I ran a hand down my face. My head hurt and not entirely because of the concussion. I thought I had this thing figured out. That’s what I got for thinking. “Okay,” I said, my voice airy with frustration, “so after you left for Albuquerque, what did Kyle do? Did they ease up on him?”
She shrugged, her mouth a grim line. “Kyle’s a good actor. He eventually convinced Jeff he was on their side. Then when school was out, he did the same thing I did. He left and spent the whole summer with his grandmother.”
“So, after you met with Tommy Zapata, did someone threaten you? Is that why you ran?”
“It wasn’t long after that I realized everybody was dying. I knew that my family was in danger. As long as I was a target and they were around me, they would not be safe. So I just got in a cab one day and ran. If not for that fire, I’d be in Spokane right now.”
“You kept yourself alive,” Cookie said. “Now we need to get you to safety.”
Yeah, while I figure out what the hell is going on.
The lights flickered out, and an eerie silence fell over us. I shushed everyone, then squatted down and peeked out the office door. An emergency light down the hall showed a large body, most likely belonging to Hulk, sprawled on the floor.
“Son of a bitch,” I said, unable to quite believe it. “They followed us?” I totally needed to pay more attention to who was on my ass. This was getting ridiculous.
“Who?” Mimi asked, her high-pitched whisper traveling down the hall.
Cookie shushed her with a finger over her mouth. I took hold of Mimi’s hand while Cookie took the other and we rushed out of the office toward a back exit I’d spotted on the way in. We weaved around boxes and bags as quietly as we could until we came to the back door. Thankfully, the rain pelting the roof offered us some cover. There was an emergency release on the door, but it would set off an alarm, so I was hesitant to go through it. Then again, maybe an alarm was exactly what we needed.
I led everyone to a darkened corner near the door, and we huddled there as I tried to decide if I wanted to draw that kind of attention.
“Hey, boss,” Angel said, appearing at my side.
I jumped, startling Cookie and Mimi, then scowled at him. “Again? Really?” I whispered.
“What are you doing?”
“Running from bad guys. What else do I do on a regular basis?”
“Who’s she talking to?” Mimi asked.
“Um…” Cookie panicked a moment, then said, “She’s rehearsing for a play.”
“Now?”
“So, I should just leave you to it?” Angel asked with a husky giggle.
I rolled my eyes and turned to Cookie. “Okay,” I whispered, “have your phone ready. You two run through that door and don’t stop for anything. I’ll close it and try to barricade it from the outside.”
“With what?” Cookie asked, her whispery voice squeaking in fear.
“Cook,” I said, wrapping a hand around hers, “have I ever let you down?”
“I’m not worried about you letting me down. I’m worried about you letting you down. These people are cold-blooded killers, Charley.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Mimi said. They were both shaking so bad, I had serious doubts they would make it to safety without collecting at least a couple of fractures from a fall. “Cook, you have to get Mimi out of here. She’s counting on us. You can do this.”
She took a deep breath. “Right. Okay. I’ll do it. But hurry. You’re a much better shot than I am.” She took out a .380 from her bag.
“Holy cow,” I said. I had yet to get my Glock back from the abandoned motel crime scene. Cookie rocked like a rock star. But, judging by the weight of it … “So, do you have bullets to go with it?”
“Oh!” She dug in her bag again and brought out a fully loaded clip. She handed it over with a smile. “Hurry,” she said as I locked the clip into place and chambered a round. The clicking sound echoed loudly, and I cringed. The rain seemed to muffle it a bit, but anyone within a stone’s throw would have heard it and been clued in to the fact that I had a gun.
“Do you know how many there are?” I asked Angel.
“Just one. The mean one from the motel.”
“Evil Murtaugh?” I asked.
“Okay,” he said with a shrug.
“Damn him,” I said, scanning the area. “Damn him to hell.”
“She’s really good,” Mimi said. “Dramatic.”
“Aw.” I turned to her with a smile. “Thank you.”
