Marked Clan #2 - Red (18 page)

“We have to go, PJ!” Dree pulled me away from Lauren, but I shrugged off her hand and leaned in close.

“You’re even more of a monster than I thought,” I said to her. The woman twitched with pain, but still managed a self-satisfied smile.

“Don’t get all high and mighty on us,” she hissed. “Our blood is on your hands too.”

I knew I should have let her bleed out some more, maybe let the cops call paramedics or something just to prolong her pain and suffering. I didn’t. I stood, leveled the machine gun at her nose, and refinished the floor with the contents of her skull. Some dogs just need to be put down.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Slate drove us back to the shop—Lupin included this time. I didn’t ask why he went all lone-wolf (pun intended) and stayed clear of me. I figured he had his reasons. I killed the time by looking at my phone. I had a voicemail from Justin.

“Hi, PJ. I’m at the hospital. I just wanted to let you know I had some time to process samples of your blood and Slate’s. I think I’ve isolated the antibody that causes all the damage. I think I can reproduce it synthetically, so you wouldn’t have to bleed yourself dry all the time. If you get this message before tomorrow, I’m going to be in the blood lab most of the night. Drop by if you can. Thinking of you.”

“Slate,” I asked. “Any chance you could swing by the medical center first?”

“Of course,” she said. Dree and Lupin didn’t comment, but I saw the smile on Dree’s face.

“It’s not that,” I said. “He has something to show me.”

Dree snorted. “I’m sure he does.”

We made it to Justin’s hospital in no time, with the way Slate drives. I wasn’t sure where the blood lab was, so I just found the first nurse’s station. The woman behind the counter gave me a look meant to make me feel small. I didn’t play along.

“Hi, could you tell me where the blood lab is? Or Doctor Justin Frasier?”

She gave an exasperated sigh and typed something in the computer. “Blood lab is on the fourth floor, east wing, but your doctor checked out an hour ago, Miss. If you have an appointment with him, I’m sure you can reschedule.”

Checked out?

“He told me he’d be working here all night. Can you check again?”

She cocked an eyebrow, but did as I asked. This time she turned her computer monitor around and pointed to the line with one extremely long acrylic fingernail.

“Checked out an hour ago. That’s the log. The time system is attached to our badges, so it’s not like someone could have forged his name. My advice, go down one floor and wait like everyone else. You don’t look that sick.”

I didn’t thank her. Something wasn’t right. I pulled out my phone and dialed Justin’s number—no answer. My pace quickened as I went back outside. I was running by the time I met Slate in the parking garage.

“We need to get to Justin’s condo. I think something’s wrong.”

Dree leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

“He wasn’t there,” I said. “He told me he’d be in the lab all night, but the nurse said he checked out.”

“Maybe he just went out for dinner or something, or to get some fresh air. Did you try calling him?”

I nodded. “Do you think Donald’s wolves might have got to him? If they’ve been watching the shop, they must have seen his car. They could have tracked him to his condo or the hospital.”

“I’m fairly certain this wasn’t Donald,” Lupin said.

I turned around to face him. “What do you mean?”

“All this time I’ve been separated from you, I’ve been keeping tabs on Donald’s movements. His people don’t know about Justin.”

“We’re here,” Slate said. We all got out and took the elevator. It seemed to go half the speed it usually did. I was the first one out and down the hall. I banged on Justin’s door.

“You better be in there, Doc. You’re giving me a hell of a scare.”

No answer. I knocked again, harder. The door pushed open. Slate’s arm blocked me from going in. She shook her head and waved Lupin in first. She followed, and Dree picked up the rear.

The condo looked no different than I remembered leaving it. Everything was in its place. We checked the bedroom, and I definitely didn’t see anything amiss there. Unfortunately, he hadn’t cleaned up much from our tryst earlier.

We went back into the main room and I saw it—a candle with the Virgin Mary on it, sitting on Justin’s coffee table. It was the kind Manuel sold at his shop. I picked it up and saw the stamp of his botanica on the bottom. What did it mean?

