high register. “Taking into consideration the happy circumstances,” she indicated Dani, and tried to conjure a natural smile. “I’m more than willing to let the dear boy out of his commitments.” Until I can find you without your bodyguard and bring some muscle of my own. She was not without resources.
“That’s just what I wanted to hear.” Enlil came over and took the woman’s arm. “Now let’s go get any paperwork you might have that says differently. We’ll make sure you get rid of it, shall we?”
“Well, I…” She needed to lie and say it wasn’t on premise, but Enlil tightened his hold ever so slightly and snarled.
“Huxley says you have a safe where you keep everything.”
Damn. She should have known to be more careful with that kind of information.
Huxley pointed to a painting of a young, nude male. “Behind that.” His voice and look grew dead cold.
Miranda knew when she’d been bested. She shrugged off Enlil’s hand and walked as graciously as possible toward the safe. Once opened, she shuffled through the contents and procured Huxley’s file out of a pile she had tucked away. She turned to give it to Enlil, and found herself staring deep into eyes that bored right down to her very core.
“Now you’re going to do a few things for me, Miranda.” She wanted to disagree, but found herself nodding in the affirmative.
“Take the rest of the files from your safe.” She turned and did as he bid.
“Is that all of them?” Enlil asked in a conversational tone. “Every boy that you’re screwing or selling out?”
“Yes. This is all.” She felt like pleasing the handsome young thing, and removed a pile of seventeen folders
“You keep those for a minute,” he told her. “And have a nice comfortable seat at your desk.”
Miranda obeyed.
“Do you keep your checkbook handy?” Enlil asked, sitting on the edge of the desk nearest to her. His thigh looked delectable, and Miranda thought momentarily of caressing it, but that quickly disappeared from her head. She really needed to answer Enlil’s questions and please him.
“It’s right here in the bottom drawer,” she said in the voice she saved for her newest recruits.
Enlil gave her a warm look, and she felt it all the way to her toes. “Why don’t you get it out and we’ll see how much money you have on hand.”
“Why, I already know that, silly boy. I have more than three hundred and seventy-thousand dollars in this account,” she told him. “My other checkbook has more, but it’s with my attorney. If you want me to call him…”
“No,” Enlil spoke calmly. “That won’t be necessary,” he assured. “What I want you to do is make out a check for twenty-thousand dollars to each of the boys from your files. Do you have their addresses?”
“Certainly.” She wondered how Enlil could doubt her. “I’m very thorough.” By itself, her hand began writing checks. Well, wasn’t that convenient.
She wrote while the trio waited for her to finish, then addressed envelopes, and put on stamps.
“How’s that?” she beamed, waiting for his approval.
“Very nice, Miranda,” Enlil told her. “Dani. If you could take these from Mrs. Worthington, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you mailed them.” Dani came forward with a grin and picked up the small pile.
“Now we’re almost finished,” Enlil assured her. Miranda didn’t mind the busywork. She was more than happy to do anything he wanted. But wait. She felt so sleepy all of a sudden. A blank slate seemed to lower in front of her mind’s eye as Enlil stared at her.
After several minutes, Enlil…that was his name, wasn’t it? He told her, “You’re a little sleepy now, Miranda. You need to put your head down on the desk and rest for a half hour. That will give us time to destroy your files and wipe the memory of your maid before we head back to the Blue Hills.
Miranda’s head felt so heavy, it dropped to the desk. She really needed a nap.
****
Huxley let out a sigh of relief as his ex-employer began snoring. “What did you tell her?”
Enlil laughed and buffed his nails on the front of his shirt. “I’m so good at this,” he bragged. “I wiped her memory clean of you and her escapades with all of the other young men. As far as she’s concerned, she’s a philanthropist who helps young men get a foot up in life by subsidizing them with money toward either an education or a business. If she’s questioned by any of her former young men, or the women she’s sold them to, she’ll be justifiably outraged and immediately threaten to call her lawyer, who doesn’t have a clue as to how Miranda makes her money, so he’ll stick by her.”
Huxley was just glad it was over for him and for all of her other hapless victims. “She got away from all this a little too easily.” He wasn’t complaining, but she’d been such a manipulative bitch. “I guess I thought there might be a bit more we could do.
Enlil laughed. Maybe in a few days I’ll let you in on somethin
g. He said it for only Huxley’s head. Just not in front of Dani.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“They’re still out there,” Marduk let him know.
