Lure of the Wicked (4 page)

Wouldn’t that just make her goddamn day.

Chapter Three

N
aomi turned, shaking her head, and hesitated as a door across the hall eased slowly closed.

Her gaze flicked to the staff as caution slipped into the exhausted vacuum of leached adrenaline. One maid, a teenager, diligently swept glass into a dustbin. The other, a dark-skinned woman with closely cropped brown hair, hummed something off-key as she vanished into the empty sauna with another broom in hand.

There was nobody else to enter the locker room clearly marked for women. She hadn’t seen anyone else enter or stay.

Instinct spiked a warning, and she ran for the swinging door as the teenager with the shard-filled dustpan stepped into her path.

“Move!” Naomi bit out. Too late.

Glass scattered in a fine arc as they collided. As if in some awkwardly maneuvered dance, Naomi wrenched her around, caught the flying dustbin in one hand, and tossed it heedlessly back at the flailing maid. Plastic hit stone; the maid managed an inquisitive “Mmph!”

Naomi didn’t stop to check on either. She sprinted between the colorfully tiled pools, pushed open the door, and dodged its rebound as it slammed back at her on well-oiled hinges.

Checking behind it was habit, and she stalked into the luxurious locker room ready for anything. A fight, an attack, anything, god damn it.

She caught a glimpse of her own narrowed eyes in the wide bank of mirrors, frowned at the color riding high on her cheeks, and ignored the silvered surface as a rasp of movement echoed from the adjoining room.

Darting through the access frame, she barely managed to process the warning flicker. Cursing, she dropped to the floor as a glint of gold sailed over her head, just where her skull had been seconds ago. Metal rang like a bell, gonged once as a decorative urn bounced off the wall. It clattered to the stone floor, rolled lazily before it tapped the edge of an elegantly gilded shower stall.

The echoes died away into silence sharp as a knife.

Her pulse skittered; pounded with the sudden anticipation of danger.

Hell, yes. Almost better than sex.

This was what a mission should be.

Naomi shoved to her feet, stepped over the slowly spinning vase. “Come out, come out,” she taunted. Her voice bounced from tiled wall to wall, thrown back at her in flat echoes. The room wasn’t huge, but floor-to-ceiling panels segregated the shower stalls, leaving too many places to hide.

Mirrors adorned the wall behind her, reflected back the shades of dusky green and lavender that seemed to be the spa’s signature colors.

Nothing moved around her.

If she searched the room, she’d run the risk of leaving the exit clear. But was there another exit somewhere else?

Her empty fingers twitched, desperate for the solid weight of her gun.

Cautiously she crossed the floor. Her shoes clicked loudly, echoes dogging every step as she checked every extravagant shower stall, every corner. She stepped over the pile of flowers, noting how quickly the rose-colored slate sucked at the water.

She was close. The vase hadn’t been dumped out that long ago. Where the fuck had the bastard gone?

By the time she’d made a full circuit, anger spiked a sharp burn through her chest. There was nobody here. No footsteps, no breathing,
shit
, not even a whisper of sound under the constant hum of the spa’s electrical grid. There were no other exits.

Just in case, she reached up and tested the decorative vents inset into each wall.

Locked fast.

What the
hell
had she missed?

She whirled, strode through the single exit, and made a full circuit of the front dressing room. Finding nothing but rows of lockers, shelves, and mirrors, she pushed through the door and pinned her gaze on the two maids still cleaning up.

The younger one slanted her a wary glance.

“Did anybody come through here?” Naomi demanded. “Within the past five minutes.”

“No, ma’am,” the older woman replied. “Just maintenance.” She jerked a thumb toward the brightly lit, still leaking sauna. Masculine voices echoed from the interior.

Naomi locked her teeth before she gave in to the urge to scream. “Thank you,” she managed.

“Are you all right?”

No. She was not all right. She was so far from all right that the first idiot to cross Naomi’s path was going to get decked. She plastered on a smile that made her jaw ache. “Fine. Sorry about the mess.”

They both said something pacifying, but Naomi didn’t care. She turned and left, long legs eating up the ground as she studied the large, open hall.

Ten different pools, one major exit.

Two attacks in one day. Maybe the same one, maybe not. One witch. One ghost in the form of a rogue agent.

