Sizzle and Burn (The Arcane Society #3)(69)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

Raine swallowed hard. “So Cassidy and Niki are probably going to go crazy soon. Do you think they know that?”

Zack shrugged. “I doubt it. We don’t know how much the Nightshade leaders tell their operatives but the best guess is that they lie to them. No profit in telling them the truth. Might put off new recruits.”

She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds and shivered. Then she remembered something.

“What about the mayor? This afternoon when Bradley asked who threw the smoke bomb, I got the impression you didn’t want me to tell him about her role in this thing.”

He gave her an approving smile. “You were right.”

“But if she was involved—”

“She wasn’t,” Zack assured her.

“Explain,” Raine ordered.

“When I came through the back room I got a quick look around. The mayor’s purse was unfastened. The contents were scattered across the carpet. I realized that she was probably the one who brought the smoke bomb into the shop but there were no hot spots around her or her purse. She didn’t know what she was doing.”

“Then why in the world did she set off the smoke bomb?” Raine demanded.

“The most likely explanation is that either Cassidy or Niki is a parahypnotist,” Zack said. “Probably formula-enhanced.”

“In other words, you think that one of them hypnotized the mayor into carrying the smoke bomb into my shop and exploding it,” Raine said.

“Right.” Zack shrugged. “Which is why, when Her Honor came around, she had no memory of what she had done.”

Raine looked at him. “What are we going to tell her? What are we going to tell Bradley, for that matter?”

Zack stretched his legs out toward the fire and rested his elbows on the arms of the chair. He put his fingertips together.

“The simplest story is usually the best,” he said. “Mitchell will soon realize he can’t do anything with a drug charge because there is no evidence of illegal drugs. But what do you think about promoting the notion that Cassidy and Niki planned to kidnap the mayor and hold her for ransom?”

Raine blinked. “I think Mayor Escott would love it. Talk about great publicity for the upcoming election.”

Calvin grinned. “Very creative, Jones.”

“Cassidy and Niki will deny it,” Raine pointed out.

Calvin uttered a half-amused little sound. “They’ll deny everything. So what? They’ll both be in padded cells within a couple of days.”

“Wonder why they decided to grab me,” Raine said.

“Sheer desperation,” Zack said. “The idea was to watch you as closely as possible to see if you inherited whatever it is that Lawrence Quinn hoped to get from Vella. You were the only link left. When I showed up, it merely confirmed their theory that you knew something vitally important. They decided they couldn’t afford to wait and allow J&J to get the secret from you.”

“Those poor women,” Raine whispered.

The men exchanged looks. Neither spoke.

Raine sipped her tea and lowered the cup. She frowned a little at Zack. “You said the Arcane labs have a sample of the formula that they’ve been studying. They must know a lot about it by now. Isn’t there anything your experts could do to save Cassidy and Niki?”

Zack looked at her over the tips of his fingers. He seemed baffled by the question. “You want to save that pair? Cassidy Cutler is probably indirectly responsible for the murder of Lawrence Quinn, and it’s a good bet she’s the one who ran down the illusion talent the other night. She tried to kill Pandora and kidnap you. Niki was her accomplice in everything that took place.”

Raine pulled her robe more tightly around herself. “It’s just that the prospect of going insane is so terrifying. My aunt believed that she was hovering at the edge of it for years, and it was my own worst nightmare for a long time. The thought of letting someone else, anyone else, face that abyss makes me ill.”

Zack glanced at Calvin.

Calvin raised his massive shoulders. “Don’t look at me. How the heck should I know if they’ve come up with an antidote?”

Zack hesitated a moment longer, then, reluctantly, he unclipped his phone. “I’ll see if Fallon knows anything about the status of the research.”

Fifty-three

She was in bed, Batman and Robin curled up at her feet, when she heard his phone ring. The sound was muffled by the closed door of the hall bathroom and the rush of water in the shower. The water was turned off abruptly. She heard the low rumble of Zack’s voice.

A few minutes later he walked into the bedroom. He was naked except for a towel around his waist. His hair was damp. He stopped beside the bed, grim-faced.

“That was Fallon,” he said. “He checked with the head of the lab that is studying the sample of the drug that turned up in the Stone Canyon case. The most they’ve been able to determine is that the stuff is inert on its own. They think it has to be combined with some other ingredient in order to work. No one knows what the missing ingredient is or how it’s taken.”

“In other words, the researchers haven’t even begun to think about an antidote,” Raine said.

“No.”

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillows. “Niki and Cassidy are doomed to go insane and probably kill themselves.”

“Yes.”

There was a long silence. She opened her eyes and saw that he was watching her with the expression of a man who knows he has failed.

“I’m sorry, Raine,” he said wearily. “I know this was important to you.”

She sat up abruptly, appalled. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, don’t look at me like that. It’s not your fault. I knew it was a long shot. Thank you for making the call.”

He said nothing. She reached up, grabbed his hand and tugged at him until he sank down on the side of the bed.

“I thought we agreed last night that we couldn’t save everyone,” she said gently.

“You want the truth? I didn’t give a damn about saving Cutler and Plumer. They tried to kidnap you. They would have killed you once they got what they wanted from you. Or even if they didn’t get it, for that matter. Far as I’m concerned, they can jump out a window or rot in an institution for the rest of their lives.”

Sometimes she forgot about the ruthless streak of icy pragmatism that ran through him. It was probably one of the reasons everyone thought he would make an excellent Master. Compassion and vision were all well and good in a leader but they tended to be useless qualities unless they were coupled with a will of steel.