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With the phone still in my hand, I dialled Sam. When he answered, I told him someone had been in the condo and had tipped the place upside down. Then I told him about Mason and his take on my father’s warning.
“What do you make of it?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know. He’s fooled me before. But I have to admit, he’s got me questioning myself, and he made no attempt to get the hard drive. Told me to put it somewhere safe.”
“The real drive is on its way to Peter Caulfield. He should have it tonight. How did you leave things with Mason?”
“I pulled one of your moves and gave him Wade’s address.”
“More like you pulled a pin on a grenade.”
“The fallout will answer some questions—I’m just not sure which ones.”
After we disconnected, I looked down at the drive on the table. We’d have our answers soon.
I returned to the kitchen and froze at the sight of the crystal case on the counter. Had I even thanked Mason for returning it? I felt ashamed that I’d been so reckless with it. I tucked it in my pocket, picked up the cleaning bucket and the vacuum and got back to work.
It was late afternoon before I coiled the vacuum hose and put the bucket of cleaning supplies away. I’d made another list of items to replace. The teapot was the one that bothered me the most. It had been an old Brown Betty, like the one Avery had, and was the only one I’d ever had that didn’t drip.
I dropped a tea bag in the bottom of a mug and flipped the switch on the kettle. When the tea had steeped, I took the mug out to the balcony. Along the way, I snagged the hard drive and stuffed it in my pocket. Leaving it out in plain sight felt like courting trouble, and I’d had enough of that already.
My thoughts turned to Mason. My accusation had hurt him. It had felt good at the time. Justified. A small payback for Dad. But that tiny smile on Mason’s face earlier today, when I’d shown myself, played on my conscience. He’d been relieved to see me trust him. The hope that I’d been wrong about him swelled again.
I pulled my phone out and replayed the recording I’d made of Wade and Sebastian’s conversation. I reversed again to the part where Sebastian goaded Wade about the unsanctioned hit. The part where Wade suggested Sebastian ask Kimberley to do it because she had no problem with unsanctioned hits. This time, I focused on what wasn’t said: neither Sebastian nor Kimberley had denied that she’d attempted an unsanctioned hit . . . mine.
I prayed it was enough to leverage Sebastian.
My stomach grumbled. I’d have to think about dinner soon. Mom was probably ordering room service. I unfolded myself from the deck chair and headed inside, but nothing in the fridge appealed to me. I ate a bowl of cereal.
As night fell, I ached to go flying and take the edge off the waiting. But before I got around to it, my phone rang.
“Sebastian Kirk is in the lobby,” Colin announced.
Finally. The waiting was over.
“Send him up.” He’d checked in downstairs, so he was either playing a game with me, or he didn’t yet know I had the hard drive. I put my teacup and cereal bowl in the dishwasher, checked my block and walked down the hall to open the door.
“Hello, my dear,” Sebastian said. He leaned in and pecked me on the cheek without a hint that anything was amiss. He walked in and headed to the living room. I shut the door and followed. He’d dressed in black, and I wondered if he’d flown over.
“I tried the detective’s place first. I’m surprised to find you here. Do you think it’s wise?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Are you forgetting someone tried to kill you?”
“That’s hardly the kind of thing you forget. I’ve decided to take my life back. Whoever it was is an amateur. If they come back, I’m ready for them.”
He nodded as he removed his leather gloves one finger at a time and bunched them in one hand. “I have some news that should ease your mind. The final loose end from the ICO debacle has been taken care of.”
“What final loose end?”
“James didn’t tell you? He was so pleased.” I offered him a blank stare. “No? Well, I hope I’m not speaking out of turn and spoiling the news. The surrogate in California who was carrying your child has lost it. She’s no longer pregnant.”
“No! What happened?”
“I don’t have the details.” He furrowed his brow. “Are you upset? I thought you’d be pleased.”
“How could you think losing a child would please me?”
“You have to admit, the circumstances were hardly ideal. It wasn’t even your doing.”
“The baby was still mine. Ours.” I dropped to the sofa. I’d thought James wanted the child. That he’d been pleased about losing it hurt more than the loss that had just changed my life’s course. Again.
