This man may have been a killer, but he was no murderer. The distinction was small, but important.
The man aiming his gun at me looked furious, pale brows furrowed, jaw clenched, aim unwavering. He was looking for someoneId missed the specifics, thanks to the alarmand was obviously willing to do whatever it took to find whomever. He looked desperate.
But not crazy.
Those blue-gray eyes seemed to see everything all at onceevery guard aiming a gun at him, every witness watching, and every possible escape route. He was too calm to be crazy. And if he was sane, he could be reasoned with.
He had to be reasoned with, because if Julia had him shot and his finger twitched on his own trigger, hed blow a hole right through me, and no one other than Gwendolyn Tower seemed particularly concerned by that possibility.
My heart thudding in my ears, I held my hand out for his weapon, demanding focus and calm from myself as I mentally counted the shots Id heard. But I couldnt be sure of the number, thanks to the alarm.
He glanced at my scarf, then at my hand, and for a moment I thought he was actually going to give me his gun.
Instead, he grabbed my hand and dragged me into a supply closet, nearly hauling me off my feet. Startled, I screamed when he kicked the door shut, but then he raised his gun and shot into the ceiling, once, twice.
The closet went dark and glass rained down on us from the broken fixtures. Too shocked to speak, I tried to jerk my hand from his grip, but he pulled me again, and I stumbled after him, one step, then two.
The last thing I heard was gunfire coming from the foyer. They shot at us. They knew I was with him, and theyd fired anyway! On Julias command!
That bitch!
Then there was silence, except for the sound of my own panicked breathingtoo fast and too hard.
The darkness was absolute, and I couldnt see a thing. I couldnt feel a thing, except for his hand tight around mine, and the body heat that told me this room was smaller than the last, and that he was standing much too close.
I opened my mouth to scream again and he dropped my hand. A door opened and he stepped out of what I could now identify as an empty coat closet, his gun aimed at the floor.
That blue-gray gaze found mine again from a narrow hallway outside the closet. He was staring, as if something about my face made no sense.
What the hell just happened? I demanded, torn between the need to know exactly where I was and reluctance to venture beyond the closet into unknown territory.
Traveling. Colloquially known as shadow-walking.
I know what it means. Where are we? Who are you?
Im the man who just saved your life. He holstered his gun. Youre welcome. Then he turned left and marched down the hall. You want a drink? Im having one.
Wait! I wrapped one hand around the door frame and leaned into the hall as he turned to face me from a living room full of dated furniture. Are you damaged? You didnt save my life. You nearly got me killed!
He crossed his arms over a well-defined chest put on display by a snug blue T-shirt. I pulled you out of the line of fire.
I wouldnt have been in the line of fire, if it werent for you. And if it werent for me, they would have killed you!
They tried. They shot at us both. His wary focus narrowed on me until it felt invasive. Sera, right? he said, and I declined to answer. Why were they willing to kill you, Sera?
I blinked, scrambling for a response that wouldnt actually tell him anything about me. Where are we? I demanded when I couldnt come up with any answers of my own. What am I doing here? Who are you?
Who am I? Anger hardened his features and furrowed his brows. Who the hell are you, and wheres Kenley?
Whos Kenley?
His anger visibly swelled in response to my question and he marched toward me, fists clenched at his sides, warning echoing in every step as his heavy boots clomped on the wood floor.
My heart lurched into my throat. I backed into the closet, peering through deep shadows for something to use as a weapon, but there was nothing. The closet was completely empty.
He was two steps away when I pulled the door shut, my pulse whooshing in my ears, then held the knob, using all of my weight to keep the door closed. What the hell was I thinking, jumping in the middle of syndicate business? I should have let Julia kill him.
The man growled, then the door was ripped from my grasp so fast I stumbled into the hall after it. He caught me before I could fall, but I shoved him off so quickly I almost missed the change in his expression.
Youre not a Traveler. He exhaled and the relief lining his features echoed within the sound. I thought youd disappeared through the shadows.
