Had Isen hurt Celeste terribly?
Such a woman might resent the baby Isen loved and wanted so much. Such a woman might
find the sight of that baby impossible to bear. He looked at his mother’s other son,
who looked so much like him. “You love Adam very much.”
Surprise flickered across Jasper’s face. That was one way they were different—Jasper’s
emotions tended to be writ large and clear for all to see. “He’s funny and tender
and tough and a huge pain in the ass sometimes. He’s more than I can say. He’s the
light of my life.”
Lily had finished talking to Ruben and was making a second call. Her hair was loose,
still tousled from their loving. She kept tucking it behind her ears, and it kept
slipping free. She was giving instructions this time, her voice crisp as she told
someone why they were to check out a particular FedEx garage and those who worked
there.
She was funny and tender and tough and, yes, sometimes a pain in the ass. She was
the light of his life, and he knew all too well what it was to fear for the one you
loved. He spoke to Jasper. “I can’t promise we’ll get Adam back safely, but you have
my word that we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.”
Jasper studied him for a moment, maybe trying to see what his word meant. He nodded.
“Thank you.”
Rule took out his own phone. This was his responsibility, after all. He had no good
reason for pushing it off on Lily. He was about to select Cynna’s mobile number when
the phone in his hand vibrated.
It was his brother. His brother Benedict, that is, whom he’d thought was his only
brother after Mick died…and that was a confusing thought. Rule answered.
A
N
hour later, it looked like Jasper would run out of time before Lily ran out of questions.
Jasper glanced at his watch. “I need to leave soon.”
“We’ve still got forty-five minutes.” Lily flipped to a fresh page in her notebook.
Cynna had said she would come if she could. She hadn’t said what the qualifier meant—just
that she’d let him know tonight. It might be late tonight, but she’d call and let
him know.
It was an odd response. Maybe Lily was right. Maybe the Lady did have the habit and
the means of warning her Rhejes away from too-dangerous actions.
Rule hadn’t been able to pass on Benedict’s news yet. It involved Arjenie, and her
Gift and heritage was not a secret he could pass on to others.
“We’ve been trying to find the agent you used to use,” Lily began.
Jasper snorted. “You, too?”
“Are other people looking for him?”
“Me. I suspect he’s where Friar learned about my professional abilities, mainly because
no one else knows.”
“The Bureau did turn up a police file on you.”
“Agent Adamson. Dogged fellow. He couldn’t tie me to anything, but he had good instincts.
But he didn’t know about my specialty or my nom de guerre.”
“Umbra.”
Jasper’s eyebrows climbed. “That wasn’t in your police file.”
“No, I got that from another source. Your former agent’s name was Hugo, right? Over
fifty, overweight, unusual tat on his forehead.”
“You have good sources.”
“Tell me about Hugo. What’s his last name?”
Jasper shrugged. “Variable. He’s got at least three identities that I know. Or he
used to. He doesn’t seem to be using any of them these days. He’s a big guy, like
you said. Doesn’t talk much. He’s greedy, fit beneath the flab, hates drugs but likes
bourbon, and he’s crooked as they come. So why did I use him, you ask? Because his
handshake meant something to him. Once you struck a deal and shook on it, that was
it. He’d hold to that. He did time once to protect a client’s name. More practically,
I was worth a pretty penny to him—he got five percent of any deal he brokered, and
why would he give that up?”
“Yet you think he gave up your name to Friar.”
Jasper smiled wryly. “I did say he’s my former agent. A couple of years ago, I caught
him in a lie. Now, that wasn’t unusual—Hugo likes lying—but this was a stupid lie.
It only netted him a couple grand, and for that he broke his word?” Jasper shook his
head. “I severed our relationship.”
“My source says you retired a few years ago, or at least stopped taking jobs.”
“Ah. Yes. The loss of my agent played into my decision.”
“You’ve tried to find him recently?”
“And failed.”
“Do you have a photo of him?”
“No, he’s camera shy.”
“Describe him, then.”
“He’s, uh.…at least three hundred pounds and maybe an inch taller than me. That would
make him six-three. He’s bald—lost the hair on top years ago and shaves the rest.
The tattoo you know about. Brown eyes. His nose is kind of squashed—I think it got
broken when he was in prison, but it might have happened earlier. I don’t know his
age, but it’s not far from mine.”