Sebastian took a seat opposite me. “I’m sorry, my dear, but this is for the best.”
For the best? He’d used those words before, when he’d mentioned Jolene’s relationships hadn’t worked out. Before I knew the men had died. His comment had been callous. And, if I thought the worst of him, self-serving.
He straightened his gloves out against his thigh and refolded them. “Has the Mansfield Group made any progress restoring their data?”
“No, but I have.” I pulled the hard drive out of my pocket and laid it on the coffee table in front of me.
He looked at it and hollowed his cheeks. “I thought as much. Kimberley told me about the safe. You’ve learned well.”
“Why did you take it?”
He offered a glib smile. “You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve been greedy. I saw an opportunity and I took it. Thought I could use it to wring something out of the Reynoldses before you sealed their fates and closed that door.”
“What would you have wrung out of them?”
He stroked his gloves. “I hadn’t decided. A vote, perhaps. I don’t suppose you’d let me have it back?”
“How about you and I make a deal?” I reached for my phone, found the recording of him and Wade, laid it on the table and pushed play.
“You think I’m gonna fall for that shit? Why don’t you keep it in the family? I understand your wife has no qualms about unsanctioned hits on Tribunal. Maybe you should ask her.”
I pushed stop.
Sebastian glared at me. His nostrils flared. “How dare you!” Spittle flew from his mouth.
I’d thought I could ghost fast enough. I was wrong. He tipped his head and before I vanished, searing pain licked up my spine and exploded. His next few words landed garbled in my brain. I picked out insolent and gross invasion as I recovered.
“Did you think I wouldn’t use everything at my disposal?” I said. “Isn’t that what you taught me?”
“Show yourself.”
“The amateur who tried to kill me was Kimberley. Unless you’d like to deny it?”
Sebastian slapped his gloves against his thighs and then shot to his feet. “Who else has that recording?”
I re-formed. “If you ever jolt me again, you’re going to find out.” I sat down to hide the shake in my legs. “I’m willing to overlook your wife’s attempt on my life—for a price.”
“You set Wade up to confront me.”
“I believe that was another early lesson of yours. The most expedient way to get rid of your enemies is to pit them against one another? Did I get that right?”
“I’m not your enemy.”
“You’re acting like it.”
“What is it you want in exchange for your silence?”
“I think you know who killed my father. I want to know who, and I want to know why Kimberley wanted me dead.”
Sebastian turned from me and walked to the balcony door. He stroked his gloves. “And if I tell you this, you will forgive Kimberley’s indiscretions?”
“I will.”
“Then it’s a deal.” He turned around. “Wade Hofmann killed your father.”
“On whose orders?”
A smug smile bloomed on Sebastian’s face. “That wasn’t one of your conditions, but I could be convinced to negotiate.”
Bastard!
His expression didn’t change as he continued. “I believe you wanted to know what motivated Kimberley. She was jealous of Jolene, even after Jolene disappeared. When you turned up and I agreed to mentor you, Kimberley thought I was replacing Jolene with you. Ridiculous, I know, but there you have it.”
He may have outplayed me, but there was more than one way to get to the truth. “If that’s true, your wife would have been pleased to see Jolene happily married to someone else. That knocks her out of the running for ordering my father’s murder. Who does that leave?”
He held out his hand. “You give me the hard drive and all copies of that recording, and I’ll tell you.”
I looked down at the hard drive and the phone sitting on the coffee table. He didn’t know the hard drive was empty, or how many copies of the recording existed. I could give him what he wanted without losing either. The temptation gave me pause, and in that pause, my instincts kicked into high gear.
“You are very good at what you do, Sebastian. I can see why the Tribunal values you so much.”
He inclined his head, accepting my praise.
“My father’s warning to my mother identified the Reynoldses, but Dad wasn’t one of us. He might not have known all the players.”
“Your father knew what we were.”
“Mason mentioned that. He also told me you were very supportive of Jolene after she lost her son. You visited her regularly. Helped her through that terrible trauma. You were married to Kimberley at the time.”
“Kimberley isn’t a Ghost. She could never understand the bond Jolene and I shared, even after it was over.”
