“You obviously know who I am,” Judith said, her gaze flicking over me as I leaned against the wall. Her eyes rested for a moment on the gun still in my hand before going back to my face.
“This is a lot of theatre for a meeting,” I said, waving my empty left hand at the door and then Cecilia where she sat silently on the loveseat.
“If you couldn’t get past my men, you weren’t worth talking to,” Judith said. “I haven’t exactly had reason to believe you could live up to your reputation so far.”
I pressed my lips into a line to keep from baring my teeth at her. “What exactly is my reputation?”
“You aren’t unknown in certain circles, Kira Jones,” she answered with a tight smile. “Drop enough bodies and people put things together.”
I lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. Always the delicate balance when trying to earn a living fixing people’s problems between being effective enough to get referrals for more business and being effective enough that nobody drops the law, shifter or human, on your head.
“Sure,” I said. “What I’m missing is the connection between you two.” I glanced at Cecilia who looked toward Judith instead of meeting my gaze.
As sideways as this job had gone, I still had no doubt in my mind that Cecilia had been telling the truth about Marcus Cross, which meant she’d hired me to kill the only child of the woman currently standing a few feet away from me. That was what I couldn’t put together. If Judith Cross wanted her child dead, she appeared to have ample access and man power to send him on a permanent vacation. There were puzzle pieces missing here, and I wasn’t the Brainiac to shove them together. I almost wished I’d phoned the twins before coming in, as I could only imagine they’d be saying very intelligent things in my ear right now, putting it all together for me.
“I suggested Cecilia hire you,” Judith said. “Oh, not directly of course,” she added as Cecilia opened her mouth and made a noise of protest. “I was trying to stay out of this.”
This time I did bare my teeth, annoyed by the things not being said.
“This being the murder of your only child,” I said flatly.
Judith didn’t quite flinch but her chin lifted slightly and her nostrils flared.
“Cecilia, please give us a few minutes.”
Cecilia jumped up like a spring had uncoiled inside her. “I didn’t know,” she said to me as she moved to leave the room. “Please don’t hold this against my aunts.” Her dark blue eyes searched my face.
“Worry about that later,” I said. “After I have some answers.”
Cecilia nodded and left the room. I waited until I heard her footsteps retreat into silence before motioning to Judith.
“Sit,” I said. “Let’s hear about why you want your son dead but are too cowardly to do it yourself.”
“It’s complicated.” Judith folded her arms and leaned against the desk once more, ignoring my gesture, though her eyes flicked again to my gun.
“So explain it. Use small words if you need to. I’ve got all night.”
“Please put your gun away,” she said. “I can’t stand the things.”
“You’re a mob boss and you hate guns?”
“I’m the wife of a mob boss, and yes, I hate guns. People tend to feel inclined toward stupidity when they have a gun in their hand.”
The floors in this building were concrete, footsteps echoed unless someone was trying very hard to stealth, so I doubted I’d miss anyone coming down the hallway, especially if they came with any urgency. I took the risk and holstered my Glock but stayed standing to the side of the door, my back to the wall, where anyone coming through the door wouldn’t have good line of sight on me and I’d have ample time to react at close quarters.
“Thank you,” Judith said in a tone that was void of actual gratitude. “To answer your question, I cannot kill my son because I already tried once and failed. Another attempt, successful or not, would likely result in my death. My husband is aware of my feelings and he has me watched, though I like to believe I’ve somewhat allayed his suspicions by now.”
“You truly want to kill your only child?” I asked.
“I love him, I do love him,” she repeated as I raised my eyebrows. “But my son is a monster, and I believe the world will be better without him. What does it matter to you, anyway? You’ve already taken the job.”
“Cecilia’s motives I understand. Her life or his, simple math. But you?” I shook my head. “You are free enough to come here, have men who you trust to keep secrets, have connections like the police officer who gave the Rivers my contact info, and yet you go through all this convoluted nonsense to take out someone you gave birth to? What do you care if he terrorizes or kills one woman? A woman who is nobody to you.”
