The man behind her paused, and the breathing of the leering one in front of her became heavy. Behind her, the man tightened up one wrist. “No chance. Jean would eat us alive. Literally.”
“That’s too bad,” Sid said. She winked at the one in front of her and rapped the side of her boot heel on the floor. A toe blade licked out. Flick! Exploding into action, she kicked the thug in front of her just behind the knee with the toe blade.
He went down with a howl. “Yeow!”
Sid drove her head backward into the chin of the man behind her. She sprang on the man in front and ripped the assault rifle free. She kicked him in the chin with her heel, knocking him out cold.
The last guard whirled his gun around toward her.
Sid shot two quick rounds into his legs.
Blat! Blat!
The man howled and fell to the ground.
“Throw the gun away!” Sid ordered.
The man did.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Jean yelled.
Sid was on the move. She took out one of the guards’ knives and cut Russ free.
“Thanks,” he said, rubbing his wrists. He lumbered over to a nearby table and picked up his wheel gun.
Jean walked in. She had duct tape in one hand and her knife in the other. “Stupid, stupid, stupid men!” She tipped her head toward the chair. “Sit down.”
“Excuse me, but I think you’re the one who needs to sit down,” Sid said, keeping the barrel pointed at Jean. “We’re getting out of here.”
“Honey, you aren’t going anywhere. There’s more of us in here than you think. They’ll be waiting.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“You’ll die,” Jean warned.
“Just drop the knife and toss over the tape.”
“No. What are you going to do, shoot me?”
Sid pointed the gun at Jean’s head. “You’re armed with a deadly weapon. It would be self-defense.”
Jean’s face darkened. Her throat growled. Her eyes turned pitch black.
“Oh man,” Russ said, backing toward the window.
“Screw this!” Sid unloaded a hail of gunfire. Bullets ripped into the changing woman.
Jean slammed into Sid and drove her hard into the wall.
Sid dropped the rifle and fought for her life.
Jean whaled on her. Her face was more hog than woman. Tusks popped up from her lower jaw. Her arms were coarse, powerful, and hairy. Taking Sid by the collar, Jean beat her into the floor. “Foolish woman! You’re no match for a shifter!” She champed her teeth. “Dead or alive, they want you! That means I can eat part of you. Now stop squirming before I do.”
Blam! Blam! Blam!
Jean recoiled and glared at Russ.
The man’s smoking gun barrel shook in his hands.
The pig-faced Jean kicked Sid in the gut and marched toward Russ.
He fired again.
Blam! Blam!
Swat!
Jean hit Russ so hard he spun around like a top and collapsed on the floor. She picked Russ up over her head and hurled him out the window.
Eyes wide, Sid darted for the next room.
“Get back here!” Jean yelled with a snort.
Sid caught a glimpse of her Glock on the kitchen counter and went for it. Snatching it up, she wheeled around.
Jean rammed her head into Sidney’s chest and kept charging. Wrapping Sid up in her arms, the boar-faced woman drove her clear through the wall.
Plaster dust exploded everywhere.
Sid found herself on her back and pinned down at the top of the staircase.
Jean wrenched the Glock from Sid’s hand.
“Ah!” Sid cried out.
“Shut up!” Jean grabbed Sid’s hair and slammed her head on the planks. “See what a mess you made.” The woman snorted. Still holding Sid in a grip of iron, she said, “You’re too much trouble. I’m gonna have to cripple you.” She grabbed Sid’s arm and yanked.
Sid’s shoulder popped out of the socket. “Aaaaaggghhhhhhhhh!”
CHAPTER 25
The pain was blinding. Sid could barely comprehend the words coming from Jean’s sweaty lips.
“Do you still want to play games with me, woman?” Jean said, holding Sid down by the chest.
Gasping, Sid sputtered out the word “No.” Tears filled her eyes. Blood still ran in her face. She went limp. “No.”
“That’s a good girl.” Jean eased up. “The better you cooperate, the sooner we get this over with.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Sid said. “The sooner the better.” In an instant, she pulled her knees up into her chest, drove them into Jean’s gut, and launched the swine-faced woman down the steps.
