The Lady in Pink - Deadly Ever After 2

by J. A. Kazimer

  No way in hell would I let him use Izzy again.

  Not while there was electricity still left in my body.

  Not too surprisingly, the rest of my day in Fairyland didn’t go much better than the first part. Every nondrunken fairy I approached claimed no knowledge of anything amiss in Fairyland, let alone a rash of missing compatriots. And every drunken fairy tried to knock my teeth in, and usually wound up rocked by fifty thousand volts for their trouble.

  Right and Left proved useless to boot.

  They didn’t even try to protect me from those drunken attacks.

  When I said as much, holding a hand to the bite wound on my thigh, Right just looked at me and smiled. “Isabella asked us to protect you from death.”

  I frowned. “So why aren’t you helping me?”

  “She didn’t say anything about stopping you from getting a well-deserved ass kicking.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, shocking a fairy with orange wings and equally bright carrot-colored eyebrows who was leaping up and down, trying to punch me in the teeth. His small body went rigid, and then he dropped to the concrete. I stepped over him, continuing on my quest to find any fairy willing to talk to me.

  CHAPTER 14

  Three hours later, after a few attempts to learn anything from the fairies, I blew out a sigh along with a stream of cigarette smoke. I’d approached at least fifty fairies, but not one would talk to me, let alone discuss what they considered fairy business. I was an outsider. I always had been, and I always would be. Most of the time this fact didn’t bother me. I liked being a lone wolf. But I needed help to find the missing fairies before someone dusted them to death. Since the fairies weren’t talking, I had to think outside the fairy box.

  That left me with one alternative. And not a good one at that. There was only one person in all of New Never City with her sheep in every dirty deal—Little Bo Peep. Considering our history, calling her for information wasn’t the brightest move.

  But Bo was a businesswoman at heart. She would sell her entire flock to a slaughterhouse for the right price. While her greedy nature made for a less-than-pleasant friendship, it worked in my favor when it came to buying intel.

  With one small exception.

  Bo Peep refused to answer any questions about my past. About who I was or where my electrical curse had come from. That, in itself, pissed me off; then add in her selling me out to the leader of the Shadows and his minions last year, which very nearly resulted in my death, and we weren’t on the best of terms. But I had a pocket full of cash and a desire for what only Bo could provide—as long as I didn’t turn my back, for I was fairly sure she’d plunge the closest sharpened object between my shoulder blades without a second thought.

  Crushing my cigarette under the heel of my boot, I pulled out my cell phone, preparing to call Bo Peep. Before I could start to dial, my phone gave a shrill ring. I jerked up, nearly dropping the phone before I checked the caller ID.

  Bo Peep’s name and number flashed across the screen.

  “What the hell?” I said to myself, and then answered the call. “Bo?” I asked in lieu of greeting, my voice only slightly unsteady. Was Peep some kind of mind reader? I shuddered at the thought.

  “Well, well, Blue Reynolds, it’s been a while,” her voice slithered through the line.

  Ignoring her comment, I said, “What do you want?”

  She laughed. “What? No, ‘Hi, Bo, how are you? How’s the flock?’ I thought we were friends.”

  It was my turn to laugh. “How about, what the hell do you want?”

  “I’m hurt,” she said sounding anything but. “Remember the fun we used to have together?” I remembered some electrically charged encounters, two of which left me with rug burns in various places and no ready explanation for how they’d gotten there. But that was a long time ago. I was no longer the same guy. I’d matured. “I remember a lot of things . . .”

  “Do I have to apologize?” she purred. “You know how much I hate to say I’m sorry.”

  I laughed. “Not nearly as much as I hate getting the shit beat out of me because you sold me down the Hansel River.”

  “Aww, did Blue get a boo-boo?”

  “Cut the shit, Bo. What do you want?”

  “It’s not what I want . . .” She gave a small, husky laugh. “Come to my place and I’ll give you just what you need,” she said in a silken whisper, and my blood detoured south to my nether, blue-haired regions. It was the last place I wanted to be warmed by Bo Peep.

