The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files: Special Edition Fantasy Bundle, Books 1 thru 5 (Smoke Special Edition)

by Craig Halloran

  “What?”

  With a heave, the giant men flipped the car over.

  It landed on its hood.

  Crash!

  Sid hit her head hard. The impact had flopped Russ on top of her. Gathering her senses, she shook her head.

  But the car started to spin. Gusty laughter like that of a coming storm could be heard. The giants, like children, were spinning the car round and round, faster and faster like a giant top.

  CHAPTER 28

  That Sid was queasy was an understatement. As soon as the car stopped spinning, one giant reached in and pulled her out by the hair. All she did was hold her stomach.

  Please stop spinning. Please stop spinning.

  “Mrah mrah mrah mrah!” the huge man laughed. He set her down on her feet.

  She staggered around and fell down again.

  Nearby, someone was retching.

  Forcing herself up to her hands and knees, she caught a glimpse of Russ doubled over.

  The second giant put his big paws on Russ’s shoulders and lifted him up to his feet.

  Russ fell back down.

  “Mrah mrah mrah mrah!”

  “We don’t need that one,” Wilhelm said of Russ. “Feel free to tear him apart if you want. No one will miss him.”

  The giant grabbed Russ by the arms. The second one grabbed him by the legs and picked him up off the ground.

  “Hey! What are you doing?”

  They started to pull him apart.

  “Ah! No! No! Ah! Stop it!”

  Wilhelm chuckled. “This would make such a great story for Nightfall DC. Too bad you can’t write it, Russ. Or your own obituary.”

  Sid rose to her feet, holding her shoulder, and managed to mutter, “Stop this. Stop it.”

  A shadow crept up behind Wilhelm and stuck a gun in his ear. “Yes,” the man said, “stop it. Now!”

  Something in Russ’s body cracked. He let out a horrifying scream. “Eiyaah!”

  “Now!” said the man holding Wilhelm hostage. It was the big black man, Agent Calhoun.

  “Don’t be foolish,” Wilhelm said. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “There’s been too much of that going around.”

  “Call off those big shaggy hounds,” Calhoun said, cocking back the hammer on his gun. “Or whatever they are.”

  “Rexor! Thorgrim! Release him!”

  Russ hit the ground with a thud.

  “Are you happy?” Wilhelm said, trying to turn his head.

  “Don’t know about that,” Calhoun said. “I’ll just wait for my colleagues to arrive, and we’ll let them sort this freak show out.” He eyed Reggie. “That ain’t normal.” He turned back and surveyed the whole scene. “None of this is. Here I have the congressman that was supposedly shot and killed. I had a lot of money coming for that. Not so sure how I’m going to collect it now, seeing how none of what I’ve seen’s been real.”

  “Oh ho,” Wilhelm puffed. “Is money all that you want? There’s plenty of that to go around. How much? A hundred grand?”

  “Two-fifty buys my silence.”

  “A negotiator, how quaint,” Wilhelm replied. “Two hundred?”

  Calhoun’s stature eased. “I don’t think you have that kind of cash on you.”

  With a finger, Wilhelm eased the gun barrel from his neck. “Just stay silent. I’ll take care of all your needs and more.”

  “Boss,” Reggie said, cocking his head. “I hear sirens.”

  “Thorgrim! Rexor! Get in the limo! You too, Reginald!” Wilhelm turned and looked up at Calhoun. “I’ll be in touch, eh …”

  “Calhoun. Cort Calhoun. You better not stiff me, Congressman.”

  “You have my word, Cort. Play along, and you’ll have even more than that.”

  Thorgrim and Rexor stuffed themselves into the limo.

  With a wink at Sidney, Reggie followed suit.

  Wilhelm was the last one in and said to Sid, “You can’t say no forever.” The door closed, and the limo screeched away.

  “Fine job,” Sid said to Calhoun. Arm hanging, she made her way over to Russ. His right leg was at an unnatural angle. “Oh Lord!”

  Russ was sitting upright, eyes like moons, hands shaking over his contorted legs, repeating, “I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.”

  Calhoun stepped over both of them, shaking his head. “No, you ain’t okay. None of this is.”