Jesus fucking Christ.

What else could go wrong?

I
n the privacy of the family wing, Phin could allow his mask to drop. His hands shook as he scraped them through his hair. Nausea clenched in a stomach roiling with belated terror, so he paced, stalking room to room in the pretty, elegantly decorated suite as he went over and over the scene in his mind.

What had caused the doors to malfunction? The doors were only locked after hours as a safety precaution. Never
ever
during the hours that guests used the spa area. Why had the steam regulators gone haywire? The monthly maintenance had been done three weeks ago.

Oh, God. Why hadn’t either of his mothers contacted him yet? Both had hurried to the clinic at his call, and he hadn’t heard anything for too long. Was Alexandra all right?

The elevator door slid open just as he reached for his comm, and Phin whirled. The look on Lillian’s face caused hope and fear and nervous energy to collide somewhere on his tongue, leaving him splaying his hands in wordless demand.

Lillian Clarke’s green-gold eyes were tired, but her reassuring smile loosened the tight ball of anxiety in Phin’s chest even before she answered his unspoken question. “Alexandra will be all right,” she said firmly. “She’s exhausted, but resting well.”

Phin’s shoulders slumped as he half slid into a large wingback chair. “Jesus Christ,” he breathed.

“I believe we can drink to that.”

He could only nod.

A tall, elegant woman, Lillian kept her hair gray-free, bright as gold on a summer day. She kept it rolled into a neat, chic twist at the back of her head, and didn’t fuss with anything but plain, undecorated pins. Effortlessly polished, her aging features were strongly defined, aristocratic, and just a shade too square.

Now her handsome face was set in calm, encouraging lines as she poured a layer of russet liquid into two crystal glasses. “Here,” she said as she pushed one into his hand.

His fingers closed on it out of habit, but he frowned as he glanced at the elevator. “Isn’t Mother coming?”

“She’s going to stay with Alexandra for a while.” Lillian perched on the arm of the chair, her gray, neatly tailored suit as unruffled as if she’d just stepped away from her desk. Phin sipped at the brandy in his glass.

It warmed a path from tongue to stomach, and loosened another anxious knot.

He glanced at the framed photo of his two mothers on the end table beside him. In stark contrast to Lillian’s svelte sophistication, Gemma Clarke’s nut brown curls, round cheeks, and warm, dark eyes couldn’t help but give an impression of cheerful, bohemian housewife.

It was one of many differences that he adored about them both. He’d spent his life intercepting the small, secret glances like the one they shared in the photograph, and Phin felt a sweet, familiar squeeze in his chest.

His parents were his world. They’d built Timeless, founded it when the city was just coming to terms with two decades of reconstruction. Passed it on to him as he became a man. Nothing had shaken him so badly as the almost fatal accident to one of their guests.

“I’m going over and over it,” he admitted suddenly, fingers clenching on the glass. “I pulled up the logs first thing.”

Lillian smoothed back his hair with a steady hand. “Tell me what happened, my love.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t know. We heard Barbara screaming—”

“We?”

“The newest guest, Naomi Ishikawa. She was with me.” Phin took another bracing swallow of brandy and replayed the scene again. The Asian beauty with the cool smile had broken through the sauna window, as easily as if she’d known exactly what to do.
How
to do it.

It was so vivid in his mind’s eye that he flinched. The impact must have hurt. More than she’d let on.

“With you, you say?”

He met his mother’s measured gaze and couldn’t help his sudden smile. “I’d only just introduced myself, Mother.” And how. “Since I was unavailable when she checked in, I was giving her an abbreviated tour.” His smile faded. “When Barbara started screaming about her grandmother, Miss Ishikawa took off like a shot. I don’t know . . .” He sighed. “The sauna door was locked tight and the gauges already in the red.”

She rose, transferring her half-empty glass to the end table beside her, and rubbed the back of her neck with stiff fingers. “Have you informed maintenance?”

“They’ve already been called.” He stood, tired body protesting, and stretched. “But I’ll be going back down now that I know Alexandra’s okay. Will you be all right? Should I stay?”

“You are entirely too big to be sleeping in our bed, Phinneas.”

Her dry humor quirked an answering grin from his lips. “If you need anything—”

“You are one floor beneath us, I know.” Lillian’s smile warmed. “You’re a good boy.”

