Running Hot (The Arcane Society #5)(62)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“What did you sell?”

“Mostly I brokered fake IDs on the Internet. My mother was a high-level crypto talent, a computer wizard. I learned a lot about navigating the online universe from her before she died. I was very good at putting buyers and sellers together.”

“You took a commission on the deals you set up?”

“Yes. It was actually a fairly lucrative line of work but it was also a tad risky. One day I decided to get a real job, something beyond dishwashing and selling fake IDs.”

“Why?”

She raised a shoulder and let it fall. “Mostly because I wanted to see what it was like to feel normal. I should have known better. I don’t think people like us ever get to feel normal.”

“What kind of job did you get?”

“Believe it or not, I went to work in a flower shop.” She smiled a little, thinking back. “I loved it, even if it didn’t make me feel normal. After a while I was promoted to manager. That’s where Martin found me. He came in to buy a dozen roses for one of his women. He recognized me immediately as a strong sensitive. He was a high-level strat and he understood right away that I could be very useful to him. He was managing a small casino at the time and he was having problems. He offered me a position on his security staff.”

“What kind of problems was he having?”

“A ring of cheats had targeted the casino. They were bleeding it dry. Martin’s boss began to suspect that he was the one responsible for the losses.”

Luther gripped her hand more tightly. “What did Crocker have you do?”

“I profiled the players. Pointed out the members of the ring. One thing led to another. Eventually Martin was promoted to president of the company that owned the casino. We branched out from there.”

“He used you.”

She shook her head. “It was an equal partnership. In exchange for my help, Martin saw to it that I made a lot of money and got an education. He used to refer to himself as Pygmalion. After he founded Crocker World, I not only got a very, very good salary, I got stock in the company.”

Luther whistled softly. “A slice of Crocker World, must have been worth a fortune at one time.”

“It was. When I first noticed the effects of the drug in his aura, I thought about selling off my portfolio and tucking the money away in an offshore account, but I was afraid Martin would find out. Once he started taking the formula, he became extremely suspicious of everyone around him. I had to be careful. Then I found out about the arms dealing.”

Luther’s hand tightened around hers. “And the bastard tried to kill you.”

“After Martin’s body was found, the value of the company shares plummeted to almost nothing. They never recovered.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if they had bounced back. You still couldn’t have sold off your portfolio. The authorities would have noticed the activity in the dead butler’s accounts.”

“Yes. Turns out the Arcane Society pays well, though, and it doesn’t cost a lot to live in Eclipse Bay. I’m doing fine.”

“Still, you had to walk away from the empire that you and Crocker built.”

“Toward the end the profits were tainted by the arms deals that Martin had arranged for Nightshade. Blood money.” She shivered. “Even if it had been safe to do so, I couldn’t have touched those shares. Not for anything. It sickened me to realize that, for a time, I was a part of that business.”

He put an arm around her and pulled her close against his side.

“Not everyone would have seen it that way,” he said. “Money is money. A lot of folks would tell you that the blood washes off very easily.”

“They’re wrong.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Daddy was dead.

Damaris huddled on the edge of the bed, trying to stop the drug-induced shivers while she fought the tears. She’d had him for such a short period of time, only a year, and now he was gone. It was almost impossible to believe. He had seemed so strong, so powerful, so invincible.

William Craigmore had been a wealthy man. His death had made news on the Internet and then in the morning papers. “Reclusive Financier Found Dead in Home.” But she had known hours earlier that something had gone terribly wrong in Honolulu. She had lived on hope for a while, telling herself that the sense of doom was just another side effect of the drug. But when the first reports started appearing online, she was forced to face the truth. Daddy was dead.

The only thing she did not understand was why the body had turned up in his Los Angeles residence. She refused to believe he died from a heart attack. She knew he had gone to Honolulu because he called her once from there to let her know he was on the ground and to reassure her that everything was under control. That was the last time she had spoken with him. The next day his body was discovered at his home in L.A.

Impossible. Whatever had happened to Daddy happened in Honolulu. And that meant that J&J was responsible.

The phone warbled, making her flinch. She turned and picked it up off the bedside table.

“Hello, Vivien,” she said quietly.

“I just heard the news.” Vivien was furious. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just found out myself. I was going to call in a few minutes.” She massaged her temples. “I needed a little time to get over the shock.”

“What happened?” Vivien demanded.

“I don’t know. The papers are calling it a heart attack but I don’t believe it.”

“I don’t, either, not for a minute. They got to him, didn’t they?”

“J&J? Yes, I think so. I don’t know how. They must have figured out that he was Nightshade.”

“Do you think they know about you and me?” Vivien sounded genuinely concerned for the first time.

“No, we’re safe. Daddy was very careful to keep both of us a secret. Even if they did find out about us, there’s not much they could do. J&J has no evidence that we were involved in anything illegal.”

“This is all so awful,” Vivien whispered. “So completely unfair. It isn’t right.”

Damaris was surprised and touched to hear the anguish in her sister’s voice. Vivien had evidently harbored more feelings for Daddy than she had let on.

“I know,” Damaris said. “We had him such a short time.”

“It is so damn typical of the bastard.”

“What?”

“Dying like this, before he found that aura talent for me. Honestly, if he wasn’t dead, I’d be more than a little tempted to give him one of my private performances.”