“Where are you taking him?” Nick asked.
“Beaumont,” a tall, dark-skinned EMT with blond hair said. The other EMT, a man with a salt-and-pepper goatee as long as the devil’s strapped Dolph in and they wheeled him out the door. Nobody asked Nick to ride along.
He would have left immediately, but all three of the other people behind the counter had come and given a multitude of apologies in both English and Thai, each bowing in turn.
Nick walked with no idea of direction, he just wanted to get away from there. He had never seen anything like that before. Despite Dolph probably being old enough to be his grandfather, he was still a powerful man and for him to be reduced to that after doing something as mundane as eating lunch, it was unsettling.
Nick had walked about four blocks and was gradually feeling like his usual self when he realized he was being followed. The only thing that stood out was the roaring engine of a motorcycle heading east somewhere behind him. He was headed south and saw no repeat cars. Nick picked up his pace, turning right and left at random at the ends of the next two blocks, and still couldn’t shake the feeling.
He walked backward a few steps and spied a black limousine about fifty feet back. He wanted to be sure it was following him in case he felt the need to run. The limousine didn’t accelerate to catch up to him and he turned around again.
“Should I lose these guys or wait up to see what they want?” he asked himself. The fact they weren’t speeding up behind him and running him over hinted that they might not mean him any harm. Unless they were kidnappers.
He was so preoccupied with looking over his shoulder at the vehicle that he didn’t see Lieutenant Leonard walk right up to him from the other direction.
“Good afternoon, Nick.” He looked up and saw the man, surprised, and stopped.
“Good afternoon,” Nick said, noticing the quaver in his voice. What was he doing here? And how had Leonard found him?
“Don’t worry, we were following Adolphus, but we were looking for you.”
“For me? Why?” Nick had already halted and was seriously considering taking a step or two backward. Hell, why not go wild with a full-out running away?
Because they had him, that was why. Leonard was in front of him and the limo was behind. If he tried to run, maybe someone would throw one of those nets over him that got people all tangled up like in movies. Or maybe Leonard would take a hand out of his coat and shoot him with a taser.
Before he knew it, the limo had pulled up alongside them.
“You did good work yesterday.”
“Oh, really? Nice of you to drop by and tell me. You should have called. Did you catch the guy?”
“No.” Leonard shook his head once. “Not yet.” Nick’s heart sank a little. Not that he was worried about the killer striking again, he wanted what he’d said to count for something. “You gave us a really good lead, though.”
Lieutenant Leonard closed the gap between them, standing less than three feet away.
“Listen, we want you to come back with us. There’s some things we’d like you to take a look at for us.”
“Oh, really?” Nick said a second time. “Well, if you have everything about wrapped up, what can I do for you?”
“We have another case that’s ongoing. Totally unrelated to this. Could involve some travel.”
Nick stopped himself from saying ‘Oh, really?’ a third time. He nodded while he thought of something else to say. “How much does it pay?”
“Pay?” Leonard half snorted. “You’d be doing your country a favor.”
“Well, doing my country favors doesn’t pay my bills.”
Leonard poked out his lower lip and looked around like he was thinking. “I hear you there. I’m sure we can work something out. I have to run it by my superiors. You understand.” The lieutenant took his gloved hands out of his pockets and let them drop by his sides. Empty. Nick untensed slightly. He could be trying to disarm him.
Someone pulled up to a light on a motorcycle at the corner about twenty feet ahead. The engine sounded like it could have been from the one he’d heard before. Nick looked over Leonard’s shoulder and the man turned to see as well before they looked at each other again. Nick kept his eyes on Leonard as the person on the bike look in their direction.
“Well, that sounds nice. Maybe let me think about it?”
Leonard’s smile didn’t reach those dead brown eyes. Nick heard an electronic hum come from the limo and he turned to see the rear window sliding down and a double barreled shotgun poke out in his direction.
Nick froze.
“We don’t have to do it this way,” Leonard said. “I said we don’t have to do it this way!” Nick looked at him and saw Leonard facing the limo. The weapon hung out the window a few seconds longer and withdrew.
“Sorry, boss,” a pretty face said after hovering into view. Nick could tell instantly that she was a vamp. She was as pale as milk and her lips were crimson.
The light must have changed because Nick heard the motorcycle take off. Nobody looked and that was the mistake. Several rounds slammed into the limo, pinging off the metal and shattering the windows. Nick instinctively ducked and Leonard did the same.
He could smell blood and knew someone had been hit. Several voices inside shouted and then the car screeched away, racing to the other side of the street and hitting an electrical pole, leaving the two of them out in the open as the motorcycle spun around and began speeding back.
There was nowhere to run. The building closest to him was closed and abandoned. There was only sidewalk and street and seconds before the rider reached them. Nick thought about grabbing Leonard and using him as a human shield, but the likelihood was that Leonard would grab him. He was shorter, compact, and strongly built.