  CHAPTER 29

  “You telling me Wilhelm’s alive and well?” Cyrus Tweel talked as he typed at his desk at FBI headquarters. “Living and breathing. Made alive again?”

  “It’s in the report. Didn’t you read it?” said Sidney. Her dislocated shoulder had been reset, but she still wore it in a sling. She was sitting in a chair in front of his desk.

  Rebecca Lang sat to Sid’s left, reading a copy of the report she’d prepared. Rebecca had the same condescending look on her face that she always did.

  Sid tried another tack. “What don’t you understand about this? You’ve seen some of these monsters for yourself.”

  Cyrus huffed and pushed his glasses up on his nose.

  Sidney had spent the entire night writing up the incident—in a tiny guest room at FBI headquarters, since they knew her apartment was in shambles and she didn’t want to drag Sam into all this. The hollow feeling in her stomach seemed to tell her the FBI wanted the entire incident to go away.

  “Eight and nine feet tall?” Cyrus laughed, finally reading her report. “If that were the case, those guys would be playing in the NBA. What a laugh. Huh.” He peered at Rebecca. “What do you think?”

  “I’m like you, Cyrus. Seeing is believing.” Rebecca glanced once more at her copy of the report and then tossed it on his desk. “And I haven’t seen anything that I believe.” She turned to Sid. “In case you didn’t know, we have agents on site at Mercy of Angels hospital right now. Wilhelm is comatose. What do you think about that, Miss Shaw?”

  “Seeing is believing.” Sid glared at Rebecca. “What about your boy Calhoun, you know, the one you stuck on me? What did his report have to say?”

  “I don’t have his report yet,” Cyrus said. He seemed a little withdrawn.

  “He’s gone, isn’t he,” Sid said. “You lost him.”

  “He’s a liaison like you, and if I were to guess, I’d say he was still trying to find your boyfriend Smoke, whom you are clearly trying to protect.”

  Sid jumped up out of her seat. “Are you serious? Who do you think flipped my car over on the hood? Giants, that’s who!”

  “Keep your voice down and stay seated!” Cyrus ordered, getting up. “I know what I’ve seen, and I don’t need you to tell me.”

  Sid stood there and crossed her arms in a way that said, “I don’t have to obey orders anymore, remember?”

  Rebecca whispered something in Cyrus’s ear.

  He sighed and sat down.

  Frustrated, Sid slapped both of her hands on Cyrus’s desk.

  He jumped. Just a little, but it gave her a thrill.

  “What about Russ Davenport?” she said. “Who do you think bent his leg back over his head, huh? No normal man or woman could do that!”

  Rebecca put her hand on Cyrus’s back and started to say something.

  That woman has to go!

  Sid balled up her fist and looked at Rebecca. She had no doubt that everything Leroy had told her about Rebecca and Cyrus was true. They were hiding everything. Keeping it all to themselves. It was infuriating. One day they were helping Sid, and the next they were against her. “I ought to slap that smug look off your face.”

  “It wouldn’t do you or your murdering boyfriend any good.”

  “It’s not Smoke! Geez! Talk to Davenport.”

  “He’s not credible, Sid. Just another kook. You know, your kinda people. Now listen, Sid. I think you saw your boyfriend. Actually, according to Calhoun, he was there. He saw him. And you need to quit covering for the guy.”

  “Covering for what, an assassination that didn’t happen? Look, you two idiots! Wilh
elm is alive and well! Before long he’s going to rise from the dead and talk about his run for Senate.”

  Cyrus and Rebecca burst out into mocking laughter.

  Cyrus said, “Nobody even knew he was a Congressman until he got shot. Boy, why didn’t you put that in your report?”

  Shaking her head, Rebecca said, “I can’t believe even you are that stupid. I think it’s time we had you reevaluated.” She whispered some more to Cyrus.

  Sid’s jaws clenched.

  Please really be shifters so that I can kill you both. Maybe someone will turn you into deaders. Oh, that would be nice. I can’t believe you! Either you are complete idiots, or else you are paid extremely well. Morning Glory, I don’t understand it.

