Trace of Magic (6 page)

A vein in her forehead throbbed. She was pissed, but apparently she was standing in quicksand and sinking fast.

She drew a sharp breath and blew it out, then twitched a card out of her pocket and handed it to Price. “I’d appreciate it if you kept me updated,” she said stiffly. “Cranford, Martin, Josephson! We’re leaving.” She marched out of the room and punched the elevator button several times. The three men followed her.

Price examined the card.

“Who is she?”

“Special Agent Sandra Arnow,” he read.

“What do they want Josh for?” Taylor said. She’d pulled her composure up and around herself like armor. She stood tall, her jaw thrust out, her lips stiff.

“I don’t know. I’ll see what I can find out. In the meantime, let’s get you two out to the car. The crime-scene guys will be here soon. I don’t want you in the way.”

He handed me his keys, and the warning in his eyes told me that I’d better not run. He had me tabbed, and he’d be pissed if he had to waste his time running me down.

I guided Taylor down to his car, started it up, and flipped the heater to high, then climbed into the backseat with her.

“What are you doing with a cop?” she asked. “Are you insane?”

“He hired me for a job. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” I said. “Trust me, I tried. And he isn’t just a cop. He works for the Tyet.”

“Jesus, Riley. What are you going to do?”

“Do the trace. Not much else I can do. Then I’m going to bury myself in a deep hole until he forgets me. Are you telling us everything about Josh?”

Taylor’s mouth pinched together. She gave a little shake of her head. “He’s been on edge for months. Some weeks are fine, and then suddenly—he gets uptight. He snaps at everything I say and wants to be alone. A few days pass and then he’s calling me again like nothing happened. He’s lost weight and he’s been drinking. He barely sleeps.”

“He’s never told you why?”

She averted her head. “I didn’t want to ask.”

Meaning she didn’t want to take the chance of pushing him away and losing him altogether. Then my sister did something completely unselfish and made me feel about two inches tall.

“You should go,” Taylor said. “I’ll be all right. I’ll call Leo and Jamie.”

Here’s the thing. After my mom was murdered, my dad got remarried. I was four. Taylor came along a year later.

We got along fine. No big half-sister hatred or anything. But Dad had always treated me different. Special, in the way that the smallpox virus is special. I always knew I needed to hide and that if the Tyet or anyone like them found me, I’d be in trouble. He made sure that the rest of the family knew it, too. They did everything in their power to keep me under the radar.

Now Taylor was going to sacrifice her heart to let me off the hook. Leo and Jamie weren’t going to be any help. They were my stepbrothers. Leo was four years older and Jamie was my age. After both had gone and got engineering degrees, they had completely changed career direction and gone into business together making high-end jewelry. Their designs were expensive and popular. The kinds of pieces stars begged to wear to the Oscars and Grammys.

Anyhow, the point is they couldn’t help with Josh. I could. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let my sister bleed to death when I might be able to help. Especially not to just keep my own hide intact.

“I told you. I’m stuck with Price until I do his trace.” I grimaced. “He tabbed me. As long as I have to be under his thumb, I might as well use him to help me find Josh. Besides, you’re my sister. I’m not going to go hide while the love of your life is missing.”

“It’s too dangerous for you. Break the tab,” she urged, and she actually meant it. As much as she loved Josh, she was willing to let me off the hook rather than risk myself. My entire family would do the same. For that, I’d walk into hell for them.

“If I do, it will make him suspicious. Don’t forget he’s a Tyet enforcer,” I said, my throat tight with emotion. Dad always said family was the most important thing in the world. You stick together, and you always have someone to lean on. He’d always meant that I was the one that was supposed to do the leaning, letting them hide me and protect me. Not this time. For once, I was going to be the one to help.

“So?” she countered. “Break it and run.”

“He won’t give up. He’ll be too curious.” I shook my head. “It’s better if I just play the part he expects and then drift away when it’s over.”

She bit her lip. “Are you sure? I don’t want to risk you, too.”

