The Company of Darkness (11 page)

“No, there’s more to it than that, I can feel it.  Maybe he flirted a bit in the bar, but not in the elevator.  He was delivering a threat, for me to watch it or I’d end up with him as an enemy, I’m sure of it.”

“But to watch what exactly?  He never mentioned my name or the Company.  He never said to stay away from me or mind your own business.”

“I guess there’s only one way to find out.  Are you going to confront him?”

He could, but Ethan wasn’t ready to pull that trigger yet when a more subtle reaction might yield more intel.  “No, not yet.  I’m going to wait and see what his next move is.” 

“What if his next move is to kill me?”

“He’d never do that without it being sanctioned by the Company and there’s no indication they’re even aware of your presence.”

“Easy for you to say, you didn’t see the look in his eyes,” she said in a small voice and Ethan let out a long breath. 

“Do you want me to talk to him?  Put all our cards on the table?”

It was her turn to sigh.  “No, I want you to do what you think is best.  You have way more experience in this kind of thing than I do.” 

“I’ll take care of it.”

* * *

Ethan was still trying to figure out the best way to take care of it two hours later.  Confronting Rikard over the phone was right out, that meant a face to face, and he had no idea what mood he’d find the fixer in.  Option number three involved tracking Rikard down and tailing him for a while, and that looked to be the best option.  Anything that tipped him to Rikard’s end game before requesting a meet would give him an edge. 

Not knowing where to find him in a city that size, Ethan did the next best thing – he set to watching Cady.  In that way he killed two birds with one stone, keeping her safe while he waited for Rikard to appear and make a move.  The plan worked well enough; he picked up Rikard as he showed about a half hour before Cady got off work, taking up a spot at a nearby coffee shop. 

Ethan watched from across the street as Rikard tailed her, not particularly trying to keep out of sight, contrary to their training.  Maybe he wasn’t worried about Cady spotting him?  Either way, Cady appeared oblivious, leading them right to her apartment building, where she disappeared inside.  Sending a quick text to Cady, asking her to stay inside for the night, Ethan took watch, wanting to see how long he’d stick it out.  Rikard stayed outside for about four hours after she got home, watching the entrance, smoking, not doing much of anything else before he left, and Ethan took to tailing him again, taking great pains to keep out of sight. 

Rikard led him to an apartment building in Chinatown, not one of the Company sanctioned safe houses as far as Ethan knew, but it was possible he was only there to meet someone.  The apartment sat over an office offering acupuncture and massage, and the tang of burning herbs tickled his nose when Ethan entered the building.  The low drone of men chanting followed him up the stairs, echoing strangely in the stairwell so that it was hard to place where it came from.  The words were foreign, maybe Chinese or even Tibetan, it was all Greek to him. 

Moving much more cautiously now, Ethan pressed close to the walls, light on the balls of his feet as he tailed him up to the fourth floor.  He hung back in the humid stairwell, noting what door Rikard went to, but sticking to the shadows to avoid detection.  Ethan wasn’t ready to confront Rikard, not yet.  Instead he withdrew to the building across the street, sizing up a good vantage point to see inside the apartment and find out what the fixer was up to. 

It wasn’t too hard to break into an empty office suite that lined up fairly well, the business already closed up and gone for the day.  A large corner office afforded him a perfect view of Rikard’s window, and the blinds were only partially closed, the lights on inside, giving him a peek into the room.  He pulled out a small night scope from his pocket and took a look.

Rikard was the only one inside, and he’d pulled off his leather jacket and holster, wholly absorbed in making himself a sandwich in the small kitchenette.  As far as he knew, Rikard didn’t have a permanent residence in the city, but it seemed to be where he was staying for the moment.  Instead of the typical, barren space that Company men tended to surround themselves with, there were knick knacks on the shelves, woven tapestries and painted scrolls vying for wall space.  The place appeared almost claustrophobic after Ethan’s high ceilinged loft, but he’d stayed in worse. 

The chime of his phone set Ethan’s heart to pounding, especially when the number came through as blocked.  He answered it, but didn’t say a word.

“Identify.”  The feminine voice came on the line, comforting in its lack of warmth.

