Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter #16 - Blood Noir (8 page)

file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

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I looked at Jason. “We are speaking English, right? I mean he does understand what we’re saying, doesn’t he?”

“You have to know Keith to understand the man’s problem. It would be like him to come in a day early with another woman. He’d probably bring the stripper in personally.”

“A wild child?” I asked.

“He thought he was. I just thought he was a dick.”

“Do you really look that much like him?”

“Yes.” He said it flat and unhappy. “I look enough like them both to make this visit even harder. The media will be all over this wedding.”

“But they’re like local celebrities, not national, right? I mean, it won’t be that bad.”

“Do you know who Governor Summerland is?”

I stared at him. “You’re joking.”

“I wish.”

“The governor that they’re thinking about running for president is this Summerland?”

“Yep,” Jason said.

“I don’t watch TV or read newspapers much, but even I know who he is.”

“If his eldest son is getting married this week, the media are going to be everywhere, and I look like his twin. We were always getting confused for each other in high school.”

“You can’t look that much alike.”

“He pretended to be me on a date with my girlfriend. She caught on, eventually. He took a beating for me once from some of the guys at school. I’d smarted off, and they found him first. He was hitting on a girlfriend of mine again. Pretending to be me.”

“And he got beat up for it?” I said.

“He did.”

“Very karmic,” I said.

Jason nodded, actually looking happy. We had our bags on the tarmac and the pilot was asking for a return schedule when we were joined by a man who, though well dressed in a nice conservative suit, had
thug
tattooed across his forehead. Metaphorically speaking. The suit was tailored well enough that if I hadn’t been looking for it I might have missed the bulge on his hip. But I was looking, and I knew a gun when I saw it ruin the line of a suit. The Browning did not ruin the line of my suit jacket. For such a big gun it was strangely invisible under my little jacket in its new sideways holster.

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BloodNoir

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I actually moved in front of Jason. Just automatic. After all, I was packing a gun, and he wasn’t. The conservative thug didn’t even look at me. He had attention only for Jason.

“The girl gets back on the plane.”

“The girl has a name,” I said.

“What I don’t know, I can’t lie about. Please, Keith, don’t do this.”

“I am not Keith Summerland. Do I have to prove it?”

“Keith, stuff like this isn’t funny anymore.”

“Do you want to see my driver’s license?”

The man finally looked puzzled. “What?”

“Call up the governor, or his wife, or even Kelsey, tell them that Jason Schuyler is just trying to visit his family, and you won’t let us leave the airport.”

The muscleman looked at Jason. “Keith, I thought this kind of shit was over.”

Jason got out his wallet and flashed his ID. “I got confused with them both in high school, too.”

The man looked at the ID, like he was really studying it. He looked at Jason, then got a small flip phone out of his outer jacket pocket. “This is Chuck, I’d swear it’s Keith, but I’m looking at an ID for a Jason Schuyler.” He said
uh-huh
a lot, then closed the phone and handed Jason his ID back. “I’m sorry about this, Mr. Schuyler. The governor says he’s very sorry about your father’s illness.”

“Yeah, my father is dying of cancer, and instead of being able to see him in peace, I’m going to get stopped by every piece of media from here to the hospital. Jesus, if I’d known about the wedding I might have held off a week.”

I touched his arm. “You couldn’t have done that.”

“I know,” Jason said, “what if he died this week?” I think he tried to make it a joke, but it fell flat and bitter.

“I am truly sorry about the misunderstanding, Mr. Schuyler. We have limos waiting for the guests to arrive; if we can drop you anywhere to make up for the difficulties, just say the word. The limos have dark glass, and we’ve had lots of the bride’s friends arriving. The media has stopped hounding the limos, because the interviews all sound the same.”

“And if I take a taxi they’ll wonder why Keith is with a brunette that isn’t his fiancée, and why he’s not in a limo,” Jason said.

Chuck shrugged massive shoulders. “That did occur to the governor.”