  I cleared my throat. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Probably not,” she said. “But it is the only way I’ll tell you what happened to your little friend. You know ... the extra-crispy one.”

  Even as I boarded the elevator that would whisk me to Bo Peep’s penthouse apartment in the sky, I shook my head, knowing full well whatever was about to happen wouldn’t bode well for my physical and likely mental health. Thankfully I’d managed to ditch Right and Left in Fairyland an hour earlier, so there would be no witnesses to my downward spiral. For fairyguards, the two were pretty damn easy to ditch. I simply pointed up the street, said, “Is that a molar?” and took off in the opposite direction.

  The elevator dinged, and I straightened to my full height. I rubbed my fingers together, generating enough of a spark to fry whatever Peep had lying in wait. With a whoosh the doors opened in a luxurious and expensively decorated penthouse apartment. Floor-to-ceiling windows reflected the orange glow of the sunset over the city below, showering the room in streaks of gold. The intense beauty had nothing on the woman standing in front of me. Little Bo Peep was everything a man could want in a woman—platinum blond straight from the bottle, stacked, and with questionable morals. She wore her hair long, curling around her shoulders. Bare shoulders.

  To go along with the bare rest of her.

  I blew out a shallow breath, trying my damnedest to tear my gaze from the lush swells of her tanned body.

  “What took you so long? I was beginning to worry,” she said, motioning me past her nakedness and into the penthouse. I stepped out of the elevator, careful to avoid brushing any part of my body against hers. My bluish arm hair rose with electricity and more than a little lust. Thankfully, for the moment, the hairs were the only things to rise to attention. Giving in to lust wasn’t a great idea, not with Bo. I needed to keep my head if I wanted to get out of here alive. “Can I get you a drink?” she asked, motioning to an array of dark-colored liquor bottles. “A forty-year-old scotch, perhaps?”

  “I’m not here for a drink.”

  Her mouth lifted into a sultry smirk. “Just what are you here for, Blue?”

  “Answers would be nice.” I walked to the window, more to take my mind off what Bo was so kindly offering than because of a desire to study the cityscape below, even if both views were spectacular. I stared down at the people scurrying home after a long day a hundred stories below. In that moment I felt like a part of something rather than apart from it. I turned back to the very naked Bo Peep. “What do you know about James’s death?”

  She shook her finger at me. “Foreplay first, Blue. You know my rules.”

  I grinned, reaching into my pants to give her what she wanted.

  Her eyes grew hot, and she wetted her lips, which glistened like rubies in the fading light.

  “Two grand enough?” I pulled my wallet out, counting the bills I’d pulled out of the ATM under her watchful, greedy gaze. When I had the right amount I waved it toward her. She made no move to take it. My suspicion immediately mounted as my eyes narrowed. “What’s your game, Bo?”

  She sighed, long and loud, making sounds almost like a moans of pleasure. “We used to be friends. I miss that.” Her eyes burned into mine as if her intensity would be enough to convince me that she was telling the truth. Hell, I had my doubts that Bo knew what honesty was, let alone how to wield it. “I miss you,” she said with a pretty, single tear glimmering in her eye.

  “And yet you betrayed
me.” I shrugged, ignoring her tears and the way her breasts rose and fell with her every breath. The latter was a little more difficult to dismiss, but I managed to do so before I lost my head and took her to bed. I cleared my throat. “Can’t say I’m real interested in reliving our past.”

  A frown marred her otherwise perfect features, the first genuine emotion to cross her face since I walked into the room. “This is about her, isn’t it?”

  “Her?”

  She laughed with a surprising amount of bitterness. “You damn well know I’m talking about Isabella, your little fairy girlfriend. She’s ruined you, Blue.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She took two steps forward, her hips swaying in a hypnotic beat. “You used to be fun.”

  “Not that I don’t trust your motives,” I said sarcastically, “but your sudden concern for my merriment makes me wonder.”

  Her eyelashes fluttered prettily. “About?”

  “Why am I here?”

