The Operator
Page 122

“Thanks,” she murmured, her cold fingers appreciating the heat as she took it.
“This is a weird place to pick up your cat,” he said as he fidgeted beside her, and Peri glanced at her glass phone, thinking the same thing. Cam had never left her a text before—the man preferred the intimacy of a call—but maybe he was trying to distance himself. The coffee shop had a Realtor sign in the window when she and Silas had driven past it earlier today. Her chest hurt every time she thought of the peace she’d had there. She kept telling herself it hadn’t been false, but why couldn’t she make it last?
“Maybe,” she whispered, remembering Silas had said something.
“I mean, why an open plaza?” he insisted. “In the middle of the afternoon? Surrounded by kids? Is the guy a perv, or paranoid?”
“That’s why,” she said, nodding at a familiar hefty figure in a suit sitting alone at a canopied table, a cat carrier conspicuously on the table.
Silas followed her eyes, going still when he saw Bill. “God bless it,” he whispered, taking her elbow and trying to draw her back. “He’s just a cat. Let’s go. Now!”
Peri jerked out of his grip, sure there were other sets of eyes already on them. Jack’s perhaps. She hadn’t seen her illusionary partner since he’d spun in a circle and vanished, but she wasn’t taking any chances and would unload her Glock into a shadow if she thought it was really him.
“Carnac is not just a cat,” she argued. “He’s my cat. And what about Cam?” Worried, she dropped her gaze to her phone, scrolling to find Cam’s number. She hit connect, and sure enough, Bill shifted to reach for his phone. Peri ended the call before it could complete.
“Watch my back,” she said, pushing her hot coffee into his hand and starting over.
“ ‘Watch my back’?” Silas echoed, jerking her to a stop. “Peri, this is nuts.”
She sent her gaze to the children running amuck, to the benevolent-looking but heavy police presence enjoying the day as much as the kids. “I want my cat, and I want to know he didn’t hurt Cam. I promised him he’d be safe.”
But Silas’s frown only deepened. He wanted her to turn around and walk away, but she couldn’t. “I have to do this,” she said, and he let go. “Watch my back,” she said again, forcefully. “Jack is probably somewhere. If you find him, you have my permission to kill him.” She hesitated in thought. “As long as no kids are watching.”
“I can do that,” Silas said, voice low and threatening, and she smiled.
But it faded as she wove her way between the running kids and the store-themed treats being handed out like the advertisements they were.
Warned by her incoming call, Bill had pulled himself up to his full, considerable height, casting about until he spotted her. His somewhat water-fat face widened in an honest smile, and he stood, knowing better than to spread his arms wide for their usual hug.
“Hey, kiddo,” he said, gaze warm and inviting. “I’m glad you decided to come over.”
She stopped before him under the shade of the canopy, hand on her hip as she took him in. He’d lost some weight, gained some muscle, and his finger was bare of his precious Opti ring, showing a faint lighter band of skin that had yet to darken. Otherwise, he looked the same in his thousand-dollar suit that could never quite hide his thug background. “Whatever you did to Cam, I’m going to do to you twice, and unlike me, you’ll remember it.”
Bill chuckled, gesturing for her to sit down. On the table, Carnac meowed for her attention. “Cam is fine,” he said, reaching his thick fingers through the grate to give the cat something to rub up against. “I left him a note in your handwriting. Have a seat. Let’s talk.”
She didn’t move to sit, crossing her arms in front of her and feeling as if scopes were trained on her. “No,” she said, then extended her hand. “Give me his phone so I can return it. He lives on that thing.”
“So I noticed.” Bill shook his head in warning. “I took the opportunity to go through it. He’s a bad man, Peri. No good for you. Don’t let the boyish charm fool you.” His eyes narrowed. “Sit. Down,” he demanded.
She sat as he knew she would. Her head came up, focus landing on Jack clear across the plaza, right in her line of sight. His hands were empty, but she felt better when Silas caught up to him and spun him around, threatening violence. Not illusion Jack, then. “What did you do to Cam?”
“Nothing,” Bill said, voice sounding hurt. “He never even knew I was there.”
He? As in Cam? Her eyes flicked to Bill’s, reading the truth of it.
Bill sighed, settling in and smiling at the trio racing to a display of candy, their mother trailing along behind with a bookseller tote filled with goodies. “Do you know how hard it is to find a good cat sitter? He took good care of our cat, and you’re going to need him again.”
Peri’s eye twitched. “He’s not your cat,” she said as she pulled the carrier closer.
“I always felt as if he was.”
Which begged the question of how many bugs and trackers Carnac had in him now. Her head was hurting, and she put her fingers through the mesh, knowing she’d take that risk. “Thanks for nothing, Bill,” she said, gathering Carnac to her and standing.
“Ah, wait up. This belongs to you,” Bill said as he reached behind his jacket to take out a manila envelope.
Peri looked at it, gauging its thickness. She’d gotten a lot of envelopes from him, and after a quick look around to make sure no one was watching, she took it and lifted the flap with a finger.
It was cash. A lot of it.
Bill smiled up at her, his hands laced comfortably over his middle. “There’s half a mil for taking out Michael and Helen for me. Thank you. Well done,” he said, inclining his head. “Another two hundred thousand that was originally Michael’s cut for procuring Everblue’s carbon tree. I have no use for his share, and you were there. Books have to balance, so . . .”
Peri dropped the envelope onto the table. “I don’t work for you.”
“Really?” Bill barked, irritation crossing his face for the first time. “You think all that was happenstance? Don’t insult me trying to play dumb. Michael and Helen had outlived their usefulness and I needed them out of the way. I set you on them with the scent of revenge and moral outrage, tempered with blind anger.” His expression softened. “You did good, kiddo.”