Huxley didn’t care. He nuzzled the side of his bride’s neck. Would he ever get enough of how she smelled and tasted? They’d spent the last two days shacked up in his room, getting to know every inch of each other. He felt like he’d never tire of the delicious doctor, but having come up for air and food, he’d been made aware that they still had company outside the compound’s barriers.
Lahar shook his head at them all as Candy strode into the room. He’d finally convinced Marduk that they needed her input. She perused the monitors and made her mouth into a thin, blank line, crossing her arms over her chest and refusing to speak.
“I don’t know what they think they can find,” Marduk groused, “But this is day two, and your fellow DEA agents haven’t given up yet.”
“They have to leave sooner or later.” Huxley looked at the seven men outside now in a huddle toward the back of the compound, then turned his head to Candy. “Right?” he asked, his arm still draped around Dani.
She remained silent.
“Bring up the stills for Candy.” Marduk crossed his bulging biceps over his large chest.
Lahar gave Candy an apologetic smile. He stalked to the nearest computer where he enlarged a shot of each of the men’s faces.
“Want to tell us who they are?”
Candy shrugged. She didn’t look happy, but she finally complied.
“This one here,” Candy pointed to the third guy from the left who sported a crew cut and a square jaw, “is my boss, Jake Marsthall—”
Marduk interrupted, “Lahar, would you take all this down?” The god typed on the nearest keyboard.
“He’s the only one of us that doesn’t have a nickname,” Candy continued.
“So that means you do?” Enlil’s voice surprised them all. Nobody had seen him enter the room. Huxley could tell that he immediately raised Candy’s hackles. Clearly the wind god couldn’t help but poke at the hornet’s nest that was Candy. “Tell me. What’s yours?”
“Fuck off, asshole,” she retorted. “Which, by the way, is what we call Jake in place of a nickname.” She turned glowering eyes to Enlil. “It could easily be transferred to you,” Candy told the unrepentant, arrogant god. “Unless you prefer douche bag?”
Enlil shrugged indifferently. He didn’t look the least bit ruffled.
“Can we continue?” Marduk shook his head at the two of them, and Huxley gleaned his impatience. Why couldn’t the pair play nice?
Candy’s finger played over the first picture. “Ken Dunsky,” she said. “Nickname, Dunce. But when I get a hold of him, his name is shit. He’s the one who sold me out to Worthington. Something that my boss is not going to be happy to find out. Loose lips on the team are considered deadly.”
She continued down the line, indicating a young, gray-haired man. “Mike Pelwick, who we call Gramps, for obvious reasons. He hates it but puts up with us.” Hux could see her mood lighten as she talked about her team. She actually chuckled.
“Here’s Coby Leopold or Cub.” She worked her finger over the next few pictures. “Emiliano Santavera, better known as Flick; Zion Blanell, or Z; and Jett Pahuyama who’s the fastest son of a bitch I’ve ever seen up until you guys,” she acknowledged. “We call him JP, which are his initials, but they also stand for Jet Propulsion.” She turned to Marduk, and Huxley could hear the pride in her voice. “Those are my guys.”
She stood back and looked at the group on the live monitor, where they remained crouched, dealing with something on the ground.
“You really need to let me go out to talk to them,” Candy warned. “I have a bad feeling about this. That could be a bomb or… I can’t tell whether Flick is the hands-on guy for whatever the fuck is on the ground between them. He’d our incendiary device man. Flick gets his name for the way he nonchalantly tosses a match at anything that needs to be lit.”
“Sorry, Candy.” Marduk put a hand on her shoulder, ignoring the small wave of something that came from Enlil. “I’m not sending anyone out. Right now, all they have are some readings and a suspicion we exist. If you walk out there, they know for certain there’s a place they can’t see. You say your boss is tenacious? Well, I am too, and if I found something cloaked from the entire human world, I wouldn’t be able to let the secret of what’s inside get away from me.”
Candy nodded. “I know that you’re right, but I also know Jake. He’s not going to let it go until I appear. Look. He’s set up camp.” She indicated another monitor that showed they’d bivouacked between some granite boulders. “He doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”
“Well, we’ll just have to discourage him then.” It was cold outside, but not the normal cold for December. Huxley nearly laughed at the picture in Marduk’s head. They had a god who could enhance the outdoor agent’s discomfort. Enten. Computer room, please, Marduk barked.
The god of winter misted in a few minutes later, his braids and dreads askew, his chest naked and his pajama bottoms on backward. Enlil smirked. “Sorry we burned your chill, man.”