If I could have, I would have, but even without having grown up in the Skilled subculture, I knew better than to confirm or deny my own abilities.
I backed away from him, past the open closet door, hands open and ready to grab the first potential weapon I came across. Lets try this again. Who are you?
Anger resurfaced behind his eyes, but was quickly replaced with confusion. You really dont know?
Why should I?
He shrugged, and his jacket rose to reveal his holstered gun. Well, if you work for Julia Tower
I dont.
Then what were you doing in her office?
Thats none of your business. Being related to Jake Tower was dangerous, and having that fact known could be deadly. My mother had made sure I understood that, and Julia had just reinforced that lesson with a lethal spray of bullets.
His gaze narrowed. Why would she tell her men to drop their guns at your request?
Shit. So much for revealing nothing about myself.
New plan: reveal as little as possible.
Because she wants something from me.
What does she want?
She wanted me to sign away my rights to the Tower legacy, not to protect her nieces and nephews interests, but so that the wealth and power would remain under her fist, at least until they came of age. But Again, thats none of your business. Who is
He reached for me, and before I realized he wanted to brush aside a strand of hair caught on my scarf, I knocked his hand away and took another step back. My fists rose automatically. He glanced at me in surprise. Im not going to hurt you.
Thats a true statement. I was ready to fight.
He blinked, startled, then looked kind of disappointed. No, I mean, I dont want to hurt you. You dont need to defend yourself from me.
Right. You just shot several people and hauled a strange woman into a strange house against her will. Naturally I should assume you mean me no harm.
Okay, I know how that sounds. He held both hands up, showing me he was unarmed, yet his gun still peeked out at me from its holster. But I promise this is not that kind of abduction. If you dont believe me, look behind you. He gestured to something over my shoulder, and my need to know what was behind me warred with my need to keep him in sight.
I turned and pressed my back against the hallway wall so I could see both him and the old woman asleep in a recliner in the room next to the closet Id just stepped out of. Her ample chest rose and fell silently. Several melting ice cubes floated in a glass of watered-down tea on the small table next to her.
I turned and pressed my back against the hallway wall so I could see both him and the old woman asleep in a recliner in the room next to the closet Id just stepped out of. Her ample chest rose and fell silently. Several melting ice cubes floated in a glass of watered-down tea on the small table next to her.
Whos that?
My grandmother. Shes a pretty deep sleeper, thanks to her medication, but she will wake up if you keep shouting, and Id appreciate it if youd let her sleep.
Youre serious? What kind of armed killer kidnapped strange women and took them home to Grandma? What kind of family was this?
Although, considering the branch of my own family Id just met, I didnt really have room to criticize.
He shrugged again and shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to look harmless; but even with his grandmother asleep in the next room, that was impossible to believe. Hed taken down at least four of my aunts guards in just a couple of minutes, and his aim at me had never wavered, even with half a dozen guns pointed at him. The man had nerves of steel. He may have been many thingsincluding a devoted grandsonbut harmless was not one of them.
Yet he hadnt laid a hand on me.
Why am I here? Who are you? Why would he shoot to wound men who would readily have killed him? Why would he kidnap me at gunpoint, then claim to have no violent motive? Why would he think I knew his name, then refuse to give it to me?
Normally Id assume I understood the destructive, violent nature of a home invasion. Id become an unwilling expert on the subject when Id lost my entire family a few months before, and getting caught in the middle of this one should have sent me over the edge.
But the Tower estate was no ordinary home, and the man in front of me was no ordinary invader. He hadnt broken in to kill someone, hed broken in to find someone, and I was inexplicably fixated on the differences between his crime and the one that had shattered my entire reality.
Or maybe I just really needed those differences to exist. Maybe I needed him to have a good reason for what hed donewhat he was still doingbecause I hadnt seen one damn thing in the world worth living for since Id become an orphan and an only child, well into adulthood.
This man, whoever he was, had something worth living for. Something worth fighting for. Something worth dying for. And I really wanted to know what that was.
