CHAPTER TWENTY ONE


The gun was of alien material. It wasn't right and it wasn't meant for me. I
knew all that, felt all that, and yet my hand still reached for the proffered
gauntlet.


I already had my own, left by his thoughts, and yet I still reached for what
he extended.


"Are you sure?" I asked, serious, as I tucked the gun into my back pants. It
added a coldness against my flushed back, but it wasn't refreshing.


It was unwelcoming.


"Are you kidding me?" Jace only asked as he turned his back and left for the
car.


I had to give the man his do.


He'd earned his bonus defeating points with that command.


It was a test. It would divide the stakes, no matter what bank I really stood
upon, and it'd tell him what I was really capable.


If I had been lying, if I'd been merely extending an actual con—it was a play
of genius by Jace. He knew that and I was really the fool to think he'd 'bought'
my reasons from before.


They stood groundless. He'd seen that, but he waited for the right moment to
test what ground they actually stood upon. Rock or beach. It was an age-old
bible story. Should I build a house on the beach or upon the farther rocks? The
wise man went for the rocks while the foolish sought out the beach.


The foolish ended up homeless while the wise nestled in warmth and fire.


I sighed, resolved to my fate, and I walked with the gun at my backside as I
sat in the seat across from my fate's decider.


Jace glanced one measuring look and my heart pounded twice in that space of
time before he turned back to the wheel and moved the car onto the road.


No word was spoken, but I had my beating heart for conversation. I could hear
nothing above it.


We drove to a hotel that looked like one that Marcus would've stayed in and
chosen.


"How'd you find him last night?" I asked.


Jace stretched a lounging arm against the back and replied, lazily, "Happened
upon." He smiled at the end.


Asshole.


"I was with Marcus for—"


"Five years. You've already said that." Jace interrupted me.


"Then maybe you should shut up and listen to me? I think I've earned that
right—"


"You haven't earned anything."


Being smug was the best revenge and I said extremely smug, "Found you, didn't
I?"


Jace laughed and shook his head. "You're such a bitch."


"Yeah, well…" I eyed the hotel and murmured underneath my breath, "I'm a
classy bitch."


Jace clamped his mouth shut, but a moment later he remarked, "Gravon works
for Marcus. Either way—we can't afford having him here."


"Killing Gravon will ensure Marcus coming here." I promised.


Jace said nothing and I asked, --I had to ask—, "Or is that what you
want?"


Jace watched me, cautiously.


"You haven't been real open and honest with me. Maybe you want Marcus here.
Maybe you're after Marcus now…maybe I'm your golden ticket to Marcus."


Jace still said nothing.


I had realized, among my short time with him, that he never said the untruth,
unless he was backed in a corner. He told the truth, but I just needed to
decipher it right. Taunts, jeers, absolute denials—that wasn't Jace and it
wasn't me, unless I was backed to a corner with no other way out. Then I'd do
all three of them at the same time and still smile my victorious escape as I
walked passed. Being a con and throwing a con had rules, some rules that were
flexible and could be bent over backwards, but figuring out when those rules
weren't bent was the real genius in reading a con.


I was starting to read Jace, but just a little bit.


"I'm right, aren't I?" I said to the hotel, hoarse. "You want Marcus."


The hotel didn't answer back.


Jace said quietly, "Yes."


"Why?"


"Because he's running Galverson's empire and I want to know why."


I could tell him why, but I didn't. I kept that secret and so many others
quiet. I'd die with them, if need be.


"Were you ordered to do this?" I asked and watched his side-profile. "Is this
a job for you?"


"It's business and personal." Jace answered swiftly as he turned and met my
gaze.


My breath held at his eyes. They pierced straight through me and my heart
ceased to pound underneath his scrutiny.


"What do you mean?"


"Galverson ripped away my family. I tore him apart and a part of him still
surives—I want it gone." Jace spelled it out, ruthlessly.


Hallowly, I remarked, "All those girls that you fuck, do they know who shares
their bed at night?"


Jace's eyes whipped to a sharp alarm that I'd never seen before. They almost
glittered from their sharp attentive rasp.


I added, nearly stricken, "You're quite beautiful, you know. Do they realize
whose prick is going into them? Maybe they should pray homage to your dick
before they touch it."


"Is that what you think?" He asked.


I felt the car's door behind my back.


Jace continued, "That I'm some ego maniac monster?"


"Pretty words…"


"Shut up." He cried out, incredulous. "What is your problem, exactly?"


"What do you mean?"


"Spell it out for me, for an ego maniac monster."


"Beside the fact that you want me to kill someone I care about?" I laughed a
hollow laugh.


I didn't even notice the sudden stillness of his features until he murmured,
quietly, "You care about him?"


