by Lia Davis
When Dodger distracted Shocker, Nik had swung closer to the electrical border. Now he needed Dodger to distract Shocker again.
"You see him?" Fagin pointed to Nik. The last thing he needed was more attention. "You're next unless you tell me what you did with my money."
"I don't have your money. I spent it all. Why do you think I'm still selling on street corners?"
It took all three of Fagin's men to hold Dodger still so Fagin could backhand him. Nik wasn't sorry to see that; but he only wished he was the one who had done it. "If that's true, then you're going to die up there."
Dodger spat blood on Fagin's shoes. "Kidnapping a Blackwood? Not cool, Fagin. If you kill him, the non-lethal force agreement Cap Spec made with the city might not apply."
"First, they have to find him," Fagin said, arms akimbo. "Which they won't. Then, they'll have to find his body. Which they won't. And then, they'll have to prove I did it. Which they won't, because I'm not the one who's going to do it. Right, Shocker?"
Shocker shrugged. "Whatever you say, boss."
Fagin looked down at Dodger, now tied at the ankles and knees. "You see. You give a man what he wants more than anything else in the world and he'll be loyal for life."
"Until you betray him." Dodger threw off the men who'd tied him up. "I'd've been loyal if you had just taken the time to bail me out of jail instead of replacing me in your bed."
Fagin grunted once, checked the Dodger's ropes, then he slammed out of the door, his henchmen close behind. Dodger waited a beat, then rolled his body — head over ankles — under Nik's cocoon until he sat next to Shocker. Shocker for his part pulled one hand away from maintaining Nik's cocoon. Nik drifted down. Just a little bit further. A little bit further.
"Ouch!" Dodger jumped back. "What was that for?"
Shocker must have hit Dodger with an electrical shock. "I'm not untying you so don't ask. If you try to distract me from killing Nik Blackwood, I'll just kill him more slowly."
"Fine, then." Dodger scooted further away from Shocker — but not that much further — and pouted.
Damn. Nik needed Dodger to fight Shocker before Fagin showed up again. It was back on him to talk Shocker out of siding with Fagin.
"Shocker, listen to me. If Fagin could betray someone like Dodger — someone who gave everything he had to Fagin — what makes you think Fagin won't kill you, once you kill me?"
"Doesn't matter. Without my son, it doesn't matter."
Oh, great. A murderer with a suicide bid.
"Hey, Shocker?"
This from Dodger. Nik could only see what happened next out of the corner of his eye. Dodger had somehow worked his ropes loose. He rammed his whole body into Shocker. There wasn't even a scuffle. Dodger knocked out Shocker clean and cold.
Nik fell as a dead weight. Only years of practice allowed him to phase before he hit the floor, saving himself a broken back and a cracked skull.
He waited in the flooring until he got his wits about him. Shocker still breathed, but his head wouldn't heal anytime soon. Dodger...what did Dodger think he was doing? The over-muscled son-of-a-bitch discarded the remnants of the rope used to tie him up. He walked to the center of the room and sat cross legged, his arms raised in the air.
"Nik. I know you're still here. I can see the floor breathe. I freed you. You owe me. Come on out and let's talk."
Nik hesitated. He'd never fought Dodger. He'd never gotten close. No one had. Dodger might have height and weight on his side, but what about skills? Nik had a couple of blackbelts in various martial arts, but what did Dodger have?
"Nik, please. I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm not the same person I was ten years ago. My name is Daniel, not Dodger. I've been an upstanding citizen for quite some time now. I came here because I don't want to see Fagin hurt you or anyone else."
If Dodger was lying, Nik was still at a disadvantage. The electricity Shocker had sent through him did damage. He might not have the energy to fight back.
"Nik. I know what your priorities are. You want to save Daniella Rose. Believe it or not, I want to save Dani, too. I know her. She would want you to talk to me. You might be able to sneak out of here, go around Fagin and his men, but they'll be gone before you can call in T-CASS to help you. You can't take them on by yourself. Together, you and I can stop them. You and I can bring down Fagin once and for all. I know it means trusting me, and trusting me is the last thing in the world you want to do, but please. Just talk to me, man to man, and you'll see — I'm not that different from you."
