Giving Him Hell: A Saturn's Daughter Novel (Saturn's Daughters Book 3) (12 page)

Picture this: Shrimpy me in black biker leather, mink shampoo-ad hair swinging in all its glory, helmet under my arm, and Milo peering out of my newly-acquired black leather backpack as I posed in the doorway. And a luxurious, chandeliered room full of silver foxes in tailored suits and designer ties, all hobnobbing and rubbing elbows—falling silent and staring.

Even Katerina in her wheel chair, wearing a silk bow on her navy blouse, her gorgeous blue-black hair pinned into a chignon, turned and stared. I smiled and waved at her. She almost smiled back.

Max/Dane looked a little stunned. Senator Dane Vanderventer was a hunk and a half—his thick chestnut hair framed a strong jaw, cleft chin, and deep blue eyes gleaming with interest. His broad shoulders filled his suit nicely. He towered almost a foot over me. But Max’s soul glowed from those eyes, and I could see his appreciation. That’s what I’d been aiming for.

“Hi, I’m Justine Clancy, unofficial attorney for the Zone neighborhood association until we have time to petition for representation on the city council.” I let that bombshell sink in while I chose a chair at the table beside Katerina. I glanced at Andre, who was playing it cool, as if he’d known I’d drop a bomb. He took a chair across from us. “Has everyone been introduced but me? Then let’s settle in, gentlemen. I don’t have all day to waste.”

Every person in there was older, richer, and more powerful than me. I figured that gave me leverage to be rude.

“You’re supposed to play nice, Tina,” Katerina whispered as the others began jockeying for position.

“
They
don’t,” I reminded her. “Every damned one of them is here to throw his weight around. I don’t have weight. I’m here to keep them unbalanced.”

She gazed at me approvingly. “Times really have changed. I’ll keep that maneuver in mind.”

Two women against a table full of men. I wiggled my fingers at Andre and made him scowl.

Senator Dane stood at the head of the table and made official introductions once everyone settled in. Dr. Abdul Bakir, MSI’s representative, had positioned himself at Dane’s right hand. Brown, bald, and bearded, wearing an unflattering gray suit, he didn’t look comfortable, but his dark eyes glowed with determination. He’d obviously drunk the Kool-Aid and meant to save the world.

Paddy, our neighborhood mad scientist and also Dane’s father, looked decidedly uncomfortable in his rumpled suit, but at least he’d had his hair cut and had bothered to shave. He’d be a silver fox if I hadn’t seen him with food in his beard.

Former Senator Michael MacNeill had apparently elected to represent Acme’s board of trustees. He’d helped me get my law license, and he was Max’s father, but he’d been involved in shady dealings that had got him ousted from office, and Max hadn’t trusted him, so I didn’t. The man was more weasel than fox.

The EPA rep looked like a lawyer. He practically snarled at me as he produced a briefcase just spilling over with documents. From a legal standpoint, I couldn’t blame the man, so I just smiled at him, too. That startled the shit out of him. He dropped a file folder and had to scoop up the contents. Let him be as conflicted as I was.

“Ladies, gentlemen,” Dane said, silencing the rattling papers and murmurs. “For good or ill, I’m here to represent the heritage my grandparents left to me. I’ve established the Gloria Vanderventer Foundation to make restitution for the damage done to the environment by that heritage.”

Nice, Max. He’d been using me to spy on Acme and the Zone when he was still alive. Now he had it all in the palm of Dane’s hand, with the power to crush every peon who disagreed with him. I waited.

Gloria didn’t.

The smell of gas flashed through the glittering room seconds before the crystal chandelier flamed on and the windows blew out.

Thirteen

I wouldn’t have been surprised if the flaming chandelier had cackled.

I grabbed Katerina’s wheelchair and shoved her for the door while she grimly clung to the chair arms, and the room erupted in chaos.

On my own, I might have stayed to watch the show, but Katerina had suffered enough at the hands of the Vanderventers. I needed to remove her from Gloria’s malevolence.

Andre vaulted over the enormous shiny dining table, seized his mother in his arms, and ran faster than I could push.

“Welcome to the Zone!” I shouted at the elegant men brushing embers from their hair, their belongings, or their burning suits. I grabbed Paddy’s arm to keep him from standing there, studying the phenomenon, and pelted after Andre as more fiery debris spewed from the ceiling.

