Sky Ghosts: All for One (Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure) (Sky Ghosts Series Book 1) (4 page)

Peter’s voice roused him out of his reverie once again.

“Very well, I’ll send someone to look after them. I suppose you can stay here for a while.”

At that, Dave’s eyes fluttered wide open, but his friend was the first to reply.

“I don’t understand, what’s in it for you? These two,” Chad pointed his finger at the girls, earning an aloof, disdainful glance from the big sister, “have risked their lives tonight to get us out of there. What’s all this for?” He shrugged and flicked his hair out of his eyes, a question in his look.

Peter looked at him for a moment, as if contemplating how much he should tell them, though maybe just choosing the right words.

“First of all, I just can’t let you go, knowing that Eugene’s men are looking for you. Trust me, you won’t go far. Second, I’m really, really interested in what he wants from you. If those guys were talking about killing, it means he has some reasons for it. One of you has got to be standing in his way somehow. The fact that you don’t even know him only makes it more interesting for me. Now, I don’t really know anything about either of you, but I guess you pose as a threat to some of his businesses; otherwise he wouldn’t bother. And I know it may sound selfish of me, but if he has a weakness, I want to find out what it is. So, since we have a common enemy, we’re ready to help you as much as we can, and consider your cooperation a payment for this help,” Peter explained. “We can give you shelter, food, clothes, and most importantly, the best protection in the world. Protection of which very few people know,” he said, looking at them meaningfully.

“Since we’re talking about this, maybe you will tell us who you are?” Dave put in, finally feeling like the conversation was heading in the right direction.

Peter clasped his hands, turning back to his chair.

“Unfortunately, now I have to get back to my work. I’m sure any one of the girls will do it even better than me.”

At these words, the sisters’ heads snapped up simultaneously, their looks surprised.

“What?” Jane muttered.

“Chad, Dave, this is Patricia and Jane. They’ll guard you from now on and introduce you into the life of our organization,” Peter said, pointing with his hand at the girls, but was cut off with a sharp sound of the older sister’s hand slamming into the table.

“What the hell, Peter!” Pain got up abruptly, her chair giving an awful screech, and Dave jumped in his seat. Everyone was looking at her now, except for Skull, who was examining one of his knives, humming to himself quietly and seeming oblivious of the quarrel next to him.

“No hell, just your new assignment,” Peter objected, his brown eyes fixed on her black ones with authority.

“It’s no assignment, it’s a sentence!” she complained. “Don’t you have anyone else for this job? I’m a bodyguard, not a babysitter!”

While she went on and on, describing all the bad things she thought about this idea, Jerry winked at Chad and leaned closer, his watery eyes mischievous.

“She hates her name, so we call them Jane and Pain.” He grinned, and Chad smiled politely in return, trying to listen to what Pain was saying to Peter at the same time. He thought it was something about tying them up and locking them inside her wardrobe, though he wasn’t sure. “It’s not just that she’s lethal – it’s for her temper mostly.” Jerry grimaced. “I really wouldn’t recommend getting in her way if you’re not a fan of dislocations… You know, your fingers, a wrist, maybe… a- ” he broke off mid-sentence because Pain was glaring down at them, her look withering. She had obviously heard him speaking, no matter how madly she was arguing with Peter. Chad wasn’t sure if Jerry was kidding or serious, but she looked pretty capable of those things at that moment.

With an apparent effort of will, she tore her gaze off the guys and turned to Peter again, who said, “Calm down, please. Sit,” and pointed to the chair.

For a long moment she just stared at him, as if frozen to the spot. Then she sat down reluctantly, crossing her arms and looking at her boss with challenge.

“You have to understand that you two are the only ones whom I can trust with this,” he said in a calm tone. “It’s very important right now.”

She only snorted, resting her gaze on Skull while her boot tapped on the floor irritably. She glanced sideways at her sister, looking for some support, but Jane was silent, no matter how unhappy her expression was. Desperate, she turned back to Peter with a resigned sigh.

