INK: Vanishing Point (Book 2) (30 page)

“None of this can be connected to
me anyway, other than my art. That’s not enough to charge me,
never mind convict me. But what I really want is to figure out how to
make the killing stop. I mean what are we up to, four bodies now?”

McNab inhales deeply like he’s
about to tell me I’m dying of cancer. “Actually, the
count is up to eight.”

“What? Eight? How is that
possible?” My head is spinning, and I drop my cigarette on the
balcony.

“There have been six more murders,
some of them while you were in the void, and sadly the Specter isn’t
interested in giving you an alibi.” He looks like he wants to
come close to me, but he’s holding back, wringing his hands.
“Something tells me Glass and Preston won’t be impressed
with infrared imagery of you inside another dimension.” He
studies my expression with concern. “Why don’t you sit
down?”

I comply because I don’t think I
can keep standing on my own. I hold my head in my hands and wish I
could get smaller and smaller until I disappear. “McNab, you
have to help me,” I plead without looking up at him.

He leans forward in his chair and
reaches toward me, but stops. “I will, kid. We’re going
to make sure that you don’t end up taking the blame for this.”

The chair I was sitting in slams into
the sliding glass door with a loud bang when I stand pushing it back.
“No, McNab, this isn’t about
me
or saving
my
ass. This is about making the killing stop.” Doesn’t
anyone recognize that? “This attitude that it’s about
saving me is infuriating. It’s not about me.” I can’t
control the stream of tears from spilling over. “People are
dying, people I love. They are dying in ways that are horrendous, and
no one, and I mean
no one
,
should ever have to go through that.”

McNab stands and takes a step toward me.
“I know.” He raises his hand to comfort me and pulls it
back as though I were made of hot coals. “We’re going to
stop this.”

He walks back into the hotel room,
frustration ruling his expression. He stands in front of the bed
covered with my drawings. “No one should have to go through
this.” It comes out barely a whisper.

I lean in the doorway, watching him
examine the pictures. He picks one up and turns to face me. His eyes
are watery and filled with sorrow. “Shay, I’m so sorry.”
The sincerity and intensity of emotion in his voice is overpowering.

I slide down the doorframe under the
weight of my despair and completely break down. McNab comes over and
kneels down next to me. “No, I really am sorry.”

Through my tears I see the pain in his
gaze. There’s a yearning to comfort me, but he can’t or
won’t, and for some unknown reason I’m craving it. But I
won’t reach out to him, I can’t. The picture he’s
brought over is me clutching Aiden’s heart in my hand. I’m
forced to relive the horror on Eli’s face in that moment when I
did it. Then I feel…hear…the last thump of Aiden’s
heart echo in my soul. I’m reminded again that he’s gone
forever.

“You are going to get through
this,” McNab reassures me through my sobs. He puts the picture
down on the floor. “We both know this wasn’t real. You
were smart enough to know what had to be done. Not just smart enough,
but brave enough.” He pauses and inhales a deep breath. “I
don’t think I could have done the same thing if it were you
standing in front of me.”

My sobbing subsides a little just
listening to McNab’s voice. “I know that you are going to
beat this, and my team and I are here for you every step of the way.”

I wipe my nose on my sleeve and stand.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your exclusive.”

“You think this is about the
story?” He follows me, sounding insulted.

“I’m sure you want the
murders to stop too.” I pick up the drawing and gather the rest
off the bed.

“Look at me,” he demands.
“You are my friend. This is about stopping the murders, but
what I really want is to stop your pain.”

“I know one surefire way to stop
it.” A dark laugh rattles through me.

“You’re only alone when you
want to be.” He leans in the doorway.

“I think I’d like to be
alone now.” I don’t mean it, but there’s nothing
else to say.

“You’re the boss.” He
makes for the door, grabbing his jacket. I can’t look at him,
because if I do I’ll beg him to stay.

“Yeah.” Deflated, I sit on
the bed holding the chronicles of Hell in my hands.

McNab stands holding the door open.
“Let’s talk tomorrow.”

“Maybe.”

“Please?”

