Chapter Three
Getting dressed wasnow my least favorite thing. My ribs hurt after the shower, even with my muscles warm from the scorching water. Cold and grumpy, everything felt like it was breaking all over again.
I slipped into jeans and an oversized sweatshirt before heading out the door. Thankfully, my expired pain killers had already started working their way through my system. The jewelry dealer I planned to see only took meetings by appointment, but if I showed up scratching at his door, he would likely let me in.
When I hit the curb outside my apartment, I called for a car ride. The shop was only a couple miles north of me, but I didn’t want to hoof it all the way there in my condition. I didn’t want any witnesses to how far I’d fallen.
The car pulled up a couple of minutes after I called it. We sped uptown in record time. Upon arrival, I tipped the man with my app and climbed out mindful of my stiff muscles and aching ribcage.
The jewelry store fit in well with the other upscale shops along the block. With beautiful clean lines, shiny windows and over priced pieces.
I tapped on the glass door and waited, settling my hands into my pockets to keep them warm. After a few minutes, Abraham came to the door and gave me a puzzled look through the glass. I motioned at him to unlock it and let me in, which he did.
Once I stepped inside, he locked the door behind me and scanned me with a furrowed brow. “What are you doing here, Zoey?”
I shrugged and gave him a little smile. “Oh, you know, just getting an early start on my Christmas shopping.”
He wasn’t buying my shit. Not that he ever did.
I pulled the watch from my pocket and passed it to him. “I had something I wanted you to take a look at.”
He tugged his glasses from the top of his bald head and perched them on his nose. Then he examined the watch, turning it over in his hands a couple of inches in front of his face.
“Where did you get this?”
“Can I say no comment and get away with it?”
He narrowed his eyes at me over the watch and then resumed his study. “I don’t think I can help you.”
I huffed. “Okay, is it because I can’t tell you where I got it, or because you don't know what it is?”
He handed the watch back. “It’s not because of either of those things.”
I took the watch and carefully shoved it back in the large pocket in front of my hoodie. “Do you want to elaborate on that?”
He simply blinked at me then said, “No comment.”
Wow. This morning was off to a great start.
I gave him a nod and headed for the door. “Thanks for nothing, Abraham.”
I let myself out, and he locked the door solidly behind me. It sounded like an admonition.
Either he knew more than he wanted to share, or he knew nothing and didn’t want to get involved. Something told me it was the latter. Abraham liked to stay in his own little world, safe and secure.
I stood on the sidewalk and monitored the people passing. I needed to come up with a new plan.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I tugged it out to look at the screen. I ignored the tiny part of me that hoped it was Fin texting me.
Of course, it wasn’t. The message was from Abraham’s cell. Strange.
The text read ‘Call Alex’ with a phone number after it.
I turned to stare back into the shop window, but Abraham wasn’t within sight.
Okay, maybe I didn’t need a new plan.
I shot a quick text to thank him, then dialed the number and made an appointment. They could only see me tomorrow, which left me an entire afternoon stuck with my pain and my thoughts—both completely unacceptable.
There was one task on my to-do list I dreaded. Going back to the forest of my dreams... well, nightmares was probably a more accurate description.
But I might as well get it over with now, so I didn’t have to think about it again.
I opened another app on my phone and ordered a car rental for the day. I usually hated doing that because it cost a ridiculous amount of money, and Hawk always complained about it whenever I put it on an expense report.
After I picked up the car, I headed out to the forest that Fin and I had pretty much died in.
I didn’t let myself think about whether I was being an idiot or just extra thorough.
The car they gave me was a little four-door black sedan. It had excellent gas mileage, which I appreciated.
I focused on the road, the trees, the signs. Anything to keep my mind from drifting toward Fin or the Captain’s status.
I couldn’t believe Fin hadn’t texted me or called to let me know how the Captain was feeling. To be fair, maybe he didn’t want to talk to me just as much as I didn’t want to talk to him.
After a while, I turned on the radio, even though I hated listening to the news, but it gave me a way to engage my thoughts without having to actively shift them every few seconds.
It took three and a half hours to get to the forest. Definitely faster by that death machine helicopter. I parked in the same clearing where we all got our asses handed to us the previous night. Had it only been one night?
I was probably being stupid coming out here alone, unarmed. Injured. But I just knew I’d missed something. That there’d be a clue that would lead me to the next step. I had to find the Black Mage. And this was the place to look.
I climbed out of the car and peered around the trees. Definitely still had that same eerie ‘get under your skin’ quality as it usually did.
The air held a distinct chill. I marched across the clearing, scanning for any evidence of the fight that had occurred, but I spotted nothing. No weapons, no blood. Someone must have come out and cleaned up the scene.
Had it been Fin or the Black Mage’s men?
I took my time wandering around the edge of the tree line, inspecting the pine needles for anything that might have been missed. I found nothing. Whoever cleaned this place had been a professional. I almost owed them a sort of grudging respect, because I distinctly remembered a lot of blood.
On my second pass through the circle, the brush in the dense forest rustled.
Why the hell didn’t I think to bring any weapons with me? I blamed my pain level and two-year-old medication I probably shouldn’t have taken.
I pressed my back into a large tree. Its girth hid me from the view of anyone who might be coming up from behind. But if anybody veered off to one side or the other, they could see me in the periphery. The rustling continued, and I monitored it until it got closer. When the sounds grew near the clearing, I felt around on the ground near my feet for a branch or rock. All I caught were a handful of chunky pinecones.
