Magic Rising (14 page)

“Get off of me. You’re assaulting a police officer.”

Charges could be filed. He had her now. This was assault and she would get no more privileges from his department. People weren’t allowed to behave like this. He had won. She didn’t know it yet, but he had defeated her.

“You’ll go to jail. This is a crime.” His voice rose an octave when she smiled again, showing a perfect line of white teeth. “This is assault.”

“Not yet.” She reached behind and nailed his balls again, causing him to whimper. “Now I’m assaulting you. Is this better? Does this make you feel better? Is this a nicer way to think of me?”

Deirdre gazed down like a predator ready to rip the throat out of her prey and Ryan had never been so afraid. He wiggled, squirmed while his balls throbbed. He wanted out of here, more than anything he wanted to be out in fresh air where women didn’t attack.

“Did you know that I can hit your chest hard enough to stop your heart? There is an art to it. Do it wrong, break the ribs and everyone knows what happened. Do it right, and it’s a mystery to medical science. Only a little bruise at the spot of impact.” She giggled, actually giggled like a school girl, then he remembered what school she’d gone to. “I could hit your kidneys. A normal man can make you piss blood. I can rupture your organs. You won’t die but you’ll be on dialysis for the rest of your life. I could break your jaw and hands. That makes communication hard.” She shook her head. “No, I do so enjoy our conversations.” She leaned closer. “Is this the woman you imagine? Some animal waiting to hurt you, some evil creature that only wants to destroy and maim?” Her breathing was slow, and she seemed to relax. “I am no monster. I’ve never tried to hurt someone who hasn’t hurt me. You can’t say the same.”

She was heavy for such a tiny thing. He couldn’t move his arms. Her arm held tight against his throat and he wanted to scream, to sob, to do something other than lie there staring at this mad woman.

“Please.”

“My sentiments exactly.” Deirdre leaned close enough to kiss him. “Please leave me alone. I harm no one who doesn’t try to harm me first. I provide protection to people who get ignored or improperly handled by the police. I don’t go after offenders and I always turn over the targets to the cops. I’m one of the good guys here.”

He was too afraid to reply, but in his heart, he knew that she was not a good guy. This was a trained assassin, a pawn in something larger, sure, but she wasn’t suitable to exist in civilized society.

“I think the reason you hate me, is because you’ve screwed up so many times. I don’t know if it was bad luck or laziness. Either way, you know what you’ve done.” Her lips pressed together in a thin red line. “Tell me Detective, why’d you kill Shope? He was harmless.”

Farmer didn’t respond. Terror gripped his mouth and he had no control over anything. Instead of seeing her cry, he had to fight from showing his own tears, his weakness to this woman.

“Talk or I’ll bust your balls again.”

He’d always considered himself tough, liked to believe he was unstoppable. This woman straddling his chest, this woman made him want to confess just to end the torment she provided for her sick pleasure.

“Last chance.” She reached behind her and grabbed his balls. There was nothing sexual in it.

“Stop.” He had no idea what he intended to say, his mouth ran on automatic, as if his body declared mutiny to end the pain. “It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t even shoot him.”

“What?” She released his groin. “I thought he was killed trying to escape.”

Ryan shook his head, wishing he could turn back time and never walk into this place. “He was but I didn’t do it. Another cop, some female gunned him down when he was out of the car. He had a gun. I don’t know where he got it but he had a gun.”

“What?”

It was too hard to explain and she felt so damn heavy on his arms. His chest grew tight, breathing seemed like a terrible strain and she kept demanding answers. He was panicking but thinking straight was impossible while she sat there, murder in her eyes. Not for a minute could he believe she’d never killed.

“I don’t know.” His voice was a shrill mix of pain and regret. “Somehow Shope got out of his cuffs. We were at a red light and there he was, getting out of the car. I don’t know how he did it.”

“Your car doesn’t have working handles in the backseat.”

“Maybe we didn’t close the door tightly. I don’t know.” His crotch hurt all the way up to his stomach. “All I know is he started running. I got out of the car in pursuit. He went down an alley carrying a gun when a motorcycle cop nailed him.”

Another woman had finished his job, another failure except this time there were no witnesses. He’d never gotten the woman’s name. She’d simply saluted him while wearing her helmet and rejoined traffic.

Deirdre shook her head. “How did he get another gun? We disarmed him before you arrived. He couldn’t have gotten a gun because he didn’t leave our sight until one of your men handcuffed him.”

“I don’t know.” He heard the weakness in his voice and hated it. There was no way to stop it though. She wouldn’t get off of him, wouldn’t let him go. “Please, Deirdre.”

“This doesn’t make sense. For your story to be plausible, he had to have a pistol hidden on him, pick his cuffs, open a disabled handle, and run into an alley.”

“It’s the truth I swear.”

“Who did you write up as being the shooter?”

He squirmed again. He didn’t want to go down this road, didn’t want to confess to this bitch who constantly held herself superior to him. When she reached back, bound to take hold of him again, his confession continued.

“I told them that I’d shot him.” He closed his eyes. “It’s all in the report. I listed myself as the shooter.”

“Why?”

Ryan shook his head no. Telling her the truth would cause him pain and he was tired of pain. This wasn’t how the situation was supposed to happen. He should’ve been in control; she should be on the verge of tears.

“Tell me, Farmer.”

Instead of grabbing his balls, she jammed a bony finger into his ribs. Brutal pain surged through his body, down his leg. It felt like she worked to separate the ribs, break them in his skin.

“Because it was another damn woman. I was being shown up by another woman.” This time he did cry and he stopped caring. “I’m tired of women acting like they’re better than me.”

