I watched Harold flip through some more piles before he finally looked up again. His lips were pursed and it looked like a couple of blood vessels were in danger of bursting.
“You wanted her,” Fate said from where he was leaning, noticing how Harold was about to lose it.
I crossed my legs, making a squishing sound with the action. “I'm so glad you finally regained your ability to form words. The grunting was very unbecoming.”
Harold cleared his throat, purposefully bringing the attention back to himself. “I'm telling you right now, that can not happen again. I'll have your word on it.”
I was afraid it was going to come to this. They'd try and nail me down, maybe pull out another contract. I was a former lawyer, and not just a ho-hum one; I'd had a gift for it. They'd gotten the best of me once when I'd been weak and not in my right mind. That was galling enough. Let's see who got the best deal when I was in my right mind?
“I'd prefer not to commit,” I said, like I was unsure if I'd be able to make it to a barbecue next week.
“You have to.” Harold's face grew red as he stared at me. Fate was back to grunts and head shakes.
Then they said nothing. And the longer they went without words, the more suspicious I became. Time to start poking the bear and see what kind of teeth he really had.
“I told you, you made a mistake choosing me.” I shrugged, silently inferring that this was their problem, not mine.
“You were the last name on the list of one,” Harold said. “You think I would've chosen you?”
He thought insults were going to work? I'd dealt with and defended the dregs of society. I'd heard worse on a weekly basis. I decided to poke the stick in a little bit deeper. “That's not so good for you because I really don't like orders, and I'm trying to figure out why I'm supposed to be taking them from either of you.”
Harold's breathing increased and his eyes flashed toward Fate for the briefest of seconds. He didn't know what to do with me and there was only one likely answer. He couldn't do anything.
I reclined into the chair and swung my arm off the back. Just to rub it in, because I didn't particularly like Harold or the way he treated people, I kicked my feet up on his desk and crossed my ankles before I spoke.
“You can't do anything to me, can you?” I posed it as a question even though I was certain of the answer. “Furthermore, I don't think this has ever happened, has it? I wasn't supposed to be able to do what I did and save that woman. And if the entire universe couldn't stop me, what can you do?” I saw Harold's eyes dart to Fate again, who looked like he wasn't listening anymore, even though I knew he was.
Harold rose and leaned forward. “I'll keep you here until you fall in line, contract or not. You want out? You better not pull one of those pranks again!”
I looked at him calmly, his head hovering above where my feet still perched.
“No, I don't think you will.” I crossed my arms as I rocked my chair on the back two legs. “You don't like me. You'll get rid of me the first chance you can.”
“How do you know I won't do it just to spite you?”
I laughed a little before I answered. “That's an easy one. You won't do it because that's what I'd do. When it comes down to it, I'll do anything to win. And you and me,” I pointed back and forth between us, “couldn't be more different.”
Harold was practically huffing now but didn't try and deny it. He stood over his desk while I continued to recline. Our silent standoff was finally broken by the sound of Fate's laugh.
“Why are you laughing?” Harold demanded.
“Cause she's right.” He nodded in my direction but never actually looked at me.
“Now, gentleman, I'm exhausted and need to get some sleep, if you don't mind.” I stood and walked out of the room, digging out my phone to call a taxi, since Fate had driven. I left the two of them to discuss me in private while I exited the building.
I was standing out front by the curb, the phone pressed to my ear, when Fate came out. He grabbed it from me, closed the lid and handed it back.
“I'll drive you,” he said calmly.
He started walking to where his car was parked. Wait for a taxi for ten minutes or be home by then? I followed him to his car.
He didn't speak until we were on the road. “You came very close to crossing a line tonight.” I'd thought he was calm. I might have been wrong. “Do not mistake me for Harold.”
“Don't threaten me. It's not a tactic I respect or respond well to.”
“Just like in a human life, there are lines you don't cross. If you put me in that spot again, I'll do more than threaten.”
“And what would those lines be? I've got some lines as well and you seem to have no issue trampling over them,” I said as he pulled into my parking lot.
“Don't press me.”
“Why? And while we’re at it, what exactly is going on between you and Harold? What do you have on him?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“But there's something there. I can practically taste the tension between the two of you.”
“You've got two weeks left here.” He pulled into my lot. “Is it worth it?” He nodded toward the door, silently telling me to get out, and I obliged him.
He peeled out of the lot. I guess he wasn't staying tonight.
***
Fate was still gone when I got up the next morning, or I thought he was. I heard him somewhere below when I went to have coffee on my deck
“She's sleeping.”
Not anymore I wasn't. I didn't know who he was talking to and I didn't want to lean over the deck and alert them I was there. I slunk closer to the side, as far as I could get without hanging over the rail.
“Do you think she's going to lead us to him?” his unknown companion asked.
“I don't know, but she's the best tool in our box.”
“And Harold?” The way he said his name indicated it was a question asked often.
“Useless, like usual,” Fate replied.
“You going to tell her?”
“Definitely not. She's completely unpredictable. Head strong, stubborn—”
If Fate hadn't been cut off, who knew how long the list would've gone on, but it sounded like he was just getting going. I couldn't really fault any of his statements either. They sounded pretty true.
“And pretty hot. You working anything in that angle?”
“Not worth the cost,” Fate said.
That stung a little. He didn't have a problem the other day.
“How's that?”
“She's too human.”
“Which is exactly what you normally sleep with.”
“You should leave before she gets up.” Fate's voice. “I don't want to have to explain you. Don't come here again unless I give you the green light. Not while she's here.”
“Sure.”
I heard steps retreating and I ran back inside to see if I could catch a glimpse out the back kitchen window that faced the road. The back of a man with tattoos and long black hair walked away, with Fate by his side.
I didn't recognize him from the office but that didn't mean he wasn't from one of the other suites. If he wasn't, who was he? We weren't supposed to be able to even tell anyone else about us. I knew first hand how ominous that was.
So, the guy was either one of us and in the loop, or maybe the ominous feeling I had was just a loud bark with no real bite?
There was only one way to test it, and I wasn't ready to jeopardize someone's life to find out. I'd have to check out the suites. If he was in the building, I'd find him.
And if he wasn't?
And why did they care about my killer? What was the connection there because Harold didn't seem to care that much.
Chapter Thirteen
I was settled into my usual place near the window, newspaper spread out before me. The others in the office rarely approached so when someone said hi from right behind me, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
It was Murphy.
“Hi,” I replied.
“Would you mind?” He pointed to the empty chair across from me.
“Not at all.”
He fidgeted for a few minutes, shifting this way and that in his seat.