  “Fine,” she said, grabbing a crimson silk robe from the back of a shiny leather sofa. She wrapped it around her, tying the sash tightly before answering. “I wanted to apologize for that thing that happened ... you know ... with the Shadows . . .”

  “You mean the trying-to-murder-me thing?” For a very brief second I wondered if Bo was the blond woman the Ferns claimed to have seen discussing my murder. As quickly as the thought crossed my mind, I dismissed it. Bo wasn’t the type to be seen in a dive fairy bar. She was much more likely to hire a killer out of the back of a fashion magazine.

  She gave an exaggerated eye roll, one that did nothing to diminish her looks. “Don’t be a drama queen. You’re still alive . . .”

  “. . . and you got paid,” I finished for her. “If you really want to make things right, you’ll have to answer a question for me. With complete honesty.” I paused, enjoying her game for the first time since I’d arrived. “And for free.”

  “Blue,” she said. Her tongue darted out, licking her lips. “Some things you are better off never knowing. It’s for your own good. Trust me.”

  Trust her? Yeah, right. I held up my hand. “I was talking about James’s murder, Bo. Not my past.” As moments ticked by in silence, I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn’t here by accident. Bo Peep wanted something from me, something other than the cash in my pocket.

  What exactly, I wasn’t sure.

  I gazed deeply into her lying eyes. “You have no idea who killed James, do you?”

  She shrugged. “I know more than you think. Don’t make the mistake of assuming otherwise.”

  The mistake I’d made had nothing to do with thinking, but rather the woman standing so close to me, which was easy enough to fix. “You’re setting me up. Again.” I reached for her arm, my fingers digging into the muscle of her upper arm. “Why?”

  She shrieked as electricity shot through her. Not enough to do actual harm; just enough to warn her that I wasn’t messing around. Whatever she was cooking up wasn’t going to work. Instead of pushing me away, she stepped into my arms, her breasts pressing against my chest. The thin fabric of her silk robe was little protection for either of us. Sparks shot between us, heating the air and my body parts.

  She wrapped her arms around my neck, dragging my mouth to hers. I tried to resist, to pull back—at least that’s what I later told myself—but I was unable to stop the flare of heat crackling through me. It had been much too long. And she felt so wrong in my arms. The kind of wrong a man was unable to escape without serious damage.

  Our lips melded into a power-hungry kiss. Her tongue brushed mine as her hand slid down my backside. I reacted as expected, deepening what already felt like a consuming kiss. She tasted like sin with a hint of sheep. An oddly tempting sensation. I pressed my knee between her bare legs, feeling the heat of her through the fabric of my pants. She moaned low and deep in her throat, urging me on.

  Behind us the elevator dinged.

  The doors opened as I tore my mouth from hers.

  My gaze flew to the three shadowy figures across the room.

  Bo let out a calculated laugh. “I believe you know our guests.”

  I closed my eyes and swore. Would I ever fucking learn?

  CHAPTER 15

  “Izzy, wait,” I yelled as my partner and her two fairy minions, Right and Left, disappeared behind the closing elevator doors. The look on her face when she saw Bo in my arms would be one I would remember for a lifetime.

  Izzy had looked completely ... unaffected. Not that I expected anything more. We were just partners, after all.

  She’d simply raised a flame-colored eyebrow, stepped back into the elevator, and vanished to the floors below. There was no surprise or shock on her face. Nothing but acceptance, as if she’d expected no more from the likes of Blue Reynolds.

  But I wasn’t that Blue Reynolds anymore.

  Or was I? I glanced down at Bo’s rounded breasts, barely covered by her robe. I’d known what would very likely happen if I came here. Well, I’d expected a little bloodshed too, but maybe she was saving it for later. I dropped my arms, stepping away from Bo as if she was diseased; given her obsession with her sheep, I suspected a case of fleas at the very least.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked, her eyes alight with mischief and more than a hint of malice. The same look I’d long associated with Bo. I should’ve known better. I cursed myself for a fool. “Tooth Fairy got your tongue along with your balls?” She held out her manicured nails, examining each bloodred tip. “I hear she keeps them in her purse.”

