25. Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

N aturally, once S?ren knew about the looming confrontation, he insisted on being there. I figured it would be easier without him, but he thought, probably correctly, that since he was the one we were fighting over, he should have a say in our negotiations.

“Fine,” I said. “But keep your mouth shut for the most part, okay? Please? Because you’re not good at defusing these sorts of situations, and I think you know that.”

“Defusing such situations would be boring.” He smirked. “I much prefer when you fight over me.”

“And I much prefer to survive the negotiations, so don’t push it, okay?”

“I will think about it.” Which meant he was probably going to be a little shit. “Which of my brothers is coming?”

“Jakob.”

S?ren’s expression immediately perked up. “Really? That’s a compliment to you, Cillian. Jakob is ólafur’s best negotiator. It means he’s moved beyond just threatening you into trying to reason with you.”

I snorted. “Before he kills me regardless, you mean?”

“Obviously.”

“I’m flattered.” I was more than a little relieved, actually. I had no desire to see hide or hair of Art?r again, especially since he was probably still very put out over taking all those shots to the junk. And Rolf… “Why not the other brother?”

“Oh, Rolf is just a year older than me—he’s too young to have much influence with ólafur. Plus, he doesn’t speak very nuanced English. Jakob has a law degree from Oxford.”

Great. I got to bargain for my life with a lawyer. I’d never considered myself stupid, but occasionally I felt the weight of my lack of a formal education. The prospect of facing down a lawyer was a uniformly distasteful one. The second he brought up, I don’t know, probate or something, I was going to kick him in the face.

No, I wasn’t. But it was a nice thought to get me through the evening.

Jakob Egilsson pulled up in front of the La Quinta in a black SUV—naturally—an hour and a half later. He had two other men with him, both of them discreetly armed. Jakob himself was dressed in khakis and a nice button-down shirt, nothing that would stand out in the Southwest. He went through the rigamarole of getting a hotel room, speaking with barely a trace of an accent, and then came to meet me in the foyer not far from the front desk. If there had been an open meeting room, I would have taken it to keep things more private, but there wasn’t, and there was no way I was going to a bedroom with these people. Besides, I needed to be able to see outside.

Jakob looked between me and S?ren as he sat down across from us. “Little brother,” he said conversationally. “You look like you’re doing well.”

“Passable,” S?ren replied. “It certainly has been far more interesting with Cillian than it ever was with you.”

“That’s a shame. If I’d known how discontented you were becoming, I would have taken steps to alleviate it. You know we only want the best for you.”

“So I’ve been told. And yet you were not able to keep me, not even in the finery to which you’ve become accustomed. That is no way to win a battle, Jakob. Certainly no way to win a war. It is laziness, and ólafur cannot afford to become lazy, not with regards to me.”

“As you’ve so clearly demonstrated. However—”

“Hi,” I interjected, because that little game had gone on for long enough. “I’m sitting right here. I think you should probably talk to me at this point.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” Jakob replied, but he did at least look at me. “If S?ren felt free to make a bargain with you, then he is also free to bargain with me, as our father’s second. I’m merely cutting out the middleman.”

“You can’t.” That was S?ren, and he sounded more than a little gleeful. “Because I am the object you both desire, and bargains have been struck that gainsay neither of the original agreements. I am free to make new choices, but not with you, unless ólafur is indisposed. You are restricted to your father’s bargain, which means you cannot cajole me into coming with you. You must deal with Cillian.”

“You’re enjoying this way too much,” I told S?ren. He smiled at me and preened.

“It isn’t every day that wizards fight over a simple landv?ttir. I feel I should enjoy the moment.”

Jakob looked at me, really looked , and for a moment, I felt a weird kinship with him as we both briefly agreed on the fact that S?ren was a complete and utter drama queen.

“Fine,” he said. He resettled to face me, crossed his legs, and pulled out his phone. “If you would take a look at this, please.” He handed it over to me, and I felt my breath catch in my throat as I took in the picture he had pulled up. It was a brick building on a very familiar corner in Denver, and it was completely gutted by what had to have been a very fierce fire.