It was Cookie’s turn to roll her eyes. After an exasperated sigh, she took Mimi’s hand and charged toward the door, slamming into it really hard. Her second attempt was much more productive. When the door opened, as expected, it set off a shrill alarm that reminded me a lot of Mimi’s scream, and as I followed them through it, two things happened simultaneously: Cookie stumbled down the steps outside, and a wicked, wicked knife sliced across my back.
Chapter Eighteen
IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED, FAILURE MAY BE YOUR THING.
—T-SHIRT
For some odd reason, people wanted to carve me up like a jack-o’-lantern this week, probably because Halloween was just around the corner. As a general rule, knives hurt. I fell forward, stumbling on Mimi, who had stumbled on Cookie, and prayed to God I wouldn’t shoot anyone.
In Cookie’s defense, it was raining wildcats and rabid dogs. As we tumbled into a heap at the bottom of the steps, Angel pushed at the door with all his might—God bless his freaky little gangbanger soul—basically slamming it in Evil Murtaugh’s face. The door hit with a loud thud, and the knife clattered down the steps.
“Woohoo, Angel! That was awesome!” I said, knocking Cookie in the knee with my concussed head. That’d teach her.
“Run!” Angel said, annoyed. He was irritable all of a sudden.
My heart jumped into overdrive as we scrambled to our feet and ran down the alley, where it was darkest. If he happened to have a gun, which I suspected he did, he would be able to pick us off easily if we ran for the street. The lights were too bright to offer any cover. The way I saw it, we could run around the building and hightail it for the café. I prayed Norma had a key to lock the doors. And hopefully that alarm would bring the cavalry.
Cookie’s gaze darted wildly about as she ran. That woman could move pretty darned fast when she had to. But before we got twenty feet, the door swung open and crashed against the brick exterior of the building. Mimi screamed really helpfully. In case someone didn’t hear the earsplitting alarm.
“Run,” I told them as I turned and aimed the gun. Which was much harder than I’d anticipated with rain cascading in rivulets down my face. I fired one shot, and he ducked back into the building, allowing Cookie and Mimi time to get the heck outta Dodge. I quickly joined them.
“What do I do?” Angel asked, reanimating his grasshopper-in-a-skillet routine.
“Whatever you can, sweetheart.” I sprinted ahead and checked out the easement between the shelter and a candy-making factory next door. There were some crates and boxes, but it looked like we could make it through and the obstacles might make decent cover should the need arise.
Unfortunately, the need arose too soon. A shot sounded out, and Mimi fell to the ground with a squeak. She covered her head. I took aim and fired again, but not before he got off two more rounds.
For the first time in my life, I was in a shoot-out. A real, honest-to-goodness shoot-out with a bad guy. And apparently, we both sucked. I aimed for his head and shot the light above it. And I had no idea what the hell he was aiming at, unless he was taking out the windows at the candy-making factory as part of some strategic maneuver to outwit us. Cookie and Mimi were close to a Dumpster and they headed that way for cover. Evil Murtaugh was racing toward us when Angel tripped him. His gun crashed to the ground and went sliding.
“Get his gun!” I yelled to Angel as I bolted across the alley to join Cookie.
He glared at me and threw his arms in the a
ir. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Oh, geez. There were rules?
“Are either of you shot?” I asked breathlessly as I took position behind the trash bin.
“I don’t think so,” Mimi said. “How long do you think it’ll take the cops to get here?”
“Longer than we have,” I said truthfully. Angel had kicked the man’s gun away, but it took him mere moments to track it down and head in our direction.
Now we were stuck behind a Dumpster with nowhere to run. I scrambled past the women to see if there was an opening in the fence bordering us. No such luck. It had to have been ten feet high. And since it was cinder block, I doubted my ability to crash through it without a really long running start. If we could climb onto the Dumpster, we could scale it, but that would mean exposing ourselves to Evil. And he probably had more bullets left than I did.
“I’m sorry, Mimi,” I said. She’d been hiding for a freaking reason, and we led the bad guy right to her. Way to go, Charlotte.
