Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
“ C ome, sit down.” She gestured at one of the tables nearby, looking significantly at the bartender. Before she even glanced at the man working the room, he had ushered the other patrons out. They were complaining, mumbling to each other, but one look at the beefcake at the door and they let themselves be herded like cattle escaping the line to the slaughterhouse.
“Interesting place you have,” Cassander said. “What a gracious offer of hospitality.”
Iris shot him an odd look, her brows drawn together. “Sure. Welcome. Can I offer you a drink?”
Before she had even finished asking, the bartender was bringing over a tray of beers. He put one in front of each of us and retreated back behind the bar.
“Well, this is all very friendly for someone who kidnapped my niece and nephew.” I leaned back in the chair, casual grace, confidence in every line of my body.
Give them nothing , my mother’s voice whispered in my ear. You are always in charge. Don’t ever forget that.
“Don’t think of it as a kidnapping,” Iris said mildly. “Think of it as a way to get your attention.”
“Obviously, we are concerned for their safety. If we talk with you, can you promise you will let us see a sign of their continued safety?” Cassander’s voice was mild, but he steepled his hands in front of his chin, watching Iris as though her answer was critical.
“Sure.” She turned her gaze to me, cocking an eyebrow. “Who is this guy?”
“A friend,” I said.
“That’s a change for you. You don’t have friends .” Her lips barely moved, but I could feel the smile underneath them. “You just have people you manipulate into doing what you want, like that fool Betty Calf, always running around with you like a puppy.”
I relaxed my jaw, keeping my eyes soft. She was trying to put me off-balance, unnerve me. But there was nothing coming out of her mouth that I hadn’t already said to myself.
“I haven’t heard from you or your dad since I left town. What did I do to be on the Milner’s Most Wanted list?” I stopped there, waiting. Watching to see what she would give away.
She gave away absolutely nothing. Her expression remained mildly interested, her eyes fixed on mine, not widening or narrowing; her breathing stayed steady.
I reflected the calm back to her until we were an endless loop of it. Likely, we could have gone on like that forever.
The man behind the bar dropped a glass, and Iris turned, looking at him in annoyance.
It was the first sign of anything from her, and I read into it everything I could.
“It’s hard being on top. All these guys that used to follow your dad. I bet a fair share of them aren’t too happy he left you in the driver’s seat.” I leaned forward, and I had been mirroring her body language for so long that she found herself doing the same subconsciously, until we were both close enough that my next words could comfortably be a murmur. “Is it because you’re a woman? Or because they honestly believe you aren’t good enough for the job?”
Her whole face shut down, and if I had thought she was not giving me anything before, now she might as well have been carved from marble and installed at the Getty Museum.
But that was enough information in itself. So, there was some dissension among the ranks; she didn’t quite have the iron-fisted control that Milner Senior had. It still didn’t explain why she was after me unless she thought I had something she needed.
“I could help with that,” I offered. “What they had me doing in the military… well, let’s just say I have a certain set of skills, etc., etc. I can monologue like Sir Liam Neeson all day and mean every word.”
Her face darkened. No, wrong, but before I could pull back, she had already snapped, “I can deal with my own house.”
I held up both hands before settling into the same position as her, mirroring her until I could see the slight relaxation at the edge of her eyes.
“So, what did I do to deserve your undivided attention and the nice bounty you put out on me?”
Iris laced her fingers over her stomach. Her father used to sit like that, and I wondered if it was a genetic thing or if she had learned it by mimicking him over and over again until it was second nature.
I waited; she waited. This was going to go on for a while, and none of it would get the kids back.
“It’s almost better that you don’t know why.” Iris’s lips pulled back in a smirk, her perfect lipstick glistening in the lighting. “I’m going to enjoy killing you.”
“Yeah, I hear that a lot. It rarely takes. Especially because by the time you finish monologuing, we’ve already done this.” I pulled the remote from inside my jacket and pressed the button.
