Trace of Magic (22 page)

I wondered how Taylor was and if she and my brothers had managed to get out of town. I snorted at myself. As if. She wasn’t going to leave as long as Josh was missing and I was hanging out with a Tyet enforcer. She would at least be holed up in one of the family safe houses.

I straightened. No. She wouldn’t have gone to any of them. My sister the pilot would be at the hangar, waiting for me, waiting to fly me and Josh out of Diamond City. My brothers might be with her. No, they would be. They’d never leave without me. Josh would be a bonus. Family did for family. They had my back and my trust. Since Josh owned Taylor’s heart, he was family, too. If I doubted what I was about to do, that settled it.

I glanced up at the clouds. Taylor had two helicopters. She’d fly us out in a blizzard if she had to. All I had to do was get to the hangar.

There it was. I had a way to freedom. I didn’t have a plan or any idea what would happen next, or any way to get to the hangar, but if I could find Josh and get away from everybody hunting us, then we might have a chance.

Those were some awful big
ifs
. And the biggest one was Price.
If
I could trust him.

Chapter 19

PRICE DROVE US down through Midtown and into Downtown. He headed to the north side, away from the diner and precinct, but still a good twenty minutes or more from my house. Thanks to the truck elevator that dropped down from the rim right into the middle of the district, the area was warty with warehouses and distribution terminals. The elevator was a miracle of engineering and magic, its massive metal skeleton clinging to the cliffs like a huge spider. Up to fifty trucks at a time on five different platforms could come in, dump loads, and get lifted back out with little fuss. Most everything that people used came through the Downtown warehouse district, from food to electronics to sex toys.

As soon as we drove in, the gray daylight vanished, the warehouses turning the streets into dark urban canyons. The falling snow thickened. Price drove almost all the way to the caldera wall before turning along a cross street and parking in front of a massive brick warehouse. Faded black-on-white paint along one side said something about the best apples on the planet, and there was a blue-green blob that might have been a picture of the earth. Other than that, there were no other signs I could see that said who owned the building or what it was used for. Tall roll-up doors marched down one side, with a couple of smaller steel doors near where we parked. There didn’t appear to be any windows until the fifth floor and up.

I made myself get off the snowmobile, and Price did the same. I woodenly opened the compartment under the seat and took out the burlap. Was I really doing this? It was
such
a bad idea. Yet I couldn’t think of anything even slightly better.

“I thought you might show up here.”

I started and spun at the sound of a woman’s voice. Price thrust me behind him, his gun appearing in his hand like it had always been there. Special Agent Sandra Arnow stood a few feet away, dressed in black snow gear with a yellow FBI stenciled over the left breast. Behind her was another agent. He looked like he was about to go to war. He wore a helmet and a black military-style uniform with a flak jacket and a rifle that looked like it could also launch grenades. Maybe tear-gas canisters. I doubted grenades were common issue for the FBI, even in a Tyet battleground like Diamond City.

The barrel of his gun was trained on Price.

“Lower your weapon, Detective,” Arnow ordered.

He didn’t have a choice that I could see. I was relieved when he obeyed. “What are you doing here?”

“A little of this, a little of that.” Arnow smiled, and it made me shiver. Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent. “I hoped I might have a word with Miss Hollis.” Her chill gaze met mine. “In private, if I may.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said. She’d probably drag me off somewhere to be questioned or held for jaywalking. I didn’t trust her.

“Very well. I understand you and Detective Price retrieved some evidence from Joshua Reist’s office.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her expression hardened. “Come now, Miss Hollis. Your fingerprints were all over the office and the inside of the floor safe.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t there. I said I didn’t have evidence.”

“I’m afraid I must determine that,” she said. Her gaze flicked to the burlap bag I held. Her pupils were tiny. “Is that what you found?”

“No.”

“It’s mine,” Price said at the same time.

She looked at me. “It would be in your best interests to help me. You are aware that Detective Price has ties to the Touray organization and that this warehouse is owned by Gregg Touray?”

“Do you have a point?” I asked.

“Touray is the head of one of the largest Tyet consortiums in Diamond City. He is a dangerous man and it’s quite possible he is responsible for Joshua Reist’s kidnapping.”

