How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back (24 page)

Brian answered on the first ring. “Archer.”

“Hey, it's me. I just talked to Jane.”

“Angel.” He exhaled. “I'm sorry about being an ass on the phone earlier. It's been, well . . . I'm just sorry.”

“Yeah, it's cool,” I replied with a shrug.

“What happened with Jane?” he asked before I could feel too awkward.

“She's on board,” I said. Crap. He might go right back to being mad at me after this.

“Okay, good,” he said, sounding relieved. “How did you leave it with her? She's staying away from the Sabers, right?”

“Erm, no, I'm still with her, at her hotel,” I said. “And, she's on board. Like, totally.” I fought to keep my shoulders down and totally unhunched.

Brian remained silent, and I had the weirdest sense that if he'd known my middle name he'd be using my full and proper legal name like a mama calling a misbehaving kid downstairs to face the music.

“It's about damn time,” he finally said.

My knees actually wobbled briefly. “Oh, shit, really?” I plopped down into a nearby chair. “I thought you'd want to kill me.” Kind of like Victor probably wanted to do. Did Brian even know he was a zombie? Probably, I realized, since Pietro had arranged the security for Jane.

“She's needed to know for a while now, in my opinion,” he said. “Mr. Ivanov made me swear I wouldn't tell her.”

“Yeah, well, luckily I have no damn judgment,” I said. “Anyway, she wants to know how she can help.”

“Since she knows, she needs to cover her ass,” he replied. “I don't know what the Sabers have planned, but anything she can do to create a political counteroffensive to Saberton's interests would be called for. Something she can hold ready if needed.”

“Right. Hang on.” I covered the phone and repeated it to Jane. Her eyes went hard, and she nodded.

“I'll take care of it,” she replied with an edge to her words that made me
extremely
glad she still liked me. Jaw set, she stood, moved to the office, then began making calls.

After that, Brian wanted to talk to Victor. I handed the phone over, and Victor moved far enough away that I couldn't hear him. Judging by the dark looks he shot my way I had no doubt he was tattling about my accidental outing of him. Damn. That was a bad fuckup on my part, and it could've been really ugly. A few minutes later Victor returned and handed my phone back.

“He wants to talk to you again,” he said. I wasn't sure, but I thought that maybe he wasn't glaring
quite
as hard at me.

“Hey, Brian.” I grimaced. “I guess he told you about my latest fuckup?”

“Yes, he did,” Brian replied. “It's serious, but I don't need to tell you that. You're a smart woman. He says you need training, and I told him you weren't security or an operative. But here you are, in the thick of a huge crisis.”

I turned toward the window. “I'm trying my best,” I said, voice cracking.

“I know you are,” he said gently. “Shit happens sometimes to all of us. Say the wrong thing. Do the wrong thing. Make the wrong choice. All you can do is learn from it and move on.”

I fought back a sniffle, warmed. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Thank
you
, Angel, for what you're doing. You didn't have to put yourself out there like this.”

The warmth continued to spread like a tingly hug. “Yeah, I did.”

“Exactly,” he said, a smile in his voice. “That's what makes you
you
. Once we get out of this shit, we'll make sure you have the basics. More if you want it.”

A vision of my
sensei
's pained face swam through my head. “Sure,” I said. “If you think you're up for it.”

“Bring it on,” he said with a low snort.

“Thanks, Brian. I'm really glad you're not a bad guy anymore.”

He laughed. “Me too.” And with that he hung up.

Feeling about a thousand times better about everything, I turned back to see Jane still on her phone in the office and Victor standing by the sofa, with arms folded over his chest, silently regarding me.

“I'm sorry I outed you,” I said, grimacing. “I swear I didn't mean to.”

Some of the tension in his jaw eased, and he gave a slight nod. “Understood.”

Jane returned from the office, set her cell phone on the coffee table, then
flopped
onto the sofa with a sigh. I held back a grin.
She's a flopper too!

“There's more to do, but the groundwork is laid,” she said. Barely a second later her phone buzzed on the coffee table. She sat up and glanced at it, then narrowed her eyes at the caller ID. “Damn it. It's that horrible woman. At
this
hour.”

