Free jinn 02 - inferno by Liz Schulte Page A

angel keeps her blocked. We can’t count on being able to talk to her—especially confidentially.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose. There had to be someone. Anyone.
    “Quintus,” Baker said.
    I opened my eyes. “He looks like he’s going to piss himself every time he’s in the same room as her. I don’t think he’s the man for the job.”
    Baker nodded. “Ab-so-lute-ly he is. He’s a bit of a bird, sure, but the angel also underestimates him. If anyone can pry around into what she’s doing, without her catching on, I think it’s him. He wants to help.”
    “We must be fucking desperate if I’m considering this.” Fucking Quintus.
    A smiled popped onto Baker’s face, replacing the worried pinch. “How’s Phoenix?”
    “How the hell should I know?” I frowned at the change of subject. “Last I saw he was lying on the ground passed out with fifty other jinn. What does that matter? Who cares about—”
    The warehouse door opened and the angel appeared. “What are you doing out here?”
    “Just takin’ out the trash, angel. You need something?”
    Her eyes narrowed.
    Baker had known she was coming. I raised an eyebrow at her and folded my arms over my chest in my own small challenge. She’d went out of her way to fix the couch. Some part of her plan required that I stayed here. It was time we started using that to our advantage.
    Her mouth pursed, but she closed the door. The angel wasn’t stupid. She was definitely suspicious.
    Baker’s large, masking smile was gone, but the edges of his mouth were still curled up. “She can’t see out here.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She stands in her little room staring at maps. I think she’s observing the location from afar.”
    “She can do that?”
    He shrugged. “How else would angels be able to monitor such a large area? They’re the ones who direct the guardians, right?”
    “Why can’t she see out here? And how did you know she was coming?”
    “Well, Femi and I had enough of her nosy neighbor syndrome, so we painted over the ends of her binoculars before we spoke with you at the bar.”
    “What binoculars?”
    “Keep up, boss. Her angel mojo. We did some rune work to prevent anyone from seeing into our little haven, but it just so happens that it prevents her from seeing out too.” He puffed out his barrel-like chest. “Honest mistake.”
    “She’s going to catch on to all of this, Baker.”
    “Then we better get Olivia back quick before she blows a fuse.”
    A great plan—except we still didn’t have any ideas on how to pull it off. “And how did you know she was coming to check on us?”
    “Call it survival instinct.” He winked and headed back into the warehouse.
    I struck out in the opposite direction toward the nearest church. It was almost sunrise. Picking the lock on the door would have been easy enough in the darkness before dawn, but now I wasn’t sure how long it would be before people started showing up. I leaned against the building and thought Quintus’s name. Not really a prayer, because that wasn’t going to happen. He really needed to invest in a better way to get in touch with him.
    “How’s Olivia?”
    I looked up, shielding my eyes from his yellow sun-like glow. Olivia’s white glow never seemed harsh or painful, but Quintus’s burned if stared at too long. “Angelic,” I answered dryly.
    Quintus nodded with a frown. “You have considered that she might not come back?”
    “No.” I stared at him until he nodded again. “But we need your help to make that happen.” The words tasted bitter in my mouth. It was easier to be around Quintus now than it had been before—and occasionally he wasn’t a complete tool—but asking him for help was painful to say the least.
    “Anything. I want to see Olivia come back too.”
    “The angel is plotting something. She wants to free the jinn a little too much. We think she might have taken something from the last group of demons she vanquished, and she seems to