Enten’s lips twitched. He looked mellower than usual. “Had to come up for a thaw sometime.” He quipped, and the two men did an impromptu high-five.
“You guys are so juvenile,” Dani groused, but couldn’t keep a smile off her face. She liked being in the thick of the guys’ banter.
Marduk ignored their behavior. “You’ve been easy on New England this year, Enten.”
“I’m a newlywed,” Enten agreed, shrugging. “I’ve been in a really good mood.”
“Well, it isn’t normal to have a balmy December, and with our California friends visiting, I believe they need to experience a real Massachusetts winter. Between the three of us,” Marduk indicated himself, Enlil, and Enten, “We should be able to conjure a storm that will give them a healthy appreciation for East Coast heartiness.”
Everyone looked at each other and grinned.
Huxley stood back to enjoy the show. Marduk started things off with a distant roll of thunder. Not to be outdone, Enlil conjured a light, biting north wind. Enten sat down, scootched a keyboard aside, and put his feet up on the desk. Steepling his fingers, he leaned back and as Huxley watched, gentle flakes began to fall on the team of seven.
“You’ve got to be shitting me?” Candy looked at the trio, shaking her head, then turned an eye to Lahar. “And just what is it that you do?”
Lahar laughed. “Don’t look at me.” He put up both hands. “I do logic and cattle so, unless you want it to rain cows, leave me out of this.” He looped an arm over her shoulder, but a blast of wind pushed him back.
Fine. Fine. I didn’t know you’d called dibs, Lahar apologized to Enlil. I was just seeing if she might be interested. Lahar pouted. If you find that your girlfriend isn’t to your liking…
She’s not my girlfriend, Enlil denied way too quickly, Huxley thought. If I do decide to make a move, I just…I don’t think she’d like to be treated like a bone between two dogs.
Arf. Arf. Lahar sent back. Let me know when you’re through marking her so I can have a shot.
The wind picked up outside dramatically.
Marduk looked over at Enlil and scowled before increasing his thunder. He added some lightening. “Stop messing around. I’m supposed to do my bit first,” he complained. “You know, move the storm in slowly. Thunder gets closer. Wind picks up. How many thousands of years have we been doing this?”
Enten sighed. “Well, since you guys aren’t going to play nice.” He took his feet off the desk, and within minutes, blizzard conditions raged outside.
“That should do it.” Enten clapped his hands. “Can I go back to bed?”
The storm darkened the sky almost completely, but the group who remained warm inside observed the huddle of men in the elements move off to their camp. Huxley lost sight of them in the lashing snow.
“I think we ca
n all relax for the rest of the evening.” Marduk waved Enten out of the room. “They won’t move from their shelter to do any more reconnaissance tonight.”
Emesh’s voice made the announcement. Popcorn and sci-fi movie marathon in the living room.
“Sounds good to me.” Enlil and Marduk turned around. “You guys coming?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Dani tugged on Huxley’s arm.
“I’ll stay here,” Lahar said. “Not that I’ll be able to see anything.”
“Wait. What?” Candy looked confused. “Where are you all going?” They had all forgotten that Candy hadn’t been privy to the transmission. Her god-hearing popped in and out without warning.
“Movie and popcorn for a stormy night. Emesh says he even has a fire going in the fireplace.” Marduk suddenly seemed jolly.
Hux let out a sigh. They needed some downtime after the last few months of dealing with Beletseri and a missing queen. If not for the agents lurking on their outskirts, life could almost be considered back to normal.
****
“I say we go for it.” Cub clearly wasn’t afraid of a little snow. As an albino, he’d always been more comfortable when the sun didn’t shine, and Jake figured he’d begun to like this New England blackout weather.
Flick stuck his head up out of their shelter into the biting wind and took a sniff. “They have a fire going,” he confirmed Jake’s suspicions. “Whoever they are, they’re all cozied up in front of some flames while Candyland is probably tied up in a damp basement somewhere,” he grumbled, clearly wanting to tell Jake to man-up and head back out into the snow.
Yeah? And he’d end up eating his own balls if he second guessed him one more time. Jake Marsthall itched, anxious to get moving too, but not at the expense of a screw-up. “Do you think it’s ready?” He looked to Z, his main tech guy.
“As ready as it’s going to be.” Z shrugged. Jake had been told they stood only a fifty-fifty chance it would work anyway. He shrugged. Now or never. He didn’t see how clear weather would make things any better.
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