“Then at least I’ll know where he is,” I said. I didn’t like her. If she’d been a doctor, she’d have worked on corpses. The living would be too scared to let her near them. “It’s not like you’ve done anything to find him.”

It was a guess; the flicker of anger in her eyes told me I’d hit the target. “Certainly you may discover that,” she agreed. “However, you won’t live long enough to tell anyone. There’s one other piece of information that Detective Price may have overlooked telling you. He is Gregg Touray’s half-brother.”

I hadn’t been expecting that. The news exploded in my brain. I couldn’t move or speak. Arnow smiled triumphantly, while Price said nothing. His sapphire gaze bound me. I couldn’t look away.

“Clearly you can see the danger of continuing inside. If you come with me, I will make sure that you are protected.”

I broke away from Price’s hypnotic look. “Like you protected Josh? Wasn’t he working for you?”

Bright red knotted in her cheeks. “How do you know about that?”

“You set him up on the front lines of your investigation and where is he now? As far as I can tell, you’re either incompetent or you don’t give a shit about the people working for you. Either way, I don’t see how I can possibly trust you.”

“But you can trust a man who’s walking you into a Tyet stronghold? Right into the hands of his brother? What did he do? Get you into bed and talk sweet about what a good guy he is and how he’s your knight in shining armor? You can’t be that stupid.”

“If it’s a choice between you and him, I choose him,” I said, and even though I could feel terror winding thorny branches around my lungs, I refused to back down. Nothing pertinent had changed. Josh was missing, and Touray might know how to find him. Whether Price was playing me—I hadn’t been entirely sure before, and now I had more doubts. I’d do anything for family. It would surprise me if Price wasn’t the same. He had that kind of loyalty. It was one of the things I admired about him. Only now it could get me killed. On the other hand, if actions speak louder than words, he’d proven himself to me, and Special Agent Sandra Arnow had demonstrated that she’d wad me up like used toilet paper and flush me.

“Let’s go,” I said to Price and started blindly in the direction of the warehouse.

He fell in beside me, grasping my elbow. “Riley—”

“Let’s just do this,” I said, cutting him off. “You do what you have to do. You don’t have to be responsible for me.”

I fingered the nulls in my pocket. I still had the quarter that would shut down magic use. With it and some luck, I could create an escape. I’m not saying I was counting Price out, but I had to consider the likelihood that no matter how he might feel about me, he’d put family first.

“Dammit, Riley!” He stopped, pulling me around to face him. “I’d have told you if I didn’t think you’d take it the wrong way.”

“How could I possibly take it the wrong way?” I asked, feeling weirdly numb. Inside I could feel the seeds of hysteria breaking open. He was worried I’d take the news that he was Gregg Touray’s brother the wrong way? What was the right way? Should I throw a parade? Buy him a cake?

“I told you I’d keep you safe and get you out of here, and I will. Believe it.”

My cheeks were stiff as I smiled. “I wonder if you’re lying to me or yourself.”

He stared down at me a long moment. I couldn’t see his eyes. They were lost in shadows. He pulled off his glove and put his hand on one side of my face, rubbing my lips with his thumb.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he said.

I wondered if he had any idea how worried he sounded.

“Just keep an open mind, okay?”

Before I could ask what the hell that meant, he put his hand around the back of my head and pressed an icy kiss to my lips. I wonder what Very Special Snowflake Agent Arnow made of that. The kiss was done almost before it started. Price grabbed my hand and towed me off toward the closest door. The door opened before we got there. A man and a woman stepped out. I shifted gears and started to run. Price’s hand clamped on mine, stopping me.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at me. “Arnow’s watching. We don’t want her in this.”

“That bitch is the one who shot me at Josh’s office.” I fought against his grip, but he didn’t let go. Instead he turned back to the man and woman.

“We’re here to see Gregg,” he said.

“He’s waiting,” the woman said with a hard glance at me and then Price. “You shouldn’t have run from us before.”

“You shouldn’t have been shooting at us, Amy,” he said caustically. “I wasn’t going stick around and get killed just to find out who was chasing us.”

Amy? All of sudden the ground seemed to be moving under my feet. He knew her? By name?

“You weren’t supposed to be there and that one ran.” Amy flicked her fingers at me. “Didn’t see you until too late.” She shrugged. “It’s not like anybody died.”

