Acceptance

by Grace R. Duncan

  Quincy kept his gaze on Dee, and that was the only reason he knew what was coming. Dee took the last few steps between them at a near run and made a swipe at him with a partially shifted hand. Quincy dodged the hit and spun when a shot rang out in the room.

  Dee crashed into the table, then fell. “Fuck!”

  Quincy looked down to see a hole in the knee of Dee’s jeans. He looked up and Chad shrugged.

  “What? It heals in humans. I figured it’d heal easily enough in him.”

  “True.” Quincy turned to Dee and held the gun on him. “As you can see, my friend isn’t afraid to use the weapon in his hand. Neither am I. If you want to test that, all you have to do is move or try to shift.”

  Dee blinked at him but didn’t reply. He did, however, stay put on the floor.

  Dumb and Dumber both stared in shock. “You shot him,” Dumb blurted.

  “Duh? Did you think these were for show?” Chad asked, waving the gun and blinking at him.

  Dumb didn’t answer but he didn’t move either.

  “All right,” Quincy said, getting down to business. “Rope. In the suitcase, Miles.” He never took his gaze off Dee, trusting Chad and Jamie had Dumb and Dumber taken care of.

  “Got it.”

  A moment later Miles came back with three bunches of rope. He tossed one to Chad and one to Jamie, then went to work on Dee. “Hold on to those while I take care of him.” Miles nodded at Dee.

  Quincy raised an eyebrow. “Those knots are impressive. Where’d you learn those?”

  “Wolf scouts,” Miles said, deadpan.

  Quincy blinked at him. “Wolf scouts?” He glanced at Jamie. “Is that like… Boy Scouts for wolves?”

  Jamie chuckled. “I think he’s pulling your leg.”

  Quincy turned back to scowl at his mate.

  Miles just grinned at him. “I spent a lot of time in Seattle during college. I did a few interesting jobs over the summers.”

  “We’ll have to talk about those later.”

  The grin widened. “Maybe I can show you.”

  “Uh, do you mind not flirting? That’s kind of gross,” Dee grumbled.

  Quincy pushed the gun against Dee’s forehead. “You’re hardly in a position to bargain. And let me remind you: don’t even consider trying to shift or move. I have zero qualms about filling your brain with lead.” That wasn’t entirely accurate. Quincy had no intention whatsoever of killing. He would if it came down to the Three Ds or him and the wolves, but for one thing, it would be hard to get information out of a corpse.

  Miles finished tying Dee’s arms behind his back, then his feet together. He moved over to Jamie and took care of Dumber, then a few moments later had also tied Dumb up pretty well. With Chad and Jamie’s help, they got them up against the walls—in different spots, with Chad keeping watch over Dumb, Jamie over Dumber, and Quincy standing in front of Dee.

  “Miles, give me a hand here,” Quincy said, squatting. He dug through Dee’s pockets and pulled out a cell phone. Miles helped turn Dee so Quincy could get to the wallet in his back pocket and pluck it out. He flipped it open to see a New York driver’s license with the name Payne Stewart on it. He raised his eyebrow. “You use your real name?”

  Dee simply narrowed his eyes.

  Quincy shrugged a shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll find it. And if somehow I don’t? He—” He pointed at Jamie. “—found me. If he can find me, he’ll find you.”

  Dee scowled but kept his mouth shut.

  Quincy tossed the phone and wallet to Miles. “Chad and Jamie, get theirs too.” He tilted his head at Dee. “There are two ways this can go. You can tell me what I want to know and I will let you and your fellow idiots go. Or you can fight me and go through a whole hell of a lot of pain. That man?” He nodded toward Miles. “Is a doctor. Anything I do, he can patch you up so you’ll heal and then I can do it all over again.”

  Dee swallowed, but that was the only outward response.

  “That’s okay.” Quincy smiled. “I was hoping you’d refuse.” He sighed. “Let’s start with something simple. Who hired you?”

  Dee actually rolled his eyes. “Really? You’re going to be that typical?”

  “Are you going to answer my question?” Quincy asked.

  Dee spit in his face.

  Quincy pointed the gun at Dee’s right knee—the one that hadn’t been shot yet—and squeezed the trigger.

  “Fuck!” Dee shouted.