  “Are we finished?” was all Sidney said.

  “Sid, I have to tell you, the entire Reginald-the-doppelganger theory almost had me. After all, that would explain this entire mess. It’s believable. Actually, it’s so believable I think they made a movie about it.” Cyrus pecked on his keyboard and turned his screen around. “Yes, they did make a movie about it. It’s called Doppelganger, and it starred Drew Barrymore. See, there she is.”

  Rebecca slapped her knee, held her gut and laughed.

  Sid struck. She grabbed Cyrus’s hand that held the mouse and twisted his thumb back. “I’m not in the mood for this. You know these things exist. We all do. Now quit treating me like some kind of fool!”

  Rebecca hopped out of her chair and closed in on Sid.

  A quick kick to Rebecca’s gut sent the mousy woman toppling over her chair. Still holding Cyrus by the thumb, Sid said, “I’m going to clear Smoke. You”—she cranked the pressure up on his thumb—“better stay the hell out of my way.” She released him.

  Cyrus gasped. His face was a mask of pain. He started rubbing his hand.

  Looking at Sid full in the face with hatred, Rebecca started to rise.

  On her way to the door, Sid stopped and said to her, “Get up and I’m going to Ronda Rousey you.”

  Rebecca stayed down.

  Sid opened the door and found herself face to face with Ted’s old secretary, Jane. “Step aside.”

  Without a word, Jane shirked away.

  Sid headed for the stairwell and flung open the door. On her way down she got a text from Sam. It read, “Meet at the Hyatt.”

  “Great.” Sidney didn’t even have a car. The FBI had impounded it, or so she’d been told. She was low on money, too, and the Hyatt was a long walk. Not that she minded long walks, but storm clouds loomed above. She’d made it one block and was crossing a four-way intersection to another when a hard rain started coming down. Her shout startled other passersby. “Great!”

  Seething, she stepped out onto the curb to hail a cab.

  A dull-orange minivan pulled alongside the curb.

  Sid flung open the door, hopped in, and slammed it closed.

  The cab driver locked the doors, pulled out into the street and barreled down the road.

  “Hey, I didn’t even tell you where I was going.”

  “I already know where you’re going,” the driver said, eyeing his rearview mirror.

  “Smoke!” she exclaimed. She eased forward and then eased right back, withdrew her gun, and pointed it at his head. “Or is it Reggie?”

  CHAPTER 30

  The man driving the cab, the one she hoped was Smoke, wore an Irish tweed cap and glasses. The usually clean-shaven hair on his face was overgrown. He didn’t turn or stop driving. Instead, he kept his eyes between the road and Sidney’s.

  “You got a text from Sam, right?” the man said. “Meet at the hotel?”

  “Maybe the text wasn’t from her,” said Sid, still holding the gun on him. “After all, you can’t believe everything you read. Now pull over.”

  “Aw, you won’t shoot me, Sid. Look, I’m not the doppelganger. You know that. Besides, I saw him. His eyes aren’t as dazzling as mine.”

  She warmed up inside a little. “So maybe you aren’t the doppelganger. That still doesn’t mean I won’t shoot you.”

  “Why would you shoot me?”

  “Because you’re you.”

  “Or I’m Reggie? Or,” he posed, “I’m—”

  “Don’t say it.”

  “Batman!”

  She lowered the Glock. “Only an idiot would say that, so it must be you.”

  “That’s my girl. I knew you’d come around. So, how have you been?”

  “How have I been?” She couldn’t believe how calm he was about everything. There was only an enormous manhunt out for him. She sank back into her seat. “You’re nuts.”

  “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

  I am. “Well, I’m not. I mean, what have you been doing the past few days, playing cab driver?”

  “Actually”—his voice brightened—“yeah, I have been. I’ve met some of the most interesting people. There sure is a lot of foreign interest in DC. But the most interesting fare I had was this family from West Virginia. Super nice bunch. Good tippers. I got a big kick out of them because they were here for, get this, a Supernatural convention. They said I looked like one of the dudes that stars on the show.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Oh, it’s about these brothers—”

  “Will you shut up!”

  “Sorry,” he said. “Did you have something you wanted to share?”

