King Among the Dead - Lauren Gilley Page 0,78

do. But you’re getting reckless. He’s going to notice what you’re doing, if he hasn’t already. And you’re strong, and fast, and smart – you are amazing. But you can’t fight an army. And that’s what he has: an army.

“You want to kill him. I get that. But what happens if you get yourself killed? What will I do? What will I do without you…” Her chest squeezed on the last – it was hard to breathe – and she realized that she was starting to hyperventilate…and that she was crying. Hot tears slipped down her cheeks, and she brushed them angrily away, but it was too late; he had to have seen them. Seen her weakness.

She started to turn away, trying desperately to get her emotions under control. How could a lecture be effective if you started blubbering at the end?

But he caught her arm – tight, but not painful. When she started to twist free, like he’d just taught her, she froze, watching his face – watching the hurt flash through his eyes.

They stared at one another.

Rose wet her lips, and sniffed, swallowed. Tried to compose herself. Her voice came out full of cracks, though. “I am afraid. I’m afraid I’m going to lose you, and I can’t – Beck, I can’t…”

She closed her eyes to stem the flow of tears, and his arms went around her. They were both sweaty, their clothes clinging to sticky skin, overheated, a little disgusting, but it didn’t matter. When he pulled her in close, she pressed her face into his chest. He stroked the crown of her head, slipped his fingers through her ponytail, and cupped the back of her neck. “It’s alright.” His voice sounded unsteady, too. As did the breath that he heaved out, the heat of it rushing past her ear. “Oh, Rosie. I’m sorry. I don’t…”

She let herself choke on the tears a minute. Let them come, hot, and cleansing down her face. Breathed in the smell of clean sweat, and of him, and reminded herself that nothing had happened yet. He was still here, still strong, still sheltering.

It was only that, the more familiar she became with violence, the more readily she dealt it, the more aware she became of how very human he was. He was flesh and blood, and it would be so easy for him to get hurt; for it to be his eyes the light drained from, in the dark rooms where they crept. The predator could become the prey, and she didn’t want to contemplate a world without him.

~*~

Anthony Castor might have prized loyalty, but he didn’t expect it – especially not from low-level dealers and knee-breakers. Beck pressed all of them for information which they weren’t able to give; they began defiant, and ended up begging.

But one night, a dealer offered something up. A location. An address. A date. Something big was happening: a new batch of dealers was being promoted, and they were meeting at a warehouse – the warehouse, if the way Beck’s eyes flashed was anything to do by.

“He can’t help it,” he said, later, when he was wiping his knife clean in the deep shadow of a building. His eyes and the flash of the blade were all that was visible. “He has to show off. It intimidates everyone properly, and makes him feel like a God.” He snorted humorlessly. “A God with angels to command.”

Back at the house, Beck had his usual whiskey and cigarette in front of the computer in the study. Punched in the address and pulled up satellite images of the warehouse. “I can’t believe he’s using the same warehouse,” he murmured, absently.

Rose had dozed off, and woke with a start when Kay came in. It was daylight, she realized – or close to, a rain-streaked silver morning. Kay was already mostly done with a cigarette and a glance at Beck revealed a full ashtray of butts at his elbow.

“You idiots didn’t even go to bed,” Kay groused, but her gaze was fixed on the screen. “What are you working on?”

“A chance to bring down the white whale at last,” Beck said. He sounded faintly manic.

Rose hitched upright in her chair, wincing at the crick in her neck. “I’ll go make tea.”

“Better make it coffee,” Kay advised.

“Right.”

~*~

Beck spent three days holed up in his study, consulting maps, searching news and gossip sites, scribbling notes on yellow legal paper. Kay gave up trying to coax him to the table, and she and Rose