The Lady in Pink - Deadly Ever After 2 (7 page)

“I
zzy, wait,” I yelled as my partner and her two fairy minions, Right and Left, disappeared behind the closing elevator doors. The look on her face when she saw Bo in my arms would be one I would remember for a lifetime.

Izzy had looked completely ... unaffected. Not that I expected anything more. We were just partners, after all.

She’d simply raised a flame-colored eyebrow, stepped back into the elevator, and vanished to the floors below. There was no surprise or shock on her face. Nothing but acceptance, as if she’d expected no more from the likes of Blue Reynolds.

But I wasn’t
that
Blue Reynolds anymore.

Or was I? I glanced down at Bo’s rounded breasts, barely covered by her robe. I’d known what would very likely happen if I came here. Well, I’d expected a little bloodshed too, but maybe she was saving it for later. I dropped my arms, stepping away from Bo as if she was diseased; given her obsession with her sheep, I suspected a case of fleas at the very least.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, her eyes alight with mischief and more than a hint of malice. The same look I’d long associated with Bo. I should’ve known better. I cursed myself for a fool. “Tooth Fairy got your tongue along with your balls?” She held out her manicured nails, examining each bloodred tip. “I hear she keeps them in her purse.”

I wasn’t about to fall for Bo’s baiting, not again. “Did you get what you wanted?” I asked, my voice filled with barely controlled rage. Flecks of static electricity crackled in the air. But I wouldn’t lose control. “What was the plan? Izzy walks in on you and me, and what? She ends our partnership? She stabs me with a toothbrush? What?”

Bo licked her lips. “You don’t need her. Without her interference you can be the man you are meant to be.” She reached for my arm, but I pulled back before I caused real harm. I’d done enough as it was. “Give us a chance,” she said. “With your insider knowledge of your clients and my savvy, we can make a pile of money, and in the end, we will rule this city. You and I. Together.”

“You and I, huh?”

Her lips lifted into a stunning and sexy smile. She ran her finger down her robe, dipping into her nakedness with the promise of a million earthly delights. “Yes. Us.”

I laughed but without humor. “I’d rather screw a light socket.”

With that parting shot, I walked across the room and pressed the elevator call button. Not the smoothest of exits, but I was merely a man, a man who sure as hell didn’t want to walk down a hundred flights of stairs. The elevator finally arrived, and I stepped in, not once looking at Bo.

As the elevator doors slipped shut, the faint scent of fairy dust and what smelled like the sea brushed over my senses. I pictured Izzy and her utter lack of emotion. My chest gave a small squeeze in response. Great. On top of a dead intern, I now had heart disease.

Sometimes life just wasn’t fair.

 

The unfairness of it all faded as I headed back to my apartment. I’d known better. Bo wasn’t hard to read. She did whatever it took to get what she wanted in the end. Nothing was ever what it seemed when she was around. I vowed to avoid playing her hide-and-sheep games from then on.

After a thirty-minute hike to my apartment, my anger had receded along with the pull of lust in my loins. I’d just have to tell Izzy the truth, that nothing had happened between Bo and me, that I’d gone to pump her for information, and not for anything else. Not that Izzy would believe me. After all, she had little reason to believe that I’d changed. That I’d matured. But I had, damn it! The last hour aside.

Tossing the half-smoked cigarette into the street, I entered my apartment building and climbed the four flights of stairs to my apartment. The faint twitter of bells and music reached my ears as I pressed my key into the lock on my door.

Before I could open the lock, the door flew inward, as did my entire body. I tried to catch myself but ended up tripping over the electrostatic mat on the floor and landing facefirst on the hardwood. The sticky residue of melted rock salt scraped against my cheek as the faint aroma of charred intern burned into the floorboards assaulted my nostrils.

I quickly leapt to my feet, expecting a jolt of electricity beyond any I’d known to rocket through my body. When nothing happened, I let out a shallow breath and looked around the apartment for whoever had opened the door. I was surprised and pleased to see a set of pink wings.

“Izzy,” I began. “I’m so glad—”

She cut me off. “We have to leave in an hour for Clayton’s fund-raiser. I brought you something to wear . . .” She held out a black tuxedo, the same style worn by dapper spies who liked shaken martinis.