No fire erupted in the vast foyer. Dane was shouting orders at his security guards and already had a fire extinguisher in hand. That was my Max, always prepared, even wearing a senator’s suit.

Torn, I had to release Paddy to grab the extinguisher from the senator. I shoved the canister into a guard’s hands, swatted Dane’s muscled shoulder, and pointed toward the door. “She’s after you, remember? Get your ass out of here before the whole place comes down around our heads.”

The safety of others would appeal to Dane’s inner Max faster than his own safety. Proving he was still my guy, he caught my arm and practically dragged me outside to prevent all Gloria from breaking loose.

Once we were on the lawn, I could see that Katerina had insisted on being returned to her feet rather than lugged around like a sack of potatoes. She was leaning heavily on Andre, but she was fine and observing the scene with acute interest. She had every right to be entertained by watching our opponents prance about patting out their charred clothes or just generally cursing.

Many of the curses were directed at us. The foxes had apparently decided the Zone representatives had perpetrated a magic trick to scare them. I understood their problem with our reality.

Paddy wasn’t on the lawn. He hadn’t followed us out. I sighed and shook off Dane’s grip. “Your father is probably inspecting the chandelier to see how you did that. I’ll go get him. You . . .
stay here
.” I met his frown, forcing him to recognize what I couldn’t repeat again in a crowd.

The good senator glared, but he was far from dumb. He found another use for his energy by ordering his security guards to call the fire chief and electricians.

This had once been Paddy’s home. He’d grown up here with his insane mother. I could hardly blame him for turning out weird. I did blame him for leaving his son Dane behind for Gloria to raise.

Inside, one of the men holding a fire extinguisher reported the fire was out—for now. If Gloria had learned to inhabit electric wires, then the Mansion wasn’t long for this world. Neither was Max, if he stayed.

Leather doesn’t burn well, so my clothing had emerged relatively unscathed for a change. My hair smelled, so I assumed it had been charred. I trotted back inside, ordered one of the guards to take the wheelchair out to Katerina, and found Paddy staring at the blackened ceiling.

“I could have sworn I saw my mother in those flames,” he said. “Maybe I should retire.”

“You did see your mother.” I didn’t add that he might have seen his son as well. He still thought the Dane outside was his son with a new and improved conscience. I didn’t want to disillusion him. “She’s been haunting Dane since her death. That’s why his condo burned. But usually she inhabits gas lines.”

Paddy looked briefly startled, then a little grayer, a little more wrinkled, until his formidable mind kicked in, and he straightened. He’s a pretty tall guy, if not as powerfully built as Dane. He could be impressive when he wanted. He studied the hole where the chandelier had been.

“Gas lines? This is an old house. It had gas lighting at the turn of the century. There are probably still lines in there. We’d better get out before the whole place blows.” He started for the door. Unlike his son, he didn’t grab my arm and drag me with him.

I tagged along anyway. “I think she’s trying to kill Dane. And maybe Andre. I doubt she’ll expend any energy when they’re not in range.”

“That’s not physically possible, you realize,” he admonished, ever the practical scientist.

“Neither is blue neon without electricity or snakes materializing from tattoos,” I reminded him as we reached the portico. “I think we’re dealing with a different dimension.”

When in doubt, hand a scientist string theory. They lap it right up. Paddy’s expression revealed instant absorption in this new idea.

Of course, Andre joining us just as we approached Dane spoiled my trip into reality land. Andre handed Dane a neat computer printout. “Exorcists,” he said curtly. “Also a voodoo priest, a witch, and a warlock.”

I almost choked on laughter as the good senator and his scientist father stared at the list in equal parts horror and fascination.

“I want the Benedictines,” I insisted, fighting a grin. One really shouldn’t grin when confronted with the devil, but despite flaming chandeliers and blown glass, I just couldn’t cope with believing in the tenants of hell.

As far as I was concerned, Schwartz was right. Hell was right here on earth—or in a dimension we could cross into under the right conditions.

“When have you ever seen a nun?” Andre asked, rightfully so since I probably look more Muslim than Christian to him. Color blindness doesn’t exist.

“In the hospital, after one of my leg surgeries. The nuns sang Christmas songs in the chapel. That’s as close to heaven as I’ve ever been.” I wasn’t ashamed to admit it. I really don’t have a spiritual side. I’m a lawyer, after all. But those nuns were beyond awesome.

