Then Jake spotted a trailer with Lilian Kane and Eternity Books painted in giant cursive letters on the side, separated by Cupid’s arrow. As he circled the trailer, which was protected by security guards and red velvet ropes, he saw the setup on the other side: two booths for Eternity Books and two for Lilian Kane. Two female sales reps manned each pair of booths, and at least two hundred women stood in a line extending from one. He gathered that Lilian Kane signed books at her booth, blocked from his view by her adoring fans. Feeling a little self-conscious, he joined the line.
A heavyset woman in her early twenties, not unattractive, turned to him. “You don’t look like the average Lilian Kane fan.”
Did she hope to find love at a book signing? He smiled. “I’m here for my girlfriend.”
Gazing at his face, she offered a skeptical expression, as if to say, Who the hell would date you? “Lucky her.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.
Jake decided to do some man-on-the-street research while waiting to meet the main attraction. “Have you read many of her books?”
“I’ve read all of them. She’s the best.”
Jake hid his doubt. “Have you also read Erika Long?”
“Yes. She was good before she wrote for Eternity, but under Lilian she became great.”
“My girlfriend read Stormy Sands.”
“I liked the High Seas trilogy better.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
“I think she was kidnapped. Someone that famous doesn’t just disappear for three years. Somebody would have seen her.”
He agreed with her. “How long have you been reading Lilian?”
“Since I was a teenager. My mother left her books lying around, and I picked one up out of curiosity. It caught my attention because of all the sex, but I read them now for the romance.”
“I’ve seen her name above movie titles.”
“You’re going back twenty years. Now they become TV movies and miniseries. They’re all okay, but they tone down the sex too much.” She winked at him.
I thought you read the books for the romance, Jake thought. “Love Knows No Lust sounds pretty racy.”
“It’s supposed to be her hottest one yet.”
I can’t wait. “My girlfriend reads e-books. I hope she appreciates this.”
“How could she not? This is a first edition hardcover signed by Lilian.”
The line moved and Jake looked behind him. Another hundred women had joined them, most of them in
their twenties.
“I’m so nervous,” the woman said. “I can’t believe I’m actually meeting her. This is my third time trying; the other two times were at bookstores, and they cut the line off before my turn. I’m so glad she’s here for the whole expo.”
They stood close enough to the booth now for Jake to observe the activity behind it. One woman at the table on the left sold copies of the book, and another stood beside Lilian Kane at the table on the right. The author had shoulder-length dark hair, and her bangs looked razor sharp. She looked down at the book she was signing. As soon as he saw her, Jake felt perspiration forming on his forehead.
The woman beside him moved to the table and purchased her book, then approached Lilian Kane.
Jake stepped up to the booth.
“Hi,” the sales rep said, beaming at Jake. She made Jake feel as if she knew him.
“Hi, there.” An uneasy feeling grew in his stomach. “I’m getting a copy for my girlfriend.”
“What’s her name?”
“Maria.”
The woman wrote Maria on a Post-it note, which she affixed to the book cover. “Here’s a free sample of Lilian’s new perfume, Real Eternity. That will be sixty dollars.”
Jake raised his eyebrows.
“Thirty for the book and thirty for the autograph. That’s a bargain.”
“Oh.” Jake took out his wallet, set it on the table, opened it, and managed to slide three twenty-dollar bills out, which he handed to the saleswoman. Tucking the rest of the contents back into his wallet proved a little more challenging. He returned the wallet to his back pocket, slid the sample perfume bottle into his side pocket, and picked up the book.
“Have a nice day,” the saleswoman said.
“You, too.” He took his place at the front of the line.
The woman he had stood beside fawned over Lilian Kane. Then the woman turned away with a big smile, clutching her copy of Love Knows No Lust to her ample bosom. “Oh, my God, oh, my God . . .”
Jake stepped before Lilian Kane, and she looked up at him, a slight smile on her lips.
“Hello.” She extended one hand for his copy of her book.
Looking into her eyes, Jake froze. His heart skipped a beat and then sped up. He felt the color draining from his face as his limbs turned numb.
Everything about Lilian’s features resembled a great work of art, an exaggerated example of impossible perfection: her oval face was as smooth as glass, like a porcelain statue, her lips were full and inviting, and her cheekbones were high. But her eyes unsettled him the most. The whites lacked veins, and her irises were as blue and clear as the Caribbean waters off Pavot Island, her pupils like black spheres suspended in that water. He saw in her eyes the same thing he had seen in the saleswoman: recognition.
Despite the flawless configuration of her body, the thought that she was not human slammed into him.
“It’s easier for me to sign a book when I actually have it in front of me,” Lilian said. Her voice had a strange echo, as if she were speaking in a cave.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Jake handed her the book. The temperature grew hotter and his breaths came faster. What was happening to him?
Lilian glanced at the Post-it and smiled. “You don’t look like a Maria.”
“It’s for my girlfriend.” Nausea crawled up from his stomach.
Lilian opened the book and inscribed its title page. “It was brave of you to come here.”