At the door, there was an explosion that rattled the windows. Beefcake shrieked in pain, and the bartender threw himself down on the ground. The back door slammed open, and men poured inside, two, four, five. That would be almost everyone from the back, giving my sister and Leonard exactly enough time to check the cells.
My ears rang, and I could see everyone’s mouths moving, smell the smoke, and feel the heat at my back. But everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. By the time I stood, Cassander was already on his feet, Iris half the room away, grabbing the fire extinguisher off the wall and spraying down what was left of the guitar case and table I’d tucked it under.
What happened when you put firecrackers inside a guitar case and wired it to go boom on command? A very loud and smokey bang. Also, apparently, an IED, which shattered half the windows and left smoke pouring out of the building.
Turning, I caught sight of my chair. There was a triangular piece of plastic embedded in the back, right where my spine was. If it had hit three inches higher, I would have been paralyzed or dead.
I stuck my hand in my pocket, feeling for the coin, running my finger over the smooth, carved pictures. Cassander looked at me, brows drawn together, frowning unhappily, and I waved him off.
Gesturing to my ear, I shrugged and lifted a hand, silently asking if he could hear. He nodded, and I was grateful at least one of us could. Now, we just needed to get out.
I stepped back, searching for the emergency exit. There were two men between us and the glowing green sign. Iris shouted, her words muffled in my ears as she directed the bartender to grab another fire extinguisher. The other employees came to life, one grabbing a towel to smother the fire flickering to life on one of the nearby tables. Another ran behind the bar for a pitcher of water.
Slowly, I shifted my weight, then moved toward the emergency exit, trying for casual, waving my hand in front of my face and blinking, coughing as though I couldn’t breathe.
Cassander followed me, less obvious, and he seemed to melt into the shadows, his expression chilly as he looked around the room. The Click and Clack needed a distraction, but the guitar case full of firecrackers had been more destructive than I intended.
Just as we reached the emergency exit, I heard a distinctive click. One of the guys from the back had pulled a gun, aiming it at me before moving to Cassander and back. His eyes were wide, and he seemed young. He was probably only a year or two out of high school, meaning that he was someone Iris had brought on after her father left. She needed people loyal to her, and the only way to guarantee that was to recruit babies.
I glared at him, threat in every line of my body, but it was too late. He wet his lips, ready to call out, but Iris was already there. She strode across the room, her cowboy boots clicking on the wood floor. Most of the smoke in the room was pouring out into the street, but enough lingered in the air that it flowed around her like she was the main character in a Michael Bay movie.
She crossed her arms, not saying anything, and if we were playing the silent game, I could play that all day. I smirked, keeping one hand in my pocket, rubbing my finger over the coin until my heart rate was almost back at resting.
Finally, she pulled her lips back from her teeth. “Not very friendly of you, bringing a bomb into my place of business.”
“Don’t think of it as a bomb. Think of it as a way to get your attention.” My lips twisted as I saw her displeasure.
She opened her hand, and her employee immediately handed over the weapon. His shoulders dropped, his breathing evening out. Oh. She hadn’t wanted control of the situation. She had known that he’d never killed anyone and didn’t want to see if he would choke when she asked him to murder us dead.
With the barrel of the gun, she gestured toward one of the tables in the back of the room that had been undisturbed by the explosion.
“We don’t have much time,” I pointed out. “Even without anyone in the stores on either side of you, someone had to have heard that explosion, seen the smoke. The fire department is on the way, police probably.”
“Are you encouraging me to kill you fast?” Iris asked.
“I’m pointing out that an explosion by itself is one thing. An explosion with two dead bodies is another.” I pointed as another small fire started on the towel one of her employees had been using to put out the first fire. “Do you want to handle that?”
Iris stared at me, her eyes tracing from my hair all the way down to my hands resting on the table in front of me.
“All this work you do, Damian. All the people you pretend to be. Do you even know who you are anymore?” Her words were incisive, and something in them made me shiver.
As far as Desert Flower knew, I had disappeared at eighteen into the military. No one should have known about me getting recruited by the SPA or the undercover work I did.
