Dirty Deeds

by R. J. Blain

  Even before becoming a lycanthrope, I’d been the type to only fight when necessary, and little had changed beyond my willingness to get into harm’s way; the virus did a damned good job of cranking my survivability through the roof.

  I owed my wolf, and if she wanted to beat the shit out of a pair of idiots who’d made the first move, I wasn’t going to stop her. Their bites hurt, but I ignored the pain.

  They had nothing on the asshole who’d almost stolen my life in some dark city alley.

  My memories of becoming infected stoked my wolf’s rage, and she wound up and punted the furry assholes out through the window.

  The sound of sirens approached, and the pair darted back into the hotel room long enough to snag the corgi and the house cat, leaving their trapped companion behind. I reached into the wall, found the wolf’s scruff, and hauled him out. To make sure he didn’t escape, I smacked him a few times before sitting on him. “You are trouble, Wayne Barnes.”

  He chuckled, and rather than remove his tie and his clothes like I wanted, he restored his appearance to rights. “You are beautiful.”

  “I’m covered in blood.”

  “And some of it is yours.”

  I pointed at the wolf I sat on. “What should I do with him?”

  “Wait. Don’t worry about the blood. Your virus is developed enough she isn’t going to accept the first random male to bleed on her. It doesn’t even matter who has the parent virus at this point. She’s developed enough she won’t be swayed by anyone she doesn’t like.”

  I wondered what Wayne’s virus thought about his commentary. I stepped on the wolf’s throat, careful to apply enough pressure to keep him pinned without killing him. I rose, sighing over the ruined state of my new clothes. “Not even a day old,” I complained.

  Red and blue lights washed over the side of the hotel, and Rem, wearing street clothes, poked his head in through the broken window. “Everyone all right? I just thought you’d like to know this has become a mess. The FBI is on the way.”

  Wayne relaxed, picked up his wine glass, and saluted the cop. “There’s infected blood all over the room, but we’re mostly fine. They landed a few bites on Joyce, but she educated them on the error of their ways. She kept one for you, but the others ran off. The brute is a corgi.”

  I found it interesting Wayne didn’t seem to at all care the FBI were coming. I expected to be escorted straight to prison over my latest job despite the CDC’s approval. For some reason, the FBI got upset over kidnappings. How would I talk my way out? Would I be joining the four escaped lycanthropes and be making a run for it?

  Damn it, I didn’t want to be a fugitive. I wanted to see my new home and take up residence in the nice tub.

  My wolf whined in my head.

  Rem stepped into the room through the broken window, careful to avoid the glass embedded in the carpeting. “I’m sorry, but what did you just say about the brute?”

  “The brute is a corgi. I suspect that’s why he didn’t shift in the parking lot. He’s a corgi, and that makes him pretty distinctive.”

  “A corgi lycanthrope? Did you just say he’s a corgi lycanthrope?” Rem blurted.

  “Yeah. That surprised me, too.” Wayne sipped his wine and returned the glass to the coffee table. “I’m rather annoyed right now.”

  Rem sighed. “You’re a single male lycanthrope, Barnes. When are you not annoyed? What’s bothering you?”

  “I almost had her cuddling up with me to watch a movie when they barged in through the window.”

  “Ah, yes. That’s just cause for annoyance. Nothing annoys me more than when my cuddle time with my mate is interrupted. Add in that you haven’t even finished convincing her to want you yet? Yeah, that’s rough. You’ll survive. Your virus may not agree with me, but you really will survive. You all right, Joyce?”

  “I’m fine. It’s nothing a shift and a few days won’t fix.” I showed him my gouged leg along with my collection of other bites and scratches. “Why is the FBI coming?”

  Rem stared at Wayne, who shrugged. He reached for his wallet, pulled out a card, and showed it to me. Careful to keep the wolf pinned, I leaned closer to read it.

  In addition to being a successful business owner, the card identified Wayne Barnes as a Special Agent of the FBI.

  I stared, and it sank in I’d kidnapped an FBI agent.

