Nita raised an eyebrow. “You know a lot about INHUP.”
“Know thine enemy.” He shrugged, then his face darkened. “If she’s working on a unicorn death, she’s probably positioned here in the Toronto headquarters.”
“I wonder if she knew the man you murdered,” Nita mused, then froze, realizing what she’d just said.
Kovit stilled, shoulders tightening. His lips pressed together, and he turned to glare at her. “That we murdered, Nita. I may have killed him, but it was your plan.”
“That we murdered.” She swallowed, then leaned forward. “I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t trying to—”
“You weren’t trying to remind me of how much I disgust you? How mad you still are about that?” Kovit’s voice was cold.
“You don’t disgust me.”
“I saw your face, Nita, when that INHUP agent had to die. I know what you think of me.” His jaw was tight. “Just the monster you need for a job until it’s too much monster to handle.”
“That’s not . . .” But it kinda was, and she couldn’t finish her sentence.
He shook his head and got up. “It doesn’t matter. You’re right. She might have known him. How do you suppose that would go? Sister, it’s me, your evil brother! We haven’t seen each other in a decade. Also, I just tortured and murdered your colleague. Aren’t you happy to see me?”
Nita flinched from the sarcasm in his voice. There was something deeply cruel in the way he said it, and her heart began to ricochet with fear.
Nita swallowed. “You just don’t tell her that part.”
“Sure. Because lying is a great plan. It definitely won’t backfire when she realizes what I’ve been doing for the past decade.” His mouth twisted. “And of course, she’ll get to see it all in gruesome detail if Henry sends INHUP those videos.”
Nita opened her mouth, then closed it. She didn’t know what to say. Because he was right. And there was nothing she could say to change that.
Kovit turned away from her, a single, sharp motion. “It’s time to go see Henry.”
Nita looked at him a long moment before following. He didn’t look back as he headed for the door, as if he didn’t even care if she came along or not.
She’d just screwed this conversation up in a monumental fashion, and she had a terrible premonition that it would come back to bite her.
Thirty-Seven
THEY LEFT THE SPORTS BAR and crossed the street, heading for the Starbucks. And Henry.
The sun was still high, and people flowed down the street in chattering streams, some laughing, some talking on their cell phones. A small child sat on the curb and cried while an adult, presumably her mother, told her to get up in an increasingly loud voice.
It felt so normal. The people here were unaware of the monsters walking among them. Nita wondered what they’d think if they realized the person from the shooting in the news was walking by. Or a zannie who had tortured and murdered an INHUP agent.
They’d probably run screaming.
But no one noticed the two monsters crossing the street. No one ever did.
Kovit turned to her just before they reached the block with the Starbucks on it, and looked down to where her gun was hidden. “Nita—”
“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything unless you give the signal to shoot.”
He swallowed heavily. “All right.”
He turned away sharply and kept walking. Nita followed, her fingers running over the gun hidden in her hoodie, the metal warm from proximity to her body.
They entered the Starbucks separately. Kovit took the corner seat near the window, and Nita took a table across and down from his. It had a nice clear shot of whoever sat in the second seat. It was far enough away a normal human couldn’t eavesdrop. Heck, the Starbucks was so loud, a normal human wouldn’t have been able to eavesdrop from the table next to them.
Nita was not a normal human.
She enhanced her hearing and focused it. She planned to catch every word of their conversation.
When a man finally approached the table, Nita almost ignored him, until she saw the expression on Kovit’s face.
Henry.
He was white, with gray hair and deep lines around his mouth and eyes. His skin had the ruddy tan of someone who was outside a lot, but despite his age, something about it looked tough, like a rhinoceros.
Kovit’s eyes were dark and wide, his mouth slightly open. He swallowed. “Henry.”
Nita’s jaw clenched, and she stilled herself before she could grind her teeth off. Henry had made everything so much more complicated.
“Kovit!” Henry grinned. “Always a pleasure.”
Kovit’s face was still, and it was strange. In any other context, he’d have pulled out a creepy smile, twisted and warped, and whispered in a voice full of dark promises, Oh, the pleasure is all mine.
But he didn’t. He just gestured for Henry to take a seat.
“I thought you were dead.” Henry raised his eyebrows and sat. A slight smile quirked his lips. There was something deeply creepy about his smiles, and it took Nita a moment to realize they strongly resembled Kovit’s. It was like seeing his expression on someone else’s face.
Kovit shifted away from Henry. “I don’t suppose you’d consider continuing to think I’m dead?”
Henry burst into laughter. He crossed his arms and looked at Kovit from under heavy brows. “Now, how could I do that to my favorite protégé? I’ve missed you, Kovit. I’ve been grieving.”
Henry didn’t look terribly grief-stricken, and Nita’s fingers tensed around the handle of her hidden gun. The metal was warm and slick.
“How did you find out I was alive?” Kovit’s voice was soft.
Henry smiled and touched his nose. “Ah, a great magician never reveals his secrets.”
Nita sighed, heart hurting for her friend. Kovit was right, Henry was definitely monitoring his online conversations somehow.
Henry eyed Kovit. “You didn’t ask me for a plane ticket.”
“I was already in Toronto.”
“Doing?”
“Probably the same thing you are.” Kovit sounded calm, but his shoulders were tight, and his hands tensed and released compulsively.
“Hunting.” Henry smiled, slow and thin and full of malicious promise. “Wonderful, let’s do it together.”
“Let’s not.”
Henry mock-scowled. “Kovit, why are you being so distant? We’re Family.”
“We were.” His eyes tightened. “Until you threw me under the bus to save face and sent me to South America to rot in the jungle.”
“That’s not fair, Kovit.” Henry sighed deeply. “You disobeyed a direct order and helped an enemy of the Family escape. I couldn’t just let you go with no consequences.”
Kovit’s eyes narrowed. “You told me you wanted to kill me and I was lucky to be alive.”
“I was very angry!” A flash of teeth, probably meant to be a smile, but it looked more like he was going to bite Kovit. “You know how I dislike it when people misbehave.”
Kovit’s fingers curled into his jeans. “Of course.”