“Shaw, sector twelve, number six five six zero nine.” 

“Acknowledged, Shaw, sector twelve, number six five six zero nine,” she replied.  “Stand by one to receive assignment.”

An assignment.  Was there another subject to pursue already?  His blood began to pump faster, anticipation building as they kept him on hold. 

Her voice came back on the line, relaying the message.  “Surveillance level four, 246 2nd Street, Apartment 512.  Establish audio and visual feed, with particular interest in any interactions over the next ninety-six hours.  Do not make any contact, repeat, no contact with the subjects under any circumstances.  Acknowledge.”

Committing the address to memory, Ethan nodded into his end of the call.  “Copy that, surveillance level four to be established, set up the see and say, hands off.  Are you requesting live feed?”

“Negative.  All findings to be reported on a nightly basis.  Your transmission time is slated for twenty-two hundred hours, standard protocols apply.”

“Acknowledged.  Anything else?”

There was another long wait, a series of clicks coming over the line that made him nervous for some reason even though he’d done this hundreds of times before.  “Negative.”  The call dropped as they disconnected the line. 

Feeling better with something to do again, especially with it sounding like business as usual on their end, Ethan started to relax.  Noticing Rikard taking a call across the street, he wished he had audio in there, but the gist of the call soon became apparent.  Rikard put down the sandwich he’d been munching on and pulled a change of clothes out of the small dresser standing next to the bed.  While Ethan watched, he added a few toiletries, and more importantly, packed a case with a high powered rifle inside.  Ethan was willing to bet he’d gotten a new assignment, just like him.  Were they in any way related?  Rikard continued to pack and then picked up his phone again.  

What Ethan didn’t expect was the ring from his own phone.  “Shaw,” he said succinctly.

“I’m on my way to Modesto,” Rikard said, as though that was a perfectly normal thing to call up and say out of the blue.

“You always get the glamour spots,” Ethan replied, and he saw Rikard’s lips quirk into a half smile.  “Have a good trip.”  Was he supposed to say something else?  He didn’t normally call and check in whenever he got sent somewhere new.  Sometimes they went months without speaking to each other. 

Rikard tucked the phone into the crook between his cheek and shoulder, hands busy pushing 9mm bullets into two extra magazines.  “Just wanted to say be careful.  I won’t be around to watch your back.”

It was hard to interpret if there was more behind his words from his tone.  “Okay.  Will do.”  There was so much he wanted to ask him, but Ethan didn’t dare bring up Cady.  “I didn’t realize you were still in town,” he said carefully, watching him for any sign that he knew he was under surveillance.

“There’s probably a lot going on you don’t realize.”  Rikard went to the window and peered through the shades, but not in the direction of Ethan’s hideout across the street.

“Care to fill me in?”

“Just be careful, Shaw.”   

Unsure what to make of that, Ethan couldn’t shake the gnawing fear that settled into the pit of his stomach.  So when Rikard made preparations to leave, Ethan picked up his tail again, following him to a secure parking garage a short distance away.  When Rikard got into a deep blue mustang, Ethan considered slipping into a cab or appropriating a vehicle to follow him, but decided to take the man at his word.  Rikard was headed out of town with a small number of personal possessions and a few words of warning. 

Be careful.

Deciding to do just that, Ethan retraced his steps, back to the Chinese clinic and up to the fourth floor.  In a matter of seconds he stood inside Rikard’s apartment, his head cocked to one side as he felt for any personal booby traps, but the room was clean of the telltale tingle of magic. 

It didn’t take long to search the tiny apartment, sliding his hands between every folded article of clothing, into each of the pockets and inside each shoe.  He even checked the half sized refrigerator, but all he found were sandwich fixings and a few beers.  It wasn’t until he reached the bed that his fingers brushed against something unusual between the mattress and the box spring. 

Ethan pulled out two thick manila folders containing copies of the police reports surrounding the incidents with Ash, his own report, as well as grainy stills of Cady from what looked like typical convenience store type cameras, and her high school graduation picture.  There was a folded square of white cloth which Ethan very carefully unfolded to reveal two long strands of auburn hair. 

