Hail To The King

by Michael Anderle

  Tyler shrugged, then winced a little and leaned against the wall. “I made such a persuasive case that even that thug Brownstone realized it was a good idea. Except…things have gotten complicated.”

  “Because Lars is now going to ambush Brownstone with two other guys.”

  Tyler nodded and offered her a pained smile. “Yeah, that’s kind of how it worked out. It wasn’t exactly the plan, but it’s how things ended.”

  “And Tweedledee and Tweedledum in the bar? What was their deal?”

  “Some of Lars’ guys. They didn’t want me warning Brownstone. I figured that even if they kicked the shit out of me, you’d be able to get a warning to him. They had my phone.” He frowned. “I need to remember to go grab it. Maybe Kathy did.”

  Maria stared at him. “You wanted to warn Brownstone?”

  Tyler waved a hand. “Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t about saving his ass. I’ve just got a lot of money riding on him.”

  Maria groaned and scrubbed a hand over her face. “You stupid fucking moron. No, I should say, you stupid fucking morons. What? Did you honestly think some piece of shit cop-killer would play nice? That you could control him?”

  “Um, yes?”

  She jabbed a finger in his chest. “You know what? This is the problem with men. You can’t think past your dicks. I would have thought Brownstone would have been too stubborn for this sort of shit, and you too smart.” She spun on her heel. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get AET there in time to save him.”

  “Brownstone knew what he was agreeing to. Uh, mostly. It’s not your problem.”

  Maria stormed off. “Call Brownstone. Warn him. At least he’ll have a fucking chance then.”

  Tyler followed along. “Look, mistakes happen.”

  She continued pushing her way through the crowd toward the entrance.

  “The time’s almost up,” Tyler shouted to the crowd. “Place your final bets, and all you assholes who bet on those three dicks when I was getting my ass kicked? Those count!”

  Shay stomped back and forth, kicking at the dust and rocks, her heart thundering. She glared at the surrounding pine trees, clutching her phone.

  She wanted to punch someone. A tree would have to do.

  James, you stupid fucking idiot. You purposely kept this from me, too.

  The tomb raider took several deep breaths and slowly let them out. There was nothing she could do about James. She wasn’t in a city, so even if Peyton could find a wizard or she could stumble on some hidden magical passage, it didn’t matter. James would have to win the battle on his own. Just like with the Drow, by the time she got there it’d be too late.

  She dialed Alison. The girl deserved to know what was going on, and what might happen.

  You better not die, James. You’ll break that poor girl’s heart.

  “Hey, Mo…Aunt Shay,” Alison answered.

  “Stupid fucking idiot men with shit moronic actions,” Shay shouted into the phone. “I fucking hate them all!”

  “Um, excuse me?”

  Shay kicked a nearby dried stump. “Your dad is a fucking moron, and the next time I see him, I’m gonna strangle him. Then I’m gonna shoot him. Then I’m gonna bring him back to life so I can throw him off a building.”

  “O-okay. Are you all right, Aunt Shay? Did you have some sort of fight? I mean, I know Dad’s still working on the whole emotional intelligence thing, but this is a little mean, I think.”

  The tomb raider resisted throwing her phone to the ground and stomping on it. It wasn’t Alison’s fault. Or the phone’s.

  “Your idiot dad decided he was gonna set up some sort of scheduled bounty capture and make money off it. Kind of like a pay-per-view fight. But because he’s a bounty hunter and not a girl who can see souls or a super-smart tomb raider who can see through bullshit, he didn’t anticipate that he might get tricked. So now he’s walking straight into an ambush of a level-five guy and two level-fours when he thinks it’s just gonna be one guy. Stupid pig-fucking-headed moron.”

  Alison sighed. “This is Dad we’re talking about. Even if there are extra tough guys, I’m sure he can handle it. He’s always been able to before.”