Jean bounced down the steps to the bottom and scrambled back to her feet. Pointing, Jean said, “You die for that.” She started up the steps.
Sid’s eyes searched for her gun and found nothing.
Where are you?
She turned back.
Jean’s face was a mask of rage, the self-control gone. She stomped up the steps with murder in her eyes.
A faint familiar sound caught Sid’s ear.
Click.
Jean took another step.
Sid turned away and flattened herself on the landing.
Boom!
The stairwell burst into splinters. The hall filled with plaster dust.
Sid started coughing and fanning at the smoky mist. Feeling around the floor with her hand, her fingers found her Glock. The pistol was an old friend in hand. She pointed it down the stairwell. Heart racing and arm dangling, she forced herself up to her feet.
I have to get out of here. But Russ!
She lumbered back into the living room, cozied up to the broken window, and peeked out.
A hand seized her wrist.
She jerked away and stuck her gun in a man’s disheveled face. “Russ!”
“Oh man,” he said, rubbing his head. “I thought I was a goner. That freak picked me up and tossed me like a hay bale! I’m a two-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound man.” He sniffed the air. “Do I smell bacon?”
Sid glanced down.
Russ was on the emergency fire escape.
“Let’s get out of here.” She climbed out the window. Both of them raced down the stairs and dropped into the alley.
“Ow!” Russ said. He was sitting down and holding his ankle. “Feels like I broke it.”
Shoulder dipped, Sid said, “I can’t carry you.” She pulled him up to his feet with her good hand.
Heads emerged from high above, and gunfire erupted.
“Hop to it, Russ!”
They took cover behind a dumpster. Sid returned fire.
Bullets skipped and ricocheted everywhere.
“We’re toast!” Russ said.
A roar sounded from behind them. A black car thundered down the alley and screeched to a halt. It was the Hellcat.
Smoke popped out of the driver’s window with a LAW rocket hefted on his shoulder. He pointed it upward at the apartment Sid and Russ had escaped from.
The gunfire stopped, and the guards vanished.
Still aiming at the apartment, Smoke barked an order. “Get in!”
Sid got in the front seat, and Russ stuffed himself in the back. “Get us out of here, man!”
Smoke got back in the car, slammed it in reverse, and stomped on the gas. The car screamed back out of the alley and skidded into the street. He put it into drive, gunned the gas, and zoomed into the nearest highway tunnel.
Groaning a little, Sid said, “How have you been?”
Eyes forward, Smoke said, “I’ve had better days.”
The car emerged from the tunnel and flowed into the traffic.
Grimacing, Sid shifted in her seat. “Thanks for picking us up.”
Smoke nodded.
Odd.
“So, where are you taking us, to the bat cave?”
“No,” he said. “Parking garage. We’ll lie low there until things
cool off.” He glanced at her body, but not her eyes. “Shoulder dislocated?”
“Very astute of you,” she said. “Thanks for noticing.”
“So, what happened up there?” Smoke said, eyeing the road.
Russ jumped in. “I’ll tell you what happened. This city is full of crazies! I’m moving to Arizona.”
“Well, fill me in,” Smoke said, eyeing Russ through the rearview mirror.
Russ offered up the entire ordeal.
Sid filled in some other details.
Smoke seemed unaffected.
“John,” she said, “we were trying to find out who framed you. We didn’t have much luck with that though. All I got was the name Kane.”
Smoke nodded.
Geez, he won’t even look at me. He must be having a really bad day. I hope this isn’t over the engagement thing. And I’m not going to bring up the ring being stolen.
“You know,” Russ said, “that name Kane rings a bell.”
“I’d hope. It’s Cain from the Bible,” Sid said.
“No, not like that. One with a ‘K’. K-A-N-E. Like the wrestler.”
“Why’s that matter?” Sid asked. She was grimacing, her shoulder throbbing.