Her words were in perfect synchronization, and Jake heard them without the echo at the same time he heard them with the echo. He found it hard to concentrate as he battled the feeling of sickness spreading through him. “Oh?”
Looking up from the book, Lilian gestured at the women behind him. “I mean, it was brave to stand in line with all these women. I don’t get many men at these events. They’re too embarrassed to be seen waiting for a romance novel.” She held out her hand. “I’m happy to make your acquaintance, Mr.—?”
He realized that while he heard her words properly with his ears, his mind heard them a split second before she spoke them, creating the overlapping effect.
“Helman.” But you already know that, don’t you? “I’d better not shake your hand. I have a cold.” Jake knew better than to make physical contact with people with supernatural powers. Katrina had put a curse on him by using the oil from his fingertips on a business card he had given her. Laurel knew his most intimate secrets because she had touched him numerous times. And Miriam Santiago controlled his car from a distance and sent him on a high-speed ride because he had given her a card as well.
“You sound fine to me,” Lilian said. “And I use hand sanitizer after every reader leaves the booth. Come on. I won’t bite.”
Something about him amused her; she was playing a game.
“I’d better not. Thanks all the same.”
She pouted. “I’m sorry if I frightened you, Jake. That wasn’t my intention.”
He swallowed. “How do you know my name is Jake?”
“Isn’t that what you told me?”
“No.”
Her smile returned as she held the book out to him. “Oops.”
Jake tried to take the book from her, but she held on to it.
“I think we’ll see each other again.”
She released the book, which grew heavy in his hands. All he wanted to do was get the hell out of the convention center.
“Maria’s a lucky woman. I could just eat you up.”
&n
bsp; Jake’s stomach twisted and he grimaced. He took a step backwards and stumbled into the crowd of waiting women. His limbs seemed to melt and he collapsed. Someone cried out, not with very much urgency, as he struck the floor.
Lilian chuckled, but when he glanced at her, her lips weren’t moving. She stood, a look of mock concern on her face.
Darkness swirled around him until he embraced it like an old lover.
9
The sickness spread from Jake’s stomach to his throat, and his head felt like it was swinging upside down on one end of a pendulum. Voices murmured above him, and the floor spun in a circle, like a carnival ride. His eye was open, but the figures bending over him appeared blurry. He blinked several times but couldn’t shake the sensation of movement.
Lights so high above . . .
Jake couldn’t remember where he was or how he had gotten there. He remembered going into the bathroom of Kearny’s Tavern to do some blow, then getting into a shoot-out with two thugs who had tried to rob Kearny, an ex-cop.
Dread and Baldy . . . I killed them both.
His heart had gone into overdrive as he heard the sirens of approaching police cars, and then he had taken a nosedive onto the floor. For some reason this comforted him now.
I didn’t resign from the force and I didn’t go to work for old Nick at the Tower and the Cipher didn’t kill Sheryl and Cain and Abel are just two characters in the Bible and no woman named Katrina ever turned Edgar into a raven and Avademe never existed and I didn’t save Maria from Kalfu on Pavot Island . . .
Maria.
The shapes looking down at him and the high ceiling of the convention center came into focus. He raised his left hand to his face and gazed at his stump, and the scenario in which the past year and a half had never occurred evaporated from his mind.
Lilian Kane . . .
Using his right arm for support, Jake managed to sit up. His head felt like a sponge that had absorbed too much dirty water.
“Are you all right?” The voice was so muddled that Jake couldn’t tell if a man or a woman had uttered the words.
He nodded or at least he thought he did.
Gentle hands clasped his arms and helped him stand. The crowd swelled, and concerned-looking people pressed around him. He could no longer see Lilian.
“Sir, are you all right?” A woman with long auburn hair stood at his side. He recognized her from the Eternity Books booth.
“Yes, I think so.” He looked into her eyes, which appeared normal. Human.
She held an unopened bottle of Evian. “Would you like some water?”
He did want water but he waved his hand. “No, thanks.”
“Are you sure? It might make you feel better.”
“I’ll be fine. I just need some air.” The last thing he needed was to drink some concoction that would turn him into a frog or a puddle of bubbling ooze. “Excuse me.”
As he turned away, a woman standing in line held out his copy of Love Knows No Lust. “Don’t forget this.”
He took the book from her. “Thanks.” Then he staggered away, unsure of his bearings. People heading in the opposite direction cleared out of his way, which told him his scarred face showed too much panic.
He didn’t care.
Lilian Kane knew who he was. Worse, she wanted him to know that she knew him. She reminded him of a cat batting at a mouse like a toy. His instincts had told him she was responsible for Laurel’s disappearance ever since he had gazed at the Flatiron Building, but the sight of her pretty estate had tempered his feelings. Now there could be no denying it. Laurel had warned him that because he had made supernatural forces aware of him, they would never leave him alone. How could he ever hope to live a normal life again?
Crossing the massive sunlit lobby, he broke into a run for the doors and emerged outside, where hundreds of people milled about, smoking and devouring food purchased from street vendors. Clutching his book, he pushed his way through the crowd to the curb, where he raised the book in the air, signaling a taxi, which pulled over. He jumped into the backseat and gave his office building address.