“You—”

“As I understand it, three bodies have been recovered so far. They’re still being identified, but at least one was female.”

I stared for another moment at the picture, getting my initial burst of fear and outrage under control, and then took a deep breath. “Well, arson is never nice, and I can’t say I approve, but I also happen to know you haven’t accomplished what you’re implying. Nice try, but I call bullshit.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Actually, I can know that. I’m a motherfucking soothsayer,” I snapped at him. “I can know a lot of things you’ve got no clue about, and that includes the fate of the occupants in that building. I also know that if by some terrible coincidence you have actually managed to take out either of the people I care about who live there, the Irish mob is going to come after you. You’re currently living in Chicago. It’s no Boston, but there is absolutely no shortage of people I can go to with this information who wouldn’t love to have an excuse to end you. So. Try again.”

Jakob smiled, actually smiled . Asshole. “Very clever, Mr. Kelly. Let me add that the fire wasn’t my idea. I greatly dislike collateral damage, but my brother couldn’t be gainsaid after your little stunt in St. Louis. He’s very, very angry at you.”

“Good thing I’m not negotiating with him then.”

“It is.” Jakob took his phone back. “You’re much better off with me, although not necessarily safer. I’m something of a scholar, Mr. Kelly. I do like my research. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to research you, but as you can see—” He waggled the picture of the fire. “I did manage to come up with a few gems. There isn’t much official information about you, but unofficially there’s a wealth of it. Not so much you individually, but—well, I had no idea your mother was such a desirable commodity.”

Oh boy. He went there. And he wasn’t finished. “You talk a good game about the Irish mob, but I’ve got to tell you I would be very surprised if you actually went to them with anything, either information or demands. They seem to have their own connections to a group called the Draoithe, although their name has been bastardized by English to be the Adroit. And they’re desperately interested in the whereabouts of your mother, Kelly. Funny, that you took her name for yours. Very respectful, but not very bright.”

“You don’t know where my mother is.” They couldn’t; there was no way, none. On the other hand, we couldn’t see into our own futures, and my mother preferred to be alone. If they’d found her…

“You think not?” He turned his phone to me again, and all it took was a glance before I realized that the map he’d pulled up had a dot on it, a dot that centered squarely on the little nowhere town my mother had taken refuge in. “My brothers, Mr. Kelly, they’re hunters. They track down their prey. They strive to understand its movements and anticipate what it will do next so they can stay one step ahead of it. Me, though? I’m a fisherman. I make it so that my prey comes to me, and I catch it by having just the right lure at just the right time.” He set his phone down. “You’ll tell me next that we haven’t actually found your mother yet, and you’re right. But we have found her home, and we are in contact with a member of the Adroit. You won’t end your deal with my brother for your adoptive mother, but will you for your own flesh and blood?”

He leaned forward. “She escaped their clutches once, with you in tow as a child. Do you think she could do it again? Do you think she’s strong enough now?”

I was frozen for a moment, utterly dumbstruck. Fear beat a frantic pattern inside my heart, and the urge to scream bloody murder and shoot Jakob right through his smug face was intense. I couldn’t back down, though. I knew I couldn’t, not now. Not even for my mother, who—if she was watching out for me, and she always was, then she’d seen signs of this possibility. I had to trust that she knew to take care of herself, and I had to respond before Jakob was emboldened enough to think he could stop talking and start taking. Not to mention S?ren sat stiff at my side now, wondering if I was going to fold like a paper fan. No. I couldn’t do it, and moreover, I was no one’s bitch.

I leaned forward, just far enough to catch the glimmer I was looking for. “Okay then. You want to press where it hurts? Let’s press where it hurts. You have two children.” Jakob started to sit back, but I reached out and grabbed his knee. “Don’t you fucking move,” I hissed at him. “And don’t think that this is the time for your guys to go for their guns, because it isn’t. This, right here? This is a conversation you need to listen to, and listen good, because it might save your life. Are you paying attention?” He didn’t say anything, but that was as good as a yes as far as I was concerned.