There was only one horrible woman she could mean. “Answer it,” I said quickly, before she could send it to voicemail.

Jane hesitated, then hit the answer button and lifted the phone to her ear. “Jane Pennington,” she said with total calm.

Silence for a second, then,
“Jane! It's Nicole Saber,”
I heard clearly, and there was no mistaking the surprise in her voice.
“I'm so sorry, I didn't expect you to answer. The event ended a short while ago, and I thought I'd call and leave you a message. I was worried after you left so suddenly and wanted to wish you well. I do hope you're feeling better?”

Jane's smile was frosty, but none of it showed in her voice. “Why yes. I think it was simply a touch of jet lag. I'll be right as rain after a good night's sleep.”

“I'm so glad to hear it. I'd love to take you to an early lunch tomorrow so that we can continue our conversation. Racchelli's Cucina Italiana at eleven?”

“Lunch would be lovely, but I think my calendar is booked. I'll check.” She lowered the phone and covered the mouthpiece, looked out the window with zero move to check her calendar.

I made frantic motions.
Do it
, I mouthed.
Yes! Take the lunch!

Jane gave me an
Are you inSANE?
look, at which time we proceeded to go through a silent yes no yes no back and forth, with me growing increasingly more frantic in my motions.

Finally Jane threw up her hands in defeat and returned the phone to her ear. “It seems my ten o'clock appointment cancelled,” she said. “How fortuitous.”

I grinned in triumph, but Jane simply rolled her eyes, which only made me grin more.

“Excellent,”
Nicole all but crowed.
“I'll see you then.”

As soon as Jane hung up I made a couple of fist pumps in the air. “This is perfect,” I said. “She's going to lay down a threat about hurting Pietro, and we—I mean
you
—can simply tell her to cut to the chase.”

Comprehension dawned on her face. “Take the wind out of her sails.”

“And then we have the advantage.”

After nowhere near enough sleep, I once again allowed Naomi to dress me as she pleased, this time in jeans that fit me like a glove, long sleeved black shirt, and boots made for kicking butt. I was almost starting to like being her personal Barbie doll. However, I had a feeling Nicole Saber would probably have a different B word in mind when I showed up uninvited to the lunch meeting.

Since having Jane pick me up at The Fairbourne would be like waving a big flag and shouting, “Yo! Saberton peeps. You can find us right here!” Philip accompanied me to a pre-arranged meeting place near Battery Park, and carefully didn't laugh when I knocked my breath out on the subway turnstile after I forgot to swipe my MetroCard.

A black sedan with government plates pulled up to the curb only a few minutes after we arrived, and a back window rolled down to reveal Jane. As I moved toward her, a black Escalade that reminded me of Pietro's vehicles slid in behind the sedan, and I damn near had a heart attack until I caught sight of Victor in the passenger seat. Made sense that Victor would be in a position to keep an eye on everything, and it was likely easier to do so from a shadowing vehicle.

I gave Philip a friendly punch on the arm then jogged to the car. He, Naomi, and Kyle would join up and keep an extra watch outside the restaurant. I slid into the back seat of the sedan, where Jane gave me a warm smile and a quick hug that worked wonders to dispel the last little niggling doubts I had about spilling the beans to her about the whole zombie thing. She still liked me, even though I ate brains. That was pretty cool.

As if by mutual agreement, we kept the conversation light and generic on the way to the restaurant. There'd be plenty of time for the serious shit later. And I decided it was a good thing the driver knew where to go, because I'd have gone past the restaurant at least ten times and never found it. Tucked behind another building, it definitely wasn't the sort of place that got a lot of tourist traffic. To get there it was necessary to walk through a narrow but tidy courtyard and then down a staircase to a dark red door that opened into a café of about a dozen tables and some amazingly appetizing smells. With black and white tiled floor, wood chairs, and white tablecloths, it reminded me a bit of the Italian-American restaurant in
The Godfather
where Michael kills Sollozzo, and I had to fight the urge to go and check the restrooms for hidden guns. Silly, because I was quite sure Victor had plenty of his own with him, and the two tough-looking men in dark suits against the back wall surely had theirs as well.

