No Love for the Wicked (31 page)

“He’s upset, Magnolia,” Heather explained softly, holding my hand. “His emotions are so confused right now. He’s upset about Cordele, but at the same time he’s so happy you’re OK. For some reason that pisses him off more than anything else. Just ignore him.”

I looked at Marie. She leaned against the ambulance door, arms folded over her chest, silent.

“What about you? You think everything I said was a lie? That maybe I’m the one who’s been working with Malcolm and just decided on a whim that it was time to end Cordele’s life? It would certainly go along with everything else you’ve ever thought about me.”

She narrowed her eyes. Her soft leather coat wrinkled against the lingering heat of the explosion. After a long moment, she said, “No, I don’t think you’re lying. Cordele’s been acting strange for weeks now. And I know for a fact she had a new boyfriend that she didn’t want any of us to meet. No, I believe you, Magnolia.”
I have to.
She didn’t say the last out loud, but it was clear in her mind.

Guess I could understand that. I had promised to do what I could right before her next ovulation cycle, and she needed to believe that deep down I wasn’t a killer who would betray our team.

I leaned back and closed my eyes, exhaustion sweeping over me.

My brother was still out there. Was he nearby? Watching? I doubted it. I couldn’t sense him anywhere. Anyway, he would have run home with his tail between his legs, ready to nurse his wounds in the comfortable luxury of the estate. Did he even care that Cordele had died saving his life? I doubted that too. Whatever moment of delusion I’d experienced, thinking that maybe he and I could work together to bring down Father and Uncle Max, I’d seen past to the heart of who he really was. Caring for someone like Cordele just wasn’t in his blood.

And yet, somehow, it was in mine.

After what seemed like years, Detective Pryor took my statement. Since I refused to go to the hospital, the medics finally
released me. Or rather, they released Miss Maggie Alvin. Couldn’t have any records of a dead Kelch daughter running around, now could we.

“You’re staying with me,” Heather announced. “Jon and Theo won’t be back until Sunday night, so I have the whole house to myself.”

I nodded until I met Thirteen’s gaze.

“It might be easier for her to come back with me,” he said earnestly. “She’ll need somewhere to stay for longer than a couple nights. Might as well get settled now, Magnolia, until you figure out whether or not you want to rebuild or do something else with the land.”

Heather shuffled her feet. She had felt what was happening between Theo and me, and Jon had told her just how official we were now. She had no doubt where I’d be staying once they returned from Bohlren.

I touched Thirteen’s arm. “Thank you, but I’ll stay with Heather for the weekend. After that, I already have someplace to stay longer term.”

He stared down at me. The moment he realized where I planned on staying, his jaw tightened. An image of his daughter flashed in his mind but then quickly disappeared, as if he’d suddenly realized the memory didn’t apply anymore. “You should rebuild this place,” he said shortly. “The land is still yours. It would be a shame to waste the property.”

I smiled. “I plan to rebuild. And if you have the time, maybe you could help me find some contractors.”

He visibly relaxed. “I have a couple people I’ve used in the past.”

“I’d appreciate the help.”

He placed his hand on mine and gave me a light squeeze. As the fire trucks drove away, we stared at the remains of the little
farmhouse. Cordele’s face was in everyone’s mind. Her sharp eyes, her dark roots. She’d shot me to save my brother. Now she was dead, and I hadn’t done anything to stop it. How was I supposed to feel about that? Because right then, I just felt numb.

Since my car had been destroyed in the explosion along with everything else, I climbed into Heather’s passenger seat and stared out the window as we drove the long length of my driveway. For the second time in my life, I was leaving my home in shredded clothes with absolutely nothing to call my own.

Heather reached over and squeezed my hand where it lay on my leg. She didn’t say a word, but she didn’t really need to. I might not have any possessions left to my name, but I guess this time I couldn’t really say I had absolutely nothing.

I sat on the floor in front of the L-shaped couch, Theo’s legs on either side of me. He leaned forward in his seat, arms on knees, playing with the tips of my hair. Jon and Heather’s Christmas tree glowed with twinkling white lights, Christmas-card perfect.

Since all the presents I’d bought had burned up along with all my clothes, Heather and I had spent most of yesterday at the mall. I’d tried to buy all the same things I had before, but when Heather saw how much my presents had cost, she’d nearly choked.

“You don’t have to buy the most expensive of everything,” she’d said, aghast.

“Why not? Look, the only conversation I ever had with my mother was her telling me about an anonymous bank account with all her family’s money. I’ll never be able to spend it all in this lifetime, even if I build ten houses where the farmhouse used to be. Father doesn’t know about any of it, so seriously, why not?”

She hadn’t really been able to come up with an argument for that one. Especially when she’d spotted the display of the new line of Birkin bags the store was carrying for a limited time only.

Theo’s fingers brushed against my neck, making the butterflies in my tummy sing. I looked back at him and smiled. He tried to smile back, but just like every other time since he’d come charging into Heather and Jon’s house last night, the smile got stuck halfway, never quite reaching his eyes.

I should have been here
, he thought for the thousandth time.

It wouldn’t have changed anything
, I reminded him again.

You would have been stronger. You wouldn’t have been burned and shot. You’d still have your home.

No, the only difference would have been that you would have gotten hurt too.

