Page 23 of All Out of Flux
A tinkling came from the front door, the sound of someone tapping on glass. It was after hours at Unholy Grounds, but the place was always open for friends, and woe betide the man who tried to stop Guillotina Hernandez from going places. She rotated her hand at the wrist, signaling for Johnny to hurry up and let her in. He grumbled all the way to the door, then again when he opened it to the sound of her making a dramatic huff.
“Took you long enough, Slivers. Everything okay in here? Looks like you lost a bet. Every last one of you.”
Leon scrubbed his hand across his face, raking at his hair in the process. “Yeah, everything’s fine, Tina. Just some shit we’re working through.”
“Well, work harder, because we’ve got some crap to deal with. Max, it’s looking grim. Tío Gustavo is up to something, except I can’t tell what that something is.”
I rolled my eyes. “Tell me about it. He sent some goons after us tonight. The Quartz Spider ended up saving us by accident. Killed all three of them. Turned them to dust. It was brutal.”
We’d told Johnny and Roscoe about our run-in with Brendan Shum, naturally, in the lead-up to the story about Leon and the two dragons. I really didn’t feel like telling the story yet again, but Guillotina was expecting some answers.
“The Quartz Spider tried to kill you? Again? Jesus. And the goon thing — doesn’t make sense, somehow. Why would Gustavo send his minions to threaten you openly? That’s not his style.”
“She’s got a point,” Johnny said. “Usually it’s a constant stream of dudes going after Unholy Grounds, and Roscoe here gets toHome Alonethem instead of killing them outright.”
Roscoe said nothing, staring dreamily out the floor-to-ceiling windows like he was hoping for a Brillante thug to appear. He was thinking about traps, probably, and how to maim people with them.
I took a sip of my lukewarm coffee and grimaced. “Beats me why he’d send anyone after us. With baseball bats and lead pipes, too. That’s more Divina’s thing. Gustavo tries to be a little more subtle about this stuff.”
My phone buzzed. I fished it out of my pocket — probably just some alert I forgot to turn off, some random notification. And then I saw the name on the text message. I sat upright, awakened and sobered in a way that lukewarm coffee couldn’t accomplish.
“It’s a message from Just,” I told Leon. “Says that a statuette fitting our client’s description might be in town. In some warehouse?”
Guillotina crossed her arms. “Well, well. Isn’t that convenient? A visit from Gustavo’s goons and the perfect acquisition for a client, both just happening to pop up in the same night.”
“Tío Gustavo is doing this all on purpose to bait me. Well, I’m not a kid anymore.” I cracked my knuckles. “He wants a piece of Maximilian Drake? He’ll get one.”
“I’m coming with,” Guillotina said. “If this is a trap, you’ll regret not having me around.”
Leon drained the last of his coffee. “You couldn’t leave me out of this one if you tried.”
“We’ll stay here,” Johnny said. “No offense, but if the Brillante thugs are out and about, there’s no telling when they’ll drop in to hit the coffee shop again.”
Roscoe adjusted his glasses, his lips creasing into a terrifying grin. “I’d love to see them try.”
11
LEON
What a long night. What a long, exhausting night. But this thing about the statuette was a lead, and we were finders, damn it. We couldn’t just let go of a juicy tidbit like that, even if it meant hiding in a clump of bushes at ass o’clock after midnight.
Guillotina turned over her shoulder, picking a leaf out of her hair. Her question came in an urgent and slightly annoyed whisper.
“So exactly who is this Just person again, and why exactly do we trust them?”
I shrugged, the branches closest to my shoulders rustling. I was hiding behind Guillotina, and she in turn was using Max for cover. I was happy to be in the rear, for once, finally accepting that I had the least magical firepower in case things got too hairy. For the moment, at least.
“He’s this nerdy little twink that Max met on the job. Works at some magic trinket shop or something.”
Max’s voice rasped from the front of the bushes. “I wouldn’t call him a twink, exactly. More of a twunk.”
I rolled my eyes. He was right — Just was too well built to be a standard issue twink — but was that really important right now?
“Works at Hermanas Arcanas. You know, with the Mendez sisters?”
Guillotina scoffed. “Oh, I know them, all right. Gustavo’s lackeys. Then again, he has his fingers in pawnshops all over Dos Lunas, anyway. And beyond.”
“Okay, yes,” I hissed. “Point is, this statuette we’re looking for, Gustavo’s people must have it. There’s all this bullshit about the Quartz Spider, but we’re still finders. Gotta keep the Jade Spider happy.”
