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Her voice snapped me out of whatever spell I was under, and with a hiss, I put the effigy on the desk fast. My hands tingled once it left my fingers, and the feeling was only relieved when I ran them roughly against my legs.
“Fine. The statute was just wedged under here. Keep your eyes closed, I’m almost finished.”
With the compulsion to pick the statue back up still pulsing in my head, I jerked my phone out of my pocket and made the call that I’d been both anticipating and dreading all day.
“Mr. Stone. How goes the hunt? I didn’t expect to talk to you again so soon,” Shadow jeered.
“I’ve got what it is that you want, but I have some conditions.”
His voice became hard. “I’m not taking orders from you, Gunner Stone, so if—”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “I don’t want anything tangible from you, just a favor and a promise that will cost you nothing.”
Shadow sighed. “Fine. But I’m only entertaining this because your turnaround was so swift.”
“The effigy is on the desk in an office at the Lace Elm house, unharmed. In return for my rapid recovery of your stolen item, there’s also a body in the office that needs to be disposed of. No one that is traceable. It’s your old art smuggler. Can you make him disappear?”
“Absolutely,” Shadow said, sounding more positive than I had anticipated. “You did us a favor by killing him, actually. We would have had to eliminate him either way.”
“In that case, I don’t feel so bad asking for the second part of this favor; I don’t want your syndicate contacting my sister, my nieces, or Rachel Starr ever again. They are all innocent, and under my protection.”
“Agreed. Believe it or not, we aren’t in the business of homicide for no reason,” Shadow drawled.
My shoulders sagged in relief, but I didn’t let that relief show in my voice. “Great. I’m leaving the premises and will be gone within ten minutes. After that it’s all yours. When can Rachel return home?”
“Give it until tomorrow so I can make sure my crew has properly cleaned everything up.” Shadow’s voice was thoughtful. “It was nice doing business with you, Mr. Stone. If you crave a switch in careers, give me a call.”
“I won’t,” I said firmly. “Goodbye.”
The Anubis effigy didn’t want me to leave, I could feel its pull skittering across my skin like a hoard of ants, but there was something else calling me even stronger. It was Rachel, sitting patiently on the floor with her eyes closed, one hand pressed to her abused ribs.
“He said yes?” she asked softly, head tilted up towards me blindly.
“Yes, sweetheart, he did. It’s over.”
“It’s over,” she echoed with a tone of finality.
“I’m going to pick you up and carry you out so we don’t get blood on your shoes, okay?”
I knelt and scooped her into my arms, letting her link her hands behind my neck. She immediately leaned her head against my shoulder, as if exhausted, and sighed. Her trust was such a beautiful gift that I couldn’t believe it was actually mine.
I stepped over Geoff’s body and the pool of spreading blood, leaving everything that we’d dreaded and feared for so long behind us, all in that single room. With her in my arms, the statue was meaningless to me, its call falling on deaf ears, because I had all I needed.
Good riddance, I thought, breathing in the scent of Rachel’s hair. She smelled like peaches, fresh rain, and hope.
Chapter Twenty Five
Rachel
I couldn’t believe I was shot. What a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
After Gunner carried me to the Range Rover and away from all the hellish things in my life, I felt so light that I could float away. Sure, there was a dead man on my office floor, but like my ex-fiancé, he was a ghost of a person. Something told me that Geoff would have been dead soon anyway. I’d never seen anyone look worse in my life.
So maybe the guilt for that would set in later, but Gunner had taken care of everything in one fell swoop. It was over. We were free.
The ache in my ribs hurt like hell, but on the hour drive back to Dallas, the sharp pain faded into something duller and more tolerable. In the end, the heavy, itchy Kevlar was more of an annoyance than the impact site.
We were both in one piece, which was a blessing I had started to think I would never receive. I kept looking over at Gunner, driving with his window down and one hand on the steering wheel, and couldn’t help but smile. Tomorrow I would return to my normal life, but tonight was all ours.
