Nothing In Common, Except ...

by Edward Kendrick

  Kyle grimaced, asking, “Can you, can any of us, shoot him in cold blood, if that’s what you’re thinking?”

  “Couldn’t you?” Brax gripped Kyle’s shoulder—hard. “After what he did to your sister and her husband? You just have to think about that and it should be easy to pull the trigger.”

  “I’m not…I’ve never killed anyone, Brax. In all the years I’ve been alive, I never killed a living soul.”

  “Do you think I have?” Brax replied softly. “This time, however, I’m more than willing to make an exception. Russo deserves to die, and you know it. We can shift and fight him, and maybe we’ll win. More likely though, if he thinks we’re going to defeat him, he’ll vanish before we can finish the job. Vanish, then turn up somewhere else, reinvented, and start over again, destroying more lives. He has no morals. You know that.”

  Kyle nodded. “I do.” He took a deep breath. “How do we set this up?”

  “First, we get him to come here. That means you have to make that call.”

  “Nope,” Caleb said. “First, we get the damned furniture moved. We have to make it seem as if Kyle does intend to fight him, tooth and nail, if Russo decides to cause trouble.”

  They did, putting the most valuable pieces in the showrooms while pushing the rest to the edges of the warehouse floor.

  “Now for the details,” Caleb said when they’d finished. “Brax and I can’t be anywhere in the building when he shows up.”

  “I know,” Kyle replied. “If you were, he might sense your presence.”

  “Exactly,” Brax agreed. “I’ll set you up with a wire, since you’ll be you, not your wolf. That way we can listen in and appear at the right moment.”

  “Before he kills me,” Kyle said wryly.

  Caleb chuckled. “That might be a good idea. I’d say, at this point, we all go home. Or, in your case, Kyle, to Brax’s place. Going back to your hotel might not be your smartest move.”

  “I was there earlier,” Kyle replied. “As far as I could tell, he hadn’t been there looking for me.”

  “Doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried since then, so err on the side of caution.”

  With that said, Caleb headed to his place, while Brax and Kyle went back to Brax’s apartment—after taking a side trip to Brax’s office to pick up what they’d need to wire Kyle.

  “We haven’t eaten,” Brax pointed out when they were in his living room. “I can fix some sandwiches, if you want.”

  Kyle shook his head. “I’m still not hungry, although now it’s because I’m exhausted. I need to get some sleep if I’m going have what it takes to pull off our plan, tomorrow. Or I guess, later today.”

  “Probably a good idea. I’ll see you in the morning.” Brax watched as Kyle went into the guestroom. Was tonight just a one-time thing? Probably. Need overcoming common sense. Too bad. I could get used to him in my life. Of course it would put a big crimp in my extra-curricular activities for Caleb. Yeah, his sticking around isn’t happening because it would be bad for both of us. Not an idea he liked, but he prided himself on being realistic, if nothing else.

  Chapter 9

  Brax and Kyle waited until mid-afternoon to call Russo. In the interim, Brax gave Kyle a fast lesson on how to shoot a gun, after Kyle told him he’d never even held one, to say the least of aiming it and pulling the trigger.

  “You’re serious?” Brax said.

  “Yep. I’ve told you more than once, I’m an investigator and that’s it.” Kyle smiled. “Unlike you.”

  “And I told you, I don’t carry when I’m on a job, unless I’m doing a stakeout.” He went on to explain stance and how to hold the gun. “Remember, the bullet will go where you point the muzzle. You might not have to shoot, since Caleb and I should arrive before it’s necessary. But if you do, aim for the largest body mass, meaning his chest, hopefully before he decides to shift. If that happens, obviously lower you aim. You want him to know you’re not playing games.”

  “I’ll end up shooting myself in the foot,” Kyle replied ruefully.

  “Naw. You’re smart. You’ll hit him somewhere. Not a stopping or killing shot, probably. Leave that to me and Caleb.”

  “What if he does show up with reinforcements?”

  “When you call him, you make it damned clear that if that happens, you’ll teleport away—with the information you’ve got on him—and take it straight to the authorities. He knows you’re a shifter, so he’ll have no reason not to believe you.”

