Fate's Edge (18 page)

A section of the wall slid aside. A huge man emerged into the sunlight. His oversized jean overalls barely enclosed his enormous frame. Thick defined muscle strained the sleeves of his white T-shirt. His hair was a reddish curly mess, and his face, with sunken eyes and a massive jaw, looked menacing enough to frighten away rabid wolves. He could’ve been sixty or eighty; with the Edgers, it was hard to tell. Some of them lived to a couple of hundred.

The giant ambled over to Audrey, towering a foot over her, and held out his shovel-sized hand. Beer. Right. Kaldar thrust the bottle into Gnome’s hand. The giant bit the cork with his teeth, twisted the bottle, spat out the cork, and took a deep gulp.

“Good.” Gnome peered at him. “I know her. I don’t know you.”

Kaldar opened his mouth.

“He’s my fiancé,” Audrey said.

What?

Gnome blinked. “Fiancé?”

“Yep,” Audrey confirmed.

“When’s the wedding?” Gnome asked.

Kaldar stepped closer to Audrey and put his arm around her. She didn’t stiffen; she even leaned into him a little. He caught a hint of her perfume again and grinned, squeezing her closer, as his hand slipped into her pocket. His fingers caught something metal and Kaldar pinned the object between his index and middle fingers and withdrew his hand. “Not for a while. We’ve been living in sin and enjoying every bit of it.”

“And they are?” Gnome jerked his chin at the boys.

“My cousins,” Kaldar said.

Gnome pondered the four of them for a long moment. “Okay, come.”

Kaldar took a step forward, his arm around Audrey. Gnome held up his hand. “The changeling stays outside. I’ve got a lot of glass in there, and I don’t want it broken.”

Jack was a child, not a wild dog. Kaldar hid a growl. “Fine.”

Gnome turned and went back into the house.

Audrey sank her elbow into his side.

“Ow,” Kaldar winced.

“Keep your paws to yourself,” she murmured, and followed Gnome.

“It was worth it,” he called after her.

She turned around, her eyes indignant, punched her left palm with her right fist, and kept walking.

“I don’t think she likes you,” Jack said.

Kaldar ruffled his hair. “You have a lot to learn about women. Jack, Gnome doesn’t want you inside.”

Jack wrinkled his nose. “That’s fine. He doesn’t smell right anyway.”

Ling tried to dart past them, following Audrey. Kaldar scooped the beast off the ground by the scruff of her neck. The raccoon snarled and raked the air with her claws. “Hold her.” He held out Ling, and George stepped up to grab her. Kaldar hesitated. He’d expected Jack to take Ling. The little beast would scratch George bloody.

George’s hands closed about the raccoon. Ling snorted and sat on his arm, perfectly calm.

They had to be the strangest children he’d ever come across. “Can either of you sense magic?”

“Yes,” George nodded. “I feel it, and Jack smells it.”

“If you sense a lot of magic coming, let Ling go and run to get Gaston. No waiting, no hesitation.” His luck had held out—without realizing it, they’d landed the wyvern only half a mile from Audrey’s house. He’d left Gaston there with instructions to be ready for takeoff at a moment’s notice. It would take the kids less than fifteen minutes to get there. “Just run to Gaston as fast as you can.”

“What, I don’t get to fight?” Jack asked.

Kaldar appraised the indignant note in his voice. Now was the time for finesse. “We have Audrey with us. If people are coming to kill us, we may have to get out of here in a hurry, and the best way to keep Audrey safe is to load her onto the wyvern. Make sense?”

Jack thought about it. “Yes.”

At the door, Audrey called, “Are you coming?”

“No, just breathing hard, love.” He glanced at her and was rewarded by an outraged glare, followed by, “Oh, my God!”

Kaldar took a moment to look at both boys. “No heroics. Do exactly as you are told. The mission is our first priority.”

“We understand,” George said.

“Good.”

They took off for the trees. Kaldar glanced at the object he’d taken from Audrey’s pocket. It was a simple gold cross on a chain. In the middle of the cross a tiny black stone winked at him. He wondered why she didn’t wear it. Pretty Audrey, full of secrets like a puzzle box. Now he’d have to find an excuse to touch her again to put the cross back.