“Fine, drop us at the hotel.”

“But won’t us getting out of a Summerland limo sort of add to the confusion?” I asked. file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

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Chuck looked perplexed, as if I was forcing him to think about things that weren’t usually his business. He’d been perfectly comfortable shoving me back on the plane. Forcing Keith to be a good boy. But figuring out what to do with an identical cousin who wasn’t close enough to be included in the wedding, that was beyond him.

“We’ll take the limo, and get a taxi to the hospital. I don’t know what else to do,” Jason said.

“I’ll call the press secretary from the limo,” Chuck said. “You guys look enough alike that it could be a real problem. If the media think you’re Keith and are cheating with this
chiquita
here, it’ll get ugly.”

“You’ve called me
girl
, now
chiquita
. Chuck, you are not winning brownie points with me.”

He gave me a look that clearly said he didn’t give a damn, and who was I to complain?

“This is Anita Blake; she’s my very close friend, Chuck.”

“Girlfriend?” He made it a question.

Jason nodded. “I’m bringing her home to see my dad before he dies, that put it in perspective?”

Jason squeezed my hand as if to say,
Just agree with me.
I wasn’t sure I disagreed, or agreed, so I just stood there and let Jason handle it. It was his crisis, not mine. Chuck nodded and gave me a much more respectful look. “I’m sorry, Miss Black.”

“It’s
Ms.
and it’s
Blake
,” I corrected.

He blinked at me, then said, “All right, Ms. Blake. I didn’t understand that you were more than a…girlfriend. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“Yeah, you did, but my ego doesn’t bruise that easy, Chuck.” I admit to making his name sound a little choppy at the end.

He frowned at me.

Jason squeezed my hand again. “Let’s just get us to the hotel as quietly as possible. I want to go to the hospital today, just in case.”

Chuck’s face managed to look truly sympathetic. “Your dad that bad?”

“They gave him weeks to live, but I’d hate to be in town and miss him by a day.”

“Then let’s get you in the limo, Mr. Schuyler, Ms. Blake.” He put a little irony in that last part, and when he bowed to match, he flashed the gun on his hip. I realized he’d unbuttoned the jacket so I’d see it. Like a vampire that wanted you to see the fangs. Wanted your fear. I smiled sweetly at him. “Your hands are a little big for a thirty-two, aren’t they, Chuck?”

His own smile wilted around the edges. “It gets the job done.” But he sounded uncertain, as if my reply didn’t match the box he’d put me in. Fine with me. I liked it when muscle underestimated me. Made it easier later if later got bad.

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BloodNoir

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Jason didn’t push me into the back of the limo, but he made sure I didn’t linger trading clever repartee with Chuck.

The big man asked, “What hotel?”

Jason named it.

Chuck said, leaning in the doorway of the limo, “Damn, that’s the same hotel the wedding guests are staying at.”

“It’s the best hotel in town,” Jason said.

Chuck nodded. “Yeah.” He gave me a look as he closed the door. It was the first look from him that didn’t think
piece of ass
. Which meant he was brighter than he looked. I’d have to be careful not to underestimate ol’ Chuck.

Why was I worried about him? Answer: he was a thug. I’d been working with the police too long not to know one when I met one. What was a presidential hopeful doing with someone like that?

“Don’t tease him, Anita,” Jason said as the limo started. We rode out of the hangar and down a separate drive, a little distance from the rest of the main airport.

“Sorry,” I said, “I’m not sure I can help myself.”

“Try, for me.” He patted my hand, but was already looking out the window. It was worth a look. There were wooded mountains rolling out, and out, like layers of soft dragon spines curled everywhere.

For a few minutes I forgot about thugs and politicians and just looked at the mountains.

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

“Yeah,” Jason said, “I guess it is.”