Whoever it was stopped about a dozen feet away from them, took a handgun out of his jacket pocket and shot Leonard. Nick leapt back in shock. Leonard hadn’t merely fallen over dead. His legs melted and he hit the ground hard, twitching. There were two wires coming from somewhere underneath him, connected to the weapon the rider held in hand. Leonard’s head smoked like it was catching fire and his face blackened.
The rider tossed the taser aside and unslung what looked to be a mini cannon, aiming it at the limo and firing. The car flipped over onto its roof, the explosion making Nick flinch again.
A few cars had driven by before the rider had begun firing and now cars raced away quickly.
The figure held a hand out to Nick.
“Let’s go,” came a woman’s flat voice. Nick stood on shaky legs, afraid to go with this person and afraid to stay where he was. The carnage had only taken seconds and it had all been dealt by one person.
The police would be here any minute and Nick didn’t want to count himself amongst the bodies. He took her hand and hopped on.
She wore a backpack and Nick crushed up against it, feeling hard objects inside he could only imagine were weapons of some sort. The motorcycle took off and Nick clutched her waist, closing his eyes. He saw no other choice as he probably did the worst thing imaginable given what had just happened.
They weaved in and out of traffic, Nick feeling and hearing every car they passed. He dared to open his eyes and saw they were passing by cars with a margin of error of inches. Each time she leaned left or right, he stiffened, expecting them to spill across the street. Soon they were out of the city, away from the bulk of midafternoon traffic.
The motorcycle curved up a small slope and quickly came to a halt. She cut the engine and slapped his thigh.
“Get off,” she said. Nick peeled himself away from her and slowly dismounted. They were in the parking lot of an old shoe store. The woman took off her helmet and ruffled a leather-clad hand in the single afro puff at the back of her jet black hair.
Nick stared in awe. She had bright hazel eyes, dark ebony skin, and lips so full they looked on the verge of bursting.
“Something wrong with your eyes?” she said flatly. She had a sligh
t accent. Maybe Jamaican.
“Uh, no. I was just looking at you.” Nick averted his gaze, not meaning to say it like that. “You’re so pretty.”
Dammit! It just spilled out. What was wrong with his mouth?
She cocked her head. “You’re a vamp, aren’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I am.”
She laughed. The sound sent shivers down his whole body and he shifted his feet. “Ma’am? How old do you think I am?”
“I don’t know.” Nick found something interesting by the curb to look at.
“Go on. Guess. I won’t be mad.”
“I don’t know. Thirty?”
The smile dropped off her face.
“Let’s go inside.”
Nick didn’t like the look she’d given him. She put the kick stand up and got off the bike. Nick followed close behind her into store. She took off the leather jacket and folded it over her arm. They went to the rear of the store where she picked up a pair of cuffed, low cut boots and sat down on a bench to take hers off.
“Are you buying those?” Nick said.
“What do you think people come into a shoe store for?” she said, her back to him. He supposed that was a good cover, actually buying something from the place they were hiding out. He didn’t even know her, though, and she seemed already mad at him.
“Are you mad at me?”
“No.”
“Are you going to shoot me?”
She looked at him over her shoulder, a half smile returning to her face. She stood and walked up and down the aisle, her long slender legs attracting his eyes like magnets.
“How do they look?” she asked.
“What?”
“The boots. Do they look good on me?”
“Yeah.”
“All right. You wait here. I have to find the facilities.”
She handed Nick her jacket and he watched her walk off, appreciating the view. She stopped and said something to an employee and the shorter woman pointed over her shoulder. He realized she hadn’t answered his question. He also realized he didn’t know her name.
Dutifully, he stayed put. For a moment he thought she had left him, but shortly after she returned.
She had unpinned her hair and it flowed wildly around her head. The backpack was gone, replaced by a purse, and she had changed her clothes, wearing a yellow dress with slits in the sleeves to show off the skin of her arms. It made her look like a teenager.
“How do I look?” she said, spreading her arms.
“Like a dandelion,” Nick replied. His voice had a dreamy quality he couldn’t help. He felt a half second of regret at letting his first thought come out of his mouth but her roar of laughter eased his mind.
“Should I say thank you for that?”
“If you want to. I like it.”
“Good. I won’t shoot you then.”
Nick’s smile melted. Even though he couldn’t have said where, he had no doubt she had a weapon somewhere in there.
“I’m Ti. Lucky asked to me to look in on you.” She offered her hand and he shook it. Despite the overtly feminine appearance, she had a strong grip.
“I’m Nick. I guess you already know that.” She smiled again and it looked as natural on her as the scowl had before. “How did you find me?”
“I’ve been following you since the apartment. Lucky said some military types might come looking for you.”
“Well, he didn’t tell me.”
“A better question is who did you go to lunch with? Because they were following him.”
“I did some consulting with him. They invited us to come—”
“Stop right there.” Ti held a hand up. “The less I know the better.”
“Finding everything okay?” a short, pudgy woman with a name tag that read ‘Alyssa’ asked. Her dark blonde hair was braided to the side, draped down the front of her.
“We’re fine,” Ti said, putting her foot up on the bench. “Trying to decide on these in either black or red.”
