One Bad Decision

by Michael Anderle

  One of the guards shook his head. “We can’t leave. It’s insane to go out there.” He nodded to the unconscious wounded man. “And what about him? We can’t carry him handcuffed.”

  The cop nodded. Leaving a wounded man behind didn’t sit well with her. She looked at Shay.

  The other woman frowned and shrugged. She obviously wasn’t happy with the idea of waiting.

  Woman of action, huh? Guess that’s why you’re with Brownstone.

  Maria moved over to peek out the door. She didn’t spot anyone.

  “I’m not hearing anything.”

  Shay moved toward the door and listened for a moment. “Yeah, whatever just happened, it’s over, one way or another.” She shook her head. “Fuck it. We need to go. If that wounded wizard is gonna have any chance of surviving, he needs medical attention. I say you and I go, Maria, and we can call in reinforcements. There has to be a phone somewhere.”

  The tomb raider spun toward the dead man. She kicked his pockets with her boot and frowned.

  “I guess it’d be too easy if he had one on him. Damn it.”

  Maria looked at the dead man and the frightened guards. “Okay, I’m with you. The rest of you stay here, and we’ll go get help.”

  One of the guards looked like he wanted to object, but he looked away instead.

  The women crept into the hallway, taking careful steps as they listened for any voices or movement. Even in the locked room, they had still heard the occasional echo of talking or doors being opened and closed. Now there was nothing but silence.

  Shay smirked. “Maybe someone screwed up a sleep spell and they’re all out.”

  Maria snorted. “We should be so lucky. What’s the plan now? We’re free, but we’re still in these magic cuffs.”

  The tomb raider nodded in the direction of the loading bay. “I saw offices on the other side of the loading bay.” She then nodded toward the end of the hall. “And all we have there is a fire-alarmed door. We go that way, we guarantee that if anyone’s still here, they’ll be alerted and find us. I’m a badass bitch, but I usually can use my hands. I don’t think I can take a bunch of guys handcuffed without the element of surprise.”

  Maria frowned. “But what if they’re still in the loading bay? We’ll be walking right into them.”

  “That’s a chance we’ll have to take.” Shay blew out a breath. “You with me or not, Maria?”

  “This is fucking annoying as hell, but I’m with you.”

  The tomb raider chuckled. “Yeah, not exactly my idea of a fun girls’ night either.”

  They continued down the hall, taking slow and quiet steps, but only the tick of the occasional wall clock greeted them.

  Maria picked up the pace. “They’re gone.”

  Shay nodded. “I think so, too.”

  They paused at the turn in the hallway leading to the main loading bay. Maria peeked around the corner and narrowed her eyes.

  No men. No vans. The only thing there was the smoldering remains of what looked like it used to be a cardboard box and a pile of melted white goo. Light glinted off a silvery surface in the pile of goo and burned cardboard.

  It took a few seconds for the cop to process the sight before her.

  Maria looked back at Shay. “They took off but left the circlet. Maybe tried to melt it? I don’t know what the hell happened.”

  “That’s a lot of money to leave on the table, even if they have all the other artifacts. Something must have really spooked them. Maybe—”

  Distant gunfire echoed around the loading bay, along with breaking glass. Both women ducked around the corner.

  Maria gritted her teeth. “Shit, they spotted us.”

  Shay shook her head. “I don’t think so. It sounded like it was coming from the outside.”

  A loud pop was followed by something thudding against the cement floor.

  After a few more gunshots, Shay smirked.

  “How good are you at recognizing weapons by sound, Maria?”

  The cop shrugged. “Decent, I guess. Why?”

  “Because I’m pretty damned sure that whoever is firing is using a .45.” Shay sprinted around the corner. “And I know at least one man who loves using .45s.”

  Maria hesitated and then ran after the tomb raider. Shay’s plans had gotten them this far without getting hurt. Might as well ride the crazy sisterhood into hell.

