Bloodlines (The Guardian of Empire City Book 1) by Peter Hartog

Author:Peter Hartog [Hartog, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

As I pulled the gun, Crain sucker-punched me in the jaw.

Stars exploded in my vision. The weapon fell from my nerveless hand while the rest of me met the floor, momentarily stunned. Crain followed that with a sharp kick to my side, below the ribs. And then another, for good measure. I jerked into a fetal position, breathless and wheezing.

“That blonde bitch!” Crain bellowed, eyes blazing with mad realization. “We’ve been set up!”

For a skinny guy in a turtleneck, he packed one helluva punch. A quick inventory of my injuries revealed nothing broken.

“Surprise,” I quipped, relieved I could speak.

At least, that’s what I think I said. It probably sounded like a mumbled groan followed by short gasps for breath, and a sob for good measure. I hurt like hell. My head rang like a church bell, but at least I was still in one piece.

“No wonder she wanted to meet tonight,” Crain said, ignoring me for the moment.

He was lost to a volcanic anger. Behind him, two of Crain’s goons menaced Deacon and Besim.

“How could I have been so blind?” Crain ran a hand across his pale face, quivering with rage. “All their talk of partnership. It was all bullshit!”

I refrained from another of my patented pithy rejoinders, deciding that literally armed was more important right now than figuratively. The gun lay a few feet away. Besides, if the bad guy wanted to monologue, who was I to argue? Those extra seconds of pontification would mean the difference between my life and my death.

“‘Orpheus wants to discuss our options,’” Crain ground on, mimicking Julie’s nasally voice while laughing in derision. “What ‘options?’ We said we’d take care of it, and we did. We paid those goddamn mercenaries a bloody fortune! If they’d done their jobs right, there would have been nothing left for the police to find.”

I stored that nugget away, inching my way over to the SMART gun. I had no idea who or what Orpheus was, but they were climbing up my public enemy number one list faster than you could say “Straight outta Hades.”

“We still don’t know who killed the girl, but—" Crain paused, then smacked his fist into his open palm. “But now we know who took the body from the morgue. That goddamn, fucking bitch!”

Appreciate you clearing that up, Crain.

Presuming he wasn’t lying—and I didn’t think he was at this point—Crain and company weren’t our killers. Now if I could just get up and arrest them. Unfortunately, my body struggled to move, sluggish from the pain and the last vestiges of goldjoy in my system.

Then another thought hit me.

If Crain knew about the body’s theft from the morgue already, whatever intelligence network he possessed was downright scary. Only authorized access to EVI could provide such information about an active case file. The short list included ECPD officer-level, and certain high-ranking enclave officials. And with her functionality at an all-time low due to the explosion…

The enormity of that thought ballooned in my mind, sending a cold sliver down my spine.

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