The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

of the conditions for my participation. You nodded and said, ‘Mum’s the word.’ Do you remember that? Well, mum apparently left the building and got run over by a truck.”

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Budge said, showing his hands. “I got a little enthusiastic.”

“A little enthusiastic? You outed me to every major news network in the metropolitan area. And what was that little stage production just now?”

“I was trying to take the pressure off you.”

“By making me a Broadway extra?”

Budge set his forearms on the desk. “Look, I should’ve warned you I was bringing in the news crews yesterday. And, yeah, things got a little dicey there with the ghouls getting out and all—but listen to me. Capturing that final battle on film? You can’t pay for coverage like that. And it’s exactly what New Yorkers need to see—that there are monsters out there, and we’re fighting ’em. Did you catch today’s poll numbers? I jumped four points overnight. Four points! The race is a dead heat.” He laughed in disbelief.

“Good, so you don’t need me anymore.”

“Don’t need you?” His mouth straightened. “You’re the face of this thing.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You heard the press out there—they love you.”

“Right, and that’s the whole point,” I said. “I don’t want the attention.”

“What about our deal?”

He was referring to the protection from Penny, should she awaken. But as I looked on Budge’s wavering brown eyes, I knew I’d been kidding myself. The man didn’t wield that kind of power. Penny would have her retribution whether I helped the mayor win or not.

“I’ll take my chances,” I said.

“Well, gosh.” Budge sat back. “I’d hate to think what would happen if the press decided you weren’t working in the public’s best interest, that you were dangerous.”

Heat prickled over my face. “Is that a threat?”

“Hey, I just know reporters. They’re a bunch of jackals. You stop giving them what they want, and pretty soon they start digging for the bad stuff. Past arrests. Shady associations…”

The son of a bitch was threatening me. He was saying that if I didn’t remain on board, he would make sure the press knew about my indiscretions, including my arrest for murder two years earlier. And as went the press, so would go public opinion. Fear and anger stormed inside me.

“Well, maybe they’ll learn some interesting things about the mayor’s office, too,” I said through gritted teeth. “Such as Penny’s true nature.”

Budge shrugged. “It’ll be your word against ours. And my wife can’t very well speak for herself.” He nodded past me. I turned my head and observed a back wall heaped with floral baskets and bouquets. “Those arrived today. All for Penny. The volume’s down from the spring, but we still can’t get them to the Dumpster fast enough. That Caroline is brilliant. Too bad you let her slip away.”

“Caroline?” I said in confusion. “What does she have to do with this?”

“You didn’t know?” he said, sweeping hair from his glasses. “She’s been advising me.”

“Advising you?”

“Yeah, ever since Penny’s hospitalization.”

That explained what she’d been doing at City Hall, what she had meant by You came. I knew she had been negotiating with the mayor for the fae’s access to the portal in lower Manhattan, but advising him? I looked back at the pile of flowers and weighed the mayor’s remark.

“Wait,” I said, “the sympathy campaign was her idea?”

“And it’s worked like a charm,” Budge said. “She came up with the eradication program, too.”

“The eradication program?” I stood and paced a circle around the chairs in front of his desk. The revelations were coming in too hard, too fast. By my second circuit, I started molding them into something sensible. The fae kingdoms Caroline served were anxious to maintain control over the lower portal. If Budge’s opponent in the mayoral race, Abby Azonka, couldn’t or wouldn’t cotton to the idea, the fae had to ensure Budge’s reelection. Whoever advised him would need an expertise in New York politics as well as a strong connection to the mayor’s office—Caroline offered both, the second through her father, one of the mayor’s attorneys.

In essence, she was the reason the information Vega and I once wielded over the mayor’s office was no longer effective. “Was hiring me as a consultant also Caroline’s idea?” I asked bitterly.

“She was against it, actually,” Budge said. “Didn’t say why, though.”

I gave a begrudging nod, remembering her warnings, including her most recent one about seeing a lot more than I could. I assumed she’d been referring to her fae powers, but now I wondered. As advisor to the mayor, had she already worked out the contingencies? Seen a looming threat?

“So why did you come looking for me?” I asked.

“I went to that detective first. What’s her name?” He circled a hand. “The one who was with you when you visited my mansion in the spring?”

“Vega?”

He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “Yeah, that’s the one. Anyway, I was told Vega took on supernatural cases in Homicide. She was the one who insisted you be brought in.”

I stopped pacing. Why in the hell would Vega want me involved in the eradication program? I remembered the dismissive way she’d dealt with me at the crime scene, the bitter look she’d given me in the auditorium.

“Did she say why?” I asked.

“Well, she said she’d help out however she could, but for the scale of the operations we were talking, we really needed someone of your caliber. You know, a magic-user who understood the threats, knew the monsters’ weaknesses, how best to go after them, so on and so forth.”

So Vega was the one who had told the mayor about my work.

“But to tell you the truth,” he continued, “I think she just wanted to make sure you got the same deal.”

“What deal?”

“Extra protection in the event someone woke up.” He laced his fingers behind his neck and grinned, evidently pleased at how the conversation had come full circle. “Funny how you asked the same for Vega.”

I sat down again, my head starting to throb.

“Look at