  “You’re a what?” I asked in a whisper, struggling to catch my breath. Why had the CDC approved a bounty for an FBI agent?

  What the hell had I gotten myself into?

  Wayne grinned at me. “I’m a willing participant in your scheme to drag me off for a few days. You have nothing to worry about. When did they dispatch, Rem?”

  “They said they’d be sending some folks over after I called in earlier today.”

  Shouts outside the hotel startled me so much I jumped, and the wolf I’d held pinned scrambled to make his escape. He made it all of three steps before Rem stepped into the wolf’s way and issued a single growl.

  The wolf flattened himself to the bloodstained carpet with a low whine, and Rem took a turn stepping on the idiot’s throat to keep him from running off.

  My wolf huffed her disgust.

  Two men wearing bulletproof vests declaring them to be members of the FBI stepped into the hotel room through the broken window, and Wayne picked up his wine glass and saluted them with it. “Oh, look. It’s my boss. You love me so much you came all the way here?”

  I debated hiding in the tub.

  The shorter of the two men sighed, snapped his fingers, and pointed at the pinned wolf. Several more men in FBI vests came in, secured a steel muzzle around the lycanthrope’s head and completely doused him in a batch of neutralizer before dragging him out of the hotel room.

  The other FBI agents left, and I regarded the shorter, older man with narrowed eyes. He ignored me and said, “You’re a pain in my ass, Barnes. What do you have for us?”

  Wayne sipped his wine and pointed in the direction of the wolf being dragged across the parking lot to a waiting FBI-marked van. “That one is an accomplice of Duncan Marlando, who I can confirm is a corgi lycanthrope. I’ll verify that by angel, too. He was driving the vehicle that hit Joyce’s, and they later came to a clothing store, where they destroyed her car. His accomplice is Randel Perino, and I can confirm he’s a tabby cat lycanthrope. I remember them from the latest memos floating around the office about active criminals in our area. Judging from Joyce’s reaction to Marlando, I suspect his brother Eugene might be the one who attacked and infected her; he has a rarer coat strain, and Joyce has a similar coat pattern, although her wolf has taken steps to erase as much of his coloration from her fur as possible.”

  I froze, staring at Wayne with wide eyes, and my breath caught in my chest. “What did you just say?”

  “I’m fairly sure I know which bastard went after you in an alley. Duncan Marlando has a very similar scent to his brother for all they’re different strains of the virus, which is why your virus became hostile when she caught a sniff of him. She remembers the scent even though you don’t. I’m not sure how Duncan got infected, but his brother has a rap sheet several miles long, and he’s murdered quite a few women. We suspect the motivate was to infect and ultimately mate with them, but he would end up killing them. The violent crimes division has been after him for years, but if it is Eugene responsible, you’d be the first survivor of one of his attacks. That would give Duncan and his partner a reason to go after you—either to take you back to Eugene or erase the evidence. While I’m aware of his outfit, I’ve never been involved with anything dealing with them, so they have no reason to come after me. They wanted you. The most they’d want me for is to get me out of the way.” Wayne finished his wine, set his glass down, and rose to his feet, coming around the coffee table to crouch beside me, examining my torn calf. “What do you think, Lenny?”

  Wayne’s boss sighed. “While the little lady here was keeping you busy for us, we were monitoring the situation to conf
irm if they were following you or her; we’d noticed some activity around you from this group, but I suspect they were tailing you only to see how you were interacting with Miss Gray. I got a confirmation of that when I had the CDC inquire if she’d do us a favor. We also did confirm none of your previous cases had anything to do with the outfit, which is correct. You have no known interactions with any specific members of that mafia.”

  “You put a bounty out for me?” Wayne blurted.

  “It solved a lot of problems: we got to position the mafia to make a move, we got to make some progress on a case that’s been bothering the CDC, we get to work the Marlando line better now, and you get a chance to settle down with a good woman. What’s the problem? It’s not my problem if you screw things up with the woman, but you have a few more days to plead your case with her before she’s supposed to bring you back to town. Also, an excellent job transferring Wayne into your custody, ma’am. You’ve always been good at being bait and luring targets where we can get them.”