And, in a twist that really didn't surprise anyone, every table was empty except for the one right in the center of the restaurant. Nicole sat on the other side of the table in a dark red suit paired with a gold-colored blouse. She leaned back and crossed her legs, very obviously trying to appear calm and relaxed, though the quick tap-tapping of her fingers on the side of her leg showed the true state of her nerves.

For her part, Jane looked cool and collected and not at all as if everything that was on the line was, actually, on the line. I did my best to look as cool as her and finally settled for being absolutely amazed that she looked as chill as she did. My gaze roamed the restaurant and over Nicole's two men, then snapped back to the one on the right. Fairly good-looking, jet-black hair, wide shoulders, and narrow waist. Too far away to see his what color his eyes were, but I could tell that the eyebrows above them were
perfect.

Motherfuckingshitballs. This was one of my guards from when Charish held me captive, one of the assholes who'd helped McKinney strip search me. His eyes met mine, and his mouth curved in an ugly smirk. A sick chill went through me, but I deliberately rolled my eyes and looked away as if he wasn't worth my attention. Which he wasn't, of course. Asshole. I shoved the memories aside and focused instead on the awesome smackdown about to take place.

Nicole smiled at Jane, but her smile froze at the sight of me. I fought down a manic grin and instead smiled back without showing teeth. There'd be plenty of time for teeth later, I figured.

With me right behind her, Jane approached the table, but instead of taking the seat the maitre d' held out, she leaned forward, eyes locked on Nicole's. “We both know why we're here,” she said with quiet force.

Oh, this was going to be fun. I pulled a chair from another table and stuck it to the right of the one the poor maitre d' was still holding, plopped down, then grabbed a breadstick from the basket on the table and took a bite.

Smile still fixed and disgust thinly masked, Nicole's flicked her focus to me before shifting it back to Jane. “Of course. We're discussing your support for Saberton to be awarded the defense contract.”

“Discussing? No,” Jane said. “You intend to threaten to hurt or even kill Pietro in order to force my cooperation.”

That caught Nicole off guard. She lost the smile, expression tightening. “Will you at least sit?” She hissed the last word.

Jane turned and graciously thanked the poor maitre d', then took her seat as if it had been completely her idea. I resisted the urge to lean back and put my feet on the table. That would probably get me kicked out, but damn I had a feeling this was going to get good.

Nicole took a deep breath as Jane sat, regaining a tiny bit of composure. “Congresswoman Pennington, would you care to explain your
unexpected
comment?”

Jane's expression hardened to
uncompromising
, but when she spoke her voice was as cool as frost on a junebug's ass. “Cut to the chase, bitch. No games. I have something you want, and you have something I want.”

Holeeeeee shit, but I wanted to jump up and cheer. How the hell had I not seen how amazingly strong this woman was? Her normal manner was so laid-back refined it was easy to underestimate her. Now I understood how she handled herself in Washington so well.

Nicole's face flushed red and went to stone. Hot and angry stone that was super pissed she'd been outmaneuvered. No more advantage of surprise for her. She took a sip of her water then carefully set the glass back down. “Very well,” she said, voice brittle. “You have something I want.” She leaned back and did her best to look relaxed, but the jiggling of her leg betrayed her tension. “Deliver the contract to Saberton.”

Jane tilted her head slightly. “Or what?”

Now Nicole's smile turned nasty. She reached into her purse on the floor and pulled out a small box—the kind that might hold a tennis bracelet, though I had a gut feeling there weren't any diamonds in there. She placed it on the table, then pushed it toward Jane with one finger.

Jane dropped a brief and dismissive glance to the box then returned her gaze to Nicole's face. “A toe? A finger? His balls?” Jane said without making any move to take or open the box, cool demeanor not slipping a smidge. She tilted her head in my direction. “I have an expert advisor on what you can do, have done, and will do to zombies.” With one finger, she pushed the box right back to Nicole. “What is your threat?”

Nicole shot me a
furious
look, clearly livid that her grand gesture fell flat and that once again she'd been caught off guard. She snatched at the box and shoved it back into her purse, though the disgust on her face told me that, whatever piece of Pietro that was, it was going to end up in the first available dumpster.