  Shay threw up a hand. “There’s nothing I can do about it either. I’m seriously in the middle of nowhere, and I have absolutely no way of getting there in time. I’m extra fucking pissed, too, because I asked him the other day if he was up to anything, and he conveniently forgot to mention all this. That proves it. That fucking proves that he knew this was bullshit.”

  “Aunt Shay, you need to take a few deep breaths and calm down. Getting really worked up about it won’t help, and if worse comes to worst, he has the wish. He has his amulet with him, too.”

  The tomb raider rubbed her forehead. Alison was right, but James couldn’t use the wish if he was dead and there were no guarantees how long his enemies would risk letting him live.

  Damn you, James.

  “How do you even know any of this?” Alison asked.

  “That AET lieutenant, Maria Hall—the one who helped saved his ass last time—she gave me a call. I don’t even know how the hell she has my number, but she explained the situation about how your dad is participating in basically the world’s stupidest pay-per-view fight, and I called you to let you know.”

  “But not Dad? Shouldn’t he be warned?”

  “She’s got someone else calling to warn him.” Shay marched over to one of the pine trees and kicked the trunk several times. “I figured you deserved to know, and if I called him, nothing would happen but me screaming at him for ten minutes straight. That would feel good for me, but wouldn’t be helpful.”

  Alison laughed. “Probably. After we’re done here, I think I should be the one to call him, so at least somebody close is talking to him about this.”

  “Fine,” Shay replied through gritted teeth. “I have a lot of aggression to work out before I speak with James Brownstone again.”

  “You do need to remember that he took care of himself before the two of us ever entered his life. He can be stubborn and make mistakes, but it’s also not like he’s a guy who doesn’t know how to deal with danger.”

  Shay finished kicking the poor defenseless pine tree. “Fine. I’ll just try to believe in him and his stupid amulet.”

  “That’s all we can do. I know it’ll be hard, but I’ll be home soon, and then I can help keep him in check.”

  “You mean help me kill him?”

  Alison laughed. “I don’t think we should kill Dad. Promise me you won’t.”

  “I won’t,” Shay grumbled.

  22

  James frowned as he put his truck into park and turned it off. The Salton Sea was just as he remembered it—nothing but sand, rocks, and dirt for miles. The water that had once been there had left its mark but was long gone.

  Where’s Lars? If that fucker made me drive all the way out here just to flake out, I hope Tyler tells everyone how much of a chickenshit he is. Fuck, I’ll have Heather spread that shit around.

  For all James knew Lars had teleported there. The bounty hunter still had a few hundred yards to hike to the actual coordinates. The battlefield was nestled between several small and large dunes, but James didn’t want to drive his truck over there and risk even more injury to his old friend.

  He glared at the crack in the windshield before opening his door and stepping outside. The harsh sun beat down on him.

  “Yeah, I was a dumbass to pick this place again,” James muttered. “But I might as well get ready. I’ve got some ass to kick.”

  He reached under his shirt and yanked the metal separator off the back of his amulet. The alien artifact burned as it touched his chest. The whispers erupted immediately in his mind.

  Initiation.

  There’d been a brief second of understanding followed by a feeling of anticipation, but the word had been clear this time. Alien, but understandable.

  Initiation? What the fuck does that mean?

  Pain blosso
med from the point of contract, knocking the question of James’ head. The agony spread to the rest of his chest, then to his head and limbs.

  James hissed at the fire burning through every cell in his body. The whispers returned, quiet and insistent. The amulet was ready for battle.

  He took several deep breaths and threw open the back of the truck to grab his equipment, including his potions, grenades, and knives. Lars was a level five, so James wasn’t about to make the mistake of underestimating him.

  James’ phone rang on the console, and he pulled it out. Tyler.

  Better not fucking chew me out again about being out of town, asshole.

  “What?” James rumbled into the phone. “I’m trying to get ready here.”

  Guess it’s a good thing I finally bothered to get a phone with backup satellite service.

  He thought about asking Heather to provide backup, but Tyler was already watching the area, and this was supposed to be a one-on-one confrontation. If it went well, even if Lars was taken down, it might be a trick they could use on a few other high-level bounties.