“How do you imagine a pair of our cutthroats would deal with these two? Who else if not you can find a common language with them? Who will go on patrols, you? You know that our agents don’t patrol, and tonight was an exception. And even this one night hasn’t passed without an incident,” Peter continued, looking more weary than angry. “Out of all our agents, you’re the ones who have always dealt with delicate assignments and never backed out until now,” he added, and now it sounded like a covert attempt at praising her. Pain just snorted again.

“You can assign them to Ryan and Marco. They’re all dudes, they’ll find a common language,” she said with a wave of her hand, taking the last attempt to get away from the job.

“Marco?? Wh-Why, so they would die of alcohol poisoning in a day? There isn’t anything that I can trust Marco with lately! By the way – thanks for bringing him up – did you know he was growing pot on his windowsill?” he asked in an accusing voice.

At that, she made an astonished face, too theatrical to be genuine.

“No-o-o… Pot, really? No, I’ve never seen it in his room. In fact, I’m not sure I know what pot looks like. Do you by any chance have some here, so I could take a look…?” She blinked with a speculative face. Peter just gave a weary sigh.

“Listen, I’m not making you do something out of ordinary. All that’s needed is to be near and look after them so that nobody would break their necks. To keep an eye on them every minute. I don’t think you’ll even need to go out. We’ll do everything to make you all comfortable in your room. I bet Eugene already knows they’re here, and soon he’ll contact us. When we find out whom he wants and why, we’ll decide what to do next.”

“
Our room?
” she asked incredulously, clearly not paying attention to whatever he had said after that.

“Yes, your room,” he answered with finality. “You can stay there, or we can find you another, bigger one.”

“Or,” she raised her index finger, “we could just strap them to our backs so they would be both safe
and
warm.” She looked at him with dismay. “This is bullshit, Peter. I’m sorry, but I don’t like this plan,” she said as her hands went up helplessly. There was some urgency in her tone, not just resentment, but something more than that. Even Jane, who didn’t like the plan either, glanced at her with surprise. She decided to remain silent, though: as much as she disliked the idea, she didn’t want to argue about it. They would do what Peter said anyway, so there wasn’t any point in wasting time and effort. She had always been much more capable of adjusting to the way things were than her sister, who seemed to believe that she could control everything.

Peter shook his head.

“I don’t see any other choice.”

A moment passed in silence before Dave looked up at them.

“Why can’t we just go home? And they could guard us there…” he suggested.

“Because I know Eugene. The moment you cross the threshold of our building, his Beasts will cut your throats or grab you and deliver to him. Trust me, he won’t back off if something went wrong with his plan. He’ll do whatever it takes to get you, and your apartments will be the first place he will search,” Peter answered.

Dave had nothing else to say. The idea of staying here, of some inexplicable danger hanging over him and Chad seemed so bizarre that he was dumbfounded into obedience. His mind was blank, whether from shock after what he had seen or from trying to comprehend all that happened. He caught a questioning look of his friend, and just nodded, accepting Peter’s words.

“I guess the only choice we have is to stick with your plan,” Chad said after a heavy sigh. “Well, then show us the way!” He shrugged and got up, followed by Pain’s darkened gaze.

Peter looked at Pain, then at Jerry.

“Jerry will show you to the room. Pain, you’ll guard Dave, and Jane, yours is Chad,” he pointed at the guys with his chin.

“Sir, yes sir…” Pain muttered, and Peter’s eyebrows shot up.

“What?” He gave her a narrow look.

“Nothing.” She shook her head, lips pursed.

“Good,” Peter said with a nod, switching his eyes to the guys again. “The girls will join you soon. I’m not going to hold you any longer.”

Jerry waved his hand for them to follow, and Skull closed the procession, getting back to his post in the waiting room. Peter didn’t try to hold him; apparently, there was nothing more that he needed to know about.

