He was reaching down to pick up the next bag when he was steamrolled by a girl running. He, the girl, and the bag went sprawling onto the sidewalk. The girl untangled and managed to get up first.
“I am so sorry,” she began, dusting off herself. Then she started to try and do the same with Devlin, patting his arms and chest. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching. I was in a hurry to…”
“It’s alright,” he said. “Not a problem.” Just then, something twigged in his peripheral vision.
Devlin’s head snapped up and scanned the crowd around him. His combat sense and his street upbringing pegged three men as street thugs, and they were headed his way. He bent down and started to pick up a food pack in one hand. In his other hand, he slid the boot knife out of his boot and palmed the blade.
He started to say something to the girl when the first of the thugs approached and grabbed her from behind. “Hey!” she squealed as the first thug hauled her off to the side.
Devlin spun and flipped a food pack at Thug Number Two. As the tough dodged the improvised missile, Devlin dropped and swept the guy’s leg, bringing the guy down. Devlin rolled back onto his feet and stomped the thug in the face as the third guy came up. He tried to feint, but the tough was expecting it.
Three swung and connected with the side of Devlin’s head. His ears ringing, Devlin swiveled his knife out and went for a cut to the thug’s midsection. He felt slight resistance as the blade passed through clothing and a little bit of skin. He heard Three hiss a curse and saw the thug’s hand go to his side. Devlin closed in and shoved the blade of his knife up and into Three’s sternum. He felt resistance and heard the sharp intake of breath. Thug Three started to stumble backward. Devlin let him, the now-bloody knife still in his hand. He snapped a kick to the thug’s kneecap and was awarded with a crunch. Three was down.
Two threats down and body humming from adrenaline, he scanned the scene for where Thug One and the girl went.
They were struggling around the front of Devlin’s air car. The thug’s back was to Devlin, so he was very surprised when Devlin came flying across the front of the air car feet first and hit him squarely in the back. All three went into the street. Devlin rolled to the side, but before he could recover, Number One crawled in the opposite direction and then was up on his feet in a dead run.
Devlin watched him go and thought for just a moment about throwing his knife.
He got up and helped the girl up, as well.
“Is…is he gone?” the girl asked, panting. She was scraped in places, but there didn’t seem to be any cuts or injuries. He went over to examine the other attackers.
The two thugs on the ground weren’t in any shape to get up at the moment. One was out, his face smashed into a pulp, and the other was busy bleeding. He was going to need medical attention.
“Come on,” he said, pulling her toward the car. “I don’t suppose either one of us wants to spend the afternoon at the constable station.” He opened the door. “Get in.”
She did, still somewhat stunned, and Devlin got in, pulled the car out and up into traffic, and was gone.
* * *
Devlin juggled his grocery bags as he deactivated the security features and opened the apartment door. She had been silent the whole trip, and Devlin hadn’t pressed. As the door shut, the damn burst.
“Who were those people?” she blurted. “Why did they grab me? What did they want? I mean, I haven’t done anything, and while I’m at it, who the Hell are YOU? I was just on my way to…”
“My name’s Devlin, ma’am. I’m a soldier. I was getting groceries when you ran into me. So, now that I’ve given you my name, who are you?”
She turned to look at him; her eyes were still a little wild. “Courtney,” she said quickly. “Courtney Sharpe. I’m sorry about…about running into you. I was in a hurry because I was late to a job interview.”
“Yeah. Well, anyway, you’re safe for a few minutes at least, Courtney. Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, thank you.” She drew in a deep breath. “I’m doing better. I’m okay,” she said firmly. “Can I use the comm? That guy…the one who got away, took my bag.”
“Sure thing,” he replied, putting the comm console on the coffee table in front of her. “I’ll just go in the kitchen and put these away.”
He turned away and went into the kitchen. He put the few groceries he had on the counter and then went back into the living room. He looked over Courtney’s shoulder at the comm.
The woman on the other end of the connection was blond and slightly older than the young woman on his couch. Her concern was evident, even as she answered the call.