He ran a hand over my hair.
I felt you. All the way on the other side of the world, I felt your anger and hurt.

And I felt you when you called.

Thirteen entered from the entry hallway, cutting off our silent conversation. We were all there now. I looked around the room. Heather and Jon were in the kitchen, stacking plates and gathering utensils for the mouthwatering spread on the dining room table. Shane sat in the corner, every now and then responding to something Charles or Marie said from their seats nearby.

On the floor by the TV, Chang and Tony dug through Jon’s video game collection. Heather had warned me last night that Thirteen had permanently assigned Tony and Luce to our team, even though Luce was out of town visiting family for the holiday. Apparently Colin was reconsidering his role within the Network, leaving his team available for new assignments. It would be a test of my emotional control to work with Luce.

“Let’s make this fast,” Jon said, wiping powdered sugar off his pant legs as he took a seat on the sofa. “The roast is keeping warm in the oven, but the casserole will dry out if we don’t serve it soon.”

“Listen to Betty Crocker over there,” Theo teased.

“You know it,” Jon replied, swinging his arm around Heather as she took her seat beside him. “My spinach and cheese casserole is the bomb.”

“All right,” Chang said and gave him a thumbs-up in approval.

Thirteen stood in front of the TV. “In that case, if there are no objections, I’ll simply summarize each update rather than going around the room.”

Jon waved a hand. “Summarize away.”

“The trip to Ukraine was a success in that Jon and Theo were able to confirm the meeting between Boyko and both Senator and Magnus Kelch. They obtained meeting minutes from Boyko’s assistant on all four meetings with the brothers. Their trip to Bohlren was equally successful, if not more so. In addition to confirming the meeting between the Kelch brothers and Councilman Okhotnikov, Theo was also able to track down Dr. A. Fahran, curator of the Yakiviy and Aunre Museum of History.”

He turned to me. “Minutes from all three meetings confirm what Magnolia discovered not only from Colin’s team’s information, but also from what Cordele was able to relay before her demise.” A wave of ache washed over him, making my heart clench. I wasn’t the only one he’d held paternal feelings for—he loved every member of this team.

He cleared his throat. “Kelch Inc. may very well establish facilities in the nations of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and western Russia, but their primary objective is to locate the manufacturer of a certain type of ancient tool. If I understand correctly, they believe the maker of these artifacts will lead them to discover the
source of their supernatural bloodline, a fact currently unknown to all Kelches. Is that correct, Magnolia?”

My throat was dry, but I managed to swallow. “Yes. We’ve never known where our powers came from. Grandmother never revealed Grandfather’s identity, but it’s always been assumed it was from him that we drew our abilities.”

“And by identifying this toolmaker, the senator and Magnus hope to locate their birth father, thereby devising a way to increase their current supernatural strength.”

“Exactly.” I sat forward. “But you have to keep in mind that Malcolm is after this guy too. He wants to break out on his own, and he wants to kill my uncle Max. Badly. Cordele had a strong mind. She managed to keep my identity secret whenever she was with him. But I don’t know if he picked up anything about the rest of the team. Whatever he learned, though, you can guarantee that he will be passing at least some of it on to Father and Uncle Max. The rest he’ll use to find this toolmaker first. Especially now that he knows I’m helping you.”

“Then it’s a race,” Jon said, completely serious. “If Magnus and the senator are searching for their father, and Malcolm is playing double agent right on their heels, then we’ll just have to find this guy first.” He looked at me. “Are you up for that? Going on the hunt for Grandpa?”

My heart picked up the pace as a new excitement suddenly sprouted inside me. I was a proven Network agent now, one who had been in on more than one successful mission. I wasn’t a normal agent, but I was a powerful one. And they truly trusted me. They trusted me not only to have their backs and to pull my weight, but to put the needs of the team first, even when going against my family.

“You bet your ass I am,” I said, and I knew exactly where to start.

I went home with Theo after the update meeting and Christmas meal at Jon and Heather’s house. He drove the long way through downtown, passing by the monument lights, which were even better than I’d imagined.

It turned out that Theo’s house was an oversize Cape Cod on a side street just south of the city, not even two blocks from the safe house Thirteen had kept me in when I’d first escaped. He’d been refurbishing the home for the past five years. Right now, the basement and upstairs were closed off to conserve heat. A red-and-black pool table in the dining room announced the place as a bachelor pad, even though the updated kitchen boasted stainless steel appliances, a granite-top island, and a pet betta fish standing guard against the stack of unopened mail. The downstairs bedroom, currently being used as the master bedroom, sat just off the kitchen. With twelve-foot ceilings, a wide-mantel fireplace, and a king-size bed with a thick brown comforter, the room was absolutely perfect.

Theo had helped me carry in my shopping bags of clothes, poured me a glass of whiskey, then led me to the bed. As I drifted off, his musky scent surrounded me. I couldn’t remember ever feeling that safe.

In my dream, my golden island was a continent now. The bloody lake, a full ocean. I lay on the long, sandy beach with my fingers in the water, playing softly over my smiling twin as small waves lapped from the subtle red sea on the shore.

I pulled my fingers from the bloody sea and sat up when I felt the dream man approach. Looking over my shoulder, I saw him standing a few feet away, hands in pockets again, a hesitant smile on his face. “Hello, Magnolia.”