by Martha Carr
Shay nibbled on her salad, smirking at James. He was glaring at his salad as if the very concept of a non-meat-based course offended him. The man needed to get over it. The nice little family diner they’d picked for their meal had something for everyone, and she wasn’t going to eat barbeque or burgers every meal. She didn’t even want pizza for every meal, and she adored pizza.
You’re going to win in the long run anyway, James, since Alison’s trying to eat more meat. Soon, we’ll never go to a place that isn’t a steakhouse or barbeque joint. I’m with you, James, but I’m never going to love barbeque like you. She felt a pang, remembering Lily and shook it off. She had only known the girl for a short amount of time. Let it go. Everyone ends up where they belong in the end, anyway.
Alison sipped her lemonade. “I’m so happy you could both come. I wasn’t sure with all the…stuff you both have going on.” She laughed. “Crazy stuff.”
Stuff. Yeah, that’s how I’d describe killing a cartel and researching James’ alien shit.
Shay glanced between the girl and the bounty hunter. They hadn’t told Alison about his alien background, but given her soul-sight, she might already have some idea. That secret wasn’t Shay’s to share, though. James would tell Alison when the time was right.
He shrugged. “Sorry I’ve been busy, kid. Things have been cleaned up for now, though. Gonna relax for a few days. Maybe even a few weeks.”
“Me, too,” Shay offered. “Not the relaxing for a few weeks thing, just sorry I’ve been busy.”
Alison smiled. “The important thing is that you’re both here now, and no bad guys are coming after Dad.”
James snorted. “There will always be bad guys coming for me. That’s just my life.”
Shay elbowed him and shot him a glare. “Don’t be a dick.”
He shrugged. “But no bad guys right now, and not the Harriken. Don’t even know if there are any left.”
Alison set her fork down. “I’m not naïve. I get that you’re never going to be as safe as some guy working in the office. I know that you can’t give up your work, but just be careful, Dad. That’s all I’m asking.”
“I’m always careful. If it’s a serious bounty, I take proper precautions. It’s not like I’m gonna drive to some city for barbeque and then go after some high-level bounty half-assed prepared. You don’t have to worry about me, kid.”
Shay snickered.
“Well, good.” Alison nodded as if satisfied with the answer, or maybe the soul energy she saw. The girl looked at Shay and James for a moment, a bright smile on her face. “Anything else you want to tell me about?”
Shit, does she know we’re together? I guess it’s not a secret or anything, but I don’t really want to talk about it, either. It’s just kind of weird. If we say anything, she’ll be able to tell we’re lying. A teen who can see lies—perfect. Why couldn’t I have had that power when I was her age?
James grunted. “Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you.”
Alison’s smile grew. “Oh?”
Seriously, James? You’re just gonna come out and say it?
“Yeah,” James continued. “The lawyer I’ve got working on the adoption says sh…things are finally moving along again. According to him, the process will be completed by the end of the summer. He can’t see anything else that would hold it up.”
“I’m so glad to hear that. I already call myself ‘Alison Brownstone,’ but I want it to be official, so everyone in the country and the world knows.”
Shay lifted her coffee mug to her face to hide her relief at the direction of the conversation. Discussing adoption was safe, and wouldn’t lead to any awkward conversations about where Shay was sleeping some nights.
James frowned. “Sorry it’s taking so long. It’s my fault for not being normal.”
Well, that and the fact that we killed her father. Shay resisted saying that aloud. Whatever changes to her perspective on life in recent months, she didn’t regret helping to kill Alison’s biological father. The bastard had sold his own wife to be tortured by gangsters and had only been stopped from doing the same to his daughter by James. The only regret Shay had was that he hadn’t suffered more.
Alison giggled. “It’s a big legal thing, Dad. It’s not really taking that long, and the important thing is that it’ll happen eventually.” She turned toward Shay with a smile on her face, but her eyes as unfocused as always. “Someday I hope you can be my mom and not just my aunt. Shay Brownstone is a cool name, too.”