“Court? What happened? Where are you? Why didn’t you show up for the interview with Tony?”
“Something happened, Nance. I got attacked on the way, out in front of Tasker’s Grocery.”
The older woman’s eyes got wide and she leaned into the terminal. “What? Are you alright? Where are you?”
Courtney put her hands up. “It’s okay, Nancy. I’m okay. This guy fought them off. I’m with him at the moment.”
The lady’s eyes narrowed. “What guy? What’s his name? Where are you? How do you know you can trust him? Where are the constables?”
“The name’s Devlin, ma’am,” Devlin interjected over Courtney’s shoulder. “We’re at Cobalt Towers. I suggested dropping her somewhere, but she said the only place to go was your place. But since you were working, that was a no-go. And I’m an Army officer on leave. I really didn’t want to get caught up with the police over a mugging that went…badly.” He smiled.
Nancy relaxed slightly. “Okay. Fair enough I suppose. Can’t blame a girl for being a bit suspicious. Mr. Devlin, I’m on my way. I only have a little bit left in my shift, so my boss won’t mind. Could you have her meet me in the lobby of your building?”
“That would be the best way. That way you know where to come, and you also know I’m not liable to try anything. Good thinking. You can also call the building and confirm that I really do live here. That should put your mind at ease. “
“A little,” she said, then giggled. “I sound like a paranoid matron, don’t I?” she asked.
“Ma’am,” Devlin said fervently, “there’s no such thing as too paranoid.”
She laughed then. “Okay, Mr. Devlin. I’ll do all that, and I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. Is that okay?”
“Perfectly, ma’am. We’ll see you in the lobby in twenty.”
Courtney cut the comm connection and looked up at Devlin. “So now what, Mr. Devlin?”
“Well,” he said smiling as warmly as he could, “I don’t suppose you know who those fellows were, or why they decided to be so unfriendly?”
Courtney made a face and shook her head. “I really can’t think of any reason why somebody would do that. Really, Mr. Devlin, I don’t do a whole lot. I mean, I just graduated college a few months ago and came here to find a job. I was staying with my mom’s cousin until I got a job and a place of my own. Sorry.”
Devlin shrugged. “You can call me Niko. And it’s not your fault. It may have been a random attack.”
She frowned at that, then shook her head. “At any rate, thank you. You’ve been awfully nice.”
“Never a bad time to be nice to pretty lady,” he said, grinning roguishly.
Courtney smiled back. “Why, Mr. Devlin. We only just met. And here you are flattering me, as well. Just what are your intentions?”
“I don’t know,” he temporized. “Escort you down to the lobby to meet your friend, then I’m going to clean ceramacrete out of my hand.”
She mock-pouted. “You mean you didn’t engineer this to get me to come to your apartment?” She batted her eyes.
“Sorry to disappoint you…” he said, smiling. “However, I think after I figure this out, I’d like to see if you would like to go out with me. And it’s Niko.”
She smiled warmly. “Niko. I think I’d like that.”
* * *
The Cat came back that evening and didn’t say a word as she went directly to the kitchen. Devlin followed and watched as she grabbed a bottle of wine from the rack, proceeded to pull the cork off, and drink directly from the bottle.
He started to say something, but she cut him off.
“Don’t say nothin’,” she said in an accent unlike any Devlin had ever heard, which was unusual. The Cat he knew didn’t have an accent.
She bent down and pulled a bottle of bourbon out of the bottom of the rack. She brandished it and the wine bottle she had been working on and stalked off to “her” room.
Devlin stood there in the kitchen thinking, his head cocked to the side. He tapped his foot. Finally he made up his mind and walked back into the living room. He sat back down on the couch, turned the comm terminal to face him, and called Cooper.
“What’s up, Boss?” the ugly sergeant asked. There was a purpling bruise under one eye. Devlin ignored it.
“Did you find Tamman?” Devlin asked.
