Trey snorted. “Average man. What about Mr. Brownstone?”
The staff sergeant shrugged. “It’ll slow him down at least. At least with these vests, you stand a chance. Hey, don’t worry too much. David did beat Goliath.”
Half the men laughed. The other half groaned.
Royce headed over to the boxes. “Let’s get this crap on so we can see what you’re all made of.”
Everyone marched over to the boxes to grab a harness.
Royce fished out a smaller one and handed it to Shay. “These might be smaller, but this shit hurts. James made it very clear that I’m not supposed to hold back for either you or the girl.”
Shay snorted. “Trust me, I’ve had a lot worse. I might even let them have a free touch just to see what it feels like.”
“Your funeral.”
She scratched her cheek. “You know what? I might as well try it out now to see what it feels like.”
“Wait, are you ser—"
The tomb raider slapped her hand on the three panels in rapid succession. They were spread out with two on the front, one on the left, one on the right, and the final panel in the back. It was obvious that the participants would need teamwork in most situations to activate the vest of anyone trying to seriously dodge, or they would have to hope for simple arrogance on the part of their target.
The tomb raider gritted her teeth and shook as the vest discharged, pain shooting through her body and out to her limbs. She collapsed to her hands and knees, her breathing ragged and her body twitching for a few more seconds.
Shay took several deep breaths, her muscles still aching from the discharge. Royce’s harnesses definitely weren’t for casual games on the weekend.
A chorus of impressed gasps and yells filled the area.
Trey winced. “Oh, damn. You shocked yourself? That’s the most gangster shit I’ve ever seen.”
“Okay. I admit that really, really fucking hurt.” Shay stumbled back up, still swaying a bit. “So you go out of the pit, or you feel that. It’s gonna knock you on your ass for sure.” She cracked her knuckles and blew out a breath. “Oh, Mama is going to have some fun now. Squealing pigs in mud, coming up.”
The gathered men exchanged glances, fear creeping into their faces.
The Marine looked at James as the bounty hunter finished strapping on his large harness, a question in his eyes. He was probably wondering what kind of woman James was dating.
James shrugged. If you only knew the half of it, Royce.
The trainer’s expression softened, and then he nodded to Alison. It was obvious he was still uncomfortable with the idea of the girl being shocked.
“If Alison can do the tactical room, she can do this,” James rumbled.
Royce nodded and offered Alison a harness. She smiled and started strapping it on.
No hesitation. She went from whining about having to exercise to jumping at the chance to do this muddy shit with electronic shocks. She’s a lot tougher than I ever realized.
After a few minutes, both teams were ready and marched to their respective sides of the pit.
James moved his neck back and forth and grunted. “Lot of guys means a lot of targets. This is gonna be easy.”
Shorty raised his hand to flip him off but lowered it at the sight of Alison. “Just means more people to take your butts down, big man. Hate to embarrass you in front of your woman and your kid, but I got to do what I go to do, you know what I’m saying?”
Shay’s gaze flitted from man to man. She had a smirk on her face. Shorty’s smile faded, and he frowned. Several of the men took a step back.
She’s just trying to intimidate you. Don’t be such pussies.
James grunted at the thought and reconsidered his judgment. Considering what he’d seen from Shay in the past, a little fear was probably healthier and safer. Being afraid of Shay meant they could sense when someone was more dangerous than them, a good skill for any bounty hunter to have.
Royce cleared his throat. “If the Brownstone Family doesn’t mind, I suggest we do best two out of three. Sometimes it takes a little while to figure things out.”
James shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
Alison and Shay both nodded their agreement, bloodlust, or mudlust, at least, in their eyes. Alison and Shay took positions on either side of James close to the out-of-bounds line.
The bounty hunter grinned. His girls were instinctively ready to destroy his enemies, and it didn’t bother him in the slightest.
Royce stepped back, raised his arm, and dropped it. “Kick ass, and take no prisoners. Show us who the true Mud Kings are.”
The bounty hunters charged the Brownstone Family with a mighty roar. James rushed forward and slammed into the front line, grabbing two men and tossing them out past the line with ease before bowling several others over.
The desperate men tried to escape the long reach of their powerful boss, but he advanced on them with a hungry gleam in his eyes, plucking them from the mud and throwing them like they weighed nothing.
The men’s attempt to dogpile James as a group ended with a good third of their team moaning or cursing outside the pit.
You guys should have been more careful.
Sensing the failure of the first strategy, several other men, one by one, tried to rush around James and tag his panels, their only hope at this point.
Shay spun as Lachlan and Max tried to tackle her. She grabbed the first man’s arm and continued to turn with him before releasing her hold, and his redirected momentum sent him out of bounds. She ducked and slammed shoulder-first into Max, sending him out of the pit with a grunt.
“Damn,” Max shouted as he hit the ground.
Alison waited, her hands behind her back as Shorty charged right at her.
“Nothing personal, but don’t think I’m gonna show you mercy, little girl. There’s no place for mercy in the pit.”