"About Gravon?" I had ceased caring which battle I contended with. I answered
honestly.


"Does that need to be answered?" Jace bit out.


I answered without even realizing his response. "Yes. I care about him. I
like him."


Jace didn't say a word.


"Don't tell me that, in all of your time undercover, that you didn't come to
care—even one iota—about someone in that life?" I asked, more to myself than
him.


Jace was silent—what a surprise, but I sighed and swallowed. The gun was held
tightly in my grasp and I murmured, "What does it matter, right? Gravon is
Marcus' best friend. He's going to do what Marcus wants, hell or high water. I
know Gravon and he might look like some sappy sumo-wrestler, but…he's all gooey
in some spots and others—he does what Marcus wants, 'hell or high water.'"


I shifted in my seat, lifted the gun, and reached for the doorhandle.


"I suppose…" And I opened the door and stood outside.


As I walked into the lounge, I tucked the gun behind my back leg and pulled
my jeans over to cover the slight bulge. It wasn't that I was expecting to get
frisked—they'd never touch Marcus' woman, but I felt the ultimate backstabber if
I held the gun in the small of my back. That thought ripped at me.


I was the snake.


I figured that Gravon would travel with some of their men. When we stayed in
hotels, Marcus always had two or three who did guarddog duty in the lounge.
There were a few in the hallway, but with Gravon—I figured he'd have one guy
guarddogging and the other would be watching movies and drinking beer with
him.


Gravon was never too worried about security.


I spotted Tim right away. He was just checking his watch as he stood up. I
flattened behind a coatrack, hid among the coats, and watched as he went to the
elevator and it stopped on the sixth floor.


From there, I took the stairs and I waited at the end of the hallway. I kept
inside the small stairwell, but I was able to look out and watch.


It was a ritzy hotel so long hallways were not a commodity.


The elevators had their own corner and the hallways splintered out from the
side. The stairs were tucked just behind one of the elevators, but it was neatly
hidden.


It didn't take long, but the second shift arrived. He was a new employee with
a clean buzz-cut hair that resembled more military than mafia security. I
gambled he wouldn't know me and slipped out the stairs. I pretended I'd arrived
on the wrong floor, huffed a few self-pitying remarks, and brushed against him
for the up arrow.


As the elevators opened and he stepped inside to go down, I waited and
checked for the elevators behind me.


His doors slid shut and I moved down the hall with his room-key in hand.


He'd figure it out immediately. I had no illusions about that. He was
professional and he worked for Marcus Mallon. He should be at the top of his
game and he'd know right away it was gone, who had taken it, and what that might
mean.


The elevator pinged it's arrival and I ducked into a cleaning closet that was
also camouflaged, just like the stairwell.


It was a five star hotel, they didn't like the guests to be reminded that
they slept not far from common cleaning chemicals. And only the exercise
fanatics would have the extra energy to seek out where the stairs were
located.


The hallways were in rich mahogany with golden strands interweaved along the
banisters. Every door opened underneath an archway of cupid angels that sparkled
gold, silver, and bourbon as they hid just behind solid clouds.


The hallways were gorgeous, but they just matched everything else. I hadn't
taken the time to notice the pond in the lobby. I hadn't noticed the giant
goldfish that matched the gold theme as their scales were black, white, silver,
and gold.


They were the golden fish of the gods.


And I didn't take the time to notice the smallest detail that had probably
been handpainted in the cupid angels. How one had a tummy that folded into
itself as the leg was just bent underneath the cloud's sheer cover. Another
cupid angel smiled with a dimple.


I doubted the guard that rushed past me and led me to Gravon's door had taken
the time to appreciation such detail as he pounded on the door and was let
inside.


Both of the guards that I assumed were with Gravon rushed back out a moment
later. They spanned out and quickly started searching for me. I saw the extra
bulge underneath the suits and wondered if they had chosen the Colt.45 or a
simple 9mm.


I skimmed the closet's interior and knew I'd be invisible if I could squeeze
between two shelves in the back corner.


I stood up on a turned cleaning bucket and loosened the lightbulb.


Just after I squeezed into my camouflaged spot, the door was wrenched open
and the lightswitch was flipped.


The guard cursed, considered what that might mean, but decided against his
time constraint and searched another closet.


I knew that if the new guy had checked my closet, he would've thoroughly
swept the inside with a flashlight.


Not Tim. Tim wasn't known for his clear-thinking skills. He rushed and
skimmed.


I'd gotten lucky and it hadn't been the first time for this forced
mission.


As the footsteps pounded into the distance, I stood now and heard the stair
doors clang shut as both guards now rushed to a floor above and one below.


I walked out into the hallway and slipped my key into the targeted door.


It gave me the green and I entered.


