Read Online Black On Black (Quentin Black Mystery #3) by JC Andrijeski - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: JC Andrijeski
Ads: Link
Black.
Whatever the truth of Ian, I had no doubt Black believed his own theory around broken seer “bro-codes.” The fact that Black saw it as personal only made him more cautious, not less, however, which is all I cared about.
I watched the rifle’s scope as he panned it over the floor of the darkened church. He scanned every visible inch of the cathedral through the telescopic lens. It only hit me then, why this rifle looked so different from the ones I’d seen Black using over the past however-many weeks.
He was holding a tranquilizer gun.
He was here for a live capture. Not a kill.
That had to be Lucky’s doing, too.
Whatever my feelings for Black, I had no illusions about how he’d deal with Ian, given the choice. If Black was trying to bring Ian in alive, it was because he was under orders to do it.
Truthfully, given what Ian had done and the unlikelihood of the police ever catching him, given what he was, I was more in sympathy with Black’s preferences than Lucky’s. I also knew Lucky couldn’t be trusted to have good motives for wanting Ian alive.
Anyway, I knew it wasn’t about revenge for Black.
Fear wasn’t his primary motivation either, although that played a part.
At the end of the day, Black was risk adverse. More than that, he had strong feelings about people who posed a risk to anyone who fell under his personal rubric of “family.” He would kill Ian simply to warn others away from what was his. He would do it because in his mind, taking the long view, it was the safest course of action for himself.
At the end of the day, Black saw me as his.
The idea stunned me a little.
It also turned me on, although I wasn’t sure it should.
You could ask me about the tranquilizer gun, Miriam... the voice whispers. It is faint, soft. Maybe so Black won’t hear us. Ask me what I think?
I sighed. Sometimes the presence felt like more of a child than an adult.
What’s significant about the gun? I thought back.
More games. More wasted time. He’ll never catch your ex-lover like this. Lucky knows. Lucky knows he won’t, Miri... he doesn’t want him caught. He wants him alive.
I gritted my teeth at the voice’s insistence on calling Ian my “ex-lover.”
What would you call him? the voice sent, curious.
A psychopath, I thought back.
I held my breath as the word got pulled apart and away by the wind. My mind coiled protectively around Black where he crouched in the dark, the stock of a tranquilizer rifle jammed up against his shoulder.
The voice watched us together.
Strangely, I felt it approve.
He’s yours too, Miriam, he sent softly, as if hearing me. But you have to take him back. They’ll never let him go willingly. It’s not a test Lucky wants... it’s control. He wants a good little doggy and Black won’t be that. He can pretend. He can play make-believe and let’s pretend... but in the end, Black’ll only get himself killed...
The voice drifted, falling into that melancholy it sometimes wore.
All of us can make sacrifices, Miriam. Black, too. But in the end, we can only be who we are. We can only be who we are in the end, Miriam...
I knew the voice was right.
I knew he was right about Black, too.
I OPENED MY eyes, staring up at a shadow-patterned ceiling.
I was in his bed, under his sheets... in his room.
I wondered if I’d come here for that reason.
To try and strengthen that connection again.
I was losing him. It hadn’t happened yet, but I could feel it coming, just like the voice told me it was coming. I saw it in my mind, like a light flickering at the horizon, drawing closer whenever I looked away. They wanted to take him from me.
I didn’t know why they wanted to separate us, but I could feel that tangibly too.
In the outside world, the differences remained invisible.
In the outside world, he was still Black. I still talked to him almost every day. There was nothing I could feel on him that was different, nothing I could notice at all
Whatever the truth of Ian, I had no doubt Black believed his own theory around broken seer “bro-codes.” The fact that Black saw it as personal only made him more cautious, not less, however, which is all I cared about.
I watched the rifle’s scope as he panned it over the floor of the darkened church. He scanned every visible inch of the cathedral through the telescopic lens. It only hit me then, why this rifle looked so different from the ones I’d seen Black using over the past however-many weeks.
He was holding a tranquilizer gun.
He was here for a live capture. Not a kill.
That had to be Lucky’s doing, too.
Whatever my feelings for Black, I had no illusions about how he’d deal with Ian, given the choice. If Black was trying to bring Ian in alive, it was because he was under orders to do it.
Truthfully, given what Ian had done and the unlikelihood of the police ever catching him, given what he was, I was more in sympathy with Black’s preferences than Lucky’s. I also knew Lucky couldn’t be trusted to have good motives for wanting Ian alive.
Anyway, I knew it wasn’t about revenge for Black.
Fear wasn’t his primary motivation either, although that played a part.
At the end of the day, Black was risk adverse. More than that, he had strong feelings about people who posed a risk to anyone who fell under his personal rubric of “family.” He would kill Ian simply to warn others away from what was his. He would do it because in his mind, taking the long view, it was the safest course of action for himself.
At the end of the day, Black saw me as his.
The idea stunned me a little.
It also turned me on, although I wasn’t sure it should.
You could ask me about the tranquilizer gun, Miriam... the voice whispers. It is faint, soft. Maybe so Black won’t hear us. Ask me what I think?
I sighed. Sometimes the presence felt like more of a child than an adult.
What’s significant about the gun? I thought back.
More games. More wasted time. He’ll never catch your ex-lover like this. Lucky knows. Lucky knows he won’t, Miri... he doesn’t want him caught. He wants him alive.
I gritted my teeth at the voice’s insistence on calling Ian my “ex-lover.”
What would you call him? the voice sent, curious.
A psychopath, I thought back.
I held my breath as the word got pulled apart and away by the wind. My mind coiled protectively around Black where he crouched in the dark, the stock of a tranquilizer rifle jammed up against his shoulder.
The voice watched us together.
Strangely, I felt it approve.
He’s yours too, Miriam, he sent softly, as if hearing me. But you have to take him back. They’ll never let him go willingly. It’s not a test Lucky wants... it’s control. He wants a good little doggy and Black won’t be that. He can pretend. He can play make-believe and let’s pretend... but in the end, Black’ll only get himself killed...
The voice drifted, falling into that melancholy it sometimes wore.
All of us can make sacrifices, Miriam. Black, too. But in the end, we can only be who we are. We can only be who we are in the end, Miriam...
I knew the voice was right.
I knew he was right about Black, too.
I OPENED MY eyes, staring up at a shadow-patterned ceiling.
I was in his bed, under his sheets... in his room.
I wondered if I’d come here for that reason.
To try and strengthen that connection again.
I was losing him. It hadn’t happened yet, but I could feel it coming, just like the voice told me it was coming. I saw it in my mind, like a light flickering at the horizon, drawing closer whenever I looked away. They wanted to take him from me.
I didn’t know why they wanted to separate us, but I could feel that tangibly too.
In the outside world, the differences remained invisible.
In the outside world, he was still Black. I still talked to him almost every day. There was nothing I could feel on him that was different, nothing I could notice at all
Similar Books