“Has his weight changed much since you met him?”
“He’s always been heavy. Maybe fifty of those pounds were added over the last sixteen
years.”
“That’s how long you’ve known him?”
Jasper nodded and looked at his watch again. “Listen, I…”
Rule heard Jasper’s phone vibrate. Lily probably didn’t, but she must have seen the
way he jumped. “It’s him,” Jasper said. “Friar. That’s the phone he gave me.” He reached
for one of the pockets in his vest.
“Wait a minute,” Lily said. “Could that have a GPS in it?”
Jasper shook his head. “I checked. Quiet. For God’s sake, everyone needs to be real
quiet.”
“He won’t hear your conversation on the house mics.”
“I know.
Shh.
” Jasper thumbed the phone, held it to his mouth with his hand cupped over it, and
whispered, “Yes.”
Rule heard a much-hated voice: “Are we playing a whisper game, Jasper?”
Jasper replied so softly Rule wondered how well Lily could hear him. “They’ve got
some of their people watching me. One’s on my roof. You want them listening to us
talk?”
Friar was amused. “And do you think this watcher could hear a phone conversation two
floors beneath him over that music you play every night in your ongoing effort to
baffle my listening devices?”
“I don’t know. Do you?”
“It’s an excess of caution, but never mind. It’s almost time for you and dear Adam
to be reunited. You have twenty-five minutes to reach Hammond Middle School. Set your
timer now. You are to call your brother in fifteen minutes—do be precise, you will
be graded on this—and tell him to meet you there at eleven forty-five. He’s to leave
his bodyguards at the hotel. Make sure he brings Seabourne. Say whatever you have
to. Just make sure he brings Seabourne.”
“A middle school? You want to meet at—I don’t even know where that is!” Jasper’s eyes
were wild, but he kept his voice to a whisper.
“Look it up. And don’t be late. Every minute you’re late, something unpleasant will
happen to poor Adam.”
“Twenty-five minutes isn’t enough! And you have to let me talk to Adam first. I need
proof—”
“Twenty-five minutes,” Friar repeated. And hung up.
Jasper looked up, his knuckles white on the phone he clutched in one hand. “The recordings.
They’ve got over an hour to go. He won’t hear me leave the house. He’ll know. He’ll
know, and—”
“Leave that to me,” Rule said, taking out his phone. “Chris is fairly tech savvy.
I’m sure he can follow your instructions.”
“But how—”
“He’ll enter your house secretly through one of the windows and, under your direction,
shut off your recordings and the timers on the lights. He’ll leave out the back where
it’s dark so any watchers don’t see his face. Then he’ll vanish.” He set the timer
on his phone, then tapped the screen again, calling Chris.
“You can vanish?” Jasper said, befuddled.
“Lupi don’t disappear,” Lily said. “It just seems like it. They’re good at concealment.
Tell me what Friar said.”
Jasper did that while Rule gave Chris his instructions. Rule listened to see if Jasper
altered anything or left it out—he didn’t, until he added that Hammond Middle School
was close to the hotel, much closer than his house, so he had a few minutes. Not many,
but a few. Rule disconnected and signaled to Scott:
Bring Cullen here.
Scott grimaced, no doubt anticipating more complaint. But Cullen wouldn’t bitch about
this. He never did when the emergency was real.
“He didn’t tell me to bring the prototype,” Jasper was saying to Lily. “Does that
mean he’s got it?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe…tell me something. If you still had the prototype, would
you have brought it to this meeting if Friar told you to?”
“No. Not like this, with no guarantees. Too easy to kill me and Adam both and take
the damn thing.”
“He probably knows that.”
Jasper scrubbed his face. “He does. Of course he does. I’ve been clear about that.
I wish to hell I’d quit panicking. It plays hell with thinking. So the next question
is, how do I leave here without being seen? There’s no time to leave the way I came
in, so I’ll have to exit as someone else.”
“If you’re in the center of my men when I leave,” Rule said, “you won’t be clearly
visible.”
“I need to get there ahead of you, and you’re supposed to leave your men here.”
“Friar knows I won’t do that. He wants something to hold over you—you didn’t do the
impossible, so he won’t honor his end of the deal. Which he has no intention of doing
anyway, but he wants you to keep thinking he will if you jump through his hoops just
right.”
