Rule headed for the railing—the stairs would take too long—but Stephen was there. His lip lifted in a snarl.
“I’m not trying to stop you,” Stephen said in that damned calm voice. “I’m coming with you.”
“Come, then.” Rule gripped the railing, flung himself over, and dropped.
The others followed.
The patrons of Club Hell were treated to an unexpected show that night. One, two, three, four at a time, men dropped out of the darkness overhead, landing on tables or the floor—and moving unbelievably fast. Like a river hitting the rapids, they flowed around or over any obstacles. Those who landed on tables simply leaped over anyone who’d been sitting there and hit the ground running.
The Mercedes’s tires squealed slightly as Benedict swung into the turn. Lily’s tongue felt thick and clumsy, as if it were taking up too much space in her mouth. “We’re on Fifty-ninth now,” she told the man holding her sister hostage.
“Proceed to Barbara… I think that’s what it says. Beth, dear, can you read those tiny letters? I don’t know why they make maps so… yes? Oh, Bandera, not Barbara. Turn right on Bandera. Do try to hurry. You’ve only fifteen minutes left.”
“Continue to Bandera and turn right,” Lily repeated, looking at Benedict.
Harlowe knew someone was driving Lily. He didn’t know who, or that Benedict could hear everything he said. Or that Benedict wore a headset attached to his own phone. Lily had dialed Rule’s number for him so he could focus on driving.
Calling Rule was a calculated risk. Harlowe insisted on keeping her on the line, giving her a deadline, handing out directions one street at a time. They wouldn’t know they’d arrived until they got there, so Benedict wouldn’t know when to remove the headset. If Harlowe spotted it…
But they needed backup. Harlowe had Beth, and he was calling the shots—the time and place of their meeting were in his control, and he might not be in this alone.
Lily didn’t dare call for official backup, but Rule would be able to hear Benedict speak subvocally. And Harlowe wouldn’t.
If Rule ever answered his damned phone.
As if he were a magnet and she had a sliver of iron in her gut, she felt Rule’s direction—and, roughly, his distance from her. He wasn’t at Clanhome. Much closer. Somewhere in the city. She could have pointed toward him, but she couldn’t reach across that distance and make him pick up his phone.
“This is a lousy neighborhood,” she said, doing the one thing she could do: keeping Harlowe talking. “Come down in the world a bit, haven’t you?”
“Temporary quarters, purely temporary. You should see the plans I’ve drawn up. Perhaps I’ll show you before… Beth, don’t bother me now. Where was I? Oh, yes, my plans. You come first, dear Lily. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be here, would I? I can’t say I’m happy with you, not at all, but you’ll get what’s coming to you. And you’ll… not now, Beth.”
“So what are you planning?” she asked quickly, able to hear Beth’s upset voice in the background. Beth, please, play it cool. Don’t make him angry. “King of the world, maybe?”
“No, no.” He was all good humor again. “They’ll elect me. They’ll all love me, you see.”
Benedict tapped her arm. When she looked at him he tapped his headset and nodded.
Thank God. He’d finally reached Rule. “Funny,” she said. “I’m not feeling much love for you right now.”
“Yes, you’re different, aren’t you? That’s your bad luck. But don’t worry, dear—it’s temporary. Or perhaps I should say you are.” He chuckled over his little joke.
“You hold on to that thought, if it makes you feel better.” Their biggest advantage was that Harlowe—or maybe his goddess—didn’t seem to want Lily dead. He wanted to feed her to the staff or the demon or something, which took a lot more arranging than just killing her. This gave her a little maneuvering room.
Unless, of course, they were wrong about Harlowe’s intentions.
“But you won’t be a problem much longer. I’ll take care of—now, now, didn’t I tell you to leave her alone?”
The last was spoken to someone else. Lily heard a male voice, then Beth’s, high-pitched and frightened.
“What’s going on?” Lily demanded. “If you hurt her—”
“I do as I please. As long as I have her—”
“Alive and unharmed, or you’ll make my job simple. I’ll just kill you.”
“Oh, but you can’t. And even if you could, you wouldn’t. You have to arrest me.” He made it sound like the most amusing of impossibilities.
“I didn’t arrest Helen.”
That checked him briefly. “Well, well, you won’t have the opportunity to kill me. But let’s not be so grim. After all, your sister is alive and well. Not too happy at the moment, but that’s her fault. She takes offense so easily.”
Male laughter in the background. Lily’s empty hand fisted, her nails digging in hard. “Maybe she finds you offensive.”
“No, she’s terribly in love with me. Although I—Beth, haven’t I told you to be quiet?” Harlowe snapped.
Lily had to distract him. “Is this about vengeance, Harlowe? Is that why you want me—because I screwed up all your big plans?”
“I told Helen,” he muttered. “I told her she was moving too quickly, but would she listen? And you… you think you’re so clever, but it wasn’t really your doing. It was Helen’s stupidity that made things fall apart. Not that you’re off the hook, oh, no, I’ll—what?”
The voice she heard in the background this time was squeaky, high-pitched. “Oh, all right.” Harlowe must have turned his head away. His voice was faint, the tone petulant. “Go ahead and tie her up, since she can’t behave.”
Lily heard her sister say his name—Patrick—clear and disbelieving. And the sound of a slap.
Then he was back, quite cheerful once more. “She’ll learn. Perhaps I’ll keep her. She is a pretty little thing, though not as loyal as she might be. She seems to think your safety is worth incurring my anger.”
The staff might keep Beth hopelessly captivated, but it didn’t change her basic nature or intelligence. She wouldn’t understand what she was feeling… and had probably guessed by now that he’d used her to get to Lily.
Lily took a deep breath to steady her voice. “We’re turning onto Bandera. Where next?”
RULE crouched down on the cool concrete of the parking lot beside Club Hell, his phone held to his ear. Cullen squatted beside him. They watched a moving dot of light on the map Cullen had unfolded as it crept along the line that represented Bandera Street.
So did the twelve men standing still and silent around them.
“All right,” Rule told Benedict. “We’ve got your location. There are eight Lu Nuncios and seven nonheris here, plus myself and Cullen. I’m going to brief them now.” A pause. “Yes. Call me back after you’ve reached them.”
He disconnected and looked around at the silent men surrounding him. “Are you here from curiosity, or to help?”
“Is the staff involved?” Javiero asked.
“It is. Harlowe has taken my nadia’s sister and is using her to bring Lily to him. He has the staff.”
“Then I’m in,” Javiero said flatly, followed by a chorus of agreements, some vocalized, some simply nods.
“Understand this, then: We hunt, and I lead.”
The single word hunt set the terms: instant obedience. No discussion, no questions. Rule was incapable of operating any other way at this point, and they understood that. Even Randall nodded reluctantly.