The boys reached the trees and melted into the brush. Kaldar slipped the cross and the chain between his fingers, turned, and caught up with Audrey. “You could’ve warned me he was a giant.”

“And spoil the fun? Please.”

Kaldar swiped a chunk of rock and wedged it between the door and the frame.

Audrey raised her eyebrows.

“For your raccoon,” he told her. “In case of emergency, the kids will let her go. You said she always finds you, so she’ll run right back here.”

She gave him a long, suspicious stare that said plainly that she trusted him about as far as she could throw him. “I bet you scheme even when you sleep.”

“That depends on who I’m sleeping with.”

Audrey laughed and went inside. Somehow, it didn’t seem like a “with him” kind of laugh. More like “at him.”
That’s all right, love. You’ll come to see my point of view.

Kaldar followed and found himself in a large room. Shelves occupied every available inch of wall space and cleaved the room in long rows, their content protected by glass. Some were filled with books; others held vials in a dozen shapes and sizes. Colored bottles, green, brown, and red, stood next to Weird gadgets and gears. To the right, two shelves contained teapots. Under them rested an army of aromatic candles, then a dozen sticks of deodorant, twenty bottles of assorted shampoo, kerosene lamps, Nintendo game systems, a Sony PlayStation, two or three hundred game cartridges and CDs, sun catchers, laptops, old toys, animal skulls, cowbells, Blu-ray movies, assorted metal parts from engines, and above it all a dried-up baby wyvern, mummified into a skeletal monstrosity, spread its dead wings, suspended from a ceiling by a cord. Each item had a tiny price tag. Not a speck of dust marred the place.

Charming. A pawnbroker’s paradise.

Gnome took another long swallow from the bottle and strode between the shelves to a beautiful antique coffee table, surrounded by plush red chairs. He settled into one and indicated the other two with a sweep of his hand.

Audrey perched in a chair. Kaldar sat next to her.

“So what can I do you for?”

Audrey leaned forward with a charming smile. “You’ve done business with Seamus.”

“Yeah.” Gnome shrugged. “What of it?”

“If he had to unload a hot item on the West Coast, where would he go?”

“How hot?”

“The Hand wants it,” Kaldar said.

Gnome grunted. “What the hell . . . Okay, what sort of item?”

“It’s a gadget,” Audrey said. “With military applications. He got at least forty grand for it.”

“US currency?”

“Mhm.”

“Well, he didn’t sell it to me, I can tell you that much. I won’t touch anything the Hand wants. Isn’t worth the risk. And if you and your fiancé have any sense, you will leave this thing alone.” Gnome rose and disappeared between the shelves.

“Fiancé,”
Kaldar mouthed at Audrey and wagged his eyebrows.

She shrugged.
“Don’t get any ideas.”

“Too late.”

Oh, he had ideas, and if the circumstances were different, he would explain them to her. In a lot of detail. With practical demonstrations.

Gnome returned, carrying an enormous book, four feet tall and at least six inches thick. He pulled a book pedestal from behind the shelf and lowered the book onto it. “There are about ten people on the West Coast who would buy Hand-hot merchandise.” He opened the book and flipped through the pages. “Of those, six could come up with forty grand on short notice. We can rule out Vadim Urkovski.”

“Why?” Audrey asked.

“He got himself jailed in Sacramento for running a stoplight while roaring drunk, then punching a cop.” Gnome grinned. “His wife refused to post bail. Apparently, he wasn’t alone in the car. He’ll get out of it, but it will take time.”

“That leaves us with five,” Kaldar said.

“That it does.” Gnome flipped the old page. On it a large photograph showed a woman with flowing brown hair. “We can rule out Vicki as well. Seamus is superstitious. He once did a deal with her and got pinched right after. Wouldn’t work with her since. So we’re down to four.” Gnome flipped another page. On it, a tall blond man in a pale fisherman sweater and jeans leaned against a Mercedes. “Kaleb Green. Operates near Seattle. Will buy anything for the right price.”

“Too far,” Audrey said. “Alex is in rehab in northern California, and Seamus wouldn’t travel over a long distance with a lot of money.”

Gnome turned the page. A woman in a bright skirt and a pale beige vest over a white blouse smiled into the camera. A pair of rose-tinted glasses perched on her nose. A layered necklace with large wooden and turquoise beads hung from her neck. There was something deeply predatory in her eyes. The outfit said hippy. The eyes said deepwater shark.

