The Haunting (Immortals) (21 page)

It had been the story about her “friend.”
Damn it
. He’d seen right through her lame attempt to hide the truth and knew she was the one who’d imagined a bogeyman beating her up. She rested her forehead against the door and only just resisted the urge to beat her head against it. Now he thought she was a lunatic
and
a liar. Great. Obviously, he was having second thoughts about getting involved with her—not that she could blame him.

Feeling very much alone, Mai went to bed. That night, her dreams were troubled and when she woke the next morning, she was beyond tired.

After fixing herself a quick breakfast, she called the hospital to check on Jenna. According to the nurse, Jenna seemed to be resting more peacefully, but still had not awakened.

Hanging up the phone, Mai considered calling Nick, but didn’t want to appear to be chasing him. Instead, what she needed was something to take her mind off him.

She still had a story waiting to be written and now that she had Lenny’s notes, it was time to finish it.

Two days later, nothing had changed. There’d been no mention in the news of Lenny’s body being found, no sign of Sarah, no change in Jenna’s condition, no erotic dreams—and no phone calls from Nick. The only good news was that Mai had finished her article.

Standing now in her kitchen, drinking coffee, she waited for the caffeine to chase away the mental fuzz that lingered from staying up too late the night before. She couldn’t help daydreaming about the stir her article would create when it hit the stands.

Soon, Bill Preston was going to be very busy defending himself.

Filled with excitement and anticipation, Mai hurried through her morning routine. A short while later, she was putting the flash drive on which her story was saved into her purse and locking the apartment door behind her.

There was no sign of Will in the lobby and she went outside to stand under the bright sun shining down, warming an otherwise cool breeze.
It’s a good day to be alive
, Mai mused, careful not to let any thoughts of Nick slip past her defenses and spoil her mood.

Fifteen minutes later, she was striding into the office of the
New York Voice
, making a beeline for Tom’s office.

“Here it is,” she said, holding out the flash drive.

“What’s this?” Tom asked from behind his desk. He took the drive, but looked at it like he’d never seen it before.

“That is the biggest story of the year,” she said, unable to hide the excitement in her voice. “Mayoral candidate Bill Preston has been funding his campaign with donations made by a shadow corporation owned by the Mafia. And that’s not all. This guy has a closet full of corpses, people who used to work for or with him over the years and were about to go public with something they knew but who mysteriously vanished or died before they could say anything. Shall I go on?”

Tom’s eyes opened wide. “You have facts to back all this up?”

She smiled. “Yep. It’s all there on that flash drive—names, dates, times, scanned copies of incriminating documents as well as my article.”

He eyed the flash drive with interest, then gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat while I see what you’ve got here.”

Mai watched as he plugged the flash drive into his computer. She knew the story was good and yet still found herself waiting with bated breath as he read. A lot rested on this. She’d been out of the journalistic game for long enough. She wanted to prove she was back—as a serious player.

She cast another nervous glance at Tom, whose expression hadn’t changed since he started reading. What was he thinking?

Her cell phone beeped, telling her she’d gotten a text message. Tom didn’t even acknowledge the sound. Checking her phone, she saw that Nick had written her to see how she was doing. Tom was still reading, so she typed back a quick response. Almost immediately, she received
another message from Nick asking if she was free for dinner. She smiled. Maybe she’d misread the situation the other night.

She wrote that she would call him as soon as she could, and put away her phone. With any luck, she’d have something to celebrate and who better to celebrate with than Nick?

“Damn, girl,” Tom said, pulling off his glasses and staring at her over the top of his monitor.

“Well?” It was hard to tell from his expression if he was impressed.

He laid his glasses on top of the desk. “I don’t even want to know how you got half this stuff. It’s all true?”

“Every single bit of it.”

“Okay.” He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Come on, Tom. Give me something. I’m dying here.”

“It’s good, Mai. Damn good.” Tom leaned forward, suddenly all business. “I want to buy it.”

She was back in the game. Mai smiled and held out her hand. “Thanks, Tom. I appreciate this.”