“No, please don’t be sorry.” She started crying and shaking uncontrollably, and my heart clenched in response. “None of this is your fault. It’s mine and mine alone.”
I did a quick sweep of the perimeter. Evil Murtaugh was almost upon us, gun raised and at the ready. I might could actually shoot him if he got within arm’s reach and stood really still.
“If I had just done the right thing twenty years ago.”
“Mimi,” Cookie said, wrapping an arm around her.
Before I could change my mind, I raised the .380 and stepped from behind the Dumpster, feeling more exposed than I’d ever felt before. Discounting that one time in Mexico City. Freaking tequila.
“You hit me!” I shouted through the pounding rain. I had no choice but to summon Reyes. I hated to bug, since he was being tortured and all, but …
An evil grin spread across my opponent’s face, making me realize why he was known ’round these parts as Evil Murtaugh.
“Rey’aziel—”
Without another thought, Evil Murtaugh squeezed.
Wait. I wasn’t finished.
But the world slowed and the bullet came to a rest in front of me.
“Didn’t we discuss your timing issues earlier?”
I glanced to my right as Reyes looked on, his robe undulating around him in glorious waves as if he were an ocean unto himself. Then I turned back to the expression of rage lining Evil Murtaugh’s face, to the raindrops hanging in midair, to the bullet as it trailed through the atmosphere toward me, splashing playfully through a drop. I could almost see the concussion of air as it propelled forward. It hovered mere inches from my heart. If time slipped, if it skipped a microsecond into the future, the bullet would hit home.
“How is this possible?” I asked Reyes.
I saw him shrug in my periphery. “That’s what happens when someone shoots at point-blank range,” he explained, his deep voice soothing despite my predicament.
“No, this. Everything just stops. Or, well, slows down a lot.”
“It’s the world we live in, Dutch.” He looked down at me, his robed head tilted as if in curiosity. “Well? Do you want me to take care of him for you?”
I did. I really did. But that one nagging issue still hung between us like a loose string on a sweater. I wanted to pull at it, but I knew if I did, I’d risk unraveling everything. For some reason that ranked right up there with Chihuahuas and weapons of mass destruction, I just couldn’t let it go. “Are you going to tell me where you are?”
“You’re going to bring that up now?”
“Yes.”
“Then no.”
“Then I can take care of this myself.”
The moment I said it, the moment the words slipped from my mouth, I realized there might be more to the rumors of my lack of mental stability than I’d allowed myself to believe. Wasn’t the fact that I needed his help the reason I summoned him in the first place?
“Sure about that?”
“Abso-freaking-lutely.”
It was official. I was psychotic.
With that growl thing he did that sent shivers down my spine, he turned from me in anger. “You are the most stubborn—”
“Me?” I asked, incredulous. “I’m stubborn?”
Oh, yeah. Just lock me up and throw away the key.
He was in front of me at once. “As a mule.”
“Because I don’t want you to commit suicide? That makes me stubborn?”
He leaned down, his face inches from mine, even though I couldn’t actually see it. “Abso-freaking-lutely.”
He totally stole that. I set my jaw. “I don’t need your help.”
“Fine. But you might want to just…” He put a finger on my shoulder and eased me to the left out of the bullet’s path. “Next time, duck.”
The feeling each time the world rushed back was comparable to a speeding freight train crashing into me. The force sucked the air out of my lungs, and the sound reverberated against my chest, echoing in my bones as the bullet picked up where it left off and flew harmlessly past. I stumbled to the side and had just enough time to look back at Evil Murtaugh as he blinked in surprise and aimed again.
If I had been paying attention, if the roar of the thunder and rain had not been so deafening, I might have heard the car speeding up the alley. And so might’ve Evil Murtaugh. As it stood, we were both a tad surprised when a black SUV came barreling toward us. The driver slammed on the brakes and skidded into a spin that swept Evil Murtaugh up like a tornado and threw him against the candy-making factory while leaving me untouched.
I stood a long moment, blinking against the rain pelting my face as the SUV screeched to a halt and Ulrich of the Three Stooges jumped out of the backseat. He strode to Evil Murtaugh as the passenger’s-side glass rolled down. Mr. Smith sat grinning at me.
