Page 21 of Dead Ringer

That didn’t explain anything, but I didn’t pry.

“I don’t want you to find the idol for her,” he continued.

“You don’t say.” I frowned.

He chuckled. “I’m what’s best for the family.”

“I’ll just bet you are.” At least, in his own mind.

“Sophia means well, of course she does, but the head of the clan needs more power, more presence than Sophia can manage.”

I stared at him. Were we talking about the same woman? Her gaze felt like a punch, and her presence almost smothered me when she was angry. While this guy wasn’t a weakling by any stretch, I was definitely more afraid of her than I was of him.

“Now, you look like a smart girl.” Manos grinned like a shark. “I’m willing to make a deal. You tell me what you’ve found out, and bring me the idol instead of Sophia, and I’ll pay you twice whatever she offered.”

Even if I didn’t still want to bop him in the nose, no way was I taking that deal. Sophia was my client, not this bozo, and I wasn’t a rat, so my lips were sealed.

I tipped my chin up. “Nothing doing, pal. I got nothing to tell you.”

A strange light flickered to life in Manos Erepto’s eyes as his face darkened. He didn’t strike me as a man who got told ‘no’ a lot in his life. Well, tough for him. Darla Rowe wasn’t no stool pigeon. And as far as getting turned to stone was concerned, I was fairly sure it was only the women who could pull a stunt like that. Usually, where the magically inclined were concerned, it was the women who got the gifts, not the men.

Regardless, I wanted out of that room, so I started forward. For a second there, I thought Manos might refuse to move out of my way. But he just smiled, and the expression had a few too many teeth in it to be a friendly like look.

“Be smart about this, sweetheart. You’re making a mistake.”

“Worry about your own mistakes,” I snapped. “Now out of my way, buster.”

Cain tensed at the back of my head, ready to flow forward if it became a physical fight. I could hold my own okay. People used to think flappers were up for anything back in our day, and sometimes a ‘no’ had to be backed up with a fist to the nose. Still, Cain had training that I didn’t, so I was okay with him taking the lead.

My stomach pulled tighter for every second Manos hesitated. My heart was thudding in my chest, the beat almost fast enough to dance to.

But then he smiled, a tight, nasty look. And stepped aside.

I got out of there. Fast.

But I could feel Manos Erepto’s glare on my back all the way back to my car.

Cain didn’t relax until we pulled onto the highway.

***

All four of the pawn shops in a hundred-mile radius of Erepto Manor were dead ends.

Not only did I not find the idol at any of them, but the owners said no one matching Dimitri’s description (or the idol’s, for that matter) had come in.

So, now it was focusing on the antiquities scene.

The gallery,Nouveaux,that I’d mentioned with regard to Fifi, was located past the outskirts of Haven Hollow in what used to be some kind of processing plant. I’d seen enough of such places to recognize the bones; a squat, gray box of a building in the middle of nowhere. If someone had told me this was where a muse would decide to set up her business, I’d have asked them if they’d been drinking the giggle water.

I wasn’t thinking that anymore, standing in the parking lot of the place.

The building was still a two-story block, but someone had taken whitewash and paint to the building, and turned it into a gorgeous mural. There were parts of the wall that were painted like a shallow, turquoise sea, where white horses galloped out of the tide’s foam. Another scene included gray and violet mountains stretching up to the sky, circled by enormous birds with bronze wings. On every inch of the wall, there was a new treasure to be discovered.

Someone had added a covered walkway around the building, supported by gleaming white Corinthian columns, and flowering bushes and small trees had been planted to break up the silhouette of the imposing building, making me feel like I’d stepped right into late spring.

“Geez Louise,” was all I could say, staring up at the place. Even Cain seemed to have lost his words.

Living in a place like Haven Hollow, you got used to things being a little on the spooky side, even if everyone was making an effort to play nice. But looking up at this gallery now really felt like magic, like the air was crisper, the colors brighter, and everything was just a little more possible than it maybe should have been.

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