Dodger knew Dani? How? Why? Wait, he knew why. Dodger must have been the dealer at the frat party where Dani had been arrested. It was the only explanation that made sense.
And yet, the pretty words from Dodger's bass voice made Nik want to believe that Dodger really did want to help Dani. Nik had to believe because at the end of it all, Dodger was right. Nik couldn't fight all of Fagin's thugs by himself, and Fagin would disappear before Nik could escape and call for help.
Nik unphased at the far corner of the room. He nearly collapsed, too. His body twitched like a blitz junky. Blood poured from his nose.
"All right," Nik wiped the blood away with his sleeve. "Talk to me. Why should I trust you?"
"My name is Daniel. You know me. You don't think you do, but you do. I would never hurt you, Nik. Not even when we were in high school. Not even when I was doing awful things, I would never have done anything to put you in danger."
"Like selling me blitz?" Nik didn't hold back his outrage. "Getting me hooked on the stuff and then withholding it if I couldn't pay?"
"Yes," Dodger agreed. "Like selling you blitz."
"Do you have any idea of the damage you inflicted?" He couldn't understand. There was no way a guy like Dodger could know what he did to the people Nik cared about.
"Yes, Nik. I know the damage. I saw the results of what I did while I was in jail."
"When were you arrested?" Nik double-checked his memory. "I would have known if you'd been busted."
"It's complicated."
"Maybe for you. Not for the rest of us." Nik spat through blood-covered lips. "You never saw Molly Cathers."
"I remember Molly. I saw her right before she OD'd. We shared a holding cell together before her arraignment. She's one of the reasons why I changed."
Nik snorted. "She was a child."
"So was I!" Dodger scooted closer. Nik didn't back away, but he didn't step forward either. "You and I are almost the same age. We went to the same schools. We knew the same kids. We were in class together."
Dodger was delusional. "I don't know you."
"Yes, you do!" Dodger crept even closer. "Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't know me."
Nik backed up to the nearest wall. A trick. This was all a trick. Dodger was too big, too menacing. He'd have remembered someone that huge from school.
"C'mon, Nik. I'm not going to hurt you. If I'd wanted to, I'd have done it by now. Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't know me."
Dodger returned back to the middle of the room, giving Nik room to move, space to think. There was a single fluorescent light over his head. Now, with Shocker unconscious, it was the only light they had.
Never let it be said that Nik Blackwood was a coward. He walked over to Dodger, who got onto his knees, held his head back, and let the light shine into his eyes.
They were lavender. Nik only knew one person with lavender eyes. Not even Dani's brother, Robby, had eyes that color.
"I know what you're thinking, Nik. You're right. I'm a shifter. An Alt, just like you."
With that Dodger started to shrink, his face turned softer, rounder, his clothes bunching up around his body.
"I've been able to change genders since I was eight. I never told anyone, not even my parents. If anyone had known they would have stopped Robby's first transplant. My parents would have hated me even more. I let the transplants continue, not understanding the medical implications."
There she was. Daniella, sitting
before him in a pool of oversized clothing. Her voice was as light and airy as he remembered.
"I meant what I said, Nik. I was a child, too. I wouldn't have hurt anyone if I had truly understood the consequences of what I was doing. You've met my parents. You've seen how Robby acts. Don't tell me you don't know how they treated me."
She was begging for his forgiveness. Seeing her sitting there as Dani, he wanted to grant it, but he still had a lot of old anger inside him. She reached out to touch his face, but he pulled back before she could reach him.
His head wanted to abandon her, but his heart wanted to forgive her. He was trapped between both in a snare of his own making.
"Let's get out of here," Nik said.
Dani pulled back. Tacit approval or just a temporary truce? She'd settle for a truce. Now wasn't the time to push her luck. "One minute."
She shifted back, while Nik watched her with an eagle eye. Shifters weren't unheard of in T-CASS or in the Alt community at large. Dani had checked over the years. From what she knew, though, most shifters had only one shift, but it was tied to another ability. Blockhead was a good example — his hands became unbreakable blocks, but he also had strength beyond normal men. Nowhere had she found information on someone who shifted their entire gender.