  “I’ve got active camera feeds,” Tyler began. “Also got some drones flying around with good vision.” He sighed. “But there’s a problem. A big fucking problem, and you need to know about it before you hit the site.”

  James cradled the phone with his neck as he slipped on his tactical harness. “What? I don’t see any other cars or trucks here. Did that fucker run?”

  “No, kind of the opposite, and that’s the problem.”

  “What do you mean?” James finished putting on the harness and loading magazines into it.

  “Lars double-crossed us. He’s got at least two other guys with him, two level fours. One’s a wizard and the other’s some sort of gun mage, from what I’ve found out. That’s three badasses coming at you at once.” Tyler let out another long sigh. “You’ve got to believe me, Brownstone. I didn’t plan this shit. I would have called you sooner, but Lars had two goons watching me and they had my phone. You can ask Lieutenant Hall later about the beat-down they gave me. I risked my handsome face for you.”

  James grunted. “I don’t think you would plan something like this. You’re a dick, but you’re not a psychopath.”

  Tyler chuckled. “You should also know that Maria is pissed at both of us. She chewed my ass out enough for the both of us, but if you make it through this, you might want to avoid her for a while. I think she might try to put her foot up your ass.”

  James stopped loading magazines into his harness. “Shit, Lieutenant Hall knows about all this?”

  “Yeah. Other than her being pissed, what’s the big deal?”

  “She might…tell some people I know, is all, and they’ll be pissed.”

  “Some people you know?” Tyler laughed. “You sound like you’re afraid of a woman finding out. You got a girlfriend, Brownstone? How did you hide that shit from me?”

  “Fuck off, Tyler. None of your fucking business.” James grabbed a few grenades and clipped them onto his tactical belt.

  “Hey, don’t worry about it. Anyway, I still have faith in your ability to kick ass. I’ve never lost money betting on you, and…fuck. Sonofabitch.” Scratching filled the other end of the line.

  “What’s going on?”

  Tyler muttered something before coming back over the line. “Someone just took out all my drones. Fuckers. I had eyes on Lars and Patrick—that’s the wizard—but I don’t have eyes on the third guy—the gun mage. Lars and Patrick are behind a large dune about a hundred yards out from the coordinates.”

  James started slipping throwing knives into sheaths. “At least now I know the fuckers are already here.”

  “Without the drones, I’m not going to have a lot of the good aerial camera angles. And that’s if they don’t jam the shit.”

  “So sorry. Next time, make sure you don’t get double-crossed by a cop-killing psychopath.” James grunted and slid a K-Bar into his final open sheath. “You’re still gonna make a shitload off the betting, even if they take out every camera.”

  “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Look, like I said, I still believe in you, asshole. I haven’t lost money yet by betting on you, and I’m betting heavily. So if you die, it won’t just be hard on you. It’ll be hard on me.”

  James snorted. “Love your priorities. Doesn’t matter. Let’s make lots of money. I’ve got to save up for Disneyland.”

  “That isn’t too far off. No matter how much money you make, there is a way to spend it all there. They make Happy Magic Land seem cheap by comparison.”

  Both men laughed.

  “See you, Tyler.” James ended the call and lowered his phone.

  He was about to stick it in his pocket when it rang again. He lifted it back to his face.

  “What, Tyler?”

  Alison laughed. “It’s not Tyler.”

  James’ stomach tightened. The timing of her call was too perfect.

  “What’s up, kid?”

  “Tell me you’ve got the amulet with you. Please tell me that you’ve already got it on.”

  The amulet whispered in his mind. Pride, maybe.

  James sighed. “Yeah, but how did you know I needed it?”

  A few beats of silence ticked by. “That’s not important. What is important is that Mom is going to rip your manhood off if you get hurt doing your stupid pay-per-view event. She’s pretty hot right now since she’s worried.”

