I gasped and spun away. Vomit gurgled in my stomach. I fought to hold it down. I bolted to the kitchen and clutched the sink like it was a buoy thrown out to save me. My chest heaved, my head throbbed, saliva flooded my mouth. I swallowed it back down and stared out the window, trying to distract my mind. A crow landed on the limb of a large oak tree and bounced along its branches. The crow grew bored and, with a couple of long, drawn-out caws, it flew off.
I grabbed a glass of water and sculled it down. Taking a few heaping breaths I went back into the living room.
Karson gave me a condescending ‘I told you so’ look.
I muttered under my breath, “Careful, your face is calling my palm.”
He chuckled. Arrogant prick. I sat on the couch. I figured I didn’t need to see anything else, hearing it would suffice.
Darcy was speaking fast. Everything he said flew like a kite on a windy day and went completely over my head. To say I was not tech savvy was an understatement. I got up and poked at the fire, the flames leap and roared to life. I sat back down, listening to the soothing, crackling sound, watching the orange flames lick at the wood like a ravenous child consumes an ice cream.
“Okay, I’m in,” Darcy said. There was a short silence and then he read, “They were hired by Cole for security detail initially, re-hired again by Cole—it’s all coded but essentially the package they talk about would be Amy. They were meant to bring her unharmed to a point just out of town.”
“Hired by Cole. Are you sure, Darcy? It was a woman who answered the phone,” I said, twisting toward him, trying not tolook at the thumbs seated like fallen, roughly sawn tree stumps and the one blind eyeball perfectly spaced apart in order of size on the table. To Darcy, arranging people’s missing phalanges was as important as spacing his, red, black, and blue pens.
He popped his head up at an angle, as if considering, his blue eyes glassy from staring at the screen. “The email is from Cole, but it might have been hacked to make it look like it was from him. If someone knew he’d used them before, and didn’t want any link to themselves, it’s easily done.”
Ethan scowled. “Or it could be him, Amy. He wasn’t exactly happy with us in the diner.”
He had a point. We’d pretty much accused him of murdering Katrina and Robert. But why leave it so long? Wouldn’t he want to stamp out the threat immediately? And why target just me, and not Ethan as well? He couldn’t know what Ethan was, surely? But the message did state to make sure I wasn’t around Karson or Ethan, so maybe he did . . . or someone did.
A chill rose on the back of my neck.
“Can you cancel the order from Cole the same way?” Ethan asked Darcy.
Darcy nodded. “Yeah, easy, but if they find out you killed their mates, they won’t need an order from Cole to come looking for you.”
Karson said, “There won’t be any of that gang left to come looking after tonight.”
Darcy grinned with all the excitement of a five-year-old. “How exciting, can I come?”
“No.” Ethan touched his shoulder briefly. “You are a big help, doing what you’re doing. We need you to keep an eye on the emails, make sure no more harm is directed to Amy, no one else can do that.”
Darcy nodded, happy with Ethan’s response.
He spent the next hour or so reading through emails, we never got much more information other than they were paid ten grand in cash. The money was left in a bag outside their premises so they never saw who was paying them.
We were no closer to knowing who the woman on the phone was. I was sure from the anger in her voice she knew Karson. She wasn’t witch, nor a vampire, or she would have done it herself. There was no way a vampire would allow a mere human to do their work. A vampire could have me dead before I even opened my mouth to scream. She was most likely just a human. A pissed-off human.
I asked the question that had stirred in the back of my mind since last night. “Is there an ex-girlfriend, or someone you’ve hurt who might want revenge, maybe thought we were still together?”
His face showed darkness and perplexity. “No, I do not have girlfriends, Amelia. Any relations I have are purely non-committal, mutually-beneficial understandings.”
I couldn’t help the bitterness that flew from my mouth or the heat that soared. My hand flew off to the side like a goose flaps its wing in warning.
“That’s good to know, Karson. Did you stop to consider that maybe not all your mutually-beneficial understandings get that memo?”
Out of the corner of my eye I caught the blur of movement before I could process what it was, the sounds of glass shattering stung the air, tiny opaque fragments splintered all over the floor. Startled, I stared at it for a moment, before realising that I was the cause. One of Ethan’s favourite whisky glasses lay in ruins. I bit my lip, and shot a quick glance at Ethan. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to, his angst was written all over his face.
I mumbled, “Sorry.”
“I don’t know much about women, Karson,” Darcy said, “but I’m confident enough to proclaim Amy didn’t get that memo, and she’s not particularly impressed with the declaration.” He went back to reading through the phone.
Ethan grimaced.
Karson scowled at the top of Darcy’s head, his mouth pulled into a thin line, but he remained quiet.
I went to the kitchen and grabbed the dustpan and broom. I came back to the room.
