by J. R. Ward
She hit the side part without a glitch, but tangles in the ends made it impossible to get the shit down the length. Getting a brush from her bag, she ripped through from root to split end until she could do the whole job; then made quick work of covering everything that came out of her skull.
The stuff smelled like air freshener and chemical glue, and had the consistency of cum.
Was that what turned this guy on?
Men were such pigs.
During processing time, as her scalp heated up and her nose itched, she texted people about the freak job she was on. No reason to talk to the client--he was still just sitting there, making like a statue.
Thirty-five minutes later she stepped into the shower with a bottle of shampoo that had been left on the counter. The stuff had been half-used by someone else, but there was enough to get things rinsing clean. The warm water felt good, and the conditioner smelled so much better than the bleach.
When she got out, her hair was the color of movie popcorn, all that golden yellow making her white-ass skin glow green. Putting her slut clothes back on didn't help her image much.
Unhitching the hair dryer, she pivoted on her bare feet. "You ready for this?"
The man rose from the chair and came over, stepping into the light. He was good-looking enough, but for some reason, she wanted to give him the money back and leave. Fast.
"I'm going to take things from here," he told her, snagging the dryer and brush from her.
The noise from the hot air roared in her ears as he began to slowly stroke the bristles through her hair. Steady. Sure. As if he'd done this before.
Freak.
When everything was dry and smooth, he clicked the Conair off and put it on the counter beside her.
Meeting her eyes in the mirror, the man just stared at her.
She cleared her throat. "I have to go--"
His face wasn't right all of a sudden, the features seeming to change into....
She opened her mouth and dragged in her last breath to scream just as a blade lifted behind her head.
With a quick slash across her throat, the monster opened a different exhalation route for the air in her lungs, the release not making it high enough to become a cry for help.
Her final image was of a dead, animated corpse that was smiling in the midst of its rotting flesh.
"Party time," a female voice said.
Suicide.
As Matthias stewed on the word, a man the size of a bus came into the garage's studio apartment, his black jacket, gloves, and leathers making him look like a Hell's Angel. That harsh expression fit the job description, too--and all those piercings didn't mark him as a pussy, either.
Jim made the introductions, classifying Matthias as "a friend," and the leather-wearing roomie as "Adrian."
Suicide.
Trying on the concept for size, Matthias found it fit, and waited for more to come to him: a context, a place, a triggering reason. Nothing bubbled up, even as he strained against the constipation in his head--
With sudden clarity, he looked over at Heron. "The desert."
The man with the answers stopped talking to his roommate and nodded. "Yeah. That's where it happened."
"And you were right there." As Heron nodded again, Matthias's frustration roared. "How the fuck do we know each other--"
Any answer was cut off by the sound of a car pulling up in front of the garage. Instantly, guns were outted, and Matthias joined the party, snagging the one off the table.
God...it felt so good against his palm. So natural.
Matthias shoved himself around and played dog, looking through the drapes. As soon as he saw what was in the driveway, he eased back with a groan. "Son of a bitch."
"You know her?" Jim asked from over at the window in the door.
Turning around again, he watched as Mels got out of the Toyota and focused on the Harley. It wasn't a shocker that she'd found the goddamn address; if he'd done it, she could. But he couldn't believe she'd followed through. He'd hit her with the hard reality before they'd split, and most people would have dropped out of the drama right then and there.
I'm a black belt, licensed to carry a concealed hand weapon, and I never go anywhere without a good knife.
"Let me handle this," he said, going over to the door and pushing Jim out of the way--even though the other man outweighed him by as much as a hatchback. "And let me make this perfectly clear--no one touches her. Do you both understand that. No one."
He was physically compromised in some ways, but it didn't take a lot of strength to pull a fucking trigger. And if anybody got too close to that lovely woman down there, he would hunt them down and kill them if it was the last thing he did on earth.
In the heavy silence, two pairs of brows went sky-high, but neither of the men argued with him.
Good thinking, boys.
The instant Matthias stepped out onto the top landing, Mels's head shot up.
Putting her hands on her hips, she somehow confronted him eye-to-eye, even though she was at ground level. "Surprise, surprise."
Keeping the gun way out of sight, he said, "You need to go."
She nodded at the motorcycle. "A dead man's ride?"
"Of course not."
Frowning, she abruptly crossed over the gravel and picked up what looked like one of the cobblestones. Except it caught the sunlight and sent out a flash, suggesting it was metal.
Straightening, she brought the bullet casing to her nose and took a whiff. "Been doing a little target practice?"
As she held the empty round up, he wanted to curse. Especially as she smiled coldly. "This is freshly discharged--no more than twenty minutes, maybe thirty since it was shot out of a gun."
Tucking the borrowed weapon into the small of his back, he came down as fast as he could, and when they were actually face-to-face, he'd never felt so powerless in his life. He'd tried to scare her away; that clearly hadn't worked. Maybe honesty would do the trick.
He traced her face with his eyes, that stubborn, beautiful face. "Please," he said quietly. "I'm begging you. Let this whole thing go."
