“His son’s an armadillo,” one of the gray-coated men said. How much did these people know?
“That doesn’t meanheis.”
“Can you get it out of her?” Hunter asked the woman who had pushed Bruno over the edge without touching him.
Grandma gave him a disgusted eye roll. “Your ignorance is showing. Anyway, I thoughtyouwere the information expert. I’m beginning to doubt this partnership is an equal one.”
“Magic is one thing,” Hunter said dangerously. “Money is quite another.”
“This is pointless,” Grandpa said flatly. “That man is not a problem any longer.”
Because he wasdead. The mercenaries were still watching the broken surface of the pool and Bruno hadn’t surfaced. No one could hold their breath that long. Nothing could. Clarice’s chest ached and she realized that at some point she had started crying; tears were tickling her cheeks and clouding vision that was already swimming. Had the blast killed him, or knocked him unconscious so that he drowned? Had one of the shots gotten lucky? It was bitterly cold. Maybe theshockhad killed him.
“This woman is useless,” the Grandma. “Can we get rid of her, too?”
“I don’t think she’suseless,” Hunter said with a thoughtful frown.
Clarice felt her heart do a sick flipflop as if it was far away. They were casually talking about her life, and she was sure she ought to be worried, but she felt sort of distant from her own self. Shock? Grief? It was still silent below them, no sounds of splashing or cracking ice, and Clarice’s hope that Bruno would miraculously surface and somehow dodge the bullets that would follow was getting slimmer as her stomach felt worse.
“We can use her to get into the day care. Even if she’s not the Chase woman, the dad came here for her, so they must have some kind of connection.”
Every time that Clarice thought things couldn’t get worse, they managed to. Were they going to useherto get toGil? She had to protect the boy, and the purpose gave her welcome clarity. “What do you think I can do?” Her voice wavered, which Clarice thought was understandable, given the circumstances. “And what do you want with Gil and Tara? They’re justkids!” Did these people have any humanity to appeal to? No one seemed very bothered that Bruno was dead.
“Look, Veronica, you don’t need?—”
“I’mnotVeronica Chase!” Clarice wept.
“She’s not Veronica Chase,” a familiar voice said. “I am.”
Clarice couldn’t decide if she was mad or just relieved to see Veronica sailing up the stairs with a goon scrambling behind her trying to look like he was in control. “I told you!”
Probably, rubbing it in was not the most diplomatic move Clarice could have made.
“You must be Hunter,” Veronica said, in her coldest freeze-them-out voice. She usually saved that one for inspectors bringing her bad news and banks that were being difficult. “I told you I was not interested in pursuing an association after I sent Owen packing.” She raked Hunter with a head-to-toe look that was thoroughly unimpressed. Her fur-trimmed, cream-colored coat made Clarice’s borrowed white one look shabby.
“Owen was under too much scrutiny to continue as a partner in our operations, so I found new ones.”
“Don’t presume,” the scary old woman who looked completely harmless and had thrown Bruno through a window scoffed. “We’re only in this as long as it is convenient to us.”
Veronica seemed to see them for the first time. “I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced. You are…?” She managed to sound perfectly polite and yet completely condescending.
“Will you do something with them?” Grandma ignored Veronica’s outstretched hand. “Or do I have to throw someone else off a balcony?”
34
CLARICE
After a brief, heated argument that Clarice couldn’t really make out over the rushing in her ears, Veronica and Clarice were manhandled back down the stairs, Veronica quite strident about how rough they were being. The mercenaries didn’t seem to have much pity for her.
Her senses seemed to shrink, and between shock, cold, and grief, Clarice was almost glad of the stocking cap that they pulled down over her face before they shoved her in the van next to Veronica.
“Are you okay?” Veronica was warm and solid next to her, even if she had never in a million years been someone Clarice would imagine being kidnapped with and pressed next to in the back seat of a van. The van door slammed and the conversation outside died to murmurs and distant shouts.
“Are they going to put seatbelts on us?” Clarice said plaintively. “It’s the law, you know. Not that it matters if we’re going to be killed anyway.”
“I didn’t mean to get you into this,” Veronica said quietly.
“Whatisthis?” Clarice demanded. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
