Page 73 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
She preened.
Ate her heart.
That was...something. I wondered about those legends of creatures who ate their enemies flesh to make them stronger. Had that been what Sexton had been trying to do? Eat me to be stronger? He’d implied some really dark shit about neither of us being able to survive.
But I wasn’t accepting that.
“Swear to god,” the previous cop—Smithson?—whispered to a man standing next to him. “A guy ran out the back door, and when I tried to follow him, there was just this giant shadow out there, and it flew away.”
“It’s dark outside,” the guy next to him said, going for reassuring but coming off more condescending. “Maybe he got in a plane.”
“You think I don’t know what a fucking plane looks like?”
A bang from the door got everyone’s attention, and the whole place—a warehouse on the docks, I finally realized—fell silent.
“What the fuck is the mayor doing here?” someone behind me whispered, and I knew the answer, but I wasn’t going to tell him.
Because the mayor? He was standing right next to my mother, who looked like she was about to pull out a sword and start slaughtering people. The mayor was there because she’d demanded he be there, no doubt.
“Flynn!” she shouted the moment she saw me, and then she—followed by the mayor—was striding through the crowd of cops to get to me.
When she was in front of me, she didn’t hesitate, she threw her arms around me and pulled me tight against her. So tight I could barely breathe.
“I’m okay, Mother,” I promised.
When she pulled back, there were tears in her eyes. Tears. Forme.
What the hell was going on?
“I will find that bitch,” she promised me. “I will hunt her down and tear her heart out of her chest and?—”
“Mothe—Mom. It’s okay. I’m okay.” I had never before in over thirty years of life called my mother “Mom” to her face, but for some reason, in the moment, it seemed right. Then, I leaned in closer to her and whispered. “And Twist has Mary handled.”
She positively beamed at Twist, reaching down to scratch her ears just as Davin had. “I’m going to buy you so very much salmon,” she promised my cat, and I didn’t doubt it for a second.
“Sexton is still out there, though.”
My mother’s eyes flew back to mine, and Cain took a step closer. “Sexton? Was that an accomplice?”
I shook my head, turning to look at Cain. “No. Sexton had nothing to do with the murders. Mary killed both Charles and Kate because they had figured out that she was trying to assassinate my mother, and that was all there was to that.”
He lifted a brow, reverting immediately to unimpressed cop. “Then who’s Sexton?”
I looked at him, then deliberately, looked over to where Smithson was still trying to convince his friend that he’d seen a giant creature fly away, then back. He swallowed hard, clutching at the tiny vial in his hand.
That, unfortunately for him, caught my mother’s attention. She reached down and took the damn thing from him, as easily as if he’d been holding it out for her to take. He stared at her in astonishment, and she inspected the vial for a moment.
Then she smiled at him. “You must be Detective Cain. The one in charge of this investigation? My son said you’ve been doing an excellent job. We should have you over for dinner to thank you.”
“That’s not necessary, ma’am, I was just doing my job.”
The mayor gave him a hard look, glancing at my mother and back, then said, “If Fiona Knight invites you for dinner, Mr. Cain, you go to dinner. She’s the backbone of this community.”
For the second time in a few days, I wondered about my mother and Tobias Cain. He was hot, no question. And unlike when I was born, he wasn’t a teenager anymore. “You should come by on Saturday,” I told him. “The chef, Meg, makes the best roast you’ll ever have in your life. And if you’ve got to put up with people for politics, you might as well get a nice dinner out of it. Plus maybe a nice long talk about your new interests. My mother is also interested in those things.”
Mother quirked a brow at me, but she didn’t ask.
“I’m thinking probably Gerald, being an asshole.”