James grunted. Shay twitched. Alison knew. She had to know.
Had James told her? Then again, would he even think to? Maybe she just saw it. Did people in relationships have some sort of weird soul energy signatures?
Shay shrugged and forced a smile. “You never know what the future’s gonna bring, Alison. But enough about us! Why don’t you catch us up on what’s going on at school?”
“Sure! Izzie said something hilarious the other day…”
Shay settled in to listen, something at the edge of her mind poking her and not allowing her to embrace the comfort of the situation.
Something else is going on here. This family shit shouldn’t freak me out so much, especially since the idea sounds so nice.
Shay bit down a laugh. Living a life focused on her instincts had made her recent forays into introspection uncomfortable, but that discomfort didn’t change some of the truths she’d uncovered.
I’m freaked out at the idea of being happy and having friends and family who care for me. Who knew?
Shay lifted her fork and eyed the moist-looking chocolate cake. Her chicken-fried steak had left little room in her stomach, but she still wanted a bite or two. Not that she was worried. Given how much she worked out, she could down chocolate cake at every meal and not gain an ounce.
Her phone vibrated, and she set down the fork. A frown creased her features. The call was from Peyton.
I just want some cake, but then again, he wouldn’t call me on a visit to Alison for random bullshit.
Is this about the gnome? I told him I didn’t need to know all the details, and I doubt he found that gnome already. It might take us months to locate that little prick.
“Problem?” James inquired.
Shay shook her head. “I don’t think so, or at least nothing important. I just have to take a call. I’ll be right back.”
James nodded, and Alison smiled.
The tomb raider didn’t answer until she was out of the restaurant and around the corner. She leaned against the rough brick of the wall and brought the phone to her ear.
“This better be important,” Shay barked into the phone. “I’m trying to do fam… I can’t always visit Alison, you know, so when I’m off the clock, I want to be off the clock.”
Her lingering worries over an uncomfortable future of happiness and familial bliss sank underneath the immediate darker and harder currents. A bright future might lie ahead, but taking down the Nuevo Gulf Cartel didn’t mean that future was secure.
“I’m sorry,” Peyton replied. “I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t important.”
“Does it involve someone dying? Someone I give two shits about?”
“Yeah. Well, maybe. You see, I’ve got a lot of alerts set up for a lot of things. Not just job stuff, but anything that looks like someone is sniffing around you or your alias too closely. I also have a bunch set up for my family.”
“Yeah, I know that, and I remember you freaking out about your brother. So what, your brother is snooping around again? I thought we discussed this? Those guys aren’t at your level. They’re not a problem.”
Shay kept her voice steady and casual. She couldn’t have Peyton panicking when she was thousands of miles away. He might end up doing something stupid like flying to the East Coast to try and handle his brother alone, and no matter how slick Peyton believed he was, he wouldn’t last long in the field against someone who knew he was coming. Her specialty was kicking ass. His was support.
Shit. I’m
probably going to have to kill his brother in the end. Have to be careful, though. If he ends up conveniently dead when people know he was poking around it might bring even more attention, and we just got the government off my ass.”
“No,” Peyton answered, “not Randy. Way worse. Someone we should worry about. Someone even you should be worried about.”
Shay snorted. “Talk about dramatic. Who’s the big threat?”
“Francois Durand.”
“What about him? You said he likes to keep a low profile. I don’t even know the next time we might end up on a job related to an artifact he’d care about. Not saying I don’t care at all, just saying that he’s pretty low on my priority list right now.”
Peyton sighed. “Wish I could say the same about him.”
“Huh?”
“My alerts. They weren’t flagging Durand’s activities. They went off because someone is digging into you in a big way online, or to be clear, digging into Aletheia. When I poked into it, I found it was Durand. The guy’s suddenly obsessed with your tomb-raiding career. He’s going all out, including fake accounts to try to gather information.”
