Chapter 29
“Mai! Get down,” Liam shouted, reaching for his
Glock.
The driver drew a nine-millimeter
pistol from under his coat, but not before Liam was able to squeeze
off the first shot, then a second.
Everything seemed to happen at the same
instant after that. The driver’s left shoulder exploded with blood
and gore. Mai screamed and Corrato gave a grunt as she pushed him
into the snow. The Prince of Dogs shot forward, streaking past
Liam.
Liam fired twice more. The Weasel had
abandoned his cane and was running at a pretty good clip. Prince
darted around the driver and went after the Weasel.
Liam dodged left, afraid the driver
would shoot Mai or her father, trying to shoot him. Liam pulled the
trigger, again hitting the driver in the left shoulder, but this
time it was enough to drop the goon to his knees.
The Weasel was more than halfway to the
van by then. Prince dove at his feet, snapping, and the old guy
shouted with pain, trying to shake off the dog. He went down on one
knee in the snow, the dog snapped at his hand, and the pill bottle
tumbled to the ground.
That was when Liam saw the other guys
pouring out of the back of the paneled van. Four of
them.
Corrato had been trying to warn Liam.
He hadn’t left four crossword puzzles behind
in the van. He’d left four hit
men.
Shit and double
shit. Liam had one pistol, only seventeen available shots,
and he’d already pulled off at least six, maybe seven. In the
confusion, he hadn’t counted.
The four guys running at him fired and
the ground exploded around Liam, snow and mud flying in the air.
Bits of cement flew from the lip of the fountain.” Get behind the
fountain!” Liam barked.
He kicked the gun from the fallen
driver’s hand and went down on one knee, trying to use the driver’s
body to protect himself. The men from the van fired anyway, and
Liam felt the impact of the multiple bullets as the driver was hit
in the back and pitched forward.
This was bad. It was very bad. Vampires
depended on surprise attacks, not guns. They were better with their
fangs than with bullets.
As Liam tried to hold up the driver’s
body, now lifeless, he spotted Jim and Sugar running toward him. As
he ran, the dog on the leash morphed from a greyhound into Arlan
Kahill. And Jim wasn’t Jim at all, but Aedan.
Liam would have smiled, had the
situation not been so grim.
The line of men moved forward and Aedan
and Arlan darted across the snow, around behind the men with the
guns, moving faster than the humans could see.
“Prince!” Corrato cried hoarsely from
behind Liam.
“Babbo! No! Stay
down!”
Shoving the dead guy to the ground,
Liam pedaled backward. Mai and Corrato were both lying facedown in
the snow. He squeezed the trigger, hitting a guy square in the
middle of his chest.
Aedan struck the one closest to him,
tackling him like a three-hundred-pound linebacker. He had him down
in an instant, ripping out his throat with his fangs. The victim
screamed in agony. In shock. With a flying leap, Arlan descended on
another and the game was fair again.
The only guy still standing stopped and
then began to back up, staring, in horror, at what had befallen his
comrades. Arlan and Aedan were snarling and grunting as they sank
their fangs again and again into their victims.
Liam heard the van start up. The Weasel
had reached it. Running toward the road again, Liam took aim and
fired at the guy still firing at him. It was a clean shot and the
punk flew backward under the impact. Liam couldn’t let the Weasel
get away. If he did, Mai and her father would never be safe.
Someday, when they least expected it, another van would pull up and
then not even a tough little dog and a pride of vampires could save
them.
The van pulled away from the curb, slid
on the icy road, and shot forward.
Liam was torn between running after the
Weasel and going to Mai. But there was no way he was going to catch
up with the van, not now. “Mai, you okay?” he shouted over his
shoulder. Then to Arlan and Aedan, “Enough!”
Aedan stood up, backed off, and wiped
his mouth with his coat sleeve. Arlan did the same.
“Mai!”
“I’m . . . we’re okay!”
Reaching the guy who had tried to run,
Liam kicked away the gun that had fallen in the snow. Not that it
mattered. He was already dead.
Prince ran a circle around them both,
then darted in the direction of Arlan and Aedan. He plopped himself
down in the snow and studied one and then the other
carefully.
Panting hard, Liam walked back toward
Mai. In the distance, he heard a police siren. People were
beginning to come out of their houses to see what the commotion
was. He spotted Peigi’s car as she slammed on her brakes and threw
open the car door.
Liam walked slowly toward Mai and her
father.
“Oh, God, who . . . who are they?” she
moaned.
“Who?” he panted.
Mai sat up in the snow, still holding
her father in her arms, trying to see past Liam. Her face was
covered in wet snow, her eyes glazed with shock. “Those men. They
came from nowhere. The ones who helped you.”
“It’s okay,” he soothed, still trying
to catch his breath. He tucked his gun back in the waistband of his
jeans. He helped them both to their feet and walked them around to
the other side of the fountain, blocking her view of the bloody
carnage in the snow.