Well, beggars can’t be choosers.
A figure cut across my vision to my left. I launched a pinecone, then bolted in the opposite direction. Hands clamped around my hips. I swung around to hit whoever grabbed me in the head.
Before I made contact, I stopped. Fin stared down at me, a red welt smack in the center of his forehead.
I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped. “I don’t know what to say. I’m definitely not apologizing. You should’ve dodged that.”
He tugged me in closer until I batted his hands on my hips away. “What are you doing here, Zoey?”
I narrowed my eyes. “If people stop asking me that, I’m gonna finally start feeling welcome.”
Confusion flashed in his eyes. “You should be at home getting the rest that you need. You’re still healing.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like I’m doing anything more strenuous than sitting on my ass for a really long car ride and taking a little walk in the woods.”
Whether I was home, or here, my ribs were gonna hurt. At least while I was doing something I was partially distracted.
“What if the Black Mage’s men came back? You didn’t even bring any weapons with you.”
I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Obviously, because I left my best weapons at your house. After you tried to hold me hostage.”
Something else flashed his eyes; it wasn’t anger, or fear. Guilt maybe?
“You're being dramatic.”
I blinked twice at him and then threw up my hands. “I have somewhere to be.”
I swung away from him and marched back towards my car. Three hours of driving and I spent five minutes in the place only to be confronted by the one man I wanted to avoid.
I climbed in the driver's seat and slammed the door. With a long sigh, I dropped my head against the seat headrest and closed my eyes. Why had he come here? I hadn’t been ready to see him yet.
He stood in the center of the clearing, hands crossed under his armpits, watching me in the car. His hair hung loose around his shoulders. He looked well rested and damn good.
I hated him for that. Especially when I looked like a hot mess.
After I took a few deep breaths, cursing Fin’s name, I climbed back out of the car and confronted him at the center of the clearing.
“You’re a dick,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes and ambled closer. “How eloquent. Is that the best you can do?”
I shoved at him, but my ribs screamed with agony. . “Obviously fucking not, but it’s the best you’re going to get without giving me medication to help with the brain fogging my brain. I repeat, you are a dick.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up.
“What do you want, Zoey? Go home and get some rest.”
“Fuck you. I’m only standing here looking at your face because I want to know how the Captain is.”
That made him stop and finally square off with me. “Why? You couldn’t give a shit about him last week. Why do you care so much now?”
“Maybe because last week he was a dick too, and last week he hadn’t been shot in the face. Let’s start there and see if I can come up with anything else while you scold me like an overprotective grandma.”
He blinked at me, the bloom of his grin stripped away. “If you want to know how the Captain is, you’ll have to come see him yourself.”
“I’m not stepping foot in that house again,” I yelled. “You can fuck right off.”
Everything in me boiled with the need to spew it out and do so much more damage.
He had hurt me, and he didn’t even act like he was sorry for it. If he could disregard my needs so easily, obviously we were never friends to begin with.
We glared at each other until I shook my head and spun away before anything as stupid as tears fell. They built up slowly and I kept my gaze up toward the canopy to keep them confined. I didn’t let people make me cry, and if by some miracle they managed it, I sure and shit wouldn’t let them witness it.
His hand clamped on my shoulder and I shrugged it off, despite the pain the movement caused.
“Zoey, look at me.” His tone was the same imperious command as it ever was.
“Go to hell,” I said, happy the hitch in my throat didn’t cause my voice to wobble.
“Get some rest,” he said, not at all bothered by my outburst. “I’ll send a doctor by to get you some pain meds and an IV set up. You’ll feel better. Do you want me to heal you?”
A fresh surge of heat shot threw me and I spun back to face him despite the tears escaping to roll down my face in a hot wave.
“No, I don’t want your fucking pity or your charity. I only want to know how the Captain is doing. And I want my fucking steel back. Otherwise, you can stay out of my life and I’ll stay out of yours.”
With nothing more to say, I turned and stormed back to my car. This time, I didn’t linger to watch him and let myself be dragged back into an argument. Somehow, he knew where to push and pull to wear down my resolve. He knew exactly how to make me forgive him.
Not this time. I wanted the bastard to burn, and eventually, once I healed up and took care of the Black Mage myself, he would.
It had been a long time since I’d let a man hurt me the way he had.
When will you fucking learn, Zoey?
I sped out of the clearing, pine needles spinning up behind the wheels of my car.
I used to be stronger than this. I used to be able to keep people at enough of a distance, they couldn’t weasel their way in and actually do damage. My walls needed tightening, starting with the ones around my heart. That way, Fin would never get in again.
As I drove away from the forest, I caught sight of Fin in the rear-view mirror surrounded by pine needles and the dirt my tires had spun up. Served him right for following me after I told him off.
I focused on the road ahead.
A shape stood in the middle of the road, on my side.
What the hell?
Fin was there, his arms crossed over his chest as though he waited in line, not in the middle of a deserted highway while a car sped toward him.
I wished I could feign like I might hit him. Play chicken with the immortal Fae. But it just wasn’t in me. Even as angry as I was, it wasn’t worth it if he couldn’t fight back.
With a groan, I slowed and pulled to the side of the road.
He marched across the asphalt, ripped my car door open, and yanked me out by the sleeve of my jacket. “We weren’t finished talking.”