“Magdalene. She’s near San Diego.”

Audrey frowned. “She is a possibility. I never heard him mention her, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Gnome flipped a couple more pages. “Morell de Braose. He probably isn’t your guy. He deals mainly in jewelry and art.”

Jewelry. Like bracelets, for example. Kaldar leaned forward, focusing on the photo. The man on the page wore a pricey suit, that dark, expensive shade of gray that worked equally well for luxury suits or red-carpet gowns. He appeared to be in his early forties, blond, with a carefully trimmed beard on a youthful, tan face. He had the athletic build of a man who either belonged to or owned a gym and had copious leisure to attend it. Behind him, a luxurious office spread, all dark, polished furniture, decorated with antique statuettes and daggers with gilded hilts on the walls.

Audrey frowned.

“This is the man,” Kaldar said.

“How do you know?” Gnome raised his furry eyebrows.

“A feeling I get.”

Gnome rolled his eyes and lifted the page.

“Hold on.” Audrey got up off her seat and leaned over the page. “He’s right.”

“Why?”

Audrey pointed to the picture. “See that marble statue of a half-naked woman? The one on the gold pedestal?”

“Yeah.” Gnome squinted.

“That’s
Aurora
by Ciniselli.”

“And?” Kaldar asked.

Audrey turned to them with a look of triumph on her face. “I stole her. Eight years ago. Seamus sold her for ten grand. We needed money in a hurry, and I remember him saying the man he sold it to was good for quick cash in a pinch. It was a pain-in-the-ass heist, too. Took two weeks, and I got hit by a car at the end of it.”

Now there was a story. Kaldar made a mental note to ask her about it later.

Gnome shrugged. “Hate to tell you, but he got ripped off. The statue
Aurora
has been appraised between thirty-five and fifty.”

Audrey stared at the picture and swore.

 

KALDAR leaned back in his seat and hung one leg over the other. Audrey watched him out of the corner of her eye. The man was a chameleon, who changed personalities the way a teenage girl changed outfits, trying to find the right one before a big party.

Why was she still here? He had gotten what he wanted—they figured out where Seamus must have unloaded his merchandise. She should go, grab Ling, and disappear.

Audrey eyed Kaldar. Back at the house, when he spoke about his family, his eyes had turned merciless. A little of his true self had showed—that was the real man, ruthless and resolute. All the rest were just disguises.

Kaldar caught her glance and smiled. Yes, yes, you are a handsome devil. Emphasis on devil. He was flirting with her, either because he liked what he saw or, more likely, because he had decided it would be an easy way to keep her agreeable. He went from
I’ll walk over you
to
I can’t take my eyes off your butt
kind of quick.

A small annoying thought nagged at her. If she hadn’t taken the job, none of this would’ve happened, and the Edge wouldn’t be at risk. Which was stupid because had she not taken the job, her dad would’ve just found somebody else. She wasn’t the only picklock in the Edge. Well, she was probably the best, but not the only one.

What was she thinking? Seamus wouldn’t have had a prayer of breaking into that pyramid without her. The lock on the first door, which led to the passage, was easy enough, but some of the inner locks had taken her a full ten minutes each. Complicated locks weren’t a problem, but if the tumblers were heavy, opening them took a lot of effort. The bolts and bars were the worst. Sliding an inch-wide bar by magic felt like trying to lift a truck. When she finally swung open the final door, her nose was bleeding and she had to lie down. She had made this whole burglary possible.

Okay, fine.
Fine, but it didn’t mean she had to run headfirst into the Hand’s jaws to fix it. She might have pulled off the heist, but Seamus had put it together. It was Seamus’s mess. He had dragged her into this predicament. Kaldar should’ve found him, not her.

In all of her twenty-three years, Audrey had never seen anyone die. Sure, there had been an occasional punch or a slap, but violence was never a part of her childhood. Well, not until Alex had sold her for some coke. That was not how her family had operated. They were thieves, yes, swindlers, yes, con artists, but they had always stayed away from murder. No matter what Kaldar said, she knew both the Hand and the Mirror had no compunction about killing left and right, cutting people down like weeds. The danger the Edge was in wasn’t her problem unless she made it her problem. And Audrey didn’t want to be a hero.