There was silence for a long moment. And then music started playing from deeper inside the club. “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga.
“Okay,” I muttered. “Have it your way.”
I advanced into the darkened club, my shield bracelet throwing out a faint haze of light from the runes—just enough to keep me from bumping into walls. I went through the entry hall, past a collection window where I supposed cover fees would be paid, to double doors that opened onto the bar and dance floor.
I raised my left arm as if wielding an actual shield, the bracelet glowing, and stepped forward into the club.
The little girl was sitting in a booth against the far wall. The four thugs were fanned out on either side of her, guns in hand but pointing at the floor. Sitting with the little girl in the booth was the ADA’s pretty assistant. When I came through the door, she lifted a hand, clicked a remote, and Lady Gaga’s voice cut off in the midst of wanting my bad romance.
“Far enough,” the woman said. “It would be a shame if someone panicked and this situation devolved. Innocents could be hurt.”
I stopped. “Who are you?” I asked.
“Tania Raith,” she replied, and gave me a rather dizzying smile.
House Raith was the foremost house of the White Court of Vampires. They were seducers, energy drainers, and occasionally a giant pain in the ass. The White Court was headed up by Lara Raith, the uncrowned queen of vampires, and one of the more dangerous persons I’d ever met. She wielded enormous influence in Chicago, maybe as much as the head of the Chicago outfit, Gentleman Johnnie Marcone, gangster lord of the mean streets.
I made damned sure to keep track of the thugs and precisely what they were doing with their hands as I spoke. “You know who I am. You know what I can do. Let her go.”
She rolled her eyes, and spun a finger through fine, straight black hair. “Why should I?”
“Because you know what happened the last time some vampires abducted a little girl and I decided to take her back.”
Her smile faltered slightly. As it should have. When bloodsucking Red Court had taken my daughter, I took her back—and murdered every single one of them in the process. The entire species.
I’m not a halfway kind of person.
“Lara likes you,” Tania said. “So I’m going to give you a chance to walk out of here peacefully. This is a White Court matter.”
I grunted. “Black was one of yours?”
“Gregor Malvora,” she confirmed. “He was Malvora scum, but he was our scum. Lara can’t allow the mortal buck who did it to go unpunished. Appearances. You understand.”
“I understand that Gregor abducted a child. He did everything he could to frighten her, and then fed on her fear. If Luther hadn’t killed him, what would he have done to the little girl?”
“Oh, I shudder to think,” Tania replied. “But that is, after all, what they do.”
“Not in my town,” I said.
She lifted her eyebrows. “I believe Baron Marcone has a recognized claim on this city. Or am I mistaken?”
“I’ve got enough of a claim to make me tickled to dump you and your brute squad into the deepest part of Lake Michigan if you don’t give me back the girl.”
“I think I’ll keep her for a day or two. Just until the trial is over. That will be best for everyone involved.”
“You’ll give her to me. Now.”
“So that she can testify and exonerate Mister Luther?” Tania asked. “I think not. I have no desire to harm this child, Dresden. But if you try to take her from me, I will reluctantly be forced to kill her.”
The girl’s lower lip trembled, and tears started rolling down her face. She didn’t sob. She did it all in silence, as if desperate to draw no attention to herself.
Yeah, okay.
I wasn’t going to stand here and leave a little kid to a vampire’s tender mercies.
“Chicago is a mortal town,” I said. “And mortal justice is going to be served.”
“Oh my God,” Tania said, rolling her eyes. “Did you really just say that out loud? You sound like a comic book.”
“Comic book,” I said. “Let’s see. Do I go for ‘Hulk smash,’ or ‘It’s clobberin’ time . . .’”
Tania tensed, though she tried to hide it, and her voice came out in a rush. “Bit of a coincidence, don’t you think, that Chicago’s only professional wizard wound up on that jury?”
I tilted my head and frowned. She was right. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more this felt like a turf war. “Oh. Oh, I get it. Luther was one of Marcone’s soldiers.”
“So loyal he went to prison for ten years rather than inform on Marcone,” Tania confirmed. “Or maybe just smart enough to know what would happen to him if he did. He went straight after he got out, but . . .”
“When he got in trouble, Marcone stood up for one of his own,” I said. “He pulled strings to get me on the jury.”
“Luther was getting nailed to a wall,” Tania said. “Marcone controls crime, but Lara has a lot of say over the law, these days. I suppose he thought someone like you might be the only chance Luther had. Gutsy of him, to try to make a catspaw of Harry Dresden. I hear you don’t like that.”
Dammit. Marcone had put me where there’d been a guy getting fast-tracked to an unjust sentence and known damned well how I would react. He could have asked me for help, but I’d have told him to take a flying . . . leap. And he’d have known that. So he set it up without me knowing.
Or hell. He and Mab had been in cahoots lately. Maybe he’d asked her to arrange it. This had her fingerprints all over it.
“Tania,” I said. “It’s hard for me to tell with vampires, but I’m guessing you’re pretty new to this work.”
She winked at me. “Let’s just say that I’m old enough to know better and young enough not to care.” She picked up a drink from the table. “This one is over, Dresden. You can’t do anything here. You can’t produce evidence in the trial—not as a juror. You can’t get to Luther to tell him you found the little girl—and even if you could, you aren’t taking her away from us. Not until it’s too late. The girl is the only evidence that Black wasn’t a poor victim, and I have her. This one is done. Marcone lost the round. I win.” She winked at me. “What does Marcone mean to you? You don’t owe him anything. Why not sit down, have a drink, help me celebrate?”
I stared at Tania for a minute. “No,” I said quietly. “You just don’t get it. This isn’t about Lara and Marcone anymore. It’s not even really about Luther.” Then I looked at the little girl. “Honey,” I asked, making sure my voice was a lot gentler. “Do you want to go home?”
She looked at me. She was cute enough, for a kid her age, with caramel skin and big green eyes. She nodded, very hesitantly, flinching as if she thought Tania might hit her.
“Okay,” I said.
Tania was staring at me as though she couldn’t quite grasp what was happening. But her voice was harder when she said, “Gentlemen? The wizard doesn’t like the carrots. It’s time for the stick.”
To my right, from behind the bar, another four men rose. They were holding short-barreled shotguns. To my left, from the bathrooms, another four thugs appeared, clutching various long guns.
“I’ll count to three,” Tania said. “Boys, when I get to three, kill him.”
Crap. They were flanking me. My shield was excellent, but it was not omni-directional. No matter which way I turned it, one or more groups of thugs would have a shot at my unprotected back.
“One,” Tania said, smiling. “Two.”
“Comic book, huh?” I said. “Have it your way.”