Avi looked at her as if he expected an argument but Kissy meekly stood on the seat and kissed him.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “We can’t let Julia get hurt because of us.”
She hauled Vanessa’s arms together and rested them on her stomach. The she attached a pair of handcuffs to the bitch’s wrists and covered the bracelets by tying the flowing end of her gauzy black sleeves around them. “You have keys, right?” A naughty smile flashed on her face before she looked down, blushing and shaking her head.
Avi’s voice sounded, if possible, even deeper than normal as he replied, “I do.” He shocked her when he went on, “And this bitch tied me up and tried to kill my girlfriend. Don’t feel badly for flirting over her mostly-dead body.”
He kissed her and walked away. Kissy zipped up her ukulele case and slid around the curved bench seat to the other side where she could watch him without having to wrench her neck. No one questioned why a gigantic man was carrying a tiny unconscious woman through the bar. It had been Kissy’s experience in the six months they’d been dating that nobody ever questioned a tall, well-muscled man with eyes as kind as Avi’s. People seemed to know at a glance that he was honest and trustworthy. And that was just one reason she didn’t want Avi to be the one to kill Vanessa. He was a cop at heart. She wanted Vanessa dead, no question about it but she also wanted her knight in shining armor to keep his white hat.
Although it had been the black hat, Tim who had jumped into the icy river to save her on the docks, Tim who had found the bomb expert and held her hand while Parker defused the vest Vanessa had strapped around her at the hospital, Tim who acted without hesitation when she was poisoned. Whereas Avi had, each time, gone for the bad guy. The capture was more important to him than Kissy.
The halo around his head dimmed as Kissy watched him walking away with the living, breathing Vanessa. He’d wanted her to stop shocking the woman before they found out she’d done something to Julia. Maybe she couldn’t trust him to poison her. Maybe she shouldn’t trust him to wait for them in the green room.
Kissy stood, glancing back at the doors to the Disco in case Tim and Julia were coming back, hoping that Tim and Julia were coming back. When she glanced towards the Theater, she saw Avi had stopped. He was standing by the entrance to the club talking with someone she couldn’t quite see. Kissy caught his eye for a second when he glanced guiltily her way. She tilted her head, questioning. He gave her a barely perceptible shrug and went out the front door. As he stepped through the bookshelf, Kissy saw the man he’d been talking to.
It was the mayor.
Seven
The earpiece crackled in Tim’s ear. He could barely hear over the sounds of dancers and music in the Disco and of drinkers and chaos in the Lounge. When he heard the click indicating Kissy had turned off her microphone, he hit the activation nub hidden among the safety pins lining the strap of his satchel. He stepped away from his sister who was busy head banging with a dreadlocked stranger.
“Julia’s with me. She’s not unconscious.” He tapped the toggle button again.
Almost without pause Kissy’s voice hissed in his ear. “Target unconscious! Target has done something to Julia!”
Tim took a breath. He quickly returned to Julia and pulled her away from the dance floor. “I’ve got to take care of something. Did you have dinner with Vanessa or are you up for something later?” he fished.
Julia waved goodbye to her Rastafarian friend as she followed Tim. “V brought brownies to Circus Freaks but I haven’t had any real dinner and to be honest the brownies kind of sucked.” Julia held her brother’s hand over her head and spun. “Ooh, can we get takeout and eat up in your cool new loft?”
Tim just nodded as his voice caught in his throat. Brownies. Vanessa would pay for bringing his sister into this but for now he had to reverse whatever poison she’d fed her. And he had to find out how many others had eaten the brownies.
“The brownies must have gone quickly the way you circus people eat.” He kept Julia’s hand and led the way to the Lounge doors.
“You’d think!” Julia laughed, still dancing her way across the floor. “I grabbed them though before anyone could get any. Seriously, they sucked. They’re in my car if you want one.” She mocked him.
Tim breathed a sigh of relief, knowing how the rest of this exchange went. He fished in his satchel with his free hand as he tossed out his line, “Chocolate is gross.”