Shay scoffed. “That doesn’t mean much. My reputation has skyrocketed in a short time. Of course, I’m gonna get a few people looking into me and wanting to know my deal.”
“Yeah, but why now? I don’t buy that he wouldn’t check at all after everything you’ve done and suddenly decided this weekend that you’re worth his interest. Something changed.”
Shay blew out a breath as she thought about the possibilities. “Yeah, something did change.”
“What?”
“You started looking into him,” Shay clarified. “The guy is so low-profile that you said he was a ghost. He’s probably got a few alarms of his own set up.”
Peyton groaned. “No, no, no. Seriously?”
“Just saying.”
“No,” Peyton insisted. “That can’t be it. I get that he might be spooked about someone checking into him, but what I did wouldn’t be linked to Aletheia. Unless this guy is the literal God of Computers, there’s no way he’d think to look your way.”
“Then he’s got another reason,” Shay mused. “Something we don’t know about yet.”
“He’s working with Project Nephilim, which means he’s got to be interested in your stone. Of course, he’s going to want to collect more of them.”
“Maybe, but it’s not like anyone knows I have the stone—not even the Professor or his Elf Mafia buddy.”
“Sure,” Peyton offered. “But they know you’ve recovered at least one on their behalf, and from the way you talked with them, they might have figured out you have another.”
Shay frowned. “Even if they were behind Durand in some weird-ass roundabout way, it’d make no sense to play those kinds of games. The Professor has his secrets, but I think that if he really wanted the stone, he’d just come to me and offer a buttload of cash or an artifact exchange.”
“What about the other guy? Correk?”
“Who the fuck knows? I’ve started checking a little more into his background and his name keeps popping up in odd places, but nothing concrete so far. Plus, I don’t see why a light elf would hire some human contractor to do his dirty work for him.”
“They hired you, didn’t they?”
Shay laughed. “First, I’m badass. Second, the Professor did the hiring. The elf was just along for the ride.”
“Okay, that still brings us back to the original question.” Peyton sighed. “What do we do?”
“Do what you do best.” Shay chuckled. “Redirect that shit. Just because Durand’s looking around doesn’t mean he needs to find me, and this can end up being a good thing.”
“How is having this guy looking for you, even through your alias, a good thing?”
“Because now we know he’s interested in me. Forewarned is forearmed.” Shay pushed away from the wall. “And now we can take precautions.”
“That makes sense.”
“Do you need me to come back?” She didn’t want to, but if her assistant was that freaked out, she might be forced to return to LA.
There was silence for a few beats before Peyton answered, “No. I’m good.” The confidence had crept back into his voice. “It’s like you said before with my brother. If Durand were as good at computer stuff as I am, I wouldn’t have even seen him coming. I can send him on a wild goose chase to Abu Dhabi, and by the time he figures it out you’ll have found every single alien artifact on this planet.”
Shay laughed. “Sounds good. See you in a couple of days.”
“See you.”
Shay ended the call and smirked to herself.
I disabled your Deadman’s Switch, Peyton, and you haven’t figured it out. I’m a cut above Durand and the losers your brother hired.
She slipped her phone back into her purse and went back into the diner. French retrieval specialists, alien artifacts, and even vicious Russian witches could wait. Her man and this teenage girl needed her.
9
Shay stared down at the disassembled pistol on the table in front of her. Field stripping a weapon wasn’t exactly a fun and sexy time, but properly cleaning a weapon cut down on reliability issues.
Back when she was a killer she had mostly confined her jobs to cities and towns. Since becoming a tomb raider, she’d ended up on every continent including Antarctica, in every type of environment. Spending so many days in the Outback had also reminded her that she wouldn’t always be able to grab new gear.
Having a gun jam in the middle of a fight because she had been slacking wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.
The wall leading to the Annex groaned open, and Peyton emerged a moment later with a few different coats draped over his arm.
