CHAPTER 7
SCOWL was rockin’. People in Madrid really do know how to party. It was a Wednesday night, and the crowds would only increase as the hour grew later. The bar was backed up a little, but not too bad. Lourdes and Claudio seemed to have it covered.
But something was off kilter. I took a hard look at the two of them. Lourdes had a big bruise under her left eye. She’d tried to cover it with makeup but wasn’t successful.
Crap.
I slipped behind her at the bar.
“Is that a black eye?”
She ignored me.
I touched her shoulder. “What happened?”
“Boss, we’re busy,” she said over her shoulder as she poured a couple of apple shooters.
“Lourdes, I need to know what’s going on.”
Claudio moved close to me and whispered, “He’s using again.”
“Silencio,” Lourdes hissed.
Oh, hell, Baron, not again. He was one of my projects. I had quite a few of them around the world—people who needed a second chance and I gave it to them. Baron had been a crackhead in his teens, a walking cliché with his baggy pants and rotten attitude. I met him while visiting another friend in rehab, but he’d been clean for more than seven years.
“I’m going upstairs.”
Lourdes didn’t look at me, but she shook her head. “You’ll only make it worse. I know you don’t believe me, but it was an accident.”
That’s probably what you’ll say the next ten times it happens. I stomped up the stairs.
I found Baron in the office staring at the computer. He didn’t look like the kind of guy who would beat up his girlfriend. But he had.
“Want to explain how Lourdes got that bruise under her eye?”
He jumped up. “Alex? When did you get here?”
“How long, Baron?” I moved toward him. I had no patience for men who hit women. No patience at all.
I pointed a finger at him. “I told you if you needed help to call me. No matter what. No matter when. We had a deal. I save your life, and you make the best of a second chance. I have been here for you, and then you go and do something stupid.”
Recognition lit his face. “It was an accident. I swear it—”
Just after my fist connected with his nose, he crumpled to the floor. Blood spurted out on both of us. “I don’t believe you.” I turned my back on him. “Now you know how it feels when someone puts a fist to your face. I can’t believe you’d do something like that. Idiot. Get your stuff together, and I’ll call Angel. You’re done here.”
I heard him shuffling behind me. “No. Please.” He began to weep. “I promise you, on my heart, it was an accident. I went to grab her. She was going to leave me. And it just happened. She walked into my fist.”
“There’s no such thing. I have a feeling she wanted to leave you because you’re using again.” I threw a hand up in the air. “You’ve been clean for seven years. Why?”
His normally toasty brown face had turned sallow. He held up his hands. “Please. Listen to me. It really isn’t what you or anyone else thinks. I’m not basing. It’s prescription drugs. I hurt my shoulder lifting boxes a few months ago and—I don’t know. It just happened. I needed more and more Vicodin to dull the pain. Then I started popping these diet pills to stay awake.”
I’d never say it out loud, but I did understand. Once an addict, always an addict. I’d heard it from my friends who had gone through rehab hundreds of times.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s prescribed or not. And you know better than to take something like Vicodin. Did you tell your doctor about your problem?”
He didn’t say a word. That he didn’t tell his personal physician the truth about his condition was a huge setback. I’d been through this with too many people. “Baron. You’re going back to rehab, or I’ll kick your ass again. Your choice.”
“I—” He looked down at Lourdes through the office window. “I didn’t mean it. I love her.” His voice broke. “She’s having my baby.”
Well that was screwy. “Then why the hell did you hit her? You really could have hurt her and the child.”
He took a deep breath. Tears fell down his cheek. “When she tried to leave, I grabbed for her. She turned around really fast to get away, and her face hit my fist. I know what it sounds like, I swear. But I love her. I’m not that guy.” He held up a hand. “Well, I’m an addict, but I wouldn’t abuse her. I can honestly say I’ve never intentionally hit a woman. I wouldn’t.”
Part of me felt sorry for him. I’d lost a lot of friends to drug and alcohol addiction. People liked to pretend that the rich and famous no longer dabbled in the hard stuff, except for the few celebrities who used it to get ahead in Hollywood. A good stint in rehab meant you might get an Oscar-winning role the next year. But the truth is, more people than not used in my circle. Too much money and too much time meant people turned to the easy way out to take care of their boredom. Prescription drugs, heroin, cocaine, it was all available and easy to come by if you had enough money.
Not me. I had my sisters to thank for that. If I’d ever even thought about doing drugs, they would have killed me. We made a pact as teens, and except for the occasional herbal remedy prepared by Mira, as far as I knew we’d all kept our word. Oh, we might have a few too many martinis or margaritas all in the name of fun, but we knew our limits.
“If you love her, then get help. Did you call Raul?” That was his sponsor.
“I’ll get my stuff.” He didn’t answer the question.
I had my answer.
Turning, I looked him in the eye. “You can do this.”
He shook his head. I saw the shame spiral in his eyes.
“You can. I’m beyond pissed at you right now for hurting Lourdes and for slipping, but I believe in you.” I meant the words, and I could see from his face he believed me.
Another tear slipped down his cheek. “I screwed up in a big way.”
I nodded. “I know.”