“You’re gross, you freak.” Julia said it lovingly which made Tim feel even worse about what he was preparing to do.
He shouldn’t have to fish for it. The general antidote was in a syringe he kept at the ready. But his fingers felt thick and he was hearing drums in his head as blood rushed to help where it wasn’t needed. He breathed deeply against the panic and finally got his fingers wrapped around the plastic tube. He flicked the protective cap into the satchel with his thumb. As they passed a blond boy sporting a surfer look, Tim tripped and bumped his sister into the guy. While they were sorting themselves out, he stabbed the needle through her green plaid miniskirt and depressed the plunger. Then he ducked out of the way as she turned, swinging.
The slap rang off the innocent blonde's face but he was too shocked to do anything as Julia screamed “Back off, asshole!”
Tim hit the mica button while she was distracted. “Kissy come get Julia at the Disco. Avi, stay with the target.”
“And cut your fucking nails, you freak!”
Tim grabbed Julia before she could take another swing at the guy. “I’m sure he meant it as a compliment, Julia. Come on. Let’s go get a drink.”
“Oooh, absinthe? I hear they have one of my circus guys wearing only wings doing the pouring.”
Tim thought about that for a minute as he dragged his dancing sister through the crowd. “He’s wearing a little bit more than wings. I didn’t know Jorge was from Circus Freaks.”
“Yeah. He wants to find a hand balancing partner but he’s such a great clown.” Julia took the lead then, dragging Tim to the arches leading out to the Lounge. “Kissy! Come dancing!”
Tim saw Kissy force her face into a joyful expression. But before the smile reached her eyes, he caught a glimpse of the panic it replaced.
“Should you be dancing on your ankle?” Kissy asked. “Isn’t it still weak?”
“You are such a doctor’s pet. Do you call and report on me too?” Julia rolled her eyes and then laughed. “I’ve got a brace on. That’s why I’m wearing flat boots, you dork.” Julia suddenly stopped laughing and blinked a few times. When her eyes focused, she reached out and ran her fingers through Kissy’s silky dark hair. Her voice took on a wistful tone as she said, “I love your hair. You never do anything to it and it’s so gorgeous. Not like this white crap,“ she turned and grabbed a handful of Tim’s hair, “we ended up with that can’t decide if it wants to be curly or straight.”
Kissy glared at Tim and when Julia started flipping her own hair over her shoulders, back and forth, she hissed at him, “What’d you do, jackass?”
He uncurled the fist holding the empty syringe and glanced down. Kissy blanched when she saw it. He’d stabbed her with this same anti-venom cocktail just a month ago. He got no credit for staying with her through the brief euphoria and lengthy illness that were the homemade remedy’s side effects.
“There’s a working bathroom in the Theater. Just stay off the stage. I’ll go help Avi get Vanessa there unseen.”
Kissy took three steps into the Disco to gently pry Julia away from an equally euphoric guy wearing velvet pants. She put an arm around her friend and couldn’t help smiling at the goofy joy pasted all over her face.
“Is this what I was like?”
“You don’t remember?” Tim asked.
She tilted her head and replied evenly, “No.”
Tim wasn’t sure from her tone what answer would keep him out of trouble. He risked the truth and with a grin, he admitted, “even better. You had the kitty cat hat on, with the pom pom
things hanging down the sides.”
He was relieved when Kissy rolled her eyes and laughed at herself. Then her smile morphed into a grimace and she sighed, looking up at him reluctantly as if she were calculating how to keep from getting in trouble with him.
“What?” he prompted.
“I stunned Van. . .the target unconscious. Avi’s mad at me. He was taking her to the Theater when he ran into the mayor. I saw them leave through the bookcase.”
All the blood drained from Tim’s face. He hit the transmit button and static deafened him before he could turn it off. He couldn’t use it with Kissy in the same room. “Take her to the Theater. I’ll get Vanessa.”
“Yes!” Julia tuned in to that name. “Vanessa has things to make you feel good. Let’s find Vanessa.”
Tim and Kissy both turned concerned eyes on their friend. Kissy failed to keep an edge of panic out of her voice when she asked, “Did you take her drugs?”