“Well, you don’t have to decide,” Alyssa said. “It’s the last day of our BOGO sale.”
“No!” Ti’s brown eyes were huge. Nick had no clue what BOGO meant, but apparently it made boots more special. She looked at the boots on her feet, pointed at him, then over to the racks of shoes. “Get me the red ones, love.”
Nick’s heart fluttered a little and he took a step over, his hands hovering over a pair.
“Uh, what size?”
“All this time and you don’t know my shoe size?” The singsong rhythm of her suddenly thick accent was pleasing to his ear. She turned to Alyssa. “If he didn’t cook so good I’d trow ‘im out. Go on, boy, and grab the shoes I want.”
The two women giggled and Nick found himself catching up again. She was pretending they were a couple. He found himself liking the idea for a different reason. She was attractive. The first woman he could recall being attracted to since he could remember. Nick had a desire to experience everything he thought normal people experienced. Falling in love and being with someone was definitely one of those. So he wasn’t in love with her; he could learn.
It wasn’t as if he had nothing to go on. She was the one who had chosen to pretend they were a couple. Did that mean she had at least a smidge of interest in him? And the way she had laughed before. That seemed so genuine, so… he didn’t know the word. Whatever it was, it felt right to him.
“Come on, let’s go, love. Get your wallet.” Ti handed him the shoebox with her old boots inside to carry. They walked up front and stood in a short line before coming to a register. The cashier rang up the shoes and the total surprised him.
“I thought these shoes were on sale,” he said.
“Silly, that is the sale price.” Ti shook her head. The cashier stared at him and after a few seconds he looked at Ti. “Now would be a good time for you to open up that wallet.” Nick opened his mouth to complain, then thought better of it. It was the least he could do. This was the woman who had saved his life asking for him to pay for a couple pairs of shoes. At the very least, she had kept him from being kidnapped.
The shoes stung, though. They set him back about half the cash he had left. He wondered how long Dolph would be out of commission. They had agreed for him to do some consulting work, though with him in the hospital it might be a while before he got around to making that phone call. His depletion of funds had highlighted that he needed to do something ASAP to bring money in.
He paid the cashier, thinking of Lucky. Nick needed this new job he’d told him about more than ever. Hopefully, it didn’t involve anything with a gun. There were people surrounding the motorcycle as they approached the doors.
“How do we get out of here?” he asked Ti.
“We walk out,” she said, taking her jacket from him. She turned it inside out and it was now a white leather jacket. She’d ditched the helmet and he realized she looked absolutely nothing like she had when they came in.
“What about me?”
She pulled a ratty blue baseball cap out of the jacket pocket and slapped it on his head. He realized he didn’t see anyone out there he’d seen before and they didn’t look like police. Probably some kind of military security, dispatched to find who had hit Lieutenant Leonard and Co.
Nick pushed open the door and held it for Ti.
“Thank you,” she said as they walked past the group of beefy guard-types in leather from head to toe. One of them glanced their way and he felt familiar, though his face was new to Nick. Nobody stopped them as they left the lot and crossed the street to a bus stop, where they stood until a bus arrived a few minutes later. The whole time Nick kept expecting someone to jog over and begin asking them questions or to point from where they were and say something like, ‘There they are!’
It never happened. They got on the bus and Nick dug in his pocket again for cash. Ti put a hand to his wrist.
“I’ll take this one,” she said and paid their fare.
They found a spot near the rear. There
were only five other people riding and Ti sat them right next to the rear exit doors.
She didn’t talk, didn’t smile, didn’t laugh; she was back to the steely figure clad in black, even if she was dressed up like spring under her white leather jacket.
No, Nick was not in love with her and she certainly wasn’t with him. It still stung.
They got off the bus about ten minutes later and turned south. They walked a block, the small office buildings and fast food restaurants turning into wide, industrial sized buildings.
The one to the right had what looked like a large crucifix affixed to its roof. It took Nick a few minutes to realize it really was a cross and by the time they got to the front entrance, saw the sign in bold read ‘Church’.
A tall man with lifeless dark eyes and brown-tipped dreadlocks down to his waist stood by the entrance doors in a brown leather coat.
“Wh’ham, star?” he said to them. Nick didn’t know what that meant and didn’t want to ask. Ti walked past the man but he put the fingertips of his upraised hand into Nick’s chest. “All must pay d’tide.”
“Pay the what?” Nick asked. The tall man didn’t repeat himself. “Look, buddy, I’m with her and you didn’t make her pay anything.”
“Ladies get inta Church for free on weekdays. All others pay the cover.” He pronounced ‘church’ like there was a Y in there somewhere. The singsong rhythm of his accent agitated Nick.
Ti said something in rapid French without turning around and kept walking.
“C’mon, Ti, I’m just ‘avin’ a little fun, ‘ere.” He looked back at Nick and waved him on. “Go on, killjoy.”
Nick caught up to Ti, looking around. They were in a wide hallway with paintings on the walls. The carpet felt thick underfoot and every few feet there were stands with pamphlets stacked in them.
“What is this place?”
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