Lily sighed and opened the door. “I need a little time to process everything. I probably won’t stop by for a while.”
“It’s okay. Take all the time you need. You know where to find me.” Shay forced a grin. “And I’m sure Harry’s eager to see you and know you didn’t get scratched.”
The teen’s cheeks reddened, and she stepped out of the car. “Um, yeah, I’m sure he is.”
“Okay, then, see you around. It was good to have you on the job again. Next time, I’ll try to take us somewhere tropical.” The tomb raider stared at the girl for a moment.
Lily gave her a sad smile, and with a final wave, she marched toward the pipe.
Should have offered to let her stay in the warehouse. After the shit I made her see, it’s the least I can do. But now that she’s here, there’s no way she’s gonna want to leave. I’m still new in her life, not like all these kids who have had her back for years.
Maybe that was some harsh shit, but it’s a good thing. She needs to see the kinds of dangers you might run into during a tomb raid. It’s not just invisible ghosts and witches. Some things are far freakier, and the earlier she learns that, the better.
Shay took a deep breath and pulled the car back onto the road. Twenty million dollars was a lot of money. All she needed to do was hand over the artifact, and she’d score her biggest payday yet.
She could even have Peyton contact the buyer and demand additional money for the protection box unless the client somehow had their own method for safely containing the egg. Assuming a client wasn’t an idiot wasn’t usually a good plan. Lots of rich fools paid a lot of money for artifacts they couldn’t hope to understand or control.
Wonder if those Hollingsworth guys had a plan. The other guys seemed to get that they shouldn’t touch it, but no one had anything that looked like an artifact. Were they just banking on me having a plan?
She shook her head. It didn’t matter. Even if her time away from professional killing and her exposure to Alison and James had dulled her old ruthlessness, she didn’t have the time or energy to worry about competing tomb raiders. If the men had demonstrated any lethal intent at all, she would have killed them without hesitation. She wasn’t even sure if she’d have spared their lives if Lily hadn’t been there with her.
Is it so much worse to get melted than have your throat cut or be shot? Dead is dead, in the end.
After a few seconds, Shay barked out a laugh. No. Being melted was definitely worse than being shot.
For the moment, she needed to just get the damned artifact contained. All her efforts at upgrading Warehouse Five seemed prescient now. The box containing the deadly egg had an appointment with her automated storage vault.
She’d driven twenty miles brooding about the artifact when her phone rang with a call from Peyton.
Shay answered it on speakerphone. “I just got done dropping Lily off. She’s a little spooked with how things went down, but she’ll be okay.”
Peyton sighed. “I want to apologize again.”
Shay snorted. “It’s not your fault.”
“I feel like crap that those guys got the drop on you. Not only did I let tomb raiders jump you, but I also let Hollingsworth of all people jump you.” He groaned.
“So? Until someone invents a super-drone that can’t be jammed, there will be times you won’t be able to have my back. We both need to plan for that. Maybe someday we’ll get lucky and find a magical cell phone, but for now, we have to work with what we’ve got. When you can help me, you can help me, and when you can’t, you can’t. Anyway, it’s not like they won. We got away with the egg. And they lost a guy.” Shay allowed a little hope to creep into her voice. “The point is, I didn’t get hurt, Lily didn’t get hurt, and I got the artifact. That’s a win however you want to look at it.”
Peyton’s swallowing was audible over the line.
Shay frowned. “Why are you so nervous?”
“How do you know I’m nervous?” Tension pitched his voice higher.
The tomb raider rolled her eyes. Peyton was great at many things, but she doubted he’d ever cultivate the true hardness necessary for the world they inhabited.
“You sound nervous, Peyton. You don’t have a poker face or a poker voice.” Shay did a quick mirror check, more paranoid than normal because of the artifact in a box in her backseat. “Which means you have bad news to deliver to me, and not just annoying shit. When it’s that kind of thing, you just tell some stupid joke. So, someone’s got you seriously spooked?” The tomb raider frowned. “Is James telling you to keep something from me again?”
“I wish it were just that, but no, that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
Peyton took a deep breath. “Correk just called me.”
“What the hell? He called you directly?”
“Yeah. He said he couldn’t get you, and he told me to tell you when I got in touch with you that he wants to meet at the Leanan Sídhe now, and he said to bring the egg. He specifically said, ‘Tell her to bring the Necessaire Egg.’ He also kind of threatened us. Said there would be consequences if you didn’t.”
Shay gritted her teeth. “How the hell did he know about the egg? I didn’t even have any missed calls from him.”
“Well, he is a pretty powerful elf. I’m guessing he used a spell rather than a phone. I don’t know. Is this really a guy you can risk pissing off?”
The steering wheel creaked under her tightening grip. “Fuck it. Fuck him.”
“Huh?”
Shay accelerated. A little speeding wouldn’t hurt now.
“I don’t care if he’s Correk. I’ve been thinking a lot
