Chapter 34 Clarice
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.
“What is this?” Clarice demanded. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Veronica hesitated. “You know about shifters?”
“Well, I do now. I thought you were convinced they were some kind of witchcraft cult.”
“I was at first. They’re…not.”
“Clearly.” Clarice didn’t mean to sound snappish, but figured she had every right to.
“Owen wanted revenge on his ex-girlfriend, and when he figured out what she was, he teamed up with an unscrupulous gene company in Las Vegas that is trying to unlock the secrets of shifters. You may have heard of them, Stork Inc.”
Clarice had seen their commercials, pulling at heartstrings with pictures of children with shaved heads and brave smiles, little hands with IVs and stuffies. “Yeah, I’ve heard of them. Does Hunter work for them?”
“Hunter’s new on the scene. I guess Owen told him about me? He’s been trying to use me to get access to Tiny Paws and will not take no for an answer. He seems to have more of a personal vendetta.”
“And the wizards?”
Veronica laughed. “There are wizards now? What a circus.”
“So, how did you fall in with these fine people?” Clarice asked numbly. “Why would you go along with them?”
“Money,” Veronica said frankly. “Look, it was the cliquish little shifter community that was hellbent on running me out of business. I thought I was protecting my interests, and I didn’t know that the Stork crew was after kids when I agreed to snoop for them.”
“You were snooping on a day care,” Clarice pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean I thought they were going to be kidnapping children. Grown ups work there, you know, and I was told some awful things about some of them. I thought I would be protecting the kids.”
“What awful things?”
“It doesn’t matter. It was just a jealous ex-boyfriend and a gene company with an agenda. I don’t know what was the truth and what wasn’t, but I was a pawn, and now I’m pissed. I’ve been trying to get out of all of it, and I knew it was going sideways when they started talking to each other.”
“So you set me up?” Outrage parted Clarice’s fog.
“I swear I didn’t. This has gotten way out of hand, but I wouldn’t have deliberately sent you to spring a trap set for me.
I thought it was a legitimate booking, and you were right about not letting you have the best jobs.
I’ve been so busy climbing out of this financial hole that I wasn’t being a very good friend.
I took the best sales because I was desperate, and you deserved better.
Look, I can be a self-centered jerk, but I never meant for you to get caught up on any of my mess. ”
Clarice set her jaw, nowhere near ready to forgive Veronica and not entirely sure she should believe her.
“Well, honestly, it doesn’t help a lot. They killed Bruno.
” Her breath hitched. “They’re after his son.
This is more than being a self-centered jerk.
This is endangering little kids. It’s inexcusable. ”
“I didn’t know,” Veronica said. “I know that doesn’t make it okay, but I didn’t know.”
“So, what are we going to do about it?” Clarice challenged. It didn’t matter what Veronica’s motivations were, the outcome was awful. Bruno was dead and Tiny Paws was their next target.
“I’ve got an idea,” Veronica said. “Go along with whatever I say.”
“Why should I trust you?” Clarice demanded. “You lied to me about being poor and going to the prom in a homemade dress! What else have you lied about?”
“Plenty,” Veronica said unexpectedly. “You don’t sell expensive houses if people think you’re poor. I used a PR company that fixes reputations. My family didn’t want me any more than I wanted them, so I invented a past that looked good on social media.”
“Your country singer boyfriend…?”
“He was real,” Veronica said sourly. “I learned a lot from him about fame and fortune, and how fragile it can be.”
Clarice struggled to remember Veronica’s other sins. “Did you bug the pens you gave me?”
“Bug them?”
“You gave them to me out of the blue and told me to give one to Bruno. It seemed weird.”
“I had a sample credit with the company that does my pens that was going to expire and I thought it would be a nice thing for you to have.”
“Did you bug the day care?”
“Of course not! I was—”
The opening of the van door cut Veronica’s protest short.
“Where are we going?” the driver asked from the front of the van.
“The fucking pelicans are saying we have to do a daylight raid right now, because too many fucking people know and they’re going to close the day care permanently if we wait and then we’d be chasing them all over the fucking town one at a time. This is the best way to get them all at once.”
“They’ve got an agent working at the day care,” another voice warned.
“Files say he’s not regularly armed.”
“Fucking shifters don’t fucking have to be.”
“They’re not fucking bulletproof. Hunter says these darts will drop a shifter.”
“You ever tried to shoot a fucking raven that’s flying at your face?”
The swearing was starting to numb in Clarice’s ears.
“I can get you in,” Veronica said, her voice ringing steady and clear over the others. “I’ve got the keycode for the alarm and an emergency key. It doesn’t have to be a raid; you can just walk right in and take what you’re looking for.”
The van silenced, as if they had forgotten about Veronica and Clarice in the back.
“You told Hunter you couldn’t—”
“Hunter’s an idiot, but I’m ready to cooperate with you,” Veronica said sweetly. “I have a condition.”
“Sure, sister, let’s hear your terms.” Clarice was pretty sure they were patronizing her.
“Let Clarice go.”
There was a moment of silence. Clarice held her breath.
“She’s dating one of them—”
“Hunter said to—”
“Fuck Hunter,” the driver said. “The storks are paying our bills, and they didn’t say how to do the job. We leave her here, you get us in.”
“That’s the deal,” Veronica said. How could she sound so calm and collected, like she was driving a simple bargain for final repairs before closing costs? Clarice’s heart was hammering in her ears like the sea. “She’d only get in our way.”
“Veronica, you can’t—”
Veronica’s elbow found Clarice’s side. “Screw shifters. I hope you capture every one of them and lock them in cages like they deserve. But Clarice is just a human, and I like her. I don’t want to have to train another assistant. Let her go and I’ll help you.”
The conversation in the front went to a hushed, hurried debate, punctuated with more swearing that was the only part Clarice could make out. She was shaking and having trouble breathing in her hood. Veronica’s hand found her knee and squeezed. Was it part of her act? How was it so convincing?
“Veronica, I—”
“We’re just going to get rid of a scourge and clean up Nickel City.
They aren’t even kids, they’re just animals.
” Veronica managed to make it sound like she’d just found something unsavory at the bottom of her shoes.
“I’m doing the town a favor. They should give me the keys to the city.
Will you please stop leaning on me, Clarice?
This skirt is a Chanel. Vintage Chanel, from before they sold out and went mass market. ”
“We’ll need the space in here for the kids, boss. Storks are paying for any we can get.”
“Let’s do it. We’ve got the tranqs, but we’ll need to stop at the hotel and change into something less conspicuous if we’re going downtown.”
There was a rustle and someone took Clarice by the arm and dragged her to her feet, not careful about bumping her off the seats as they pulled her to the open side door.
“Be sure to untie her!” Veronica sang, as if she was merely directing someone to make coffee correctly.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” the driver growled. “I don’t need her warning the day care before we get there. I only said I’d let her go, I didn’t say I’d let her stop us. We’ve got her phone and car keys?”
“Yeah, I got them earlier.”
Clarice was dragged out of the van and her zip tie cuffs were pulled tighter, cutting into her skin.
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked plaintively.
“I’ll freeze to death out here!” Did it matter?
Bruno was dead and Tiny Paws was going to be taken down.
Poor Gil! Fatherless now and stuffed in a cage to be studied.
“Not my problem,” the nearest goon scoffed.
He shoved her. Clarice, her hands tight together, her head still swaddled in the stinky stocking cap, couldn’t catch herself, so she tumbled face down into cold, packed snow, tasting blood when she bit her lip.
The van door slammed again and the tires squealed as it drove so close to her that Clarice was sure they were going to run her down despite their promise to Veronica and she could only curl into a ball and wait for death.