Gravon wasn't anywhere to be seen, but I hadn't expected that. He'd gotten a
suite and I walked out into the living room that cut off to a bedroom on the
left, a patio with it's own small pool straight ahead, and the kitchen with a
nook to my right.


I had moved a few feet inside when I turned around and stared into someone
unexpected.


Jace.


"What are you doing here?" I asked.


He'd gotten in when I'd still been hiding outside. That irked, but I tucked
it away with an easy shoulder roll. I had more difficult items to cross off the
list.


"I came to watch." Jace said smoothly and stepped back. He locked the door
and leaned his back against it.


A toilet flushed in the distance and as Gravon emerged with a yawn and
newspaper in hand, I glanced back behind and saw that Jace had disappeared. Once
again.


Gravon stopped in his tracks and the newspaper fell from his hand as his eyes
found me.


A fan was blowing in the bedroom and I saw it sweep the newspaper aside to a
forgotten corner.


"Hi…" Gravon breathed out.


He checked for a weapon and I winced at the jarring reminder of why I stood
there. I don't know if it cut worse—the fact that he felt he needed to reach
automatically for some defense or the fact that I really did have a purpose that
would warrant that action.


I'd been the fool so long ago.


I hadn't sought out the beach. Marcus wasn't the tempting beach, but when I'd
found myself stranded there, Gravon had been the rock that I'd retreated and
clung.


The sunlight reflected off his head and I grinned, "I'd forgotten how bald
you are."


Gravon chuckled at that and rubbed a hand over his shiny peak. "Yeah…bald is
bald. You should come around more. Maybe the baldness wouldn't be such a
surprise then, you'd be more accustomed."


"Look at you." I teased with a cracked smile. "Using big words such as
'accustomed' and 'baldness.'"


Gravon barked a laugh now. I caught the genuine sparkle of his appreciation
and he murmured, "It's good seeing you again."


I knew the weapon would come now. I was ready.


Something clicked inside of me.


I walked out towards the patio and stood above the small glimmering pool. It
really was amazing what luxuries money provided.


I remarked, casually, and Gravon stood in the doorway, at my back, "I always
noticed things like this." I indicated the pool and continued, "Marcus had the
money to make any girl's fairytale come true. He just didn't have the integrity
to make it real."


Their patio stood three floors above the hotel's pool. And just beyond lay a
mountainesque portrait. I knew that Gravon would've appreciated it if I'd been
along on the trip. I would've had him sit with me on the patio, enjoy a cup of
mocha, a blanket, and good conversation as he would've finally see the majestic
wonders of mother earth's coniferous pearls.


"You didn't come from money." Gravon nodded. "Marcus always knew that."


"I don't love him."


"I know." He sighed and I heard his deep breath sputter into a cough. He
pounded his chest and remarked as an apology, "Doc keeps telling me to lose
weight, but what the hell for?"


"I never loved him, Gravon."


"I know." He coughed again.


"I took the new guy's roomkey. I swiped it off him. Don't be mad at him."


"I'm not. Stirley's good. He came highly recommended."


I studied him and realized that he hadn't changed. Not a bit.


Gravon was still talking, "…his fault."


"What?"


"I said that it's not Stirley's fault. You're pretty damn good at what you
do. It's not his fault."


"Oh."


The clock moved slowly along.


I asked, "Does Marcus want me dead?"


"No. Why would you think that?"


"Because he killed my friend."


"Right. Zara, right?" He asked as if it were a reminded thought, forgotten
because it wasn't of importance. And it wasn't, that was the bitterness of this
world that Marcus ruled.


"Why are you here? Why'd he send you?"


"Because I got a soft spot in your heart." Even as he said it, he was already
laughing. "No, just kidding. You know Marcus, he thinks he's the only soft spot
in your heart."


"He didn't send you for me?"


"No." He blinked in surprise. "Is that what you thought? By hell—Marcus ain't
a fool. If he talked to you from here, he'd never consider that you would've
stayed put. You're a wanderer, you don't stick around too long."


"What?"


"You don't stick around in places unless you got a reason."


"What?"


"Yeah. You don't know that about yourself? You were always ready to travel
with us, even if Marcus was going or not. I noticed that about you. You'd go
somewhere, searching for something, and when whatever you wanted happened or if
some question was answered, you were ready to leave again. Made it damn annoying
for us to get work done sometimes because you'd be ready to leave within a day
whenever we got anywhere."


I smiled at the memory. "It only took me a day to see what I'd come to
see."


"Yeah. We all knew that." Gravon shook his bald head and asked, "What's
keeping you here?"


"Why are you here then?"


He acknowledged the evasiveness, but relented, "Business. Marcus has a
partnership here."


"With who?"


"No way, honey divine. You can know if you're back in. If you're not—you're
out and you get no company secrets. That's the rule. You know 'em as well as I
do."