“Right. Right. That sounds like him. I still need to leave before you do.” He looked
at Lily. “Do you have some makeup I could use?”
“Makeup? Uh—sorry, but I don’t think any amount of makeup will make you look like
a woman. And I don’t have anything that would fit you.”
“No, I won’t cross-dress. But another shirt, yes, the more expensive the better, given
where you’re staying. Not black. Black points up the resemblance between me and Rule.
And mascara, shadow, lipstick, liner—I don’t suppose you have any glitter? No? What
about cotton balls?”
“L
ILY
was right,” Rule said from the doorway to the bathroom. “You don’t look like a woman.
You do look different, but not like a woman.”
“Different but charming, yes?” Jasper met his eyes in the mirror and blew him a mocking
kiss. “You don’t approve.”
“It’s disconcerting, like looking in the mirror and seeing someone else there. Was
Chris able to shut down your recordings?”
“I think so. He seemed to follow instructions well.” Jasper’s voice was clear in spite
of the scraps of washcloth he’d stuffed in his cheeks in lieu of cotton balls to change
their contour. In six minutes he’d transformed himself—removed his shirt, gelled his
hair into spikes, and applied liner, mascara, and shadow with a lavish hand. He was
now brushing on blush. He met Rule’s eyes in the mirror again. “It’s my SFGS disguise.”
“Will this do?” Lily said, pushing past Rule and holding out a white cashmere scarf
he’d given her recently.
“Perfect, if I had a shirt to—ah, you’ve got something.”
She handed him the silk shirt that had been draped over her arm. “Todd donated it
to the cause.”
Todd liked color. The shirt was lime green with a paisley pattern picked out in royal
blue. It was slightly too small, but Jasper dealt with it efficiently, rolling up
the sleeves and leaving it unbuttoned. He draped the scarf around his neck, twitching
it until it fell to his satisfaction.
“SFGS?”
“Stereotypical Flaming Gay Slut.” He put down the blush brush, picked up the lip gloss
Lily had contributed, and his voice changed, turning light and merry. “Works a treat,
sweetie. Everyone notices me. No one sees me. Ask for a description later and you’ll
hear about the shirt, the pants, the makeup. Hotel staff do pay some attention to
prostitutes their customers bring here in case they cause trouble—either the prostitutes
or their customers. But they won’t give much more of a description than the man I
annoy by my mere presence in the elevator. They just won’t sputter as much.”
“You’ve used this disguise before,” Lily said.
“La, dear, of course! This isn’t the first time I’ve needed to leave a place openly,
yet without being properly seen.” He gave her a roguish wink, then dropped back into
his own voice. He grabbed a washcloth and the tube of facial cleanser Lily used every
night. He’d need that to get out of character once he left the hotel. “Time to go.
I’ll need to head up a flight or two before getting in the elevator, just be sure
I’m not connected with this floor.”
Rule nodded and moved out of the doorway. “You’ll see Barnaby in the stairwell—tall,
dark skin, plain white shirt. He’s expecting you.”
“You have people everywhere?”
“We keep track of entrances and exits. You don’t need to worry about surveillance
on this floor. The hotel’s hallway cams are disabled, and we’ve checked thoroughly
for
others. There’s a hotel cam in the stairwell, but Barnaby will have it knocked out
by the time you get there. He’ll brief you on how to avoid the hallway cam on the
floor above this one.”
Jasper’s eyebrows climbed. “You’re thorough. If—ah. Thank you. Much better than a
shopping bag.”
Cullen had met them in the bedroom and handed Jasper the shoulder bag he used to carry
some of his spellcasting supplies. “I put one of Rule’s shirts in it.”
“Excellent.”
Rule glanced at his watch as they reached the sitting room. “You have nine minutes
to call me. Will he know when you do?”
“Yes. He can’t listen in, but he’s installed something on my phone that tracks what
numbers I call and when.”
“And where?” Lily said, suddenly worried.
“The GPS on my phone has never worked right. That’s intentional, but Friar doesn’t
know it. Do you know what you’re going to do? Do you have a plan?”
“We have various plans,” Rule said, as they reached the entry, “depending on what
we find when we get there. Jasper.”
Jasper reached for the door. “Yes?”