“Yeah, fine. Since you said
‘please.’” I hide the dim smile playing on my lips.

“Ten A.M.?” he asks.

After checking the clock, I agree.

“Please turn your phone on at
ten.” He starts to close the door behind him. Your whereabouts
are safe with me. I won’t tell them where you are.”

He really won’t tell them. I know
that. McNab is a good friend.

As soon as the door clicks closed, the
emptiness of the room creeps inside me. Quickly I walk to the door
and look out the peephole. McNab is standing on the other side.
What
is he doing?
He looks left
and right, and then straight up. For some reason I want more than
anything to open the door and pull him back inside the room so I
won’t feel the emptiness anymore. Rationally, I know that’s
a bad idea, and McNab certainly wouldn’t appreciate it; he’s
not that sort of friend. Which is exactly what makes him safe.

The rain is bouncing off his leather
jacket as I continue watching him for a solid minute. When he starts
to turn around toward the door, I duck away from the peephole. With
my back pressed against the door, half of me prays that he’ll
knock again. But the other half just wants him to go. Only silence
remains, and when I think it’s safe, I look out the peephole
again and see his rental car leaving the parking space.

I change back into Aiden’s
t-shirt and sweats to get ready for bed. When I go to pull the covers
back I notice one of McNab’s protective trinkets on the night
stand. “Sneaky.”

Eli

Everyone else in the house is asleep,
but I’ve been up trying to clean up this God-awful mess. I
can’t take the disarray. With my head in my hands, I sit
thinking about Shay and how frightened and alone she must be right
now. The urge to just go to her and hold her to make the pain go away
is overpowering. She shouldn’t be alone; she needs to be
surrounded by the people who love her. She needs to be with me. The
memory of her in that hellhole weighs heavy on my mind. Her eyes were
wild and full of hatred. She wasn’t my Shay, not my girl. She
would never hurt anyone, least of all Aiden. There had to be
something else at play there.

McNab walks in the front door quietly,
likely under the impression that everyone’s asleep. The room is
dark, so he can’t see me sitting on the couch. The urge to
pummel him is hard to resist, but I remain quiet as he tiptoes from
the foyer. “Where the hell did you sneak off to?”

He freezes in his tracks. “I had
some business to attend.”

“What kind of business?” I
know he was with her, I can smell her on him.

“Personal business.” He goes
to the kitchen and gets a glass of water.

“How is she?”

He flips the lamp on as he sits on the
love seat. “She’s…okay.”

“When were you planning to tell us
where she is?”

“When she says I can.”

“I appreciate all of your help,
McNab, but you don’t know her like I do.” I lean forward
to drive the point home. “You don’t understand what she
needs right now.”

McNab crosses his legs. He’s so
fucking cocky. “Eli, you don’t know her like I do.”

My fists clench and I pop my jaw. “And
how’s that?”

“You are going about this all
wrong. She needs to be in control, she’s not as fragile as you
think she is.” He stops to ponder a moment. “No, she’s
not as fragile as you need her to be.”

“I don’t want or need her to
be fragile.”

“Eli, come on. You’ve got
the classic knight-in-shining-armor syndrome. She’s not a
damsel in distress, and the sooner you get that into your thick skull
and stop fighting this war for her pussy the sooner you’ll know
her for who she is.”

“Fuck you! This isn’t about
that. It’s about loving her and protecting her.” It’s
all I can do to keep from launching off the couch and fucking up his
pretty smile.

He sits coolly on the couch without
moving. “She doesn’t need protection. She needs strength.
When you smother her the way you and Aiden do, she can’t
breathe, thrive or take care of herself.”

“You don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

“Eli, why are you so afraid to
admit that she’s actually a confident capable woman? Are you
afraid that all you have to offer her is help and protection?”

I don’t answer him.

“Are you afraid that a strong and
confident Shay won’t love you if she doesn’t need you?”
He huffs out a laugh, mocking me. “Man, you’ve got it all
wrong. She can’t love you if all you are to her is a safe
harbor. She wants to be the full package, and she can’t while
you are crippling her. Give her some room.”