“I’m sure. I’m going to find Josh for you.”

“Thanks,” she said, and tears trickled down her face again. Suddenly she put her arms around me and hugged me hard. “Thanks so much. I know you’re the best. If anyone can find him, it’s you.”

I hugged her back, and then she pulled away, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands.

“I’m a fucking mess,” she said. “I didn’t cry this much when I broke my leg in first grade.”

“Maybe you’re pregnant.”

“Bite me,” she retorted. “I’m totally protected and so is Josh.”

Just then the driver’s door opened and the overhead light popped on, making me squint. Price slid into the seat. He brushed away the snow on his arms and shoulders.

“We’d better get going. Snow’s almost too deep to drive in.” He looked over his shoulder. “Where to?”

“You’re not taking us to the precinct?”

He frowned and shook his head. “In this weather? No. I’ll get you home and we can start working the case from there where there’s food and beds. You’ve got a decent computer setup, right?”

He looked at me, but it was Taylor who answered. She knew I’d rather skinny-dip in lava than let Price anywhere near my house. “I do. I don’t live far. Take Porter Avenue up to Excellsior.”

He nodded and then turned on the windshield wipers. It didn’t help much with the thick blanket of snow that had fallen over the car. He jumped out and knocked the snow from all the windows, then hopped back in again. “Damn, it’s cold,” he said, rubbing his hands in front of the heater vent.

He looked back at us. Something moved across his expression as the overhead light faded slowly. He deliberately set his gun on the center console, leaving one hand on it. The threat was clear.

“One more thing. I want to know what you aren’t telling me. Right now.” But he looked at me, not at Taylor.

I didn’t blink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I didn’t either. I mean, I was hiding everything I could from him. How was I supposed to know what exactly had set off his radar?

“The haunters.”

“Haunters?” I echoed, pretending I had no idea what he was talking about and scrambling to figure out what to say next. I’d hoped he wouldn’t figure it out so soon.

He sighed and his jaw knotted. “The crime-scene unit has a tracer. I know there were two haunters. The question is, why didn’t you tell me?” He pointed at me. “If I’m going to help you, you can’t lie to me.”

“Who says you’re going to help me?” I tossed back, then reminded myself I should just shut the fuck up before he put a bomb in my shoes. Don’t get me wrong. I mostly believed that he hadn’t killed the guys that were after us, and if he had, they’d have got what they probably deserved. But to Price they were as disposable as Kleenex. I knew I was, too.

“I did help you,” he snapped.

“You’re a Tyet man. Now that you know there are haunters involved, your incentive for finding Josh disappears,” I accused, sudden anger getting the better of me. Taylor clutched my arm warningly. I ignored her. “Since someone in the Tyet is clearly behind his kidnapping, there are decent odds you’ll jump in to help cover it up, or do whatever dirty work your boss—Gregg Touray—needs you to do. You know Josh cares about Taylor; I’m guessing that whoever took him will want her for leverage to make him cooperate. You know the drill: cut her, make her hurt, make him behave. Maybe your boss has Josh and will want to use her himself, or maybe he’ll sell her to the kidnappers. Either way, we’ll be lucky if anybody finds our bodies.”

Taylor gasped, and I put my arm around her, my stomach clenching. I hadn’t meant to put it so baldly, but here we were in the backseat of an enforcer’s car with nowhere to go and a gun aimed in our general direction. Mincing words seemed pointless. My chin jutted. “Am I wrong?”

His face worked. “There is at least one other possibility,” he said. “Has it occurred to you that I might just help you?”

“No,” I said bluntly. “Why would you?”

“I’m a cop. It’s my job.” His teeth clipped each word off sharply.

“Now you’re asking us to believe in fairy tales.” I leaned forward. “I know you’re a decent cop. I’ve paid attention. But the fact of the matter is that you work for the Tyet, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t trust you.”

He met my gaze for a long moment. His eyes were turbulent and hot. I resisted the urge to look away.

