calm. “No vehicles come in, Mr. Kelly. Find Mr. Abarca and please have him see me ASAP.”
Kelly finally realized that things were FUBAR, and the smile bled off his face. “Yes ma’am.”
I rolled up my window and drove off, checking the rearview mirror. Behind me hydraulics whined, raising the spiked barricade to block the street.
I drove to the warehouse, and we came in through the business entrance. I walked into the conference room and used the intercom. “Family meeting in the conference room, please.”
Runa took a seat. I sat down at the head of the table.
I’d been attacked by two corpses, saw my teenage crush stab a man in the heart, and then watched him jump out of a three-story window. I’d bullied an administrative assistant and stood up to the cops. Then I drove through heavy traffic, scanning it for enemies, and almost got into an accident in front of my damn house. My heart was still pounding. I wanted to jump up and run around the block to burn off the adrenaline.
Instead, I had to sit in a chair and appear professional.
I could still feel the sharp desiccated fingers on my throat, squeezing to crush my windpipe. I would remember that awful smell as long as I lived. There was no time to deal with any of it.
The reanimated bodies were bad, but Alessandro was worse. I kept replaying that strike in my head. I wasn’t sure I could’ve blocked it even with my magic. And his face. He’d looked relaxed. He’d stood there, with a human being sliding off his knife, and he’d looked relaxed.
My cell rang. An unlisted number.
I answered it on speaker. “Yes?”
“You’re tracking me,” Alessandro said.
Runa’s eyes went big.
“I’m not tracking you,” I told him. Technically, it wasn’t even a lie.
“You’re having me tracked. I understand that I’m irresistible. It’s a cross I bear. But do try to have some self-control, Catalina. I’m embarrassed for you.”
He . . . Argh. “As I recall, I never had a problem resisting you.”
“I thought we agreed that you would drop this.”
“I didn’t agree to anything.”
“Catalina, listen to me. This is serious, the people involved are dangerous, and your well-being is important to me.”
Since when? “Why don’t you tell me more about it? Maybe if I fully understand the danger, I’ll stay out of it.”
“No, you won’t. You have no sense.”
“I have all kinds of sense.”
“This is your last warning, Catalina.”
“Or what?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to find out.”
He hung up.
I glared at the phone. Insufferable ass. When I got my hands on him, I would pry his mind open like a tin can. And then I would make him do a little dance, record it, and play it for him on a loop after I drained my magic off. Irresistible. I’ll show you irresistible. Just you wait.
“‘I have all kinds of sense’?” Runa quoted.
“I was too mad to think of a snappy comeback.”
Mom and Bern walked into the conference room. I put my phone down.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Closing Yarrow,” Mom said. “There has been a development. Leon called for reinforcements. Your grandma and Arabella left about an hour ago.”
“What kind of a development?”
“They wouldn’t tell me, but they took Brick.”
Brick was Grandma Frida’s ultimate achievement. It started life as a military Humvee and was now the pinnacle of vehicular security. It couldn’t go faster than sixty miles an hour, but my grandma claimed it could take a shot from a tank. She also refused to let any of us drive it.
The Yarrow case involved a woman who posed as a CPA and used her charm to worm her way into her friends’ small businesses and then rob them blind. What in the world would they need Brick for?
I brought Mom up to speed on the events of this morning. “Also, I asked Mr. Abarca to join us after this meeting.”
“Right,” Mom said, loading a world of meaning into the single word. She and our head of security had been butting heads almost from the moment we hired him, and it was only getting worse.
I turned to Runa. “We need to figure out why your family was targeted. People kill for one of three reasons: emotion, power, or money. Not every House in Houston would have the audacity to pressure an AME. The penalties are severe. Your mother made an enemy with a lot of power.”
Runa spread her arms helplessly.
“How did your family make money?” I asked.
Runa frowned. “I don’t exactly know. We just always had enough.