Authors: Linda Grimes
“Never mind that, Ciel,” Thelma said, sounding peeved. “That’s between Monica and myself. Just as the agreement I come to with Billy is between me and him. I’m sure he’ll jump at the opportunity to keep his sister safe.”
I leaned toward her. “If you hurt Molly in any way, I’ll—”
She lifted the gun from her lap. I edged back.
“Calm down, my dear. You’ll jostle your wound. I have no intention of harming that wonderful child. We’ll study her, of course. Her … fluke, shall we say?… is fascinating. I’m sure Billy will be happy to convince his parents of the wisdom of sending her to a special school I have in mind for her.”
“Lady, you are so far off base you’re not even in the ballpark,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “Billy will
never
do that.”
“Hey, why are we at the hospital?” Monica-Devon said.
Shit.
I looked up. Something told me I wasn’t going to like helicopters any more than I liked planes.
Chapter 29
“How very considerate of you, Thelma,” I said after the Hulk helped first her, then me, out of the car. Guess Monica in Devon form didn’t rate gentlemanly treatment. “I really should have this arm looked at. Wouldn’t want to risk an infection.”
Thelma’s smile was gone. “If you’re wise you’ll come along quietly, Ciel. Remember, I know where your family lives. Your kind are good at fading into society and leaving your problems behind, but one text from me could have someone at your parents’ house before they have a chance to get away.”
“Geez, you are one cold bitch, aren’t you?”
“Not really. I have a Company doctor waiting for you on the helicopter. He’ll give you something for the pain. Morphine, maybe. Perhaps I should have him come down here and administer it before we walk through the hospital. Will that be necessary, Ciel?”
Shit.
“No need for that, Thel. I’m not going to say or do anything that will put my family at risk.”
“I knew you were a smart one. We’re going to work together very well.”
The elevator ride was tons of fun, sandwiched between Monica-Devon and the Hulk, with the cardigan from Thelma’s beige twinset draped over my shoulders to hide the bloody strip of T-shirt, and her gun, hidden under an artfully draped scarf, jabbing my waist. If this was karma for Billy’s car, payback was an unfair bitch.
Monica was starting to sweat, the Devon aura wobbling more.
Crap,
I thought, suddenly hit with a new worry. What if Molly was having the same problem? What if she was still up the tree when she lost her orangutan climbing abilities?
Shit, shit, shit.
What had I done?
The helicopter was landing as we got there. My, how synchronized of everyone. Wasn’t that just peachy? Thelma gave me a shove in its direction but stopped abruptly when Harvey stepped out of it. He signaled to the pilot, who shut down the engine, leaving us in relative quiet.
“Intercepting my communications, Harvey? Tsk, tsk. And here I thought we trusted each other,” Thelma said. She didn’t sound particularly worried, which kind of worried
me
.
Harvey tilted his head and lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “You know what they say. Trust but verify.” He paused, his eyes surprisingly sympathetic. “It’s not going to work, Thelma.”
She set her shoulders back. “It already has. Give it up, Harvey. You have Fielding, and now I have my own ‘special’ agents. Let’s just try to work together on this and keep the collateral damage to a minimum.”
“Can’t do that, Thelma. You know I gave my word—and, by extension, the Company’s—to Mark. We’re not going back on that. None of us.”
“Well, aren’t you the king of ethics all of a sudden? Ironic, considering how you’ve kept Fielding dancing at the end of your string with this asinine promise to leave the rest of them alone. If that’s not subtle blackmail, I don’t know what is.”
Harvey shook his head sadly. “You still don’t get it, do you? Mark approached
me
. It was his idea. After I made a ham-fisted attempt to recruit his best friend—and failed—I almost lost Mark. I never made that mistake again.”
“Label it what you will. I never agreed to let you speak for me—
I
made no promises. Now, if you’ll excuse us, the pilot is waiting.”
“You can go, Thelma—in fact, I insist you do—but the others are staying with me,” Harvey said. For the first time I noticed two men in black suits in the back of the helicopter. They were watching us all closely. I was beginning to suspect they might be Harvey’s, not Thelma’s.
Looked like the same thought occurred to Thelma. “This is
my
operation, Harvey. Stay out of it, or you might find yourself taking early retirement. I still have some pull with your boss, you know.”