  They rushed into the main loading bay. A thick metal door lay on the ground, torn off its hinges. The mystery of its removal was solved when James Brownstone stepped through the open doorway, gun in hand and a frown on face.

  “Damn,” Maria muttered. “He is good.”

  Her eyes widened as a familiar man walked in about five steps behind Brownstone. Tyler.

  Shay and Maria jogged toward the two men.

  “Maria, stop,” the tomb raider called.

  The cop skidded to a halt. “What’s wrong?”

  Shay took a few steps toward Brownstone.

  “Where the fuck are they?” he growled. He looked back and forth, an inferno of hatred in his eyes.

  Maria’s stomach knotted at the anger seeping out of every pore of the man. She’d seen him that angry when he’d taken down King Pyro. He had the eyes of a man ready to kill.

  Shay offered him a smile. “We’re fine. We’re not hurt. One of the guards got shot, but he’s still alive.”

  Brownstone holstered his pistol and continued to jerk his head around, obviously searching for a target for his wrath. “But where the fuck are they? I have a few questions to ask them with my fists.”

  “Gone.” Shay shrugged. “Something spooked them, and they left. They sent one guard to kill us, but I took him out already. He and the museum guards are in a storeroom at the end of that hall over there.”

  Brownstone stomped toward the hallway.

  Shay sighed. “He’s already dead, James. I snapped his neck.”

  The bounty hunter stopped and took several deep breaths. He unclenched his hands slowly and nodded. “Lucky for him. He got the easy way out.”

  Maria made her way over to Tyler. “Now this shit I didn’t expect.”

  The bartender shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t read too much into it. I need you. Without you, I don’t know if the neutrality of the Black Sun will hold. This is really just an investment in my business.”

  The cop smirked. “If that’s the story you want to tell yourself, fine by me. I’m just glad you came. I’d throw my arms around you, but, you know, handcuffs. And from the looks of it, magical handcuffs.”

  She turned around to show him.

  “I think I can do something about that, at least.” Tyler pulled out his phone and dialed someone. After a few seconds, he smiled. “Dannec. Do you have an easy way to get off magical handcuffs? Yes. No. No, it’s nothing like that. Maria and Brownstone’s girlfriend got caught up in that museum thing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thanks.” He rattled off the address.

  Maria chuckled. “What did he say? And how much is it going to cost? Not like that elf does anything for free.”

  “He’ll be here in twenty minutes, and you let me worry about the cost.”

  Brownstone’s murder mask slipped away, replaced by obvious relief, but he kept quiet.

  Shay walked over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “How the hell did you two even find us?”

  Tyler held out his hands. Maria hadn’t noticed it before, but they were blistered and reddened. It looked like he’d burned them.

  “Tracking artifact,” Brownstone rumbled. “We tracked the circlet.”

  The other man nodded toward the remains of the burned box. “Guess it got hot on both ends.”

  The box continued to smolder, and Maria frowned at it. “That’s not going to explode, is it?”

  Tyler shrugged. “Maybe.”

  James waited, hands in his pocket, as Dannec finished his work. Not being able to smash in the faces of the kidnappers left him unsatisfied, but now he wanted to get the hell out of
there.

  A glow and ethereal music ended with a quick flick of Dannec’s hand. The cuffs fell off Shay, Maria, and the guards, who’d been brought into the front room.

  The elf frowned as LAPD, both normal and AET, stepped out of their vehicles and set up a perimeter around the warehouse.

  Dannec nodded toward the circlet. “I’m guessing you used a tracking artifact that got hotter as you got closer?”

  “Yeah,” Tyler replied. “Lucky I didn’t burn my damned hands off.”

  “That’s not the best type of tracking magic to use for obvious reasons, especially with a powerful artifact like that, but I suppose it got the job done.”

  James grunted. “That’s all I give a shit about. Gonna deactivate it and track the rest of the objects. I don’t want these assholes getting away.”

