The CrimeLords' War (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 7)

by Liza O'Connor

  Ben tilted his head and scratched his temple, then laughed. “Oh you mean her hour-glass figure.”

  “I do, and follow my advice. Avoid any woman with a shape of a wasp. The pain and discomfort required to obtain such a form is beyond what any sane person would endure. Thus, the mental stability of our client is now in question and we should discontinue the case.”

  “Just because she has a pleasing figure?” Ben challenged.

  “No, because she lacks rational limitations as to what she will do to acquire what you call a pleasing figure. If she will break bones, deplete her lung capacity, and endure extreme pain to acquire a husband, what will she do when she discovers her husband already has a wife and baby?”

  Ben grimaced. “According to the butler, he seems to have more than one child with his other wife. Evidently, she is of a sickly nature and every time she has been with child, the doctor declared she’d probably die and to get her affairs in orders. Mr. Hudson cannot bare witnessing her farewells to the children and thus stays at his friends until she either dies or gets better.”

  Vic snorted. “It would serve the callous Mr. Hudson right if he were to die at the hands of his new bride. However, it is all too likely she’ll go after poor Charity. Thus, I believe you need to apologize to Angie, but tell her you cannot locate her husband.”

  “She is a nice woman. She deserves to know her marriage is a sham so she can end it now, before she is also with child.”

  “Trust me, a person who mutilates her body shape will under no circumstances bear a child.”

  Ben’s furrowed brow clearly declared himself in disagreement.

  Tubs spoke up. “It’s three o’clock.”

  Vic stood. “Tubs and I have something to do.” She then gripped Ben’s shoulder. “Focus on the lost puppy. It’s no doubt far more worthy of your time. But well done on your investigation. Even though your client will believe you failed, you did a fabulous job teasing out the truth. Now go find the puppy,” she said, trying to rally his glum spirits.

  As she and Tubs headed to the barn, Gregory stopped them. “And where are you two going?”

  “To the barn.”

  “Absolutely not,” Gregory stated.

  “Can you bring the carriage into the kitchen?” she countered.

  Gregory’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you need a carriage?”

  “So Tubs can practice climbing in and out. Once he can do that, he can accompany me places. And while he still cannot run after criminals, he can spot trouble coming and shoot it.”

  Gregory stared at her, then Tubs and finally sighed as if she were no end to trouble. “Since Tubs will be occupied with getting in and out of the carriage, I would prefer you to wait until Casey and Fagan are done with their sweep of the house.”

  She sighed and sat back down. Tubs joined her and patted her hand. “They won’t be long.” He then lowered his voice. “I think Ben has feelings for this Angie person.”

  “The mutated body shape…I think you’re right.”

  “A desirable woman can make men do foolish things.”

  “Don’t compliment a mutated wasp. Sara has true loveliness.”

  Tubs nodded in agreement. “I don’t see the beauty in that wasp shape myself, but I have noticed that only beautiful women ever try for it.”

  “That’s true. It’s how the mentally deranged beautiful women can set themselves apart from the sane ones.” She then grinned. “Glad you went for the sane category.”

  “I never expected to have a wife, nevertheless one so loving and pretty.” He patted her hand. “Thank you for convincing me to quit working for Xavier so you could hire me to work for you. That was really clever.”

  Vic smiled. “Well, Xavier should have never forbidden you to marry. It was utter foolishness on his part.”

  Casey and Fagan arrived. “The house is clear, except we can’t find Sara and the pups.”

  Tubs rose. “They’re hiding in the back room, I’ll get them.”

  “We checked the back room,” Casey said.

  “This house is full of hiding caches,” Tubs stated.

  “You should have told us that before. What if the assassin hid in one of them? Tell us where they are and we’ll do the sweep all over again.”

  Vic did not have the patience for that. “My intuition tells me we are fine. Once Tubs and I are finished with his carriage exercise, I’ll show you all the caches.”