“It was pretty damned close,” Price snapped. His savage expression made her swallow convulsively, but she didn’t say anything.

Reality began to seep in. Price was turning me over to the man who’d had me shot. I stared helplessly, frozen by shock and horror. When he dragged me up the steps into the building, I followed dazedly. Baldy—Amy’s partner in crime—and Amy followed. Both were armed, though their guns were holstered. They were wearing active magic. Probably some sort of shield, or maybe a null. I couldn’t tell.

We stepped into a gray room. Industrial vinyl tiles covered the floor and there were a couple of steel desks, a coffeemaker, and computer screens linked to a bunch of cameras around the exterior of the building. Front and center on one of the screens was the snowmobile. Arnow and her companion were nowhere to be seen.

Amy and Baldy had seen Price kiss me.

Realization hit me. He’d already known. He knew this place. He’d kissed me to make a statement. My brain was starting to melt as I ping-ponged from emotion to emotion.

I’ll keep you safe.
That’s what he’d said. That’s when I finally realized that I wasn’t just looking to get out of here with my life and freedom intact, not to mention Josh. I wanted some sort of proof that Price really cared about me. I needed proof that his feelings weren’t just part of some Tyet game. Call me paranoid if you want, but he’d made Shana fall in love with him. He’d made her believe he was the love of her life. Look at her now. The funny thing is that I wasn’t expecting some great moment of ultimate sacrifice. I definitely wasn’t expecting him to side with me over his brother. I just wanted—needed—to know I wasn’t in this emotional maelstrom alone. The fact was that I’d fallen completely in love with him. I’d forgive him for turning me over to his brother, if only I knew he loved me too.

Stupid? Undoubtedly. But don’t love and idiocy go hand in hand? Two branches of the same tree?

“I’ll take that,” Baldy said, pulling the tire iron out of my hand before I could protest. He went to grab the sack, but Price took it instead.

After that, Baldy and Amy Oakley led us along a warren of hallways until we got to a bank of elevators. We passed armed men and women with hard faces guarding doors or patrolling the hallways. We got on an elevator, and our two escorts followed. Baldy hit the twelfth floor button, and we launched upward.

The elevator chimed arrival, and the doors slid open. We stepped out into a cavernous space. The floors were copper-colored concrete, and there were more windows than walls. The space was mostly empty but for a polished wood conference table and some folding chairs, and a couple of square silver birdcage-looking things that dangled from the ceilings. Most of the light came from spotlights overhead. Gloom crowded in through the windows.

At the far end of the room several white-painted doors blended into white walls. The whole place looked faceless and bland. I bet blood cleaned right up off the floors.

Price walked in and looked around. “Where’s Gregg?”

“He wants her secured first,” said Amy Oakley. “Lock her down.”

Price gave an impatient shrug and waved me to follow him. I went. Lamb to the slaughter.

On the other side of the conference table a square was cut out of the floor. It was about a foot deep and ten feet across. One of the cage-things hung above. It clearly lowered into grooves cut around the edge of the square. Silver lined the bottom of the grooves. More ribboned through the concrete, I was sure. Buttons in a panel on the side of the conference table controlled the lowering and lifting mechanism.

“Get in,” Price said. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.” His expression was taut.

“I want to search her first,” said Baldy.

I glared at him. “Touch me, and I’ll kick you in the balls.” I wasn’t going to let him grope me.

“You think you have a choice?”

He stepped up in front of me. He was broad-shouldered and topped me by a couple inches. But if he was hoping to cow me, he failed. I glared back up at him, letting my baton slide out of my sleeve into my hand.

“Your breath stinks on ice,” I said. “You should probably get that checked if you ever want to get laid. A dog would be disgusted, and they eat shit.”

He blotched red and started to swing a punch at me. I was already in gear, ducking and punching him in the balls, even as I snapped my baton to full length. I whirled around, ready to crack it over his collarbone. Before I could, Price grabbed Baldy’s fist and held him.

“Touch her, and I’ll gut you,” he said in a tone like he was admiring the weather. Baldy blanched, and the woman put her hand on her gun.

Price shoved Baldy away. “Riley, empty your pockets. Remove your jacket as well.”

“She ought to strip down to nothing,” the woman groused. “It’s protocol.”