Page 101 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
“I have them flown in from Sardinia. I love this heirloom variety; they’re so perky.”
Lu stared at him. “Sardinia. Flown in from Sardinia.”
He nodded.
“But the only flights allowed anywhere are military!”
“You think that soldier at the gate is the only man who ever took a bribe?” Gregor answered, brows quirked. “Everyone has somethin’ they want, lass. And, even better for me, everyone has a price they’ll pay to get it. Now eat your sandwich.”
Lu picked up the sandwich, and took a huge bite. It was delicious. She swallowed, took another bite, said around a mouthful, “But . . . tomatoes?”
It was his turn to shrug now. “It’s a little venture of mine. The grow light fields are adequate, but you need real sunlight for real taste. The IF doesn’t keep the isotope clouds over any of the major islands of Europe anymore, or watch ’em now that they’re deserted for that matter, so on Sardinia I’ve got a bloody great biome project with all my favorite—”
“Wait,” Lu interrupted, shocked once again. “You know about the isotope clouds?”
“Of course,” he answered, sitting across from her, calm as the Buddha. “I told you before; tisn’t anything I don’t know.”
“No, what you said was there wasn’t anything you didn’t know about Magnus and me,” Lu replied tartly. That made him laugh. She’d devoured half the sandwich by the time he stopped.
“Ach, how I love a woman with a memory like a steel trap! Eliana’s the exact same way.” His eyes grew wistful, his lips pursed. “What I wouldn’a give to see that one again,” he mused, shaking his head. He sobered after a moment, fixing her in his shrewd gaze. “But you’re exactly right, lass. That is what I said. And it’s the ever-lovin’ truth: I know everything there is to know about you and that man of yours. Far more than you know yourself.”
He dangled it out there like a dare, and his eyes dared her, too, the offer an obvious lure. She liked Gregor, but she didn’t altogether trust him, so she hesitated a long, long while before finally giving in to her curiosity.
What she said to him was a dare in its own way, too. A test. Because she didn’t believe he would know, and he’d be exposed as all bluster and bullshit.
She really should have known better by now.
“All right, Gregor, if you’re so smart, tell me where I was born.”
“That’s an easy one, lass,” he scoffed quietly, holding her gaze. “Hampshire, southern England, a fancy manor house called Sommerley. Town named after it, too, hidden deep in the New Forest, surrounded by stone walls three times the height of a man.” He paused, gauging her astonishment. “But you didn’t stay there long.”
An itch began in Lu’s palms. She’d taken the gloves off for her bath, and now her hands were dangerously bare. She put down the half-eaten sandwich and slowly, slowly, slid her hands into her lap.
“You travelled by boat to another place hidden deep in a forest, the Amazon jungle just outside Manaus, Brazil. Your stay there was even shorter: less than a week, as a matter of fact. Then came the Flash. Your Flash. Instigated by the jealousy and total ignorance of Man, intent on wipin’ out what we didn’t understand.”
Lu held herself perfectly still, though all her nerves screamed for action. For something. The animal always slumbering in her veins cracked open yellow, slitted eyes, lifting its head.
“Your next trip wasn’t by water. This time it was by air.” His voice was growing quieter and quieter, his attention never wavering from her face. “The flight was short, but by the end of it, you had a new home. New parents. A new life. And those new parents—missionaries they were, dedicated to spreading the word of their God—decided their foundling child should be as far away from the jungle as she could possibly get. Especially since every hunter on Earth now had her in their sights. And so that foundling child wound up in an adopted city with adopted parents who could never really figure out if she was a gift or a curse, but who loved her anyway.” His voice dropped even lower. “And died for it.”
A flare of anger, huge and bright, erupted in her chest. How dare he! “You don’t know anything! My mother died of cancer!”
He was apologetic, at least. “That’s what your father told you. But you were six years old, Lumina. He couldn’t tell you that your mother, convinced you were a demon sent straight from hell after you lit your bed on fire the first time, opened her wrists with a straight razor.”
Lu bolted to her feet, cocked back her arm, and slapped Gregor MacGregor so hard across the face he rocked back, his head jerking to the side.
She shouted, “That’s a lie!”
He exhaled a hard breath, working his jaw where she’d hit him. His gaze flashed to hers. “I lie to keep myself out of trouble or make money, and make no apologies about it. But I’m not lyin’ now, lass, no matter how hard you hit me. And if you want to hear more, you’d better brace yourself. That’s hardly the worst of it.”
Lu stared at him, her heart pounding, a burn working its way up from her palms to her arms. She was so furious she thought her entire body might ignite. “Even if I believed you—which I don’t—how would you know, anyway? And how do you know all that other stuff about me?”
“You think a man like me would let a dangerous fugitive stay in his home without knowin’ all there is to know about her?” He shook his head, answering his own question. “Eliana filled me in where she could, the rest I found out on my own. A lot of people in this world owe me favors, lass. I called in a few.”
Lu began to pace in front of the table, her hands fisted at her sides. He had to be lying. He had to be! Only . . . he didn’t smell or look like he was. There were no telling twitches, no sour scent of deception. And what did he mean by “That’s hardly the worst of it”?
She swung around and demanded, “What else? What about Magnus—what do you know about him?”
His expression guarded, he sat back and folded his arms across his chest. “I’ll not tell you if you’re gonna burn down my house, after. Promise me you’ll keep your temper under control.”