Finally he spoke. “I might surprise you,” he said, before he twisted around and slammed the car into gear. The wheels spun and the rear fishtailed as he jumped on the gas. I had no idea if he was going to take us to Taylor’s or if he was going to turn us over to the bad guys. I silently jeered at myself. If I really didn’t trust him as much as I said, I’d have broken the tab and run when he sent us out to his car. The truth was, I did trust him, as stupid as it was. At least I wanted to. I hoped I wasn’t going to regret that.

Chapter 6

THE CAR SLID around a corner and nearly skidded into a street light. Price straightened out just in time and jammed the accelerator to the floor. I held onto Taylor, who had a death grip on the arm of the door and my thigh. Neither of us spoke, except when Price asked for directions.

Taylor’s place was one of the picturesque postcard sorts of places that tend to end up on the covers of magazines. It was three stories tall with a broad porch running all the way around it. Built back in the late eighteen hundreds, it had lovely gables and two squared-off turrets in the front. By the time Taylor got ahold of it, the previous owners had let it fall to pieces. She’d bought it for a song and gutted the place, restoring it to splendor, but adding in every modern convenience. After that, she’d turned the three-acre garden into her own private Eden.

Price pulled into the long, looped driveway and stopped beside the front steps. The snow was more than a foot deep and his car chugged and died. He jerked the keys out of the ignition and flung open his door, snatching up his gun as he got out. He jammed it into his shoulder holster and yanked open the back door.

I slid out first, tugging Taylor after me. I’d been rethinking my decision not to break the tab and run. I’d be better off looking for Josh on my own.

“You can just stop thinking about it,” he said as we went up the steps.

“Thinking about what?”

“Getting away from me. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“That will make peeing interesting,” I said.

His brows rose, and then he flashed an unexpected grin. “Won’t it?”

The smile startled me. So did the innuendo. It was like he was a real human man, not to mention it smelled a lot like flirting. The idea did things to my insides that it had no business doing.

“I mean for you,” I explained, deciding to needle him. It was definitely
not
flirting. “I’ve heard it’s hard to pee when someone’s watching. If I’ve got to be there for it, I might as well check out the equipment. I hope you’re not shy. Or embarrassed. I mean—” I waggled my pinky in the air. “I’ve heard some men can be really sensitive about that.”

“I’m not worried in the least.” His gaze ran down me and lingered at my crotch. “I admit it will be interesting to see if the carpet matches the drapes. Not to mention if the hedges are trimmed or if they grow wild.
Hmmm.
Wonder if there are any hedges at all?”

I blushed. I couldn’t help it. If I could have hit him and gotten away with it, I would have. As it was, I grabbed a handful of snow from where it had drifted up onto the porch and squashed it into his neck.

He yelped and spun around, grabbing my arm in a hard grip. “What the hell was that for?”

“You seemed hot. I thought I’d help cool you down.”

“How old are the two of you, anyway?” Taylor demanded as she thrust open the door. “Josh has been tortured and kidnapped. Try to remember that, would you? Take your shoes off in the mudroom. I don’t want snow all over the house. I’ll turn the fire on in the back living room. My laptop is in there. You can get started looking for Josh.”

Josh. I pushed my hair out of my face. It was wet. Icy water trickled down my neck. I shivered as I kicked out of my boots. My socks were only slightly damp so I left them on. I pulled off my coat and hung it up. Price did the same. He motioned for me to lead the way, so I did, all too aware that he had a good view of my ass. After his comments about my pubic hair, I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. I mean, I’ve had men compliment me on my ass before, but all of a sudden, I was paranoid about whether it was too big or too flat or too wide—

Shit! Who cares? This was Detective-Asshole Clay Price! He was an enforcer for the Tyet and I was pretty sure he was going to kill me or get me killed before the end of the week, if not the day. So why on this side of hell did I care what he thought of my ass?

But I did. I’m sick. Really, really sick.

Taylor had the gas fire crackling and had turned on her laptop.

