All the jealousy I’d never wanted to feel came bursting out of calm surface waters like a dolphin doing a flip to amuse the spectators. “Of course you will. Why don’t you have her room with you? I’ll room with Luck?” The evil words spewed from my mouth before I even knew what I was saying. I wanted to reach out and yank them back. The green demon would eat me alive if what I’d just suggested came to pass.
Why did I keep doing this? Saying the stupidest things I didn’t want to happen? And now I was doing it with an audience?
Luck froze, her hysterics ceasing almost immediately when she realized there was a better show available. Murphy’s eyes grew large. This was one of those times that it was painfully clear they weren’t human. Polite humans would’ve been surprised by my words and would’ve made their excuses to leave the room and give us some privacy. With these two, I was waiting for them to decide who was going to make the popcorn.
Fate, never human either, didn’t seem to care that we had company. “Is that what you would prefer?” I’d lobbed the ball to him and he lobbed it right back at me.
We stood about eight feet away from each other but it could have been a chasm for the connection I felt. There wasn’t so much as a muscle twitch to tell me what he was thinking. Stone. Because he didn’t care? Maybe I was simply a game to him.
“Well?” he prodded, nailing me with an intense stare when there was no forthcoming reply.
He wasn’t going to accept my silence and let me off the hook by not answering. He’d wanted me there, in his room, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be there or not. What I did know, without the tiniest little sliver of a doubt, was I didn’t want anyone else there.
But he’d let the whole situation go up in flames just to force me to admit it.
I was damned either way. I couldn’t insist on staying with him and then pretend I had no feelings. And that left me the option of letting Mother move into my place. I tried not to curse, even mentally, because the more foul words I spewed in my head, the more likely the words would eventually slip from my tongue. But fuck that! I wasn’t handing him over on a platter.
I stared right back at him. “And if I did?” It was an evasive stall tactic wrapped up in a bluff.
His mouth firmed. It was the only movement he made before he finally spoke. “Do you?”
He’d called the bluff and I couldn’t bring myself to answer. The word yes was stricken from my dictionary. I didn’t care if it was immature or petty. He was mine, even if he technically wasn’t. And if he wanted her, fine. There wasn’t much I could do to stop it but he’d have to make the call himself. I wasn’t going to be the catalyst.
“Do whatever you want. That’s what you always do anyway.” I turned and started walking toward the kitchen, toward anywhere that wasn’t there, in front of him and his questions.
I heard Fate’s rich deep laughter at my back before it receded down the hall. That bastard. He called my bluff and I realized that no answer was an answer. I’d just admitted I wanted him.
***
We were all there, everyone that was staying in the house, piled into Fate’s living room. Knox, who’d shown up this afternoon, had even lost his suit jacket and was down to the shirt. The Jinxes, banned from skateboarding in the house, were sulking where they sat at the dining room table.
Mother was there, sulking as well but for another reason. Her karaoke machine had magically stopped working a few minutes after the Jinxes had arrived, right in the middle of her rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
Even the people who weren’t staying were there, like Death, Bernie, and Crow, who’d moved into Kitty’s. She was still under the weather so it made sense to have someone stay with her.
Even Fate’s guys were there and current Death meeting Lars—retired Death—was a very awkward moment. Lars didn’t look like he approved of new Death’s sweater vest, while new Death’s eyes kept staring at the snake tattoo wrapping up Lars’s neck.
Disapproval aside, everyone kept the peace. Everything was on the table, every resource in use no matter what people’s hesitations might be. We all knew what the meeting was about. The very short-lived truce with Malokin had come to an end. The tipping point had arrived.
Fate stepped into the center of the room, casual as always and the focal point without trying. He didn’t need a suit to imply authority or status. He had more presence in his jeans and t-shirt than anyone I’d ever met.
I relaxed slightly as I saw him lean against the table behind him. If he was leaning, maybe things weren’t too bad, not yet. Or not worse than I thought, anyway. Then I looked closer at the lines of his form, and not for the appreciation of the fine figure he made, but to the telltale signs it revealed. His hands were resting at his sides, fingers curved a bit too firmly around the edge of the table. No, not so relaxed after all.
Fate pushed off the table before he spoke. “I killed three of Malokin’s people and broke the truce. Anyone have a problem with that?”
Not the intro I would’ve used but I guess it got to the point quick enough. I looked around the room.
Exactly as suspected, no one said a word.
“Now that things are about to get ugly, we need to establish a watch,” he said to the packed living room.
It was greeted by several yeses and many nods.
“Maybe we should find another location. This place with all the doors and glass is going to be really hard to protect,” Knox said.
“Maybe for you.”
I cringed inwardly. Talk about a warning shot across the bow. But why? The tension I’d sensed between these two from the very start seemed to be trying to bubble up. This wasn’t the time for it. They needed to bury whatever their issues were, although I couldn’t imagine what they could be if they’d just met.
But for now, I needed to diffuse. Nervous energy drove me to my feet. “I agree with a watch but it won’t be necessary to move. The only people that will bother us here are humans and they’re running around in a disorganized and chaotic mess. They won’t come at us in substantial enough numbers to be any kind of threat. Malokin won’t come here either. It’s in his best interest to stay in his own corner.”
“He went to your condo,” Knox argued.
“When no one was there to stop him. A hit and run. As of right now, he’s winning. Why risk a confrontation that he might not win? The watch is more of a show of force, because we know he’s going to be watching. It’s best not to look too lax and invite a problem, even if it’s from one of his lackeys trying to climb the ranks.”
Knox was staring at me from one side of the room with a strange look I couldn’t place. Fate was looking at him with an expression like he’d been forged in steel. What was I missing here?
“What about retaliation? We just gonna let this dick burn our shit down and do nothin’?” Bobby asked from the side.
“We can’t retaliate against someone we can’t find. And we can’t find him, can we, Knox?” I asked.
“No. We can’t. He blends into the surroundings. He’s completely off our grid.” Knox looked ill at ease admitting this shortcoming.
Fate stood and walked over to the Jinxes. “He’s got a very good ability to hide. We’ve known this from the start. I want you three out scouting for any scent of him or his men tomorrow.”
“You got it, boss man,” Billy said, the other two nodding their agreement.
“Same for everyone. Keep your ears and eyes open but make sure to stay in pairs. Don’t get into anything on your own.” His voice carried over the room as he spoke to everyone.
“I’ll tag along with you, guys,” I said to the Jinxes.
Fate was shaking his head as he came and stood beside me. “I need you for something else tomorrow.”
“What?”
“We need to pay Jockey a visit.” His voice was low and he said it in a way that bordered on a question.
I nodded although I was cringing at the idea. I didn’t like my own nightmares. Running around in Malokin’s head was worse.
Chapter Thirteen