Bone Hunter

by Thea Atkinson

  A snapping sound cracked through the air on my left side, halting my hands just as another flash of light lit Scottie's face. I watched it like a static shock sizzle into his cheek. He bellowed in rage just as my hand found his gun.

  It was right about that moment that whoever had brushed against me actually took hold of my elbow and yanked.

  Hard.

  I peeled away from Scottie's grip with the gun still in my hand. I swung around blindly, raising the pistol toward whoever had hold of me. The thug, no doubt. I might thank him for ripping me loose from Scottie, but he'd taste a bit of metal if he thought I was going with him.

  "Back off," I growled. "Or I'll shoot."

  "Sis?" Scottie said from somewhere to my right. I balked. He sounded afraid.

  He couldn't see me. I couldn't see him. The room was blacker-than-should-be black. I could hear my own breathing. I could hear everyone's breathing as they waited for another blast of light or for the chandeliers to sizzle to life or for the guards to do something.

  Because no one was doing anything except no doubt standing frozen to their spots in shock and fear.

  I tried in vain to see through the dark. My eyes felt as though they were too wide and yet nothing, no shape nor form revealed itself through the shadows. I minced sideways, hoping the thug couldn't see me either.

  "Put it down," said a voice.

  Maddox. Right in front of me.

  Scottie heard it too. "Sis?" he said. "I'm right here, babe. Talk to me."

  Like hell I would. The same hell I'd put my weapon down for. In this dark, where I had no idea who was friend or foe, I would put it down when I fell.

  I took a step forward, aiming for what I hoped was the exit and bumped into the velvet rope. I ran my fingers along the cording.

  The coin. The electrum coin. Whoever was responsible for the blackout and the frenzy of the guards as they worked to herd everyone out of range of the valuables had no doubt come for the coin. It was small. It was pocketable. No one had found me yet. There weren't nearly enough guards to get everyone back from everything or herded into he next room.

  I didn't have pockets, but I had a purse. I felt my way along the cord to the plinth. My fingers were roaming the top of it, rubbing along the velvet.

  They were a hair's breadth away from the coin itself.

  A voice hissed in my ear.

  "Don't touch it," it said.

  I made for one final grab, but I was tugged backward by broad hands into Maddox's chest. The smell of smoke and aftershave surrounded me.

  "It's hers," he said in my ear. "Leave it be."

  He had hold of my wrists, and the gun dropped to the floor with a thud.

  "He's looking for you," Maddox said in an urgent tone that made me think he could see through the dark and right through to Scottie's soul. "Should he find you?"

  "No." The words were wrenched from me as I thought of how close I'd come to being Scottie's bitch again.

  The lights fizzled the way they do when power is struggling to come back online. I got a brief glimpse of Maddox at my side, of Scottie catching sight of me and eating up the distance with brisk, determined strides, before everything went black again. The dying of the light sent a few more images to my cortex: armed guards, flashlights and rifles in hand, rushing in through the doors and herding the crowd like sheep.

  Someone cursed, unaware that what was happening was more important than a few power outages.

  "He's coming," Maddox hissed and I quailed, trying to decide which way to bolt in the dark.

  "Which way?" I said, frantic now.

  "Quiet," he said, as rough hands, Maddox's I told myself, shoved me sideways. His body shielded me from the back. I felt him there, towering above me even in my heels and then he began pressing closer forcing me to inch along awkwardly.

  Why were the flashlights not working? What was happening?

  I stumbled. My hands flew forward to catch myself as I spilled onto the floor and I thudded against the tiles with a jolt to my wrists. I managed to bite back a curse as the hot pain made a lightening trail up to my elbow. I felt my left breast come free of the dress and I scrabbled about, trying to get up again.

  Someone in heels trampled on my fingers and I did cry out then, unable to hold back the note of pain. I heard Scottie call out to me, anxiety in his voice. He wanted to know where I was. Was I okay? Talk to me, Sis. Let me know where you are.