It bothered him to see the hairs there, fiery red against the white; it made it all so much more personal.  There were any number of places where Rikard could’ve obtained them, but the idea of him coming close enough to her to pluck them from her head made his teeth grind together.  Not that he hadn’t believed Cady before, about Rikard’s intrusive visits, but it was pretty obvious that Rikard’s investigation ran far deeper than following her around. 

But why the urge to follow her at all?  And why the phone call with the cryptic warning? 

Be careful. 

Ethan wrapped up the hair and replaced it with all of the files back into the manila envelopes, positioning them as he’d found them.  Deciding to take the warning, he resolved not to see Cady for a while.  He had an assignment to focus on, and for the time being he would give it his full attention.  If someone else was looking into his involvement with Cady, let them think his interest had waned.  It would kill him not to see her and be with her again, but he was strong enough to put the need for her safety above his own. 

If there was one thing he was good at, it was being careful.

For all her nineteen years of experience, Cady did not understand men. 

It was like Ethan was two completely different people.  On the one side, he was cold and distant for days on end with barely a text, ignoring her messages completely sometimes.  She tried to tell herself it was because he’d been without a girlfriend for a long time and that she didn’t need him constantly making kissy faces at her to know how much he cared.  But it was hard to know what to think when a guy showed up at your window, ravaged you with hot sex and then left before your heart had a chance to return to normal and then ignored your calls.  

And then on the other side, he’d show up in the oddest places to give her a quick kiss or phone call when she least expected it, breaking his own no contact rules, seemingly on a whim like he couldn’t stand to be apart for one second longer.  It made her smile, like she was doing now, thinking how much he must love her to completely break his own protocols. 

He loved her, she knew he did.  But some of the things he did were strange, even for him.  Like the fact that she’d caught him stealing strands of her hair from her brush and then totally changed the subject when she asked him about it.  In fact, he seemed obsessed with her hair lately, stroking it whenever it was within reach.  It made her feel a little like a pet sometimes, a companion to soothe him when he was agitated or upset. 

On the plus side, he’d told her she didn’t have to worry so much about Rikard, he was out of town on assignment.  Lucas too, appeared to be letting up on his obsession with Ethan, or maybe he was just caught up on a new case?  Ian was busy with his new job, going on some kind of training retreat for a couple of days with the other new hires. 

Whatever the reason, Cady took the opportunity to completely immerse herself into the girly pleasures of long scented baths and generally pampering herself.  Now that she had some extra cash on hand, it was fun to try out a hellacious shade of green nail polish on her fingers and toes or a new deep conditioner that promised to make her hair lustrous and shiny without weighing it down.  And she was getting hella good at the protection spell.  She’d already spelled all of the windows in the conference room at work, the sigils drawn in thin pencil almost invisible on the wood trim.  Maybe it’d never come up, but she figured it wasn’t a bad skill to develop. 

She was ready for some human companionship though when Penny called to invite her to a dress fitting for their bridesmaid gowns.  Taking off work a few hours early, she met Kelli on the way to the dress shop, a funky boutique called Tseital’s Bridals. 

“This completely sucks,” Kelli complained, as soon as she came into view.

“Why?” Cady’s brow crumpled in confusion.  “I thought the bridesmaids’ dresses were totally cute.  I think it’s awesome she let us pick our own colors.”

“What? No, the dresses are cool, I mean this bullshit about no bachelorette party.  What’s the point of getting married if you can’t have one last fling?”

“Oh, come on, it’s Penny.  When has she ever had a fling before or after she met Justin?” Cady pointed out.  “If she did let us throw her a party, she’d invite her grandma to come with or something.”

“I bet her grandma would like to party more than Penny would.”

“Kelli!”  Cady nudged her shoulder playfully, and it almost tripped Kelli up on her platform sandals. 

“Hey, at least the old lady’s had sex before,” Kelli snorted. 

Cady lowered her voice.  “Penny’s not a virgin.”

“She might as well be.  It’s not healthy to hold off on sex, I keep telling you guys that.  If I don’t have sex at least twice a week I start to get all…”

“Ick, I do not want to hear the details of your sex life with Ian.”  Cady stopped her with a hand as they reached the door to the dress shop.  Penny already waited inside, and all talk about their sex lives was dropped until they sat in the back, watching her hem get pinned up.

