Cold Burn of Magic
Page 16

I grabbed my phone from my backpack. No message from Mo. I wondered what he had done after I left the Razzle Dazzle. He would have had to call someone about the attack. Since Devon, Felix, and Ashley had belonged to one of the Families, the regular mortal cops wouldn’t get involved, but somebody would have to do something, if only to remove the dead men’s bodies from the shop and sweep everything under the proverbial rug.
But there was no way for me to get answers to my questions until Mo decided to contact me.
So I gathered up my things, turned out the lights, left the bathroom, and headed down to the basement to go to bed, even though I knew it would be hours before I actually fell asleep.
After a night of bloody dreams, I quickly dressed and went to school the next morning, but my thoughts lingered on Ashley. I wondered how long she’d been a Family bodyguard. I wondered if Devon and Felix were really her friends or just a job. I wondered if she had a family—a real family—and not just the stupid mob she’d joined for whatever reason.
I wondered a lot of things I shouldn’t have.
But the school day passed by like any other. And so did the next one . . . and the one after that . . . and the one after that . . .
Mo sent me a few cryptic texts, saying that he was taking care of things, but he didn’t call me, and I didn’t dare go by the pawnshop until he gave me the all-clear. So the days went by, and I still didn’t know what, if anything, was going on.
The suspense was driving me crazy, but there was nothing I could do but schlep to school every day, find a diner to hang out in until the library closed for the night, and pick a few tourist pockets to pay for my daily dinners of cheeseburgers and fries. I didn’t spend any of the money Mo had given me for stealing the ruby necklace. Not a single dollar.
There was too much blood on it for that.
So here I was, at school again, wondering which greasy dive I could lurk in this afternoon and checking my phone every five minutes in case Mo texted me. This was the last week of classes, and all that was left were a few lame, end-of-year activities, which I totally could have skipped. But I always came to school every day right up until the bitter end to hit the breakfast and lunch lines, where I swiped extra cookies and apples that I didn’t pay for and stuffed into my backpack to eat later.
The last bell of the day rang, and I was heading out the front door when my phone finally chirped with a message from Mo. I stopped in the hallway and looked at the screen.
Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t start a fight. *Please*
I sighed. Another cryptic message that told me absolutely nothing. I wondered who he thought I was going to start a fight with. Certainly not the rubes at school. I knew better than that. Oh, I could kick the ass of anyone stupid enough to mess with me. My mom had taught me to take care of myself—and then some. But a fight would mean a talk with my parents, and since I didn’t have any, that would lead to all sorts of awkward questions about why I wasn’t in foster care, where I lived, and other things that were best left to the imagination.
I waited, but Mo didn’t text me again. So I put the phone back into my pocket, pushed through the doors, and stepped outside into the bright sunshine.
I didn’t notice the SUV until I was almost at the sidewalk.
It crouched at the curb like an oversize beetle. Everything about it was black—black paint, black windows, black tires. The sort of car you see in action movies where government spooks use the vehicle to help them disappear people—forever.
But it was much, much worse than the government because a crest blazed on the front passenger door—a hand holding a sword aloft, all of it outlined in white. I might not have anything to do with them, but I still recognized the Sinclair Family crest.
I’d had my suspicions before, but I still bit back a groan. Of course it would be that Family. The only thing worse would have been if the Draconis had come for me.
A guy was leaning against the side of the SUV, his arms crossed over his muscled chest. His hair was a rich, golden blond and slicked back into a cool style, while his tan skin brought out his pale blue eyes. He was easily one of the most gorgeous guys I’d ever seen, and I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed him. All of the girls walking by paused to give him a hungry once-over, especially since he didn’t look all that much older than the students, maybe twenty or so.
Too bad he wasn’t alone.
He was flanked by Felix and an older man with snow-white hair who was wearing a three-piece black tweed suit. Silver cuffs flashed on all their wrists, and golden boy had a sword strapped to his waist. Felix straightened up the second he saw me and nudged golden boy with his elbow. Oh no.
It would look more suspicious if I bolted, so I kept going, falling in behind a group of football players. I reached the sidewalk and turned left, away from the SUV. I ducked my head and started walking in the other direction, not really running, but seriously thinking about it—
A pair of boots planted themselves on the sidewalk, and I had to pull up to keep from slamming into the guy in front of me.
“In a hurry?” golden boy asked, smiling and revealing a dimple in his left cheek.
“You might say that.”
I started to step around him, but he blocked my path. I moved the other way, and so did he, cutting me off again. We did our dance a third time before he reached out, as though he were going to grab my arm. Handsome or not, I bared my teeth at him.
“You touch me, and I will knock you into next week.”
His eyebrows shot up, and his gaze flicked past me. Footsteps sounded behind us, and too late, I remembered his friends. I glanced over my shoulder. Sure enough, Felix and the older man had come up behind me. I backed up so that the four of us were standing in a loose circle, even though all of them were on one side with just me on the other.