"You keep talking about danger--but all I'm seeing is a man without a memory on a wild-goose chase. Look, just talk to me--"
"Jim Heron's dead. And I don't know who owns that Harley, or who was shooting--"
"So who are you talking to up there? And if you say no one, you're lying. There's no way you took that bike here. No way--and its engine is still ticking. I bet if I went over and put my hand on the block, it would be warm."
"You really need to let this all go--"
"I'm not putting any of this in the paper--we've already established that. Everything's off the record--"
"So why do you care?"
"I'm more than my job."
He threw up his hands. "Why the hell am I arguing with you. You won't even wear a goddamn seat belt in the car. Why would I expect you to--"
At that moment, the door opened and Jim Heron came out into the sunlight.
Mels looked up at the guy and shook her head. "Well, as I live and breathe...you know, you look a helluva lot like a construction worker who was shot and killed about two weeks ago. Matter of fact, I worked on the article in the CCJ about you."
Matthias squeezed his eyes together. "Son of a bitch..."
The first piece of good news, Jim thought, was that the woman threw a shadow. No chance she was a Devina-ogram.
The second was Matthias's little all-mine performance. That cruel bastard had never called dibs on anyone other than in a target situation--hadn't acted protective toward a living soul. But something in this fire-eyed reporter with the attitude had gotten through to him--and that did not suck.
The female in question glanced at Matthias. Glared at him was more like it. "Not going to introduce us?"
"I'll do it myself," Jim announced as he started down the stairs.
"How refreshing to think manners aren't dead," she muttered. "Then again, with the way you boys go, de
ad's not really a binary term, is it."
Matthias was not happy behind those Ray-Bans of his, but he was going to have to get over that. Along with a few other things.
"I'm Jim." He stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet you."
Her expression was all about the oh-please, but she extended her palm. "Do you want to tell me what's going on here--"
The instant contact was made, he put her into a trance: She just stared up at him, relaxed, ready to be informed, her short-term memory wiped clean.
Cool. He wasn't sure he could pull it off.
Matthias locked a vicious hold on Jim's arm. "What the fuck did you do to her?"
"Nothing. Just a little hypnosis." He glanced at his old boss. "Here's what's going to happen. She won't remember me--neater and cleaner that way. And you're going to take her to the hotel that I'm reserving a room for you in--"
Matthias was focused only on his reporter. "Mels? Mels--are you okay--"
Jim put his face right up into the guy's eye. "She's fine--haven't you ever heard of Heron the Magnificent?"
Annnnnnnnd out came the gun. Matthias shoved the barrel right into Jim's neck, and suddenly the other man's jaw was right where it had always been, tight, hard, all about the get-'er-done.
"What the fuck did you do to her." Not a question. More like the countdown to a trigger pulling.
"Well," Jim said reasonably, "if you pop me in the carotid, you'll never get her out of it, will you."
Actually, if the guy shot him, nothing was going to happen. But they had enough drama going on here, and he wasn't sure he could do this mind trick with two people at the same time. More to the point, given Matthias's tricky mental landscape, Jim didn't want to run the risk of blowing the bastard's brain up with the truth about the whole angel-demon thing. Not yet, at any rate.
That gun didn't waver. "Bring her back. Now."
"You're taking her to your hotel room."
"I'm the one with the gun. I make the plans."
"Think about it. If you're with her, then you can make sure I leave her alone, right?"
Matthias's voice dropped an octave. "You don't know who you're dealing with."
"And neither do you." Jim leaned into the guy. "You need me. I'm the only one who can tell you what you want to know--trust me on this. I'm more aware than you about exactly how buried your past is, and nobody's going to break that barrier but me. So get in that fucking beater, have her drive you to the Marriott downtown, and I'll get there when I'm good and goddamn ready."
Matthias just stayed where he was, squaring off for the longest time. "I could shoot you right now."
"So do it."
Matthias frowned and brought his free hand to his temple like his head hurt. "I...shot you, didn't I...."
"We've got a long history. And if you want to find out about it, you will stick with her--no arguments. I've got you by the short hairs, and I'm calling the shots. Nice fucking change of pace, if I do say so myself."
Jim went back to the stairs and ascended, leaving Matthias stuck between a rock and his reporter. At the top of the landing, he snapped his fingers for show and then disappeared into the studio. From behind the drapes, he watched the woman come back on line and the pair of them talk it out.
"So Matthias is the soul," Ad said from between bites of his Reuben.
"Looks like it."
"You sure you want to drag that woman into all this?"
"Did you see the way he looks at her?"
"Maybe he just wants to get laid."
"Good luck with that," Jim muttered. "And yeah, she's going to be an asset for us."
The question now was, Where were the crossroads. Sooner or later, Devina was going to set up a choice, and Jim had until then to get a completely conscienceless, power-hungry despot to do a one-eighty.
Great. Juuuust great.
He was so completely surrounded by job satisfaction at the moment that he was positively choking on the shit.
"Let's get down to that hotel," he said.
"What hotel?"
"The Marriott." He went for his wallet. There was a credit card in it under the Jim Heron name that was up-to-date--and MasterCard wasn't going to know he was technically dead because he hadn't told them.
