“Uh huh,” was all I managed to utter and then Fate positioned himself in between me and oozing Maxwell.
Fate grabbed my hand and then circled an arm around my waist. “I'm sorry, she's with child and you never know when the morning sickness is going to hit. Can we just leave our documents with you?”
“Of course! And congratulations. I'll call as soon as I’ve taken a look,” Maxwell said as he came into view again.
I tried to look past him as I forced a smile on my face. I think I mumbled out a “thank you,” but I wasn't sure.
We walked out of the office and I could breathe again. The further we got from him the better I was feeling.
The fresh air hit me as we exited the building. I moved out of the embrace of Fate’s arm as the sun hit my skin and I felt normal again.
“Well?” Fate asked after we got a few parking rows away from the building.
“It was, well, I’m sure you know. I wish you had given me a little warning.”
“I have no idea what you saw or felt in there. Every one of us experiences things differently. I got nothing from him again.”
He stood there waiting for me to tell him what I thought.
“Well, if what I just saw was his karma...” I shuddered before I could continue. “He's certainly not on the good team.”
“How bad?”
“With no point of reference, it's hard to say. But, I hope he's among the worst because I'd hate to see anything beyond that.”
I breathed deep, enjoying the smell of the outdoors more than I had all week. “Why did it come on like that this time, when I got nothing from him at the beach?”
“You were closer to him for a longer time and perhaps…” his words died off.
I looked at him and I knew what he didn’t want to say. I’d taken a step further away from my old life.
He dug his hands in his pockets and looked down for a bit before he met my gaze. “You know, I didn’t do it to be—”
“I know.” I broke the gaze. I did get it. This was his job. I wouldn’t hold that against him. But I wasn’t going to discuss it either, not anymore anyway because it was also my life—or had been.
Fate dug out his phone and called for the doors. They appeared before us and opened up to a lawn with the sprinkler system on full blast.
“Guys, I thought we were good?”
I received a single nod.
“Then what's with this?”
I didn't expect them to talk. Not with the way Fate had reacted to them even pointing. But then a single word came out.
“Funny,” the guard on the right, the one I considered slightly more outgoing of the two, said. It sounded like a clap of thunder when he spoke. I felt the vibration of it go straight through me like I was upfront at a concert but I understood it perfectly.
“Funny?”
They nodded. I just shook my head. “I'm glad I can offer you cosmic entertainment.”
“I told you, strange,” Fate said from behind me.
I shrugged as I walked through the door and took off in a sprint through the sprinkler. It was the office building next to us and I could see my Honda from the lawn.
“Where you going?” Fate yelled from behind me as he crossed the lawn.
“My place to get a change of clothes,” I said heading to my car.
“We need to talk. You’ve got stuff at my place.”
“Can’t it wait?” I said, pausing a few feet from my car.
“’Til when? We don't have that much time.”
It was true. I'd be officially resigning in less than two weeks. I needed to make this experience count for something. If I left leaving a mass murderer behind, what was the point of it all? I needed something positive to come out of this. I had to have something positive. “Okay. I’ll meet you there.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Are you sure you didn’t eat anything at Cupid’s?” he asked as he watched me walk into his kitchen.
“I told you, no. Why do you keep asking?”
“Forget it,” he said but continued to stare at me in a weird sort of appraising way.
I left him standing in the kitchen and sat on the couch, facing away from him to avoid his perusal.
“Did you pick up on anything else? Other than he was bad?” I heard him moving around the kitchen doing who knew what as he talked.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
I shook my head and sighed. “Yes. Are you sure your hearing is okay? Because I can’t figure out why I have to answer every question twice.” I grabbed a magazine lying on the table. I never would have pegged him for a Home and Garden reader in a million years. Maybe he did decorate the place himself.
“You know we're running out of time.”
“Yes. You mentioned that. Unlike you, I hear things the first time they’re said.” Wow, what a pretty gazebo. I wonder if I could make a note of this and put in a request for my next life. I’d really like one of those. I’d heard you could do that.
He walked over and stood in front of me. “I want to bring in some outside help.”
My head perked up. “I didn't know there was outside help?”
“Nothing company approved.”
I threw the magazine back on the table. “Is this something that could get me in trouble?” He wasn’t leaning on anything. For some reason, I found that alarming.
“Yes.”
“Can you lean on something?” I asked.
“Why? I don’t feel like leaning.”
That did not bode well. What could be so important that it made him use both of his legs? This was some serious business.
“What is it?” I asked, hoping he’d lean soon.
“There is a certain person I want to call in, for our purposes, lets just say he's in the know but not with the organization.”
Oh no, he just crossed his arms. “And what does he do?” I sat up a little straighter myself now.
“He might be able to open you up a bit more by shedding some of the humanness you still have clinging to you.”
Now I was standing, too. “I don’t want to shed anymore. I want a smooth reentry.”
He followed me as I moved about the room. I didn’t have a destination in mind but I no longer felt like sitting still.
“That has no effect on it. Where did you get that idea?”
“How do you know it doesn’t? And I’m not sure I’m comfortable going outside the organization. That sounds like trouble to me.” I crossed my arms now. I knew I should’ve gone home.
“It doesn't matter, since we aren’t getting caught.”
I laughed loudly at that one. “You know how many clients I’ve had who thought the same thing?”
“If you don't, you'll move on and we might never get the guy that killed you. You're okay with moving on and leaving this guy on the loose?” He crossed the room until he was only a foot away from me. “And I thought you actually had some balls.”
“Really? You think you can goad me with that stupid ploy?”
He just stood there smiling at me.
“Fine. Do it. But, this isn’t because of your stupid goad.”
He didn’t say anything, he just opened up the drawer on the side table and pulled out a cell phone.
He stared straight at me as he spoke into it. “Can you swing by?”
***
I sat on the couch with my snifter of Maker's Mark whiskey, which I was starting to develop a taste for. We were waiting for a guy named Lars. Technically, just I was, since Fate had disappeared into the garage, probably doing some other secret stuff.
Lars. Even the name sounded shady to me. I repeated it in my head and I couldn’t help but scowl. That had to be a bad sign.
Lars showed up at the back entrance, which I guess was to be expected, considering how this was supposed to be secret. Yeah, secret in the shadiest kind of ways.
He had waist length black hair, black eyes and tattoos all up and down his arms that crept onto his shoulders. I could see this because he only wore a tank top. He wore black pants and one of those chain key holder type things.
He was the same man I'd seen with Fate in my parking lot. If the information I got from Murphy was correct, Well hello, mister ex-reaper.