She shrugged and waited until he was in front of her to leap to the side, splashing mud in her wake. The bounty hunter was two steps out of the pit before he realized what had even happened.
“Oh, man! You’ve got to be kidding me.” Shorty kicked the ground.
A half-dozen other men charged James, hoping to go for his panels, but in their greed, they ignored their flanks. Shay and Alison set upon them like hungry wolves, their quick hands moving from panel to panel. Four of the six let out cries of pain as they collapsed into the mud.
James grinned as he grabbed and flung the men still recovering from their shocks out of the pit. They landed with thuds and groans, some still twitching from the shocks.
Alison squeaked when a stray bounty hunter caught her by surprise. He didn’t go for the panels, but instead picked the slender teen up and tossed her out of the pit.
She landed with a yelp and glared at the man, crossing her arms and frowning. “Avenge me!”
Shay took up the suggestion and shoved the gloating bounty hunter out of the ring when he was still focused on Alison. James cleaned up the rest.
The first round was over in less than eight minutes. The Brownstone Family had suffered one casualty, but the enemy had suffered over twenty.
Royce laughed. “Congratulations, men. You managed to take out one teen girl, and she actually took out or helped out several people before that. That’s officially an ass-kicking.”
The assembled bounty hunters mumbled under their breaths and shook their heads.
The drill instructor crossed his arms. “Spend a few minutes planning for the next round, so you don’t embarrass yourselves again.”
Trey stood up and wiped some mud off his face. “Staff Sergeant’s right. We had no plan. Now let’s go make a plan and show Mr. and Mrs. Brownstone and Kid Brownstone over there what we got goin’ on.”
James and Alison smirked.
Shay rolled her eyes. “Reminder… I’m just the girlfriend.”
Ten minutes of harsh whispering later, both teams were back in the pit. James stood in the vanguard, Shay close
behind and to his side. To the annoyance of Trey and his team, Alison stood way in the back. So much for their careful planning.
Trey leaned over to whisper to Shorty. “It’s like they knew we were gonna flank.”
Shorty shook his head. “It ain’t no thing. We might not be able to take down Daddy Brownstone with a big rush, but we can take Little Brownstone, and then we can surround him and his woman.”
He raised his hand, and Trey gave him a fist bump.
Trey raised a clenched fist into the air. “We’re gonna show the Brownstone Family that we ain’t no bitches.”
Shay snickered.
The disorganized-looking line broke into three tight wedge formations. Trey charged at the front of the first wedge toward James, while the other two wedges rushed to either side of him. Small-group tactics, just like Royce had been trying to instill into them.
Alison laughed and thrust out with her hands. A purple wave of energy shot from her palms and smashed into the mud right in front of one of the flanking wedges. Mud splattered everywhere, blinding several of the men, who stumbled.
The magic itself distracted the other men, with the other side wedge collapsing in a mess as Isaiah slammed into leader Lachlan. Several men tumbled into the mud.
Trey kept his focus, but that was more than he could say for most of the men following him. When he got to James, he slid down and slapped a panel with a yell.
Just need Shorty and Max to…Wait, why the fuck am I the only one here?
Most of the men in his formation were standing several yards away.
You dumb motherfuckers. Pay attention to the target.
Trey ignored them and gritted his teeth.
James stared down at him, a smirk on his face. “Nice plan. Too bad it didn’t work.”
“Screw that. Smirk at this, big man.” The junior bounty hunter nailed all three panels in rapid succession.
James grunted, and his face twitched, but he didn’t go down.
Trey groaned. “Oh, hell no.”
“Maybe if you did that a few times in a row, it might actually hurt.”
“Come on, man.”
His smile now gone, James reached down and yanked Trey up by his collar. The younger bounty hunter flailed in the other man’s grip, but it didn’t do any good. Trey had seen what James could do, and he knew his fate had already been sealed.
Trey let out a sigh, not even surprised once he was flying through the air toward a couple of the other guys standing at the side of the pit. He collided with them, and all three men tumbled out.
Cackling, Shay sprinted toward the collapsed side wedge on the opposite side as the men started standing up. She slapped panels with careful and precise movements. The screams and yells of men crying out in pain joined in an agonized symphony of defeat.
Another magical blast from Alison coated the men in the center with the mud. Three wiped it out of their eyes just in time for James to grab them and toss them like ragdolls out of bounds.
Trey scrubbed a hand over his face, dragging more mud down. “Shit. That was bad.”
Royce marched over to the defeated team leader. “Got any thoughts?”
The bounty hunter stood and shook some mud off his hands. “It’s the fucking Battle of Cannae, Staff Sergeant.”
Royce laughed. “So you do pay attention when I talk.” He shrugged. “I don’t know about that, but right instincts. You don’t lose a battle when you take a few hits. You lose a fight when you lose discipline, and no one sticks to the plan. That’s when the casualties start piling up.”
The First Battle of Camp Brownstone versus the Brownstone Family had taken eight minutes, with one casualty on the Brownstone Family side. The second was a massacre, lasting less than two, with zero casualties among the Brownstone Family.