No matter. Only for Nik — Ghost — would she change her form in front of anyone. She pushed her shift beyond Daniel's size. For this, they'd need Dodger. If nothing else, he was intimidating as hell. Fagin knew it but the rest of his untrained crew would learn the hard way.
"Do you know where we are?" Ghost asked as she swept her hair back up into a bun.
"Sinclair Ships's graveyard," Dodger's voice answered. "On one of the old-styled ferries that was decommissioned before the new hydrofoils replaced them. We're in what would have been a storage room for the commissary."
Dodger stood up to face Ghost, who looked back at Dodger like a strange bug. "You don't need to figure me out yet. I just need you to watch my back."
"Are you any good in a fight?"
"Better than you." He couldn't help it. He winked at Ghost just as the door creaked open. Dodger turned, keeping his body between the door and Ghost. "Stay behind me."
"No, wait."
There was no waiting. Fagin's crew poured in ahead of Fagin. Dodger didn't hesitate. He used surprise to his advantage and tore through them with a viciousness he hadn't let loose since high school. He didn't kill. He refused to go that far, but he broke multiple bones in every single one of Fagin's crew. There was even an Alt or three hiding in the group. One tried to put the whammy on him with spikes from his knuckles. Those hurt. One of the spikes pierced Dodger's clothes, but missed piercing his upper shoulder by a millimeter. It didn't slow Dodger down in the slightest. Instead, Dodger used the pain as motivation to push through a series of moves that left the Alt pinned to the floor by his own spikes with both of his eyes blackened and his nose broken.
Ghost didn't try to stop him during the fight, and even assisted where needed. Ghost hadn't lied — he had the moves. With half of Fagin's men unconscious and bleeding, they headed into the corridor. Fagin had abandoned his men as soon as the fight broke out, as Dodger had expected.
"Which way?" Nik asked.
Dodger pointed toward the stern. "The deck is still intact."
Dodger paused once or twice to make sure Ghost kept up, but Ghost pushed through the pain. He hopped in and out of the walls and floors, giving Dodger a rundown of how many men were ahead of them, even putting down two of Fagin's crew on his own. Dodger let him. Sometimes a guy needed a good fight just to prove he could still do it. Ghost's nosebleed continued to worry Dodger, though, but Ghost didn't complain.
Dodger collected a fair share of guns along the way. He offered one to Ghost. Ghost hesitated, the temptation obvious, but he refused. Fagin would be armed. They both knew it, but Ghost wouldn't break the oath he made to Thunder City. In turn, Dodger wouldn't be able to fire first and put an end to Fagin. Not with Ghost present. He had to play this by Ghost's rules or he — or rather Dani — would lose him forever. Dodger still hoped Nik wouldn't abandon Dani. Dani wasn't so sure.
"He can't have much more in the way of crew. He has no money," Ghost said, out of breath from the last fight.
Hang in there, Ghost. It's almost over. "I suspect he's got some outside funding source. Not sure from where. His crew is lean, but he's paying them from somewhere and it's not from blitz distribution. Fagin can sweet talk a good deal out of people, but no one works for free. Not even for him."
Ghost scouted ahead one last time. "He's up on the sun deck. He's got binocs on the Bay. He's waiting on something, or someone."
"How many crew?" Dodger was getting tired. Ghost had to be exhausted.
"Four. Three near the door, one next to him."
"Alts?" The previous ones had caught them off guard.
"No one I recognize, but if he's working with unregistered Alts, who knows." Ghost gave a half-hearted shrug. Poor guy was done. Fagin wouldn't have fed him before Shocker imprisoned him in his web of torture. All that pain could drain a man faster than a hard workout.
"You stay here," Dodger said. "I'll take care of this."
"No." Ghost put a hand on Dodger's shoulder. Dodger froze, not wanting to draw Ghost's attention to the contact. Not wanting to break the moment. "I'll phase into the floor of the deck. I can pull two at time through the floor. If I get them down far enough, I can just leave them there. By the time they run up here, I'll be back to help you, and we'll have taken down the other two and Fagin."