“I have a couple of questions for you girls.” Peter sat back in his big chair as soon as the others were gone. “I guess you looked closely at these two? They have no Marks?”

“No,” Pain answered, still moody. “They’re not of our folk.”

“Then I don’t understand a thing in all this… If we only knew which one Eugene wants. And why do you think he needed only one of them?”

“Eugene’s men said ‘him’. It was clear they meant only one, but they never said which one. Anyway, if they had to kill him, they would have killed the other one as a witness,” Jane answered with a shrug.

“Maybe this Dave is keeping something back from us. I’ve already met him a week ago. He was there when I killed those two Beasts. What if he was waiting for them? Or spying on them? Maybe it’s not just a coincidence,” Pain added.

Peter only nodded. They sat quietly for some time, the girls staring at the table in front of them sightlessly, lost in thought; Peter looking at them, speculating.

“Okay, this is all for now, you can go. Oh, and do explain to them where they are so they don’t cause any trouble here. Actually, tell them everything, maybe it will help you four find a connection to Eugene and whatever he wants from them,” he said. As the girls got up and went to the door, he added, “And yes, you did a great job. We’re very lucky it was you who found them.”

Pain muttered something, clearly not agreeing with him, and Jane wished she hadn’t heard it.

“Pain…?” Peter called out when she was already in the doorway. She paused and turned her head. “I beg you not to kill any one of them even if you, like, really,
really
want to.” He gave her a disapproving shake of his head.

She had to hold back a smile at that.

“O-o-oh, now it seems like a really hard job…”

Then she closed the door.

She and Jane took the elevator downstairs, each of them immersed in their own thoughts. Pain caught herself biting on her lower lip and cursed in her mind.
Bad, bad habit.

“You think they’re gonna be trouble?” Jane asked, staring at the elevator doors with a glassy look.

“No, I don’t, really,” Pain answered, adjusting her back sheath – the straps seemed to stifle her, and she felt too hot in her gear since they left Peter’s air-conditioned office. “Because I’m gonna chain them to that pipe in the bathroom once they start bugging me too much.”

“Honestly, sis, doesn’t sound very practical,” Jane retorted in a sharp voice. “We don’t have a curtain in there,” she added more lightly.

The elevator doors groaned open.

“Aah, who cares, I can’t walk around naked now anyway,” Pain complained, coming out of it. A couple of fighters talking in the hall shot her surprised glances.

“Now, that’s a pity,” Jane muttered and rolled her eyes.
Finally, something will break her out of that habit,
she thought sourly.

They reached their room. Pain threw the door open, and Dave, who was saying something to Chad, broke off mid-rant and looked at her worriedly. Their room looked almost identical to the others in the building: light-blue walls with metal bunks, one narrow window across from the door, a wardrobe, chairs, and a recliner. There was one detail that made it different from the other rooms – a small vanity table with an oval mirror over it. Here and there little details of private life could be found: photos on the walls, tubes and tins with cosmetics, magazines and books. Dave was sitting in one of the chairs decently while Chad froze near the vanity table, studying the trinkets on the mirror frame and on the wall around it.

“Break something and I’ll break your arms,” Pain dropped, coming to the wardrobe and snatching a towel out of it. “I’ll go shower,” she said to her sister.

Chad only looked after her with irony.

With nothing else to do, Jane pulled off her jacket and went to the second chair, opposite of Dave.

“Since your sister got away from it, it seems you’ll have to tell us about this place,” Chad noted, looking at her with his eyebrows arched.

Some restless thought stirred in the back of her mind as she glanced at him. It wasn’t the first time, and she couldn’t grasp it, so she quickly switched her thoughts to her sister instead.
Yeah, like she would bother telling them stories instead of acting pissed.
She sighed, returning Chad’s questioning look, and finally padded to the big recliner in the corner, getting more comfortable before the long story.