Fuck, Manuel. I’ve known you a long time. You couldn’t have been involved in this, could you? Why would you side with these wolves? No, that couldn’t be it. He had wolfsbane burning the other day. Why would he make a deal with them and then smoke them out? My thoughts went back to my visit, and something bubbled to the surface.

I didn’t tell them anything. Said you liked my candles, that’s all.

The candle held down a folded piece of paper. I opened it up and saw it was a program for a Wednesday Mass. The church was just outside Manuel’s neighborhood. I’d driven by it a hundred times. Someone had written “10pm, Tonight” in a neat scrawl at the bottom.

“Lupin, I think you were right. This wasn’t Donald—it was his business partners.”

I looked at the clock on Justin’s stove. We had about twenty minutes to get there. Dree came over and touched my shoulder.

“How can we help? Talk to us, PJ.”

“We need to go to church.”

I handed the program to Slate. “Do you know where this is? If not, I’ll drive.”

She shook her head. “Be my guest. Should we be armed for this?”

“That might be a good idea. We’re probably going to see more of those guys that were guarding the den. Expect silver rounds and automatic weapons.”

We went back to Slate’s car and she popped the trunk. She dug around for a few minutes and pulled out another duffel bag. “I’ll be honest, when I bought these I never thought I would actually have to use them.”

She pulled out two bulletproof vests and handed me one. I put it on, but gave her a confused look. “There’s only two, and a silver bullet can kill you just as easily as me. Who gets the other one?”

Lupin answered the question by taking the jacket and giving it to Dree. Slate nodded in agreement. “We will manage,” she said. She pulled out a couple of bulky pullover hoodies. “Put these on to cover the jackets.”

Once we were suited up and piled into the car, I looked at everyone. “I don’t exactly have a plan for this. If any of you have any bright ideas, now’s the time.”

“Well,” Lupin said with a sigh. “We’re going to church. We might as well start out with a prayer.”

Amen, wolfman. Amen
. I prayed nothing had happened to Justin yet. It would be just my luck that the first decent guy I’d dated lost his head.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Wait for me,” Manuel said on the phone. “This is going down in my backyard. I want to be there.”

“You’re sure?” I asked him. I hadn’t actually intended to get him to come; I just wanted to give him a heads up. “This isn’t your problem. Maria will have my head if I bring you back injured…or dead.”

“I do this for Maria,” he said. “I can’t have this kind of thing happening where our children grow up. Whoever did this will pay. Maybe not from me directly, but they will pay.”

We parked a few blocks from the church. This late at night, most of the stragglers from the evening service were already gone. I was thankful for that—less chance of someone getting caught in friendly fire.

Manuel pulled up behind us. He was dressed in white, from head to toe. It was his formal outfit—I’d seen him wear it for christenings and other official business. He was going for the intimidation factor tonight.

“Let’s get inside,” he said. “Most people in this area wouldn’t violate the sanctity of a church with bloodshed. It’s a good sign they asked to meet you here. It means they want to talk first.”

We crossed the street and walked up to the front door. It was unlocked. Manuel led the way, and I followed next. He paused by the door to dip his fingers in the holy water and cross himself before sitting in a pew near the back of the sanctuary. No one else was there yet.

Slate surprised me by kneeling before she sat down at the pew. Lupin did the same. I hadn’t even considered that wolves might be religious, much less Catholic. My reverie was interrupted as four men entered the front of the church, dressed in bulky jackets and flashy tennis shoes. They looked around the sanctuary carefully, noting everything, then held open the door for a fifth. He wore a tailored suit, and his hair was slicked back. He crossed himself and took a seat in the pew in front of us. He didn’t turn around to speak.

“Your boyfriend is safe,” he said, “for now. I needed assurance that I had your full attention.”

“Why have you broken the truce?” Manuel asked.

The man nodded, but still didn’t turn around. “Peace,
Santero
. I want to preserve things the way they were. This deal with the wolves has tipped the balance of power. The drugs they bring in have purchased a lot of firepower and extra men for my competitors. I find my organization is at a distinct disadvantage.”

I was getting tired of this
Godfather
bullshit really quick. “What do you want from us, Scarface?”