  I wasn’t about to fall for Bo’s baiting, not again. “Did you get what you wanted?” I asked, my voice filled with barely controlled rage. Flecks of static electricity crackled in the air. But I wouldn’t lose control. “What was the plan? Izzy walks in on you and me, and what? She ends our partnership? She stabs me with a toothbrush? What?”

  Bo licked her lips. “You don’t need her. Without her interference you can be the man you are meant to be.” She reached for my arm, but I pulled back before I caused real harm. I’d done enough as it was. “Give us a chance,” she said. “With your insider knowledge of your clients and my savvy, we can make a pile of money, and in the end, we will rule this city. You and I. Together.”

  “You and I, huh?”

  Her lips lifted into a stunning and sexy smile. She ran her finger down her robe, dipping into her nakedness with the promise of a million earthly delights. “Yes. Us.”

  I laughed but without humor. “I’d rather screw a light socket.”

  With that parting shot, I walked across the room and pressed the elevator call button. Not the smoothest of exits, but I was merely a man, a man who sure as hell didn’t want to walk down a hundred flights of stairs. The elevator finally arrived, and I stepped in, not once looking at Bo.

  As the elevator doors slipped shut, the faint scent of fairy dust and what smelled like the sea brushed over my senses. I pictured Izzy and her utter lack of emotion. My chest gave a small squeeze in response. Great. On top of a dead intern, I now had heart disease.

  Sometimes life just wasn’t fair.

  The unfairness of it all faded as I headed back to my apartment. I’d known better. Bo wasn’t hard to read. She did whatever it took to get what she wanted in the end. Nothing was ever what it seemed when she was around. I vowed to avoid playing her hide-and-sheep games from then on.

  After a thirty-minute hike to my apartment, my anger had receded along with the pull of lust in my loins. I’d just have to tell Izzy the truth, that nothing had happened between Bo and me, that I’d gone to pump her for information, and not for anything else. Not that Izzy would believe me. After all, she had little reason to believe that I’d changed. That I’d matured. But I had, damn it! The last hour aside.

  Tossing the half-smoked cigarette into the street, I entered my apartment building and climbed the four flights of stairs to my apartment. The faint twitter of bells and music reached my ears as I pressed my key into the lock on my door.


  Before I could open the lock, the door flew inward, as did my entire body. I tried to catch myself but ended up tripping over the electrostatic mat on the floor and landing facefirst on the hardwood. The sticky residue of melted rock salt scraped against my cheek as the faint aroma of charred intern burned into the floorboards assaulted my nostrils.

  I quickly leapt to my feet, expecting a jolt of electricity beyond any I’d known to rocket through my body. When nothing happened, I let out a shallow breath and looked around the apartment for whoever had opened the door. I was surprised and pleased to see a set of pink wings.

  “Izzy,” I began. “I’m so glad—”

  She cut me off. “We have to leave in an hour for Clayton’s fund-raiser. I brought you something to wear . . .” She held out a black tuxedo, the same style worn by dapper spies who liked shaken martinis.

  “You didn’t have to—”

  She snorted. “Oh, but I did. We all know how busy you are . . .” “I can explain. Bo said she—”

  “If you want to make a fool of yourself again, I couldn’t care less. What and who you do are your business.” She threw the tuxedo on the couch, her actions at odds with her words. “I’m going home to get ready for the gala.” She paused, looking me up and down. “Unless you asked Bo Peep to be your date.”

  “Damn it, Izzy. It wasn’t like I planned—”

  She held up her hand to cut me off. “I’ll expect you in one hour, unless, of course, you accidently fall on top of another naked woman.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her snarky statement.

  She smiled, showing off sharp white teeth. “But what are the odds of that happening twice in a five-hour span?”

  Sixty-forty at best.

  Unless there was a storm brewing.

  In that case my odds went up considerably.

  I decided not to share the over/under with Izzy yet.

  It was best to sometimes just let it ride.