  I coughed and stared at the floor. “He’s one of your employees, and you had the CDC do that to him?”

  “Do what? Get him high on pixie dust and give him to a pretty lycanthrope female who needs a steady hand? I absolutely would do that to him. He deserves it. Wolves don’t do well alone, Joyce. Wayne’s always excelled at handling the victims of violent crimes, which is why he joined in the first place. We bring him in on delicate cases needing a stable hand, and he augments our permanent force. He’ll take good care of you, integrate you into a strong pack capable of handling even an organized crime outfit, and you’ll have the support you need. He’s been sniffing at your turf for months, enough that we’ve noticed, so we’re solving a lot of problems at the same time.”

  “But isn’t he a snooty businessman?”

  Wayne’s boss laughed. “He absolutely is. He’s also an FBI agent on call if we need him. He wouldn’t do well in the FBI full-time, but he’s fully trained and can augment us whenever needed. We give him refreshers every six months, too. If you settle in and put on some pounds, I’m happy to partner you with him. That’ll give us a pair we can call in for sticky situations. Since you have some experience already playing bait, you’ll make the perfect team when partnered with him. You’ll lure targets to us, and Wayne will help bag them. We’ve been keeping an eye on you for a while through the bounty system. You’re the type.”

  “I’m the type? What do you mean by that?”

  “You’re the type to be a good agent. You have the hybrid form, so your virus has stabilized. Yes, I’m aware you’re early-onset and were infected through a traumatic situation. Your virus worked hard to get you to this point, and Wayne can help you settle down, put on some pounds, and get properly healthy. You have a strict ethical code you follow. I’ve had the CDC toss several extremely lucrative assassination jobs at you, and you’ve declined every last one of them despite your financial problems. You only take jobs that have been thoroughly vetted for guilt. You also favor the jobs meant for live capture, or like with Wayne here, to keep the target out of our hair for a while. Now that we’re fairly sure they’re after you and not him, your job is going to be switched up a little. You’ll still be taking Wayne for a ride, but your goal will be to lure Marlando and his conspirators out so we can take them down. Ideally, we’ll catch Eugene, who is wanted for a long list of violent crimes. In normal investigations, we wouldn’t think about involving someone like you, but this is how cases with lycanthropes tend to go. They won’t stop until we stop them, and our best chance of stopping them means involving you in the case. They’ve made three runs at you so far in one day, so they want you. I’m concerned Marlando wants to take you to his brother, because his brother is unstable, which makes him a risk too dangerous to ignore.”

  Wayne growled, but he fell quiet when his boss glared at him.

  “You made him shut up! Is that a magical power? Because he doesn’t shut up. He’s the kind to keep pestering, worse than a dog with a bone.”

  “He knows I could pull him from the case and give you another wolf to keep busy for a few days. As he doesn’t want that, he’s taking care not to offend me. I have what he wants, which is control over his bounty. I’m thinking I’m paying too much for the mutt.”

  “He’s a pain in the ass. You said so yourself. You should be paying me extra to put up with him. I stopped and thought long and hard if being stuck with him for three days was worth the paycheck,” I replied, careful to keep my tone as neutral as possible.

  “You’re absolutely right. I didn’t offer you enough on the bounty. Give me your additional terms, and I’ll see if I can get them added to the contract.”

  “A new car,” Wayne suggested. “Hers had an unfortunate incident.”

  “I’ve seen pictures. I’m not going to get between you giving her a new car, Wayne. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not stupid. I’ll give you a week to take her out, let her stretch her legs, and find a car she likes. But that’s a bribe to you to make sure you don’t whine over having been sold out for a few days.”

  “I’m not going to whine over being cruelly forced to spend time with Joyce, Lenny.”

  “Right. Well, accept the bribe anyway. There’s a cash bonus for having been sold out, too. This is so Joyce gets compensation, not so you get compensation. You’re already being compensated, so keep quiet for a few minutes.”

