He frowned hard, as if he was thinking something through. “Do you believe in fate, Slayer of Slayers?”
“Sometimes.”
“I do. This is fate. You being here.” He let go of me and reached into his pocket with the hand that didn’t already hold the gun. He pulled out a gold chain that glinted in the sunlight and thrust it at me.
“Take this. It’s yours. You just can’t let Janie have it.”
“Listen, I don’t think I want anything to do with this—”
“Take it,” he pushed it into my hand. “And hide it.”
“What is it?”
He smiled. “Just a necklace.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m outa here. Make sure to tell Janie—”
“Tell Janie what?” Janie walked over to us, holding her gun steady to the level of Fedora-guy’s forehead. “Sarah, you okay?”
After catching the stricken look on his face, I slid the necklace into my pocket before Janie could see it.
“Fine.”
“Drop the gun, buddy. Now. Or you’re toast.”
The guy cocked his head to the side. “Oh, Janie, I love it when you talk like a two-bit cliched action movie bitch. I’ve missed you.”
“With every shot so far.” She grinned, but it wasn’t friendly. “Give me the necklace.”
He stiffened. “You’re going to shoot me one way or the other.”
“If I don’t get the necklace, then I’m the one who’s going to be picking up my own pieces from the sidewalk. And since I’ll be dead, that will be very hard to do. Now hand it over—” she pulled the safety back on her gun with a click “—or I’m going to kill you.”
With wide eyes I watched Fedora-guy’s gun hand start to shake. I could tell Janie I had the necklace. Stop this before somebody got hurt. But there was something in the guy’s eyes when he gave it to me. Like he trusted me. And he didn’t trust her.
“Don’t shoot him, Janie,” I said suddenly.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because . . . you’ll regret it.”
“I regret a lot of things.”
“Me, too. I totally regret spilling that moccaccino on you.”
She snorted at that. “I almost forgot about that.”
“Those were really cool shoes.”
“They were, weren’t they?” She lowered the gun a little.
Suddenly Fedora-guy turned to leap through the broken window and started running away from the theater. Janie ran to the window and aimed at his back.
After a long moment she lowered her gun. “Damn it. I can’t do it. I can’t shoot somebody in the back.”
She looked at me. “Who’s the wimp now, right?”
I watched his form become smaller and smaller in the distance. “Maybe he was right. Maybe he didn’t have the necklace at all.”
“I guess we’ll never know.”
I swallowed and pressed my lips together. “I guess not.”
“My boss is going to kill me.” She slid the gun back into her purse and then smiled. “I definitely need a drink.”
A drink sounded like an excellent idea. We had a drink. Actually three drinks. Alcohol didn’t affect me and Lenny was the designated driver so it didn’t really matter. I watched Janie for some clue that she was something to be afraid of. Somebody not to trust like Fedora-guy had said. But I didn’t see any reason not to trust her.
Still, the necklace remained in my pocket. I didn’t say a word. I asked them to drop me off at Haven where I’d wait for Thierry to show up. He sometimes went there in the afternoon to take care of some paperwork. It was worth a shot. He’d called my cell phone before it broke at the theater. He obviously knew I wanted to talk to him.
Janie and I got out of the car next to the plain-looking, unmarked entrance to Haven.
“Sarah!” I heard a voice call to my right. I turned to see Quinn quickly moving toward me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. There was another murder last night. A vampire victim this time. A young female, dark hair, body still intact. With everything going on, I thought for a moment it was you and it scared the hell out of me.”
I felt a chill at his words. “I’m here. I’m okay. Well, still breathing anyhow.”
His jaw tensed. “I need to catch this bastard. But I’m at a loss. So many vamps in this city and they all keep to themselves. I might need Thierry’s contacts after all.”
I glanced at Janie and was surprised that she looked a little stricken.
“Um,” she said. “I guess Lenny and I will wait out here.”
“Okay.”
“I, uh . . . I’ll see you later.”
Quinn glanced at her. “Sarah, aren’t you going to introduce us?”
I sighed. “Yeah, Quinn . . . this is Janie. She’s actually one of the bodyguards I told you about yesterday.”
“Hi.” Quinn extended his hand.
Janie ignored it. “Yeah. Hi. Okay, so like I said, we’ll be close if you need us.” She turned away and got into the backseat of the car without another word.
I glanced at Quinn. “She’s shy.”