“Nine,” Judith said, the word slicing through my questions. “Not one woman. Nine. That I know of. He murdered the first when he was fourteen. We passed it off as a boating accident, but those weren’t accidental scratches on his arms and the fall from our yacht did not cause the bruising on her neck and thighs.”
“How many people have your mob underlings killed? Your husband? You, even?”
“That’s different,” Judith said. She paced a few steps to the loveseat and then back to the desk. I tracked her movement with my eyes, my ears still half-focused on the hallway beyond the door. “When someone engages in smuggling or theft or dealing drugs, for example, there’s an expectation of danger. An assumption of risk. Take you, you know that you could be hurt or killed while doing what you do.”
“But your son doesn’t target criminals,” I said, following her attractively flawed logic. It was somewhat the same family as the justifications I used with the twins whenever they got on my case about being too murder-happy.
“They are just women, lovely, intelligent women going about their lives who don’t see the monster beneath his rich, handsome exterior until it is too late. And everything that we are, that our family has, enables him.”
“Your husband isn’t worried that your son will fuck up too badly someday? Bring heat on you?”
“No,” she said with a sigh. “He’s blind when it comes to Marcus. Thinks it is a phase he’ll grow out of, sowing his wild oats and all. I tried to tell him about Epicyon working with our son, get him to see it from a business angle, but he won’t listen. And ever since the first failed assassination, Dillon, my husband, suspects me. Watches me.”
“Epicyon?” I asked, though I had a feeling that this was one of the puzzle pieces. The twins had said that someone was encroaching on the Cross empire. I could almost feel the puzzle drifting into shape as she spoke.
“None of that matters,” Judith said with a wave of her hands. “I wanted this meeting because clearly you need help.”
“You aren’t worried that when he ends up dead, you might look suspicious?” I asked, ignoring for the moment that I had no intention of following this job through anymore. Their fucked up family dynamics fascinated me.
“I plan to blame Epicyon, since Marcus has been doing deals with them behind our backs. My every move, well, almost, is tracked. My husband might want to suspect, but he’ll have nothing. None of this will trace to me.”
“Too bad I’m not going to do it,” I said.
“You fail once and you are done? This is not what I’ve heard about you,” Judith said, shock evident in her tone. “I know his security is good, perhaps better than you expected, but I can help you.”
I wondered if she was so desperate for it to be me, a lone gun for hire as far as she knew, because she had no intention of letting me walk away after, but I kept that suspicion to myself. Her explanations for why she needed someone outside of their organization made sense enough. If she thought she could double-cross me and take me out easily after, I was ready to disappoint.
But it didn’t change my stance. There were still wolves involved and I wanted no part of that.
“There are factors in this I didn’t know or I would have turned it down,” I said. “You want your son dead this badly? Clean up your own mess.” I stood up straight and moved toward the door. I didn’t look forward to telling Cecilia she was going to have to run for a while, but it was what it was.
“Wait, please!” Desperation cracked Judith’s voice. “My husband will kill me, but it’s more than that. I know what you are, what you can do.”
I changed direction, moving across to Judith until I loomed over her. She was tall for a human woman, around five foot ten or eleven, and she stared up at me, almost hiding the fear in her eyes. I could smell it on her beneath her expensive perfume.
“Do you?” I asked, my voice a soft growl.
“Yes,” she said. “And I know that Epicyon, their people, they aren’t human either. My husband refuses to believe, he thinks they are just well connected, but there’s a reason our people disappear, that we’ve been entirely unable to stop them encroaching. Nothing short of full on war against them will work, will it? Overwhelming force.”
Overwhelming force was about the only tool that humans had against shifters, that was true. We are stronger, heal faster, far longer lived, but we breed slowly and our numbers aren’t the seething masses, unlike humans. Humans were fragile creatures but exceptionally good at breeding and at inventing more and more ways to kill things.