The man laughed. “I want to help.”

“You have a pretty fucked up way of showing it,” I said. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? For all I know you’re the one who hired Donald. All you thugs look the same to me.”

He snapped his fingers, and one of the bodyguards stepped forward with a cell phone. “The number is already dialed,” the man said, “Just press send.”

I did, and the phone rang twice before a surprisingly calm Justin came on the line. “Hello?”

“Justin, it’s PJ. Are you okay? Is this Goodfellas reject telling the truth?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “They have me in somebody’s house. Guards on every door and window. I don’t know where I am.”

“Hang in there. I don’t think they want to hurt us…for now.”

“PJ, don’t trust them. I’ve dealt with gangs like this before. They’ll double cross you as soon as you give them what they—OOF!”

“Justin? Justin, are you okay?”

A low voice came over the phone. “He’s fine. Do what we want and he stays that way.”

The phone went dead. If that was meant to reassure me about our present company, it failed miserably. If anything, I was less trusting of them now. Justin was right. I needed assurances that if we did what they wanted they wouldn’t try to clean up loose ends afterward.

“You have all the leverage,” I said. “It’s not exactly a fair bargain. Sure, I’ll take out Donald and his pack. I was going to do that anyway. But what’s to say when we’re done you don’t order Paco and Jose back there to waste us all?”

He still didn’t turn around. I wanted to put one hand on his chin and the other on the back of his head. I’d turn it around for him, permanently. What was his deal? Was he afraid to make eye contact?

“I am a man of my word,
chica.
”

Manuel spoke up. “You gave your word before that my shop was off-limits. Why should we believe you?”

“I apologize for that,
Santero.
My men acted rashly and without my authority. Tensions are high in my organization from this wolf business. It was an internal problem that was taken care of.”

The same thug that brought me the phone handed Manuel a newspaper open to the second page. An article was circled. The headline read, “Three Beheaded in Apparent Gang Execution.”

“This doesn’t prove anything,” Manuel said. “How do I even know it was you?”

“Read further,” the man said.

Manuel turned the page and a photograph fell into his lap. I looked at it—three heads, severed, sitting neatly on a table. Manuel looked at it carefully and rubbed his bandaged hands together.

“These are the men who attacked you,
Santero
?” the man asked.

Manuel sighed. “Yes. The debt is paid, with interest. Death was not necessary.”

“Death,” the man said, “is always necessary. I trust my men with my life. When they betray me, they forfeit theirs.”

“Say we go along with this,” I said. “What can you offer us that we don’t already have? We did a pretty good job on our own at Donald’s place.”

“I offer you my men, my weapons, and the location of their second den.”

“I don’t buy it,” Lupin said. “If you know all this, how come you haven’t wiped Donald out before now?”

Manuel answered. “The truce. Any direct action against your rivals will give them a reason to declare war on you.”

The man nodded. “You are wise,
Santero.
Unlike my counterparts in other organizations, I prefer to do business, not war. That’s why it must be outside forces that end the wolves. I can guarantee no retribution for you. No one will know you were involved.”

“And in return, we owe you a favor?” I asked.

He shook his head. “You owe me nothing past taking this new threat away from my rivals’ hands.”

“What do you think, Manuel?” I asked.

The
santero
rubbed his temples and looked at the photograph of the three men’s heads. “I hate to say it, but I trust him. For now, at least. It’s not in his best interest to incite a war. He said it himself—the gang that hired Donald has more firepower and men. He’d be committing suicide.”

I looked at Slate, Lupin, and Dree. They nodded in agreement.

“We just want Donald out of the picture,” Lupin said. “If this guy can help, let him.”

What a strange night this had been. What had started out as a simple matter between my family and the ones they cursed turned into an all-out war between two drug cartels? I addressed the man’s back.

“Your word that as soon as Donald is dead, Justin walks? Unharmed?”

He nodded. “You have my word. The doctor will be released as soon as the wolves are taken out.”

“Well, Scarface, looks like you just hired Clan Mackenzie. Let’s see these weapons you promised.”

He stood and finally turned around, extending his hand. I shook it.