  The young Isabella might have felt pity at the sound of it, wanted to soothe his worry. Now, all I could do was crawl in the opposite direction of that voice, fumbling around in the dark as I tried to escape. I heard the distinctive sound of my dress tearing and a draft of air met the backs of my thighs.

  Great.

  "For fuck's sake," Maddox said from above me, and next I knew I was being scooped up beneath the knees and behind my shoulders, cradled against his chest.

  I considered protesting at the indignity of it, but in the end, I didn't care how I got away from Scottie, so long as I got away. I ended up clinging on tight like Whitney Houston in the Bodyguard and urging him to hurry the hell up. Not very damsel-like in the end judging by the way he eyed me at with every curse I let go.

  I didn't care about that either.

  He shouldered his way through the darkness in what I hoped was the right direction. Different fragrances of aftershave, soap, and perfume pervaded the air. Someone elbowed me in the head. I heard the walkies snapping on and off with clipped statements. No power outages in the city. Isolated to the museum. The breakers were all intact.

  Alarms started ringing, shrill and demanding and several of the women screamed again. It finally dawned on them that this was no ordinary brownout. It was intentional. No doubt the museum was already on lockdown and there were police everywhere outside. Every exit, every air duct and crevice being guarded or scoured through. No one would get out without coming under scrutiny first.

  Double great.

  "Don't worry, Kitten," Maddox said as though I'd telecasted my thoughts to him, and maybe the way I tensed up did just that. "You didn't steal anything, did you?"

  No. I hadn't. I was a mere patron of history tonight thanks to Scottie. Despite how the evening began, I hadn't used any of the tools I'd brought, and I hadn't lifted or grifted one thing.

  Somehow that didn't make me feel better.

  "Just a little more," he said. "We're almost there."

  I was about to ask what he meant when a voice sounded to my right, addressing Maddox, apparently, by the intimate way it sounded.

  "He's got it," Kerri said.

  "Good," Maddox said. "Now we can get the hell out of here."

  He picked up his pace and managed to avoid the guards I knew were still floundering and trying to empty the room.

  I didn't question why until the lights suddenly flooded the room again and I could see we were inches from the door, that two guards who stood beside it were smacking their flashlights against their palms, till they suddenly swam into full working order. They looked so bewildered at the light that I wondered if they thought some magic had befallen every light in the building.

  Maybe it had. In fact, I was sure of it.

  "Is this you?" I hissed against his ear.

  He knew better than to try and con me. "The blackouts, yes, but the light show? No. Some elemental power. Which is why we need to get out of here."

  As though that was some sort of signal, Maddox dropped me to the floor and I had to clutch at him to keep from falling. I'd lost a shoe and was unsteady on my feet.

  His gaze dropped to the rose stem between my breasts as he steadied me, and I scrabbled to find the edge of my dress to pull it closed. I flushed with heat from heel to hair when I realized he hadn't been looking at the rose at all, but at the bared breast that had come free during the scuffle.

  He aimed me gently toward the curtain without so much as mentioning my awkward state of undress, but I noted his eyes didn't lift to my face until he spoke.

  "Bet
ter run, little kitten," he said and tossed a look over his shoulder. "Your lover looks awfully pissed."

  CHAPTER 10

  Scottie did look pissed. But he was too far from the exit to do anything once a guard noticed him standing a little too close to the plinth where I'd been just seconds earlier.

  Kerri made a small sound of amusement from beside me and I assumed it was for Scottie's decidedly furious glare in our direction until she adjusted my dress along my backside and patted the skirts into place. The draft of cold air cut off, indicating I'd been showing a lot more than a bared breast.

  I simmered in quiet humiliation and felt like a filthy urchin despite her careful touch-ups. I looked up at her as she averted her gaze from the obvious tear along the back seam toward Scottie who was now being manhandled into handcuffs and away from the plinth.

  "I wonder why that young man would be so foolish to steal something right under their noses," she sniffed.