“I know who I am. I still don’t know why you’re interested in me or my family.” I waited before leaning one shoulder back, letting my breathing match hers. It was slow, as though she was the most relaxed a person could be short of falling asleep.
The air got smoky as the fire grew, and for a second, I was sure that Iris was glowing. Her eyes flashed, and she showed a sharp-toothed smile.
Then she turned her head. “Get that fire out .”
As though she had magic, the bartender used another blast from the fire extinguisher, and the flames subsided. Almost immediately, the air began to clear.
“Damian, if I had to count the number of things I know and you don’t, I’d be out of all the fingers and toes in Desert Flower.” Iris grinned, and this time, her teeth looked normal. “Let’s put it this way: you messed up some plans I had, you made things harder than they needed to be, and now you’re paying the price.”
“I don’t want to contradict you, Iris,” I said. “But I haven’t done anything to you.”
My mouth was buying me time because everything in her body language screamed confident ; it screamed that she was right and I was wrong, and I’d done something to her.
“This is getting us nowhere. Take them through the back.” Iris turned her head to speak to her nearest lackey. “Put them in the car, and then let the fire department know they can move in.”
Internally, I swore. No. No. I needed to make sure that Candace had enough time to get the kids out. I needed to make sure that Betty had taken one look at the destroyed pool hall and had gotten the hell out of dodge with the kids and Candy.
“You have the fire department under your thumb?” I asked. “Why not the cops?”
“We have most of the cops.” She raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to test your theory that it’s easier to explain an explosion than a dead body?”
“But not all the cops,” I said. Officer Choi, with his handsome good looks and sharp eyes, would be above her touch. “Which means it’s a gamble. Who picks up the call once the fire department reports the dead bodies? You sure it’ll be someone under your control?”
“Take them out back,” Iris snarled. “I’m going to show you exactly how much I like your smart mouth.”
“You haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain,” Cassander said.
His words were so mild that I wasn’t sure Iris had even heard them. I barely heard them over the ringing in my ears.
Her face pinched in irritation, Iris said, “What?”
“The bargain we made. If we talked, you would show us proof of the children’s continued well-being.” Cassander raised both eyebrows, his tone still mild, as though the room hadn’t almost gone up in flames, as though Iris wasn’t explaining exactly how she planned to kill us.
“You can see them on your way out.” Iris put the gun on the table, facing Cassander. “Move.”
“Not until I see proof of your good faith,” Cassander said.
“I can make you move,” Iris said. “I don’t need your help dragging your body.”
“But it sure is easier if we walk out of here on our own. Dead bodies always weigh more than you think they will, and I can promise at least two of these guys don’t get squeamish about torture, but they don’t like corpses.” I looked around the room, reading as though my life depended on it because it did. “Him and him. He’s going to lose his lunch, he’s going to faint, and then you have four bodies to deal with.”
Iris turned to look at the two I’d pointed out, her expression deeply annoyed. “Really?”
The two men blushed, both turning away, growling, of course not, no, I’m not like that.
“I think the lady protests too much, don’t you?” I said. “Just show me the kids are okay. Consider it a last request.”
“And the answer to our bargain,” Cassander said.
“This is going to be a whole thing, isn’t it?” Iris said. “Fine. Get the kids.”
One of her lackeys jerked the back door open, and I could hear him running down the hallway. When he came back, his footsteps were slower.
“Uh, Milner, the kids are gone.”
“The what ?” Iris’s gaze went feral, and she swung to face me, raising her gun.
Time slowed, and I moved out of the way, but Cassander was faster.
“You haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain,” he said.
Finally, finally , my ears cleared enough to hear the sirens in the distance. Maybe Officer Choi would save the day, and then he and Betty could role-play bounce house to their hearts’ content.
“What?” Iris swung her gun to face him, but Cassander was smiling.
“We made a deal, and now I will take my due.” Cassander stood.
The entire building collapsed around us.