  Quincy brought the gun up and aimed it at Dee’s forehead. “That will heal. This won’t. I have nine bullets left. I promise, you won’t like where I’ll put them. There are plenty of nonlethal spots on your body.”

  Dee simply blinked at him.

  “Now. Let’s try again. Who hired you?”

  “Fuck you.”

  Quincy shot Dee’s right shoulder, then pointed the gun back on Dee’s forehead.

  Dee held in the shout this time, but he obviously strained with it.

  “Eight bullets.”

  At that second, Jamie whispered into the mic, “Four o’clock.”

  Quincy didn’t even hesitate. He swung his right arm around and squeezed the trigger.

  “Shit! Shit! You killed him!” Dumb shouted.

  Quincy glanced over his shoulder to see Dumber fallen over, eyes open but staring sightlessly ahead. His hands were partially shifted—and thus, no longer tied—and he’d obviously thrown himself forward as if he was going to try shifting the rest of the way. Instead, a neat little bullet hole sat in the middle of his forehead.

  “Seven bullets,” Quincy said as he pointed the SIG back at Dee’s forehead.

  “Nice aim,” Chad said.

  Jamie leaned over. “Huh. It didn’t come out the back.”

  “That’s good. Less to clean up,” Miles said.

  “They don’t always come out,” Chad said.

  “I read about that when we studied ballistics, but I never really thought that was accurate. Huh. Guess that’s what I get for watching so much crime crap on TV.”

  “They’re fuckin’ crazy, P!” Dumb said, expression still complete shock.

  Dee didn’t take his eyes off Quincy’s face.

  Quincy held the gun steadily on Dee’s forehead. “I’ve been called less accurate things.” Quincy held on to the humor as much as he could. He had no stomach for this, but it was the only way he was going to get to the bottom of the whole nightmare. He had a feeling Miles, Jamie, and even Chad were using humor for the same reason. With the oversensitive senses Chad was dealing with and the fact that Jamie hadn’t been in this sort of situation before… well, despite all that, it’d be a miracle if it didn’t affect them. Quincy wasn’t sure if it was because of or in spite of that, that made him want them with him.

  “All right. Now. One more time, this time with feeling. Who hired you?”

  Dee stared at him for a long moment, then, lip curled, said, “Go to hell.”

  Quincy sighed, pointed the gun at Dee’s left thigh—close enough to his groin to scare him, but not close enough to do damage to it—and took another shot. “Six bullets.”

  Dee grunted this time, his face turning red with the strain of not reacting.

  “P, maybe we ought to just tell him. We don’t get paid enough for this!”

  Dee’s eyes darted in Dumb’s direction, then back to Quincy.

  “You tell me what I want to know, you can go. You and Dumb over there. You don’t want to tell me, well, I’ve got six bullets left. That’s five nonlethal and one for your brain. Then I can start on him.” Quincy tossed his head toward Dumb.

  “Ewwww!” came a few seconds later from Chad. “This one pissed himself! Ugh.”

  Quincy blinked at Dumb. “Really? You pissed yourself?” He turned back to Dee. “He’s not good for much, is he? Except a bit of muscle?”

  Dee blinked and Quincy smirked.

  “God, it stinks now,” Chad grumbled, covering his nose with his free hand. “I ought to shoot you just for that.” He sco
wled at Dumb.

  “Might not want to say more. Next he’ll shit himself, and that’ll be way worse,” Jamie pointed out.

  “True,” Chad said. He glared at Dumb, then looked back at Dee. “For the love of Diana, just answer the fucking questions before we all puke from the smell.”

  Quincy raised his eyebrows. “Well? It can’t smell any better for you. Unless you’re used to the smell of his piss…. In which case, I don’t want to know. Ew.” He shuddered. “Look—”

  “Fuck. Off.”

  “Bastet, give me patience.” Quincy shook his head and shot Dee’s other leg. “Five bullets.”

  “Abraham Thomas and Charles Ross!” Dumb blurted.

  Dee sighed and dropped his head down. “Fuckin’ asshole,” he muttered.

  “You know what?” Dumb shouted. “Fuck you! If you wanna fuckin’ die for this, be my fuckin’ guest! But fuck you. Fuck you and your fuckin’ death wish, you fuckin’ fuck! I’m not ready to meet Osiris.”