The goodbye was nearing.


I felt it and I saw his hand reach for his weapon.


"You're not going to let me leave, are you?" I asked, with no reaction inside
anymore.


I felt the cut-off numbness creeping back in.


"Marcus wants you back, hell or high water, sweetness. Since I had the
fortune for you to walk into my suite, I'd be a fool not to jump on this
opportunity."


"I'm not a slave for Marcus to own. You can't 'keep me'"


His eyes sparked a ruthless sorrow as he replied, swiftly, "Do you not know
what Marcus really does for a living?"


I sighed and sat on a patio chair. I huddled against the back and hugged my
knees. The gun was within my grasp.


"I knew." I replied, my voice clear. "That's why I didn't love him."

Gravon frowned.


I continued, "I never loved him. I was with him because I needed to distract
him when Gabriella left. I knew she was going to leave. There was a boat in the
river. Gabriella had her bags already on it and she had just stepped off the
porch when Marcus left his office. He had his glass of brandy in his hand." He
always had his brandy on the porch. "He would've heard the boat's engine. So
I…"


I took the monsters out back and let them have their way while Lily slipped
away.


"I distracted Marcus so that Gabriella could leave. I knew she was going. I
helped her escape."


Gravon was completely still.


I met his gaze. "If you loved her as much as I thought you did, you should be
happy that she got away. She's safe."


If Gravon had a glass in his hand, it would've shattered in that moment.


A shout heard out from the hallway, but it was so distant and muffled.


I doubted Gravon heard it. He was held captive in the world of truth that I'd
just assaulted him.


I murmured, "You never asked why I came to see you today…"


Gravon heard those words and jerked out of his trance. Realization and alarm
broke forth and before his mouth opened to reply, the door burst open and Tim
hurdled into the room.


Gravon pulled his gun free and turned.


Jace stepped clear.


Gravon jerked in recognition, but Jace's gun shot twice. His bullets were
brisk and clean as Tim was shot to the ground. Gravon's obesity allowed him an
easy target, but Jace would've found the same mark if it were a string hanging
in the air.


Gravon's body crashed to the floor just as Stirley rounded the corner and
stopped short in the doorway.


Jace stood with his back turned and his eyes found mine intently.


I opened my mouth, for a warning, but it died down as Stirley did the
unexpected.


He walked inside and closed the door behind him.


Later I would realize that Jace had a silencer on his gun. The shots were
quiet pops instead of the law-heralding booms that amateurs used to show their
manliness.


Stirley cursed and ran a hand over his jaw. "Sorry about that. I thought the
idiot would stay around when I told him who I was. You know…most these guys are
self-indulgent pricks, only looking out for themselves. But, nope, Stunts just
took off running." He cursed again.


My hand had grasped the gun on my leg, but I let go and uncurled my legs. It
would've been a poetic end for Gravon. He would've been shot with the pool to
his back as I pulled the gun free from my leg. He wouldn't have even seen it if
I hadn't cleared it from underneath my bent knees.


It didn't end how I thought it was going to, but I didn't know if I was
relieved or furious.


"His name was Tim." I commented.


"Oh." Stirley stopped short. He'd bent down to frisk Tim's body, but he
straightened abruptly. "You're the girl that 'picced' me. Thanks."


"This might be another day in your life of treachery, but I'd come to care
about these guys. So show a little consideration."


Stirley frowned in Jace's direction, but saw his leader was staring
steadfastly towards me. His mouth closed and he moved around me as I walked
inside. As he dragged Gravon's body inside.


The body was heavy, but he didn't complain.


Jace asked, "You'll clean this up?"


"Yeah." Stirley stopped, frowned at me, but only said, "Cameras are out in
the left exit stairs. You can go out that way."


Jace nodded and I led the way.


He walked behind, silently, until we both got into the car.


I didn't say anything until he drove into a wooded area that reminded me of
the night we'd gone to murder Oscar.


He drove until we were nearing the same point of lost that had humbled me to
my knees that night.


The trees loomed high above, but they protected us against the sunlight.


The sun's sweltering beam was kept at a distance from the towering leafed
protectors, but I remembered how those same larger than life pines and
evergreens could also switch and become cold captors as they kept the moonlight
from lighting a trail at nighttime.


It was funny how they stood there, taller than life, and yet they had so much
power over everything smaller than them.


I would never have chosen the trees any other day than that day. On that day,
I sat sheltered in a car, but I would've chosen the wandering vulnerability of
being alone with those trees.


I looked at Jace and remarked, "You're not working alone, are you?"


"No."


"Why didn't you tell me?"


He waited a beat and then he said, "Because I didn't know if you were a gift
from God or if you were the poisoned apple."