Shadow Bound (Unbound) (19 page)

Jake chuckled, but his eyes weren’t laughing. “So you can handle this on your own, then?” he said, and that question only had one acceptable answer.

“Of course.”

Sure, I could walk all over downtown in possession of the second most valuable piece of human commodity in the city, armed with nothing but quick fists and a sharp tongue. No problem.

Jake watched me, and I was careful not to fidget or to look away, or to give him any nonverbal hint that I was less than sure of myself. Appearing confident is half the battle with Jake.

The other half is being willing to grab the man next to you and use him as a human shield.

“Good,” he said at last. “Where did you take him today?”

“He wanted to see the city, so we walked around downtown and I explained the basics of syndicate structure.”

“What’s his disposition toward signing?”

I shrugged, and the leather upholstery creaked beneath me. “Understandably hesitant, but interested.”

“Have you come across anything we can use to make him less hesitant?”

“Not yet.” That was mostly true, because I didn’t yet know what Ian wanted from Jake. And since Julia wasn’t there to read the tiny kernel of a lie buried deep in that larger truth, I would get away with it.

“So you walked, talked and dined all day long, and you didn’t come up with anything useful?”

“Um… He’s left-handed, a democrat and a nonsmoker,” I said. Jake was not amused. “In my own defense, liquor was the main course at lunch, so it’s not like we lingered over conversation and coffee.”

“What about his things? What name is on his license? What numbers are in his phone? Are there pictures in his wallet? Credit cards?”

“I didn’t realize I was supposed to be spying on him.”

“You’re supposed to be convincing him to join the syndicate. Whatever that takes. Too many credit cards could mean he has heavy debt. Pictures of kids in his wallet could mean he has someone we can threaten.”

“But you already ran a credit check, and a background check, and every other kind of check there is.” I’d seen the results. Ian’s parents and only brother were dead, and he had no other close living family members. He lived alone, and well within his means. He had $17,000 in savings and no stock portfolio. He owned his car outright—a two-year-old midlevel sedan—and rented a two-bedroom house. He was an ordinary man with a good sense of humor and an extraordinary Skill.

“That won’t tell me what bastards he fathered on the sly, or what debt he’s racked up under someone else’s name.”

“He’s not a thief, Jake.” Or a deadbeat dad. He just wasn’t.

Jake rolled his chair backward and pulled open a minifridge built into the credenza behind him. “You’re a lot of things, Kori. A steady hand, a good shot, a beautiful face, a foul mouth, an abrasive bitch and, recently, a very big pain in my ass. But one thing you’ve never been is naive.” He pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and pushed the door shut, then rolled his chair back to his desk and scowled at me over it, bottle in hand. “You don’t know what he is, and the minute you start thinking you do is the minute you’ve failed this assignment. You only know what he lets you see, and the reverse damn well better be true.”

I nodded—you can never go wrong with a noncommittal answer.

“Only two kinds of people join the syndicate. Those who have something to hide and those who have nothing to lose. It’s your job to figure out which one of those descriptions fits Ian Holt.”

“What if neither of them fits? He hasn’t said he’ll sign yet,” I said, and immediately regretted reminding him of what I hadn’t yet accomplished.

“He’s here for a reason, Korinne. Find out what that is.” Jake cracked open his water bottle and took a long drink, but his gaze never left me, disapproving stare intact. “Where are you taking him for dinner?”

I shrugged and, too late, I realized he probably wasn’t going to like my answer. “I thought I’d let him choose.”

Leather creaked as Jake sat straighter in his chair. He leaned forward, arms crossed over his desk blotter. “So, he ordered his own breakfast, you neglected to feed him lunch, and you’ve made no dinner reservations? The plan is to weaken him with hunger? Starve him until he signs?”

Making concrete plans for dinner honestly hadn’t occurred to me. I never ate anywhere that required reservations unless I was with Jake—he took two bodyguards everywhere he went—and even then, his assistant always did the reserving.

“I can make some calls,” I mumbled, digging my phone from my pocket.

“What, the fry cook at Denny’s owes you a favor?”

I had no good response to his piercing sarcasm, so I bit my tongue. Until it bled.

“I’ll make dinner arrangements. You go fetch my guest. I’m ready to discuss business.” He reached for his desk phone and waved one hand at me in dismissal.

“Can I get a key card?” I said, standing.

Jake looked up at me, anger flashing in his eyes. “When and if I want you to have unlimited access to my home, I’ll give you a key card. But don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.”

I nodded curtly, pretending that didn’t sting. I didn’t want it to. I didn’t want to give a damn that he still didn’t trust me, because I’d never trusted him a day in my life. But it did sting, and beyond that, it was a hell of an inconvenience, not being allowed into the syndicate’s headquarters without being personally cleared by security every time I traveled into the darkroom.