“It must have been difficult for Kimberley to see you and Jolene together, knowing about this bond you shared.”
“Yes,” Sebastian said, nodding. He sat back down in the seat opposite and crossed his ankle over his knee.
“Given this bond you had, you must have been pleased when Jolene and my father split.”
“Not at all. I felt Jolene’s pain. Hated to see her unhappy. But it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Because he wasn’t a Ghost?”
“Don’t take offence, my dear, but he wasn’t even a Flier. She was out of his league and then some.”
“And Nick and Arthur? Was she out of their leagues too?”
Sebastian uncrossed his leg and leaned forward. “I don’t like your insinuation.”
I leaned away from him and crossed my arms. “Detective Jordan said something a while back that stuck with me. It was when we first learned that General Cain had hung us out to dry. Sam said It’s always the little shit that trips you up. Did you know that when I mentioned Nick and Arthur to Mason, he knew all about Nick but he’d never heard the name Arthur?”
“He was playing you.”
“Or you are.” He raised an eyebrow. “And you’re the one with an assassin on call.”
A storm engulfed Sebastian’s face. He blasted a jolt at the hard drive and it blew apart. The coffee table shattered, and the pyramid of decorative stone balls beneath it rolled out in every direction. I ghosted and flew up to the ceiling before he could change his focus.
He spun around trying to sense me, and then he sensed someone else. Mason. He re-formed behind the sofa and his gaze went from Sebastian to the shards of glass and black plastic between them.
“Where is Emelynn?” Mason said.
“I imagine she’s right here.” Sebastian checked his wristwatch.
“Was that the hard drive?”
“Yes. You can thank me for saving your hide. She’ll never be able to prove her father was murdered.”
Mason chuckled. “You’ve been busy, Sebastian. Picking at frayed edges with your charm and innuendo, driving a wedge between Emelynn and her family.”
“If you were her family, you wouldn’t have had her father murdered.”
“Is that what you’ve been telling her?”
“Actually, that’s what she told me.”
“Is that so? That’s not the story I just heard.”
Before I could process what was happening, Sebastian’s body blew backwards, his limbs akimbo, and he slammed into one of the concrete columns between the big windows. Mason had jolted him, and Sebastian hadn’t been expecting it.
Mason kicked one of the stone balls out of his way and stepped toward him, but Sebastian ghosted before Mason could jolt him again. Mason spat out his words. “Wade Hofmann sends his regards. He told me all about the marker you have on him, and the deaths you ordered: Nick Pagonis, Arthur Curtis and Brian Taylor.”
Sebastian re-formed behind Mason and threw a jolt into his back. Mason stumbled forward, caught himself and spun around. It hadn’t been a lift-of-the-jaw jolt, like the one Sebastian had treated me to—it had been a killing jolt. If I’d been on the receiving end, I’d be dead. Mason’s block was much stronger than mine. I backed into a corner of the ceiling.
“You think the Tribunal will believe the word of an assassin?” Sebastian said. “One who’s betrayed them?”
The two men squared off against one another. Titans, fully armed, fully shielded, playing a deadly game.
“Why’d you do it, Sebastian? Because she rejected you? You couldn’t have my sister for yourself so you killed any man she wanted?”
“That’s absurd. Do you hear yourself?”
“You turned my sister’s life into a nightmare. I hold you responsible for her death as well.”
Mason and Sebastian walked a slow circle in lockstep. They were in a battle one of them wouldn’t walk away from.
“You have no proof.”
Mason flinched. Sebastian’s shoulder twitched. They were testing each other’s blocks.
“I’m confused about one thing though,” Mason said. “Nick, I understand. He and Jolene were to be married. I never knew Arthur, but Emelynn told me they were engaged, so I get that one, too. But why Brian? He and Jolene were long done. He’d married another woman. Had a child.”
“Why do you think Jolene was in Vancouver?” Sebastian said. “She was sniffing around Brian again. She wanted him back. Jolene threw her life away! I could have strengthened her bloodline, but she was determined to dilute it with someone unworthy.”
“So you had him killed?”
“I saved her from herself.”
I gasped.
Mason stopped circling. “Thank you. Now I have my proof.”