  The Professor hadn’t really explained how to shut it off. Maybe the elf knew.

  The elf shook his head. “That’s not going to work. Didn’t whoever gave you the artifact tell you about that?”

  The bounty hunter frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Dannec sighed. “The greater the power of the magical artifact involved in the tracking resonance, the longer it’ll take to reset. Given that you traced the circlet, it’ll probably take several weeks before you can track another object with your artifact.”

  “Fucking Professor. He could have mentioned that.” James scrubbed a hand over his face.

  It doesn’t matter. I can still find these guys. Just need to use Peyton, and maybe the Professor has something else.

  Two AET officers had set up cones linked with police tape to keep anyone from touching the circlet. The proximity of the crucifix and the circlet had resulted in both being blisteringly hot. If they hadn’t been in the middle of a cement warehouse floor, it would have started a fire.

  James had moved the crucifix into the bed of his truck. It wasn’t hot enough to melt through the metal. At least not yet.

  Sergeant Weber rushed up to Maria. “We’ve almost got the perimeter totally locked down, Lieutenant, but there is no sign of any of the suspects in this area. I’ve put out an APB for the vans you described, but there are a lot of Andercarr vans in the county.”

  She nodded. “I’m guessing they were long gone by the time we called you anyway, but maybe we’ll get lucky” She turned to Brownstone, Shay, and Tyler. “Look, I’ll handle everything here. You guys can get out of here.”

  “Thanks,” James rumbled, and walked away.

  Shay fell in at his side.

  “Me, too?” Tyler asked.

  Maria offered him a soft smile. “I can paper over a lot of shit here, even the fact that we’ve got a body, but it’ll be easier if you aren’t around for the wrong guys to question. I’ll talk to you later. You’ll probably have to sign a few things.”

  The information broker nodded and hurried after Shay and James.

  None of the trio spoke as they walked out of the loading bay and into the cool night air. Red and blue flashing lights killed any true darkness. Every once in a while a cop walked toward them and opened their mouth, but once they saw James, they gave him a polite nod and returned to what they were doing.

  Good. Don’t have it in me to be polite right now.

  He fingered the amulet under his shirt. The only reason he hadn’t bonded with it was that he hadn’t gotten away from Tyler. He wasn’t ready to trust a criminal information broker with that kind of secret.

  Would Whispy Doom give me the ability to track their asses?

  James, Tyler, and Shay loaded into the F-350. The information broker took a seat in the back.

  “This shit isn’t over,” the bounty hunter growled. He started his truck.

  Tyler frowned. “Shay and Maria are okay. Isn’t that enough?”

  The tomb raider offered him a savage grin over her shoulder. “Come on, Tyler, you know how James thinks. Do you really think this is over?”

  Tyler snorted. “What would your priests have to say about revenge, Brownstone?”

  “Father McCartney would get bored if he didn’t have me confessing all the time.” James shrugged as he pulled onto the street. “And this isn’t just about revenge. I took a job from the Professor to recover those artifacts. The police have the circlet, so that’s one of them, but the rest are still out there. If you want in, there’s money to be made, even if you don’t give a shit about vengeance.”

  Tyler chuckled and shook his head. “I’m tempted. I really am. I might not be the kind of guy who will blow up a building to get revenge, but I’m pissed at the assholes for grabbing Maria. Unless you really need me, I need to stay out of this one, though. I’m a neutral information broker, not a bounty hunter.”

  James shrugged. “Your call. I’ll take you back to the Black Sun, and then Shay and I have to go figure out how to find the rest of the items.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. When you find them, Brownstone, I hope you end them.”

  The bounty hunter narrowed his eyes and tightened his hands around the steering wheel. “Don’t worry. They’ll get what’s fucking coming to them.”

  12

  Maria sat at a table in a museum conference room with a briefcase in front of her. Several other police officers from AET and other units lined the table. The conversation with the Head of Security was going about as well as she’d expected.