“Just like that? You’re going to let me have it without even shopping it around?”

“No. I’m going to let you have it for top dollar. And I’m not shopping it around because I owe you for the firefighters’ training facility disaster.”

He stood and came around the desk, giving her shoulder a familiar pat. “It’s a good story, Mai. Come by next week so we can talk about putting you back on the staff—if you’re interested.”

When Mai left, her spirits were soaring. Everything was starting to come together. First the story, then a steady job if she wanted it and now—maybe—Nick?

She decided she’d better not count the proverbial chickens
just yet. Pulling out her cell phone, she glanced at the time. Not even 3:15 P
.
M
.
Dinner seemed like a long way away.

Deciding to enjoy the weather, she started walking in the general direction of her apartment while punching in Nick’s phone number.

“Hey there,” he answered, his tone warm and familiar.

“Hey there, yourself,” she countered.

“How have you been?”

“Good, I guess. You?”

“Busy. I meant to call you yesterday, but…something came up. I didn’t want to go another day without talking to you, so I thought maybe we could get together for dinner—if you’re interested, that is.”

She smiled. “Sounds good. You can help me celebrate.”

“Oh yeah? What’re we celebrating?”

“I finished that story I was working on and just sold it to
NYV
.” She could barely get the words out she was so excited.

“This is the story on Preston?” Nick sounded like he wasn’t sharing her enthusiasm.

“Yes. Soon the world will know what a bastard he really is.”

“I thought you were going to keep a low profile for a while—at least until Lenny’s killer is found.”

She was a little irritated that he was lecturing her now of all times. “I finished the story last night and decided to go ahead and sell it. I have bills to pay, you know.”

Her good mood evaporating, Mai raised her hand to flag a cab.

“Mai,” Nick was saying. “I only want you to be prepared in case this thing turns sideways on you.”

“I know,” she sighed as a taxi pulled up in front of her. She climbed into the back and closed the door.

“Hang on a minute,” she told Nick. Leaning forward, she gave the driver her address, then sat back to finish her
conversation. “You worry too much,” she said, trying to maintain a positive tone. “Everything will be—hey. What are you doing?” she asked the driver when he suddenly pulled over and stopped. Before she even knew what was happening, two men jumped into the backseat, one on each side of her.

“What’s going on?” Nick asked.

“Get out of my cab, now,” she demanded of the men, though they didn’t even acknowledge her.

“Mai, what’s going on?” Nick’s voice blasted from the phone, drawing both men’s attention. The one sitting to her right reached out and took the phone before she could stop him.

“Nick!” she screamed. “Help.”

A fist connected with her jaw and Mai felt pain radiate through her body. For a second, she thought she would pass out, but she didn’t. The man holding the phone closed it, cutting off her only connection with anyone who might have helped her.

“What do you want?” she managed to ask.

The men sat in stony silence as the cab drove along streets that were less familiar to her.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked, unable to stop the tremor in her voice.

“You’ll see.”

“Mai!” Nick clutched the phone to his ear trying to hear what was going on.

Ice-cold fear swept over him. He’d saved her once, back in Central Park, but he wasn’t sure he could do it again.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh came across the phone, followed by Mai’s cry of pain just before the connection was lost.

Anger warred with a feeling of desperation, but he shoved both aside. Right now he needed to remain calm.

He raced out of his office. “I’ve got an emergency,” he told his secretary as he hurried past her.

She simply nodded. She’d worked with him a long time and this wasn’t the first “emergency” he’d had. Down the hallway, he took the elevator to the top floor and, after that, the stairs to the roof.

There was no one else on the roof, no one to see him cross to the storage box and work the combination lock. No one to see him strip off his clothes and lay them inside the box or take out the foot-long pipe that held a tightly rolled pair of nylon pants and jacket before locking it again.

And no one to see him change into a large black hawk.

It took him a second to adjust to his new form, but then, grabbing the pipe with his claws, he flapped his wings and launched into the air.