I drifted down from the corner and re-formed behind Mason, using his body as a shield. Words rose like bile in my throat. “You bastard!”
“Emelynn,” Mason said. His voice was a warning.
I glared at Sebastian, who’d locked his gaze with Mason’s, his face set in grim determination. The air between them rippled with unspent power.
“You’re wrong about Jolene,” I said. “She wasn’t after my father. She hadn’t even spoken to him.”
Mason shouted my name and in that instant, Sebastian pushed forward. Mason cartwheeled backwards and pancaked me against the wall with a thud. Something crashed to the floor.
Sebastian pressed his advantage and nailed Mason again. The jolt hit Mason and leaked around to me. I screamed and ghosted.
Sebastian smiled, and it must have been enough of a distraction to give Mason an edge. Mason retaliated, knocking Sebastian over the sofa and into the debris from the ruined coffee table. Sebastian rolled and jumped to his feet. He gripped a stone ball in his hand and launched it at Mason. It connected with his collarbone with a sickening thud. Sebastian followed it up with a second ball that hit Mason in the shoulder. Mason staggered backwards, into the dining room.
Though his face was ashen, Mason stood his ground. He kept the table between them, circling it as he blinked to regain his focus. Sebastian was gloating now and it sickened me. I re-formed behind Sebastian and hit him with the most powerful jolt I had in me. It barely registered with him. I ghosted as he turned in my direction. Mason reached for the dining room light fixture and sent it hurling at Sebastian’s head. It caught him in the temple. He followed up with a powerful jolt that drove Sebastian back into the living room. He landed on the floor at the end of the sofa.
Mason gave away his injured left arm by holding it still as he circled behind Sebastian, wincing with each step. He kept one of the swivel chairs between them as a buffer and stopped with his back to the balcony. Sebastian grasped the arm of the sofa but didn’t have the strength to drag himself up. Blood dripped from his temple to the floor. He shook his head. “Don’t do it,” he said. His gaze dropped to the floor. He looked broken.
Though hurting, Mason stood tall, impassive. I wanted to go to him, to beg his forgiveness and tell him how sorry I was, but shame and guilt overpowered me. Mason took his eyes off Sebastian and searched the room.
“I’m here,” I said, from the corner by the hall. Mason couldn’t sense me, but his gaze followed my voice. I drifted down to the floor and approached. I didn’t realize our mistake until it was too late.
Mason’s body sailed backwards into the balcony door, shattering it. He landed in a sheet of broken glass on the balcony outside. I raced to his side. His eyes bulged and he struggled to breathe, but it was the sound of barking dogs that stopped me cold.
I turned to see Sebastian get up and stand over my phone, which had landed face-up on the floor when the table shattered.
“About bloody time,” he said, and then he vanished.
I floated back inside and looked down at my phone. James was on the rooftop. His hand was on the doorknob when he stopped and turned around. Sebastian stood just a few yards behind him.
I scooped up the phone and blew out the shattered balcony door and up to the rooftop.
I heard Sebastian’s voice before I reached them. “Perfect timing, James.”
“What happened here?” James said, his attention on the blood trail evident from Sebastian’s temple to his jaw. “Is Emelynn all right?”
“She’s fine. She’ll be here in just a moment, I’m sure.”
I raced my ghosted form to James’s side and whispered in his ear. He jumped at the sound of my voice. “Sebastian killed my father. He’s going to kill you. Get out of here.”
James’s face hardened, and he dropped his right hand to his side. I’d never known him to be without the gun he kept in a belt holster at the small of his back.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Sebastian said. James stiffened. His nostrils flared.
“Emelynn, show yourself,” Sebastian called out. “I know you’re here.” He scanned the rooftop through squinted eyes. “He can’t outfly me or get to his gun fast enough to save himself. You’re all alone now, Emelynn. No one’s coming to your rescue. Mason won’t survive my jolt. You’ve alienated Stuart. James is outmatched.” James rolled his shoulder back.
“What do you want, Sebastian?” I asked.
“One last bargain. You for James. Show yourself and I’ll let him go.”
“Bargain? With you?” Laughter bubbled out of me. “I can see how that bargain’s going to turn out. I show myself, you kill me and then you kill James. Or, I don’t show myself and you kill James. I’m not seeing the upside.”