“I had excellent parents.” He bent to brush her perfectly powdered cheek with a kiss, inhaled the comforting scent of rose and the almond oil balm Gemma made for her wife’s arthritis; so familiar that adoration welled like a warm, soothing tide. Eased his frustration to something he could control. “Give Mother my love.”

“I will. Try to get some rest.”

The answer he gave was as noncommittal as he could make it, and he knew Lillian’s gaze sharpened on his back as he called the elevator and stepped inside.

It couldn’t be helped. Not only did Phin have to locate the cause of the malfunction, but he had to figure out how to explain it to a woman who was very possibly the most powerfully connected client Timeless had ever hosted.

Alexandra Applegate was so much more than Lillian’s dearest friend. She also happened to be the grandmother to the Order’s current bishop and the Church’s most dedicated patron. Ties that helped keep the officials off his back.

Mostly.

Despite the fact that the Church didn’t agree with the concept of two women raising a child in the civilized eye of the city, it was in part due to Alexandra’s strong commitments that they left Timeless alone. Mostly alone.

The right set of taxes helped.

He rubbed his forehead as the elevator eased to a stop. The doors slid open, and he stepped out into one of the many discreet halls marked for staff use. Within seconds, the comm unit clipped to his belt hummed.

“Phin Clarke,” he said by way of greeting.

“Mr. Clarke, it’s security.” Eric Barker’s voice was tinny over the line, but serious. “I’m running back the feeds as we speak. We have another problem, though.”

Phin raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Of course we do. What is it?”

“A new package was set to be delivered tomorrow, but transport canceled.”

He slowed to a stop. “Please tell me that you’ve had one too many and are pulling my leg.”

Barker had worked for him long enough to know when he was being serious. “If I were drinking on the job, sir,” he replied evenly, “I would invite you. I’m sorry. It’s true, we’ve lost one of our checkpoints.”

“Which?”

“The second.”

Damn. Phin checked his watch. “It’s too late to arrange something else. That’s the longest part of the whole route.”

“The backup transport will be notified, but it could take a while. He has to be located, first.”

“Have you tried the Pussycat Perch?”

There was a beat. “Which level, sir?”

“Mid-lows. More lows than mid,” Phin added wryly. “Peter enjoys the crush in the lower city dives.”

Keys clicked in the background as Phin waited. Then, with some relief, Eric told him, “I’m sending some folks now. Sir, should we be rushing the transport?”

“At this point?” Phin rubbed his face. “We don’t have a choice.”

“Can we do that?”

His tone was wry as Phin replied, “We
are
the operation, Mr. Barker. We can do anything.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll send notices through the channels to expect an earlier delivery than normal.”

Damn. Triple damn. This sort of late-notice rush could end up scaring half his contacts underground, but it couldn’t be helped now. “Gather Maia and her family,” he said. “I also want Diego’s family on this load, and if there’s room, put Mary Beth in there.”

“That’s—”

“Pushing it, I know.” Christ. What choice did they have? With the attention Timeless was about to receive, they’d need to get as many of his protected refugees out to safety as possible. “Mary Beth has been separated from her father for three months. I want them together, Mr. Barker.”

“What about Diego? His family is only half gathered.”

“Who do we have?”

“Looks like we’ve got his aunt and niece in laundry, and his nephew’s working the grounds. We’re missing Diego’s mother and brother, and . . .” The man trailed off.

Phin ground the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Tell me.”

“No one’s seen his brother since the missionaries went sniffing around Diego’s old apartment.”

“Damn it!” He fisted his hand, lowered it before he did something stupid. Like slam it into the wall in front of him. “We have no more time to waste. Gather who we have and send them. Diego will . . .” What? Come to terms with the fact that the Church had just hunted down and probably killed his brother?

Not likely. Phin closed his eyes. “Get on it, Mr. Barker.”

“Yes, sir.”

Phin disconnected the comm, reattaching it to his belt with practiced familiarity as he studied one of many wallpapered panels that made up Timeless’s maze of hallways. Behind it, hidden beneath the brilliant mechanics of a tiny, invisibly placed switch, one of a handful of concealed corridors tunneled through the resort walls.