Cocking his head to one side, Ace raised his eyebrows and patted the air with his free hand. All the anger and impatience that had been on his face suddenly evaporated as he said, “We don’t know that. Even if it was their fault—”
Cutting Ace short by twisting his spear, Cole growled, “Let her talk.”
“Yeah,” Paige said. “Who’s after Daniels?”
“Some guy from New York. He’s been asking about him and it got back to us.”
“What’s he want?”
“I don’t know,” Stephanie whined.
“I think you do.”
“Maybe, but it’s really hard to think with whatever the hell that is wrapped around my neck!”
Paige let out a controlled breath, which allowed her to ease the sickle blade away from Steph’s neck just enough to let her turn her head.
“All he said was that he wanted to find Daniels,” Stephanie said
“So you talked to this guy yourself?” Cole asked.
“Maybe,” she squeaked.
“Say everything there is to say about him so we can get the hell out of here,” Paige announced. “How’s that for a plan?”
“The guy is from New York,” Ace replied. “At least, that’s all we’ve heard. If you want a home address, you’re out of luck. He asked about Daniels, but we weren’t gonna give him up without meeting the guy face-to-face.”
“What about a name?”
Staring at Cole, Ace replied, “Burkis. That’s the only name he gave. Mr. Burkis. He came to town asking about one of us, so of course we heard about it.”
“Daniels doesn’t work for you,” Paige quickly pointed out.
“He’s Nymar,” Ace told her. “We own this town. Someone pokes around about one of us and we all know.”
Cole didn’t have to try too hard, but Paige did a pretty good job of keeping a straight face through that particular line of garbage. Despite the appearances they liked to put on for anyone who looked in their direction, the Nymar were more of a loose association than a real organization. They had numbers and some assets throughout some major cities, but so did the National Association of Hot Dog Vendors.
Raising his eyebrows, Ace added, “He also asked about you.”
“What’s this Burkis guy want with us?” Cole asked.
“Just you,” Stephanie replied as she locked her eyes on Cole as though he was once again on the menu. “He said you had some knife before Daniels got it.”
“Knife?”
“Maybe just part of a knife. He only mentioned a blade.”
Paige looked at Cole for a fraction of a second, which was enough to let him know they were both thinking the same thing. Once the moment passed, Paige moved her sickles away from the Nymar throats. “If we need anything more, we know where to find you.”
“What about me?” Ace asked.
“Let him go, Cole.”
Suddenly, Cole felt like he was in one of those dreams where he was supposed to deliver a speech in front of his Spanish class but could only remember one word of Spanish. He stared down at the spear in his hands the same way he would have stared down at all those blank note cards. After a bit of mental screaming, the end of the weapon creaked and snapped apart to form the forked end he’d carved there in the first place.
Ace pulled his hand away so quickly that he dropped his gun. Either that or his fingers were too numb to hold the pistol any longer.
“Any chance of you giving me this Burkis guy’s number?” Paige asked.
Rubbing his wrist, Ace stood against the wall like he was exactly where he wanted to be. “Any chance of you telling us what knife he’s asking about?”
“I don’t need knives,” Paige told him. “Just ask Miss Crushed Velvet and Anguish over there.”
“Hey!” Stephanie yapped.
Before the fight was started all over again, Ace steered things back on course. “So we’re done here?”
“Sure,” Paige said while looking around as if daring one of the Nymar to make a move. “Unless one of you still has an itchy trigger finger.”
Finally, Stephanie announced, “We’ve got more customers coming in a few hours and we need to cover the mess you made in here.”
“Just throw around some more red roses or bat statues,” Paige quipped. “Nothing says ‘eternal torment’ like bat statues.”
Chapter 8
“That was great!” Paige said while steering the Cav onto Ontario Street. “If you were saving that for a surprise, it sure worked because it was a hell of a surprise!”
“You mean the surprise where I almost got beaten to death or the surprise where I almost got shot?” Cole asked.
“The second one. Since when could you get your spear to do that?”
Cole knew the truth, but didn’t want to tarnish something that had gone over so well. “Oh, I’ve been working on that for a while.”
“Well, good job. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to hold off until I got there.”
“Yeah, speaking of that, where the hell were you? And why do you smell like antifreeze?”
Paige brought her arm up to her nose and took a few quick sniffs. As she did, the lights from the street played off her skin with a glistening effect. “The grease from that sweatshirt doesn’t dry too well. It kept me hidden for a bit longer than I thought it would, and I didn’t want to waste an opportunity to do some sneaking around in there.”
“You mean you didn’t know how long it would last?”
“I tested it a few times back home, but not the way I did tonight. It seems to really stick to loose cotton like sweatshirts and-pants. Once it starts to evaporate, it really goes fast.”
Suddenly, something about the odor struck a nerve. “Wait a minute,” he grumbled as he sniffed some more. “I’ve smelled that before. Back at Raza Hill.”
“I told you I tested it.”
“In my room!” Cole snapped his fingers and added, “In my room three or four nights ago. I was on my computer and I smelled it. I looked around but didn’t see anything.”
“There you go,” Paige quickly told him. “The stuff really works well.”
“You were in my room? You were spying on me!”
“Testing, Cole. Testing.”
“What did you see?”
“Nothing,” she said while raising her eyebrows. “Nothing at all.”
“Oh, Jesus.”
Paige laughed and patted his arm. “The only time I went in there, you were hunched over a picture of some warehouse with guns on the floor and flags posted at either side.”
“That’s one of the new Hammer Strike maps,” he breathed with a sigh of relief. “Don’t mention anything about that to anyone, by the way. It’s under wraps.”
“Yeah, Cole. With everything we do, I’m more anxious to leak your game levels to the Internet.”
“So what did you find out while I was so expertly distracting everyone?”
“That side entrance led to a back room in the bar. There wasn’t much in there, other than a secret door that opened to some back stairs leading up to the parlor. On the other hand, the monitors in the security room were interesting. Their customers are either into some nasty stuff or Ace sprung for the deluxe S and M channels. He walked right past me without noticing a thing, though. He might have smelled me, but he didn’t see squat. It was great.”
“Did you happen to see me and Stephanie on a monitor?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. There was a lot more action going on in the room next to yours. Anyway, I got the addresses of other Blood Parlors opening up around town along with a list of new employees. Since Sid’s name was on the list, the others are probably Nymar or potential converts. I jotted down some names and phone numbers, so we’ll be able to keep real busy for a while.” Paige veered to the right, cutting off a blue Lincoln in her haste to get to the ramp onto I-94. “Speaking of getting busy, you should hope you didn’t pick up anything while that skank was grinding on you.”