“Hey, since you’re not letting us throw you a proper sendoff into spinsterhood…” Kelli began, but Cady interrupted.

“She’s not entering spinsterhood, she’s getting married.  Spinsterhood is when you’re an old maid, still single.”

“Oh.”  Kelli’s face scrunched deeper in thought.  “What’s it called when you’re married and you never get any?”

“A sitcom,” Penny sniffed loftily.  “Plenty of people in real life have sex all the time once they’re married, don’t they, Reina?” she asked the plump matron pinning by her feet. 

The woman looked up with a sly smile.  “
Si
, I am still having the sex all the time.  My Hector is a… how you say… bigorous.” 

It took Cady a half second to realize she meant vigorous, and she suppressed a smile.

“Anyway,” Kelli took back control of the conversation.  “You might not want to open your gift from me in front of the new in-laws, I’m just saying,” she grinned.

“Why, what did you get me?”

“I might have an adult novelty or two stashed away from our time at Spanky’s,” the blonde said in a hushed voice. 

“You five finger discounted stuff from work?” Cady’s jaw dropped but Kelli barely shrugged.

“It was after he went missing, before the police shut the place down.  Dylan wasn’t going to miss that stuff, and I was a bit curious.”

“You can’t give her stolen sex toys as a wedding present!” Cady insisted hotly.  Maybe if she hadn’t said anything, but Penny would never accept such a thing.  But to her surprise Penny looked intrigued. 

“Let’s not be too hasty, what kind of toys are we talking about?” she asked in her little babydoll voice.  Kelli went on to talk about them in great detail, managing to shock even Reina with some of them. 

“What did you do, pull up a shopping cart to the back door and fill it up?” Cady snorted. 

“It was dark, I was in a hurry.  I just went down the line grabbing a few things and tossing them into my reusable grocery bags.” 

From the sound of it, Kelli had taken more than a
few
things.  “You seriously don’t see what’s wrong with that?  Stealing from work.”

“Work that we both got fired from when Dylan turned out to be a psycho killer, by the way.  What I did was like nothing compared to that.  I don’t see why you’re so high and mighty all of a sudden.  Ian didn’t seem to care where they came from.” 

Wow
.  Talk about a visual she didn’t need rattling around in the back of her mind. 

Penny seemed oblivious to her discomfort through.  “So you and Ian, you’ve road tested a few of these before?” 

“I’m going to go try this on.”  Cady grabbed the green dress hanging on the rolling rack and retreated to one of the changing rooms.  The store was too small for her to completely miss out on their conversation about her brother’s interest in vibrating cock rings, but at least it gave her something to do. 

Doing her best to block them out by humming the theme song to
New Girl
, Cady swiftly undressed and slipped on the strapless dress, admiring the way the fitted bodice hugged her curves and then flared out, falling below the knee.  If she’d had her way it would’ve been a few inches shorter, but Penny had decided on the design, only giving them the option of color. 

Her phone buzzed, and Cady smiled over the text from Ethan.

What are you doing?

Why, you mean you’re not stalking me for once?

I do work on occasion.

Did he mean there was a new demon in town? 
Nothing dangerous I hope.

Nope, just boring surveillance.

That didn’t sound so bad.
  What for?

I don’t ask, they don’t tell.

Lame.  Where are you?

Courtyard Downtown Hotel.

She hesitated for a few moments before sending,
Want some company?

Not going to be much good at my job if you’re here to distract me.

Aren’t I distracting you now?
  Cady took a selfie in the mirror and sent it to him. 

Good point.  Room 502.

I’ll be there as soon as I can.
  Slipping carefully out of the dress, she hung it back up and tugged her work clothes back on, but before she left the dressing room, she realized they were talking about her, speculating about her sex life. 

“I can hear you guys,” she called out, giving them a few seconds to cool it before she came out, but instead, Penny stood outside the dressing room door when she opened it, dress billowing around her in a froth of the purest white. 

“Okay then, how come you’re not interested in some battery powered action if you’re not getting a little something on the side?”