  “You aren’t allowed to leave the house. That means the barn is off limits,” Casey reminded her.

  “You are becoming very bossy. Let’s not forget who works for whom.”

  Casey sighed heavily, probably not appreciating being put between her and Gregory.

  She patted his arm. “Gregory has allowed this exercise to occur as long as you and Fagan are with us. You two will stand guard while Tubs and I focus on the exercises.”

  Casey frowned. “So we are going out in the carriage?”

  “Today, we are staying in the barn while Tubs works on entering and exiting a carriage.”

  Casey finally smiled. “Tubs, you really are getting better.”

  Tubs chuckled. “Don’t have a choice. We have too much to do.”

  Fagan patted his back. “Any chance you’ll be able to accompany us to the warehouse tomorrow. That’s going to be a zoo.”

  “We’ll figure that out if you guys will stop gabbing and let Tubs get to work.”

  Tubs stood up. “First, I’ve got to tell Sara it’s safe to come out.”

  Vic jumped up. “I’ll do it. You guys go on out to the barn.” Vic ran off before anyone could object.

  She hadn’t actually known about Tubs’ hidden space, but she found it easily enough. “All’s safe,” she announced at the door of the cache.

  Sara passed the boys and dog out first then crawled out. Vic brushed the cob webs out of her hair.

  “What happened?” Sara asked.

  “Some idiot entered with a key and forgot to lock the door behind him.”

  Her eyes rounded in shock. “Xavier?”

  “I wish,” she replied. “No this was the fool that has gotten my partner into his current hot water.”

  “Vic, go rescue Xavier!” Sara insisted.

  “If I knew where he was, I would. But I haven’t a clue and neither does the bumble head who cannot lock a door. So we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

  “How?”

  “By interrogating the people who work for the person who has him. Someone has to know where this woman is located.”

  “A woman…that’s never good,” Sara whispered.

  “I will find her and rescue Xavier.”

  “You'll need Tubs for the interrogations,” Sara said softly.

  “I do.”

  “That’s why you want him to be able to climb in and out of the carriage…so he can go with you.”

  “I need him to climb in and out of the carriage without any sign of weakness. If he can’t do that, I won’t risk him. But time is of the essence and I’m counting on these criminals to tell everything they know if they believe Tubs is back and strong as ever.”

  “He’s not, you know,” Sara protested. “Before you got him out of the bed, he was dying.”

  “I’m sorry I avoided seeing him because of my guilt. I had no idea how bad he'd gotten. Gregory should have scolded me sooner.”

  “You still hold yourself responsible,” she said.

  “I will, until Tubs is completely recovered, and don’t bother telling me to feel otherwise. He took my bullets, and the only way to make that right is to make Tubs right.”

  Sara gripped her hand. “You will. I trust you not to put him into too great of danger.”

  Vic closed her eyes in shame. Truth was: she was doing exactly that. Her need to recover Xavier forced her to use Tubs before he was up to the task at hand. “Tubs has probably begun the exercises without me,” she said and ran from the room before she confessed the truth.

  When she arrived in the kit
chen, only Fagan remained. “Tubs started without you,” he explained.

  As they entered the barn, Casey was encouraging Tubs. “You can do it, Tubs. Let me give you a hand.”

  “No. I do this alone or I don’t do it,” Tubs growled.

  Vic rushed to the other side of the carriage. “Tubs is right. He needs to do this on his own.” She climbed in the carriage and met Tubs frustrated stare. “This is no time to give up. If your legs are strong enough to walk, they can make two little steps up. This should be easier since you can grab the edges of the door and help pull yourself in, and there’s no shot of falling. You can do this, Tubs. I’m positive you can.”

  He nodded in agreement, gripped the sides of the door, heaved himself up and smashed hard into the door, while nearly tipping the carriage with his weight hanging for too long on the step.

  “Casey, Fagan, climb on my side of the carriage.”

