Call of Vultures by Kate Kessler

Author:Kate Kessler [Kessler, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2020-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Midnight came quietly in the paying-guest wing of the mansion. Killian slipped out of bed—already dressed—and padded across the carpet to the bathroom. She grabbed the burner phone, then crept toward the door.

“Killian?” came Maryl’s sleepy voice.

Shit. “Yeah?”

“Are you going out?”

“I’m just going down to the kitchen.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

Be careful? “Sure. Thanks.” Quietly, she opened the door and eased out into the gloomy hallway. There were soft lights plugged in near the floor at intervals, so it wasn’t completely dark and she could see where she was going—helpful for all the nighttime screwing around that seemed to happen in the place.

Killian crept downstairs, keeping to the shadow near the wall as much as possible. She could hear voices coming from the game room and the unmistakable sounds of someone playing pool. Probably some of Vargas’s men. She made a mental note to stay as far away from that room as possible.

Other than that, the house was quiet. Soft music played outside by the pool—discernible only because the sliding doors to the patio were open. Killian stepped outside, out of the air-conditioning, into the warm summer night.

Lights sparkled and shimmered on the pool’s surface. A woman—Adriana—cut through the water like a shark. Another woman, whose name Killian didn’t know, sat on the edge of the pool with her feet and shins in the water. Her torso swayed lazily to the music.

Shasis sat in a lounger, facing the pool. She wore a white crocheted cover-up over her equally white bathing suit. In her hand she held what looked to be a piña colada. She glanced up as Killian approached.

“Hello, darkness,” she quipped. “Still high on your victory?”

Killian shrugged. “Not much of a victory when your opponent gives up.”

“Yes.” She drawled the word out into two syllables. “Sit down. Wine?”

This time Killian accepted the offer. “What’s that sound?”

“White-noise machine.” Shasis winked. “You can never be too paranoid. You understand, yeah?”

“Yeah.” She watched as the other woman poured her a glass of wine, the pale liquid glittering under the patio lights. “I’m more paranoid on the outside than I ever was in.”

“Me too. Sometimes I just don’t feel safe with all this space around me.” She laughed, and then: “What did he say to you after the fight?”

For a second, Killian considered lying. “He wants to have a meeting tomorrow afternoon. Me, him, and probably Vargas. I don’t know.”

Ex-cons were some of the hardest people to surprise, but Shasis arched a brow. “The fuck he want?”

Killian ignored the slip into rougher speech. It would be too easy to fall back into it herself. “I don’t know. He made it seem like Vargas wants to make sure I’m not going to be trouble. He could be looking to slit my throat.”

“Not here.” She took a drink from her glass, leaving a glossy imprint of her lips on the rim. “I bet he’s going to offer you a job.”

“The kind I can’t refuse?”

“You think Vargas has any other kind of employment opportunities?”

Killian chuckled at that. She glanced over at the women in the pool.

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