“What’s going on?” she queried.
“You violated one of the most basic tenets of initiation,” Gadara said to Alec. “Taking a Mark out in the field prior to training—”
“We weren’t in the field.”
Gadara stood, thrusting both hands down on the table. The sudden break in his nonchalance was frightening. “Bullshit. She stinks like demon. Whether the assignment was sanctioned or not is moot.”
“I can’t leave her alone; Infernals are all over her. She’s too vulnerable.”
“You should have asked her handler for help.”
“I would have, if I’d known who it is.”
“I thought that was obvious. Abel will manage her.”
“Are you shitting me? After the way he marked her?”
“Perhaps you would like to watch the tape?” Gadara asked silkily. “The marking was not as one-sided as you might choose to believe.”
“There’s a tape?” Eve croaked, knowing she’d be blushing to the roots of her hair if her physical reactions worked the way they used to.
Alec growled, his fists clenching. “I’ll take you down, Raguel. I’m not one of your pawns.”
“No.” Gadara smiled. “But she is.”
Alec tensed.
Eve stepped up. “I want that tape.”
“He’s got your life in his hands,” Alec bit out, “and you want a sex tape?”
“Yeah.” She scowled at Gadara. “If you don’t want me around, let me go. I won’t complain.”
“He’s not going to do that.” Alec’s tone was too subdued.
“How do you know?”
“Because you and I are a package deal, and having God’s personal enforcer on his team is a coup he wouldn’t give up for anything.”
“Damn it!” she groused. “You are more trouble than you’re worth, you know that?”
“I come with benefits, if you get around to using them. Besides, the best he can do is transfer you to another firm. Only God can free you completely.”
Eve pinned Gadara with a sharp glare. “I hate being in the dark. Explain the firm to me.”
Gadara gestured toward her vacated seat. “Sit down, Ms. Hollis, and I will explain—” he looked at Alec “—since your mentor has yet to.”
“Save your breath,” Alec said dryly. “You can’t put a wedge between us.” He tugged the second chair closer to hers and sank into it. He caught her hand and held it.
Gadara stared at the display of affection and settled back in his seat as if they had all the time in the world. “Just as Hell has various kings—”
“—Heaven has kingpins,” Alec finished.
“I resent that term,” Gadara complained.
“If the shoe fits . . .”
“It does not.”
“Uh-huh . . .”
Eve squeezed Alec’s hand in warning. “Keep going.”
Gadara’s brow arched at her tone. “The mark system is vast. It needs to be organized and self-sufficient. In order to accomplish that, capitalist ventures were launched that generated the income required to support a large number of Marks and their various activities within existing mortal society. Some ventures were more successful than others. In the end, seven of us rose to prominence. We are loosely divided by the seven continents, but we coordinate often, and those with larger areas share their burdens with those with smaller areas. For example, the African and Antarctica firms work in tandem.” He smiled, his teeth brilliantly white against the darkness of his skin. “I am responsible for the North American Marks. All twenty thousand of them.”
“Oh my God—Ouch!” She winced as her mark burned.
“Watch it,” the two men said in unison.
“So every one of those people in the atrium are Marks?” she muttered, setting her hand over her arm. “That’s why it reeks like the floor was washed in perfume?”
“Some of the people out there are mortals we do business with.”
“What about you?”
“I am an archangel, Ms. Hollis.”
She considered that a moment, then thought it best to question Alec about Gadara and not Gadara himself. “So I was assigned to your firm because I’m from North America?”
“No.” Gadara’s voice had a soothing, hypnotic quality. The more he spoke, the dreamier she felt. “Usually Marks are transplanted to make the transition easier. It is less traumatic to start a new life when you are not hampered by the old.”
“Why wasn’t that done with me?”
“Because of him.” The archangel motioned toward Alec with an elegant flick of his wrist. “He tried to get you released. When his request was denied, he asked that you be kept close to your family. I suspect he extorted someone somewhere to get what he wanted.”
Eve’s gaze turned to Alec, who looked straight ahead with his jaw visibly clenched. Her eyes stung.
“Quite a sacrifice,” Gadara purred. “Banished all these years and forced to roam. He could have uprooted you to his homeland. I am certain he misses it.”
“Shut up,” Alec rumbled. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her grip tightened on his hand in silent gratitude. “What happens now?”
“You work for me. Your resignation at The Weisenberg Group was effective yesterday after a week’s notice. Occasionally, your secular talents will be put to good use, but for the most part, your job is to train to the best of your ability and listen to your mentor, your handler, and me.”
“I listen to my gut,” she said. She wasn’t a believer and thought she should put that out there right away.
“I will not tolerate insubordination,” he retorted.
“Fine.” Eve shrugged. “Just so we’re clear.”
Gadara’s mouth curved in blatant challenge. The predatory expression didn’t suit him. He was far too refined, his voice too cultured, and his words too precise. “What were you looking for this afternoon?”
“A tengu.”
Gadara’s eyes widened. Alec explained. By the time he finished, Gadara was visibly upset.
“I thought you cared more about your novice,” the archangel chastised. “It was not your place to risk her so foolishly.”
“What risk?” Alec snorted. “She’s already been pissed on and threatened twice. There was more risk in doing nothing at all. And I told you, I can’t leave her alone. The Nix knows where she lives.”
“You are her mentor. If you wish to allow your feud with your brother to jeopardize your novice, far be it from me to intercede.” Gadara’s eyes took on an icy glint. “Proceed with your investigation, then. See it to its conclusion, including eradicating the threat.”
Eve frowned.
Alec exhaled harshly. “You want to assign her before she’s trained? No way.”