“Give her some room? That’s
what I did, and she left!” My own words play in my head, making
me even angrier.

McNab only raises his eyebrows in
response.

“None of this would have happened
if it weren’t for you.” I throw it out there. I’ve
hated him since the first time I heard his fucking name back when
Shay and I were engaged.

“Me? Are you serious?” He’s
mocking me again.

“Yeah, I
am
serious. You’re the one who was putting all this crazy shit in
her head back then. I know it! She was always flying here and there
to go and see you.” My anger gets the better of me and I jump
from the couch and grab him by the shirt.

“Eli, you should take a breath. My
patience has a limit and you’re fast approaching it,” he
says in a low even tone.

“Fuck you. You’ve been
trying to get into her pants since the day you met her and now you’ve
burrowed yourself so deep in her life we’ll never get rid of
you.” I’m in his face, and I’m sure he can feel the
spray of anger.

He laughs again and raises his hand to
stop Carl from moving any further in the doorway. “Eli, let go
of me.”

I release him and walk away, running my
hands through my hair. “Get out of my house.”

“No problem, I was planning on
leaving first thing in the morning anyway.” He straightens his
shirt. “You know, if I wanted to be with Shay I could have. She
practically threw herself at me in the hotel room. I don’t have
those kinds of feelings for her.”

Carl gives a puzzled look and McNab
continues. “You should consider working with me instead of
against me. When she’s ready to come out of hiding, do you
think she’ll come to you or me?”

Fuck, he’s right
.
I don’t like this one bit. But I’m not equipped to handle
any of this paranormal bullshit. “Whatever we have to do for
her.”

He approaches me and looks me square in
the eye. “Get this through your head, Eli. Shay is my
friend
.
I care about her, but I have no interest in her. We’ll have a
much easier time working together if you can get that.”

Now I feel like a complete asshole.

“You are acting like a complete
asshole.” Carl chimes in. “Now stop.”

“Sorry.” I’m feeling a
little bewildered as to how all of that just played out and I’m
the one apologizing. “But no more secrets and no more sneaking
around; if you are going to see her I want to know about it.”

“That’s fine.”

First morning light starts to filter
through the windows. “Shit, I’ve got to get ready. I have
a meeting.”

***

Eli

The elevator feels like it’s
creeping up the building. I just want to get the bad news about
Shay’s case and get to work on it. The doors slide open and I
head into the office. Genie’s sitting behind the reception desk
with her standard grin. I love that woman.

“Well, good morning, Elijah.”
She motions for me to come closer.

I lean down and she kisses my cheek.
“Good morning, Genie. How are you?”

“I’m doing fine and dandy,
and how are you?” Her voice is sweet as pie.

“I’m tired,” I answer
simply. “Is Jason ready for me?”

“Not quite yet. There’s a
board meeting in progress. Do you want some coffee?”

I look at my watch; ten A.M. “A
board meeting? Jason asked me to meet him here at ten.”

“He’ll only be a few more
minutes, sweetie. How about that coffee?” She says it in a way
that I feel like I can’t refuse.

“Thanks Genie.” I take a
seat in the lobby and put my briefcase on the floor.

Genie’s phone rings, but she
answers it via the headset while she enters the lobby with my coffee.
“Yes sir.”

“Here you go, sweetie.” She
hands me the coffee. “They are ready for you, in the Peregrine
room.”

“Thanks.” That’s
strange; I was under the impression that it was only Jason and me.

The door is already ajar, so I push in.
The conference room is full of all the partners, and some other folks
I don’t recognize. They are all standing and shaking hands;
obviously the meeting has just adjourned.

“Eli!” Jason shakes my hand
and pats my back.

“Good morning, Jason.” He’s
certainly chipper this morning.

“We’ve got a lot to do.”
He guides me to a chair at the conference table where the partners
remain seated.

The room clears out of everyone but the
law office partners and me. There’s something amiss here.

Jason sits at the head of the table,
steepling his fingers. “Eli, you know everyone here, right?”

Looking around the room, I see the faces
of men who have served as mentors to me and then have been
adversaries in the courtroom. “Yes, of course.”