Adrian wiped his mouth with a Goldstein's Deli napkin. "Are you sure you want this to be so public? Lot of people downtown, and Devina loves to be the center of attention."
"Yeah, but the lack of privacy will tie her hands--first of all, she'll have to clean up any messes. And second, she's going to have to be very careful about how she proceeds in this round--and I can't believe that killing innocent civilians of the human variety is going to put the Maker in His happy place."
Jim went over to the dresser, such as it was, and got his holsters out. Slipping them on, he put his dagger in on one side and another of his guns in the other. Checking his pockets, he went to see how many cigarettes he had--
The folded piece of paper in the ass of his jeans stopped the hunt, and he closed his eyes briefly.
There was no reason to take the newspaper article out; he knew it by heart. Every word, every paragraph--and especially the picture.
His Sissy.
Who wasn't really his.
Always with him. Never forgotten.
Making sure Adrian couldn't see, he outted the piece of eight-and-a-half-by-eleven, unfolded the page, and sneaked a peek at her face. Nineteen when she was taken by the demon, eternal down below in that wall of souls--
Jim frowned and looked to the door. Matthias had been in that vicious hell. What had he seen inside of it....
Or, fuck, what had he done there?
The idea that that girl was in there suffering was enough to make Jim see white with rage.
"Hurry up, Ad," he muttered. "We got to go."
Riding in the passenger seat of the Toyota, Matthias felt like things were going at a dead run. In fact, not only was Mels obeying all the traffic laws, but they were creeping along at five miles an hour through a construction zone full of jackhammers and paving trucks.
He glanced over at her. Behind the wheel, she was fine, calm, normal, even with the not-a-clue about Jim Heron.
What the hell had the guy done to her?
Man, ordinarily Matthias would have called bullshit on the whole thing. Hypnosis his ass. Except...well, he was kind of in the same situation, although instead of losing a couple of minutes, he'd pulled a blank on his whole fucking life.
And what did he know from "ordinary" anymore anyway?
As they stopped at a red light on the far side of the assault on asphalt, he stared through his window. "I don't do well with being out of control."
"Not many people enjoy it." Mels took a deep breath. "I'm glad you're letting me take you back to your hotel."
If you're with her, then you can make sure I leave her alone, right?
He pushed his fingers underneath the rims of the Ray-Bans and rubbed his eyes.
"Almost there," she said. Like she thought he was going to pass out or something.
He wasn't sporting a case of the vapors, though. "You make me feel...powerless."
"I don't think that's me. I think that's your situation."
"No, it's you." He had the sense if she were not around, things would be clearer, even if he never remembered another event from his life: In that hypothetical, all he'd have to worry about was himself, and one problem was definitely better than two.
"I've tried to do the right thing," he muttered, and then wondered who he was talking to.
"And you are--by going somewhere you can rest. Things have been chaotic as hell for you in the last twenty-four hours. You need to sleep."
Letting his head fall against the headrest, he closed his eyes and thought of facing off against Jim, fully prepared to pull the trigger and kill the guy.
Sleep did not appear to be what he needed. More like handcuffs and a psych eval: In that moment when his finger had been on the trigger, there had been no hesitation on h
is part: not with the speed that he'd put the muzzle to the guy's jugular, not because there had been witnesses, and not from any sort of moral hmmm-this-is-a-human-life.
Had he been a soldier? Because that shit was nothing civilian, everything military.
Yeah, he thought, that was it. And he'd been one of the most dangerous kinds of fighters...those who had a dead space in the center of their chest. Which meant they were capable of anything.
You hated the man you were.
As the light turned green, Mels took them past a section of minimalls, the stores like LEGOs linked together on the far sides of narrow parking lots. It was everything he never noticed, the cutesy coffee shops, the places that peddled folklore gifts, the low-end jewelers and dollar stores. So banal. So day-by-day. So normal--
"I tried to commit suicide."
Mels hit the brake for a hairbreadth, even though traffic was flowing evenly down the four-lane stretch of byway.
"Did you..." She cleared her throat. "Is your memory coming back?"
"Bits and pieces."
"What happened? I mean, if it's not too personal."
Thinking back to Jim Heron, he answered with the other man's words. "I didn't like who I was."
"And who were you?"
Dark as night, cold as winter, cruel as a blade. But he kept that to himself. "You're tenacious, you know that."
She touched her sternum. "Reporter. It's part of the job description."
"I'm learning."
Matthias closed his eyes again and listened to the rise and fall of the engine. When something warm and soft covered his wrist, he jumped. It was her hand, her elegant hand.
On some level, he couldn't believe she wanted to touch him.
Swallowing hard, he gave her a squeeze and then retracted from the contact.
They came up to the Marriott about ten minutes later. The hotel was your typical big-city shindig, looming high over trimmed hedges and a shallow lawn, smack in the center of the business district. Entering the porte cochere, they got tangled in a mess of porters and cars and people with luggage. Then again, it was after three o'clock, which was rush hour for travelers.
"Will you come up?" he heard himself ask, as he wondered who might have followed them--and exactly what kind of relationship he had with Jim Heron.
The word help had been tossed around by the guy, except you had to wonder what the motivations were, and it wasn't smart to take anything for granted.