“You’ve got two children. Astrid is the youngest. She’s five, and she looks just like your beautiful wife. She’s your little darling, but it’s your son Michael who’s the apple of your eye. He’s ten, and you’re starting to worry because he’s having problems at school. He doesn’t have any friends, and his teachers say he has rage issues. This geas you guys carry, it doesn’t skip generations, but it does hit some more strongly, and right now you’re seeing it go after your son.

“Or you were, before you gave your brother away. S?ren was always your favorite, and it hurt, didn’t it, to watch him sink into the black lake and get this thing back, this creature that you don’t understand and don’t want to. You’d rather have nothing to do with him, nothing to remind you of your guilt.

“Too bad you ignored him, though, because now he’s with me, and you’re prepared to fight for him to keep your children safe, but you know , you know in your heart that it’s not that easy. You can threaten me, but you’re just as vulnerable because your wife doesn’t know the truth. You’ve never told her what’s at stake, and she’s in London with your children right now, and your father—” I laughed. “He doesn’t give a shit, does he? Not about your family. All he cares about is himself.”

I let go of Jakob and sat back. “Think about that balance of power for a moment, and then think about what you’re trying to do to me. Do you really feel like you’ve picked the winning side?” His future was muddled, too mixed with mine to see clearly, but there was a chance I’d be able to bend him my way, and I had to take it.

Jakob stared hard at me for a long moment before clearing his throat. “Peter, go,” he murmured, and one of the men nodded and went outside. I could see his outline through the glass, taking something out of the SUV.

“I have been instructed,” Jakob said very clearly, very distinctly, “to inform you that we will stop at nothing to get S?ren back. You had your opportunity to negotiate.” He pushed a button on his phone. “Your mother’s location is forfeit. I hope you had a chance to say good-bye to her.” And a second later, Peter the Henchman, gas can in hand, set the Elektra on fire.

I knew it was going to happen, but that didn’t make me any happier. Andre was going to murder me, and I deserved it.

S?ren seemed more upset by it than I was, actually.

“I liked that car!” he snapped. The front desk guy was already calling the cops, his voice a little panicked as he looked between the four of us and the growing conflagration outside. “It was comfortable and protective!”

“You can have a dozen such cars with us once you’re safely returned,” Jakob said. “Now, Mr. Kelly. Do you have anything else to try to surprise me with before I resort to measures that would make even Art?r turn his face away?”

“Actually, yes.” And oh, Roger’s timing was perfect. I hadn’t expected to see him in a freaking armored, military Humvee, complete with a turreted machine gun, but there he was, and it was a beautiful thing. I watched Peter stagger away from the Elektra, and then smirked as all three of Egilsson’s people watched while Roger got out of the armored car, saluted with his jaunty cowboy hat, and then threw something into their SUV. Five seconds after that, all the windows blew out, and the car rocked on its wheels while smoke billowed from its engine.

By the time Jakob and his second were looking at me again, I had my gun out and pointed at him. “Time to call it quits. Better luck with your negotiations next time.” I stood up and grabbed my duffel bag from behind the couch we were sitting on, and S?ren joined me a moment later. “You guys have a nice night.” I headed for the exit.

“Mr. Kelly.” Jakob sounded utterly serious. “I hope, for your sake, that you truly understand the moves you’re making. You have no second to speak for you if things go badly.”

“I know what I’m doing.” Mostly . “Enjoy Santa Rosa.”

“There they are!” Roger crowed as we came outside. Peter was nowhere to be seen, probably a smart move on his part. “Hell, I came dressed for a ball, and you gave me a middle-school dance instead, Cillian! One little grenade was all it took to keep ’em quiet.”

“Better to have the extra firepower and not need it than the other way around,” I said, and Roger smiled and smacked me on the back. “Nice car.”

“Thanks, it’s my wife’s! It fit well inside the cargo plane, and she wasn’t using it, so she let me borrow it.”

Holy shit, what kind of woman was he married to? Apparently the kind who put stars in his eyes and had fully equipped war machines at hand. I looked forward to meeting her.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“You got it, boys.”