I snorted. That was her threat? Early retirement? Ooooh, scary!
She jabbed me in the ribs with the muzzle of her gun. Okay,
that
was scary. I couldn’t even tell if Harvey knew she was armed—the small gun was still covered with the scarf, and the stylish handbag hooked over her wrist was an excellent excuse to hold her arm at that angle. He might not think anything of it.
His eyes were still full of pity. Only now he seemed to be enjoying it. “Nah, I think I’ll be staying around for a while longer. Not quite ready to give up the game yet. You, on the other hand, might want to consider bowing out while your pension is still intact.”
Thelma’s turn to laugh. “Now, why would I worry about my pension when I’m just doing my job, recruiting valuable assets? Ask any of them—they’re with me every bit as voluntarily as Mark is with you.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” He signaled the Hulk, who pulled a small device out of his pocket and pushed a button. The words were a little muffled, but recognizably Thelma’s.
“… we’d been planning to set up Billy for Monica’s murder. A lover’s quarrel gone bad, that sort of thing. We thought we were very clever, killing two birds with one stone—making Monica disappear, as she wanted, and getting leverage over Billy. But when this opportunity presented itself, we couldn’t resist. This way we get you, too. You’re like a bonus. The third bird, so to speak.”
“That doesn’t sound voluntary to me. Be a shame if it made the press. The Company really doesn’t much care for that kind of PR,” Harvey said, his easygoing delivery belied by the hardness of his eyes.
Thelma was staring at the Hulk, uncomprehending at first, then furious. “You disloyal piece of shit. I
made
you.”
“Aw, don’t be too mad at your driver, Thelma. I’m sure he’s just as loyal to you as ever. Wherever he is,” Harvey said as the Hulk’s stony face was replaced by Billy’s charming countenance.
“You,” Thelma said at the time that I said, “Billy!” I’m guessing I sounded much happier than she did.
“The original,” Billy said, flashing his dimples. “Accept no substitutes.”
I wanted to run to him so badly, but there was still the small problem of the gun muzzle in my ribs. Having already been shot once that evening (which still hurt like seven levels of hell in spite of my elation at Billy’s unexpected appearance), I had no wish for an encore.
Monica, more and more of her own brand of exotic beauty showing through, started inching back toward the door. Billy blocked her, pulling out the gun he’d taken from her after she’d shot me. Deflated, she dropped the rest of the Devon aura and seemed to shrink in on herself. I had a feeling there was lots of therapy in her future.
“Ciel, why don’t you come over here to me,” Harvey said in that sweet, avuncular way he had. Honestly, I could see why Laura liked him so much. I wanted to hug him myself.
“I don’t think so,” Thelma said, and pulled the scarf from her gun, making it plain she still had me covered. I shrugged and smiled weakly at Harvey.
“Thelma, don’t be ridiculous,” Harvey said, not quite as relaxed now. “You can’t win this. It’s over.”
“Maybe I can’t win, Harvey, but I can sure as hell make you lose.” She lifted the gun, bringing it level with my temple.
Without a nanosecond’s pause, Harvey said loudly, “Take it.”
It sounded like a couple of monster mosquitoes whizzing by my ear, one immediately after the other. I felt Thelma stiffen, then drop. When I looked down, I saw two small holes had appeared on her forehead.
Okay, I admit it. I passed out again.
* * *
I was in Billy’s arms when I came to, only this time it was better because I knew it was him. We were on the ground, right where I’d fallen, so I guessed I couldn’t have been out for long. He smiled down at me, his eyes full of concern. “Twice in one night, cuz. You gonna make a habit of this? Do I need to start carrying smelling salts?”
“Give me a break,” I said wryly. “Let me shoot you, and we’ll see how long you stay conscious.”
Harvey swam into my field of vision, lowering his large frame next to us with an amazing amount of grace. “Let’s get her downstairs to the ER,” he said. Behind him, one of the men in suits from the helicopter held on to Monica and the other squatted next to Thelma’s body, carefully removing the gun from her grip with a gloved hand.
“Hey, wait,” I said, my head clearing somewhat. “Molly’s still out there—she was up a tree by the Dairy. And she’s”—I glanced at Harvey, unsure how much he was privy to about Molly’s “fluke,” as Thelma had so eloquently put it—“um, you know, not really herself.