  Stress. It didn’t exist to Smoke. It infuriated her.

  “So,” he continued, “have you given any more thought to my question?”

  “You aren’t serious?”

  “No, I’m Smoke.”

  Sid leaned forward and knocked the cap off him. It revealed a nasty wound stitched in a bare spot on the back of his head.

  Oh my!

  “Hey, that’s my disguise.” He put the cap back on.

  “What happened to your head?”

  “I got cornered by some deaders. Those things seem to be getting a lot deadlier.”

  “You can say that again. There were a couple of cops I had to deal with that I think were deaders. They were looking for you.” She eased closer. Something about his presence, aggravating though it might be, drew her to him. “Look, John, we have to get you cleared. I don’t know how to do that yet, but this isn’t going to stop until we clear you. We need to think. We need to plan. You might need to leave the country.”

  Smoke pulled the taxi over, and the brakes squeaked as it came to a halt.

  They were parked in front of an old church. It was quaint and laid out with heavy stones. He turned and faced her. “Seriously, have you given my question any more thought?”

  “About marriage?” Yes. “No. John, now’s not the time to talk about weddings.”

  “I didn’t say wedding,” he said, smiling. “I was only talking about the engagement.” He bobbed his chin. “So you have been thinking about it. You know, you’re going to have to be more honest with me if we’re going to pursue a long-term relationship.”

  “People are trying to kill you, and some of them are trying to kill me, and you’re worried about our courtship?”

  “A good man has to have his priorities straight. And I like the sound of that.”

  “The sound of what?”

  “Courtship.”

  She sank back into her seat, hand over her head. “Morning Glory.”

  “You know I’m not getting any younger, and you aren’t either.” Smoke was staring at the church as he spoke. Rain splattered on the window. “And we might not have that much time left on this earth, you know. I mean, seeing how a bunch of people want us dead and all. At least me. I just never thought I’d die single.”

  “Really? With all of the stupid risks you take, it never occurred to you that you might die single? That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” A sliver of uncertainty slipped through her.

  Geez, maybe he thinks he won’t survive this.

  “Smoke, are you okay?”

  “Of course. But I have pissed off a lot of people.�
�� He caught her eyes. “Bad people.”

  “I can’t even begin to imagine what you do when I’m not around. Aside from eating pancakes and taxiing people around. And being annoying.”

  And charming.

  She fixed her eyes on the church doors. She eyed him. “You don’t have anything set up in there, do you?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  “I’m not going in there.”

  “If you knew this was your last day, what would you do?”

  Sid’s heart beat a little faster.

  I suppose I’d marry you. But I’d prefer more sun, rice, and some church bells. Huh, Sidney Smoke. Not too bad of a ring to it.

  “I’d take down the Drake.”

  “I see,” he said, a little dejected. “Oh, and by the way … Sam, Guppy, and Mal are in there.”

  “I thought they said meet them at the hotel.”

  “No. I found some eyes there.” He got out of the cab, fished an umbrella out of the back, and slid Sidney’s door open. He stood like a gentleman, holding the umbrella for her. “Coming?”

  “Fine, but this better not be a surprise wedding.”

  Without a word, Smoke led her up the steps under the alcove and put the umbrella aside. He opened the door, saying, “After you.”

  CHAPTER 31

  Aside from the wooden pews and stained glass, the church was empty. Sid’s heart sank a little.

  Smoke’s soft-strong voice echoed when he spoke. “You look disappointed.”

  I guess.

  Just above a whisper, Sid replied, “I thought you said we were meeting Sam and Guppy here?”

  Smoke took her hand. “Come on.” Down the aisle they went together.

  She glanced up at the marble arches in the ceiling. The angels carved from the stone. The podium and flowers that waited ahead. Her throat tightened.

  What is he doing?

  A door squealed somewhere in the church. A tall figure emerged from behind the choir chairs on the stage.

  “Hey, Sid!” It was Sam, and she was waving. Her loud voice echoed everywhere. “Come on down. We’ve been waiting for you.” Her eyes widened. “Aw look, they’re holding hands. How sweet.” She stepped out of sight.