Anything that was on the general racks wasn’t critical to the prepared identity packages, so it wouldn’t hurt her to let the man play dress-up on occasion as long as he cleaned up after himself.
Peyton stopped and blinked, obviously surprised by her being there. “Uh, hi, Shay.”
She chuckled. “Did I forget to tell you I was coming?”
“The last message you sent said you’d talk to me in Warehouse Two tomorrow. I wasn’t sure if you were even flying back tonight.” He tapped a code on the keypad and the wall slid shut. “Everything okay in Virginia?”
“Peachy.”
“And you just decided to stop by Warehouse Three and clean guns?”
“Yeah, actually.”
Peyton tilted his head to the side. “I miss her too. I was getting used to all the flipping and twirling and swinging through the warehouse.”
“I’m over it,” muttered Shay, lifting the gun.
Peyton took a deep breath. “If this is some sort of veiled threat, I’m not getting it.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “The universe doesn’t revolve around you.” She patted the table. “You should learn how to do this eventually, but I don’t have the patience to teach you right now. Or probably ever. That’s what the internet’s for.”
Peyton moved to a nearby table to lay down the coats, discomfort lingering on his face. “Since you’re here, I suppose I should let you know I found the gnome.”
“Oh, that’s cool. I—” Shay looked up from the pistol receiver she was cleaning. “Are you shitting me?”
“Nope. I know exactly where is. He’s in a gnome colony in Iowa. It’s hidden by magic that cloaks it from most satellites and other photos, but it’s definitely there.”
Shay set the cloth and receiver on the table. “Iowa? Why Iowa?”
“Why not? It’s not like it makes more sense for a gnome to be in England or something.”
The tomb raider shrugged. “Good point.”
“Maybe they really like corn? Do they even have corn on Oriceran?”
Shay thought that over for a few seconds. “I honestly have no fucking clue.” She smiled. “Hell, I’m impressed, Peyton! I thought that shit was gonna take months, but you pulled it off in
your spare time when I wasn’t around.”
He stood up straighter. “I think you forget how badass I am at times.”
“You’re skilled, but you’re not badass. Badass would mean you could find Lily.” She saw him wince and wanted to take it back… mostly. “And not to be a dick, but you confirmed our particular gnome was there, right, and not just a bunch of corn-gobbling gnomes?”
Peyton’s confidence fled. “I traced him there by records, but I don’t know how I could confirm his presence. Do you even know what he looks like?”
“Nope. I wasn’t given a description, just the name.”
“Yeah, so there’s a lot of gnomes there, and all the other lines of evidence point there. Sounds good enough to me.” Peyton shrugged. “It wasn’t like I got close enough to ask them, just close enough that my drone’s flight time wasn’t too long.”
“Oh, fuck. You didn’t…” Shay narrowed her eyes. “Close enough to ask them?”
Peyton nodded. “Yeah, I was…” He winced. “Oh shit.” He face-palmed.
Shay glared at him. “Let me get this straight. Not only did you leave LA, but you went all the way to Iowa to poke your nose into a nest of very magical beings?”
“Uh, yes? Look, I was careful, and I needed to go there to confirm things anyway. The evidence was decent but getting a few drone images actually proves there are gnomes there. Otherwise, all we would have is a suspiciously unchanging farm, and your gnome might have blown that off.” Peyton slapped a hand over his chest. “I had to go, for the good of the job.”
Shay looked down at the table and shook her head. She’d never felt such an odd combination of pride and rage in her life.
“I’m not gonna say you didn’t do a good job, because you obviously did. You found a gnome colony, and yeah, our guy’s probably there. Shit, you even got pictures, and I can show those to Tubal-Cain.” She lifted her head and tried her best to resist the urge to march over to Peyton and lay him out with a punch for taking the risk. “But you can’t just—”
A loud klaxon sounded from Peyton’s phone.
“What the fuck was that?” Shay inquired mildly.