“It is your choice, Cain. Allow your brother to do his job or you will have to do it for him.”
“This isn’t your call. Abel is the only one who can assign her to a mission.”
Gadara laughed, a deep rolling sound. It was oddly pleasant, considering it wasn’t meant to be. “He is a company man, something you would do well to emulate.”
“You’re both violating protocol.” Alec’s tone was almost a snarl. “I expect that of you, but Abel? He’s never broken a rule in his life. You accuse me of putting her in danger, while Abel is ready to hang her out to dry?”
“It is perfectly acceptable to continue a deviation once it has been set in motion, if proceeding is the only reasonable course.”
“Eve and I didn’t deviate.”
“That is debatable, is it not? I doubt either of us wants to take this upstairs, where we could both face penalties. Better to deal with this on our own, agreed?”
Pushing to his feet, Alec towered over the desk. Although Gadara seemed unaffected, Eve noted the deepening grooves around his mouth and eyes.
Gadara feared Alec. She tucked that information away for future use.
“How is sending an untrained Mark on a hunt the ‘reasonable course?’” Alec asked with intemperate frustration.
“If the Infernals think she is hiding or that we are protecting her, they will go after her with a vengeance. With you as her mentor, she needs to be tougher than the average Mark. We cannot afford for her to look weak or frightened. We need to start as we mean to go on.”
“No.”
Eve stood. “I can handle it.”
Alec’s dark head swiveled toward her. “Angel—”
“I’ve got this.” She looked at Gadara. It wasn’t just the Infernals that needed to know she was tough.
“Good girl,” Gadara murmured approvingly.
“Don’t talk down to me,” she warned. “Anything else I should know? Or can I go? It’s been a long week.”
Gadara reached into a drawer and withdrew a set of keys. He tossed them to her. “Those will give you access to this building and to your office. All of your belongings from your old employer were moved here. You will be paid by direct deposit and an expense account has been created for you.”
“What are my hours?”
“They are 24/7. The office is a front; you will need it as part of your cover, but the field is where you will do the majority of your work. Your household expenses—mortgage, automobile, utilities, and so on—will be managed by the firm. You have also been tasked with the renovation of one of my casinos in Las Vegas. But we have several months before we get to that.”
Eve was so stunned it took her a moment to reply. “And here I thought only the devil traded dreams for souls.”
“Who do you think taught him everything he knows?” He lifted the lid of a wooden box on his desktop and withdrew a cigar. “All that you will need has been placed in your condominium.”
“You had someone in my house?” Her foot tapped rapidly on the carpet. “I don’t suppose your affiliation with my homeowners’ association is a coincidence?”
“There is no such thing as coincidence, Ms. Hollis.”
Alec caught her elbow. “We’re done here, then.”
“Not so fast,” she muttered. “I want that tape.”
“And I want world peace,” Gadara replied. “I would also like to smoke this cigar, but my body is a temple. We do not always get what we want.”
“We’ll see about that.” Eve smiled grimly and headed toward the elevator.
“Cain.”
A shiver moved through her at the sound of Alec’s name spoken in that cultured voice. The infamous Cain. Everyone knew his story. But having met both brothers, she knew there was far more to the tale than the few brief paragraphs mentioned in the canonized bible.
Alec paused. “Yes?”
“I have been authorized to credit you for every vanquishing, in consideration of your added responsibility as Ms. Hollis’s mentor. Double the indulgences should cut your service in half, if you play your cards right.”
The terrible stillness that gripped Alec alarmed Eve. She set her hand lightly on his hip. He caught and held it tightly.
“This isn’t a game,” he bit out.
“A turn of phrase,” Gadara said. “Nothing more.”
“Alec?” Eve murmured when he continued to stare, unmoving.
He shook his head as if in disgust, then continued to the elevator, pulling her with him.
When the doors closed behind them, Eve linked her fingers with his. She opened her mouth to speak, then her gaze lifted to the camera in the corner. She held her tongue until they exited the building.
The moment they breathed smog instead of Mark emanations, Eve blurted, “Double the indulgences.” She fought an inconvenient urge to laugh hysterically. “He’s bribing you.”
“It’s not going to work.”
“It has to be tempting.”
“Angel.” His tone was as sharp as the look he gave her. “It’s not going to work. Period.”
“You called him a kingpin. Like the mafia?”
“You heard him and saw how he works. They’re all like that. We always get a choice, but that doesn’t mean the options are equal or favorable.”
“So the picture he presented of seven head honchos working harmoniously together was crap?”
“I’d say they work together about as well as Democrats and Republicans.” He unfastened the passenger helmet from the back of his bike, then freed her hair of its ponytail. “And they’re just as politically minded.”
“Lovely.”
After settling the helmet on her head, Alec adjusted the strap beneath her chin. He kissed the tip of her nose. “Those in favor get bigger perks.”
“Whatever he has against you is personal.” She wasn’t asking a question. “Because of me, you’ve played right into his hands.”
Alec mounted the bike. Eve hopped on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “The only person who’s got their hands on me is you,” he said over the rumbling of the engine.
“You’ll have to come up with a better explanation than that,” she shouted.
“I know.” He rolled the hog back, his powerful thighs flexing against hers. “But not here.”
They roared out of the parking lot.
CHAPTER 12
As Reed stepped onto the roof of Gadara Tower, he slipped his shades over his eyes and took in the majestic view. A helicopter waited on the nearby heliport, its blades still and shining in the late afternoon sun. A sliver of ocean was visible from this vantage point and the reflection of sunlight on nearby building windows made the sunny day even brighter. A breeze ruffled his hair, caressed his nape, and filled his nostrils with air untainted by the stench of Infernals.