“I swear, Juicy, you get into more trouble than my great-aunt May, and she’s senile,” he said.
I looked over at Ulrich. He checked Evil Murtaugh’s pulse, then belted him one, I was guessing for good measure. Angel fell to his knees in relief and then collapsed onto the ground in a dramatic rendition of Death of a Salesman.
“How did you find us?” I asked Smith.
“We’ve been looking for this guy for quite a while. You were the most logical person to follow.”
“Are you cops?” I asked.
“Not hardly.”
Then what the heck? I heard sirens in the distance and knew they would leave soon. I looked over at Mr. Chao, aka Stuntman Dave. “Are you sure you should be driving with your injuries?”
Ulrich belted Evil again. “Now he’s just being obtuse,” Smith said.
“I’m out of here.” Angel sat up and saluted me before he disappeared. I liked the saluting thing. That might have to become standard operating procedure at the office.
“Charley, are you okay?” Cookie asked from the shadows. I doubted she saluted me.
“Super-duper, stay there.” I still had no idea who these men were. They could want Mimi just as dead as Evil Murtaugh did.
Mr. Chao climbed out of the driver’s side and came around. I headed him off, blocked the opening between the Dumpster and cinder block fence. If he wanted Mimi Jacobs, he was going to have to get through me. Which should take him about five-sevenths of a second. Give or take.
He leaned to the side and looked over my shoulder. Satisfied, he looked back at me, his hair already dripping wet. When he raised a hand to my face, I flinched, but only ’cause I thought he was going to break my neck or something. Stuff like that tended to happen to me. Instead, he ran his fingers over my brows, pushing my dripping wet bangs out of my eyes. Then he bowed slightly and headed back to the driver’s side.
“She’s alive,” he told Smith, and I realized he was talking about Mimi.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me who you work for?” I asked him.
“You might say we work for the big guy.”
“God?”
He foug
ht a grin. “Come down a step, as in commander in chief.”
“Then this does have something to do with the seat in the Senate.”
“Something, yes.”
“Damn, they don’t mess around. Wait, so, Kyle Kirsch did this after all?”
He squinted his eyes and shrugged. “Look farther north.”
“Oh, come on. That’s all you’re giving me?”
“We did just save your life,” he said, brows raised.
I snorted. “Please, I totally had that.”
Smith chuckled and shook his head. “I have to say, this was the most interesting assignment I’ve ever been on.” He leveled a regret-filled gaze on me. “I’ll miss you. And your boxer shorts.” He looked past me into the shadows. “Get that woman to the police. She has quite a story to tell.”
After one more solid pounding, Ulrich strode past me with a nod and climbed in the backseat. I had a sneaking suspicion I would never see them again. As they drove off, Cookie and Mimi tackled me from behind, and I was soon ensconced in the most suffocating group hug I’d ever been ensconced in.
* * *
Blue and red lights undulated over the buildings as a plethora of police and emergency vehicles cordoned off the alley. Two EMTs loaded a handcuffed Evil Murtaugh into the back of an ambulance while another EMT was seeing to a concussed Hulk. He moaned a lot. I knew how he felt. I stepped over to watch them load Evil just as two men in crisp suits walked up to me. There seemed to be a lot of crisp suits around lately. Dillard’s must have had a sale.
“Ms. Davidson?” one of them asked.
I nodded. Now that all the excitement was over, my back was stinging. Evil Murtaugh had ruined a perfectly good jacket and left a bit of a fissure across my spine. I squirmed in my jacket, trying to ease the discomfort.
“I’m Agent Foster with the FBI.” He held up his ID. “And this is Special Agent Powers.”
“Yeah, right,” I said with a snort. “I’ve heard that before.”
Agent Foster’s expression didn’t change. “So we were told. That’s why we’d like to talk to you before we question this man.”
I looked into the ambulance at Evil. “Sucks when the real deal shows up.”
Second Grave on the Left Page 25