Deirdre rose and stood over him. He lay there, afraid to move, but wanting to run for the door. She hadn’t even broken a sweat, her hair looked coiffed, and her clothes not rumpled while he felt like he’d been hit by a truck.

“Would you like some tea?” Her voice held civility, as if nothing had happened.

“I just want to go.”

“Good idea.”

Deirdre threw open the door but he couldn’t find the strength to stand yet. For a moment he hoped a witness would be at the door, a neighbor, someone to help him. Only a lone white cat pranced through the doorway.

“Snowball, you’re not allowed inside.”

The cat came over to him. For a minute he thought the cat would purr or do any number of stupid things cats did. Instead the damned thing squatted and pissed on his shirt. He was in too much shock to hit it until he felt the warm, wet liquid in his shirt. He swatted but the cat was too fast, running back out the door.

“I guess the cat doesn’t like you either.” She grabbed his arm and helped him up. “Don’t come back here again. I won’t play as nice next time.”

* * * *

There were times that Deirdre feared Stone House had made her evil, frightened that her strengths would make her as crazy as the leaders had been, so she took precautions. Her entire life had been one of strict discipline, until tonight. Farmer had pushed her, and she’d gone too far. She’d hurt him and worse, enjoyed it.

It was shameful, but she felt better. For years he’d been at her, but she’d managed. The last twenty-four hours had pushed her to her breaking point and she’d released all her fury on him.

With darkness coming, she knew she’d have to move fast. It was time for damage control. That also meant adding insult to injury, but despite regretting the violence, she didn’t like Ryan Farmer.

Deirdre gave him a minute to get out of the driveway. He looked shaky, something she wasn’t proud of. It was never pleasant to break a man, watch them reduced to the thing they wished didn’t exist. She imagined Farmer wanted to be a good cop, a decent man, but something kept getting in the way.

She ran a brush through her hair. There wasn’t time to eat, although her belly growled angrily. Farmer had become a wounded animal and he would retreat to lick his wounds only to come after her again. Her only hope to remain in good standing with the police would be to beat him to the punch.

With keys in hand, she opened her front door, only to find Tech standing there. She had no idea how long he’d been there. A few minutes had passed since Farmer left but Tech looked like he’d been waiting, trying to work up his nerve to knock.

“You got something for me.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Can we talk?” His voice was meek, mild in the little scrawny frame. His appearance made it harder to be angry at him. Tech would be the eternal child. Even when he’d turned old and gray, she bet that he would look small, childlike with hopeful eyes and hair that he could never quite get brushed.

“Let’s talk on the road. I have a stop to make and no time to waste.”

Tech followed her to the car, silently getting into the passenger’s seat. She gunned the engine, burning rubber as she pulled out of her little subdivision and joined the main bunch of traffic heading out for the night.

“So, tell me what you know about me. I dug around once but couldn’t find a damn thing. I don’t have your special touch though.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw his head lower, ashamed over his actions. That was good. She wanted him to regret digging into her past, but she was also curious what could be found by a clever boy like Tech.

“I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have done it.”

She took a left, taking the turn too fast and causing Tech to slide against his seatbelt. “I asked what you’d found out. It could be pertinent later.”

He didn’t want to talk but she coaxed him, letting him take over the conversation while she listened. Never had she been so vulnerable and so impressed at the same time. Tech was impressive and annoying. With all her skills, she’d never match his ability to dig where other’s eyes couldn’t go and come up with gold.

Tech said things about her mother that Deirdre had never known. Aidena Flye, an FBI agent, the idea was surreal. She never thought her mother had belonged at Stone House. Most of them were violent followers with no will of their own. Scorpion had never been that way. Something else brought her there and made her stay.

Scorpion had never threatened her life. From the dates, Deirdre would’ve been a baby and unable to remember any event if one had occurred. She knew her mother loved her when no one else had.

“I wonder what made Scorpion, I mean my mother, stay.”

Tech looked at her and she saw that expression when he was in deep thought. “Do you want my opinion? It’s just a guess.”

“Give it to me.”

“I don’t know what brought her to Stone House but I think someone made her stay by using you. The state doesn’t just drop attempted murder charges for no reason. She must’ve cut a deal. I just don’t know who she cut the deal with.”

It was a logical assumption, although one she didn’t want to think about. She’d believed that she’d caused her mother’s death, then found her body implying that Scorpion faked the incident. Everything made sense, especially if Deirdre’s existence had caused them to be trapped in that hell hole. Scorpion couldn’t handle it anymore, and had to cut her ties the only way she could.

She shook away the thought of her mother. Nothing would right that wrong tonight. The dead were gone and it was time to worry about the living and the connection to a little girl named Lora Shope.

“The most surprising thing was Tamara Haas’ connection to Stone House.” Tech rubbed the back of his neck. “Does any of that make sense to you?”

“No, but it puts an interesting spin on things. After this little stop, keep digging. Make Tamara Haas and her father, the focus. I want to know their connection to Stone House.”

Tech didn’t argue or complain. That was unusual. His grumbling remained a natural part of his personality, something she’d grown accustomed to over the years. She pulled into the parking lot of the police station, when she finally heard him utter a sound.

“Deirdre?”

“What?”

He shrugged nervously, staring at his hands, and refusing to look her in the eye. “It would help me if I knew exactly what Stone House was.”

That was a loaded statement. Stone House was many things and nothing at the same time. She’d learned everything there, from her first steps to what a sword could do to a man. As for its true function, she knew no more than a soldier going to war. She had a few ideas but not what the ultimate objective was.

“Let me get this finished first. We’ll talk later.” She opened her car door then stopped. “I think you and Sabrine need to know about this. I’ve got a feeling that something from Stone House isn’t finished with me and I know Farmer isn’t.”