  “First, do my employees know I’ll be out of town a while on official business? I don’t want to return to work to attend my execution at the hands of a bunch of angry people.”

  “Someone went to your offices this morning to explain the situation, so try not to worry. There are a few people available if they need help while you’re gone.”

  “Then I’m good.” Wayne got up, dodged the blood and glass, and retrieved the second bottle of wine from the fridge. “I’ll go arrange for a new room for us, Joyce.”

  “Sit your ass down, Wayne. I already put someone on it. As soon as we’re done here, you can grab the keys from the lobby,” Wayne’s boss ordered. “Thoughts, Joyce?”

  I pointed at Wayne. “This isn’t some twisted version of Stockholm syndrome or something, is it?”

  “It’s not. Lycanthropes enjoy when their partners do elaborate things to stake their claims. Usually, we discourage actual kidnapping, but in this case, the CDC wanted help encouraging you to mingle with other lycanthropes, and Wayne is the only male who has been able to approach you without you having really negative reactions. As I said, you’ve been monitored, both by the FBI and the CDC.”

  “Wayne said the FBI might be able to help find the asshole who attacked me.”

  “The CDC has an active investigation into the case, and they have requested FBI assistance. They have kept this quiet, as they want you to be able to settle into your life. But it’s been apparent you haven’t been able to adjust. You have no known family life, and you haven’t integrated with any packs. Add in that Wayne is the only lycanthrope with any ability to get close to you at all, and the CDC reached out to see what the FBI was willing to do about the situation. Since you have had some known problems sniffing around your turf, which were noticed during monitoring, we decided to solve multiple problems at one time.”

  “Why now?” I asked.

  “Opportunity. We knew Wayne wanted your apartment so he could move forward with a business plan of his. We were aware he was making contact with you. As he made contact with you recently, we decided to put in a bounty offer to see if you’d move on it. You did, so here we are. Fortunately, because you’re so closely monitored, had Marlando made a move, we would have known about it immediately. We were not expecting him to hit your car, nor we were expecting his up-front assaults, but it works out well. We’ll have a team at the hotel for the rest of the night, and your new room will be on a upper floor so we can better protect you. Tomorrow, you’ll have an unmarked FBI vehicle available at your disposal so we can track you. Wayne knows how to activate the beacons in the vehicle shoul
d there be any trouble, help can arrive quickly. You’ll be followed by two pairs, who will be able to get to you within five minutes at all times.”

  Wayne sighed. “So much for a nice vacation.”

  “You’ll survive,” his boss promised.

  “Where do you want me to take him?”

  “Wherever you want, Joyce. He’s yours to do with as you please. Just be aware that Marlando is a lot like his brother, and now that you’ve stung his pride, he’ll make another move. He won’t make another move tonight, not with so many agents and cops camping out here, but as soon as he thinks he can get away with it, he’ll be after you. Why? It could be to give you to his brother, it could be for a hundred and one different reasons. All we do know for certain is that you’re very likely the only woman who has survived an attack by Eugene Marlando, and that makes you a target. I only question why you weren’t targeted sooner.”

  I scowled. “You know how I don’t take kill bounties, Mr. Lenny?”

  “Just call me Lenny, please. My last name is Haslet, and truth be told, I think about changing it every damned day. But yes, I’m aware.”

  “Okay, Lenny. If you were to offer me a kill bounty for a penny to take out the fucker who attacked me in an alley, I’d accept while smiling. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful my wolf has done so much for me, but she gets guilty about it, and she deserves better.”

  My wolf stilled, listening and waiting.

  “I think we can pay you a little better than a penny for such a bounty.”

  “Well, I’d accept a bounty for that asshole, especially if he targeted other women.”

  “Right now, he’s suspected to have murdered at least twenty-five women and six men, all roughly in the same fashion. He hasn’t been declared a serial killer yet for a few reasons.”

  “What are those reasons?”

  “We can’t figure out how the killings are connected, and we can’t call someone who attacks people in alleys a serial killer solely on the grounds he attacks people in alleys. There are other criterial he needs to meet.”