The Golden Chalice Read online

  Michelle forced her sister back, freeing herself from the unsolicited hug. She looked her in the eye and felt nothing. “I’m fine. Excuse me.”

  She walked briskly for the stairs. Abahti glowered down at her but moved when she approached. She climbed the treads, feeling everyone’s eyes on her retreating form. She didn’t care.

  ***

  “What’s wrong with her? Is she okay?” Sasha asked.

  “She’s fine,” Lee mumbled. He walked off to his office. Abahti followed. Alone with Kumar, Sasha pouted. The big welcome home had been a bust.

  “Should I go up there?” she whispered, her eyes lifting to the ceiling.

  “I don’t think so, babe. She needs time to get her head in it. You know how that goes.”

  “Did you see how she looked at me? She’s angry with me still. I can tell.”

  “Anger and love are two sides of the same coin. Give her a little space and time.”

  “Yeah, okay, you’re right. Space and time.”

  ***

  Somewhere in France

  “Get out.” Eddie rose. He tossed back another swig of lukewarm beer. He didn’t bother to zip the pants that rode his hips, just tucked his penis down and inside. The nameless woman nodded her obedience, collected her things, and hurried out of the suite to the bathroom. He walked over to the deck, slipping past the French doors. The city awaited with honking horns and street life. He’d been hiding like a coward for months. Hiding had never been his style. He’d reached his limit.

  The phone rang.

  Eddie finished off his beer. He returned inside and plucked it from its receiver. “Yeah?”

  “She’s out.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Will Escobar meet with me?”

  Silence.

  “Will any of them meet with me? Hear my side of things?”

  Silence.

  “Fine. I’ll finish it. I just need one more favor, Monk. Get word to Abahti, I don’t care how. If I can bring the Golden Chalice to The Order, they’ll pardon the killing of Rawhead. I’m sure of it.”

  “Thought of it already. Abahti is refusing to meet. There’s another option.”

  Eddie gripped the phone tightly. “What? What the fuck is it?”

  “The techie, the computer guy. Kumar Suresh. He’s using smack again. I know where he scores his drugs.”

  Eddie smiled. “Ah, that is promising. Very-very promising.”

  Chapter Four

  “Where is he? Where is the fucking weasel?” Lee paced his office. His agitation had little to do with Eddie Cumminskey and more to do with his woman and her silent treatment. He lifted his gaze and fixated on the ceiling. Maybe he should go to their bedroom and make sure she was okay. Lee clucked his tongue at Evita, who licked her paw in the corner of his office. “Evita, go find Mama. Take care of her.”

  The Doberman rose, shook her head, and strolled out. Abahti closed the door behind the animal. “We aren’t sure, boss.”

  “About what?” Lee grumbled, having forgotten his rant.

  “Cumminskey. No one’s talking, at least not to us. They know we have the Chalice and I think….”

  “Go on?” Lee asked.

  “I think they want to make a move. To strike against us.”

  “They? Again with the ‘they’. Is that what you think?” Lee lowered to a chair, his chest tight with contempt. Abahti stilled.

  “Yes, boss, it’s what I think.”

  “Shall I share my thoughts? Interested? Good. I think I’ve been distracted since the shooting. Trusting. Too forgiving. Eddie had inside information the night of the heist. I think the traitor is near. Maybe Eddie isn’t my problem, friend. He’s gone rogue with killing Rawhead unsanctioned. The Order will deal with him. I need to focus on the betrayal. Find out who the motherfucker is who would dare try to harm Michelle.” Lee picked up his scotch and took a sip. Over the rim of his glass, he fixed his glare on Abahti.

  Abahti’s stony expression of innocence made Lee doubtful.

  “What is it you want me to do?” Abahti asked.

  “Nothing, friend.” Lee set the crystal glass down on the coaster. The diamond ring on his pinky sparkled. “I’ll take this one on.”

  He gave a nod and Abahti walked out. Lee rocked in his leather office chair and drummed his fingers on his desk. “Interesting.”

  ***

  “Knock, knock.”

  Michelle turned from the window. Her sister opened the door and stepped inside. “What do you need?”