“You guess?” I motioned at the mountains. There were hotels and fast-food places tucked in near the road, but it wasn’t close enough to ruin the view. A river cut along the left-hand side of the road, all silver shallows and sparkling rapids, set in all that green, all those trees. “This is prettier than the Smokies in Tennessee.”

“Well, it’s the Blue Ridge Mountains,” he said matter-of-factly. I had a smart thought. “You grew up here, so it’s not spectacular to you, it’s just normal.”

“Yeah, and have you ever noticed where it’s beautiful, there’s a lot of pretty, but not a lot of jobs. Unless you worked for the university.”

“University?” I made it a question.

“University of North Carolina at Asheville.” Jason didn’t seem to want to talk about the scenery. Okay, I could stay on track.

“You don’t seem surprised that the Summerlands have someone like Chuck working for them.”

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BloodNoir

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“They’ve always had someone like him working for them.”

“Why?” I asked.

He looked at me. “Don’t do this, Anita.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Don’t play cop. Just let it be.”

“You know something.”

“Let me see my father, Anita. Let me see some old friends. Let me just try and keep out of the Summerland family mess. I don’t want any part of them. Okay?”

“Tell me why they have muscle and I’ll let it go.”

“What did Chuck think he was doing at the airport?” he asked.

I frowned at Jason. “He thought he was keeping this Keith from bringing in another woman just days before his wedding.”

“Exactly.”

I frowned harder, and then the light dawned. “He’s their cleanup man.”

Jason nodded.

“Why does their cleanup man need to be armed?”

“Why are
you
armed?”

“I don’t go out of the house unarmed,” I said.

Jason gave me a look. “Maybe Chuck is as paranoid as you are.”

“I don’t…”

Jason knelt on the floorboard of the limo at my feet. He took my hands in his and gazed up at my face with a look of pure begging. “Please, please, God, let this go, Anita. I will do anything, you name it, if you will just not poke at the Summerlands. Because of the wedding and the family resemblance we are going to have enough trouble.”

He laid his head in my lap, and said, “Please don’t make more trouble, please, don’t make this harder for me. Please.”

I said the only thing I could say. “Okay, Jason.”

He raised his face up and flashed me that infamous smile. It wasn’t his real smile. This was the smile I’d seen him use on customers at Guilty Pleasures when he was trying to part them from their cash. Jason didn’t want cash from me, he wanted peace. I’d have rather shoved a twenty down his pants then let go of the niggling feeling that there was something wrong with the Summerlands. file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

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Something that needed an armed cleanup man. Something beyond a womanizing son. But I did for Jason what I wouldn’t have done for almost anyone else. I let it go. If Chuck of the too-small gun would leave me alone, I’d leave him alone. I wasn’t here as a marshal. I was here to help Jason say good-bye to his dad. I’d just keep repeating that over and over, no matter how many clues I tripped over. The question was, clues to what?

None of my business. I’d promised Jason, and it really was none of my business. Unless the Summerlands turned out to be evil vampires, it would never be my business. I went back to looking at the amazing scenery on either side of the road. There was no bad view. Jason was back to looking out the window, too, but he didn’t seem to be seeing anything special. I thought the drive into Asheville, North Carolina, was one of the prettiest drives I’ve ever been on, but then I hadn’t grown up looking at it all. I guess you get jaded about anything you see every day. Was I jaded about zombies and vampires? Maybe. But the mountains were pretty. file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

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10

THE SCENERY STAYED
all mountains and hills and green with more evergreens than we have at home until we turned off the Highway and onto Charlotte Street. Then we were in small-town America. No building too tall, nothing too built up, a lot of houses and small businesses among the trees.

The limo had dark glass so no one could see in, but we could see out just fine. One of the interesting things you find out if you ride in limos. Jason was more interested in the scenery now. I guess he was just a city boy at heart.

“There’s the dance studio,” he said in an excited voice. There was a sign with a silhouette of a ballet dancer outside one of the larger homes. Two little girls in leotards were being led inside by a laughing woman.