“What if I’d succeeded tonight?” I asked her.
“If our son died while under the protection of those people, while with them, my husband would have no choice but to retaliate.” Judith folded her arms across her chest and took a short step back, putting as much distance between us as she could.
“And Cecilia?”
“If my son is dead, she’s safe. Her family is not no one, no matter what you assumed. Her aunts are loved by the community here, they’ve done more to help youth in the city than almost anyone with this arts and community center. It would be a tragedy for them to disappear.”
There was no mistaking the threat in her words, the promise that if I didn’t do something about her son, not just Cecilia would be in danger. I had to give her credit for still spitting threats when I was close enough to break her neck before she could blink again if I felt inclined.
And I was starting to feel real inclined.
“So to be completely clear, you want me to kill your son and start a war between your family and this Epicyon organization?”
“Yes,” Judith said. “And I have the perfect opportunity for you to do it, which is why this little meeting was necessary. Some things are better said in person, no trail behind them.”
I moved back to my place against the wall by the door, taking a moment to think. Her shoulders relaxed, showing she wasn’t as smart as she pretended if she thought the threat had passed just because I was a few more feet away. I believed she knew I wasn’t human, though I wasn’t entirely convinced she truly understood what that meant. I also believed she wanted her son stopped; the emotion in her voice and horror in her eyes when she’d spoken about his crimes wasn’t faked. She’d seen up close what he was capable of and the results of it, and she’d realized her motherly love had conditions after all.
In the plus column for following through with this job, I had the satisfaction of knowing I’d taken out a bit of human scum, saved the pretty girl, and potentially preserved my chances of getting some gratitude sex from her hot aunt. Also I figured I could extort a bit of money from mommy dearest here if I truly cared. And I’d probably get to murder a few more wolves along the way.
In the negative column, the wolf pack. The Council of Nine might get involved if a wolf pack and a human crime syndicate went to war, which could blow back onto me and mine. There were a lot of rumors flying around about how the Council was broken, inactive, Justices disappearing, but I wasn’t about to put too big a wager on it. Like my life. A glimmer of an idea bloomed in my head. Wolf shifters followed Alphas, a pack organized and strong enough to challenge a human crime org would have a strong Alpha. If I could kill two birds… I pushed the thought away for later.
Also in the negative column was the little problem of Judith knowing what I was. If I didn’t take the job, the safest course of action for me was to kill her, since she had admitted her husband didn’t believe in the supernatural and she was doing all this behind his back. Killing her would mean I’d have to take out the four men here with her, since at least one had seen my face and they were likely to be loyal to her if she trusted them with this meeting.
Which meant I’d have to do something about Cecilia. She was just a human, and likely one on a short lifeline anyway since Marcus Cross would kill her sooner than later given what I’d learned about him. But if I left her and her aunts alive, they were a trail that could lead to me if someone motivated enough started pulling strings. I’d have to get the name of the cop who made the referral as well. Messy options, high body count likely either way.
Walking away without tying up potential loose ends one way or another was playing with proverbial fire. I could almost hear the twins saying “I told you so” in my ear and was glad I hadn’t called in. Some decisions I had to make alone, since most of the blood either way would be on my hands.
“I don’t like my options,” I said after realizing I’d been staring at Judith for some minutes.
She relaxed her arms and splayed her hands. “Please,” she said again, as though that word had some magical power to compel me. “We can all get what we want.”
“As long as you get what you want,” I said.
I took a deep breath. In the end it came down to simple math. If I refused the job, walking away safely meant killing Cecilia, who I didn’t want to kill. I saw leaving her to be killed as essentially the same, if she wouldn’t run.
Continuing with the job meant getting to kill people I was happy to kill. More dangerous, perhaps, more risk. But also more potential fun.
“Fine. I’ll do your dirty work. You say there’s a perfect opportunity? Tell me the details.”
Though as Judith started talking, outlining her plan, I realized things were about to get wild, and the twins were going to kill me if this plan didn’t first.