Upset,
as you can imagine.” Not to mention orange and hairy.
Harvey chuckled, his chins wobbling. “Nice, Ciel. Very subtle. Can’t imagine why Mark didn’t think you were cut out for the life.” He patted my hot cheek. “Don’t worry about Molly. She’s at a police station, waiting for her ‘daddy,’ Mark, to come get her. She found a cop after she climbed down from the tree. Told him she was a runaway having second thoughts.”
Whew! That meant she was able to drop the orangutan aura without any problems this time. Even better, she was smart enough to call Mark instead of her parents, so now maybe I had a shot at seeing my next birthday. Because if Auntie Mo ever found out what happened tonight—how I’d dragged Molly with me away from the safe house where Mark had stashed us—she would skin me alive. Or, you know, give me a
talk,
which would be worse.
Of course, I still had to answer to Mark, which wasn’t going to be any picnic.
Billy stood, lifting me with him. “Hey,” I said, preferring not to think about any upcoming conversations with the spook, “don’t let them stick me, okay? You know I don’t do needles.”
“Sorry. Can’t make any promises.”
“All right,” I said, feeling woozy already, just in anticipation of getting jabbed. “But you better be there when I go down for the third time.”
“Always, sweetheart. Always.”
Chapter 30
Laura and I lounged in low lawn chairs, watching the guys—Billy, Thomas, Brian, and James—play Nerf football with Molly on the wide expanse of grass in the Sheep Meadow area of Central Park. I probably would have been fine joining in—my arm wasn’t that sore anymore—but Laura was still recovering and I wanted to keep her company. She’d made it through the Children’s Zoo earlier with no difficulty, but she still tired easily.
It had been Molly’s idea to come back to Central Park. She said she wanted to “reclaim” it as a fun spot. She was one brave little girl, and I was proud to be her honorary relation.
It was a parent-free picnic (trust me, none of the parents in question were complaining) because that’s what Molly wanted. The other Doyle sisters were off at college, dreaming up their own ways to make Billy’s life as a big brother miserable. I kind of enjoyed that. (What? Relationships can’t turn on a dime, you know.)
I’d been more than a little nervous about our foray into the petting section of the zoo, though James had assured us Molly was totally un-juiced now. Besides, he was almost a hundred percent certain she’d been able to project the orangutan aura only because its primate genome was so similar to a human being’s. As long as Molly stayed away from apes, she should be fine.
Still, most of us held our breath the first time she reached out and touched a goat. When she pulled her hand back without sprouting horns or a goatee, we all let out a collective sigh of relief.
She hadn’t shown any more signs of precocious adaptor-hood, which kind of disappointed her, but, as she philosophically pointed out, at least it delayed her stint in isolation.
Laura and I had been having a great time getting to know each other better as we convalesced together. We’d spent a few weeks up at my lakeside client hideaway, letting Hilda, my faithful doer of everything, fuss over us while we healed. She loved it and so did we. My injury wasn’t nearly as bad as Laura’s, but I was not above milking it for as many of Hilda’s special desserts as I could get.
Thomas spent a lot of time there with us, too. Wouldn’t surprise me if there were wedding bells in his and Laura’s future. I sure hoped so, anyway. Not only would I gain a sister, but I’d lose a nanny. Win-win.
Brian, as near as any of us could tell, hadn’t replaced Suze with a new girlfriend yet, so I thought maybe he was maturing. Turned out Suze wasn’t really
all
bad, merely unduly influenced by Thelma. When she’d found out Thelma had given the go-ahead to use deadly force in the “recovery” of orangutan-Molly, resulting in fellow agent Laura getting shot, Suze had come around and filled Harvey in on Thelma’s plans. So she’d been reassigned overseas rather than arrested. Still, she
had
drugged me, so I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the idea of her freezing her ass off during those long winters in Moscow.
James had pleaded with Mark to find a place for Monica where she could get some much-needed treatment. He felt responsible for her slide over to the dark side, and still wanted to help her, in spite of her trying to have his former boyfriend offed.
Devon had been located, unharmed. He’d actually never even set out for Hollywood—turned out he really was in love with James. Guess he’d been honest with me during our little heart-to-heart after he walked in on Billy and me. James was continuing to be cautious with him but seemed happier lately, so I had hopes that things might yet work out between them.