The gang members exchanged looks before putting their guns away.
James fished out a few large bills as a donation to the local gang and handed them over.
The gang member shrugged. “Actually, one of our guys mentioned seeing him just a couple hours ago.” He pointed up the street. “We’re staying clear of that fucker. I don’t mess with magic shit.”
“I do. Where was he seen?”
“Go four blocks north and one block west. That’s where he saw him, coming out of an alley near a bar there.”
“You sure it was him?”
“Nope, but it was some weird-looking fucker we haven’t seen around.”
“Thanks,” James rumbled.
The bounty hunter made his way back to his truck. He wasn’t going to risk these assholes deciding to test their bravery by stealing his ride. He didn’t have time to teach the Las Vegas underworld a lesson.
The F-350 roared away from the dope smokers and down the street as James followed the gang member’s directions. He finally spotted the alley near the bar and parked the truck.
A metallic scent assaulted his nose before he’d even stepped into the alley. He’d spilled enough blood to recognize the scent immediately.
James whipped out his .45 and crept into the alley. Blood heavily splattered the walls on either side for several yards, where the headless corpse of a large man lay on its back. The poor asshole’s arms and legs had been cut off and strewn across the alley.
“Yeah, this looks like my guy,” he muttered.
After taking a few more steps into the alley, James spotted the head. The dead man’s face was fixed in wide-eyed surprise. Even mangled, he recognized the man’s face from a few bounty hunting articles.
It was Lance Johnasen, a class-four bounty hunter based out of Vegas.
James grunted. The man’s death proved that Red Eyes was tough enough to take out more than surprised parents. That meant it was only a matter of time before everyone in Vegas was in danger.
He whipped out his phone. Detectives West and Lafayette needed to know about the latest kill.
“Sorry, pal. I’ll get him for both of us.”
After chatting with the police James continued to search the nearby area, hoping that Red Eyes was sticking around to admire his handiwork and he might get lucky. A frustrating hour into his search his phone rang with a call from Shay.
“Hey, Shay,” he answered.
She yawned on the other end. “What group?”
“Huh?”
“What large group of criminals are you going after? I’ve seen a few alerts about you going after some bounties in Vegas, but I’m guessing there’s more to it than that. You shouldn’t be cleaning out those kinds of people without my help.”
“Nah, it’s nothing like that. It’s just one bounty, a level four. He’s a twisted fuck, but I’m not that worried, even without my amulet.”
“Seriously? There aren’t a dozen? Or a hundred?”
James grunted. “Just one.”
“Well, good, then I don’t have to run back from Asia. My first location didn’t really work out, so I’m having to check out a new place. Probably be gone another week. I was kind of worried about you being bored, but it looks like you found a way to entertain yourself. Wait, why were you in Las Vegas to begin with?”
James chuckled. “I’m just in Vegas chasing down a bounty and eating barbeque.”
“Jessie Rae’s. Of course. Just make sure you brush your teeth a lot when you get home. I don’t like the taste of barbeque sauce when I kiss you. I know, I’ll just make you brush your teeth every time you want to kiss me. That’ll do it.” She laughed and smacked her lips in a pale imitation to a kiss. “Talk to you later. Don’t die.”
“I’ll try not to, but no promises.”
“Such a sweet-talker.” Shay ended the call.
James stared at his phone for a moment, wondering if Shay was joking about the teeth brushing or not.
“If that shit’s true, it’s going to be a pain the ass.”
Tessa chuckled to herself as she strolled through the farmers’ market booths. Vegetables, fruit, and handicrafts—all so banal and peaceful.
She was glad she’d decided to catch up on the news. If she hadn’t, she would have never known that James Brownstone was in Las Vegas. For all his strength and skills the man couldn’t teleport, which meant he was hours away from his home city. And, he was already on the trail of another killer.
This meant she had a rare opportunity to have some fun and prove she was alive in Los Angeles, and it’d been far too long since Tessa had done that.
People streamed back and forth murmuring to each other, laughing, and carrying items in a variety of bags. No, not people, ghosts, she reminded herself.
You’re not alive. That’s why you’re here, trying to find something to remind your souls of what it means to live.
Tessa pulled her emerald-tipped wand from her purse and smiled.
A few people nearby eyed her, but there was no fear in their eyes.
She didn’t care. The fear of ghosts pretending to be people was irrelevant. The only thing important was that she proved her strength and her existence.
The witch made several precise movements with her wand and started chanting in Sumerian. Even though she didn’t care about fear, she enjoyed the looks of confusion on the faces of people nearby. Several stopped to watch her.
If they started running, they might have some small chance of surviving. Their lingering curiosity would be their doom.
They’re already dead, and they just won’t accept it. I’ll prove to them what they are.
Two pulsating glyphs appeared in the air. People nearby actually started clapping. Tessa laughed.
The rays of light forming the glyphs swirled and twisted around each other and cheering joined the clapping.
“Enjoy the show!” the witch yelled. “Hope you like the Rabisu!”