“You didn’t have to—”

She snorted. “Oh, but I did. We all know how busy you are . . .” “I can explain. Bo said she—”

“If you want to make a fool of yourself again, I couldn’t care less. What and who you do are your business.” She threw the tuxedo on the couch, her actions at odds with her words. “I’m going home to get ready for the gala.” She paused, looking me up and down. “Unless you asked Bo Peep to be your date.”

“Damn it, Izzy. It wasn’t like I planned—”

She held up her hand to cut me off. “I’ll expect you in one hour, unless, of course, you accidently fall on top of another naked woman.”

I raised an eyebrow at her snarky statement.

She smiled, showing off sharp white teeth. “But what are the odds of that happening twice in a five-hour span?”

Sixty-forty at best.

Unless there was a storm brewing.

In that case my odds went up considerably.

I decided not to share the over/under with Izzy yet.

It was best to sometimes just let it ride.

E
xactly one hour later, a bright yellow taxi pulled up to the curb in front of Izzy’s brownstone uptown, and I leapt out, waving to Right and Left, who had followed in another taxi. Both fairyguards held up a hand, raising their stubby middle fingers. Guess the little guys held a grudge for my ditching them earlier. Not like I cared one way or another. I would do what I pleased, when I pleased. If they couldn’t keep up, that was their problem.

I rapped on the front door, surprised when Izzy opened it immediately. I took a step back, both for balance and to take in the full effect of the stunning vision of half-fairy in front of me. Izzy wore a strapless black dress that fell to her trim ankles, flaring in all the right places. Her hair hung loosely around her shoulders in waves of auburn fire. But it was her full, plump, ruby-colored lips that drew my gaze again and again.

And her wings, of course.

They fluttered lightly in the breeze, sparkling like beacons of light in the night.

Heat filled my lower body, tensing every muscle with electricity and lust. Breathe through it, I ordered my treacherous libido. No matter how delicious Izzy looked, she was off-limits. My partner, I reminded myself. Even if she wasn’t, we could never be together. My curse all but guaranteed it. For the slightest of my touches would cause her pain. And I would never be able to resist touching Izzy if allowed the chance.

“Is it that bad?” she asked, running a nervous hand down her dress. “I should change.” She spun on her ruby-slippered heel and headed back inside. I tried to stop her, but the flash of the pale white skin down her back claimed my ability to speak. I could only stand there waiting for my blood to return to my head. When I was able to form words again, very basic ones at that, I followed her into her brownstone. “Izzy,” I called. “You look amazing. Please don’t change.”

She stepped from her bedroom, her lips puckered as if she didn’t believe me, let alone a word I ever said. “Are you sure? It isn’t too . . .” Too perfect? Too breathtaking? Too bad she was my partner? I shook my head, afraid I just might drop to my knees and start to beg for a crumb of affection.

She pulled at the fabric above her barely contained breasts. “This dress was not made for wings.” I disagreed but thought it best not to voice my opinion.

For a moment she looked vulnerable and much younger than her twenty-seven years. The need to protect her took me by surprise. Izzy didn’t need protection. She could and would take care of any danger that came her way. I stifled the outrageous desire and held out my gloved hand. “Let’s get this shit over with,” I said with a grin. Hesitating for only a second, she took my hand in hers, and together we headed off to the ball. Thankfully not one godmother—fairy or otherwise—screamed out a ridiculous curfew as the taxi shot down the street.

 

A few minutes into the taxi ride Izzy’s cell phone buzzed. She glanced down at the caller ID, her mouth curving into a frown. “It’s Jonas,” she said to me. “I wonder what he wants.” Instead of waiting for whatever witty commentary I came up with, she answered the call. “Is something wrong?” Silence filled the cab as she listened intently, the fingers of her free hand curling into a fist as her eyes grew violet with rage.

Whatever Jonas was telling her wasn’t good. My heart rate increased as the silence grew.

“How bad is it?’ she asked a few seconds before she hung up. She turned to me, her lips a thin, flat line.

I swallowed. “What happened?”

“A fire.” She paused as if weighing her words. “At the office. Two and a half hours ago.”

The hairs on the back of my neck danced with electrical current. “Was anyone hurt?”

