Page 10 of Mortal Heart

That done, she sent texts to a couple of potential sources offering a cash reward for information on Ace. Ronan might have cultivated some connections in his short time in the city, but he probably didn’t have nearly as many as she did. Besides, she wanted to get a lead first, just on principle.

A familiar cold sensation prickled on the back of her neck just before a voice she knew all too well piped up from behind her. “What in the sleazy dive-bar hell happened to you?” Malcolm demanded. Arkady could hear him, since he’d shared magic with her in the past, but only Alice could see him. “And where the heck’s your shirt?” he added.

“Over there somewhere, covered in broken glass and tequila.” She waved her hand in the general direction of her discarded shirt. “Need your help, Ghost Boy.”

He snorted. “Clearly.”

“Oh, cram it.”

Several cars had come and gone since Ronan went inside, but at the moment Arkady was the only person in the lot.Time to get that girl out of the trunk, she thought.Goodness knows what she thinks has been going on for the past fifteen minutes or so.

She crouched by the back bumper. “Hi there,” she said, making her voice as warm and nonthreatening as possible. “I know you’re scared. Can you hear me?”

The girl in the trunk didn’t reply. Her kidnappers had probably threatened to hurt her if she made a sound. She might think this was a trick to get her to violate their rules.

“My name is Anna,” Arkady continued. No one involved in the situation needed her real name, just in case they didn’t sweep up all loose ends. “Anna Whitman” was one of her usual pseudonyms. She’d chosen it in honor of the lead actress from her favorite vampire television show and her second-favorite American poet.

Ronan probably didn’t want his real name used either, so she needed to give him a fake name too. Her mouth quirked. “My friendJohnnyand I are going to get you out of there and make sure you get somewhere safe,” she added. “I’m going to unlock the trunk now, but stay put until I make sure the coast is clear.”

Still no answer. The girl had no reason to trust Arkady, or anyone else, for that matter.

She slid the key into the lock, turned it, and started to raise the trunk lid. Something knocked the trunk lid out of her hand. In the same moment Arkady realized the girl had kicked it open, a hard metal object came flying out of the trunk and hit her square in the face with enough force to make her stumble. The missile turned out to be an unopened can of cheap beer.

A thin, red-haired teenager in a T-shirt and shorts, her hands cuffed in front of her, tried to get out of the trunk. She lost her balance, fell, and landed in the gravel at Arkady’s feet with a muffled yelp. Duct tape covered her mouth and wrapped all the way around her head. She hadn’t been able to pull it off, or hadn’t had time.

The girl, who looked to be about seventeen, took one look at Arkady’s furious, bloody face and started screaming. Thankfully the tape muffled the sound or everyone in a half-mile radius would have heard the racket.

“Well, this is going about as well as I’d imagined it would,” Malcolm said.

“Son of a bitch.” Arkady spat out blood and kicked the beer can under another car. She found some fast food napkins in the back seat that looked clean, held them to her mouth, and crouched. “Stop hollering,” she snapped. “I told you I’m trying to get you out of this mess. I know you don’t know who I am, but if I was with the assholes who kidnapped you, I would give you a good whack for hitting me with that beer can instead of helping you.”

The girl stopped screaming, but her red-rimmed eyes remained wide and terrified. Her breathing came fast and shallow. She wiped her runny nose with her cuffed hands and sniffled.

Arkady’s split lip had already begun to swell. That beer can had done some damage. Her injury would probably bleed for a while, but at least she hadn’t ended up with a broken nose.Small favors, as Alice would have said. She folded the napkins the other way and put them back to her mouth.

“Good move, by the way,” she added, making her tone conversational. “Caught me by surprise. It might have even worked if you’d been able to run instead of just belly-flop out of the car like a carp falling into a rowboat.”

The girl let out a half-laugh, half-hiccup, and sniffled again.

“We’ve already taken care of those two jokers who had you, but we gotta get moving before any of their friends show up. So I’m going to take off that duct tape and we’re gonna hustle out of here, okay?”

The girl shook her head and scooted back against the car’s rusty bumper. Arkady sighed.

“I know it’s not one of your top skills, but you gotta be more sympathetic and less threatening,” Malcolm said. The girl couldn’t hearorsee him, which was just as well, Arkady thought, given her mental state.

“Iamsympathetic,” she muttered.

“Well, try not glowering like you’re about to turn into an eldritch god and eat her.”

She reached behind her back, where the girl couldn’t see, and extended her middle finger.

“Yeah, okay.” The ghost snorted. “Real mature, Cthulhu.”

“Look.” Arkady ignored him and tried to look more friendly. “Like I said, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I really am trying to help you. If you don’t want to take my word for it, I can show you the bodies of the two men who kidnapped you. My friend Johnny and I made sure they won’t mess with you or anyone else ever again.”

The girl’s eyes widened into saucers.

“Maybe telling her you just killed two people wasn’t the best idea,” Malcolm said. His cold presence moved closer to her right shoulder. She’d gotten better at sensing where he was when he lurked nearby. “Especially if you want her to trust you. And who the hell is Johnny, and why would you ever hang out with someone namedJohnny?”

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