  The carriage soon leveled so Vic could focus on the problem at hand. “Tubs, you clearly won’t fit facing forward. Step back down and grip the left door edge with your right hand and pull yourself in sideways.”

  He breathed heavily and stepped down and followed her instructions.

  He slipped right through the door and sat on the carriage seat across from her, panting softly.

  Vic smiled. “I retrieved Sara and explained why I need you with me tomorrow. She understands.”

  “Truly?”

  “I believe so. Sara has never been shy about arguing with me when it comes to your wellbeing.”

  “I’ve talked to her about that.”

  “Save your breath. I would much rather she scold me than silently resent me.”

  His frown worried her that he still planned to lecture Sara again. So she tried to make him understand why her relationship with Sara allowed such liberties. “When you save a person, it creates a bond and desire to keep them safe and happy forever after, and in return the saved person feels a bond with you so they can safely say what they are thinking and you don’t mind.”

  Tubs grimaced. “It doesn’t always work that way. When Inspector Stone made me protect that unnatural Spanish fellow, no bond was form on my side. I would gladly kill him to this day. However, I did capture a smart little fellow one day and he turned around to save my life that evening and then once again the next day.”

  Vic smiled, certain that Tubs was referring to how they met.

  “And in return you saved the trouble magnet a hundred times, the last time—”

  “It’s time to forget that,” he said. “With your intervention, I’m going to recover. You would have died. And I, nor Xavier, nor Gregory would have survived if we’d lost you. Hell, the whole of England would have suffered the loss of you.”

  She leaned in. “The same could be said if they lost you. We are a team, Tubs. I can do nothing without you.”

  “You got people’s jewelry back and found that missing husband without even dealing with a client.”

  “Ben found the missing husband all by himself.”

  “And you didn’t give him any advice on how to do that?”

  “Of course, I did, just as Xavier taught me.”

  Tubs shook his head. “Xavier once told me he has learned far more from you than he has ever taught you. He believes you are the most talented and skill investigator who has ever lived.”

  Vic smiled at such a nice compliment. “I must disagree with my grumpy partner. I believe the greatest investigator to have ever lived is Xavier and Conan Doyle evidently agrees with me.”

  Her smile faded as she worried about Xavier. Unlike Tubs, she knew Xavier could die. He came damn close to dying from a silly shoulder wound solely because Seth never had anyone remove the lead bullet.

  She sighed heavily. “It roils my stomach to work with Sojourn Seth.”

  Tubs grimaced. “Not too happy to deal with my old boss either. Without Xavier to keep him in line, he might try to shoot me.”

  Vic shook her head. “He won’t hurt either of us. He doesn’t think I’m worth the trouble to risk killing and incur Xavier’s wrath, and he is now convinced you are truly impossible to kill and untouchable. I’m sure he’s asked about your shooting and learned not only were you shot in the heart and both lungs, but the Queen gave you an accommodation for your efforts.”

  Tubs smiled. “You may be right there. As long as I don’t show weakness getting in or out of this carriage.” He reached over and gripped the door, sliding sideways out of the door.

  Since the only place to sit was the carriage, he turned around and climbed back in.

  Vic leaned forward and patted his leg. “That was much smoother.”

  “Felt better too,” he admitted. His eyes went misty. “You make anything possible.”

  If she could make anything possible, Xavier would be sitting safe beside her. But with Tubs' help that would happen. He would terrorize the criminals into revealing where this she-devil had hidden her partner.

  Chapter 20

  Achlys glared at the large, muscular man before her. A ragged scar pulled the right side of his mouth into a perpetual snarl. She was tempted to create a matching scar…across his heart.

  “What do you mean the war is over? It’s over when I say it’s over. You think that you can take charge because I’m a woman.” She stepped close and with practiced expertise slid a narrow blade between the upper chest ribs protecting the heart.

  The man’s eyes opened in shock, then quickly turned to rage. His hands gripped her neck but before they could tighten, death took him.