“Sure did, boss. Boy is he drunk, and boy is he pissed. He…resisted us bringing him back home. Have you had a chance to talk to The Cat?”
“No, not yet. She just breezed in a few minutes ago and set coordinates for a concentrated attack on her own liver. Whatever’s going on between those two is going to be expensive in booze, methinks.”
Cooper nodded sagely. “In my experience, sir, it usually is. But in answer to your next question, no, Tamman hasn’t woken up yet, at least not to where we can get him to talk. Maybe you can get the little minx to talk before she commits death by boiler-maker?”
Devlin sighed. “I wouldn’t hold my breath,” he said. He fixed a completely false smile on his face. “I’ll call in the morning.”
“Gotcha, EllTee,” Cooper replied and cut the connection.
The Cat was on her bed, legs drawn up into her chest, when Devlin walked into the bedroom.
“Get out!” she snapped. Her face was red, and it looked like she’d been crying.
“I don’t think so.”
She raised the bottle. “I’ll throw this.”
“And you’ll miss,” he replied calmly. “You’re already drunk, and you’re working on sick. I know the signs. I happen to be an expert on drunk.”
She glared at him for a moment, then dropped her eyes and started muttering under her breath. Devlin had to strain to pick out what she was saying. “Stupid ox…” he heard. “Can’t understand….”
“What doesn’t Tamman understand?”
She stopped and glared at him again, then took a long pull on the bottle and began to sob. She looked up at him with a hopeless face.
“Devlin…I’ve really screwed up.”
Devlin walked over, pulled the bottle out of her hand, and set it on the nightstand.
“What happened, Cat?”
The Cat fell silent for a moment as if weighing what to say. “All our money is gone, and Tamman blames me. He asked me to marry him.”
Devlin blinked. “Okay. That went a little fast for me, Cat. Try a little slower, and use small words...pictures even, if you need to.”
She stared down at her knees. “The other day when you left to go on leave…”
Devlin interjected, “You guys went on leave at the same time. You were going to New Orkney to some resort.”
She nodded. “We were going to spend the week there and get some sun, do a little shopping, or at least that’s what I thought. What I didn’t know was he had other plans.”
Devlin’s brow furrowed. “Okay, you’ve lost me again.”
“I’m getting there, Devlin—shut up. Anyway. Apparently we both had agendas, and both of us did something the other thinks is stupid, and now all our money is gone, and he’s pissed and being a dick, and it’s all my fault…”
“You’re rambling, Cat.”
“Right.” She took a ragged breath. “When we got to the hotel, we checked in, got in the room, fooled around a bit…”
“I don’t need to know details.”
Cat giggled. “Gods, you are such a prude, Devlin.”
Devlin let it slide. “Just get on with the story.”
“Anyway, that evening, we got dressed and went to dinner. When we got to the restaurant, we ordered dinner, and Tamman said he had something he wanted to ask me.”
“Uh huh,” Devlin grunted, then prompted for more.
“So, we’re there waiting for the food, and all of a sudden he drops to one knee and fumbles around in his pockets and comes up with a ring and asks me to marry him.”
Devlin looked nonplussed. “And?”
She stared down at her feet. “I was sort of shocked. And I started to giggle. It upset him.”
“Well, I can kind of understand that,” Devlin allowed. “Guys get put off when they ask a question like that and get laughed at.”
“Well…yeah. I know,” Cat said. Then she looked up again. “But it also made me a little angry, too.” She punched the bed with a fist. “I mean, it’s a good thing Tamman and I have, just like it is. Neither one of us is tied down, we can walk away if we want. No strings.”
“Cat,” Devlin said slowly, “in all the time I’ve known you, you flirt like a space dock hooker with every one of the Choirboys: male, female, doesn’t matter. But they all know they don’t have a fart’s chance in a hurricane with you. You love that lummox, and everyone knows it. Therefore, I’m thinking all of this is an excuse. Why NOT get married?”