“James is no threat to me. I’m quite prepared to let him go. That’s my offer. Take it or leave it, but make up your mind. Your neighbours will be investigating the disturbance before long and I won’t wait.” Sebastian made a show of checking his watch. “It’s decision time, Emelynn. Do we have a deal?”
Anger vibrated off of James. “Not that deal,” I said. “How about this one? Your life for James’s. Or did you forget that I still have a bargaining chip.”
“You have nothing, Emelynn. Any evidence you thought you had has been destroyed.” He fluttered his fingers for emphasis. “The Tribunal will not back you.”
“And the recording I played for you?”
“What? Wade’s accusation against my wife? You’re more misguided than I thought if you think the Tribunal will take his word against mine.”
“Actually, I’m counting on them taking your word. All of them. Especially when I share with the Tribunal the part of the recording where you goad Wade into an unsanctioned hit on a Tribunal member.”
Sebastian scowled.
“You didn’t think I recorded only the bit about Kimberley, did you? Do you want to rethink my offer? You for James?” I drifted away from James as I spoke, and James’s gaze followed my voice.
“Where is this recording?”
“On the phone in my pocket.”
“Who else has a copy of it?”
“The detective. I can convince him to erase it.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t, but you can check when you get the phone.”
“And if I let James go, what’s to stop you from staying in ghosted form and double-crossing me?”
“That one’s tricky. How about we both set down our crystals and step away from them?”
“Don’t do it, Emelynn,” James said. “He can’t be trusted. You know that.”
“I accept your deal,” Sebastian said. “You may go, James.”
“Emelynn? What are you doing!” James shouted.
“James, please. Go. Quickly.”
“He’s going to kill you.”
“He’s going to try.” I re-formed. Sebastian had too much pride to renege on his word in front of James. “Please, James. I love you, and I’m sorry for everything, but you have to go.”
James fisted his hands. “Damn it, Emelynn!” His mouth was a thin, hard line when he spun away from me and nearly took the rooftop door off its hinges. It slammed shut behind him.
Now I had to stall for time because I had no doubt that all I’d bargained for was a head-start for James. Sebastian would go after him.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No need. James is of no consequence to me. Now hand me your phone.”
“Crystals first.” I put my hand in my pocket and unclasped the case. The crystal came loose in my fingers. I removed it from my pocket and showed it to Sebastian. He freed his from his leather glove and held it like I held mine.
“Set it down and step away from it,” I said. We locked gazes as we each bent to the rooftop and released our crystals. It felt like an old western movie as we each slowly, and in sync, stepped away.
“Your phone.”
I pulled it out but made no move to hand it over. “What is it about me that brings out the worst in you?”
“You’re an irritant. A fraud.”
“And you’re a consummate politician. An irritant like me should be a piece of fluff on your lapel.”
“You are unworthy of Jolene’s gift. What she did, gifting you, was unconscionable. It goes against the natural order. Her gift belonged with one of us. Instead, she threw it away. Gave it to the non-Gifted, to the prey. It’s an insult. You were never the hunter, Emelynn. That was an inside joke. You were always the prey.”
“No wonder you hate me. How it must have galled you to think your fate would be delivered to the Tribunal on the wings of prey, Sebastian.”
“Thankfully, that travesty has been averted. The phone,” he said, holding out his hand.
He’d take his shot at me the moment I released the phone. But if he did it too early, the phone might not survive his jolt. “You’ve got a serious case of god complex. There’s treatment for that.”
I pulled out my phone and offered it to him.
“What’s the code to unlock it?”
My gaze flicked a few degrees to the right and behind Sebastian’s head. James had come up behind him with his gun drawn. I hadn’t intended to give him away, but he’d surprised me. Sebastian saw the movement of my eye.
Though I’d started to ghost, I hadn’t made it far enough when Sebastian’s jolt hit me. The pain was instant and crippling.
I remember seeing the astonishment on Sebastian’s face a split second before his head kicked sideways.
I remember seeing the flash from James’s gun as his shot entered Sebastian’s temple.
I remember the agony of dying.