  “To talk?” Sasha asked. “You came up here in such a hurry I didn’t get a chance to catch up.”

  “A chance? Oh, that’s right. You want a chance to explain?” Michelle slapped her hands to her thighs. Her temper smoldered with caged fury. She touched her heart and feigned interest. “To help me understand how stupid you are? Or how evil Lee is. No, I got it. How much of a fool I am.”

  Her sister’s large, brown eyes filled with shifting tears. Michelle ignored the sorrow reflected in her weepy stare. “It got out of hand. Lee took advantage of—”

  “Did he rape you?” Michelle stepped forward.

  “No.” Sasha lowered her gaze.

  “Did he threaten you? Force himself on you?”

  “No. He drugged me—”

  “Before or after you agreed to your little deal with him?” Michelle crossed her arms in front of her.

  Sasha wiped at her tears, but more fell. She wept. “Wait, you haven’t heard the real truth. I was the victim. Don’t you see? Lee drugged me.”

  “And you…what? Accidentally had sex with him?”

  “You don’t understand. We never had sex. Never!”

  “How does Lee like it? In the ass? On your knees? We’re sisters. We should definitely share notes. What, you don’t want to talk details? We could talk technique, ’cause if you swallow—”

  “Stop it!” Sasha cried.

  Michelle held herself ramrod straight. “Why? You fucked him. Right?” She looked back at the bed. “Wait, were you looking for him? To see if he wanted to bang the Dixon sisters together and christen the bed?”

  “It happened once. No sex. Never sex! I gave him a blowjob, Michelle, and it ended before it began. We didn’t have sex! It happened before you and he got together. Only once, I swear. And before I knew it, I was in over my head. It wasn’t something I wanted…but I did it.”

  Michelle smiled. “So you could become a diamond thief?” she finished.

  “So we could do what we are good at.” Sasha nodded repeatedly. “Michelle, you did it. The score of a lifetime. It’s all over the news. They don’t know about the Chalice. In fact, they are confused because nothing in the vault came up missing. They call you the ‘Shadow’ now. The one security camera they could find with an image of you is just a shadow. Some cool shit, Michelle. Did you know? You did it. Do you know what that means?”

  Michelle turned away. She closed her eyes and pressed her palms against them. Her voice, strangled around a sob, came across hoarse and strained. “Sure, I know. Every police agency in the world won’t stop until they uncover who I am. My life is over. And eventually I will get caught. All of us will. You didn’t think that would be our last job?”

  “Of course it’s not.” Sasha stepped forward and touched her sister gently. “Lee knows what he’s doing, Michelle. Besides if we want to stop, we can. Especially you. He’s really in love—”

  “Obssesed!” Michelle snapped. She shifted away from Sasha’s comforting touch. “You think that I have some say in it? Is that right? You a player now, right? How much money do you have?”

  “Huh?”

  Michelle approached her. “How much money do you have?”

  “Well, I got about six grand upstairs, in my suitcase…why?”

  “You worked on a job worth millions. On the street, that job would have easily bought you three, maybe five mill, and you have six thousand dollars. Cash. Nothing in the bank? Nothing in your name?�
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  “If I want anything, a car, shopping, anything, I can have it. Lee gives us both what we want, you know that.”

  Michelle sat down. Her chest burned where the bullet scarred her, and her back ached between her shoulder blades. She felt the onset of another headache and closed her eyes. She nearly laughed hysterically. Who cared if they’d slept together? Her sister’s destructive behavior and her own nearly got her killed. Pops had a warning in his message, and now she could barely recall it. Her life had spun that far out of control. “I thought you were dumb. Truth is, you’re just stupid.”

  “Wait a damn minute.”

  “Shut up,” Michelle mumbled.

  “I wish you would talk to me, listen to what I have to say. I can’t get us past this if you don’t. You’re my sister. I love you.”

  Michelle swung her gaze over to Sasha. Looking at her sister now made all her old resentments rise. How she’d have to walk her home from school, feed her and play with her instead of going outside with friends. Between her drunken father and a kid sister who clung to her knees, afraid of her shadow, Michelle’s childhood had been non-existent. Even now, she existed for Pops and Sasha, and not herself.