  “Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word,” Chad muttered.

  “What do they want with me?” Quincy asked.

  “I don’t know. Really!” Dumb said when Quincy raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t tell us that shit. They’d just tell us what to do—go rough you up, kill him.” He tilted his head toward Miles. “That sort of thing. I don’t know who they are or what they want. Just that they want you. We were s’pposed to bring you in or kill you tonight.”

  Dee just sighed again, shook his head, then finally spoke. “They think you’ll be their puppet. They want to start a war.”

  The silence in the room deafened Quincy. He stared at Dee. “A… war?” he whispered.

  Dee nodded. “He’s right,” he said, tossing his head toward Dumb. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit. Fuckers want a war, that’s on them. I’m done. They know your father isn’t going to let them get into a war. I don’t know what the fuck they think they’ll gain from it.” He shrugged a shoulder. “None of my business. They thought we were stupid, talked right over us.”

  Quincy kept his opinion of Dee’s intelligence to himself. “And they thought I’d just blithely go along with it?”

  Dee snorted. “Yeah, and they think they’re the smart ones.”

  “Who all knows about it?”

  Dee shrugged again. “I don’t know. The two he mentioned. Someone else they call a lot—I don’t think it’s a cat, but I’m not sure. That’s all I know. You want more, I’d start with Thomas. He seems to be more in the lead than the other one. There might be one more cat, but if there is, he’s silent.”

  Quincy narrowed his eyes as he considered that. It aligned with one of his father’s theories. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Kind of a stupid question, which he realized as soon as it came out. And the information had the ring of truth to it.

  Dee snorted. “You’ll find it.” He nodded toward Miles. “Their numbers are in my phone. Trace ’em. I know you know how.”

  Quincy nodded and stood. “Miles, take the bullets out while I look some of this up. If it checks out, we’ll let them go.”

  “Oh thank Bastet!” Dumb said on a sob.

  Chad rolled his eyes. “Really? Hey, can I spray him down with Lysol or something?”

  Quincy shrugged. “Be my guest.”

  Miles collected his medical kit from the suitcase and knelt next to Dee. “You gonna fight me?”

  Dee raised an eyebrow. “I’m not as crazy as your mate is. I’d like to heal, thanks.”

  Miles smirked. “Good. I can’t give you painkillers. And if you shift now, you’ll lodge the bullets in your muscles.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. Just do it.”

  Quincy turned away and grabbed his computer from his bag. He glanced at Jamie. “Want to help me?”

  Jamie raised his eyebrows and blinked. “Me?”

  Quincy nodded. “Yeah. Two of us will get it faster. You start here. I’ll get into the phones.” He held his computer out toward Jamie.

  “All right.” Jamie took it and sat next to him.

  Quincy worked quickly, the sound in the room almost nonexistent, save the ping of the bullets hitting the pan Miles used, the clack of the keys as Jamie typed, and Dee’s grunts as Miles worked.

  Until they heard retching.

  “Oh for the love of Diana.” Chad hauled Dumb to his feet and carried him into the bathroom. “Puke in there. Fuck’s sake. How do you survive this line of work?”

  Dumb retched again.

  Quincy shook his head and turned back to the phones.

  In what could only be a few more minutes, Jamie tapped Quincy’s shoulder. “I’ve got it. I assume you knew who those two men were.”

  “Yeah.” Quincy nodded.

  “Addresses, phone numbers, etcetera here,” Jamie said, pointing. “Bank accounts here. Including….” He clicked on another tab on the browser window. “These.”

  “Numbered. And those figures are ridiculous.”

  “Uh-huh. All the transfers go to other numbered accounts, but I’d bet in short order….”

  “We’d find out where those go too. Yeah. Save that. We can follow the money more later.”

  Quincy picked up Dee’s phone and turned back to see Miles had finished and bandaged Dee for the moment.

  “Best way for him to heal the rest of the way will be to shift.”

  Quincy nodded. “Yeah. They’ll have to wait a little while, though.” He squatted in front of Dee. “In a few minutes, we’re going to pack up and get out of here. You’ll wait an hour. I don’t give a fuck if you shift before that, but you’ll wait an hour before you leave. And you will leave me, my father, my mate, and my friends alone. If I hear the slightest hint that you tried anything, I will find you. And I will kill you.”