Corrato didn’t seem interested in the
dead men or how they had gotten that way. “Where’s Prince?” he
asked. “Anyone seen my dog?”
On the other side of the fountain, Liam
took Mai’s arm. “Mai, this is vital. When you were on the ground,
when there was gunfire, did your father see anything?”
Her lips were pressed tightly together.
She shook her head. She was shaking all over.
“What do you
think you saw?” he asked, afraid of the answer. If she had seen too
much, her memory would have to be erased. It wasn’t difficult to
do, but he would hate to do it if he didn’t have to. The thought of
marring her beautiful neck, of leaving it anything but pristine,
actually brought him physical discomfort. He had refrained from
biting her for three weeks, the short three weeks he had known her.
He didn’t want to have to do it now.
She glanced in the direction of the
dead men, though she could no longer see them. “I . . . I don’t
know.” She seemed afraid, but not of him. “It all happened so
quickly. Did . . . did they have knives? There was so much blood.
Who are they? Government agents?” She gazed earnestly at them. “Do
those men work with you? For
you?”
So she hadn’t seen the morph, or the
attack with fangs. Somehow, thank God, she had missed it in the
fray. That was good. It was excellent. Liam hugged her with one
arm. His other was bleeding. He had been hit, though when, he
couldn’t say.
“You’re hurt,” Mai
murmured.
“I’m fine.”
“My dog.” Corrato turned slowly in a
circle in the snow, holding his bandaged hand against his body.
“Prince!”
The dog came flying around the
fountain. Corrato bent down and Prince practically flew into his
arms.
Mai stared at her father and the dog
for a second. “I’m so glad you’re alive, Babbo, but why?” she said, her words becoming more
forceful as she went on. “We found the crossword book in the bank
lockbox. Why did you do it? Why did you get involved in those
terrible things?”
“Mai,” Liam said gently. “Maybe this
isn’t the time.”
“I have to know.” She practically
shouted her last words. This was a side of her Liam had never seen
before.
Corrato regarded her for a moment. “I
didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you think,” he said, sounding
remarkably cognizant, considering everything he’d been through over
the last few days. He hugged his dog. “I didn’t do much. A few things here and there, mostly launder
money.”
Tears filled her eyes. “But
why?”
“Why? How do you think I could afford
the house, the cars, your private high school, then college
tuition? I was only an electrician, Mai. You deserved better than I
could give you.” His lower lip trembled. “Maybe if I could have
given your mother those things, she wouldn’t have left
us.”
She closed her eyes. “Oh, Babbo.”
“Hey, you guys! You okay?”
Liam looked up to see Kaleigh running
toward them. “Arlan said I couldn’t come ’til it was over. He made
me wait in his truck.” She reached Mai and threw her arms around
her. “Thank God you’re okay. I was so scared when I heard the
gunfire.” She glanced at Liam and made a face. “Eww, you’re
bleeding.”
Realizing what she’d just said—before
the part about him bleeding—Liam grabbed Kaleigh’s arm.
Wait a minute. Arlan made you stay in the
truck? he telepathed. You sent Arlan and
Aedan here?
Kaleigh gave him her best “you’re an
idiot” face. I couldn’t let you go up against them
alone. What if they tried to double-cross you? Which obviously they
did.
“But how the hell did you know when or
where we were going to make the exchange?” Liam demanded, looking
at Mai, not even realizing he had spoken out loud.
“I didn’t tell her,” Mai said. “I would
never have put her in danger that way.”
I’m telepathic, you
dummy.
Liam met Kaleigh’s gaze again.
You were able to read my thoughts from a
distance?
From my house! Cool,
huh? Kaleigh grinned.
He started to open his mouth, then
closed it. He’d address this with Kaleigh later. Right now, he had
to get these two out of here, before the entire sept descended on
them. “Arlan’s truck close by?”
Kaleigh nodded.
He put one arm around Mai and the other
around Corrato. “Get them back to the apartment. Let no one in. The
Weasel got away.”
“Oh my God!” Kaleigh covered her mouth
with her hand. “What are you going to do? He’ll come after
them!”
He took a deep breath, thinking about
all the incriminating evidence back at his place written inside the
pages of the crossword puzzle book. And there was no telling how
much more Corrato knew.
Mai gazed into Liam’s
eyes.
“It’s okay,” he assured her, kissing
her wet cheek. “I have an idea how to end this. How to guarantee
you’ll be safe forever. And I know the person who can do
it.”
As Kaleigh led Mai and Corrato away, he
walked around the fountain, through the snow, past the dead bodies,
and dialed Fia. People called his name, but he ignored them. Fia
answered just as he picked up the prescription bottle out of the
snow.
Late that night, Liam stood on the curb
in front of his shop. Kaleigh stood beside him, holding the rat
terrier. Fia waited in the car, but she kept it running. She
couldn’t tell him where she was taking them, of course, but he
trusted her.
“We have to go, Liam,” Fia said
gently.