Cady’s lips pressed into a thin line as she tried to think of a good answer to that.  “Because I do fine on my own. I don’t need any stolen toys, I’m good.” 

“I think it’s the hottie in the bar you were talking with the other night.”

“What hottie?”

“You know, the guy in the leather jacket, the bourbon with the beer back who followed you to the table?

“Oh.  Are we calling him hot?”

“Oh yeah, he’s definitely smoking hot,” Kelli nodded enthusiastically.  “Look.”  Thumbing through the pictures in her phone, she showed a picture to Penny before Cady snatched it from her hand. 

“You took a picture of him!” she squealed, staring down at a dark pic of her and Rikard, his face lit fairly well from a nearby neon light. 

“Of course, I thought he was cute.”

Cady deleted the picture, searching around it for any other pictures of Rikard, but the next one was of her kissing Detective Lucas.  “Oh my God…” she groaned, but before she could delete that one, Kelli grabbed it back.

“Hey, give me back my phone.  You don’t see me going through your stuff and deleting it.”

“This isn’t your stuff, this is me.”

“And the yummy cop you were kissing.”  Kelli tossed the phone to Penny who snuck a quick peek and held the phone up over her head, waving it in the air. 

“Still trying to tell us you’re single?  So that’s why he called me looking for you!” the brunette teased.  “Come on, Cady, time to fess up.  Who else are you giving smoochies to?”

“I’m not…” Cady made one swipe for the phone before she realized she was playing right into their hands.  “First of all, I don’t know that hot guy at all.  He hit on me, so I left to find a table when you got busy, Kel.  When he wouldn’t take no for an answer…  yes, I kissed Detective Lucas when he showed up.”

Kelli’s grin stretched a mile wide.  “Cady and Detective Lucas sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n…”

Cady grabbed for the phone again, deleting the picture of the kiss before tossing it back.  “I am not dating Detective Lucas.” 
Not a lie…
  “He’s a really nice guy, but more of a pain in the ass than boyfriend material.” 
Also not a lie…
  “As for me and battery operated gadgets, what can I say, I prefer the personal touch.”  Technically not a lie, since she was relying on Ethan for that personal touch lately.  “Now, I’ve gotta go.”

Penny’s eyes flew wide with disappointment.  “No, come on, we’re sorry.”

“Yeah really, we were just teasing,” Kelli nodded.  “We were going to get drinks after this.”

Cady needed to get to Ethan, and this was the best reason for an exit she could come up with, even though she wasn’t all that offended.  “I can’t stay out until closing anymore, I have to get up too early in the morning now.”

“You don’t have to stay until closing, Ian will walk me home,” Kelli protested, but Cady shook her head.

“No, he’s out of town at that work thing.”

“He said he might be coming back tonight.”

“Oh.  He didn’t bother to tell me that.”  Obviously he was a lot closer to Kelli these days.  “You know, he won’t be able to do that when he’s working a regular nine to five job.”

“He said he might be working odd hours sometimes.  So you never know,” she shrugged.

“He did?”  Why hadn’t he said anything to her?  “Okay, well, I still have to go. I have some things to take care of, especially if Ian might be coming home tonight.”

“I can bring him back to my place tonight if you need to clean up first,” Kelli offered, and Cady seized upon the opportunity.

“Ah, thanks, that would be good.  You should see the place, it’s a big old mess.” 

“Come out for one drink and I’ll come home with you and help clean up,” Penny volunteered with a bright smile.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t let you do that.  It’s my mess, I’ll clean it up.  I really do need to get going though.”  She edged closer to the door.  “I’ll catch you guys later for a drink some other time.” 

“I still think it’s that cop guy,” Penny said, her lips pursed speculatively. 

“Trust me, if it was him, I’d invite him to come with.”

“Nah, it’s the other guy, Mr. Sexy,” Kelli insisted.  “Why else would you freak out that I took his picture?”

Shit
.  Cady decided to go with a tactical roll of the eyes.  “You guys… I wish my life was that exciting,” she laughed, pulling open the door.  “See you later.  Tell Ian I said welcome home.”  She had a rendezvous of her own to get to.