“I did a story a long time ago—geez, at least two decades, maybe longer—about the Lancasters.”
“The crime family?”
“Yep. They really hated the cops. Back in the seventies they blamed the cops for the death of their son Kane. Things got brutal for about ten years but quieted after that. The Lancasters kind of faded away in the nineties, but there’s been some murmurings of late. A Lancaster here, a Lancaster there. Arrests. Mugshots. Kinda weird.”
Sid had read some of those files on the Lancasters. They’d taken two FBI agents down in the late seventies. It was an extremely rare thing back then. But it was one of those things that Ted Howard, her now-deceased boss, had told her about. Fallen agents. The FBI was family, disjointed sometimes, but still family. They took things like that personally, but more so then than now. Things had changed. Ofttimes now, the agency seemed divided.
Smoke took the next exit in south DC. It was a rougher neighborhood than downtown. More poverty. More homeless. He cruised the car into a parking garage that drove down underneath an old office building. The tires squealed on the hairpin turns. The motor sounded like thunder down below. There weren’t many cars parked either. The ones that were pulled in looked abandoned and dusty, a graveyard of bad car models from the eighties and nineties.
“Hey look, a K-Car. I used to have one of those,” Russ said. “Love that Cream-of-Wheat yellow.”
Smoke backed the car into a slot near the elevators, shut down the engine, and got out.
Struggling with the door, Sid finally got it open.
Russ squeezed out.
“So, what’s the plan?” Sid asked Smoke. “I could use a sling, you know.”
Smoke sat back on the hood and crossed his arms. “We’re waiting on somebody.”
Aggravated, she asked, “Care to fill me in?”
Smoke turned toward her. His dark eyes fastened on hers and started to change.
The blood drained from Sid’s face.
Smoke’s eyes turned black as eight balls, and then he scowled. “No.”
CHAPTER 26
Sid put a gun on Smoke.
He showed a wicked sneer.
“Who are you?”
“Oh, put that away,” said the man who looked just like Smoke. “You don’t want to get hurt.”
“Me hurt?” said Sid, trying not to wince. “You’re the one looking down the barrel.”
“True,” said the black-eyed man, calmly, “but you can’t know for sure. After all, maybe I really am John Smoke and you’ve been fooled all along.”
“I say shoot him,” Russ suggested. “We’ll figure out the truth later.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” the man said. He reached into his jeans and pulled out a soft pack of cigarettes. A black Zippo lighter appeared in his other hand. He flicked the Zippo open, started the flame, and lit his cigarette. He snapped the top shut and tucked it all away. It was just him, smoking, with a smile on his face. “I’ve probably smoked more of these things than anybody, and it never gets old. Always wondered why.”
“Nicotine, dumbass,” Russ said.
“No, not with my chemistry,” the man said. “I can’t be harmed by the usual mortal means.”
“I doubt that,” Sid said, easing herself into a better position. She pointed the gun toward his back. “You’re the one who shot Wilhelm, aren’t you.”
The man shrugged. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out at this point. Of course, I’ve shot a lot of people. You know,” he chuckled a low laugh, “I’ve been around since Lincoln. Makes you think, doesn’t it.”
“You’re coming with me,” Sid said.
The man turned. His eyes were dark blue like Smoke’s. Every detail was just right on the outside. Only the voice was off a little. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you, Miss Shaw. You see, we’re all trapped. Well, not me so much, but you certainly don’t have a way out.”
A dreadful feeling dropped into her stomach like a cup of castor oil. She summoned her courage. “I’ll make a way out. Now get back in the vehicle.”
The man held his hands up. “Shoot me, Sid. Shoot me, the man you love.” He winked. “I’m a murderer, so shoot me. It will do me some good. But shoot me, and you’ll never see me again.”
“Screw this.” She squeezed the trigger. Click!
The man chuckled. “Such a fool. You know, Sid, we switched your bullets out. Yes, those fancy ones with the blue tips. Very nice. Very gone. You’re lucky Jean didn’t kill you back in the apartment building. But it seemed your resourcefulness prevailed. We anticipated it.”