  Bound to his chair, Xavier could do nothing but watch. He had mixed emotions. A part of him wished Seth’s man would have managed to finish the job before heading off to hell. But the kinder part wanted to rescue Ariana from this Goddess of Destruction, and unfortunately they both lived in the same body.

  Achlys coughed from her near strangulation.

  “Catching a cold?” Xavier taunted her, hoping she wouldn’t recall the man’s last words or she might realize she just killed a man for faithfully reporting the situation outside of this house.

  The woman turned and glared at him. “I should kill you now.”

  “And then what?” he asked.

  She approached him, her beautiful blue eyes narrowed in hate. “What do you mean?”

  “Once you kill me, what is the next fixation of your anger? Or will you step back and allow Ariana to live her life? If that is your intent, then kill me at once. I would gladly give my life so that Ariana might live.”

  She snarled. “You would like that. But believe me, I intend to torture you mentally and physically before you die…and as for Ariana, she is gone. There is only me now.”

  “I refuse to believe that,” Xavier said. “I believe she remains quietly inside, growing stronger, biding her time for the right moment to unseat you. And when she does, you will be banished forever, for there is no place for you in her life. She is a beautiful spirit full of kindness and charity. You are evil incarnate.”

  Achlys screamed in rage and pounded his face with her small fists. The blows hurt, but nothing to force him to cry in pain. In fact, he pretended not to even notice.

  She finally stopped, her breath ragged and heavy. “Why do you not respond?”

  “I want nothing to do with you. The only woman I want is Ariana.”

  “Liar! You care nothing for that sniveling creature. You only wanted to use her.”

  Xavier made no response. To all appearances he didn’t even notice her.

  Such taunting was more than Achlys could bear. She grabbed her slender knife from the dead minion and stumbled toward him in a rage.

  He regretted his actions now, but it was too late to apologize. Achlys seemed to have gone completely mad, stumbling about, the knife arching up and down as she twirled in a circle as if fighting an invisible person.

  Finally, he understood. “Ariana, you can do it,” he yelled. “You can stop her.”

  Or not, he realized as the slender blade raise
d and plunged through the air, directly towards his heart.

  Chapter 21

  The carriage pulled into the warehouse just as a man screamed in agonizing pain.

  When Tubs stepped out of the carriage, the man being tortured groaned and either fainted or died. A panicked whisper ran through the barred cells. The name ‘Sonny Tubs’ spoken in fear and trepidation.

  Tubs held everyone’s attention, so no one even noticed Vic, Casey and Fagan following him. He reached down and felt for a pulse. Then he nodded for Fagan to get rid of the man.

  He glared at the cells full of seventy men. “That’s the last one getting off easy. Now I have other things I’d rather be doing, so I’m going to offer you three choices. The best choice of the lot is that you tell me what I want to know right off. Then I won’t bother torturing or killing you or the ones still alive by the time I get to you.”

  Tubs let that choice settle in their frightened brains as he studied the men in each cell.

  “The second choice is that you tell me what I want to know after I’ve begun torturing you. In that case I’ll kill you quickly to end your torment, and let those after you live.”

  He then smiled. “And the worst choice is that I will torture you until your body gives up and runs to hell, and I stay here until every single one of you has made your choice.”

  Half the men looked ready to give up the ghost and run off to hell right now.

  “I suspect only a few of you know the answer I’m looking for, which is a bit unfair for those who don’t know and thus have no chance to choose option one or two.”

  A great majority of the men nodded in agreement.

  “Can’t be helped,” he stated. Moans burst from the men. A few fell to their knees. “So I’ll give you this one chance to offer up those who know the answer to my question. That way, they’ll be first. And if there are more than five of you who know the answer, I’m pretty certain once I torture the first four, the fifth will talk, saving the rest of you.”

  “What do you wanna know?” a terrified fellow asked.

  “I want to know the exact address of the blonde bitch who started this war.”