Page 93 of The Black Trilogy

Nick had made coffee for everyone. Mack appeared on screen next to Nate, and she didn’t look any cheerier than he did. Marvellous.

Mack was Mackenzie Fox, a flame-haired former CIA agent who’d been with us for almost a decade. She was a year older than me and certainly saner. I took a seat and leaned back, trying to separate the story I was about to tell from the emotions underlying it. My voice flat, I rehashed the chain of events from the funeral onwards.

When I’d finished, Dan rolled her chair next to mine and hugged me.

“You stupid woman, you didn’t have to run away. We’d have been all right.”

I looked up at the others.

Nick’s face was blank, and Mack rose to her feet. “I’ve got work to do.”

I watched her back as she walked off.

Then Nate took his turn to make me feel worse. “I thought we’d taught you better than to run away from your problems. Our problems. We’re supposed to be a team. What happened to the real Emmy? The stubborn witch who faced up to her enemies and never flinched?”

“I don’t know what happened, okay? My head was messed up, and I couldn’t think straight. I still can’t think straight. Nothing makes sense. I didn’t want to risk you guys getting hurt, not when I’d already lost my husband. I’m sorrier than I can put into words. Now I’ve come to my senses, I realise how stupid I was.”

“Promise you won’t do anything that dumb again, yeah?”

He seemed to have come round, just a little. The band circling my chest loosened infinitesimally.

“I promise. No more running.”

“So, what are you planning to do with the murder investigation now?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You’re going to let them get away with it?”

Uh oh. He was back to angry again.

“For the moment. My head’s not completely back in the game yet. Going all out to find who was behind it won’t bring the dead back to life, but it may make us lose more. We can’t let a need for revenge blind us so we fail to factor in the possible cost.”

“Well, at least that sounds more like the old Emmy. The one who looked at everything objectively.”

The old me. Who was that girl, and would I ever find her again? The one who never lost her head. The one who weighed up all the options before selecting the one that would give the most advantageous result, no matter how difficult it may be, or how strange the choice might seem to others. The one who was a dispassionate, cold-hearted robot.

Tonight, I channelled her. “That’s my decision.”

Nate leaned back in his chair, face dark as a storm cloud on a winter’s day. “We’ll respect it.” Without a doubt, those words were hard for him to say. “But you should know everyone hopes you’ll change your mind.”

With that parting shot, Nate signed off for the night, saying he’d find Mack and get her to contact the UK team directly to assist. He didn’t need to tell me how upset she was—I’d seen that for myself.

Time to get some sleep, or at least, to lie down and stare at the ceiling. Dan gripped my hand as we walked upstairs while Nick stomped off in front. Hopefully, he’d feel more charitable towards me in the morning.

I yawned as I headed towards my bedroom, which was far from everyone else’s. Part of me wanted to stay up and do something, but Nye had it under control. I was back in a team now. Enough people were working overnight already, and I’d be more use after a few hours’ rest.

I’d get up first thing to sharpen my claws.

CHAPTER 29

LUKE TURNED HIS head slowly from side to side, his neck stiff. The pillow was soft, the mattress firm. It smelled different to normal—something floral. He cracked an eyelid open. Since when did he have a pale pink duvet? Nope, definitely not his bed. Where was he?

Sunlight spilled between the half-closed curtains, and he squinted at the brightness. Was it morning or afternoon? Luke didn’t know the day of the week, let alone how he got there or even what country he’d landed up in. His mind blurred around the edges.

Through the window, buildings clad in cream stonework with grey slate roofs stood out against the blue sky. The occasional purr of a car rolling past told him he was within reach of civilisation, at least.

He tried to get up, but his head had other ideas. A wrecking ball pounded inside, doing its worst. Giddiness overcame him, the room spinning as he sank back onto the mattress, but when he closed his eyes, the events of yesterday slowly, slowly trickled into his brain. That awful walk through the woods with the bagful of money. The brief conversation with the man who took Tia. Then his memory went fuzzy again.

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