Julia’s eyes darkened and she leaned into them as if sharing a deep dark secret. She growled, “No” and then threw her head back giggling and growled again.
“If she did, my antidote will protect her,” Tim reassured Kissy. Then he pushed her through the archway. “Now go.”
Kissy stumbled a few steps with Julia still throwing her head back and then growling forward, “No.”
She turned back. “Tim, what—“
Tim watched through the peephole in the hidden door as Kissy spun around several times looking for him. She finally stopped, took a very deep breath, smiled at Julia, and then walked out of the room singing, “Jackaaaaaasssss!”
Then he turned and dashed up, through his loft apartment, and down the front steps to the lobby.
Eight
Kissy pushed Julia from group to group through the crowded Lounge. Almost as soon as they left the Disco, Tim’s voice crackled in Kissy’s ear.
“Avi, report.”
She heard no response from Avi.
Julia wanted to pet everyone she ran into, their hair, their clothes, one woman’s Cookie Monster stole complete with googley eyes. Thankfully most of the people were amused. A few took offense. Julia kissed one of these people in apology.
“Sorry,” Kissy muttered, waiting for the no longer unwilling victim of the kiss to release Julia. “Someone slipped her something.”
A sharp-featured woman with the waist-length silky black hair sighed, “I’m an EMT. Do you want me to look her over?” She added, “When she’s done mauling Curt?”
“Jen?” Kissy looked up and recognized the tall woman. She was the EMT who’d tried to save Kevin Kohler’s life at The Freckled Dog. She and her partner Curt had arrived first on the scene when the mayor had taken ill at the Winterfest poker tournament. Plus, though Jen didn’t know it, Tim and Avi had stolen her ambulance to save Kissy’s life on the riverfront.
The woman stared at Kissy. “Do we know each other?”
“No.” Kissy recovered. “I was there when you saved the mayor’s life last month. Nice work!”
Jen looked embarrassed. “It was just uh, just our job,” she stuttered.
“Well thanks anyway. You have fun.” Kissy pulled Julia away from Curt. “I’ve got this.”
Kissy dragged Julia a few more feet through the Lounge. As they passed the booth where they’d been sitting, Kissy retrieved Vanessa’ beers.
She smiled sweetly at the two guys and a girl who had promised to watch them for her in exchange for the table. “Thanks so much.”
“Is your friend okay?” the cute blond in a Hoverboard t-shirt asked.
Kissy glanced behind her to where Julia was teaching the Charleston to an amused pair of suited up players. “Yeah. She’s doing great.”
She turned back to thank them again and the blond handed her a napkin with a big smile.
“What’s this?” she asked, showing just how off her game she was.
He gave her a strange look. “It’s. . .you look like you’re in a rush. So instead of asking if I can borrow your phone for a moment, I’m going old fashioned. Call me sometime.”
“Thank you,” she looked down at the napkin, “Alec.”
She had to join Julia in the Charleston for a moment before she convinced her very happy friend to join in a spinning jitterbug that took them the rest of the way across the room to the Theater doors. Which were locked.
Shaking her head, Kissy flipped around her ukulele case. She set the two beer bottles on the floor and tucked Julia’s little green purse under her shoulder as she pulled out the lock pick set she’d acquired after the storage container incident on the docks. With just a little bit of jiggling, she popped the lock.
She had to grab Julia from where she was making yet more new friends and flirt with those guys for a bit before she could grab the beers, shove her friend into the theater, and lock the door.
“Ooooh!” Julia spun and danced through the seats, bouncing off the couches and chaise lounges that were scattered around the room.
“Have fun,” Kissy offered. “Just stay off the stage. The paint is wet.”
Kissy collapsed onto a couch near the door and watched her friend. She wondered how long the euphoric stage would last. She knew Tim was able to get her home before she started hurling, so she had at least a half hour before the messy took over. She hit the little button attached to her choker.
“Julia’s in the theater.” She clicked off.
There was no response.
