Page 35 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
“It wasn’t Kate,” Mother denied. “She’s...she’s a nice girl”—before I could scoff and tell her nice didn’t mean squat when it came to murder and she damned well knew it, she went on—“and frankly, I don’t think she has the backbone for it. As you said, she didn’t find time to come see me. She wanted to, but wanting to warn someone they’re being betrayed and doing it are different. It takes a kind of fortitude I don’t think she has. Murder? Even more.”
And that? Was probably fair. Kate had seemed quite serious and earnest, which probably made her an excellent assistant, but that didn’t automatically translate into a massive amount of willpower.
“She’s a freeze,” I summarized.
“A what?”
I waved my hand in a forward spiral, ready to be finished with the conversation already. “Fight, flight, or freeze. She’s a freeze.”
“Ah. Yes, I would suppose so.” She leaned back in her chair. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t...I didn’t want to.”
Honest to a fault as usual, that was my mother. She probably also hadn’t wanted to confront the fact that their little plot had gotten Charles killed. I couldn’t blame her for that part.
“I understand. But I need a list of your biggest supporters, especially the people you think would have...the fortitude to do something about it if they were offended by Charles plotting. You can text it if you want.” I snatched my hands off the desk suddenly, pressing them into my knees to push up out of the chair. I was too damned tired for this. “I need to get to bed. I have appointments to try to rent out half the building tomorrow.”
For the first time since we’d started seriously talking, my mother smiled. “Renting half the building. What an excellent idea.”
I scowled at her, lifting a hand to point at her in a not-at-all threatening way. Well, it might have been threatening if I wasn’t basically a kitten to her massively powerful ancient vampire. “Don’t go thinking this was a good idea. It’s a terrible idea and I’m still mad about it. But...I guess it was a waste just leaving half the building empty all the time. Maybe I can get a Chinese restaurant in there. Or Indian. That would be amazing. I’d never eat anything but naan and butter chicken ever again.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but she didn’t stop smiling as I marched back out the same way I had gone in. I only stopped long enough to duck my head at Scary Mary on my way past, and I was back on my bike headed for the city again in no time.
“Chicken,” Twist muttered, half in her sleep, as I started the engine. Of course she’d caught that. Incredible.
“More food tomorrow,” I promised. “We’re done for the day, and it’s bedtime.”
CHAPTER 14
Iwoke to a kitten on my chest again, took a moment to truly wake up and determine that Twist wasn’t yet eating me, and opened my eyes to look straight into her deep blue ones.
“Father.”
“Twist.” We stared at each other a second, and I decided to get the inevitable discussion out of the way. “I promised you more food today.”
“You promised me more food today,” she echoed. “And I hunger.”
Right. Eldritch horror hungering for flesh, that was my kitten. Two pounds of fur and innocent blue eyes and an unending bottomless pit of a stomach.
“Okay I do promise we will get you some food. My mother said she’d send some, and she always does what she says she will. But this morning I have to, like, shower and change clothes. If my mother catches me wearing this shirt three days in a row, she might disown me.” I leaned down and sniffed at myself, then frowned. “Actually, I might disown myself if I don’t change clothes. And I really need to shower.”
Obligingly, she climbed to the top of the couch, using her little claws to pull herself up. If the couch had been nicer Imight have cared, but it was over a decade old and the weave was already messed up in a few places, so she wasn’t going to do much more damage than already existed.
I dragged myself upright, and dropped the dirty clothes in the hamper as I passed, taking care to actually put them in there rather than simply tossing them in the correct direction, as I usually did. Kinda rude to mess the room back up right after Davin spent a whole freaking day cleaning up after me.
Who even did that, spent a whole day cleaning up someone else’s mess?
A guy who wanted to run a business in the building, that was who.
I was lucky there was an actual bathroom with a very nice shower attached to the back office, and the newness of the fixtures had always left me with a niggling idea that my mother had planned for me to live in the place. They were all too nice for them to have been installed by a penny-pinching corporation, to say nothing of the small, attached room that made an excellent closet. Other than the lack of a kitchen, it was basically an apartment with a spacious front office attached.
And the half of the building I wasn’t usingwasarranged as a restaurant, so one might say I would be completely covered if I got a diner or something to move in next door.
Almost like my ancient, prone-to-plotting mother’d had ulterior motives when she’d given me the building.
I rolled my eyes at myself as I stepped under the excellent spray, reaching for the body wash and loofah. Yes, a shower was just what I needed.
I took my time, luxuriating in the ritual of it all. Washing my body and hair, then standing under the warmth and pressure, just letting the last few days slide off me. When I was done, I dried most of the way off, making sure to run a towel vigorouslythrough my hair so it wouldn’t drip, then grabbed some convenient clothes and headed back into the office.
“Jaysus!” came the exclamation as I walked out of the bathroom.