  She regarded Maddox with a lifted silver brow. "Not brash, but rather stupid, don't you think?"

  I stared at the plinth. The coin was gone.

  Kerri peered down at me as I clutched the pieces of torn dress together over my breast. I felt decidedly silly under that scrutiny, especially the way she'd called Scottie young despite looking at least half a dozen years younger than he was.

  "You best run along," she said. "Before folks begin to remember seeing you with him."

  "I wasn't--"

  "Go," Maddox barked at me and I immediately responded.

  He fell into step behind me out through the swept aside curtain meant to separate the exhibit from the foyer and into a handful of security guards patting down patrons as they emerged.

  The general state of confusion and chaos didn't lift from the foyer as I stepped across the threshold to a room filled with angry, confused, and upset patrons. Someone complained rather loudly that she hadn't got to see the mummy.

  I searched the room for the curator and found him with his jaw clenched, the teenager hovering next to him. Her eyes looked strangely calm despite the terror they showed just moments earlier. Maybe she thought she'd been reprieved.

  She locked gazes with me and held mine for several moments before jerking her head toward the exit. Meet me, that movement said. I flicked my gaze to the curator as rough hands pulled me aside and patted me down.

  He looked mightily put out and I was beginning to understand why. Through the glass doors and wall of windows that showed the street outside, I could see the city fully lit and the sidewalks crammed with security and looky-loos.

  The museum had been targeted all right, and judging by the missing coin, the handcuffs snapped on Scottie's wrists, and the presence of what looked like plainclothes dicks, it had been successful.

  Don't touch it, Maddox had said. It's hers.

  I had no idea how that coin could have been Kerri's, but I knew it was. Just as I knew the little ruddy fellow was in her employ and the scene out front had been a distraction.

  I looked over my shoulder for Kerri, feeling a bit more relaxed with Scottie out of sight. She didn't look guilty. Rather, she was busy querying those around her what they thought was going on. Maddox stood like a mannequin next to her.

  And that too was a setup.

  I wanted to let him know I knew exactly what was going on, but he whistled for the guard who was running everyone who wanted out, through some sort of security check before they could leave the museum.

  "She's a bit of a mess, I'm afraid," he said of me to the guard. "Got trampled in there."

  He looked angrily at the exhibit room. "The museum's negligence is appalling. She needs to go home now before I decide to press charges."

  I was about to protest at the way he called me a mess, but he stepped up to the guard, towering over him. "Check her out now. She's embarrassed enough."

  He snapped his suit jacket cuffs down and gave the impression that if the guard didn't do as asked, there would be hell to pay. And the guard, for whatever reason, was perfectly happy to be ordered about. I might have figured it had more to do with my bedraggled state, except he wasn't even looking at my cleavage. He was staring at Maddox.

  I looked Maddox over, trying to see if he had some sort of inhuman compulsion, but all he did was look back down at me with something like compassion and it made my heart stutter, the damn thing.

  I was about to protest that I didn't want to be patted down the way the others were enduring, but the guard ran light hands down over my legs and torso. I eyed his handheld detector that he kept at his side, that by all rights he should have used, expecting it to come into play at any moment. It didn't.

  He made me empty my purse. I chewed my lip quietly until he passed over the QR code ticket and jerked his head toward the door.

  I couldn't wait to get out of there.

  Maddox snagged my arm, holding me back.

  He peeled off his suit jacket and laid it over my shoulders. It was big enough that it would cover my backside and could wrap almost double over my midriff.

  He flashed a grin at me. "Not that it's not a good show, mind you, but there's already too much here to see."

  He turned back to the guard, lifting his arms out to the sides so the detector could run him up and down. I turned heel to see Alvin clenching his fists as he waited in line. I'd forgotten about him.

  Apparently, he hadn't forgotten about me.

  I fled the museum the way a criminal flees the scene. I'd been reprieved no matter which way I sliced it. The problem was, I'd also lost any chance at making any money, lost the weeks of prep. Hell, I'd even lost the chance to leave the place with my dignity intact.