  James frowned. “What? Okay, I don’t know how you know about this. Well, I have an idea, but I guess that’s not important. Why would Shay be that mad about it? I’m a bounty hunter. I go after bad guys. The only difference this time is that I knew where they’d be, so why I am in trouble?”

  “Are you serious right now?”

  He shrugged. “I’m just saying. Maybe things haven’t gone the way I planned, but that isn’t different from any other bounty, so why would she be so worried?”

  “You know how you can tell if someone’s lying to themselves?”

  James closed the back door of his truck. He had all the equipment he needed. “You look at their soul energy?”

  “No, Dad. That’s how I would know.” She laughed. “I meant, how do you know if you’re lying to yourself?”

  He leaned against the side of his truck. “I don’t lie to myself. Ever.”

  “Everyone does, and I know you did, but given what Mom was saying, it’s obvious that you didn’t tell her. Are you going to honestly tell me you didn’t know about this pay-per-view thing for the last few days? It doesn’t sound like something that’d be set up in a day.”

  James winced. “Yeah, I’ve known about it for a few days.”

  “Which means you didn’t tell her on purpose, so you’re lying to yourself if you’re saying that you didn’t purposely keep it from her. That means that, on some level, you knew she’d worry.”

  James groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Well, I didn’t want to distract her. She needs to concentrate on… Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll tell her that next time I talk to her.”

  “I’m glad you understand. Now get out there and kick their butts, and maybe wear a cup next time Mom’s home. And you owe me a show when I get home, too.”

  “Sure. Maybe we can go see Hamilton at the Pantages.” James smiled.

  “Love you, Dad.”

  “Love you too, Alison.” He hung up and pocketed his phone.

  So even if I survive Lars and his asshole friends, I still have to survive Shay.

  James marched toward the coordinates, thinking about everything Alison had said. She was right. He could have told Shay, but he’d held back.

  Fuck. That’s not the way to have a relationship. She’s got every right to be pissed at me when she comes back.

  As James approached the appointed area, he frowned. Still no sign of Lars or anyone else. He wasn’t that worried about taking on more than one at a time, but he needed them to at least be somewhere he could see them.

  He looked a
t the far dunes. Tyler had said they were there, but they might have moved.

  James considered calling Heather, but it wouldn’t help. Even if she could get drones in the area, they’d just be taken out like Tyler’s.

  It was time to apply the same strategy everyone was always trying to apply to him.

  “Fucking Lars,” James shouted. “Why don’t you come out and face me? I thought you were ready to face me, but you’re just a pussy, huh? A fake reputation.”

  Something slammed into James’ chest. Pain spiked through his ribs, and he fell to the ground, blood soaking into his shirt.

  The amulet shouted in his mind, furious.

  “You’re telling me,” he muttered. He hissed and scrambled back to his feet, running zigzag toward a nearby dune and trying to ignore the pain. Something else whizzed by his head. Someone was blasting at him with high-powered, high-velocity rounds that could wound him but not make any noise.

  Fucking gun mage.

  Bullet after bullet struck behind him, kicking up dust and rock. A bullet grazed his thigh, and another clipped his shoulder.

  James grunted and continued running toward the dune. He leapt behind an extensive outcropping, trying to ignore the pain from his wounds. The throbbing in his leg made him wonder if the bone had been damaged.

  “That shit got past you, huh? That means someone with a big-ass gun is out there. If I didn’t have you, I’d probably have a hole the size of Kansas in me.”

  The amulet raged in his mind. Vengeance. Anger.

  The bounty hunter ignored his angry body partner for a moment and grabbed one of the healing potions from a pouch. “Glad I got a six-pack from Zoe.”

  He downed the potion, and his wounds sealed themselves in under fifteen seconds.

  James eyed the empty potion bottle. “Guess the tweaked recipe was a good thing after all.”

  The amulet continued murmuring loudly in his mind.

  Kill.

  James blinked. The word might be alien in his mind, but the translation rang perfectly in his thoughts.