She stared at him like he was an idiot. “Dammit, Devlin. You DON’T have to get married to have a good thing. Besides, it’s not like Tam and I are in what you would call safe professions. Why complicate things?”
“And you’re deflecting,” he accused. He searched her face with narrowed eyes and asked, “What’s really the issue?” She shifted uncomfortably. Suddenly, realization dawned. “You’re scared?”
“OF COURSE I’M SCARED, YOU ASSHOLE!” she snarled, sitting up and putting her face into his. The vehemence of her reaction made him rock back a bit, but he recovered.
“Why?” he asked quietly.
“Because if I get attached to something…it’ll go away,” she said in a voice like a young girl, shrinking away from him.
He waited.
“All my life, I watched the things I loved—family, friends, home—all get taken away, Devlin. I lost everything I ever loved, and when there was nothing left, I became The Cat. It was either that or die. I became someone who does what she pleases, goes where she pleases. And it’s worked pretty good up until now,” she concluded darkly. She stared off past Devlin into a past only she could see.
“Until now…” he said gently. She nodded and continued staring. Then she shook herself and glared again.
“Until that big ox proposed to me and ruined everything.” She settled back again and seemed to be looking for the right words. “Devlin, the universe and I have this understanding. I don’t get attached to anything, and it doesn’t take anything away from me. But see, if I marry him, everything changes.” She fell silent, waiting for the obvious truth of what she was saying to sink in.
Devlin chewed on what the girl was saying. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere for the moment, so he changed the direction. “Okay. Let’s say you’re right, and all this is reasonable. And let’s say marrying Tamman isn’t. What’s getting married got to do with all your money being gone, and why did Tamman say this morning that you’d screwed him over?”
She pursed her lips. “Well. I bought a house.”
Devlin opened his mouth to say something, stopped, and shut it again. Then opened it again.
“A house?”
“Actually, a little farm. Outside of Balmore on Caledon Secundus. Land there is still pretty cheap in places. It’s about 10 square kilometers…a little bit of mountain, and a nice, little valley.”
“And…” This is like pulling teeth, Devlin decided.
“And I used my half of the money to buy it. I was going to give
it to Tamman, and that way, no matter what happens, he would have something.”
Once more unto the breach. He gestured again. “And this is a problem because?”
“Because after he proposed, I realized if I told him about the farm, he was going to draw all sorts of conclusions.”
“…And you’d have to marry him,” Devlin concluded for her. “Whereas before the proposal, you figured you could just give him the farm, you could enjoy it, shag yourself silly, and tell yourself—and more importantly, the universe—that none of it is ‘yours,’ so hands off?”
“Egggshactly,” The Cat said, starting to slur her words. She was fading from the alcohol. Devlin knew he was racing the clock.
“But now you can’t tell him about the farm with the marriage thing on the table,” he added, “or he’s going to think you WANT to spend your life with him, and then you run the risk of losing him because the universe is an asshole.”
The Cat beamed at him as if he were an exceptionally bright student. “Preshishely,” the girl replied. She swayed a little.
“So,” he surmised, “you’ve probably been trying to get your money back or figure out where you can run for the last day or so…is that right?”
“Thass wot I like ‘bout you, Dev.” The Cat smiled drunkenly. “You’re quick.”
Devlin thought of something and frowned. “So, what did you tell Tamman you did with the money you took from the accounts, because I’m starting to think I know what happened.”
“I tole him I spended it and blew it,” she said sadly. “But he…thought I blew it on…somebody else!” She sagged back on the bed again, hugged her knees, and rocked back and forth. Tears appeared in her eyes again, and she was trying very hard not to cry.
Devlin thought furiously for a full minute, his mind swirling at all of the directions this conversation had taken. Finally he smiled gently at the Cat. “Okay,” he said, “I think we can fix this.”
The Cat looked up at him and brightened. “You mean I don’t have to marry him?”
“I’m saying we can fix this misunderstanding, and you and Tamman can figure THAT out calmly.” He rose up off the bed. He walked to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.
The Dogs of God Page 45
