Page 47 of Peacemaker

Chapter Fifteen

Take Me Somewhere Better

Frank Crawford handed me a key. “Shower and bed waiting for you, Sinclair.”

I automatically reached out to take the key, but Angus stopped me with a hand on my wrist. “No.”

Frank watched me for a few seconds, and when I didn’t argue, he shrugged and slid the key back into his pocket. His eyes were glassy, the lines on his pale face a little deeper, and he looked thinner, as though he’d lost a few pounds overnight.

“You need to get some sleep,” I told him. The man ran himself ragged. As far as I could tell, he never slept, ate, or took time to recover from anything. And I had a frustrating desire to take care of him.

Then a couple of detectives came to hurry him away, and I knew he wasn’t going to find himself a bed or a hot meal. He was just going to work until he fell over.

“Frank,” I called, as he walked away with the other two men.

He glanced back over his shoulder. “Yes?”

But what did I want to say? Go home, rest, lie down, eat? I wasn’t his mother. I felt heat climb my cheeks. “Just…I’ll be back tonight.”

He nodded and turned back around, and then I remembered what Himself had asked me to do. “Frank!”

He stiffened, then turned toward me again, his eyes narrowed. I could feel Angus, Clayton, and Shane staring at me, but I ignored them.

“Sinclair, what is it?”

I straightened my shoulders. “Can you get me a meeting with the mayor?”

He glanced around at the bloody streets, then nodded slowly. “I’ll do my best.”

And that time when he walked away, I let him go.

When we arrived back at the way station, I headed for the shower to wash away the blood and grime of the night. The others would do the same.

And we would need to plan. I’d talk with Amias in Willow-Wisp later, and I’d need to meet again with Himself. The rifters had to have a weakness. They had to. And we needed an army.

But when I was nearly finished with my shower, Shane climbed in with me.

He said nothing. Neither did I.

His hair was slicked back, still wet—he’d already had his shower. But then, getting clean wasn’t on his mind.

Quietly, and with just a touch of exhausted desperation, we stared at each other. How far we’d come in such a short time. When I’d first met Shane Copas, I hadn’t liked him. He hadn’t liked me, either.

He’d been a complete jerk.

But now…

Now he was just the perfect amount of jerk.

“What are you smiling about?” he asked me.

He was dark, my hunter—I could feel it as surely as I could feel my own darkness. The night had kicked all our asses.

“Memories,” I said. “Memories of you.”

“What do you need, baby hunter?” He skimmed my cheek with his lips.

I shuddered. “I need to get out of my head. Take me somewhere better, Shane.”