"And, if they're Alts?" Dodger asked. "If they can somehow get up here faster? Or hurt you so you can't get back up here?"
"I can play hide and seek with the best of them. Slow them up. I have skills beyond phasing." Ghost sounded offended. "I'll know what to expect this time."
"All right, then. Let's do this. On the count of three. One...two..."
Nik phased into the wall.
"...Three." Dodger shook his head and waited for the shouts of outrage. He didn't have to wait long. The third crew member charged down the stairs and right into Dodger's fist. Dodger tossed him over the rail and onto the floor below.
On deck, the fourth crew member didn't hesitate to pull his gun, but Dodger already had a borrowed Sig, ready to fire. He killed the crew member. Ghost would understand the need for self-defense. Fagin just stood there with his back to Dodger. His former right hand man and lover.
"Go ahead and shoot, if you want." Fagin put the binoculars down.
"You know I won't. I'm not the man you raised me to be anymore."
"Is that what I did? Raise you?" Fagin did turn around now. If he was afraid of being shot he didn't show it.
"You gave me confidence." Dodger kept his gun ready, just in case. "You gave me praise. You gave me skills. You gave me affection."
"And for that, you'll shoot me?" Fagin snarled. "If I did so much for you, then tell me what you did with my money and walk away. I won't come after you. I just need that money."
He must have borrowed the money to start this operation and now the lenders wanted their money back. The lenders must also be on their way. Why else would Fagin still be on board the ferry? "I told you. I don't have the money."
"Yeah, yeah." Fagin turned his back on Dodger again. "You spent it all, you said. I don't believe you."
"You're right. I lied."
Fagin peeked over his shoulder.
"I set up an account and contacted an attorney. She gave the anonymous donation to Catherine Blackwood. A check for 1.2 million dollars with specific instructions to create drug rehab centers across Thunder City."
Fagin choked. "You gave 1.2 million to a billionaire?"
"Catherine Blackwood had no reason to betray me. And, she didn't. Your money has funded a dozen drug rehab centers over the past ten years."
Fagin laughed like a dying man gasping for his last breath. "Well, I guess there's no reason to keep you around, is there?"
F
agin knew he was going to die, either by Dodger or the lenders. Better that than to go to jail. Over Fagin's shoulder Dodger saw a wave of color coming toward the ferry graveyard. Ghost had contacted T-CASS somehow and alerted them to their location. Fagin turned, his gun pulled, but he never got off a shot. Dodger fired and put the bullet exactly where he aimed. Right into Fagin's skull.
Fagin collapsed forward, dead before he hit the deck.
Dodger placed the gun on the deck. Best not to give T-CASS an excuse to attack him.
"It's over."
Ghost. How much had he overheard?
"For Fagin." Dodger nodded as the wave of color drew closer, police helicopters flying right beside them. Captain Spec must have pulled out the stops to bring in the choppers. "What do I do now?"
"There will be questions. Lots of questions."
Dodger looked at Ghost. "Will you stand by me?"
Ghost nodded, no hesitation this time. "I will."
"And, after?" Was it too much to hope that Ghost — Nik — would stick by Dani, too?
"After...we'll talk."
Talk. It was a start. If not of a new beginning, then of an end to their relationship. At least Dani still had hope.
Chapter 10
Dani pulled another pint of cookies and cream ice cream out of her freezer. Three pints in one day and she was only halfway through her movie marathon. She needed it. She deserved it. She wanted it.
Nik hadn't been kidding about the questions after their respective kidnappings. It had been four days of endless interrogations, examinations, and deliberations. Serena Jakes had tried to get her deported for refusing to shift at the command of the T-CASS Oversight Committee as proof that she had control over her abilities. Dani had never had a beef with Serena during high school. They'd operated in two separate social circles. Yet, Dani knew her bad-girl rep wouldn't die easy for Nik's ex. Which was why Dani demanded Serena recuse herself from the Committee. The outrage on Serena's face would have been funny except old vain and wicked only cared about protecting Dani's dignity, not about gloating over her win at scoring Nik's affection.
