Page 18 of Death Wish

That was all Kay and I needed to know. We followed Cole out of the shop but didn’t get too far because of the raging storm. Kay paused on the sidewalk, instantly soaked from the harsh rain. Glancing back at the broken glass door and the visible inside, her shoulders slumped forward, and she wrapped her arms tighter around herself.

My chest ached for her. The man she loved had just attacked her. And apparently, now possessed by a demon, wanted to come back to finish the job.

Her shop was wrecked. All her hard work, ruined. It was going to take a lot of money and time to get the place back to the colorful and welcoming esthetic that drew customers in.

I reached out to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulder, but then I noticed my ungloved hand and stopped myself. That was definitely a mistake I would never forgive myself for. I shoved my hands in my pockets instead.

Cole led the way to the side of the shop, to the alley where I had originally found him unconscious. He walked straight for one of the knocked-over trash bins and grabbed a ripped, navy-blue backpack that had been hidden behind it.

“So,” I started, spotting my leather glove on the ground. I picked it up and slipped it back on. “I have a lot of questions that need answers.”

He reached into his bag, pulled out a wrapped umbrella, and handed it to Kay. She took it shyly with a nod of thanks and pushed it open.

“We need to get uptown,” he said. “We’ll take my Jeep. It’s parked right around the corner here.” As Cole began striding ahead of us, Kay and I exchanged looks. She didn’t need to say a word. Her expression said everything. She was wondering if we should trust him. Honestly, I was wondering the same thing.

“What’s uptown?” I asked.

“A safe house for…”

“Kay,” she answered.

“Right.”

Kay waited for him to follow up with his name, but when he didn’t, I took it upon myself.

“His name is Cole Masters. He’s a paid assassin. Which brings me to my next question. What was that thing you shot me with? How did it not fly through me like the first one?” I glanced at my shoulder again. The wound was smaller, but the skin was black around the edges and still stung.

He walked over to the mouth of the alley and peeked over his shoulder. His face was all cold seriousness, but his eyes… A silent challenge shined in them. “I have some questions for you myself, but we’ll get to all that in the car.”

I didn’t know if I wanted to go into a car with an assassin half-demon with weapons that could actually hurt me, and I definitely didn’t want to risk Kay’s life at all. But when Cole started walking down the street, we followed. Did we have any other choice really? Cole knew about demons. I sure as hell didn’t. He even knew the demon’s real name. Xaver. They’d seemed to have history together.

That didn’t ease my nerves any, but Cole had weapons and not just any weapons. They were ones that could wound a spirit. I didn’t know such a thing existed. I believed him when he said Kay was in danger. I witnessed it for myself in how Laurence went after her in the shop. Cole could protect her better than I could. All I could do was touch the demon again, and although the light show had been enough to scare Xaver off before, who knew if I’d be able to get close enough to lay a hand on him the next time.

Kay stayed close behind me. She held the umbrella over the both of us. Even though the rain couldn’t touch me, I didn’t stop her. The gesture was heartwarming in itself. It was so…human. As if she considered me alive, like her. It meant more to me than she could probably understand.

Cole’s Jeep was parked down a small side street. It was more on the sidewalk than on the actual blacktop. He made sure to park right underneath a sign that clearly stated No Parking Any Time.

The Jeep itself was a faded dark blue color and was scraped up pretty bad on the right side, as if someone had sideswiped him and drove off. The back light was broken, the canvas top was ripped in a few places, and there was a pretty big ding in the bumper. Definitely not what I expected from a notorious gun-for-hire. Killing people for a living had to earn him a pretty penny. He should have had the money to buy one of those luxury cars, or at least to fix this one up. It was ugly. Plain and simple.

He must have caught my expression because he said, “It runs fine. That’s all I need.”

“Right.” I tried to offer him a smile, but it came out more of a cringe.

As he opened the passenger door for Kay, I phased through the back and sat in the middle seat. Cole threw his backpack near me, and when he started the car, it made a terrible sputtering sound. He quickly shut it off and tried again. A few nasty clicks and it turned over, roaring loudly.

“How do you sneak up on your victims with this monster?” I asked.

Kay glanced over her shoulder at me nervously.

Cole pulled out of the small street and whipped onto one of the main roads, lights off, despite the pouring rain. “Victims? I prefer targets. Sounds nicer to the ear.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” I mumbled.

His reflection peered at me through the rearview mirror. “So, you said you had questions.”

“And you said you do, too.”

“How about we do a one-and-one kind of thing,” he started. “You ask one and then I’ll ask one. Seem fair?”

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