I excused myself and made my way back upstairs alone and was not surprised to see that Jake had sent another guard to make sure I went no farther than the darkroom. This one didn’t grab my arm. He didn’t even speak to me.

He must have liked his face the way it was.

Twelve

Ian

I
didn’t know Kori was there until she stepped out of the bathroom without warning, and I nearly jumped out of my own skin. I’d met shadows that made more noise. “You know, you should give a guy some warning. What if I’d been naked?”

She shrugged and followed me into the living room. “I could use a good laugh.”

“Ha ha.” But unless I was mistaken, she didn’t look horrified by the possibility.

“Your presence has been requested at syndicate headquarters,” Kori said, perched on the arm of the nearest couch.

“Now?” I asked, and she nodded. “And headquarters would be where?”

“Jake’s house. But don’t let that lull you into a misplaced sense of comfort.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I opened the minifridge and pulled out two sodas, then tossed one to her. “What does he want?”

“To talk business. And probably to apologize for your mistreatment at my hands.”

My brows rose in surprise and I spread my arms to take in the elegant suite around us. “If this is mistreatment, you can abuse me any day, Ms. Daniels.”

She laughed, and I watched her. Making her smile felt like a victory.

“So, what if I don’t want to report to Tower? What if I’d rather sit here and finish this soda with you?”

Her smile died a slow death. “Then I’d have to assume that you’re not seriously considering our offer. And I’d be obligated to relay that to Jake.”

“Obligated?” I said, and she shrugged.

“I can’t lie to him.”

I twisted the top from the plastic bottle and the soda inside fizzed briefly. “I take it he doesn’t bear bad news gracefully?”

Kori blinked and seemed to consider the question. “Honestly, he doesn’t get much bad news. Messengers tend to go out of their way to make sure they only bring him good news. Many a decision has been changed at the last minute by a messenger with a will to survive.”

I watched her, waiting for a smile, or a laugh, or even one sharply arched brow to tell me she was joking.

She
had
to be joking. Right?

I wasn’t going to take the chance, either way. I couldn’t afford to piss off either Kori or Tower until I had a clear shot at Kenley Daniels.

Standing, I screwed the lid back on my bottle and set it on the coffee table. “So, anything I should know about this meeting?”

Kori shrugged and sipped from her own bottle. “Don’t promise him anything. Ask for more than you expect to get, so he can talk you down a little and save face.”

“But I haven’t agreed to sign yet.”

“Exactly. This is his chance to try to buy you. Later, when you
do
agree to sign, the first draft of your contract will reflect whatever the two of you hash out in his office today. Nothing’s official until the ink has dried, but you want a good starting place. You
need
a good starting place.”

Except that I didn’t want to start anything with Jake Tower and his organization. I’d come here to finish things.

* * *

An hour and a half later, after endless rounds of verbal posturing, thin pretense and precisely worded defensive blocks from us both, Tower leaned back, hands resting on the padded arms of his desk chair, evidently satisfied.

I’d been very careful to ask for more than he’d give the typical recruit, to show that I knew my own value, but I only pushed the issue on a couple of points, mostly because I had no real intention of signing and I didn’t want to waste any more time making demands I would never see met.

In the end, Tower was satisfied that he was getting the better end of the deal, but not suspicious that his victory had come too easy. And by the time he pressed a button and asked his sister to bring in a round of drinks—signaling the end of our “business talk”—I was mentally exhausted. I’d had very little experience with negotiation, and overthinking everything I planned to say before I could say it had given me one hell of a headache.

When Julia Tower arrived with a tray of drinks, Kori opened the door for her, then followed her in from the foyer, and I felt myself relax a little at the sight of her.

Then I realized that was
not
the reaction I should have to the woman who was trying to get me to sign over my free will. Tower wanted me to be comfortable with her. He wanted me to trust her. He wanted me to be blinded with need every time I glanced into those big brown eyes, so I wouldn’t have the clarity and focus to understand what I’d be signing away when he put that pen in my hand.

But it wouldn’t work.

Sure, I wanted her. But if I let my guard down even for a second in this den of lions, one of them would bite my head off.

Tower frowned up at Kori from his desk chair. “How much of the business side of things have you shown Mr. Holt?”

She froze, and I remembered what she’d said about being unable to lie to him. Fortunately there was nothing stopping
me
from lying to Tower. “Not much,” I said. “Today I wanted to see downtown and get a feel for the syndicate’s structure. Kori was kind enough to oblige me.”

It wouldn’t occur to me until later that night to wonder why I’d lied for her without a second thought.

Tower glanced at his sister, then his gaze slid to me, and I felt the weight of it. This was different from how he’d looked at me at the party. This look was skepticism and surprise, and for a moment, I thought he’d call me on my lie. But then he only turned back to Kori and nodded, and Kori turned toward the door. We’d obviously been dismissed.

