Mancini didn’t move any closer, but the other abnormals tightened ranks on me.
There were stumbling footsteps hurrying behind me that could only be Simon. “Don’t shoot him, Nix.”
I spun Eleanor back so my arms were spread-eagled and I had a gun on Mancini and one on Simon. “Shut the fuck up, you asshole.”
He skidded to a stop. As if he could see. Damn him and his abnormal healing.
“Phoenix, a discussion will not kill you,” Mancini said. “In fact, I think you might warm to the idea of working for me when you see the possible . . . rewards. I swear to you that if you choose to go your own way, I will not kill you. I cannot speak for any other abnormal, but I think . . . I think we could make an excellent team.”
The abnormals around me pressed in closer, their smell flooding my nose with the myst that had created them at some point. It killed a part of me to back down. But I knew when I was out-gunned.
I lowered Eleanor and Dinah. “You have five minutes. Convince me, or I’ll do as Dinah suggested and blow your dick off right before I put a bullet through your head.”
Chapter Five
Standing on the tarmac of what I now suspected was a private airstrip somewhere close to New York City, surrounded by abnormals and the head of the Collective, I wasn’t sure that my day could get any more difficult to survive.
“Five minutes, then,” Mancini said. “Let’s get out of this sun.”
His shoes rasped against the tarmac and I dropped a hand to Abe’s head. I followed Mancini easily, and felt the ranks of his men part as we drew closer.
The click of a car door as it was opened and the rush of air conditioning that flowed out around my face drew me forward. I motioned for Abe to go ahead of me and Mancini grunted. “I did not say anything about the dog.”
“He goes where I go.” I slid into the car and sat. “Four minutes.”
“A woman who keeps her goals in sight,” Mancini said. “Your father hates you because you have outsmarted him, and he’s going to send his guardians after you if you are not careful. But he wants you still, Phoenix. He wants to control you.”
“I’ve killed one of his guardians. Let the others come.” I relaxed into the seat, let the air conditioning cool my face. “No one is invincible, Mancini. Not even you. Not even a guardian of Hell.”
“You killed the Stick Man?” There was no incredulity in his tone, more curiosity.
I closed my eyes. The edges hurt as the light came in more through my retinas. That was what I got for playing with magic. “Burned him to a toasty crisp.”
“Fire doesn’t hurt him,” Mancini said. “Believe me, I’ve tried—”
“Blood fire.” I cut him off. “I took the blood of an abnormal and spread that shit all over him and lit him up like an oversized roman candle.”
Mancini adjusted his seat. “You . . . how did you know to even try that?”
I tapped a finger against my lips. “I have my secrets, and you have yours.”
He changed gears, most likely to throw me off balance. “Your father has ties to the Yakuza, you know that?”
“Yes, and he’s going to use them against you,” I threw back at him. “I’ve got paperwork from Romano and Gabe.” A bit of a stretch. What I had was a conversation I’d personally overheard from Romano and my now-dead brother. But men like Mancini like paperwork to prove something really happened.
But Mancini was anything but thrown off. “Romano is playing many sides of the field. He wants to try and use you for his own advances, even though he hates you. If you don’t bend to his will, he will try and break you.”
“Already done,” I said. “He’s got nothing left to—”
“Romano has your son.”
All the air in the car might as well have been swept outward in a single whoosh as if I’d been tossed into a vacuum. I couldn’t breathe, my ears were ringing with his words over and over. Romano has your son. Impossible, impossible. The picture that had been sent to Zee. He’d said the boy looked like Bear. Impossible. It had to be impossible.
Hope and fear lanced me. Because if I had hope, it could be snatched from me and I would crash with nothing to keep me going. I opened my eyes, and in the dim interior of the car, the world came into sharp focus. I had to pull my shit and emotions together or I would break down right here in front of Mancini. And I think that was what he wanted, he wanted to see me cry, to believe he could manipulate me. Not going to fucking happen. I closed off all the emotions behind the walls I’d built while killing abnormals for a living.
“That’s what he told you?” My words were clean, crisp and to the point.
Mancini’s eyes were a sight to behold as he leaned toward me. The irises bobbed and moved as if swaying to their own music, blending in with one another and then sliding out again. “I met the boy he called his grandson.”
“That means nothing,” I said. “He could have an illusionist playing a part.”
He tipped his head in agreement. “True. You understand I am a man of many talents?”
I stared hard at him, trying to see the lies, while at the same time, wanting desperately to believe he was telling me the truth. “You’ve never met him before. No matter what your talents are, you wouldn’t know my boy from any other.”
“I would. Because his blood sings with the same power as yours. Blood does not lie, Phoenix, and your Bear is going to be a powerful man one day.” There was no kindness in his face, no compassion or pity, and yet . . . I could see he meant every word.
“Don’t trust him!” Dinah screamed, and I jerked her out of her holster before I could think better of it, and pointed her at him.
“Why not?” I whispered the question, my heart jack-hammering.
“Because he is why Bianca did herself in,” Dinah whimpered. “I don’t want the same thing to happen to you. Do not trust him.”
This was the first time that either of my guns had ever expressed concern about me in that manner, which was . . . concerning in its own way. Sentient they may have been, but I did not think they truly cared about my well-being other than the fact they were mine.
“You want to answer that?” I asked Mancini.
He didn’t move from his spot. A smile curled over his lips. “You’d believe your guns over me?”
“Answer the question.”
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to Dinah’s muzzle, and she snarled under her breath.
“Not without me,” I said to her. She was not the one to push, and more than once had shot on her own without my finger pulling the trigger, as evidenced by the diner and the rhino abnormal.
Mancini didn’t pull back. “Bianca’s story is not right now, and yes, I know pieces of it. Your boy’s story is the one I believe we should focus on. I can help you get him back if you help me take out the Yakuza. You know that Romano will have both his guardians watching the boy. It’s the only reason he hasn’t sent the Shadow after you yet. If you go for your son, now, you will die. You need me, and for the moment . . . I could use your help. Not something I say lightly.”
I lowered Dinah even while she cursed at Mancini. Motherfucker was high on her list of expletives.