“What pushed him over the edge?”
“I don’t know,” Marci admitted, taking another drink. “But last Tuesday morning, he marched into Bixby’s office and threatened to expose the whole operation unless Bixby paid him the final amount he was owed and let him go. But Bixby isn’t the sort of man who responds well to threats. He told my dad to try it and see what happened. Of course, I didn’t know about any of this until I came home from class that afternoon and found my dad packing up the house. He said we were leaving that night.”
At this point, Marci’s expression turned so sad, Julius was amazed she didn’t start crying. “What happened?”
“We fought,” she said, eyes on the table. “You have to understand, I always knew Bixby was bad news, but I didn’t know how bad. I didn’t know my dad’s life was in danger, and I was only twenty credit hours away from finishing my doctorate. If I’d known what was really going on, I never would have argued, but he wouldn’t tell me anything. He wanted me to leave school, just dump my whole semester, and run away with him.”
She stopped, pressing her palms over her eyes, but Julius didn’t push. He just sat there, waiting, until Marci continued. “I stormed out. I knew it was a childish thing to do, but I was just so angry. When I came back an hour later, he was already gone. I never saw him alive again.”
She did start crying then, little sniffles she quickly hid behind a long sip off her beer. “Sorry,” she whispered, wiping her eyes.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” Julius said, handing her a paper napkin.
She took it without a word, wiping her eyes. “It just all happened so quickly. I left for the DFZ that same night, and I’ve been running ever since. I don’t even know where I’m running to anymore, other than away.” She balled the napkin in her fist and shot him a watery smile. “Some professional I am, huh?”
“Professional doesn’t mean superhuman,” Julius said quickly. “And for what it’s worth, I think you’ve done amazingly well considering what happened. I have no complaints at all about the work you’ve done for me, and it was my pleasure to send a few thugs packing on your behalf. Good exercise, too. I haven’t done anything like that in years.”
He finished with a wide smile, but Marci was staring at him in wonder, like she was seeing him for the first time. And then, without warning, she smiled back. A warm, radiant, open smile he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to. Fortunately, the food chose that moment to arrive, and they both seized on the distraction.
As Julius’s nose had predicted, it was all delicious. He wolfed his first plate down while Marci was still putting sauce on her sandwich, but the second took him much longer. By the time he was ready to start on his sides, Julius was astonished to find he was full.
“Eyes bigger than your stomach?” Marci asked.
“Guess so,” Julius grumbled, trying not to sound as upset as he felt. Apparently, even his appetite was limited to a human scale now, which meant he’d lost food and flying to his mother’s seal. That realization almost made him weep. He loved eating.
There was no point in wasting good food, though, so he offered his untouched sides to Marci. She took them gladly, eating the fries so quickly he started to wonder when she’d last had a proper meal. But as he watched her eat, the story she’d told him circled around and around in his head, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized the ending didn’t add up.
“Marci?” he asked, leaning on the table. “Can I ask you a rude question?”
She shrugged. “Go for it.”
“If your father wronged Bixby and died for it, why is Bixby still after you?”
Marci looked down, poking at the fries left in the basket. “I know a lot about his operations in Vegas.”
“We’re a long way from Las Vegas,” Julius said. “Not to say your knowledge isn’t valuable, but unless you’ve got material evidence against him that could be used in a court of law”—he paused until she shook her head—“I don’t understand why he’d send men all the way up here just to hush you up.” Maybe he did have a plotting draconic talent in him somewhere, because the more Julius thought the situation out from Bixby’s angle, the less sense it made. “And the fight,” he continued. “The man who grabbed you could have just as easily broken your neck instead, but he didn’t. They clearly wanted you alive. Why? Do you have information Bixby wants? Something to do with your father, maybe?”
“Not that I know of,” Marci said, keeping her eyes locked on the fry she was stabbing into a glob of cheese sauce. “My best guess is that this is about pride. Bixby always made a huge deal about how no one who wrongs him gets away with it. That’s probably why he’s putting in so much effort to catch me. If he lets me run, other people might start thinking they can get away, too.”
Now that Julius could understand. Dragons were just the same. Unfortunately, pride was a much more troublesome enemy than greed or fear. If Bixby was determined to make an example of Marci, he couldn’t be reasoned with and he wouldn’t give up, not until his ego ran out.
Considering what Marci had said so far and his own observations of Bixby’s penchant for employing giant, suited men to do his dirty work like he was the villain in a crime drama, Julius didn’t see that happening any time soon. If it had been any other human, he would have said she was screwed. But Marci was clever and resourceful, and she had him now. As she’d said, they made a good team, and Julius was determined to hold up his end. So long as he was here, Bixby wouldn’t touch a hair on her head.
Just thinking that made him feel worlds better, and he gave Marci a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out to get him off your back. In the meanwhile, the DFZ’s a very big place.”
“And his goons will think twice about taking us on after the beating we gave them,” Marci said proudly, tipping her beer bottle toward him in a one-sided toast.
Julius wasn’t at all sure about that, but he like how prominently and confidently she included him in her plans. In fact, he liked the idea of being Marci’s competent partner so much more than being Bethesda’s failure that he didn’t even rush her as she slowly worked her way through the rest of his food.
“So, that’s my story,” Marci said between mouthfuls. “What about you? Where are you from?”
“New Mexico,” Julius said, which was the truth. “I just arrived in the DFZ this morning, actually.”
“I knew you were green,” she said with a chuckle. “Though I couldn’t tell if you were new to the city or just to the Underground. Where are you staying?”
“I hadn’t figured that out yet,” he confessed. “I also came here on a family emergency, and I haven’t had a lot of time to get the details straightened out.”
“Family emergency, huh? Is that why you’re looking for that girl?”
“Sort of,” Julius said. “My brother asked me to find her.” And pleasant as this was, they really needed to get moving on that.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket to pay their check quietly, because despite Marci’s insistence that she was buying, she didn’t have a phone. No phone meant no electronic bank account, and he wasn’t going to sit here and wait while the register validated every piece of cash she handed them. But when he clicked on the AR to check his account, a message was waiting for him.
Duck.
That was it. The sender was listed as Unknown Caller, but Julius had no doubt who was behind it. What he didn’t know was if Bob wanted him to duck now, or four months from now.