“Simple,” Nicole snapped out. “You go call in favors, exert influence, spread rumors, and do whatever you have to do to get us that contract, or I'll deliver a hundred boxes like that.” Her eyes glittered with contempt. “I'm sure your
expert
advisor can tell you those creatures still feel plenty of pain.”

Jane didn't even flinch. “No, darling,” she replied smoothly. “It doesn't work like that.”

I snagged another breadstick. This shit was good.

Nicole blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I may be new to Washington, but I've made my mark,” Jane said, tone still pure silk. “It's why you chose
me
to coerce. You thought I'd be cowed by your threats, and I'd go off as ordered and use what influence I have to get you what you want.” She paused, leaned back as casually as Nicole had tried to do earlier. “But I'm not cowed. And here's
my
promise.”

Nicole's mouth worked soundlessly before she closed it with a sharp snap. Her right hand clenched into a fist on the table.

“You harm Pietro in any way, and I will take your teetering corporation to the ground, then bury it,” Jane said, exuding power and confidence. “This isn't the only contract that matters to you. And, before your little mind moves to taking me out to cut your losses, you should know I didn't get much sleep last night. Burning the midnight oil to set up failsafes in case I meet with an untimely accident or disappear.”

The blood left Nicole's face as Jane spoke, then her cheeks flushed hot, lips white as she spoke. “If you think I'm simply going to turn him over to you and get
nothing
in return, you're sadly mistaken.”

“I never said you would get nothing,” Jane replied. “I said I will ruin you if you harm Pietro. Not the same thing. I will consider supporting
this
contract if you meet my conditions.”

I munched breadsticks and watched Nicole's internal battle to keep from telling Jane where she could shove her conditions.

“Go on,” Nicole finally managed.

“First off, after the contract is awarded, Pietro is released to me—unharmed in any way.”

I glanced at Jane, surprised that she wasn't asking for Pietro to be released immediately, then realized Jane knew damn well the answer to that would be No. Nicole wouldn't give up her ace in the hole before she had what she wanted, and Jane had no desire to lose ground by asking for the impossible. Damn, I felt as if I should be taking notes.

Nicole's nostrils flared. “What else?”

“Second, within three hours from now you will make arrangements for us to see and have complete freedom to speak with Pietro, including physical contact.”

Nicole gave another stiff nod, her hand clenched so tightly it surprised me that blood wasn't trickling out from her nails on her palm.

“And you tell us who the insider is,” I put in.

Nicole shot me a scathing look. “For all I know,
you're
the insider.”

I regarded her with suspicion. It was
possible
she didn't know, but I didn't trust that calculating look in her eye. Then again, “calculating” could be a permanent part of her expression.

Jane eyed Nicole, then glanced toward me. “Anything else, Ms. Crawford?”

“Yeah, she and her thugs can stay the hell away from me, my dad, and my Krewe.”

Nicole's eyes remained on me for a moment more before returning to Jane. “Anything else?”

“I believe we're complete,” Jane said.

Nicole seized her purse and stood so quickly she toppled her chair, but she didn't even glance behind her at the clatter. “I'll contact you in three hours.” Her jaw tightened. “You will get us that contract.”

“I will exert all possible influence,” Jane said, still seated and not looking at all intimidated by having to look up at Nicole. If anything she seemed more like a queen indulging some commoner. God, I loved this woman.

Nicole planted her hands on the table and leaned forward. “You're a tougher woman than I expected, Jane Pennington, but I'm sure you understand that if we don't get that contract, I'll have little left to lose.” She straightened and began to stalk off but Jane's voice stopped her before she reached the door.

“And I'm sure you understand, Nicole Saber,” Jane replied without looking toward her, “if I lose Pietro, I'll see you burn in hell.”

Nicole slammed out the door with her men right behind her, and as soon as they were gone it was as if the entire building breathed a sigh of relief. Jane waited a moment, then stood gracefully and moved to the door. I scrambled to follow, then paused, looked at the maitre d' as he righted the toppled chair.

“Can I get some of those breadsticks to go?”