Who were you looking for? My voice was barely a whisper, but he heard me. In fact, he seemed to hear the need behind the question.
For several seconds he only watched me. Studying me, as if he was trying to decide whether or not he could trust mean irony, considering that hed just dragged me through the shadows. Finally he exhaled slowly and met my gaze with a heavy one of his own. Julia Tower took my little sister, so I broke into the Tower residence to get her back.
I closed my eyes and an ache radiated from the center of my chest as my own sisters smile haunted my memory. My next inhalation hurt. Id never seen his sister and I still didnt even know his name, but I understood his pain. I would do anything to get Nadia back, if that were possible, but
You broke into the Tower estate. It sounded just as crazy when I said it as when hed said it. There are easier ways to kill yourself, you know. Yet hadnt I done the same thingminus all the gunfire?
Another shrug from the man with no name. I figured that was the last thing theyd expect, thus the thing theyd be least prepared to defend against. Turns out I was right.
No, you were lucky. As was I, but Id known going in that theyd want to talk to me.
He scowled. I make my own luck.
You nearly made yourself a used-bullet receptacle. When did your sister go missing? Please, please dont let his sister be an actual child. Surely he was too old for that. But then again, Id just met two young siblings of my own
She didnt just go missing. He leaned with one shoulder against the wall, two feet from the end of the hallway. Someone pulled her through the shadows a few minutes before I met you.
Well, then it couldnt have been Julia. Shes At the last second I realized she wouldnt want me telling strangers what her Skill was. Not that I cared what she wanted, but pissing her off wouldnt make her any easier to deal with. Shes not a shadow-walker. Anyway, I was with her when your sister disappeared. It wasnt Julia.
It wasnt her personally, he agreed. She doesnt do her own dirty work. But my sister was taken on her orders, and Julia knows where she is.
There wasnt a single glimmer of doubt in him. Not in his unflinching gaze, his steady voice or the confidence in every word he spoke. And when I considered the bullets flying through that storage closet and Julias apparent willingness to slaughter me in cold blood to keep me from inheriting her fortune, it wasnt hard for me to believe my aunt capable of abduction.
But then, obviously so was the man whod kidnapped me.
Anger flamed up my spine with the sudden realization of where I fit into his storm-the-castle routine. So, what, when you couldnt find your sister, you took me instead? What am I? A hostage?
No, I His cheeks flushed, and for the first time since hed dragged me through the shadows, he seemed unsure of what to say. Its more complicated than that.
Its complicated? Unless hed just discovered hed inherited millions in ill-gotten gains from a crime-boss father hed never met, making him the target of a crime-boss aunt he wished hed never met, he couldnt possibly understand the meaning of the word complicated. Not the way I understood it, anyway.
Look, Im the last person Julia Tower would be willing to trade your sister for. Though she might strike a bargain for my corpsenot that I had any intention of admitting that to a man desperate to rescue his sibling. So, I need you to take me back. But I swear if I hear anything about your sister, Ill let you know what building you should break into next. So why dont you just give me your name and number, and Ill
Sera, I cant take you back there. He held my gaze, and his statement had the grave finality of some indisputable truth. They tried to kill you.
I crossed my arms over my chest, reeling from the irony. You cant let someone else kill me, but youre fine with the fact that you kidnapped me? What kind of weird-ass moral code was he following?
I didnt really kidnap you. He glanced over my shoulder into the bedroom where his grandmother was now snoring loudly in her recliner. I just removed you from a dangerous situation. Youre welcome. He mustered up a grin, obviously trying to diffuse my mounting anger and frustration, but it didnt work.
For the last time, it wasnt dangerous until you got there, and I didnt ask to be removed.
Still, he had a point. I didnt want my fathers dirty money, but would Julia even listen long enough to let me say that, or would she shoot me on sight?
I exhaled through clenched teeth. Fine. Take me somewhere else then. Drop me off downtown. Where I could regroup and decide how best to proceed with my homicidally estranged aunt. And get my car back.