“All I did was make a little money. It wasn’t a real crime.”
Aunt Charlyce snorted. “You tricked money out of little old ladies.”
“Every prospectus I sent out to potential clients encouraged them to do their due diligence. It’s not my fault they didn’t listen.”
Trey snorted. “Were you just born a bitch, or did you have to take special pills for it?”
“I’m just saying that if people get tricked, it’s their own fault.”
Aunt Charlyce laughed. “So it’s your own fault that we tricked you into opening the door?”
The woman harrumphed, clearly entranced by her own carefully curated sense of superiority. Trey continued guiding the bounty down the hall. He sighed and shook his head.
At the other end of the hallway, a middle-aged Indian woman opened her door and stuck her head out, curious about all the commotion.
The bounty grimaced. “Your food! It’s your food that’s fucking with my life!”
Trey and his aunt laughed.
20
James’ chair creaked underneath his heavy frame as he waited to talk to Detective West or his partner. He’d thought they’d be eager to see him, but the way the desk sergeant kept eyeing him, the bounty hunter was convinced that the police would have preferred him anywhere but there. Maybe it was just because of the way everyone kept focusing on him.
Guess that’s the price of being famous.
He’d just pulled out his phone to check on the latest barbeque news when Detective West stepped around the corner.
“Mr. Brownstone, please come with me.” The detective turned without even waiting.
James stood and followed him down the hallway into a small interrogation room. Detective Lafayette already sat inside at a plain white table.
Detective West closed the door behind James once they were both inside the room. “Your message mentioned that you needed something?”
“Yeah. A DNA sample.”
The two cops exchanged glances and Detective West sighed. “I…don’t think that’s possible.”
“Huh? You gave me a bunch of evidence before.”
The cop shook his head. “I let you know a few things we found, and even that was stretching things. I’m not sure giving you DNA will be okay. We don’t want to fuck up the case.”
“You want this guy or not? If you give me DNA, I can track his ass down. The clock’s ticking, and you’re only lucky that he hasn’t killed anyone else.” He frowned. “Or he has, and you just haven’t found the bodies yet.”
The cops’ faces tightened. They looked at each other again, and Detective Lafayette nodded to his partner.
“Wait here, Brownstone,” Detective West ordered. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He disappeared into the hallway, and James pulled out his phone to read up on a few new experimental barbeque spice blends. His annoyance made him want to chat even less than usual.
He wanted to nail Red Eyes as soon as possible, but he needed the cops’ cooperation to do that. Otherwise, it was back to hitting street contacts and being too late to stop murders. James had made a promise to that little girl, and he intended to keep it.
After a few minutes, Detective Lafayette cleared his throat. “Hey, Brownstone. “I’m curious about something.”
James looked up from his phone. “What?”
“Why do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Bounty hunting. You’re a tough guy. You could have gotten involved in some sort of enhanced MMA league or some shit like that. Fuck, you could have been a criminal.”
James snorted. “You think everyone who is tough is a criminal?”
“I’ve been a cop a long time, and I think a lot of people get drunk on power, magical or otherwise.”
The bounty hunter stared at the cop. Maybe it was the nature of the case or maybe it was because Shay was out of the country, but for some reason, the truth spilled from his lips before he could stop it.
“Revenge,” James rumbled.
“Revenge?”
“Or justice—whatever the fuck you want to call it. The truth is, I’m an orphan.” No reason for the police officer to know he was an alien orphan. “I ended up in a Catholic orphanage. I don’t remember my real parents, but there was a priest who took me under his wing, and he died protecting me.” James’ hand curled into a fist “That lit a fire in me. I…don’t know any other way to burn off the injustice.”
An odd expression settled over the cop’s face and he nodded.
“What?” James barked.
“Just…surprised, I guess. Everyone knows you’re tough, and you’ve got a good reputation for helping cops, but I still thought that in the end, you were in it for the money. But I don’t get it. If your job is more about justice than money, why not become a cop?”
James shook his head. “I don’t play well by other people’s rules, and I like my life simple. Being a cop is all about too many complicated fucking rules.”
Detective Lafayette chuckled. “Damn, don’t I know it!”
Detective West reentered the room holding a small plastic bag with a vial inside.
“We’re putting our asses on the line here, Brownstone, so we’ll need to go with you.”
James grunted. “Does that fuck with my bounty income?”
“You can have your bounty.” The detective shrugged. “But you were the guy saying this wasn’t about the money.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t still want to try to make some money, and if I have to put Red Eyes down to stop him, I’m not gonna shy away from it.”
The detective shrugged. “Not complaining.”
Sergeant Weber threw open the door to Maria’s office, his breathing hard and his face red.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Maria demanded.
“We just got a tip on Tessa Vansant.”
“And?”
“A woman matching her description was asking about a tour visit by Nadina. The event’s in two days at a country club.”
“Who the fuck is Nadina?”
Sergeant Weber stared at her like she was an idiot. She wanted to punch him for that. “The elf?”
“I don’t know the name of every fucking elf in Los Angeles, Weber.”