I could just keep going, he thought. But that wasn’t exactly true. He had no money to survive on—he had spent his savings searching for Edgar, and now he was living on credit.
I can live on credit anywhere.
But he couldn’t go off the grid living on borrowed money, and it was hard to survive on a dishwasher’s wage. Besides, he didn’t intend to abandon Laurel. He had to know if she was alive before he did anything else. And he knew just where to begin his search, but it had to be right away, before Lilian Kane returned home from the expo.
She’s got to be staying in Manhattan until it’s over.
Jake looked at his stump. He had managed to fight without his left hand on Pavot Island, but he felt at a distinct disadvantage back in the States, where any extreme actions he took could have a negative impact on his future.
He needed help. Reaching into his pocket, he took out his phone. His first instinct was to call Maria, and he scrolled down to her name in his directory. His finger hovered over the call button and then moved away from it. The same instincts that told him Lilian Kane was a supernatural predator also told him not to involve Maria in his exploits again. She was a strong woman, a real warrior, but a person could only deal with so many monsters in the course of one month.
His finger moved up to Edgar’s number, but he dismissed the thought even as it formed. It would be a long time, if ever, before Edgar had recovered from his experiences enough to help in the field again. He pressed another number.
“Helman Investigations and Security,” Carrie said after the second ring.
“I need to know if Ripper is available to do some work today.”
“What kind of work?”
“I need some backup on a stakeout. The pay is five hundred.”
“Cash?”
“That’s easiest.”
“He’s available. How soon do you need him?”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. I want to leave as soon as possible.”
“I’ll get him here as fast as I can.”
Jake shut his phone down and slid it back into his pocket. Then he positioned Love Knows No Lust on his lap and opened it to the inscription.
Maria,
You’re a lucky woman. Jake’s got your back. Maybe we’ll meet in person someday.
Eternally yours,
Lilian Kane
Maria entered the squad room with Bernie, and they sat at their desks.
“I wonder how much longer this will be my desk,” Bernie said in a quiet voice.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Maria said. She doubted the department would keep Edgar on under the circumstances, and if it did she knew the brass would reassign him to another spot.
Mauceri exited his office and came over to their desks. “What’s the word on those DOAs?”
“We’re filling out our report now,” Maria said. “It’s going to have a lot of white space.”
“Witnesses?”
“None,” Bernie said. “We canvassed Avenue B and Fifth Street.”
“What’s your feeling?”
Maria looked at Bernie. You tell him.
“It looks like Alice Morton is moving in on Raheem Johnson’s territory,” Bernie said.
Mauceri frowned. “Do you have any proof?”
Maria offered Bernie a shrug.
“Nothing specific but we know she’s been moving downtown. With Papa Joe and Malachai—her brother and son—out of the picture, she’s been consolidating what’s left of their operations. Raheem was the next biggest player, and she’s preparing to knock him down.”
Mauceri turned to Maria. “If you don’t have anything to go on, I suggest you watch your step around that woman.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mauceri handed a piece of paper to Maria. “Geoghegan from MCU requests your company at One PP.”
Maria looked at it. “Both of us?”
Of course, Maria thought. “Any particular time?”
Mauceri glanced at his watch. “At your earliest convenience.”
“Ten-four.”
Mauceri returned to his office.
Bernie stared at Maria. “Have you committed any major crimes I should know about?”
“In this country? None that I can think of.”
Jake took the stairs two at a time and barreled into his office.
Carrie looked up from her desk. “Ripper will be here in an hour.”
Closing the door, he looked at the watch on his right wrist. “Good.”
Her cadence sped up as he rushed by her desk. “I spent all day tracing the chain of title on Eden, Inc. It got me nowhere, just one dummy corporation leading to another. It was kind of a waste of an entire day.”
“Thank you.”
He closed his office door behind him, tossed his copy of Love Knows No Lust on his desk, and removed the painting hanging over his sofa, revealing the secret storage space where he kept his arsenal: several different handguns, most of which he didn’t feel comfortable wielding with one hand.
Looking over the weapons, he selected a Smith & Wesson Model 325 Thunder Ranch revolver with a black matte finish and set the six-shooter and a box of ammunition on his desk. He had fired a Glock one-handed on Pavot Island, but the action had left his arm throbbing; he needed something that would be easier to use because it packed less of a punch. Jake rehung the painting, then flipped the gun’s cylinder open and loaded six rounds into it and another six into a speed loader.
He opened his safe, withdrew a bundle of five hundred dollars in twenties, and slid it into his pocket. After closing the safe, he went into his bedroom and selected a green nylon camouflage outfit from his standing wardrobe closet and tossed it onto his cot. He threw a duffel bag beside it and rifled through his belongings for accessories.
Back in his office he used a letter opener to slice through the tape on the long box that Jorge had sent him. In less than a minute he gazed at the ATAC 3000 inside the case he had pulled from the box. The assault weapon had a laser scope on top of its body and a grenade launcher beneath its barrel. Jorge had thrown in six magazines but no grenades.
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