He leaned in the window. “You’ve got
the diamonds?” he whispered.
“All twenty-one of them. They’ll
eventually be returned to the original insurer.”
“And the Swiss bank
accounts?”
“Already seized. But turning in that
money will go a long way. That was probably Corrato’s ticket into
the witness protection program as much as the information he has
for us.” She offered a grim smile. She knew how hard this was for
him, to let Mai go like this, to just let her disappear. She also
knew not to bring it up. “Talk to you soon?”
Liam nodded, stepping back from the
window. “Mr. Ricci.” He offered his hand.
“I told you. Call me Corrato.” He
looked down at the snowy sidewalk. “Or whatever my new name will
be.” He looked up again. “I didn’t mean to make such a mess of my
life or my daughter’s.” His wedding ring shone on his right hand.
“I’m not a bad man. I just made some bad decisions.”
Liam thought about the Gaudet brothers.
“We all have, sir.” He squeezed his hand. “You take
care.”
“Good-bye, Mr. Ricci.” Kaleigh hugged
him tightly, her eyes teary. “Take good care of Prince,” she said,
passing the dog into his arms.
“You kidding? The Prince of Dogs takes
care of me.”
As Corrato got into the backseat of the
unmarked sedan, Kaleigh hugged Mai. “Take care of yourself. I hope
Fia finds you a great life.”
Mai smiled through her tears as she
hugged the teen. “You take care, too, and I meant what I said. I
don’t care what your boyfriend says, you have the right to
decide.”
“Oh, that?” Kaleigh laughed, wiping at
her eyes. “Old news. I told him I wasn’t ready and he said okay and
we went for ice cream.” She shrugged. “All that teen angst for
nothing.” She looked at Liam. “I’ll let you be alone.” She gave Mai
another quick hug and then backed away.
For a second Liam just stood there, his
arms at his sides. He didn’t know what to do, what to
say.
“I have to go,” Mai said. “So can we
just get this over with?”
He pulled her into his arms, crushing
her against him, fighting the waves of emotion that kept rising
again and again, threatening to knock him down. And if he went
down, he was afraid he would never get up again. “Just because I
didn’t say it, Mai,” he whispered in her ear, “couldn’t say it, doesn’t mean I don’t feel
it.”
She pulled back a little, looking into
his eyes. “It’s not about the words, Liam. It’s about what’s here.”
She laid her hand on his chest, over his heart. “And I know what’s
here.”
And then she kissed him. It was the
sweetest kiss; she barely brushed her lips to his. “I’ll never
forget you,” she whispered.
And then she was gone.
Liam stood on the curb and watched Fia
drive away, fingering the single pink diamond in his pocket. It
would be his keepsake, to remind him of Mai, of how she made him
feel.
When the tail lights had faded, Kaleigh
stepped out of the shadows.
“So now what?” he said.
“What now?” the teen repeated. “Now you
suck it up and you go back to work, and you fight the good
fight.”
He stared at her in the darkness. “Back
to work?”
“Peigi just texted me. High Council’s
in session tonight. You’ve been cleared in the Gaudet case. You’ll
get your new assignment in a day or two. And she convinced them
that the mess in the park today wasn’t your fault. I think Fia must
have put in a good word for you.”
Liam was stunned. “I’m cleared of the
Gaudet case? But how can that be? I . . . I was never
interviewed.”
She smiled mischievously. “Actually,
you were. No one ever questioned your ability to do the job, Liam,
just your emotional well-being.”
“No, you’re mistaken.” He shook his
head, still confused. His arm ached from the gunshot graze Mai had
bandaged. His head ached. It was spinning. “No one interviewed
me.”
“I did.” This
time her smile was smug. “Several times, in fact. Those little
chats we had.” She waggled her finger, pointing at herself, then
him, then herself again. “Interviews. Once the report is typed up,
you’re welcome to see it. Just check with the Council
secretary.”
“I’ll be damned,” he swore. He studied
her again, but with new eyes. This was a big deal for someone her
age, being put in charge of an internal investigation. “But you
never asked me what happened that night. What I did.”
“I already had the report from the
scene. I was just jerking your chain on the whole cannibalism
thing.” She punched his arm playfully.
Then her face changed and he was no
longer looking into the eyes of a teenager, but the eyes of a
woman. A wisewoman. “I knew what you did. I saw the photos.” She
rested her hand on the same arm she’d just punched. “Needless to
say, Liam, you can’t do that again. We don’t mutilate bodies. Not
even the bodies of men like the Gaudets. They’re still God’s
creatures, made in His image.”
He hung his head. “I’ve waited for this
for weeks, and now . . .” He looked up again, thinking of Mai. “I
don’t know if I can still do it.”
“Sure you can. Because you might have
lost the girl”—she lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed his
cheek—“but you found your heart again.”
Liam was still smiling when he entered
his empty, dark apartment. And as he made a bowl of Rice Krispies,
he wondered if it was time he got a dog.