“Do you want to go back?”
“I have to,” I replied. Would it be so wrong to let the marshal have a little information? He had connections in law enforcement. He might be able to use those connections to help me get inside Arcon. I’d always worked alone. It was safer that way. But the situation with Arcon and Crater’s faction? Those walls were closing in. I was good at what I did, the marks painting my skin proved it, but the warfae was better than me. They always had been in the end. “I have a friend,” I explained, mirroring Kellee’s crossed arms. “He’s in trouble.”
“Oh, you do have friends. Do you attack them with your whip too?”
I gave him a dry look. Kellee was a long way from being a friend. “He was taken.”
“Is that why you’re running?”
“I’m running so I can regroup off Calicto and hit back twice as hard.”
He scanned my expression with a hard one of his own. “Figured as much. You have half the Halow system out to kill or capture you, and you’re going to charge back in to save a friend?” He scratched his chin and briefly averted his gaze. “He must be some friend.”
“He is.” He couldn’t know Sota was an AI, and it didn’t matter anyway. To me, Sota was real enough.
“You’re going to get yourself killed.”
I offered him a slice of a smile. “You don’t know me. You have no idea what I can do.”
“I have an idea, all right.” His gaze slid to the whip.
I huffed a laugh. Whatever. This man couldn’t know me. Some days, I didn’t even know myself. “So, why am I here, Marshal? What do you want from me? You aren’t helping me because you’re a nice guy. You want something, and apparently, it’s not the money.”
“Do I look like I need the v?” He spread his hands.
He didn’t, but the rich always wanted more. “Then why?”
He chewed on his words before replying. “You’re right. I’m not a nice guy. Not even close. And I do want something from you.” He tilted his head and appraised me from head to toe. Beneath the weight of his unblinking gaze, my heart picked up its pace and an unexpected flickering shortened my breath. He was quick, and intelligent, and a mystery. And I’d always had a weakness for anyone with enough skills to outmaneuver me. It didn’t happen often.
Apparently done with his visual inspection, he stood and strode across the room toward me. Instincts warned me to back off and put space between us to swing the whip if I needed to, but I stood my ground. At the last step, he veered to my right to lean against the counter beside me. “Crater was assassinated, but not by you. Do you know how I know that?”
“No, but you can help by telling Crater’s men to back off. If they rescind the bounty, that would give me room to breathe.” He stood too close. He wasn’t armed, although I hadn’t seen him replace the knife, but it didn’t matter. He radiated threat.
“They don’t listen to the law so they won’t listen to me. Besides, Crater’s death isn’t the real problem here.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Don’t play coy, Lasota. It doesn’t suit you.”
My little smile died. “So tell me what really happened, smart ass.”
“Witness reports claim the entire left-hand side of Crater’s face exploded. The autopsy confirmed those reports. A high-powered projectile struck Crater behind his right ear, entering his skull from behind. Hence why half his face was missing. You stood in front of Crater the whole time you were delivering a message. You didn’t kill him.” Kellee toed open a hidden storage unit concealed beneath the counter and picked up a black bag from inside. He dumped it on the countertop and opened it, revealing the smooth metallic sheen of the warfae’s rifle. It had to be the same gun.
Why was it in a bag in Kellee’s cupboard and not some secure police HQ somewhere? “Isn’t that evidence?” I asked.
“You recognize it?”
“Yes,” I admitted. Kellee already knew I would. My attempt to lie my way around the curious marshal wasn’t working. I would need another angle of attack.
“Are you going to explain how?”
I lifted my gaze and looked him in the eye. “Is this an interrogation?”
That earned me a snarl. “Right here, right now, I’m not a lawman. I stopped being a lawman when I stole an authority shuttle and brought you to my home. I don’t know you, but I brought you here to keep the small army of bounty hunters and assassins from finding you. As thanks, you attack and threaten me right after I bought you lunch. So, how about you try trusting me? Just for a little while? You can go back to trying to kill me once we’re done.”
He made a good argument. Damn him. “I found the rifle in the construction site across the plaza from Crater’s restaurant.”
“Did you see the shooter?”
“No.” The lie twisted inside me.
“That’s not surprising.”
Wasn’t it? “Why?”
“Does anything strike you as odd about this weapon?”
I scanned it again, remembering Sota’s words. It was a highly modified rifle, likely charged with fae magic when in use. If I told the marshal that, he’d think I was insane. Unless he was testing the waters for information he’d already assumed.
“Guns aren’t really my thing. I much prefer whips.”
He ran his hand along the barrel, fingers trembling. “Its design is unusual. Heavily modified from the original in a way that doesn’t make sense, unless there’s an element missing.”
“What element?” Magic, of course.
“I’m not sure.” He again scratched his chin, the gesture a nervous tell. “Tek and magic combined, like your whip, perhaps?”
Good call. My whip was exactly like the rifle and equally rare. “Do you think the shooter left it there to further implicate me?” I asked, thoughts spiraling. If I told him the truth—not all of it, just enough to stop the questions—he could help. He already suspected something, hence all the questions. Marshal Kellee would make a useful ally.
“I think someone disturbed him before he could dismantle it. He needed a quick getaway. This rifle would have slowed him down.”
Yes, it would have. And perhaps then I might have caught the fae. Larsen—unlikely his real name—had left the rifle behind, thinking nobody would know what it was. They certainly wouldn’t suspect it was fae-crafted.
“Maybe I disturbed him…” My voice sounded distant, lost behind the history crowding my head.
He turned, sharp eyes scouring my face for clues, for lies, for all the things he knew I was hiding. “If we track down the killer, you’re off the hook.”
I’d moved closer while looking in Kellee’s bag, and now, when I looked up, flecks of hazel darkened the marshal’s green eyes, and the hint of something more lurked behind his gaze. Oh, I knew exactly where the shooter was. Right in the heart of Calicto, sitting on his oak throne as the head of Arcon. Was this the right time to tell Kellee? If he didn’t believe me, he might laugh me off. But if he did… Unfortunately, if he believed me, that knowledge would likely get him killed. Kellee was a lawman. He would be obliged to investigate. The warfae would kill him. I didn’t know Kellee well, but I didn’t want to see him tortured and killed just because I didn’t think I could get Sota back alone. And I needed help.
“Tell me why you’re helping me and I’ll tell you everything,” I said.
“Everything?”
“All of it.”
“Tell me everything first, and I’ll tell you why I’m helping you.” His lips twitched and humor brightened his eyes.
The itch to punch him twitched my fingers. “This isn’t funny, Marshal. There are more lives at stake than you can imagine. This goes way beyond one man’s assassination. What I’m about to tell you could change the way you see the worlds, change everything you know.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Do I need to sit down?”
My glare darkened. “If you won’t take this seriously, then take me back to Calicto.”