While he gathered his things, I made a few calls. It’s amazing what one can do when they have enough funds.
After he apologized to Lourdes several times and they hugged in a tearful good-bye, I put him in a limo and sent him to the airport. He’d found success at Harbor Springs Rehab before, and that’s where I sent him. Dr. Simonak, the director there, would be waiting for him.
The limo drove him away, and Lourdes turned to me. “He’s not a bad man.” Anger, disappointment, and sadness crossed her face in a matter of seconds.
“No, he’s not. That’s why we have to take care of this now before it gets out of hand.” I put a hand on her shoulder. “This sucks, and I understand if you’re mad at me, but right now we have to take care of him.”
She nodded and walked back into the bar.
I called Angel.
“Ms. Caruthers, where do you need me?”
Have I mentioned how much I loved this guy? If I had a problem with any of the businesses, or if something wasn’t delivered for an event, I called him. The man had connections beyond anything I’d ever seen. By trade he was an accountant, and I used him in that capacity, too. He traveled around the world to audit the clubs. He had an innate way of knowing if anything fishy was going on. I was lucky in that about 99 percent of my employees were incredibly loyal, but he kept an eye out for that other 1 percent. “Angel, my man, you are needed in Madrid.” I explained what happened with Baron.
“I can be there in a few hours. I’ve been going over the FLAG books.” That was one of my London clubs. “By the way, it’s good here. You were right about Ms. Monroe. She’s doing a fantastic job. Profits are up three hundred percent.”
Monroe was another one of my projects. She was a hooker from Russia who just needed a chance. I found her three years ago when she was hired on at the London club as a dancer. She didn’t even know English, but she learned fast. At night she danced, and during the day she went to school. Over the last few years she worked her way up to bartender and then assi
stant manager. A few months ago when Gere, the manager, went to the hospital with a stomach virus that turned out to be a deadly run with pancreatic cancer, Monroe stepped up her game.
“I had no doubt. I’m looking at the books here, and everything seems in order. I don’t see any discrepancies, but I need your expertise. And we need to bring someone in who can keep things running.”
“Will Baron be back?”
I looked out the window and watched Lourdes as she poured drinks. She smiled at one of the bar patrons, but it didn’t meet her eyes. “No. He’s going to need a fresh start outside the club environment.”
“I’ll see what I can find for him when he’s ready.” Angel also had a way of finding the perfect job for the right person.
“I’m going to head out. You know how to find me if you need me.”
Just as I hung up, the comm went off in my ear. “Ms. Caruthers? It’s Jake.” I made a mental note to tell him to call me Alex. Even if we weren’t fake dating yet, it was crazy for him to be so formal. “What’s up?”
“We’ve got jumpers in Montreal again. Right near the old church.”
“I’m on the way.” I looked down at my dress. “Wait, can you have a change of—”
“They’re waiting on the table in the weapons room.” As usual, he’d thought of everything.
“Great. I’ll be there in a bit.”
CHAPTER 8
It was predawn in Montreal when I arrived. Going from Madrid to home to Canada had taken me less than five minutes, and that was with a change of clothes and a weapons load.
Teleporting: the only way to travel.
I’d landed directly in front of St. Barnabas, which was two hundred years old and absolutely beautiful. While it wasn’t exactly the Notre-Dame Basilica, it came close. Huge spires loomed above the neo-Gothic gem, but I didn’t have time to admire it.
I turned my senses on full blast. This was near the same church where I’d seen the dragon the other night. There was a slight scent of burned coal, but it was so faint I didn’t know if I could track it. The smoky smell evaporated when I reached the middle of the street. I searched for foot or talon prints in the heavy snow. The plows hadn’t been there yet, but I saw nothing.
“Scaly bastards, where are you?”
Using my boots, I shoved snow away from what looked like a manhole, but there was nothing.
I pushed the comm at my ear. “Where the hell did they go?”
“They’re off the grid, but they didn’t jump,” Jake’s voice came across. “One minute they were there, just outside the sanctuary, and then poof, they were gone.”
Dragons don’t poof.
It took a minute to pick the lock, but I eventually found my way in through the heavy wooden doors of the church. The stained glass windows were dark. It might almost be dawn, but the heavy snow outside made it seem closer to midnight.
There was no scent in the church, so I moved back outside, locking the doors as I left. That’s when I saw several sets of human tracks to the right. The weird thing was, they went into an alley and then disappeared.
What the hell?
I backtracked and followed the trail again. I picked up the lightest scent of smoke, and then nothing.
I pushed the comm again. “Do you guys see anything?”
“Negative.” I could hear Jake typing furiously. “Wait. To your—”
Before he could finish the sentence, a chill slithered down my spine. I sensed them around the corner. Pulling the crossbow from my back, I walked out of the alley and into the street.
Six beings stood thirty yards ahead, facing me. Two dragons holding on to four human women.
My brother, Bailey, is a big John Wayne fan, and I’ve been forced to watch many Westerns. As the dragons and I stared down the street at one another, it felt like I was in one of those cowboy movies.
“That’s a crime punishable by death.” I pointed to the four women they’d shoved to the side.