“Want something to eat?” she asked, and disappeared into the kitchen before either of us could answer.

“She cooks when she’s upset,” I said.

“I could eat,” Price said, sitting down in front of the computer. He glanced at me. “What do you do when you’re upset?”

A whole cascade of smartass answers ran through my head, from “masturbate” to “kill people.” “Drink,” I said and went in search of some wine.

I don’t actually drink much, but we were about to be snowed in and I didn’t have any place to be. There wasn’t much I could do to find Josh without following his trace, which would mean returning to the scene of the crime. For now, all I could do was wait and see what Price found out. Drinking seemed a fine way to fill the time.

I went into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of Riesling out of the wine cooler. I like sweet wines. Taylor eyed me, then fetched three glasses. I pulled the cork and poured. I raised my glass in toast. “To finding Josh. Sooner than soon.”

Taylor’s mouth twisted. She clinked my glass and took several gulps. Good. Maybe I could get her drunk enough to pass out. She could use the sleep.

I filled the last glass and carried it out to Price, setting it down on a coaster. Not using coasters could get you killed in Taylor’s house.

“What’s your sister’s password?” he asked.

“I’ll go ask.”

She turned red when I asked and marched out into the living room and typed it in herself. Probably something sappy involving Josh. I couldn’t possibly hope it would be racy. Not Taylor’s MO.

She vanished into the kitchen.

“I hope you’re hungry,” I said to Price. “She found a hunk of prime rib or something in the fridge. We’ll be having a five-or six-course meal before she’s through.”

“I do love a woman who cooks,” Price said absently as he brought up the police portal.

For the record, I do not cook. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. I can make fettuccine Alfredo to die for, and I can make the best cheesecake you ever want to taste. Otherwise, what I eat comes off a menu or out of a box. It’s one of the reasons I work out of the diner. Patti makes sure I’m fed.

Price looked over his shoulder at me. “You can go help your sister, if you want.”

“She doesn’t need me,” I said innocently, totally ignoring the hint. “Besides, you didn’t want me out of your sight, remember?”

“Then go have a seat on the couch. I don’t need you breathing down my neck.”

Whatever. I did as told, stretching out and pulling a plush throw down over me.

“What can you tell me about Josh?” Price asked as he typed out something on the keyboard.

“He’s a suit. Uptight. Likes to rock climb and bike in his spare time. He works at—” I wrinkled my nose up, trying to remember the company’s name. “The Franklin Watley Group. He’s been there something like a decade. He’s apparently a wizard at his job. From the way he tells it, his bosses think the sun shines out his ass.”

“What does he do?”

“Hell if I know. Makes money. Gobs of it. Breaks my sister’s heart and then keeps screwing her on the side. So pretty much he’s a douchebag.”

“Please, don’t hold back. Tell me how you really feel,” Price said dryly.

I turned on my side to look at him. “I don’t like liars and cheats.”

“I don’t know that he’s done either. He’s broke his engagement with your sister—”

“And her heart.”

“And her heart. But he didn’t lie or cheat that we know of.”

“Yet. But that’s not the point. The point is he’s been leading her on, using her for sex because she’s still so in love with him she’d do anything to hold on to him.”

“That’s not the nicest portrait of your sister.”

I shrugged. “Love makes people stupid.”

I didn’t know why I was saying all this. I wasn’t sure I even believed it. Josh could be the sweetest guy on the planet. Before he ended the engagement, I thought he was. But now? How does a guy do that to the woman he loves? I couldn’t help but feel that whatever Josh had gotten into, it was his fault and the fallout was going to splash onto Taylor and hurt her too. It already had.

“You don’t believe in love?”

“Are you serious?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

“Do you?”

He looked at me and then back down at the screen. “I believe it happens for some people.”

“But not you.”

He shook his head. “I’m too selfish. I can’t give that much of myself. I won’t.”

I considered. “I suppose I’m the same way. My parents were crazy about each other. So were my dad and my stepmother. They’d have done anything for each other. It’s a nice thought, but not very practical when you get down to it.” I barely paused before the question that was bugging me most of the night popped out.