  “Too late for us…too late, little sister. And for the record, this isn’t the life.” She reached for her purse and snatched out the mini tape recorder. She didn’t know if Lee had played the tape. She’d found the player with the cassette in it after her move to rehabilitation center. She tossed it at her sister, who caught it mid-air. “Pops lived on his own terms. He worked jobs he chose and passed on the ones he didn’t want. That was the game—your own rules, your own plays. Not this! And you’re too stupid to see it. Listen for yourself if you think I’m just the square wanna-be doctor who doesn’t have a clue. Listen!”

  Michelle ignored the question in her sister’s eyes as she inspected the tape recorder. Her heart had hardened to her sister’s need to be coddled. She felt numb. “Do what you want. I don’t care anymore.”

  “Michelle, I know about the baby.”

  She laughed. “So?”

  “You’re in pain.”

  “Get out!” She whirled on her sister. “Get out!”

  Sasha pleaded with her eyes. “I-I-I’m sorry.”

  “You will be. I can promise you that. We all will be.”

  Her sister turned and fumbled with the door, struggling with the knob a few seconds more before she yanked it open. One of Lee’s vicious dogs glared at her. Sasha froze. The animal walked in and went straight to Michelle and sat on her hind legs panting for attention. Sasha gave a parting look of sadness before she left the room. Abahti stepped through the open door.

  “What do you want?” Michelle asked.

  “A deal. One that benefits you and me.” He closed the door.

  “Interesting. What kind of deal?”

  “You want out. Don’t deny it. The time to make it happen is now.”

  “Just go!” Michelle dismissed him.

  “Don’t be a bitch.”

  Her head swung left. “What did you call me?”

  “Don’t be foolish. Freeing Sasha frees you. It’s your only way out of the mess the Chalice has brought down on you. I can help you make that happen.”

  Michelle laughed. She laughed so hard her eyes teared. “Are you still in love with him, Abahti?”

  “Are you drunk?”

  She took a step toward him. “Stone-cold sober. And you’re obsessed.”

  “With what?”

  “Not what. Who. With keeping Lee to yourself, silly. Makes you as foolish as he is about me.” She stood before him now. She ran her hand over the hard planes of his chest and batted her lashes at him. “What happened that night, Abahti? How did Eddie know about the bank job?”

  “You tell me. Maybe you made a side deal?”

  She touched his chin with a ragged, in-need-of-a-manicure fingertip. Abahti’s gaze dropped to her face. She saw his hatred for her, and she favored him a sweet smile in the face of it.

  “Right. I made a deal to trip the alarm and bring the police. That was my plan.”

  She came up against him, her nipples brushing his chest, her mouth close to his. “You hate me, don’t you? Hate how much he wants me. It makes you crazy, and reckless. All the things you accuse Lee of being. I can’t get you hard, but Lee…Lee can, can’t he? Why don’t you tell him how you feel? You never know.”

  Abahti snatched her by the wrist and shoved her. Evita growled. Abahti cleared his throat and spoke, his eyes trained on the Doberman. “The deal. Do you want it or not?”

  “He lost his baby. And he wants my love.” Michelle shrugged. She rubbed the soreness out of her left wrist and walked away. “He’ll do whatever I want him to, get inside….” She cast him a wicked smile from over her shoulder. “Of me.”

  Abahti’s nostrils flared. Michelle laughed. And he nearly charged her but lowered his gaze to Evita, who was now on all fours with every muscle in her body tense, ready to pounce.

  “Go ahead, take your best shot, Abahti. I dare you.”

  “You’re a whore! A conniving whore and he will see that in you!” Abahti leveled a finger at her.

  “I’m his whore, not yours. So don’t come in here trying to pimp me. Get the hell out, before I tell Lee about our deal. He’ll expect it from me. What will he think of you, his closest friend?”

  Abahti stepped back. “You made a mistake making an enemy of me, Chocolat.”