“You’re not serious?” Paddy asked, staring at the list. “An exorcism?”

“Think of it in terms of closing any holes into another dimension,” I said encouragingly.

“If that were physically possible,” Paddy mused, going into one of his fugue states, “chances are good the holes would blow open elsewhere. The quantum pressure . . .”

I left him to it. Men were checking their watches and heading for their cars. We hadn’t settled anything. I needed to do something drastic to protect my adopted home and friends.

“Gentlemen,” I shouted, moving away from Dane so it didn’t look as if I had his permission to speak.

“We came here to inform you that we’re not helpless,” I shouted once I had their attention, “that the Zone
will
fight eminent domain if it’s taken for the benefit of a profit-hungry, environmentally unfriendly organization like Acme. That is not the purpose of eminent domain. We are open to any studies the EPA would care to conduct and any improvements they might suggest, but you cannot steal our property and shut us down. Not without a fight.”

Dane clamped a heavy hand on my shoulder, through Max’s bomber jacket. “What Miss Clancy means is that we still need to work together to do what’s best for the Zone neighborhood. I apologize for the interruption. My secretary will call you, and we’ll organize another meeting somewhere a little less explosive next time.”

“Nice, Maxie,” I said under my breath. “You’ll be a politician in no time.”

“And you never will be, Justy,” he agreed in a low voice, reminding me with the nickname that really was Max inside the suit and tie. “Let’s get Andre’s damned circus in motion and put an end to Gloria’s stalking while I’m still alive to appreciate it.”

I might not believe in a superstitious, Bible-thumping fiery pit, but I’d spent some of the worst weeks of my life bringing Max back from what we called hell’s outer circles. I wasn’t letting him go again so easily. I left him to answer a question from his security people and caught up with the EPA rep before he could reach his car.

“I meant what I said,” I told him. “We’ll help however we can to clear up the harbor pollution, but it’s ten years too late for the people living there. Eminent domain is out of the question.”

This gray-haired fed wasn’t as slick as the others. He had bags under his eyes and an air of infinite weariness. “Says the mouthpiece working for the wealthy scoundrel who owns the land,” he said with a shrug.

Mouthpiece. Nice. Not. “That shows how little you understand.” I nodded in Andre and Katerina’s direction. “If she should tell him the land is a menace and to get rid of it, he’d sell us all out to the highest bidder. That’s not the point. You do
not
want a medical clinic in an environmental hazard zone next to the chemical company that caused that hazard. Clean the harbor up if you like, but keep Acme and their cohorts out of the picture. They are not upstanding citizens.”

He looked at me with a little more interest. “I’m with the federal government. The state controls eminent domain. Without state involvement, nothing’s happening.”

“Then let nothing happen. Don’t let them sell you on eminent domain for the sake of cleaning up the hazard. Andre may be a slumlord, but he isn’t the villain in this picture.” I handed him my card and walked away.

I didn’t know if I’d accomplished anything, but I felt better for having tried. Of course, I wasn’t helping any when I walked straight toward Katerina and Andre.

“The circus is on,” I blithely said under Andre’s glower. “Let’s round them up, head ’em out.”

I picked a charred piece of plaster from Katerina’s blazer. “Do you need a tour of a senator’s home,” I asked her, “or are you ready to head back?”

She brushed my hair with her hand and handed me a burned chunk. “I think I want to be able to escape on my own legs before I go back in there,” she said dryly. “Gloria and I used to work together on volunteer committees. I had no idea that she had let the place run to rack and ruin. That’s not like her.”

“She wasn’t herself those last years,” Andre said consolingly.

I politely didn’t snort and moved the subject forward. “I want to be part of the circus when it happens, please.”

“You bring the nuns, I’ll bring the clowns. What’s the big guy gonna do?” He jerked his chin in the direction of Dane, who was back-patting and schmoozing the lawyers.

“Bring the flame thrower,” I said with a shrug.

I took the Harley back to the Zone and my new slate-blue office. Stupidly, I decided to stop at Chesty’s for lunch first. Running scared apparently makes me hungry. I should have asked Schwartz if my would-be murderer was out on the streets yet, but I had this itching for normal. I just wanted to be a lawyer stopping for a bite to eat.