“Why’d you hire me?”

He didn’t even blink at the change of subject. “I thought we covered that. I needed a tracer and you fit the bill.”

“But not a cop or Tyet tracer.”

“Sometimes I like to keep my business private,” he said.

“Fair enough. What about those men who were chasing us? The ones you blew up. Who were they and what did they want?”

“I didn’t blow them up. They walked out alive. As for what they wanted, some people don’t like me much,” was Price’s unhelpful answer. “Sometimes they try to get in my way; sometimes they want revenge.”

“I don’t like you; doesn’t mean I’m going to try to kill you,” I muttered.

“Good to know.”

“Doesn’t mean I won’t, either,” I said, sipping my wine.

He smiled. “You aren’t a killer. You don’t have it in you.”

“You don’t have to make that sound so much like an insult. Besides, I don’t have to kill you; just hurt you.”

“Except you know I’d be after you when I healed up. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, you don’t want to leave trouble behind you to hunt you down.”

I didn’t have an argument against that. It was the main reason I hadn’t broken the tab and tried to vanish. Even if I gave his money back, I knew he’d keep after me just to figure out how I’d gotten away.

After a while, the smell of cooking food filled the air and my stomach cramped. I wanted to nap, but I couldn’t. Every time I closed my eyes I saw blood, and I kept wondering what was happening to Josh. I opened myself to the trace. His lines were all over the house. I breathed a sigh of relief. They still glowed with a vitality that said he was still alive.

I stood, suddenly feeling like I needed to move. Price glanced up, sharp gaze pinning me in place.

“Where are you going?”

“I thought I’d go wander out into the blizzard.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“It’s not like you know a damned thing about me,” I said. “Except possibly that I’m smelling a little ripe and I need a shower. So I’m going to go take one. Upstairs. I promise I won’t crawl out the window. Consider Taylor your hostage against my good behavior.”

With that I trotted up the stairs.

The nice thing about having money is being able to buy luxury. Taylor had done just that. Her bathroom wasn’t much smaller than her bedroom, which took up the entire third floor. She had a closet the size of a garage. I swear I sank up to my knees when I walked across the carpet.

The bathroom was a spa. The jetted tub was big enough to hold me and Price without touching. The unexpected image of bubbles sliding over his warm bare skin made my breath catch.

“Don’t even think about it,” I told myself out loud. “That is one act of stupidity you will never survive.”

Oh, great. I was talking to myself. I really needed more wine. Too bad I left the bottle downstairs.

Confronted by the enormous tub and the array of bubble bath and scented soaps on the shelf, I decided that I had plenty of time to soak. It wasn’t like anyone was going to miss me.

I lit a bunch of candles for ambience. The tub faced a wall of windows with sliding glass doors that led out onto a broad deck. The glass was treated with magic to see out without anyone seeing in. Not that anyone could. The snow whirled in a thick curtain outside.

I let the tub fill with steaming water, dribbling in some bubble bath that smelled of cloves and oranges. When it was about half full, I got out of my clothes and sank down into the water. Heaven.

I’m not sure how long I was in the tub before Taylor came to get me, but I was way past the pruny stage. She walked in and sat down on the vanity chair. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her voice sounded stuffed up.

“If you’re hungry, there’s food,” she said. Her voice sounded listless and empty. “Price is still on the computer. He’s had a couple of phone calls, too. He won’t tell me anything.”

Her eyes snapped to mine. “Do you really think he’s going to help whoever took Josh?”

I didn’t want to think so. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.” I couldn’t lie. Not over this.

“You’re wrong,” came Price’s voice from the doorway. He leaned on the jamb, his sapphire eyes glittering.

I sank down as low as I could into the tub, hoping the few remaining bubbles and the dim candlelight would hide me. Unlikely. I didn’t have enough bubbles left to hide a flea. My stomach clenched at the idea of being naked in the same room with him and my entire body flushed red.