Chapters (42)
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT PAGE
- DEDICATION PAGE
- CONTENTS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“If they get her in that car, that’s the end of her,” I said.
“They won’t.” Jim sprinted ahead of me, his powerful legs carrying him up the street. But the driver of the car must have spotted him, because he gunned the engine and peeled out, nearly sideswiping an SUV, which honked long and loud.
Jim kept running, ducking his head to get a look in the vehicle, but he stopped as it blew through a busy intersection and sped away.
“What the hell are you doing?” shrieked the prostitute.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I approached her. “My friend thought that was someone he knew.”
She backed up several steps as I approached. I held up my hands, not wanting to freak her out. “Hey,” I said. “We don’t mean any harm.”
She snorted. By the look of her, she had a lot of years of experience with people more menacing than me. The Mazikin scent still hung in the air, so I said, “You smell that? That kind of incense smell? Don’t ever get in a car if you smell it. Warn your friends, too.”
The woman inhaled. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Captain—” Jim called out, eyeing the prostitute as he approached her from the other direction.
She whirled around to face him, and as she did, the breeze carried the overwhelming stench of body odor, perfume, and incense to me. “Pretty clever,” I said, drawing her attention back to me. “You nearly had that guy.” I pushed my hood away from my face.
Her eyes went wide, like maybe she recognized me.
Jim met my gaze, and I nodded. He stepped up right next to her. “Hi, sweetheart,” he said as she flinched in surprise. She’d been so fixated on me that she’d forgotten he was there. “Sorry I chased off your date. Can I make it up to you?”
The Mazikin’s eyes darted back and forth between me and Jim. A low hiss came from her mouth. Jim had one arm around her and a hand covering her mouth before she could make another sound. With abrupt and brutal efficiency, he hustled her into the adjacent alleyway. I looked around quickly, but no one seemed to have seen us. “Under control?” I asked the entwined dark shadows in the alley.
“Get the car,” Jim said.