Erin got back into the car, not looking any happier than when she’d left. Grimmer, in fact. I snorted. Should have known her ‘nice guy’ approach wouldn’t get anywhere. There was only one thing that bastard Chop understood. And she’d stopped me from having a heart to heart with him yesterday. Bet she was regretting it now.
“She’s not there,” Erin announced, strapping in. “Things have got worse for them since Matt… since yesterday. I think we can count on the girl Razor to help us get Feeble out, but that’s all.”
“Goddamn,” Dev muttered.
“I gave her my card. Hopefully she’ll call when Feeble and Chop get back. Until then, it’s a waiting game.”
“Great,” I said. “Another stakeout. The last one ended so well.”
Erin started the car.
“Why are we leaving?” I demanded. This wasn’t how a stakeout was done.
“We can’t wait here. Chop might see us when he comes back. I don’t want to endanger any of them. Razor will call.” It was said with conviction.
“Now what?” Dev asked.
I sneered at the back of his ridiculous head. Suddenly, he was all cooperative and meek. No more rushing off to do his own thing now he was ‘working’ with Erin. If he touched her…
“Perhaps a visit to Kermit,” Erin suggested cautiously. “Maybe he can find another place the sorcerer has been.”
There was a lot of grinding silence from the front passenger seat, then Dev nodded. “Let’s do it. It’s about our only option.”
“Well,” I drawled a couple of turns later, “it’s not our only option.”
After a small moment, Erin said, “You are not allowed to go back to that house, Matt.”
So fucking typical. Always assuming the worst. Christ. She might as well be my mother.
“That wasn’t what I was talking about,” I said with a clenched jaw.
“Then what?” she asked, not quite keeping the snap from her tone.
It took some effort, but I didn’t bite. “Sunset.”
“What?” Dev looked from her to me and back. “What about sunset?”
Erin concentrated on the road. “Are you sure, Matt?”
Oh wow. Four words that contained an entire diatribe about all the things that could go spectacularly wrong, all because it was me. “It’s the only option. She’s the only who hasn’t hurt or betrayed Feeble.”
Dev focused on Erin. “Who’s she?”
Go on, I dared her silently. Tell him.
“She’s Mercy,” Erin said. “Matt’s partner. She’s the one who got the monkey from Feeble.”
“Great. Let’s use that connection.”
Connection? I rolled my eyes.
Erin shook her head. “I don’t know, Matt. What if she’s not… up for it?”
“Stop pretending like you care about her,” I snarled.
Another flash of confusion and worry from Dev. Jeez. Couldn’t we just dump the bastard? What good was he going to be now? Thankfully, he didn’t add any more dumb questions to the conversation.
“Fuck you, Matt,” Erin ground out. “I do care.”
I let the lie slide right past me. “Just turn the car around. By the time we get home it’ll almost be dark.”
Without another word, Erin did as I said. For once.
No one said anything more the entire way. Not verbally at least. With every shift in his seat, Dev expressed his confusion and anxiety. Each flex of Erin’s fingers on the steering wheel told me just what she was thinking. That I was off the rails, out of control. That I was wrong.
If I’d cared, I’m sure none of us would have made it out to the ’Cliffe.
As it was, we made it just as the sun sunk over the horizon. Erin pulled into my driveway, easing up behind a sight for sore eyes.
My Monaro, back from purgatory at long fucking last. Roberts had argued a rather good angle for keeping it until I replaced his Prado. I had, naturally, agreed with his logic. Hadn’t stopped me from then coaxing him into letting me borrow it tonight.
The good thing about loaning my car to Roberts was that, no matter what he personally thought about makes and models, he was very precious when it came to any car. Thus the black paint on the Monaro gleamed. It was polished to the point of looking white where the light hit it right. So damn shiny, in fact, it made Charles’ new car look like a dried up blood stain. The car he was currently buffing with furious little circles of the sheep-wool pad.
I snickered.
It must have had tones of evil about it because Erin twisted around and said, warningly, “Matt.”
“Whatevs,” I muttered and got out of the car.
Charles looked up, and all the anger he’d been misdirecting at his car suddenly found its true home. Me. He tossed the polishing cloth down and stalked toward me.
“Hawkins, that is absolutely the last time you leave anything of yours with my wife,” he snapped. “That rotten beast has run wild all through—”
“Oh, shut the fuck up, Charles.”
That stopped him dead in his tracks. He stared at me, completely nonplussed. Apparently, no one had ever talked straight to him in his entire life. Just as he was stammering his way back up to righteous indignation, Mercy woke up. The link between us opened and things began to flow. My irritation with Charles washed over her, and her healthy, healed everything came back the other way.
“You have no right—” he began.
“No,” I ground out. All the years of being subjected to Charles’ snarky, petty thoughts about me blended with Mercy’s keener sense of his layers of contempt and jealousy and confusion and resulted in, “You have no right. What gives you the right to sit in your perfect house, with your boat and your stupid car and your tiny dick that doesn’t even work properly—” Don’t ask me how I know that. “—and judge me? For Christ’s sake, you moron, you have no idea what’s going on in your own fucking home because you’re too bloody busy trying to perve on Mercy, or find out if I’m screwing her, or if I’m part of a cult or something. How many more toys are you going to have to buy, Charles, before your pathetically small brain works it out?”
He was spluttering and trying to look outraged, but it’s hard when you’re finally hearing the truth.