Trey stood and shook his head. He surveyed his defeated men and laughed. They all eyed him like he’d lost his mind.
“Don’t you get it? There ain’t no shame in this. We work for the baddest-assed family in this whole country.”
The shame drained from the men’s face, and they grinned.
“Brownstone Family,” they all chanted.
James, Alison, and Shay trudged out of the pit, grinning from ear to ear.
14
Tyler stepped into the Greek restaurant, glancing down at his silk vest and dress pants. His standard work outfit seemed fancy enough for brunch at an upscale Greek restaurant, but he was less concerned about what the restaurant staff thought and more about what Maria thought.
When did I start caring so much what a cop thinks about my clothes? Even if it is a hot, smart cop who doesn’t take shit from anyone?
When he’d sent her a message about having found some information she suggested they meet, but rather than dinner, she wanted brunch. Something about being too busy at work to do dinner.
Was that a line? I haven’t heard about any big high-level criminals in town. What the fuck is AET up to? Or is it just paperwork shit? Cops do have to do a lot of paperwork.
The hostess looked up from her podium with a smile. “Just you today, sir?”
Tyler shook his head and pointed inside. “My friend’s already been seated. I can find my way there.”
The woman looked over her shoulder toward the table where Maria sat in uniform. The cop waved.
“Very well, sir.”
Tyler made his way over to Maria’s table, enjoying the scents of anise, sumac, and coriander permeating the air, among other spices. He slid into a seat before taking a deep breath.
Maria nodded at a small tray of kalamata olive bread. “Thanks for meeting me, Tyler.”
He took a bite of bread and swallowed. “So why no dinner? You got a bunch of busy work back at the station?”
“AET’s on high alert, so I have to be at the station tonight.” The cop shrugged.
“I’ve got my ear to the ground, and I haven’t heard anything about anyone the AET should care about.” He frowned, wondering how he could have missed something so obvious. “Why the high alert?”
Maria smirked. “You forgot the original threat. Surprised that you of all people would forget.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Maria leaned in and sighed. “LAPD’s worried that if shit goes south at the hearing, Brownstone might…react poorly. They just want to have the maximum number of officers available in that case. I’ll be at the hearing also. I have to testify anyway.”
Tyler chuckled. “Really? That would be too funny for sure if Brownstone went nuts. It’d prove everything I’ve been saying, but it’d get pretty damned expensive, too.”
She shrugged. “I don’t get it. Half the LAPD’s writing the guy glowing recommendations, but the department still acts like he’s going to kill everyone in that building if they look at him the wrong way.”
“Is it really so weird? You believed that not all that long ago.”
Maria took a sip of her water. “Things change, and people change.” She set her glass down as the waitress approached.
After a quick discussion, their orders were in, and the waitress departed.
The cop returned her attention to Tyler. “So, tell me what you got for me, Mr. Big Information Broker.”
“It took some digging, but the weird thing is this wasn’t some random turnaround by the people who have been working Alison’s case. Not that at all.”
Maria frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The people who had been working her case were reassigned, and new people brought in at several levels, including the lawyers who might be involved, and the social workers who were monitoring her. It’s like someone went in and cleaned house right before they started this whole anti-Brownstone crusade.”
“That’s suspicious. Damned suspicious.”
Tyler nodded. “That’s not the half of it. I found out the girl goes to a magic school out east, some government-sponsored one. It’s not exactly secret, but it’s not something they announce to the world, eith
er. The fact she’s even there kind of suggests some high-level people have her back, and from what I could find out, Brownstone’s the one who pushed for her to go to the school.”
“And you said it’s government sponsored?” Maria glanced around the room as if expecting CIA spies to be skulking at a table in trench coats. “Maybe that’s the connection. Maybe someone wants Alison all to themselves and is trying to get Brownstone out of the way?”
Tyler shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’s been there since last fall. There were some minor road bumps in the adoption process earlier this summer, but this whole government-blocking-Brownstone thing is really recent, way after the school, way after the earlier stuff. It makes no sense to wait so long if that was the plan.” Tyler took a deep breath then grinned. “And it gets better.”
“Don’t enjoy yourself too much.”
“How can’t I? Everyone says I’m the scumbag, but I love digging into the government and finding how they are the real criminals always getting away with the worst crimes.”
Maria smirked. “No one loves a politician. Big surprise. What’s your big reveal there?”
“There’s a senator involved in this. I don’t know which one, but it’s pressure from that senator that got this anti-Brownstone ball rolling, and I’m talking from the federal senate, not the state.” Tyler frowned. “And there was none of that pressure until this shit started, so it’s not like they suddenly gave in. It’s like not all that long ago this senator decided to fuck with Brownstone for some reason.”
“What the hell? That’s a lot of political muscle over one guy’s adoption, even if it is Brownstone.” Maria furrowed her brow and looked into her water glass. “Maybe this is part of some douchebag setting up a big win so he can run for president?”
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