A grin spread over her face when she noticed something.
He shook his head. “You’re an eager one, aren’t you? I salute you, Aletheia. I’ll remember you fondly once you’re dead.”
Shay flung a frag grenade at him.
The man rolled his eyes, but his nonchalance changed to wide-eyed terror once he realized she’d not thrown it directly at him but over him. The wizard looked up at the grenade just in time for the explosion. His field remained in front of him, but there was no sign of it at his back.
Shay took her chance and rushed the man without a word, yell, or even a grunt and slammed her knife into his exposed back. He cried out and dropped his wand, and the tomb raider finished the job by slitting his throat.
The man collapsed to the ground.
Shay sighed and shook her head. “Still have to climb down. That’s annoying.”
Chapter Four
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” Shay laughed into her phone. “Boner pills?”
Peyton chuckled on the other end. “Boner powder, but yeah. Magical aphrodisiac. I don’t know all the details, but it requires a crap-ton of Oriceran ingredients, and the client is willing to pay fifty thousand for you just to pick it up and hold on to until you can hand it to a courier. Hey, put that down!”
Shay could hear Lily yelling, “Whatever.”
“Things going alright back at the ranch?”
“Some people have to touch everything. One of these days, that’s going to have negative consequences,” he yelled, holding the phone away from his mouth.
“Talk to me about the job, Peyton. This sounds too good to be true. This asshole expecting someone to come after it?”
“Nope,” Peyton offered. “And I’ve poked around to confirm that. To be honest, I think the reason he needs you is kind of…well, gross.”
“Gross?”
“Well, semi-gross.” Peyton cleared his throat. “From what I can find out, the power of the magic is enhanced if it’s kept close to a ‘beautiful female of strong will’ for at least a day.”
Shay barked a laugh. “And how does this guy even know what I look like?”
“I really played up how Aletheia is as beautiful as she is wise and all that.” He snickered. “Look, it’s an easy fifty thousand. If this is just about some horny old man thinking a hot chick’s going to enhance his boner powder, I don’t see the problem.”
“I didn’t say there was a problem, just wanted to know. Okay. I’ve got to head to Virginia to help Brownstone drop Alison off, so I’ll grab the case before that and drop it off when I come back. Easiest job I’ve had in a while—as long as I don’t think about it too much.”
Shay found the whole thing more amusing than anything else. Some things would always remain the same, no matter how the world changed.
“Okay,” Peyton replied. “I’ll contact the client and get a pick-up schedule.”
“Teach Lily what you can while I’m gone and take her to my gym to box. I’ve set it all up with the manager.”
“She’s already figured out my computer system. Girl has a crazy brain.”
“She’s a gray elf. I hear it comes with the territory.”
“Yeah, well take her with you on one of these before she learns my job. I don’t have a plan B. Did you know how much she could eat before you brought her home for keeps?”
“Bye Peyton.”
Shay leaned her back against the wall of the abandoned warehouse waiting for the arrival of the courier. The buzz of a Peyton-controlled drone circling the air helped keep the tension out of her body. No one would surprise her.
Shay couldn’t decide if this was the best or worst job she’d ever taken. It’d be easy money, that was for sure, but that assumed it didn’t involve some incubus showing up and trying to take her soul.
Yeah, like to see one of those assholes try.
She grinned to herself.
“There’s a car coming,” Peyton reported through her earpiece.
“Anything suspicious? Any additional movement in the area?”
“Nope. Why should there be? Did you see something?”
“Nah. The job’s just too easy.”
Peyton chuckled. “Not really. The problem with a lot of people is, they might want to sell it.”
Shay gritted her teeth. “If some magic douche shows up I’m gonna be pissed off.”
“I’ve checked into the job. This time every corner, I swear. You’ve checked into the job. It is what is. Sometimes things are what they appear. You’ve got a rep now, so people are willing to pay a little more for things like this.” He laughed. “Maybe you should stop tomb raiding and become a courier.”
“No way in hell. You know the problem with being a courier?”
“No, what?”
“With tomb raiding, there’s a chance you might not be targeted. When you’re a courier, the chance is high that you will, especially with the high-end shit. Otherwise, they’d just mail it.”
“If you say so. You wouldn’t have to travel so much.”
“I like traveling.”
A black sedan turned the corner, and Shay reached inside her jacket to rest her hand on her pistol’s grip.
The sedan pulled to a stop and a man stepped out of the car, briefcase in hand.
He cleared his throat. “Please confirm who you are.”
“Aletheia. ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.’”
The man nodded, satisfied at the passphrase, and held out the briefcase. “You’ll need to keep it for at least twenty-four hours. It’ll need to be within twenty feet of you for at least twelve of those hours. The more time you spend around it, the greater the chance the client will grant a bonus.”
Shay saluted. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll be able to get it up soon enough.”
The other man frowned. She shrugged and offered him a smile.
Time to see how much Brownstone trusts me.
Shay sat in silence as Brownstone drove them to his church in his F-350. Alison sat in the back with her hands in her lap.
Now that the tomb raider was two million dollars richer, she could afford a day