She shook her head. “Thankfully, no. No one was inside. I was the last person to leave after Right and Left came to tell me you’d gone missing.”

“How bad is the damage?”

She frowned, her eyes steady on the traffic outside the window of the cab. “Jonas says it was contained to only one office.”

“That’s gre—”

“Not really. It was your office, Blue.” She turned back to face me, wincing slightly. “Someone set fire to your office.”

T
he fire put a damper on the evening, but there was nothing either of us could do about it tonight. Tomorrow we’d contact the insurance company and deal with the rest of the fire-related mess. Besides, we had a more pressing problem tonight. Even though most of the fairies adored Izzy, a small faction loyal to the Fairy Council had slightly less admiration. So much so, they’d vowed to destroy her. I wasn’t too worried, but I wasn’t a fool either. Every moment Izzy spent at Clayton’s fund-raiser was a chance for those winged and nonwinged assholes to make good on their threat. I wouldn’t let that happen. Not as long as my heart beat with electrical current. Nobody would hurt a feather on her wings.

Even me.

“Behave tonight. This is a big night and Clayton needs our support,” Izzy said as the cab pulled in front of the hotel. I nodded once, not bothering to voice my concerns again. Izzy had made up her mind to come to the fund-raiser tonight, and nothing I said would make a difference. And I’d said quite a bit when she’d first brought the subject up. Most of what was said was said with words foul enough to make three men in a tub blush. Yet, in the end, I’d reluctantly agreed to attend the fund-raiser, even offering to donate in the form of not frying Clayton on his big night.

The cab stopped outside the infamous Fairyland Hotel, the same place where the Fairy Pack used to do all their hard drinking and even harder hookering. A valet in a tiny tuxedo opened Izzy’s door, helping her from the taxi while doing his best not to drool on the bottom of her gown. I couldn’t fault the little winged devil. Izzy looked that good.

“Madam Tooth Fairy,” the valet gushed, his chubby cheeks growing red as he stammered, “it is an honor. If you need anything—”

“She doesn’t,” I said, hoping to ward off the inevitable awkward fairy-removal process, which included a crowbar and enough electrical current to light half the city. “But if she did”—I paused, waiting for the little guy to tear his gaze off Izzy’s loveliness and redirect it into my warning glare—“I’m the one who will get it. Got it?”

The little guy released Izzy’s kneecap as he snapped to attention. “Yes, sir.”

Izzy raised a flame-colored eyebrow but spoke softly enough that only I could hear her. “
She
doesn’t need anyone, especially
you
, to play bodyguard. Do
I
make myself clear?”

Izzy was kidding herself if, even for a second, she thought I was there for any other reason than to watch her back. I’d rather have my teeth ripped out with a pair of golden pliers than spend two minutes at this fairy circus, let alone with the twins and their cronies. But she needed my protection, whether she knew it or not, if not from the throng of winged dwarfs decked out in their finest duds, at least from her own uncanny ability to land straight into whatever fairy-related craziness was currently plaguing Fairyland. You could take the fairy out of Fairyland . . .

“I mean it, Blue,” she hissed when I didn’t respond. “Don’t push me. Not tonight.”

I winked at her as I reached into my pocket for a few bills. I pressed them into the valet’s tiny palm, hoping it would encourage him to release his death grip on the folds of Izzy’s gown before I had to fry him away. “Thanks.”

The winged valet looked at the money and then at Izzy, as if, to top off all her whispered achievements, including walking on water, she’d single-handedly fed his tiny family for a month. Forget the guy who actually handed over his own hard-earned cash.

Fucking fairies.

“Have a nice evening,” he said, finally letting go of Izzy, though with reluctance. I took the opportunity to sweep her through the hotel doors and into the chaos inside the hotel. The crowd inside the lobby parted like the legs of a princess on prom night, all eyes locked on the beauty on my arm.

Even though I was there only to keep Izzy safe, warmth rushed up my spine, and not the electrical kind. I felt pride, in myself, and in what Izzy and I had accomplished over the last year. We’d worked hard to make the company a go, learning to work with each other. But also, deep within my primitive and not-so-primitive brain, I felt unfettered possession.

But Izzy wasn’t mine.

Not in that way.

And she never would be.