Behind me, Dev was scrambling out of the car, but I gestured and he was pushed back with a wave of telekinesis. He hit the car with a grunt more about shock than pain.
“Matthew!”
Dear Lord. Not her as well.
“Don’t, Erin. Just… don’t.”
For a fucking wonder, she listened and held back.
Now, back to Charles. He’d taken the chance to back off, to start to head for the house, probably to call the cops. Because he wasn’t the sort to deal with his own problems. I mean, Sue’d had to sort out his… performance issues. And he bought expensive crap rather than admit what was really missing from his life.
“Stop right there.” I waved and he tripped up.
Charles hit the grass on hands and knees, panting in fright.
“Charlie!”
“Stay inside,” he shouted at Sue frantically. “Call the cops. Hurry!”
“No, Sue,” I said, stalking over. “Stay. This won’t take long.”
She stood in the doorway, behind the security screen. The monkey was on her shoulder, bouncing up and down and squealing. He clutched at the screen, rattling the door. Pale and shaking, Sue tried to hold him back.
I stood next to Charles, looking down at him. What a complete wimp. I almost stopped right then. He wasn’t worth it.
But Sue was.
Crouching, I lowered my voice so only he could hear me. “Are you really that self-obsessed, Charles, that you would ignore your wife’s wants and needs in favour of your own? Is that why you keep buying all these pointless things? The boat, the car. Is that all you care about? Status? The image?”
He shook his head in mute denial.
“Then what is it? Huh? What’s keeping you from listening to Sue? Why do you keep putting her off, saying you’ll talk about it later, in a year, in two?” I gave him some silence in which to answer, but he didn’t. “I know why. Do you want me to tell Sue?”
“You… you don’t know anything about it.”
I leaned in close. “Don’t I? Isn’t that what you’re afraid of? Isn’t that what goes through your mind every time you see me? How much does Hawkins know? Does he know I’m worried my wife likes him a bit too much? Does he know I’m jealous of his life? No wife, no ties, no responsibilities. No one to impress, and fail.”
He was shaking now, head hanging.
“Do you want to know something else I know?”
His head shook vehemently.
“Too bad. I’m going to tell you. For some inconceivable reason, your wife loves you. Enough to help you over your… little problem. Enough to smile when you play on your boat, or polish your car. Enough that she can do that while you ignore her.”
I don’t know if he was crying, but it looked like it. Still, when I grabbed him under the arm and hauled him back to his feet, his eyes were red but dry.
Somewhere, deep inside, I felt bad. Sick.
“Go inside,” I said to him, giving him a small shove in that direction. “Go in there, let Sue talk and listen.”
Charles took a shaky step forward, then ran. Sue had the door open for him, arms ready to catch him.
Marcel bounded out and scampered to me. He clambered up my leg, then arm and wound himself around my neck, chittering excitedly.
Sue glared at me over Charles’ head. Yeah, I don’t think Charles had anything to worry about on that score anymore. Not that he ever had, but the insecure jerk would never have figured it out on his own.
The wooden door slammed shut, cutting me off from them.
Not that I’d ever be free of them, so long as they lived so close. The curse of a psychic.
When I turned around, Dev was looking at me like I’d dropped off the bottom of his boot after a swagger through the cow paddock. Erin actually had her gun out. Pressed to her side, but in her hand.
“Jesus,” I muttered as I headed into my house, “anyone would think you though I was going to kill him.”
Erin gave a short, strangled gasp.
Somewhat warily, they both came inside after me. Not until Erin had held Dev back and had a whispered conference by the car, though. Did she really think I wouldn’t pick up on the intent, if not the actual words?
As if, even acting together, they could get me into Mercy’s cage and lock me in.
“Matt,” Erin said. “What was that all about?”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “That was about someone finally giving Charles a wakeup call. Trust me, he’s been begging for one for a long time now. He treats Sue like shit and she deserves better than that.”
Woops. Wrong thing to say.
Erin stared at me, wide-eyed and understanding. She put the gun away and secured it. “How long?”
I swallowed hard. “Since the sun set.”
She nodded. “Did you know?”
“Maybe. Suspected.” I patted Marcel, who was content to groom my hair in silence. Had I still been Evil Matt, I’m sure the little man wouldn’t have even bothered flinging anything my way, much less sit calmly on my shoulder.
Erin just shook her head at me. “So you decided to pretend to still be… bad, and give him the talking to.” Clearly, she wasn’t at all impressed.
Dev sighed. “Suspected what?”
From Mercy’s room came a rattle of bars. “Matt!”
“That,” I said to Dev. Which didn’t help him understand, just made him frown deeper. “Come on.” I waved him after me. “Let’s see how this goes.”
I went to Mercy’s room. Dev followed, Erin trailing.
“Hang back a bit,” I said. “I’m not sure how she’ll react to a sorcerer.”
Inside her cage, Mercy was up and at the bars. The neck brace was discarded on the floor and she looked to be in fine fettle.
“Matt! Look, all good!” She bounced, happily tossing her head around to show me how hale and hearty she was. Which made Marcel bounce on my shoulder and clap, chattering right back at her.
“Why’s she in a cage?” Dev asked, bringing himself to Mercy’s attention.
In an instant, she went from happy to homicidal. She was at the bars of the cage in the blink of a terrified eye, snarling at Dev and rattling two inch thick steel bolted into a cement base.
“Well,” I said as the vampire went bonkers, “this is just swell.”