No Love for the Wicked (16 page)

“Leaders learn from their mistakes,” Jon said.

“She’s the one who grabbed the known pyro without any protective gloves,” Tony added.

“I didn’t need any gloves,” I argued, but no one heard me.

Jon and Colin leaned over the table nearly nose to nose. But it was Theo lunging for Tony that knocked me out of my seat. In a move faster than I could track, he went from standing beside me to the other side of the table; his hands fisted in Tony’s shirt as he slammed the younger guy against the kitchen wall.

“So it’s
her
fault she got burned?” Theo growled in Tony’s face. “You fucking piece of shit! You think that just because she can heal anything that happens to her, she doesn’t feel the pain?” He slammed him against the wall again, denting the already-battered wood paneling.

OK. Fuck. This.

Instantly everyone froze. Heather halfway stood from her seat, her arm reaching for Jon’s. Jon stood inches away from Colin’s face, spittle from Colin’s half-spoken words stopped midflight toward Jon’s face. Tony was up against the wall, his feet off the ground as Theo held him in place. I pushed myself off the floor and righted my chair.

“And Thirteen thinks I’m immature,” I muttered as I dusted off my jeans. I took another drink and surveyed the room. With a shake of my head, I walked over to Theo. His eyes were moving, narrowing on me as I got closer. No one else would even be able to breathe unless I released them.

“Are you going to let him go?” I asked. He growled deep in his chest. I tried not to smile, but, what can I say, the sound was so dark and masculine, it just totally turned me on. I pursed my lips. “I’m serious. Tony and Colin didn’t do anything wrong. OK?” More eye narrowing. “
OK?
”

“Fine,” he gritted out.

Wow.
I’d expected a mental response. Not even Malcolm had been able to speak when I held him in place like that. I stepped back and released everyone from my hold. Gasps of breath exploded in the room. Theo dropped Tony, who gasped for air from the floor at our feet. Theo and I kept our eyes on each other. If his growl had turned me on, then me releasing some power totally did it for him. There was heat in his eyes now that made my lower stomach tingle.

“You’re really getting stronger,” I said on a breath.

“So are you,” he replied in a breathy voice of his own. “You weren’t able to hold a whole room like that before.”

I shrugged. He grinned. Jon cleared his throat. My face heated as I returned to my seat. And grew even hotter when Theo pulled out my chair for me. I glanced down at Heather, who gave me a very clear “we’re going to talk later” look as she tried to catch her own breath. I smiled at her and got a wide, coughing smile in return.

Jon straightened his rugby shirt, ran his hands through his hair, and cleared his throat again. “Don’t do that again, Magnolia.”

I leaned back in my seat. “Then don’t act like a bunch of dicks again.”

Jon simmered in his seat for a minute. He wanted to tell Thirteen how I’d had used my power on them. But that would be like tattling. And he was team leader now. He’d have to figure out how to handle me on his own. I just smiled into my drink.
Good luck with that one, Heldamo.

“OK,” he said, trying to steer things back on track. Apparently I’d be “handled” later. “We need an inventory of what cargo Everett brought in. Everything from his personal luggage and carry-ons to his artifact cargo. We need to determine why the Kelch family is purchasing smuggled artifacts from another supernatural.”

“Are you serious?” I asked, whiskey halfway to my mouth. “Have you seen my family’s estate? The place is packed full of priceless crap. Artwork, sculptures, hell, there are Egyptian sarcophaguses in one of the basements. Even the carpets are from some ancient castle somewhere. And I can guarantee that more than half the stuff was acquired through less-than-legal channels.”

“We have no previous information of the senator working with this particular smuggler.”

Now I rolled my eyes. “Jon, please. You really think anyone in my family is going to pay a smuggler when it’s so much easier to
just kill him off and be done with it? They hardly ever work with the same people twice—especially on the illegal stuff.”

Jon gave me that one and turned to Colin. “Will you be able to get us that information, or should we set up a time to interview Everett ourselves?”

