Page 43 of Dead Ringer

Nuts. So, they’d been watching for a while, if they’d seen me leaving the auction. Still, we could make it out of this. I wouldn’t let them see my knees shake.

“No luck yet,” I lied through my teeth. “If I find something, maybe I’ll consider your boss’s generous offer, but maybe I won’t. No point in arguing about it now.”

I just had to bluff past them, get to the car, and we’d be home free. Cain was tense, watching. His class ring felt like a band of ice around my finger.

The big guy took a step forward, and his friends moved up behind him. He was still smiling, all pleasant like, as if we were all friends having us a little catch up. “Now, Miss Rowe, why don’t I—”

He stopped then, going real still like. His eyes went wide and his lips parted. Not like he was going to talk, but more like when a cat smells something with its mouth and lets the air flow over its palate.

His gaze snapped back to me, pupils narrowing into slits. “You found it. In fact, you have it on you.” Well, darn it. The guy’s eyes narrowed even more. “Give it to me.”

Holy smokes. I shouldn’t have guessed that Graeae would be able to sense the stupid thing. Suddenly, Henner’s pocket didn’t seem like such a great hiding place.

“Nothing doing, you big palooka.” I glared at him, my hands curling into fists at my side. “Now scram. I don’t have anything for your boss.”

The big guy was fast, I’d give him that. Most people with that much muscle, well they’re real slow, they lumber. Frank lumbered. But this guy? Well, unluckily for us, he wasn’t much of a lumberer.

The big guy’s arm snapped out, making a grab for me, and only Cain’s reflexes managed to jerk me back out of range before he could catch my arm. All three of them thugs hissed, low and threatening like. The sound made the back of my neck prickle in warning.

The torpedoes kept coming, and I dragged Henner back a few steps before I realized that no matter what, this was going to happen. We’d just have to deal with it.

The mook growled at me, a low rattling in his chest. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.” He grabbed for me again.

Cain and I shared my body, which meant he didn’t have one of his own anymore. So, I knew he hadn’t just laid a hand on my shoulder, but that was sure what it felt like. Lickety split, I knew what he wanted. I stepped back inside my own body, deep down, and Cain flowed forward to take control.

A sweep of my arm knocked the reaching hand away. My feet were braced, shoulder width apart, and when the mook overbalanced a little, not expecting to be brushed off that easily, Cain bounced forward onto the balls of my feet, and nailed the big dope with an uppercut to the jaw that had his head snapping back on his neck.

My knuckles throbbed, but it was distant, like someone had wedged a few layers of gauze between me and the pain. I might have been able to handle myself a little, but Cain was actually trained for fisticuffs. I could hardly keep up with what was going on, Cain moved me so fast. I only knew he’d landed an old one-two because I felt the muted jolt of it through my body.

The big guy staggered back a step, and then went down like a fallen tree, right there on the sidewalk.

Wow, I had no idea I had it in me!

The other two mooks stood there staring, their jaws hanging open to flap in the breeze. Dummies. In the supernatural world, was it really that unusual to see a dame lay out a guy twice her size? Vampires or demons could have ripped a light post out of the ground and used it to hit him like a home run.

“Get gone,” Cain growled through my mouth.

The two guys looked at their fallen leader, and then at each other. I could practically read their faces like a billboard. They were going to make a play, anyway. I saw the determination settle over them. They’d misread me as just another dame with a stiff uppercut. Well, that was gonna be their mistake, because Cain knew what he was doing.

Cain clenched my jaw until my teeth squeaked.

That was when Henner’s car squealed up beside us, two tires jumping onto the curb. I hadn’t even realized Henner had taken off! But when I turned to look at the car, the doors popped open without anyone touching it, and I got a clear look inside to see that no one was driving.

Right—Henner was still standing right next to me.

So either his car was the next version of Stephen King’s, Christine, or Henner had managed to technomancy it into driving its own self! My word, but my beau was just the smartest man I’d ever laid eyes on!

Sweat dotted Henner’s forehead, and his face was tight with strain when he nudged us toward the car. “Shall we?”

Cain and I didn’t need any more prompting. No siree Bob! We all dove inside the car, and it pulled away from the curb before Henner had gotten his hands on the wheel.

We left the goons behind us, scrambling for their car with their unconscious boss, but we were around a corner and gone before they even got him up on his feet.

I threw myself back into my chair with a laugh, feeling a little shaky, but giddy at the same time. Cain eased back, tired from controlling my body, and I turned the ring around on my finger as I thanked him for saving our bacon.

“That was swell with the car,” I told Henner breathlessly. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Henner gave me a crooked grin and wiped his sleeve over his forehead, clearing away the dampness there. “Well, neither did I, so I guess we’re even.”

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