“Here. I got you a coffee.” Simon offered me a Styrofoam take-away cup. I took the offering and drank down a swig. “Boss.”
I grimaced at the bitter taste, wishing he’d put a little cream or sugar in, but I’d take it. I didn’t say thank you. I didn’t trust him, but I had precious little backup and I was beginning to realize I was not the killer I’d been before. Stronger, faster, meaner, but I was also diving into the deep end with the monsters. Before, I’d always taken them on one at a time, not en masse.
He slammed his door shut as he took his seat. I took another drag of the coffee. “Let’s go. Head north. Noah will follow.”
“You going to try and ditch me again?” Simon smiled at me and I frowned right back.
“You keep lying to me and I’ll do more than ditch you,” I said.
“I don’t know how I can convince you I’m telling the truth.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “My buddy, well, hardly a buddy, but he thinks he has a job I would want. I turned him down. I’m here with you one hundred percent, Nix.” His words were sincere and those brown eyes of his were wide as a puppy dog’s. Maybe a bit too wide. Damn, he was good if I struggled to tell truth from lies.
“Who are you trying to convince, me or you? We both know that for the right amount you’d turn on me in an instant.” I shifted in my seat.
“Then why—”
“Because I know where you stand. I don’t like where you stand. But I get it.” I stared at him, our eyes locked. “I will never trust you, Simon. Capiche?”
He gave me a smile and a wink. “Now, that is a challenge I will accept. By the end of this, you will trust me.” He blew me a kiss. That there was the Simon I’d dealt with before, and something about the ridiculousness of his actions eased my mind. I rolled my eyes and leaned back as he started the engine and got us back onto the highway. Even with the caffeine hitting me, I began to relax, my body slipping into a languor that often came after the adrenaline faded.
“You really going to let Noah come with us?” Simon asked.
“Depends.” I shifted so I could slide my coat and shirt off. My bite wound remarkably had not lost any stitches, though they were stretched in a few places and blood had leaked through. I spoke while I cleaned the wound and packed a thick chunk of gauze over it from my bag.
“He has information. Maybe he can help, maybe he can’t. At the very least, I know he isn’t working for Romano.” I flicked my eyes at him.
“I’m not working for Romano. I promise you that,” Simon said. He paused, then went on. “How is it that you seem to know when I’m lying?”
I snorted and pulled my clothes back on. “A gift of the trade, I guess.” I didn’t want to try and explain to him that I knew, like a gut instinct, when people were lying to me. At least, when I was willing to look for it. I’d never looked at Justin and questioned him once we were a couple. I wanted too badly to escape my past that I let my guard down and all the lies that had been there, waiting for me to take note of them, had slipped by me. I pressed the heel of one hand against my eyes one at a time. A fool, I’d been a fool in love and I’d paid the ultimate price by losing both Justin and Bear.
We were quiet for a few minutes before the inevitable question broke the silence. “Any idea why that abnormal came after you like that?” Simon asked.
I let out a sigh and took another sip of the coffee. The caffeine didn’t seem to be working its way through my sluggish veins as I’d hoped. I yawned. “I can take a few guesses based on what he said.”
“And they are?”
“Someone has put an open bounty on my head and he wanted the reward,” I said with another yawn. “Most likely Romano. Maybe with an offer of protection to go along with some money.” But Romano didn’t have that much of an in with the abnormals. He’d been too busy controlling them. So even as I spoke the words, I knew they were wrong. They didn’t quite fit.
Simon blew out a snort. “Well, that is going to gum things up like sticky shit in ass hair.”
I choked on my coffee. “That is not an image I needed.”
“Just trying to make you smile,” he said.
“Why?” The question popped out of me before I could catch it.
He shrugged. “Maybe I’m trying to get you to let your guard down so I can smash you over the head and drag you to your father for the money after all.”
His words were joking, the tone light, but there was truth in them, too. As much as I didn’t trust him, and he didn’t really trust me, he was out for money. I was out for blood. That would not mix well in the end.
“Where do you want to pull over?” He motioned with a tip of his head to indicate Noah on his bike behind us.
“Another few miles,” I said, then changed the subject. “I don’t think Romano has enough pull to convince abnormals to come after me.”
Simon nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking that. But Mancini and the Collective do. And you’ve pissed in their swimming pool now too, more than once, if I recall.”
Mancini was head of the Collective and an abnormal with powers beyond anything anyone else had. The rumors that swirled around him varied from him being a demi-god to being a demon to being a conman with the most amazing sleight of hand. Depending on who you asked. For all I knew, he was some unknown abnormal. Not an impossible thing.
Simon’s voice dipped, the cadence of his words lulling me, hitting triggers deep in my psyche.
“Phoenix, tell me everything you know about Mancini.” He gave me a look as if he knew how I would answer. “Tell me what you remember of him.” Each of his words resonated through my head and I found my eyelids fluttering. Zee had done this to me before, put me into a light hypnosis that allowed me to access memories.
Part of me was pissed that Simon would do this without asking, the other didn’t care because I knew what he wanted. If there was anything in my memories that could help us, we needed them.
“I’ve only ever seen him at a distance.” I let my eyes close to half-mast and pressed my fist against my mouth. “He’s middle aged, solidly built, six feet tall, at best. Gray hair, though it looks premature. Nothing about him stands out except his eyes.” I fell into the pattern I had with Zee when he asked me to recall things, the words sliding out of me with an ease that otherwise didn’t happen.
The memory flowed around me and I could feel the solid marble under my feet in the hotel lobby, the rush of air as people hurried around me, the click of heels, the low murmur of voices as they discussed the day, the bing of elevators opening, and Mancini standing in front of one of them, waiting. He held so still, it was like watching a predator at ease on its home turf, as if he were waiting to launch at someone.
“There is an energy around him and it both draws and repels people. The women are drawn to him like moths to a flame, and for some of the men like Romano, it’s the same. The desire to be close to him and bathe in his power. But those who are repelled give him plenty of room as if just his touch could kill them.” My words were soft, slurring at the edges.
Mancini looked my way and I held my ground, our eyes meeting across the distance. His eyes were wrong, there was no other term I had for them. The irises bobbed and weaved like drunken fighters trying to get the upper hand on each other.