“Mr. Holt,” Julia Tower called, and Kori’s hand froze on the doorknob. “How are you enjoying your stay?”

“Very well, thank you,” I said, and Kori turned to face her slowly, dread written in every line on her face.

“I assume Korinne is treating you well?”

“Of course. She’s gone to great lengths to accommodate my curiosity.”

“Good.” Tower stood and rounded his desk toward the door, brushing Kori aside as he gestured for me to walk with him. “I’ve made reservations for you both in my name at Philemon’s. Best filet in the city.”

“Thank you, but that really wasn’t necessary,” I said, and Tower frowned.

“I’m afraid it was. I’m confident that Kori is an excellent tour guide, and she has certain other gifts to share, I’m sure, but her perspective on the syndicate may be a bit…narrow.” He stopped in the middle of the foyer and turned to look right into my eyes, ignoring Kori and his own sister like they weren’t even there.

“Your Skill is formidable and your strength is very rare. That makes you much more valuable than any common Traveler, if I may be blunt, and the trajectory we foresee for your future soars far higher than hers, which, frankly, has already declined from its peak. So go out tonight and eat and avail yourself of any other amenities we have to offer. But please keep in mind that while Korinne is at your disposal, we have many other, more sophisticated treats for you to sample, should your appetite change.”

He glanced at her on the last word, and Kori’s fists clenched at her sides, but she stared at the floor.

Tower pulled her aside then, while his sister tried to distract me with pointless small talk, and I could barely hear the single sentence he growled at her, his hand tight around her arm, though he flinched as if his grip hurt him, as well. “No. More. Bars.”

Minutes later, after another trip through Tower’s darkroom, we stepped into my hotel suite and Kori sank onto one of the couches, her expression carefully blank. She just sat there, staring at her hands, perpetuating the longest silence I’d endured since meeting her.

“He’s full of shit, you know,” I said when I couldn’t stand to see her like that anymore. Kori was like a bonfire, blazing with bright light and sometimes harsh heat, and Tower had just kicked dirt all over her, smothering the flames. I didn’t like seeing her light put out. In fact, sitting there watching her, I realized I hated it. “Ninety-five percent of sophistication is pretense. The other five percent is good wine, and I prefer the latter without the former.”

“What does that even mean?” she asked, without looking up.

“It means that I don’t want to trade you in for a more sophisticated model. I like the sharp edges and surprises.”

I told myself it was okay to say that. To admit a truth of my own, after all the truths she’d already shown me. I even tried to convince myself that telling her was part of my job. I needed her to like and trust me. But I’d obviously managed to say the wrong thing.

“Yeah. You like sharp edges,” she spat. “That’s why you wanted me to stop cussing, right?”

Damn.

“That was just a game, Kori. A stupid game to push your buttons. To see how you’d react, because…” I took a deep breath and leaned forward, hoping to catch her gaze. “Because you never do what I expect. But you’re right. It was a stupid game. Forget about it. The bet is off.”

“Oh, no, the bet’s still on,” she snapped, and a flare of anger finally burned through the shield of ambivalence she’d erected. “I’m not going to break my word. But for the record—” She stopped suddenly and looked away, hands clenched around the edge of the cushion she sat on.

“What? For the record, what?” I could practically taste the gritty honesty of whatever she’d been about to say, and I wanted to hear it, because whatever it was, it came from her soul. It was a truth about her.

“Nothing.”

“No, that was something. I want to hear it.”

Her eyes flashed in anger again. “You can stop pretending we’re on an even playing field, Mr. Holt,” she snapped again, and I flinched over her cold, formal use of my surname. “Until your signature is dry on Jake’s contract, you hold all the power here and I can’t afford to say anything that will make you mad.”

I blinked, surprised. “Why? You think I’m going to go tattle to Tower if you hurt my feelings? Is that really what you think of me, even after I lied about what you showed me today?” I demanded, and her anger faltered, just for a moment. “Tell me what you were going to say, Kori.”

Let me in. Just a little.

“Fine.” She sat back, arms crossed over her chest in a pose that was probably supposed to look unaffected, but really looked defensive. “For the record, I don’t
care
whether you like sharp edges or sophistication. I don’t care what you like in a woman, and I don’t care what Jake thinks about my social status. If you want to trade me in for a different ‘model,’ go ahead. You won’t be hurting my feelings.”

I shook my head slowly. “That’s not it,” I said, trying not to look disappointed. “That’s not what you were going to say. I can see it in your face.” I
would
be hurting her feelings if I traded her in. Which seemed to imply that she did, in fact,
have
feelings.

And finally she nodded. “This job—recruiting you—is my chance to get back into favor with Jake. I’m not cut out to be a recruiter, Ian. But I have to recruit you to get my life back.”