“What are you talking about?” she said.
“Why, your audition. You know, the Drake could use someone like you: a loner, but loyal. We can make all those bills go away. Reunite you with your sister and niece. You’d never have to worry about your parents, their safety.”
“I don’t want any part of what you’re offering. I just want to take you in.”
“Really? Which one of me to you want to take in?” The man changed. He had Cyrus’s face. “This me?” He turned again. Rebecca Lang appeared. “Or this one? Hah. No one has ever captured me. No one ever will. I’m the greatest shifter of them all. Why, I could even be the President if I wanted. Maybe I have been before. So many strange goings-on these days.” He changed back to Smoke. “So do you still want to kill me—or kiss me?”
“Kill you. Definitely kill you.”
“You know, I was like you once.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh please, I don’t want to hear it. I’ve heard it twice now: once from Double Dee and a second time from the rat guy.”
“Miss Shaw, take it from me, there is no better life than what we have. Power. Money. You, like your sister, should consider it.” He blew a smoke ring. “It would be best for you and your family.”
“They can take care of themselves just fine.”
“Don’t be so sure of that.” Rubber tires rubbing on cement echoed above. An old black Cadillac limousine with a very high roof pulled up in front of them. “Well, if I can’t convince you, perhaps they can.”
A deader in a limousine driver’s cap lumbered out of the car and opened the back doors.
Someone swung a leg out. The foot attached to it was impossibly big. The limo groaned as the most towering figure she’d ever seen stepped out. A huge man, eight feet of solid muscle packed into a grey gym suit. His head almost touched the ceiling.
Sid tilted her neck just to look at him.
The towering figure would make Shaq look like a child. His face was fierce and hard. Dark wild hair hung over his eyes.
“Holy shit,” Russ muttered. “That just ain’t possible.”
The deader limo driver walked over to the other side of the limo and opened the doors. Sid expec
ted some man or woman, maybe her sister Allison, to step out. The limo groaned and bounced again. Another giant stepped out, bigger and taller than the first.
The man posing as Smoke let out a sinister chuckle. “Let there be giants.”
CHAPTER 27
Sid felt all of her blood seep down into her toes. AV the minotaur hadn’t been as big as these men.
She heard the door of the Hellcat shut. The door locks popped closed. Russ tapped the window, said to her softly, “I’m not here. I’m not here,” and crawled into the back seat.
The monstrous men stood still. Shaggy. Hairy. Beastly. They each must have been six hundred pounds easily.
That’s really not normal! I need to get out of here.
“Big fellas, aren’t they?” The man who looked like Smoke puffed on his cigarette. “You can’t find them that big at the carnivals. Well, that was a long time ago, anyway. Care for a cigarette? It’ll settle your nerves.”
Sid gently shook her head no, still gaping at the giant-sized men. They made NBA players look like dwarves.
Just when I thought I’d seen everything.
“Do you have a name?”
“Me?” said Smoke’s double. “I’ve had many. My given name is Reginald, but you can call me Reggie. No need to be formal.”
“Are there any more like you?”
“Ah, now that’s a good question. Well, the truth is, so far as I’m concerned, I’m the only one that matters. The doppelganger. One of a kind. That’s all you need to know.” He fixed his eyes on the limousine. Another person was getting out. “And now it’s time to meet our next guest.”
Sid’s jaw dropped.
Older, heavy and swarthy, a slick politician eased his way between the giants and buttoned his dress coat. It was Congressman Augustus Wilhelm. “Hello, Sidney,” he said with brightened eyes, “surprised to see me?”
“More like disappointed.”
“Hah. Well, you’re not the only person to say that. Oh, and by the way, before I forget, Allison and Megan send their regards. Megan, so sweet and growing up so fast. She’s going to be such a pretty thing.”
Sid stormed forward.
The giant men blocked her path to the congressman. One of their hands could fully engulf her head.
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files Collector's Set: Books 1-10: Urban Fantasy Shifter Series Page 63