  “And if he Tasers me, the way he did at Connoisseurs?”

  “We’ll be there before he can take things any farther.”

  “Let’s hope. One dose of his idea of ‘fun’ leaves a lot to be desired. I’d rather not have him try again.”

  Brax gave him a fast hug, much to Kyle’s obvious surprise, then suggested they take a break for lunch before working out the exact script for Kyle’s call to Russo.

  * * * *

  “I’d like to speak to Mr. Russo, please,” Kyle said to whoever answered the phone at Connoisseurs. “Tell him it’s in regard to some papers I found that, I believe, belong to him. My name is James Robards.” That was the name on the ID he’d been carrying when Russo had captured him during his visit to the bordello.

  “If you’ll hold a moment, sir, I’ll see if he’s available,” the woman replied.

  Kyle had put his phone on speaker, so that Brax could listen to what transpired.

  A moment later, a deep voice said, “This is Elio Russo.”

  “Elio. Do you mind if I call you that? I feel as if I know you, after our last meeting.”

  “Be my guest, Mr. Robards.”

  “I’ve come into possession of some files that I suspect you’d like back.”

  “You’re correct,” Russo replied. “Although it took you long enough to contact me about them.”

  “I was debating what to do with them. By rights, I should turn them over to the authorities, but that wouldn’t do either of us any good.”

  “Cut to the chase, Mr. Robards. How much do you want for them?”

  “Given what they contain, I was thinking something in the neighborhood of a quarter million, in tens, twenties, and fifties. Before you say you can’t afford the price, I know differently. I’ve seen you accountant’s files on Connoisseurs. You’re raking in the money there, as I’m quite certain you are from your other endeavors.”

  There was a long pause on Russo’s end. Then he said, “It will take me a few days to pull that much cash together. I presume you do want cash.”

  “Of course. However, I’m not willing to wait that long. It’s now three-thirty. If I don’t hear back from you that you have the money by six-thirty, I’ll be contacting several federal agencies.”

  “You do realize it’s Sunday. Banks are closed.”

  Kyle chuckled. “And that’s a problem, why? You don’t strike me as the sort of man who banks his illicit earnings. You can reach me at this number.” He gave Russo the number of the secure, untraceable phone Brax had given him. “I hope to hear from you soon.” With that, Kyle hung up.

  “Now, we wait,” Brax said.

  “And hope he calls back and doesn’t just make a run for the border.”

  “He’s got the kind of ego that won’t let him do that until he ties up loose ends, meaning you.”

  “Nice thought.” Kyle grimaced. “I wonder if he’ll actually pull the money together. Or if he’ll show up with a briefcase full of cut up newspaper, with a real bill on top of each bundle, figuring he can take me down with no problems while I’m checking it out.”

  “Best bet,” Brax said, “it’ll be the latter. He’s not going to risk losing that much cash. For all he knows, you’ve already contacted the Feds and they’ll be waiting at the delivery spot to arrest him, once he hands you the briefcase.”

  “Good point. On the other hand, since he knows what I am, he might figure I’ll just teleport away once I get my hands on it. Either way…yeah, he won’t be showing up with a quarter mil in c
ash.”

  The wait for Russo to call back seemed interminable. Kyle almost suggested they fill the time by having a repeat performance of their encounter at the lake. He thought better of it for the simple reason that he didn’t want to get more involved with Brax than he already was. When this is over, we’ll go our separate ways. Why make that any harder that it will be already?

  The phone rang just before six. Kyle put it on speaker and answered.

  “I have your money,” Russo said. “I presume you have a spot picked out for our meeting.”

  “I do. I’m sure you remember where you left me after our last…encounter. There’s a warehouse at the back of the building. I’ll be there. One more thing, Mr. Russo. I see, or sense, anyone in the area, or if you bring anyone with you, I’ll leave. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “I do,” Russo growled. “The same holds true for you. No back-up.”

  “Of course.”

  “What time?” Russo asked.

  “Ten P.M. on the dot. Five minutes late and I’ll presume you’ve changed your mind.”