Julia plopped into the seat beside her, bouncing Kissy as the loose coils rebounded. Kissy held the beers away from her in case they spilled.
“Hi.” Julia gazed at her happily.
“Hi,” Kissy laughed back.
Julia stroked a hand down Kissy’s loose hair as if she were a three year old carefully petting a dog. “You and my brother look really good together.”
Kissy reached up and pet Julia’s multi-colored hair in return. “I’m dating Avi.”
“Are you?” Julia asked, scrunching up her face. “I mean, are you?”
“Yeah. I am.” Kissy said it but she wondered if Julia’s question wasn’t all that ridiculous.
“He doesn’t sleep over,” her bestie pointed out.
Kissy laughed uncomfortably. “How would you know?”
Julia leaped up and sang, “You live upstairs from me. Yes I think I’ve seen you before.”
The bottles clinked in Kissy’s hands as the couch bounced again.
“Ooh! Can I have one?” Julia reached for a beer.
Kissy stood and twisted so the drinks were out of her taller friend’s reach. “Nope. We’re not gonna drink anything Vanessa gives us, okay?”
Julia got her growl face on again and agreed. “And no brownies!”
“Okay,” Kissy felt badly for how entertaining she was finding her soon to be barfing friend. “I’m gonna go dump these in the bathroom.”
Julia stood up straight, her widened eyes setting off the pinpricks of her pupils. “The bathroom is the perfect place to take a dump!”
Kissy hung her head and sighed. She started to head off toward the ladies’ room to the right of the small raised stage but then turned back and tried to get the dancing girl’s attention again. “You stay here. Okay? Stay off the stage. I will be back in two minutes.”
She left Julia dancing with a cabaret chair as she backed through the swinging doors into the bathroom.
Nine
Avi stood shivering under the wide eaves outside the club. The clouds had finally burst and the doormen and ladies were trying to make it seem like an adventure as they hustled most of the folks still waiting outside into the small lobby, snaking as many of the ones who wouldn’t fit inside in a tight double line under the eaves. About a dozen gentlemen and three ladies who appeared to be feeling no pain offered to stay outside so the more sensitive guests could fit into the dry fake bookstore. The staff had given six large black umbrellas to these minor heroes and the mayor was out in the wet, shaking hands with each of them.
&nbs
p; Vanessa limp hands slapped his ass as he stomped his cold feet. He couldn’t bear to look at her face anymore so he’d shifted her dead weight over his shoulder. With some juggling, he was able to adjust her so he could reach the earpiece toggle on his waistband. But as soon as he hit the button he was deafened by loud electrical crackling in his ear. He balanced Vanessa and tapped it again as quickly as he could. That wasn’t normal static. The storm must be affecting the transmission somehow.
Done glad handing, the mayor returned to Avi. “Well it’s been five minutes, Kee. How’s she looking?”
Avi shifted Vanessa into his arms again, letting her head flop against his chest. The mayor looked concerned. He reached two fingers under her jaw line as Avi had done earlier, inside. After a few quiet moments, he rubbed his hands and tucked them into his armpits.
“She has a pulse. And if my freezing cold hands didn’t even make her stir, it’s definitely time we call an ambulance.” The mayor pulled out his phone.
Avi hustled to stall him. “Sir, in this weather, I think it would be better to wait inside. I can direct the ambulance to the green room door and wait with her there.” He glanced around the side of the building, judging just how wet he would get and wondering if the side door were even open.
“It’ll be easier for the EMTs if we’re right out front here.” The mayor didn’t even look up as he fished his phone out of an inner pocket.
“Sir, you don’t want to be involved in this,” Avi improvised. “We don’t know what she took. It could be a whole debacle. You should go, find your wife, and be visible. Inside.”
“Nonsense, Kee.” The mayor was having trouble swiping the phone on. He wiped his hand on his pants and only then noticed how very wet the pants were. He wiped his hand inside shirt instead. “It’s never bad to be seen doing a good thing.”
Avi tried putting his boss on the defensive. “Are you avoiding the party, sir?”
Killer on Call 6 Book Bundle (Books 1-6) Page 36