Cape Storm Page 0,34

plan to go around shooting anybody who looks at you funny on this ship," I said.

"Let us help you. There's no need to be afraid. Not now." Cole stared at me with a perplexed look on his face. Clearly, I wasn't fitting the pigeonholes he was trying to stuff me into. I was used to that, actually.

"Who are you?" His gaze leaped from me to David, and then back again. "Are you with the government?"

"Yes," I said. In fact, that was sort of true. And sort of not.

"I'm calling my attorney. He's kicked the ass of everybody in the Justice Department, from the attorney general to the janitorial service. He'll make short work of you two jokers."

Cole reached for his cell phone.

It disappeared. Cole stared at the place where it had been, slapped his hand around, and looked at me with comically big eyes. "What the hell?" David opened his right hand, and there was Cole's cell phone. "If you want it back, play nice," he said. Cole's mouth dropped open, and he surged to his feet.

"Hey, fucking David Copperfield, give that back!" His face turned brick-red, which I was pretty sure wasn't an indication of his general good health. "You sons of bitches, my life is in that phone!"

"Then I hold your life in my hand, don't I?" David pointed out mildly. "Sit." I wasn't sure if it was a suggestion or an order, but Cole's ass hit the sofa cushions pretty quickly. His high-blood-pressure blush was already fading, as he realized that his biggest problem might not be in retrieving his contact list and scandalous text messages. "What the hell do you people want ?" From Cole, that actually sounded kind of subdued.

"We want to be sure there's no more trouble," I said. "So we'll be taking your gun. Anything else contraband in here we should know about? Purely for safety?" His gaze flicked away from me, racing toward the sweeping staircase, and then returning just as fast. In the aetheric, his aura whispered a fast rainbow of anxiety and guilt. I sat back and looked up at David, who nodded and disappeared, taking Cole's cell phone with him.

"What - " Cole's mouth had dropped so far open that I could see all his impressive dental work. I guess he'd figured out that David might share a first name with a famous magician, but he was far, far more impressive. "What are you people?"

"Who said we were people?" I smiled coolly at him. That flummoxed him for a full ten seconds.

"Look, I'm not some terrorist or something, I'm just - Okay, I took some money. A lot of money. From some people I worked with. And they're trying to get it back from me, that's all. It's just business."

Business mob-style, I gathered. Which explained why he wanted to hole up in his suite with a warm gun, and why he hadn't disembarked with the others. A common criminal.

I could live with that.

David ghosted back into view behind me and dropped a hand on my shoulder. I twisted to look at him.

"Boyfriend," he said. "Up in the bedroom. He had this." David deposited another gun in my lap, a match for the semiautomatic we'd confiscated from Cole. "Do you want to take a look?"

"Why, is he naked?"

It's hard to get a complete double take from a Djinn, but I managed. "I didn't notice," he said. Which was, no doubt, a crushing blow to Mr. Cole. I was sad for him. "What do you think? Pass?"

"Pass," I said. "Whatever problems he has aren't any concern of ours. Mr. Cole, we're done here. I'll be taking your guns with me, though. If you have intruder problems, David will be

happy to come to your rescue." I batted my eyelashes again. David didn't look pleased with being volunteered. "Thanks."

"Thanks for what?" Cole asked, mystified. I walked over to the bar and retrieved the second pistol from the ice bucket. Nicely cooled down.

"Not shooting me, too," I said. "That would have been awkward."

"No," David said. "That would have been fatal for Mr. Cole." I gathered that Mr. Cole was a man of few boundaries, but he recognized that one, and he nodded. "It won't happen again. Sorry. Eh - what's your name?"

"I'm David Prince. Her name is Joanne Baldwin," David said. "But you can call her Mrs. Prince."

I got a shiver out of that. A nice one.

We left Cole on the couch, still grappling with the utter destruction of his worldview.

All in all, not