He shrugged. “She won Barbeque Wars: The Next Generation. She’s kind of famous now—an elf doing barbeque and all that.”
“Oh, so some reality-show chick with pointy ears. Got it.”
Weber looked like he wanted to complain about the characterization but kept his mouth shut.
Maria rubbed her chin. “So we don’t know where Tessa is, but we might know where she’ll be.”
“Yeah.”
“And the source of the tip?”
“Anonymous male over the phone. We couldn’t trace it. From what IT tells me, whoever it was made sure we wouldn’t be able to.”
Is that you showing a tiny slice of conscience, Tyler? I’ll do us both a favor and not ask you about it. Then again, maybe it’s not you.
Maria frowned, wondering about a few other possibilities. “That’s fucking suspicious.”
“Yeah, but this is also the only lead we have.”
“We might be being set up.” Maria shook her head. “What the fuck ever. We should contact the country club. They need to cancel the event.”
“Huh? I thought you would have wanted us to ambush Vansant.”
Maria shrugged. “I’m not going to use a bunch of civilians as bait. Protect and serve.” She grinned. “Or maybe we shouldn’t cancel it.”
Weber blinked. “I’m even more confused. You’re contradicting yourself.”
The lieutenant grabbed a jacket off her the hook on her door. “We can use civilians as bait, as long as they aren’t actually there. Contact the country club. We’ll just station cops there as fake guests or something, so no one has to be at risk.” She slipped on the coat.
“Why do you need the coat? It’s been hot for a while.”
�
��Don’t worry about me, Weber, just contact the country club. I’m going to look into another avenue for tracking this bitch’s ass down.”
Maria drove to Dannec’s apartment building still in uniform, but in her personal car. She threw the jacket on and zipped it up. Her uniform pants were still visible, but without the rest of the uniform obvious she didn’t scream cop—or at least her clothes didn’t.
She made her way to his door, and her jaw dropped when she reached his apartment—or where his apartment should have been. There was no door there anymore, just a wall.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Maria growled. She kicked the wall and walked away.
Well, at least the fucker gave me the deflectors before he teleported his apartment back to Oriceran or wherever.
Maria stomped all the way back to her car and slipped into the driver’s seat, then took a few deep breaths. There were too many damn variables in play. The tip about Tessa Vansant might be a trap, or it might be a legit lead. Two days wasn’t a lot of time to set up a sting, and that was assuming the country club agreed.
If the police made too much noise, they might spook her. Tessa might go somewhere else to butcher innocent people. The woman needed to be stopped and soon.
I’m going to protect and serve my city by putting that bitch in the ground.
Maria pulled off her jacket and tossed it on the passenger seat, where stray rays of sunlight glinted off her badge. She stared down at the metal and frowned.
“Maybe Tyler wasn’t just talking about people not trusting cops when he told me not to dress in my uniform.”
Maria removed her uniform top and stepped out of the car. She looked strange in only her white undershirt, uniform pants, and polished boots, but she didn’t give a shit about looking weird if it worked.
The AET lieutenant marched back to Dannec’s apartment, and this time the door was there.
“Fucking magic. Why does it have to be so obnoxious?”
She knocked on the door, and it opened.
Dannec stood on the other side with a sly smile on his face as if he knew what she’d been through.
Fucker. I’m only not saying shit because you’re helping me.
He motioned her inside, and Maria entered.
“I wasn’t expecting you again so soon, Lieutenant.”
“If you can get me deflectors, you can probably get quick access to tracking magic, right? Or could help me track a suspect?”
Dannec gave a slight shrug. “Maybe. If I had some sort of physical sample from the target I could help you, but it’s my understanding that there are legal barriers to using that sort of thing. You’re required to be able to track a suspect down with non-magical means, I believe. Any tracking magic I could give you would taint your investigation, and you wouldn’t get a conviction.”
Maria snorted. “I want to find them, not convict them.”
The corners of Dannec’s mouth turned up. “Oh. In that case, I might be able to get something for you.”
The ass-kicking the team had received from Brownstone’s floozy still weighed heavily on the lieutenant’s mind. LAPD AET was one of the best equipped in the country. She’d thought they were prepared for anything with all their weapons and gear, but the encounter had proved they weren’t. They had been damned lucky that none of the officers had been killed.
She needed better support this time. She needed to make sure her men went home and not to the coroner’s office at the end of the day.
Maria sighed and shook her head. She was already bending so many rules.
I’ll be fucking Brownstone before this is all over, doing whatever the hell I please because the ends justify the means. Fuck. I need to rein this shit in at least some.
She stared down at her hands and shook her head. “Never mind, Dannec.”
Genuine surprise crossed the elf’s face. “Never mind?”
“I’m already in with you pretty deeply and I do have a lead, so I’m going to play this like a cop, not like some witch. But thanks for seeing me.”
“Very well, Lieutenant Hall. You always know where to find me if you need me.”
Maria turned toward the door.
“One last thing,” the elf called. “Our mutual friend contacted me. I’m happy with your payment efforts so far.”