  I was hailing an Uber two blocks away when I heard the sound of someone creeping through bushes and dried up foliage. Alvin, undoubtedly. Or the other thug.

  I had no gun, no protection. I was in heels for heaven's sake in a dress that was in tatters and couldn't run.

  So I did what I could.

  I swung around with my cell phone flash blazing out into the dark street.

  Nothing.

  Not one person stood on the sidewalk. No dog. No rat. No cat. Nothing but the city planted trees with their lush foliage interfering with the light form the streetlamps.

  But I knew I'd heard something and I regretted taking a quiet street instead of running headlong down the main thoroughfare. If Alvin had followed me, I was as good as done for. He'd yank me back to Scottie and when the police released him--because they would--there'd be no getting away this time. There was no Finn or magic rune to save me.

  I backed away, scanning the trees and darker alleys. A breeze came up and whispered through the leaves. I pulled the jacket tighter.

  "If you're coming for me, you piece of shit, then don't keep me waiting."

  It sounded half brave, I thought. Maybe he'd buy it.

  I panned the light from my phone over the garbage cans and into the shadows, walking backward the whole time. I half expected to bump into my assailant the way things like that happened in movies, so when my light fell on the teenaged girl from the museum, I jumped nearly out of my skin.

  "What the hell?" I said, irritated because she'd scared the bejesus out of me for nothing. I hissed out a relieved sigh.

  She emerged from the shadows behind a tree and stood out in the middle of the sidewalk with her head cocked to the side. Her hair hung loose and seemed to knot itself into long dreadlocks. She blinked at me. Long, languid movements of her eyelids that had to be impossible unless she was zoned out on drugs. If not, then one word and one word only fit the way she stood there.

  Creepy.

  A shit ton of strange things had happened throughout the evening, but none of them made my skin crawl the way it did from the girl just standing there. Traumatized, I thought. How long had she been with Scottie? Held and saved till just the right moment to exploit when it suited him?

  I might have believed it readily, except children didn't necessarily fit into Scottie's usual methodology. H
e'd not allowed me to enter his true circle until I was older, and I'd watched dozens of women come and go in his greater circle. But he'd never taken on children before.

  Despite the careful grooming he did with all his women, they all fit a certain pattern: poor, beautiful, intimacy issues. He took them under his wing when they were most vulnerable and even sent some to college or university, gaining trust and a sense of debt. Many of them quietly invaded organizations he had targeted as useful.

  This was different. New. And it meant a whole new level of danger if the man I knew was ready to use pre-adults the way he'd used the girl at the museum.

  It made me anxious for the girl. What was Scottie after that he was grooming children for?

  "Are you alright?" I asked her, caught between wanting to help her out, and knowing Scottie might have sent her.

  I paused as I stepped forward. What if this was a trap?

  "Are you real?" she said.

  The way she said it made the hairs on my arms stand up beneath Maddox's jacket. A shiver went down my spine. This girl was no young innocent. I would bet my cat on it.

  If my uber hadn't pulled up right then I might have demanded more of an explanation. As it was she took one look at the SUV and then threw a look back over her shoulder and stepped behind the tree. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs. The driver rolled down the passenger window.

  "Are you getting in?" he said.

  I yanked the door open and slid inside. I couldn't pull the door closed fast enough.

  I stared out the window, watching the buildings blur by, trying to work out what it was that Scottie had been after. He'd been at the museum for a reason, used that girl as a decoy when he never used children that way. As bad as he was, he had his limits. And then there was the girl herself. The flickering of the lights that Maddox claimed was not due to anything he'd planned.

  As a puzzle, it ranked right up there.

  I was too tired to walk too far, so I got the driver to drop me off one street down from the brownstone instead of the usual four or five. Maybe just this once I could forgo the exhausting walk. I was cold and in tatters. Creeped out and in need of a locked door.