Free Bound by Flame by Anna Windsor Page A

push her.
    Well, if she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—he would. “How about the man’s name?”
    Delilah looked at Cynda and sighed. “Men. Always assumin’ they’re in power, yes?”
    Cynda smiled, but her green eyes gave a wicked flash as she glanced at Nick and said, “Absolutely.”
    Delilah glared at Nick. “It’s no man, ya whiskey-dick. It takes a woman to get this devious. This…evil.” She crossed herself twice this time.
    Nick cleared his throat. “Give me her name?”
    Delilah’s eyes grew hard and flinty. Like Cynda right before a fire explosion. Nick half expected the couch beneath him to start crackling and smoking.
    “And if I hang myself out to dry for you, cop…” She pointed a crooked finger right at Nick’s nose. “Will you be mindin’ what I said and takin’ your lady out of this city?”
    Nick stole a glance at Cynda, who nodded imperceptibly. She was sitting so still, so careful and regal, she could have passed for royalty.
    “Yes,” he said, wondering if he was lying, and why it mattered.
    “You’re lyin’ to an old woman, but I’ll tell ya anyway. I got part of the name. Initials, mostly.” Delilah gestured to Nick’s pad. “Write this down. J. C. Downy. That’s who signed Max’s checks, like it’s all up-and-up and legitimate, though God knows, it’s not.” She rolled her eyes. “Good sums. Trying to make him dress nicer, too, and stay off the weed and drink some.” She shrugged. “It may work a while, but if you go puttin’ silk on a goat, it’s still a goat. He’ll be back to his old ways in no time.”
    “Thank you,” Cynda said before Nick could respond. “What can I give you in return for taking this risk with your life and Max’s on my behalf?”
    “Wait a minute,” Nick began, but Cynda cut him off with a glare that would have melted Queen Elizabeth’s ass to her throne.
    “Two things,” Delilah said, clearly ignoring Nick, and clearly expecting and waiting for the offer Cynda made. “The first is my boy, Max. He’s a whiskey-dick like this’un here, for sure. This cop won’t be takin’ you away, and you’ll pay for that, mark my words. But Max’s my blood. The boy’s all I’ve got. If ever he comes into your sight, don’t kill him unless you’ve no other choice—and make sure whatever’s left of him gets back to me for fixin’.”
    Nick sat, disbelieving, as Cynda agreed. “I give you my word I’ll do whatever I can.”
    Delilah’s smile looked both shy and frightened. “And the second—that word of yours. Will you seal it in the old way?”
    Cynda’s eyebrows came together, but just as quickly, she relaxed.
    Before Nick could tell her not to or ask what that was supposed to mean, Cynda offered Delilah her hand.
    Delilah looked at Cynda’s palm and waited.
    Little flames broke out on Cynda’s skin, small, tightly controlled.
    A sound of wonderment escaped Delilah. “Knew I was right. Yes, I did.”
    Quickly, she took hold of Cynda’s hand, and the two of them pressed out the flames with the force of their grips.
    Nick knew Cynda had managed the fire so the old woman wouldn’t receive any serious burns, but he still didn’t have a clue why the handshake was happening.
    Delilah Moses stared at the soft red streaks on her hand like she had just been touched by an angel. She let out a long, satisfied sigh and said, “Max has been keepin’ himself at East River Park, or up in Central Park—and sometimes over in Washington Heights. I don’t think he’s about today, though. I think he’s gone to see her. The high-and-mighty Missus Downy. One of her places is somewhere north. The Bronx, maybe up by the Sound. I don’t know the rest of ’em.”
    Nick scribbled that down. Surprise on top of surprise. The last time he’d had a chat with Delilah, the old woman had almost shot him in the foot to protect Max. Yet she just handed Cynda information for a bargain and a flaming handshake.
    Delilah saw them to the door of her