The roar of the crowd intensified as the light lingered and began to form the outline of huge bodies. The light faded and revealed two giants covered with green scales. Their long arms were covered with sharp black protrusions, and they stared at the crowd with green and yellow vertical pupils.
The cheers stopped instantly. Confused murmurs replaced them.
The first Rabisu raised its palm and shot a flickering ball of emerald light into a nearby man. He screamed as green fire surrounded him and dropped to the ground, already dead, terror still etched on his scorched face. The smell of his burnt flesh filled the air.
Screams and panic consumed the crowd as everyone bolted. Both Rabisu continued to pitch orbs into the crowd, striking victims indiscriminately.
A brave but foolish man charged Tessa, pulling out a Glock and aiming at her.
“Stop them right now!” he yelled.
Tessa could have had the Rabisu kill the man, but his defiance heightened her sense of life.
“If you want them to stop you need to kill me,” the witch explained with a smile. “Prove to me that you’re more than a ghost.”
The horrible buzzing of the Rabisu’s energy blasts filled the air, and smoke poured into the sky from burning stalls.
“Fuck you, witch.” The man pulled the trigger.
Tessa jerked backward and laughed, and the pain faded after a second. Green ichor spilled from one of the Rabisu in the identical place she’d been shot, but its wound started to close immediately.
“Try again,” the witch suggested. “You’re still a ghost.”
The man kept firing until a Rabisu blasted him and he collapsed to the ground, dead.
Tessa patted her dress to ensure that the redirection spell had worked. A little wound was annoying enough, but she liked her dress.
Sirens cut through the air.
“Let’s see what the police have to offer me.”
The witch tapped her wand against her palm as she waited. By this point, everyone else had fled the area or died. A dozen bodies littered the g
round as the smoke continued to darken the sky.
She took a deep breath.
“I’m alive.” She surveyed the carnage. “I’ve not killed anyone. I just put down some ghosts who didn’t even know they were dead.”
The sirens grew closer, and two police cars screeched to a halt.
The Rabisu blasted the first car right after the cops jumped out and the explosions knocked them to the ground. The other cops leapt to the side before the summoned creatures could annihilate their vehicle.
More sirens closed.
Tessa sighed and jogged away from the Rabisu. The tether binding them to this world would dissolve once she was far enough away, but they’d still linger long enough to keep the police’s attention on them.
“I am alive,” Tessa repeated. “I’ve proven it, and I’ve made the world a better place by purging ghosts.”
17
Trey sat at the table in the Aria suite, checking his messages. A banking alert popped up. The police had finished processing the bounty, and the money had been deposited into his account. He grinned, wondering what it’d be like if bounty hunters had to carry big briefcases of cash out of the police department instead.
“Nothing like a good payday. Took these guys a little longer than normal, but I’m not complaining. There’s even a little bonus in here I wasn’t expecting. Very nice.”
His aunt smiled at him from across the table. “That’s great, Trey. I’m so proud of you.”
“You saved my ass, so I’m gonna give you half.”
She shook her head. “You’re doing no such thing.”
Trey chuckled. “Ain’t used to people refusing money when offered. You earned it. If you hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened? Nana would need money for my funeral.”
“Your nana didn’t teach me to take money from family when they’ve done helped me like you have. You’re already helping me so much.”
“Auntie Charlyce, why you being like this? I want to give you the money. Not saying it’s nothing, but it’s not like it’s my last dime or something, either.”
“I’m not trying to make you mad. Look, if you can get me a job with Mr. Brownstone as an administrative assistant, that’s fine. I’ll work for my living, but you came here, and you saved me. You could have heard what I had to say and still just left me on the streets. You didn’t have to offer me a place to live.” She motioned around the massive suite. “Or book us a place like this. I owe you so much already, but I’m your aunt. I should be saving you. It’s my job to save you, not yours to save me.” She punctuated her sentence with a slap to the table. “I’m not taking any of that bounty money.”
Trey frowned. “You’re sure?”
It didn’t sit right with him to not reward his aunt for saving his ass, but at the same time, he understood pride. He really didn’t want to harm her after she’d just started to claw it back from the darkness of her street life.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Even if you kicked me out right now, if your Mr. Brownstone can help that little angel I can die happy, knowing I did my small part to make the world a better place.”
Trey snorted. “There ain’t gonna be any dying going on, except for that red-eyed sonofabitch.” He blew out a breath. “Enough of that for now, though. You hungry?”
“I’m okay. I can go a long time without eating.”
“You’re not doing that anymore.” He pulled out his phone and dialed James. “Should check in with the big man anyway.”
“Hey, Trey,” James rumbled a moment later.
Trey smiled. Even the man’s voice was badass. It was like something you’d expect from a giant statue who’d learned how to talk.
“Hey, big man. You take that bitch out yet?”
“Nope. I’ve narrowed down the area, but I think I’m stuck for now. I barely missed him, and I don’t know if I’m gonna find much tonight.”
“You’ll get him, James. You always do. Hey, you should sit down for some dinner with my Auntie Charlyce and me. Hell, maybe she’s good luck. She already helped me bag a bounty.”
“Really? Sure, why not? I’m hungry.”