“Glad you’re happy. Thanks for the deflectors.” Maria pushed out of the apartment.
No, I’m not fucking Brownstone, not yet. We’ll catch Tessa the old-fashioned way.
James led the detectives to the pool and shark tank but stopped about forty feet away.
“You wait here.”
Detective West frowned. “Why?”
“Because I don’t know if my contact is okay with cops.”
The cops nodded.
James continued toward the pool and Margarete appeared out of nowhere a few seconds later. He frowned. He’d been looking straight ahead, and she hadn’t been there, but now she stood in front of him as if she’d been there for an hour.
This time she wasn’t in a green bikini, but a tight metallic green dress that accentuated her curves and contrasted with her red hair. She wasn’t wearing any shoes, and water clung to the bottom of her legs.
“Damn,” Detective West murmured. “That’s his contact? She looks fucking hot. Like surface-of-the-sun hot. How does Brownstone not roll over for her? Maybe he’s gay?”
James snorted.
Detective Lafayette laughed. “I don’t know. I’m half-wondering if I should switch back to Team Hetero and ask her out.”
James rolled his eyes and glanced over his shoulder. The cops were a good distance away and weren’t yelling, but he could hear them like they were standing right next to him.
“Manipulating sound is easy,” Margarete explained as if reading his thoughts. “I was just curious what your friends might be saying. Police officers, I presume.”
The bounty hunter nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t want them over here until I got your permission.”
The woman offered him a flirtatious smile. “Oh, I’ve no problem with the police. I do enjoy staying on the right side of the law.” She waved to the cops and motioned for them to come over.
The detectives hurried to the pair.
Margarete smiled at them both. “Please give me the sample.” Detective West reached into his pocket and pulled out the bag holding the vial. He retrieved the vial from the bag and handed it to the redhead.
She took it with a wink. “I already went through the trouble of preparing everything, so this won’t take long.” She placed the vial in her hand, closed her eyes, and hummed an odd tune James didn’t recognize. For some reason, it sounded very old to his ears. Her hand glowed with a dull green light for a few seconds before she opened her eyes. “Interesting.”
The bounty hunter and cops all looked at each other, but it was James who finally spoke. “Interesting?”
“This is from someone who was a human originally, but they aren’t anymore. They’ve been modified with dark magic, and whoever did it was plenty evil themselves.”
Detective West scrubbed his hand with a face. “Perfect. Just what I wanted to deal with.”
“You don’t have to deal with it,” James pointed out. “I’ll do it.”
Margarete held out her hand. A small glowing green arrow now rested atop the vial. “Think of it as a magical compass. It’ll point the right direction and glow brighter the closer you are.”
James took the enchanted vial from her hand. “Thanks. And you don’t need anything else other than what I already gave you?”
The detectives both shot each other grins.
I didn’t fuck her, you idiots.
“Your payment was more than sufficient.” Margarete winked at Detective Lafayette. “By the way, if you ever do want to switch teams, I can assure you that I bat for mine.”
She sashayed off, and Detective West stared at her as she left with sad puppy-dog eyes.
“That isn’t fair,” he murmured. �
�She hits on the gay guy but not the straight one?”
His partner shook his head. “She’s something. Maybe she has a bit of a siren song in her.”
James grunted. “Whatever. We’ve got a killer to catch.”
“Damn, Brownstone. You don’t want to hit that?”
“I’ve already got a woman, and she’s complicated enough.”
21
Trey smiled to himself as he stepped up to the ATM. He’d already made the necessary transfers to the Brownstone Agency account, and now it was time to reward his aunt for her help. The operation had gone smoothly, and he hadn’t even needed to get violent.
He didn’t mind kicking ass and was proud of his strength, but he wasn’t a thug and didn’t enjoy hurting people for the sake of it. Especially women, even if they were greedy bitches. Aunt Charlyce’s plan had earned him one of his easiest payouts so far as a bounty hunter.
Trey swiped his phone across the ATM pad and waited for the prompts to pop up on the screen. He entered his information and waited as the machine spat out several large-denomination bills.
He made his way back to his F-350 and held out the bills.
Aunt Charlyce shook her head. “I thought we already talked about this. I ain’t taking money from you.”
“This isn’t about charity or family. This is about paying someone for a job. You’re gonna be an administrative assistant, but today you worked as a bounty hunter. I didn’t have to beat anyone’s ass or shoot anyone because of you. You worked the job with me, including getting the bitch out of her condo without any trouble. You earned this, and I’m not gonna take no for an answer.” He locked gazes with her.
She eyed the money for a few long seconds before taking the bills and stuffing them in her pocket. The discomfort on her face disappeared after a few seconds, a warm smile taking its place.
“I know just what to do with it.”
After a quick trip to a toy store, Trey drove to the CPS office at his aunt’s request. She wanted to meet Dina again. Unlike last time, a few quick calls made it possible.
Trey called James, and the big man happened to already be with the cops. They agreed to call ahead and let the CPS workers know Aunt Charlyce could meet with the girl.
When Angels Cry_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure Page 16