  “I’ve made many mistakes. What difference will this one make?” Michelle dismissed him and returned to the window. Evita growled deeply and took a step toward Abhati. He turned and slammed the door, nearly causing the wood to splinter. Her smirk faded. Her face paled, and she weakened. Dropping her hands to the cool window glass, she leaned forward and pressed her forehead to the surface. “Evita, baby. I’ve made many mistakes, haven’t I?”

  ***

  Later that night

  Lee avoided her bed. His absence weighed on her heart, choking her, making it hard to breathe. She expected him there, to fight with her. She needed the fighting so she could focus on her anger, not her grief. She knew he’d asked Dr. Stevenson if she could have sex with him. The bastard. What was he waiting for? The sourness in the pit of her stomach forced her to sit upright. She rubbed the place where the bullet had pierced her skin. The doctor said an inch to the left and her heart would have stopped. Lee had spared no expense. He had the scar on her chest all but erased with plastic surgery. Still she felt it, touched it, and remembered how close she’d come to dying.

  Michelle dressed. She put on the jeans and sweater she’d worn earlier in the day. Finally unable to stand the confines of her room, she slipped out of bed, Evita and Lupe following her to the kitchen. The animals did comfort her. When she’d arrived home, both dogs found her. They stayed near her side. Evita had gone as far as to climb on top of the covers and lie with her when she tried for sleep. Michelle looked down at the beasts to her left and right. Their black coats made their movements sleek and graceful. The diamonds on their collars sparkled. “You girls took care of him when I was gone? Didn’t you?”

  Lupe raised her head and swiped her tongue over her razor-sharp canines. Michelle gave a wan smile. “Of course you did.”

  Hunger drove her. The darkness was enough to ease her into the shadows. They walked at her side silently, panting. Protecting her.

  A jar of mayonnaise, loaf of bread, ham, and provolone were all fetched from the fridge. She found pickles. She’d missed pickles so much. These past weeks, she couldn’t bring herself to ask Lee for them. She stood in the open refrigerator door and twisted the jar lid off to pluck a dill. She sucked the bitter treat with her lips puckered around it as it slid up and down her tongue. The vinegary ripeness exploded over taste buds and dried out her mouth. She bit into its watery juiciness, causing it to drip down her chin. Heaven. She chewed it to nothing and licked the remaining piece before drawing it in between her lips.

  “To be that pickle,” Lee sai
d.

  Michelle nearly dropped the jar. The dill juice splattered. Lee stepped out of the shadows into the single light that hovered above the kitchen island. She closed the fridge and set the jar down, wiped at her chin with the back of her hand. He didn’t speak. She turned and peeled off paper towels from the roll to wipe up the spill. When she rose, she sensed he’d come closer before her gaze lifted and confirmed it.

  “You didn’t join us for dinner.” He looked over at the food. “You must be hungry.”

  She couldn’t resist another glance up into his eyes. His hands, strong, long-fingered, went to the knife and picked it up. Michelle’s gaze never left his face as he began to fix her a sandwich.

  She stepped aside when he went to the fridge and got a bright red tomato, to slice thinly and place with care on the mayo spread over the bread. Something he knew she liked. Funny. She never considered how he knew the things she liked. When she was sixteen and crushing hard on him, he’d make her sandwiches. Every time he’d take her request, she’d remind him not to forget the tomato. He never forgot.

  Michelle sat on the stool. The finished product eased in front of her, on a plate. She picked up the sandwich and ate in silence, feeling his eyes on her, warming her in her seat. Michelle knew what he desired. She chewed and tried to decide how she’d prefer the night to end.

  First came his touch, in the form of his hand at the small of her back. It rested there lightly, reminding her of him. She ignored it. With iron will, she rejected her need to succumb to the warmth radiating from the center of his palm. But she tolerated his touch out of habit. Michelle swallowed and took another bite of her sandwich.

  She licked the mayo from her lips. She savored the sweetness of the tomato and ham. This sandwich was the best one she’d had in ages. She took another bite, letting her tongue separate the flavors. The mustard and the sharp taste of provolone lingered on her palate, just like Lee’s touch. Bite after bite she chewed and swallowed. The void in the hollow of her stomach filled. A satisfied groan escaped her. She realized the sound had surfaced because of the light way Lee had begun to caress her.