Colin was still trying to steady himself. His hands were buried in his hair, elbows on the table as he breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth. He’d never had a supernatural use her abilities on him the way I had. Twice now I’d frozen him in place, completely taking away his ability to move. It shook him. He hadn’t realized the Network employed people like me. He had wanted my help on his assignment because he knew I had an in with Thirteen. But no way was he ready to be around this kind of power on a regular basis. If I was an example of what Jon’s team was up against, he was grateful for the level of assignments he’d been given so far. Hell, Jon, Heather, and Theo weren’t even fazed by what I’d just done to them all.

“Yeah,” he said finally. “I can give you the inventory. I’ll send it through Thirteen.”

“That will work. Also, I’ll need to be copied on the interview disks when you interrogate Everett.”

Colin lifted his head. “Interrogations are confidential.”

Poor Colin. Hard to be by the book when your copy happens to be missing a few chapters. As if realizing how ridiculous he sounded, Colin shook his head. “I mean, yeah, I’ll get you the disks as well.”

Jon nodded and got to his feet. “OK, then.” He pulled out Heather’s chair for her as we all stood up. Colin helped pull Tony to his feet. They both gave me a wide berth as they made their way down the front hall. Guess I could say good-bye to any more casual coffee conversations with Tony. I didn’t want to feel sad about that, but I couldn’t help it.

Heather touched my arm as she passed. “You need to call Cordele and tell her you’re all right.” When I frowned, Heather smiled. “She’s been worried. Look, right now the three of us have a check-in meeting with Chang, and I don’t know how long that will take.”

I looked to Theo, who stood in the kitchen’s doorway, waiting for Heather. “I’ll come by tomorrow, though,” Heather continued. “If it’s OK with you, I’ll just bring my laptop and do my data gathering from here.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said absently. “That will be fine.”

She squeezed my arm gently, then followed Jon out to the car. Theo stood, arms over his chest, staring down at me. “Your hand should be healed by now.”

I pulled off the bandages. Sure enough, the melted skin was all shiny pink now. “It usually takes at least a couple more hours to get to this point.”

He let out a heavy breath. I knew just how he felt. The intensity of the power between us just seemed overwhelming at times. He brushed a strand of hair away from my forehead, and I closed my eyes. His fingers lingered a moment more, then he pulled away. I kept my eyes closed, savoring the feel of his touch, until I heard his car rolling down the driveway.

The Thursday before the Kelch Inc. Winter Gala, snow started falling again. Big white fluffy snow like they show on TV Christmas specials. Our pre-gala meeting was at Heather and Jon’s, and thanks to Heather bringing over her laptop and doing her research at the farmhouse, I was more than prepared.

Apparently, the Network had several intranet sites with satellite feeds and government links that would have made the Cincinnati Wi-Fi nerds totally piss themselves. Once Heather showed me how to access the sites, digging through the information had almost been fun. In fact—drumroll, please—I’d actually found the city of Bohlren. Small, essentially uncharted industrial city right off the Danube River. For once, I looked forward to one of Thirteen’s planning meetings.

At least, that was what I kept telling myself.

I gripped the steering wheel tightly. Oh, who the hell was I kidding? I’d been dreading this meeting for days. We were going over the
details of how to break into my father’s office and steal data from his personal PC. I would be in the same building, possibly even the same room, with the man. He’d sense my power, just as Uncle Max had when I’d broken into his office last year. Then it had been motivation for me to get in and get out. Now it was another part of the plan.

To Thirteen’s credit, he had given me numerous outs over the past couple of days—I was still a new agent, the risk of exposure was higher than I was comfortable with. I hadn’t taken any of them. Bottom line, the risk for the rest of the team was too high not to have every available inside advantage. And there was no greater advantage than having my powers on hand.