The largest dragon was familiar. His long green hair flowed down to his waist, and I recognized him from the day before as one of the Kevans.
His second-in-command was a gryphon. I could tell from the long talons on his claws. The gryphons weren’t able to transform all the way into human form.
Lifting the crossbow, I aimed for the gryphon’s brain.
The Kevan grabbed one of the two blondes and shoved the point of a large blade into her throat.
“Lose the weapon, or she dies,” the dragon ordered.
My left eyebrow rose of its own accord. “Collateral damage.” There was no way I’d let the women die, but he didn’t have to know that. “Want to explain to me why you’re kidnapping a bunch of defenseless women?”
College coeds, if I guessed right. They had that girls-night-out look about them. Correction: girls-night-out-gone-bad look about them.
“Guardian, stand down.”
I made a clicking sound with my tongue. “Not going to happen. Listen, you let go of her, and I’ll let you live at least till I get you back to Xerxes.”
Greenie roared and pulled the woman up by her hair. Her feet dangled in the air, and her shrill screams pierced the silence. I couldn’t blame her—the pain of being held like that had to be excruciating.
Squinting just a bit in the darkness, I cleared my mind and took the shot. The arrow sailed through the air in a millisecond and went right through his eye and into his brain before he knew what hit him. He fell back, taking the woman with him.
The gryphon’s wings appeared out of nowhere as he launched himself at me. Before I could even react, talons dug deep into my chest and knocked the breath out of me. All gryphons had poisoned claws, and I could feel the paralyzing fluid coursing through my blood.
Ouch. I had to move fast if I wanted any chance of living.
Luckily he wasn’t as big as his Kevan friend, and I shoved my feet into his groin area. At least that part of him was human enough. It did the trick, and he howled as he fell to the side.
I didn’t have enough breath to get up, but I rolled over, grabbed my knife from my waist, and jabbed it through his eye.
The gryphon died instantly, but I was stuck gazing up into the snowflakes falling from the dark clouds above. I hated these kinds of surreal moments. I tried to move my ear to my shoulder so I could press the comm to call Jake, but the poison moved too fast.
“Oh my God. You saved us.” The blonde who’d been picked up by the Kevan knelt beside me. Taking off her coat, she shoved it against my chest. Her face was white with shock, and I was impressed she could speak at all. “I’m a nursing student, but I’m a first year, and I don’t know what the hell to do. I’m trying to stop the bleeding. Can you move? Wait, don’t move. Your neck or spine—”
“No.” My vocal cords still worked, but just barely. I heard a strange noise and moved my eyes to the left. The gargoyles. I was in front of the old pub. How had that happened? It was as if the entire building had moved itself a half block down. “Bang on the door there. There’s a man who can help me.” The words sounded hoarse even to me.
Before she could move, the door opened and Mr. McMurphy shuffled over. “Lass, help me bring her inside. I know what to do.”
The nurse shook her head. “She needs to go to the hospital right away. She’s paralyzed. Probably some kind of neck or spine injury.” She bit her lip when she realized she might have said too much. “Sorry. They drugged us, and I’m not thinking clearly. I’m sure you’ll be fine, but we shouldn’t move you until—”
“Do what he says, please. He knows how to deal with this.” I cut my eyes to the right.
After taking a quick glance at the gryphon’s claws sticking up in the air, she motioned to her friends. “Come help me.” Between the four of them they managed to get me inside, but not without bumping my head on the table where they put me down.
“Shannon, watch it. Jeez,” the nurse chastised.
“I lost my grip. She’s so cold,” the other girl grunted out.
Mr. McMurphy was behind the bar mixing liquids from various bottles there. Didn’t look like he was making a martini; more like a potion.
“Listen.” My voice was no more than a whisper, and the nurse leaned down so she could hear me. “You guys need to get to the hospital. I don’t know what kind of drug they gave you, but the longer it’s in your system, the worse it’s going to be.”
She shook her head. “We aren’t leaving you here.”
“I’ll be okay.” It took a big effort to swallow. I closed my eyes. “Do this all the time. Please go.”
“Ah, lass, sounds like they pulled a fast one on you.” Mr. McMurphy stood beside me. He sprinkled a powdery substance on the open wounds, and the blood stopped pouring from my chest.
Putting his frail hand under my neck, he lifted my head up and held a shot glass filled with amber liquid to my mouth. “Drink up, love. You’ll be surprised how fast this will work.”
“Look, mister. The last thing she needs right now is alcohol.” The nurse shook her finger at him.
Mr. McMurphy gave her look that stopped her cold. “I’ve been taking care of the sick and injured since before your father was born, young lady.”
The liquid burned my throat, heating my body as it went down. Before it hit my stomach, I could wiggle my fingers. “Holy crap. What the hell kind of cocktail is that?” My voice had regained strength, and I laughed.
The nurse stared at me wide-eyed as I sat up.
“Whew.” I held my head. “Little dizzy.”
I remembered I’d left a mess out in the street. I sat cross-legged for a minute and tried to get my bearings.
“Mr. M, you rock.” My chest still hurt like hell, but I could move. Stretching my arms above my head, I winced. Looking down, I saw bone. Damn, I’d need some stitches for sure.
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