  “I’ll be there.” This time it was Russo who summarily broke the connection.

  “Okay. Let’s pay a visit to Caleb and finish setting this up,” Brax said, going to get the bag with what he needed to wire Kyle, plus the guns they’d be using.

  * * * *

  It was nine-forty-five, and the trio was seated in Brax’s car, three blocks from Caleb’s building.

  “Before you go in,” Caleb told Kyle, “I’m going to check things out. I wouldn’t put it past Russo to be there already, planning to ambush you the second you show up.”

  “You’ll be able to sense him?” Kyle asked.

  “I’ve been around for over ninety years. There’s damned all I can’t sense, when it comes to shifters. Unless he’s well over one hundred, I’ll know he’s there and how many others he’s brought with him, if he’s decided to break his promise.”

  “Not sure it was a promise. More the reality that I meant what I said. I will vanish if he tries anything.”

  “Then be ready to do that,” Brax said dryly, “because you know he will.”

  “Thanks for the encouragement,” Kyle muttered as Caleb left the car.

  “Yeah. Sorry. I know you didn’t need to hear that.”

  “I’ve thought it enough, over the last few hours, so you weren’t telling me anything I didn’t figure out already.”

  Caleb came back ten minutes later, telling Kyle the building was clear.

  “Okay. Wish me luck,” Kyle replied as he got ready to teleport into the warehouse.

  “Remember the code word,” Brax cautioned. They’d set that up at Caleb’s suggestion, in case what they heard over the wire sounded as if things were all right when they really weren’t. His reasoning was that Russo might figure out that someone was listening, either electronically or because they arrived elsewhere in the building the same time Kyle did, thus confounding Russo’s ability to know that there were other shifters present.

  Kyle vanished, arriving in the center of the warehouse an instant later. He settled with seeming casualness on a chair along one wall, putting the bag he’d been carrying at his feet. He checked his watch. It was exactly ten.

  “You’ve got five minutes, Russo,” he murmured, uncertain if he hoped the bastard would show up, or that he’d decided to make a run for it.

  “Four and a half—and I’m here,” Russo said from the doorway that opened onto the rest of the building. “I only had a visual of the office where I left you the last time.” He strode toward Kyle, carrying a black attaché case, chained to one wrist.

  “Have a seat,” Kyle gestured to the chair beside him. “Then we can get down to business.”

  “I prefer to stand,” Russo said, coming to a stop in front of Kyle, his massive bulk blocking the light from the overhead fixtures.

  “Before we get down to the business at hand,” Kyle said, steeling his expression not to let Russo know how intimidated he was feeling as he looked up at him, “I have a question.” This was strictly spur of the moment, but he thought Brax might want to know what Russo’s reply would be. “Not too long ago an acquaintance of mine, a black wolf, was out for a run when some hunters shot him. Was that your doing?”

  Russo snarled as he answered with, “That wolf was a thorn in my side, a few years ago. He avoided my wrath back then and it wasn’t until quite recently that I was able to locate him again. So, to answer your question, yes, I sent two of my people after him.”

  “Afraid to do the deed yourself?” Kyle taunted, keeping his gaze locked on Russo, looking for tells that he was pushing him too far.

  “I have more important things to worry about. He was a bare blip on my radar. I took advantage of knowing where he runs to do something about him. Unfortunately, my men blew it.” Russo sneered. “That won’t happen again. Now, down to business as you put it. Let me see the files.”

  “Let me see the money,” Kyle retorted.

  “You, first,” Russo growled.

  With a shrug, Kyle put the bag on his lap, opened the flap then reached into it as if to take out the files. Instead, he gripped the gun, his finger on the trigger. Without removing it, he pointed it up and fired.

  None too surprisingly, he would tell the others after the fact, the bullet tore into Russo’s groin. For a second, Kyle thought the huge shifter would ignore the pain he must have been feeling. Then Russo let out an agonized roar, shifting as he did. If it weren’t for the fact that Kyle shifted at the same moment, teleporting across the warehouse, the damage from Russo’s gigantic right forepaw might have ended things for him then and there. As it was, the chair Kyle had been sitting on was destroyed.