I parked at the curb behind Thirteen’s SUV. Smoke billowed from Jon and Heather’s chimney. With the fresh layer of snow and Christmas candles lit in every upstairs window, the house looked extra Christmas-card-like tonight. I walked the shoveled path to the front door and felt a surprising moment of happiness—this was exactly the warm and welcoming home that Heather should live in. It was a strange security to know that some things in life were just the way they should be.

I rang the doorbell and waited as Shane came to answer. He scowled down at me on instinct, then quickly checked himself. “Hey. Come on in.”

Not the most heartfelt welcome, but at least he didn’t sneer. He shut the door behind me, then led the way into the great room. “Grab a chair from the table,” Shane instructed and walked over to his own dining table chair positioned beside the entertainment center. Both couches were fully occupied. Thirteen stood in front of the TV and sent me a quick smile before continuing his quiet conversation with Charles.

“Heard you went playing with another team,” Chang said as I sat cross-legged on my chair. “What, we aren’t exciting enough for you anymore?”

“You guys are plenty exciting. They just asked for my help, and I figured it would be more interesting than research.”

“So you ignored your responsibilities to your team,” Shane said. “Nice.”

I shook my head. Things would just never be right between him and me. Any other night, I’d simply ignore him and move on. But tonight I needed to keep my thoughts occupied. I studied him from across the room. Maybe if he fell in love with someone else—someone he actually wanted to care about—he’d be able to be in the same room as me and not have to temper the pain and resentment overflowing in his thoughts. Cordele got up and headed toward the kitchen. “I’m getting a drink. Anyone else want one?”

For the first time, I really looked at her. She had sharp, intelligent eyes that tended to harden her features. But her skin was a soft pink, her lips nice and wide. She had her hair down tonight, and, even though her roots still showed a little, the thick blonde waves fell attractively to her shoulders. She and Shane would look good together. He was huge, and her tall body would fit snugly at his shoulder. “I’ll take something, Cordele,” I said. “Thanks.”

As she moved around the kitchen, I turned back to Shane. “Are you seeing anyone?”

His mouth dropped open. “That’s none of your business.”

I shrugged. Cordele set my whiskey on the end table beside me. “What about you, Cordele? Are you seeing anyone?”

I had the room’s full attention now. Cordele stammered, “Uh, no. I mean, kinda. Well, no. I don’t know. Why are you asking me that?”

Oooh!
Two defensive responses. And Cordele was definitely blushing. Maybe they were already into each other, and I’d just never picked up on it. I peeked into her thoughts. Furiously, she calculated some elaborate chemical formula. OK, obviously she didn’t want me knowing who she was thinking about. It was
probably just as well. Heather was boring a hole in the side of my head, her expression screaming,
Inappropriate, Magnolia
.

“Everything is set for Saturday’s gala,” Thirteen announced, getting the meeting under way. Instantly I stiffened.

“Don’t we need to wait for everyone else?” I asked. Surely we could put this off for a few minutes more.

“Theo is on a Network errand, and Marie is otherwise unavailable this evening.”

“She’s ready for Saturday, though,” Charles said quickly.

“I have every faith that she is,” Thirteen said softly. I looked back at Charles. The guy was totally on edge, Marie in every corner of his mind. Was she sick or something? His thoughts were all over the place.

Thirteen cleared his throat. “Surveillance stations will be set up here in a mobile unit in the south parking lot, as well as here in the Capital One building down the street.” Thirteen pointed out the locations on a blueprint map spread out on the coffee table. “Chang will enter with the on-site security team here in the back of the building.” He nodded to a package on the floor at Chang’s feet. “Your uniform and security ID are included in your portfolio.”

I looked around and noticed that everyone had a brown-wrapped package on the floor in front of them. As if anticipating my next question, Thirteen handed a soft package to Shane, who passed it over to me. Cool—my own mission stuff.

“Reception tables will be set up in these three areas, with tours of the facility taking place every thirty minutes. You will arrive in pairs. Theo and Cordele will arrive first at twenty-one hundred hours. Jon and Magnolia will arrive exactly thirty-three minutes later. Shane will already be on-site.”