  Dee nodded. “I’m done. We’ll be gone.”

  Quincy tilted his head toward Dumber. “Get him to his family for a proper burial. He’s an asshole, and he almost killed my mate, but he’s already facing Osiris and the test of maat over that.”

  “We’ll take care of it.” Dee shook his head. “Good luck, dude. I wouldn’t want to be you.”

  Quincy snorted. “Right now, I don’t want to be me.” He glanced at Miles. “Except for one thing.”

  Chapter 13

  MILES WORRIED over Quincy’s silence the whole way back to the hotel. When they’d gotten to the Challenger, Quincy had climbed into the back seat without speaking, then Jamie slid in the front on the same side, and Miles and Chad put the bags into the trunk. Before they closed it, Chad turned to him.

  “Watch him. This is gonna fuck with him for a while.” Chad frowned. “In the time I was on the force, I discharged my weapon four times in the line of duty. Twice, it didn’t hit anything. Once it injured a guy in the leg. Once… once it killed. I spent a year in counseling. Some of that was for other stuff, but the idea that I took a life seriously fucked with me.”

  Miles nodded. “I… it’s not the same when I lose a patient, but it’s hard. I can imagine well enough, and Quincy… for all his aloof exterior, he isn’t nearly as cold as he’d have people believe.”

  “Exactly. It’ll fuck with him. Unless you’re a sociopath or psychopath, anytime life ends fucks with you, especially if you cause it.” Chad took a deep breath. “I might suggest getting him alone when we get back and giving him a chance to deal with it. This might seem… crass, but sex might help. He’ll need to stop thinking.”

  “Thanks. Gods, how fucked up was that?” Miles asked, shaking his head.

  “No shit. I’ve interrogated a lot of assholes—both innocent and not—over the years. None of it was anything like this. I think I’ll have to help my own mate deal with some of this stuff. He’s never been through any of it either.”

  “Yeah. I’m just glad we’re here to do it. Let’s get back to the hotel and go from there.”

  Chad nodded and shut the trunk. Miles went around and climbed in next to Quincy before Chad got in and started the c
ar. Before they were out of the parking lot, Quincy was against him. Miles put his arm around Quincy’s shoulders and kissed the top of his head.

  They made the trip back in silence. Even Chad didn’t cuss New York drivers when they got into the city. As a measure of just how fucked up it all was, Chad even let the valet park the car.

  Miles guided Quincy straight into the bedroom when they got to the suite.

  Quincy looked at him for a long moment, but couldn’t seem to say anything.

  “How about a shower?” Miles suggested.

  Quincy nodded and turned to the bathroom. Miles helped him get undressed and under the hot water.

  “Do you want company?”

  Quincy shook his head. “No, uh, no, I’m just going to get clean.”

  Miles nodded and kissed Quincy’s temple. “I’ll leave the door open. Call me if you need me.”

  “Okay.” Quincy bent his head under the water, and with nothing more he could do, Miles went back out to the bedroom.

  He checked the lube to make sure they still had some, then unpacked and put the suitcase and his medical kit away. By the time he’d undressed himself, though, and Quincy hadn’t come out, he decided to check. Quincy was usually quick at showering, and while Miles knew he needed to try to deal with the death, it still seemed to be taking too long.

  Quincy’s pale skin was almost red, and he was still scrubbing furiously, despite the fact that he looked quite clean. Miles frowned, not sure if he should interrupt or not. But when Quincy put more soap on the scrubby and went back to cleaning himself again, Miles stepped into the shower.

  Without speaking he took the scrubby from Quincy and set it aside, then guided his mate under the spray. It was a testament to how messed up Quincy was that he didn’t even speak, much less fight. Miles helped Quincy rinse, then picked up the shampoo.

  “It’s not maat,” Quincy finally muttered. “Is it?” He looked up at Miles.

  Miles paused in scrubbing Quincy’s scalp. “Did you pray to Thoth? Talk to Bastet?”

  Quincy swallowed. “Yes. Of course, they don’t answer directly or right away. I just….” He shook his head, looking away for a moment, then back up to Miles. “Gods… what must you think of me?”