Part 43 (1/2)

The phone's display told her she had a text message from him, sent right after she left the voicemail. She touched it.

Headed 4 clanhome. CU 2nite.

Fear slid through her, soft and slick as vomit. Rule never used texting abbreviations. He loathed them. And he wasn't headed for Clanhome.

He was in trouble. From Adele, from Friar, she didn't know which-but he was in trouble. And she had no car, no backup.

Or did she? She spun to face Mannie, thumbing through her contact list. ”You have a car. A Mustang.”

”Yeah, I told you...what's wrong?”

”I need it.”

11.

THE Mustang jolted over one last rut and rocked to a stop in the packed earth at the base of a craggy hill. ”We're there,” Lily said into her phone. ”Putting you on speaker now.” She did so and slipped the phone in her pocket, clipping it to be sure it stayed. Mustang jolted over one last rut and rocked to a stop in the packed earth at the base of a craggy hill. ”We're there,” Lily said into her phone. ”Putting you on speaker now.” She did so and slipped the phone in her pocket, clipping it to be sure it stayed.

Steve's body hadn't actually been left on the hiking trail, but slightly off it, in a small cul-de-sac walled by rock and packed earth. There were two ways to reach that spot-the trail itself, which was used often enough that it had a parking area at its foot. And the route she'd be taking.

No one came this way, according to Mannie. It was a rugged scramble with no rewarding views. He knew about it because he coursed all over the hills gleaning flowers and roots and stuff.

So did Adele, but it seemed she hadn't come this way today. Her car wasn't here.

”Jason hasn't reached the parking area yet,” she said, throwing open her door. ”But he's close. We aren't waiting.”

”Okay.” Mannie climbed out of the pa.s.senger's side. ”What about the others?”

She'd called out backup of the unofficial kind-Jason, who was close. And Rule's brother Benedict, who was not. But he was in charge of security at Nokolai Clanhome, and he was good. Very, very good. He was bringing some of his people. ”ETA forty to fifty minutes. We'll move in and I'll a.s.sess the situation. If it's stable, I'll wait until they're in place.”

”If not?”

”Then I don't wait. You remember the signals?”

”You'll tap my shoulder if you're close enough. Otherwise you'll tap your head or face or whatever you think I'll see. One tap means stop, freeze, hold. Two taps means keep going or come closer. Three taps-get the h.e.l.l out of there any way I can.”

He answered easily enough, but he was taut. Jumpy. She was insane to bring him. ”It's okay to be nervous, you know. I'd be worried if you weren't. Just remember your role-guide and consultant on the magic stuff, if needed. Not Rambo.”

”No Rambo s.h.i.+t. Right. I'm cool with that. Did you ever notice how everyone but Rambo gets killed?”

”Yeah,” she said dryly. ”I have. Let's move.”

This part she didn't like. Every instinct said she needed to get out in front. She had the badge, the gun, the training. She couldn't be affected by charms or whatever magical hoodoo Adele might pull.

But she didn't know the way. Mannie did. Instinct lost this round.

He led her around a boulder the size of a Buick standing on end. There was a path of sorts-at least, there was a route up among the tumbled rocks.

For maybe fifteen minutes they went up-almost straight up at times, scrambling over rock in all shapes and sizes, slithering up scree. Slipping a time or two, but not badly. Here the stone was granite, some loose, some fixed, earth's tawny bones poking through where the skin was thin. Many of the larger boulders bore a reddish residue from the aerial spraying used on a wildfire a few years back. Gra.s.s sprouted in the oddest places. So did pines, scrub oak, and th.o.r.n.y manzanita.

Lily's breath was labored by the time the ground leveled out some, and she'd sc.r.a.ped one palm. No snakes, though. If they made it the rest of the way without seeing a snake, she'd count herself lucky. They set out along a narrow vee between two steep, stony shoulders shrugged up by some distant geological upset. About ten paces in, Mannie stopped, looked at her, and pointed.

Smoke wisped up in a tattered tail, barely visible against the blue of the sky.

She nodded grimly. Smoke meant a campfire, which meant Adele Blanco, not Robert Friar, waited ahead. That's what she'd expected, but confirmation was good. Lily took out her phone. No bars.

No surprise. They'd thought they would lose coverage as they moved up among the rocky hills. She had to hope Jason spotted the smoke, too, and avoided getting a whiff of it. Lily tapped Mannie's shoulder twice.

They were close, dammit. She wanted to shove him aside and race to Rule-but that was stupid, and stupid got people killed. Mannie knew the path. She didn't. Lily set her jaw and kept following.

Problem was, while she could get her feet and hands to do what they were supposed to, she couldn't make her mind behave. And she couldn't make sense of this. Why had Adele taken Rule? Had she just wacked out and decided to kill everyone who'd ever p.i.s.sed her off? Had Rule caught her doing something that revealed her guilt?

Maybe she was willing to kill just as a distraction. Lily had run up against killers c old-blooded enough for that-people who'd kill a second time just to throw the cops off the scent. She might have set up some c.o.c.kamamie alibi. Or did she have some crazy notion of using Rule to bargain with?

But she hadn't tried to contact Lily. Hard to arrange a bargain if you don't let the other side know about it. No, she meant to kill him.

But she hadn't. Not yet.

Why not? If she had Rule paralyzed, he was helpless. There were so many ways to kill a helpless man-quicker, easier ways than tattooing a spell around his neck. But Adele hadn't gone for quick and easy. Lily knew that much, held on to that certainty. If Rule had been killed, the mate bond would have snapped. It hadn't.

How long did it take to ink a tattoo all the way around a man's neck?

Lily didn't know. She didn't have any G.o.dd.a.m.ned idea, so all she could do was keep going forward and pray. And all she could manage for prayer was oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d... oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d, oh, G.o.d...

Mannie stopped. He looked at her and jerked his chin, indicating they went up again. This time ”up” wasn't a scramble, but a vertical climb. Not for very far, thank G.o.d-after about ten feet they'd reach a ledge. That ledge wandered off to the right, leading to a crevice.

The crevice led to Rule. Lily's heartbeat picked up. She gave Mannie a nod, studied the rock face briefly, and reached for the first handhold.

This was where she took over the lead.

It wasn't a tricky climb. Hard work, but not tricky. The hand-and footholds were good. But it was impossible to make it completely silently. Every scuff of a foot, every loose pebble, sounded horribly loud. Her sc.r.a.ped hand stung as she hauled herself up on nearly two wide feet of blessedly level ground.

Hard to say who was more startled, her or the rattler she'd disturbed.

Lily took two hasty steps back. It didn't seem to calm the snake any. It was curled up except for the tail, which shook-and the head, which was lifted, testing the air with its tongue.

No time. She had no time-Mannie was coming up right behind her. Where was a stick when she needed it? There was nothing in sight, and she had no time.

Lily pulled off her jacket, lunged forward, and tossed the jacket over the snake just as Mannie's hand appeared on the ledge. Then she kicked it-jacket, snake and all.

The two separated in midair. Mannie froze with his arm on the ledge, his head swiveling to watch as the snake landed below. Then he scrambled up the rest of the way.

She barely waited for him to make it safely up before hurrying to the crevice. It was low and narrow. She got on her knees, twisted sideways, and started wiggling forward.