  I think I’d rather be a hostage again.

  Spencer Preston sat at the head of the table, his fingers steepled. “I fail to see why we’re even having this meeting, especially since you’ve yet to return the circlet. You have no right to keep that artifact.”

  Maria offered a tight smile. “It’s evidence in part of an ongoing investigation. I can assure you it’ll be returned once the investigation is completed.”

  The man scoffed. “This is ridiculous. We don’t even want the police here. We don’t need your help.”

  Maria glanced at the other police officer before barking a laugh. “Are you kidding me?”

  “No. This was all the LAPD’s fault anyway. Obviously.” He sneered.

  “Oh? How is it obviously our fault?”

  Spencer pointed at her. “You were kidnapped during their raid. Your presence here probably encouraged them to do it. If you hadn’t come poking your nose into things, none of this would have happened.”

  Maria let out a long sigh and opened the briefcase. She pulled out a huge stack of papers and shoved them his way.

  The man’s brow furrowed, and he looked down at the stack. “What’s all this?”

  “A report. Yeah, I was here the other day checking out your allegedly great security, and that’s a detailed point-by-point list of every single problem with your procedures. Do you really want to go through them one by one?” Maria shrugged. “The fact that this place got hit and those artifacts were stolen proves in and of itself that your security was crap, and I, along with my consultant and your guards, are only alive because we got lucky.”

  Spencer lips pursed. “I’m sure the guards will testify to how you interfered with their duties.”

  Maria scratched her eyebrow. “Oh, you were planning to threaten them or something? Maybe bribe them? Too bad they all gave statements already.” She nodded toward the papers. “Those are in there, too. A couple of them even talked about how they’d brought up some of the concerns that my investigation identified but their concerns were dismissed.”

  “All lies to cover up incompetence.”

  “Oh, wait, so now you’re saying the guards who you hired and said were good security are incompetent?”

  Spencer flicked his wrist. “This is all absurd. This is just the LAPD overextending their authority. I refuse to play along with this farce.”

  “Nope. I’ve already sent up a request for AET to take the lead on the protection of these artifacts, given the obviously enhanced threat these criminals represent. We’ll be liaising with other units and departments, of course, but these criminals aren’t petty thugs. These are dangerous
, ruthless crooks, and you obviously can’t handle them.”

  The man shook his head. “More trouble occurred from efforts to stop this last night than anything.”

  Maria narrowed her eyes. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  I wonder if douchebag is hiding something. Could this have been an inside job?

  Spencer stood and pushed in his chair. “I’ve had enough of this. If you force your way in legally, there’s little I can do, but you proved how useful police are last night, Lieutenant. Thanks for nothing.”

  The man spun on his heel and stormed out.

  Maria whistled. “Somebody’s mommy didn’t love him enough.”

  That morning the Brownstone dining room served as a makeshift operations center. James and Shay sat at opposite ends of the table, phones in hand.

  James frowned at his phone. “You’re sure. Already? It hasn’t even been a fucking day.”

  The informant on the other end of the line laughed. “Just telling you what I heard, Brownstone. I don’t make the news. I just report to anyone who pays me. I got one last thing to tell you, though. A little bonus, because I was told to play nice with you over this.”

  “Bonus?”

  The man laughed. “Yeah, word on the street is, the uptown Oricerans at the embassy know you’re looking into this and they ain’t happy, even though the shit being stolen makes them look bad. They don’t want you near this. Just thought you should know.”

  “Thanks. Call me if you find out anything else.” James hung up.

  Shay looked up from her phone. “Any luck?”

  “Several minor artifacts are already on the black market.”

  The tomb raider nodded. “Peyton just sent me a text saying that as well.”

  “Probably shit they don’t care about.” James frowned. “But it’s stolen, and the Professor wants it found. Shit. I think. He didn’t exactly give a huge number of details when we talked, and I was too focused on finding you to ask.”