J Ward - Crave

Although she handled it with the tissue, Isaac took the thing with his bare hands. Guess fingerprints were a nonissue to him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Something for me.”

“Wait-”

As he shoved it into his pocket, he talked over her objection. “If I want to turn myself in, all I have to do is hit the button and tell them where to find me. It’s got nothing to do with you.”

Give himself over to that man? “What happens then?” she asked tightly. “What happens if you…”

She couldn’t finish. And he didn’t answer.

Which told her everything she needed to know, didn’t it-

At that moment, the front door unlocked and opened, the sounds of keys and footsteps echoing down the hall as the security alarm was turned off by someone else.

“My father!” she hissed.

Jumping up, she tried to straighten her clothes-oh, God, her hair was a wreck.

The wineglass. Shit.

“Grier?” came that familiar voice from the front of the house.

Oh, damn, Isaac really didn’t need to meet what was left of her family right now.

“Quick, you have to-” When she looked back, he was gone.

Okay, usually, she was frustrated by his ghost routine. At the moment, it was a godsend.

Moving fast, she flipped on the lights, grabbed a roll of paper towels, and headed for the mess on the floor and wall.

“In here!” she replied.

As her father came into the room, she noticed he’d changed into his casual uniform of a cashmere sweater and pressed slacks. His face, however, was anything but easygoing: Stark and cold, he looked as he did when he faced an opponent in court.

“I received notification that the fire alarm went off,” he said.

Undoubtedly he had, but he’d probably been on his way over here anyway: His house was out in Lincoln-no way he could get to Beacon Hill this fast.

Thank God he hadn’t gotten here ten minutes earlier, she thought.

To keep her blush out of the sight, she concentrated on picking up the sharp shards. “I burned an omelet.”

When her father didn’t say anything else, she stared over at him. “What.”

“Where is he, Grier. Tell me where Isaac Rothe is.”

A sliver of fear trickled down her spine and landed in her gut like a rock. His expression was so ruthless, she was willing to bet her life on the fact that the pair of them were on opposite sides of the table when it came to her client.

Houseguest.

Lover.

Whatever Isaac was to her.

“Ouch!” She brought up her hand. A piece of glass was sticking straight out of the pad of her forefinger, her blood bright red as it pooled into a fat, welling drop.

As she headed over to the sink, she felt the presence of her father across the kitchen like a gun pointed at her back.

He didn’t even ask how badly she’d hurt herself.

All he did was say once again: “Tell me where Isaac Rothe is.”

Back in Caldwell, inside the funeral home, Jim was an old pro at the McCready floor plan and he worked his way down to the basement on quick feet. When he got to the embalming room, he walked through the closed doors… and all but skidded to a halt when he came out on the other side.

He hadn’t realized until now that he never expected to see his old boss again face-to-face.

And yet there Matthias was, across the way at the refrigerator units, looking at the nameplates on the latched doors just as Jim had done night before last. Shit, the guy was frail, that once tall, robust body now angled over his cane, the previously black hair showing gray at the temples. The eye patch was still where it had been after the initial round of surgeries-there had been hope that the damage wasn’t permanent, but clearly that had not been the case.

Matthias stopped, leaned in as if to double-check, and then unlatched a door, braced himself against his cane, and pulled a slab out of the wall.

Jim knew it was the right body: From under the thin sheet, the summoning spell was at work, the pale phosphorescent glow bleeding through and glowing like his corpse was radioactive.

As Jim walked over to stand on the other side of his remains, he wasn’t fooled by the fact that Matthias seemed to have wilted around his skeleton and was relying on the cane even as he stood without moving: The man was still a formidable, unpredictable opponent. After all, his mind and his soul had been the drivers of all those bad deeds, and until you were in your grave, they were with you wherever you went.

Lifting a hand, Matthias pulled the sheet back from Jim’s face and laid the hem with curious care on his chest. Then, with a wince, the guy gripped his left arm and massaged as if something hurt.

“Look at you, Jim.” As Jim stared at the guy,he reveled in the instability he was about to create. Who knew being dead would be so useful?

On a shimmer, he revealed himself. “Surprise.”

Matthias’s head jerked up-and to give him credit, he didn’t even flinch. There was no jump back, no flap of hands, not even a change in breathing. But then again, he probably would have been more surprised if Jim hadn’t made an appearance: The currency of trade in XOps was the impossible and unexplained.

“How did you manage this.” Matthias smiled a little as he nodded down at the body. “The match is uncanny.”

“It’s a miracle,” Jim drawled.

“So you were just waiting for me to show up? Wanted a reunion?”

“I want to talk about Isaac.”

“Rothe?” Matthias’s one eyebrow lifted. “You’re past your deadline. You were supposed to kill him yesterday-which means tonight we don’t have anything to say to each other about that. We do have business, however.”

So not a surprise that Matthias outed an autoloader and pointed it squarely at Jim’s chest.

Jim smiled coldly. And it so wasn’t hard to imagine that Devina had taken this man over and was using him as a walking, talking weapon in her bid to get Isaac. The question was how to disarm her nasty little puppet, and the answer was easy.

The mind… as Matthias had always said, the mind was the most powerful force for and against someone.

Jim leaned forward over his corpse until the muzzle was all but kissing his sternum. “So pull the trigger.”

“You’re wearing a vest, are you?” Matthias twisted his wrist so that the weapon pivoted and made a little knot out of Jim’s black T-shirt. “Helluva lot of faith you’re putting in it.”

“Why are you still talking.” Jim braced his palms on the cold steel table. “Pull the trigger. Do it. Pull it.”

He was well aware he was creating a problem for himself: If Matthias popped him, and he didn’t pull the standard-issue drop-and-flop that humans did, there was going to be hell to pay on the holy-shit front. But it was worth it just to see-

The gun went off, the bullet shot out… and the wall behind Jim ate the lead. As the ringing sound echoed around the tiled room, rank confusion flickered over the cruel mask of Matthias’s face… and Jim felt a fuckload of pure triumph.

“I want you to leave Isaac alone,” Jim said. “He’s mine.”

The sense that he was bartering with Devina over the guy’s soul was so strong it was like he’d been destined to have this moment with his former boss… as if the sole reason he’d dragged the bastard out of that sandy hellhole and risked his own life to get him to a clinic had been for this conversation, this negotiation, this exchange.

And the feeling got even sharper as Matthias balanced on his cane and eased forward to put the business end of that gun right back against Jim’s chest.

“The definition of insanity,” Jim murmured, “is doing the same thing over again and expecting a-”