  The wolf whirled around, fangs bared, blood streaming from his wounded groin, as he searched for Kyle. Then, two shots rang out, echoing through the room, and the wolf’s dead body hit the floor.

  “What took you so long?” Kyle grumbled after shifting again, and clothing himself.

  “We didn’t know things were going south until we heard the gunshot,” Brax replied, kneeling next to the wolf’s body. The attaché case was still chained to Russo’s left foreleg, which had been his arm before he’d shifted. Brax jimmied the lock then opened it, taking out what at first glance appeared to be a bundle of cash from the twenty-dollar bill on top. Flipping through it, he said, “You were right. Newspaper. Maybe two hundred in real cash, all told, to fake that he’d brought the money.”

  “So we both were faking,” Kyle commented. He barely smiled when Caleb bemoaned the loss of what he said was an Early Georgian chair, before adding, “A copy, of course, but a damned good one.”

  Brax stood, saying, “Thanks for getting him to admit he was responsible for those hunters.” He chuckled. “A blip on his radar, huh? Well, the ‘blip’ and company is responsible for this.” He waved his hand dismissively over the wolf’s body. “What do we want to do with it?”

  “I’ll take care of it while you two bring the furniture back in here and straighten up.” With that said, Caleb picked up the body and vanished.

  “What do you want to bet he pulls a Hoffa and dumps Russo in concrete at the construction site a block over?” Brax said.

  “Whatever,” Kyle replied as he began putting the furniture back where it belonged, as best as he remembered. He poured all his concentration into that, trying not to think about what he’d done. Yeah, I didn’t kill him, but I helped. He stopped what he was doing when he realized he was about to put a table over the blood on the floor where the wolf had fallen and died. “We need to clean this up,” he said, pointing, his stomach clenching. He made a dash for the restroom along the hallway outside the warehouse, getting there just in time to drop to his knees and vomit into the toilet.

  “It’ll be all right,” he heard Brax say from behind him. “You’ll be all right.”

  Ignoring him, Kyle rinsed out his mouth at the sink, trying to quell his still roiling stomach.

  Br
ax wrapped him in a hard embrace. “He deserved it. You know that.”

  “I do, but…” Kyle shuddered then squared his shoulders, pulling away. “We need a bucket and a mop.”

  “On it,” Brax said, obviously taken aback at Kyle’s abrupt action. “You start bringing in the rest of the furniture.”

  With a nod, Kyle did, while Brax mopped the floor until there wasn’t a trace of blood left. By then, Caleb had returned and between the three of them, they worked silently to get the warehouse back in order.

  “Now, I suggest we all go home and get some sleep,” Caleb said when they finished.

  Kyle nodded. “It should be safe for me to go back to the hotel.”

  “You know you’re welcome to stay at my place again,” Brax told him.

  “I know. But I have to pack and…and what have you. I’ll pick up what I have at the apartment in the morning, if that’s okay with you.”

  With a look of dismay, Brax replied, “Yeah. Sure. Remember, if it’s after nine, I’ll be at work.”

  “I know. If you are, I’ll stop by to say goodbye.” Kyle turned to Caleb. “Thanks for all your help. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”

  “No problem. Be sure you do visit, if you get back this way again. Take care.”

  “Will do.” Kyle looked at Brax for a long moment, their gazes locking, then he vanished, landing in his hotel room seconds later.

  * * * *

  “Just like that, he’s leaving,” Brax said, staring at the space where Kyle had been standing. “And I don’t know where he’s going. I mean, where he lives. He never said, in all our time together, and I never asked.”

  “Perhaps it’s for the best,” Caleb replied. “He came out here to try to prove that you and I were the thieves he was looking for. He only stuck around because he wanted to help stop Russo.”

  Brax’s shoulders slumped. “I know.”

  “You like him.”

  “We became friends,” Brax replied defensively. “Good ones, I thought, even though he was only here for—damn, less than a week now that I think about it.”

  “A very intense week. You bonded, because of what the two of you were doing. It happens. Then it’s over and you go back to your normal lives.”