“How about seafood?”
“Seafood?” James sounded surprised.
“She loves it.” Trey shot a glance at Aunt Charlyce, and she smiled back at him.
The big man grew quiet for a few seconds. Trey snickered, guessing James was disappointed they weren’t going for barbeque.
“Sure thing, Trey.”
“Okay, I’ll figure out a place and text you the address.”
About forty-five minutes later, the trio all sat around a table at a decent but not too upscale place. Trey didn’t want either his aunt or James feeling out of place.
The junior bounty hunter might have grown up poor, but he’d yet to encounter a place where he felt uncomfortable. He believed in himself, and he didn’t give two shits what stuck-up people thought about him. That confidence made it easy for him to adapt to new situations, and confidence earned respect.
James swallowed a forkful of fish. “At least this place doesn’t have a billion different types of forks. A fork is a fu—” He glanced at Aunt Charlyce. “A fork is a fork.”
The woman laughed. “I’ve been living on the streets for seven years. There ain’t nothing you can say that will offend me, Mr. Brownstone.”
James shrugged. “If you say so.”
“Trey told me you said you were close to finding the killer?”
He grunted. “Yeah, but not close enough. He killed someone else, this time a bounty hunter. I’ve tracked him to the Rancho Charleston area, but haven’t been able to find anything else yet. Police are sweeping the area with drones, but they haven’t come up with anything either. For all we know, the guy’s invisible to drones. That’s the problem with magical assholes.”
Aunt Charlyce sighed and shook her head. “That monster needs to pay.”
James grunted. “Don’t worry. I met the daughter of the first victim and promised I’d get this guy.”
“You met my little angel? Bless you, Mr. Brownstone.” The woman nodded, a look of renewed determination on her face. “I’ll reach out to the homeless in that area. No one realizes how much we homeless see. We mind our business and we don’t like going to the cops, but that don’t mean we don’t see.”
“You ain’t homeless anymore,” Trey clarified. “You need to remember that.”
She reached over to pat his hand. “I still have contacts, though. Point is, homeless don’t like to be noticed, and a lot of people want to ignore them. To a lot of people, homeless are background noise.”
James nodded. “I understand. The whole reason I try to spread my rep isn’t to be noticed, but to make my job easier.” He shrugged. “I like shit simple, and if anything, all this attention makes things harder.”
Trey grinned. “Your rep makes my job easier, big man. You’d be surprised how many times I bust some punk’s door down and say I’m with the Brownstone Agency, and they give up without fighting.” He took a sip of water before continuing, “Even when I was still running the gang, that was half the point of my rep. I didn’t want trouble. If people knew the gang was strong, they wouldn’t come after us. Don’t matter how badass you are, some bitch can always get in a lucky hit.”
“True enough.”
Aunt Charlyce sighed and looked down. “I know about having a bad reputation. I have a past as a junkie, a reputation that’s gonna make it hard for me to get a job for a long time. I wonder if I’ll be able to live it down.”
James pulled out his phone and frowned down at it. He nodded at Trey. “Hey, I need to chat with you in private for a second.”
Trey nodded and glanced at his aunt. The pained look on her face stabbed at his heart. “We’ll be right back, Auntie.”
“Take your time, Trey.”
The two bounty hunters made their way outside.
“What’s up?” Trey inquired. “You get a hit on Red Eyes?”
“Nah, I was jus
t pretending I got a message to get you out here.”
“Huh?” Trey stared at James. This sort of thing was rare for the straightforward bounty hunter.
“Nah. This is more about management.”
“I’m not following you.”
James nodded toward the restaurant. “Your aunt. You sent me a text about her being an administrative assistant. I hadn’t responded.”
Trey nodded. “Yeah. I figured you would when you got the time. I know you’re busy.”
“I’ve been thinking about it and weighing the pros and cons and shit like that.”
“I know you got the HR company doing a lot of that shit, but she could help with typing and even organizing some of the boys. I can’t have everybody and their cousin texting and calling me all the time. I need a filter.”
“I can see that.” James nodded slowly, his face hardening. “But that’s not the problem.”
Trey’s jaw tensed. “What’s the problem?”
James stared straight into the other man’s eyes with an intensity that made Trey want to turn away. “Don’t bullshit me. Straight up, can she work?”
Trey took a deep breath as he thought about the question. He wanted to help Aunt Charlyce, but the last thing he would ever want to do was lie to the man in front of him.
The junior bounty hunter cleared his throat. “She was a junkie for seven years. She’s only been clean about a month.”
James grunted. “That’s not a long time to be clean.”
“Yeah, but she’s also been with me. I’m not seeing any twitching or any other shit that tells me she wants to shoot up, so that should count for something.”
“That’s a good sign, but why the change?”
Trey shrugged. “Lots of reasons, I’m guessing, but from what she said some of it is like you. She found religion.”
James chuckled. “I didn’t find religion, religion found me. But yeah, I can see how being a little God-fearing could put you on a new path.” He furrowed his brow. “I also have to consider some other shit.”
When Angels Cry: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone Book 6) Page 13