The sense of freedom he always enjoyed in this form helped calm him. He flew across town to the office of the
New York Voice
and slowly began to make ever-widening circles. With his keen eyesight, he could make out the rats crawling in the trash bins far below. What he wanted, though, were the rodents who’d kidnapped Mai.

There were hundreds of cabs below, any of which could have Mai trapped inside. There was no way to follow them all. As he searched, he tried to put himself in Preston’s position, because he felt certain the man was behind this. How would he get rid of a pesky reporter who knew too much?

There were plenty of things Preston could do to her alive that were too horrible to consider. No, Nick thought. Preston couldn’t afford to leave her alive—but he also couldn’t afford to have her body discovered.

So where did one dispose of a body one didn’t want found?

The answer came to him instantly. It was a gamble and if he was wrong, it could cost Mai her life.

He flew along the East River. Since he wasn’t sure if Mai’s kidnappers would have kept the cab or disposed of it, he focused on finding a group of people standing near the water’s edge.

From his soaring height above the city, it didn’t take him long. In one of the more remote industrial spots, two thugs were dragging Mai toward the end of the wharf. She was kicking and fighting, making their job much more difficult, but her efforts only earned her a slap across the face.

Seeing her manhandled had Nick’s blood boiling.

He did a quick visual sweep of the surrounding area to make sure there was no one else nearby. He needn’t have worried. The goons holding Mai wanted no witnesses to their deed.

He considered landing behind the men, but they almost certainly had guns on them and he had nothing more than a lead pipe. The only other thing he had was the element of surprise.

Holding the pipe tightly in his claws, he dove for the ground. The men were too preoccupied with restraining Mai to notice him and he managed to crack one of them in the head with the pipe as he passed. The man automatically let go of Mai as he reached up to clutch his head.

Both men turned and at that moment, Nick dove at them again, shifting his form at the last second.

He crashed into one man as he landed, knocking him to the ground. Nick punched him in the jaw to make sure he stayed down.

No doubt startled at Nick’s sudden appearance, the other man hesitated before pulling his gun. Nick turned just in time and struck the man’s hand with the pipe before he could pull the trigger. Nick swung the pipe again and the man collapsed to the ground.

With both men lying unconscious, Nick turned to Mai
and held out his arms. She fell into them and Nick pulled her close. It felt so good to have her in his arms again. She felt so right there.

“I thought I’d lost you.” His voice was hoarse with emotion.

He felt her tremble and held her tighter. “I was so afraid I wouldn’t see you again.” She rose on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. He reacted instinctively, deepening the kiss until he eventually remembered why he shouldn’t be kissing her at all.

A deep groan from behind them gave Nick an excuse to pull away. He set Mai to the side so he could check the two men on the ground. They were starting to wake up and Nick knew they’d be much harder to deal with once they did. He considered using his lead pipe to knock them out again, but another blow might kill them and he wasn’t a murderer—unless he was given no choice.

Instead, he grabbed the first man by the hair and punched him in the face. It was hard enough that Nick felt the bones in his hand crack—but the man fell back unconscious. Nick did the same thing to the other man, only this time he actually broke a few bones.

Focusing on his hand and trying to ignore the pain, he knit the bones back together. Mai, who no doubt had heard the bones crack originally, grabbed his hand and examined it.

“Handy trick,” she said. “I guess it makes up for all the damaged clothes.”

He saw her gaze drop and remembered he was naked. He retrieved his lead pipe and pulled the clothes from its center.

“I don’t suppose you still have your phone?” he asked as he dressed.

She pointed to the man lying closest to the edge of the wharf. “He took it.”

Nick went back over to the thug and searched his pockets until he found Mai’s phone. He grabbed the other phone he came across as well, but used Mai’s to call 9-1-1.

Mai watched Nick take charge. Now that she was safe, the paralyzing fear that she’d managed to keep at bay hit her. As soon as he was off the phone, she slipped into his arms and rested her head against his chest, letting him be that column of strength she needed.