I smiled at him. “I know.”
Ari scrunched his nose. Initially he’d been hardcore Team Brotherhood, but after I told him the truth about nearly being killed by a modified demon, he’d come around to Team Nava. He still had some issues accepting that the organization he’d been a member of since birth wasn’t squeaky clean, but actually fixing the problem was much more important to me than sweeping it under a rug to spare my twin’s feelings.
Rohan took a sip of his disgusting black coffee. “How’s Leo doing? Her midterms last week sounded rough.”
I tipped my mug to my lips, watching him through lidded eyes. See? This. How many other guys would show compassion for a demi-goblin’s summer semester course load? “She’s good.”
Ari dumped more sugar into his coffee. “Is there a Plan B for today?”
“Yeah,” Rohan said. “Be careful. That’s also plans C through Z.”
“Sweet boy.” Mug cradled in one hand, I headed out, swinging around the island for a quick pit stop. I rose onto tiptoe and kissed Rohan on the cheek. Damn. Even that gave me a short, intense rush of sunshine. “There’s only one Plan B. Don’t fuck up Plan A.”
3
Leonie and I braved bumper-to-bumper traffic along the highway and out over the Portman Bridge, its coiled steel cables stretching like sails above the cars.
Eyes closed, she tilted her face toward the open window, her straight red hair streaming and her Sexy Ruby perfume scattering the scent of apricot and jasmine through the car.
The cool nip of the morning summer breeze had burned away by the time the car bumped over the pothole-ridden dirt parking lot for Eddy’s Scrap and Salvage Yard, located out in the valley. Heat shimmered up in waves from the endless lines of cars.
Throwing the car into Park and cutting the engine, I pushed my oversized, black vintage sunglasses up my nose and winced when I touched my cheek, flushed from the sun streaming on it during the drive. Damn. I really needed to remember to sunscreen or I’d look like a Coppertone toad.
“You got it?” Leo scrambled after me, her flip flops thwacking softly.
I popped my trunk and unlocked a small iron box. A blue velvet bag was nestled inside. “Curious to see what a cursed diamond looks like?”
“Like that’s a question.”
I turned away so the reveal wouldn’t affect me but at Leo’s “Whoa!” glanced back.
The diamond was the size of a fat chestnut, uncut and flawless. I leaned in to admire it. To adore it, grateful that this puny being could bask in its splendor.
Leo smacked me across the face, snapping me out of the gem’s compulsion. Good thing. I didn’t have time to rip her to shreds for ownership, which had almost happened with Rohan when we’d first retrieved it.
I rubbed my cheek. “Thanks, you sadistic freak.”
“Humans,” my half-goblin bestie scoffed. “So weak.” She put the diamond away, stuffing the velvet bag into her orange cotton sundress, and lovingly cupping her now oddly-shaped tit. “I always wanted a Cubist boob.”
I snorted.
We made our way to the entrance of the salvage yard, my Sketcher high tops becoming more black-and-brown than black-and-white. I scanned for any hint of motion. The zizu demon we’d come to see would sense the diamond’s presence any moment now and come for it.
“Hi.” A cheerful middle-aged guy in a faded ball cap, his beer gut straining his dirty green coveralls with the word “Eddy” stitched in black across his heart, stepped out of a small trailer at the front gate. A wooden sign with “Office” painted on was nailed to the dusty aluminum siding. “Looking for car parts?” He chewed a toothpick between fleshy lips.
If Eddy was the demon, he should have been acting twitchy, trying to get to the jewel, but he looked like the last time he experienced tension was being squeezed out the birth canal.
“Transmission,” I said as Leo chimed in with “Engine.”
Eddy’s brows creased, but he shrugged. “Well. Sounds like a car in need of some TLC.” He took out his toothpick and jabbed it at the lot. “Use whatever you need. Engine hoists, wheel carts, we have it all. Let me know if you need a hand.”
The hoists, strewn around the lot, resembled primary-colored metal swing sets mounted on fat tire wheels. In the center of each was a lift secured with heavy chain and huge hydraulic pulleys.
“Thanks,” I said. “It’s a bit of a project. Might take us a while to find what we need.”
A boy and a girl, maybe five years old, both with wheat-blonde hair, barreled out of the office. The two stared at me with identical grave stares, dressed in gender-assigned T-shirts and shorts. Aw, the universal color-coding of fraternal twins.
Then the girl whipped a red foam block at her brother. Yup. That was universal, too.
Without missing a beat, he grabbed it, yelled, “Mine!” and ran.
Memories.
Setting his toothpick back into chew mode, Eddy grabbed the boy with one meaty hand, spun him around, and nudged him back toward the office. “Tony, Clea, cut it out. Both of you.”
He herded them back inside and shut the door.
“Hug right wall?” I asked.
Leo nodded and we strode onto the lot. “Guess what?” she said. “I learned that pap tests can suck my dick.”
“Mazel tov. My little girl is a woman.” I pressed my hand to my heart. “I’m all verklempt.”
She elbowed me in the gut. “Laugh now, but wait till you have to undergo the vaginal probe. You’ll fry the poor doctor and end up locked in a military compound while they run tests on you as the Brotherhood quietly celebrates.”
I shrugged. “A strong possibility. But maybe I’ll find that doctor to marry that Mom had always hoped for. I’d make a beautiful Stockholm Syndrome bride.”
We snickered, clearing the first long line of cars, some parked intact, others flattened and piled in high stacks. Sweat ran under my breasts and down my back. I lifted my arms up, flapping them to air out my pits. “It’s four hundred degrees out here. Where’s the stupid demon?”
We rounded the corner into the next wide row, trekking back the way we’d come.
Someone giggled behind us. I spun around with a “Boo!”
The two kids shrieked in delighted laughter.
“Are you supposed to be out here? It’s kind of dangerous.” I held out a hand. “Come on, we’ll take you back to your dad.”
The munchkins ran off. Also typical.
“It’s fenced.” Leo fiddled with her silver eyebrow ring. “They can’t get out.”
I was already dialing the office number. It went to voicemail so I left Eddy a message about his little Houdinis.
We picked up the pace. “Here, zizu, you jonsing motherfucker. Come get the pretty diamond.” I glanced back in the direction the children had gone. “We need to wrap this up.”
“Agreed.” She pushed me forward a few steps. “Stay in front of me. I’m pulling out the big guns.”
“I hope you mean the diamond and not your boobs,” I said.
“You’ll never know.”
I slowed down, my shoulder blades prickling, dying to turn around and gaze upon the jewel.