The Nine Page 21

  I tightened my grip on the Knuckle Stunner and let the Whip-Crack unfurl and fall. Zoe stood to the side, and I set the blades buzzing with a flick of my wrist. The thick, whizzing cable shot forward, and the shanty door all but exploded into a shower of thin metal shards. I didn’t waste any time in making my way through. Zoe followed, carrying an unassuming-looking metal box in her hands.

  I took control of the large center room inside, keeping the Whip-Crack writhing and hissing at my side. I had no fear. Anger and shame had erased all that away. Anger for Zoe and Alex. The way they had been used, and the memories they would have to bear. Shame for the life I once led as one of these people, forever trying to atone for my past sins.

  Doors led to rooms on the outside walls, and a metal staircase stood to our right, leading to a catwalk and more rooms on a second floor. The layout reminded me of an old west saloon and brothel—if brothels had been made out of corrugated steel and old tin.

  Standing in the rear of the large room, shirtless in all his beer-gutted glory, was Scarecrow. There were a few dirty couches scattered between us. The one he scrambled over to escape was still occupied by two young women. They watched, in various stages of undress, and seemed a little too happy to be slaves in The Nine. They were unashamed, as likely to invite us in as throw us out. Scarecrow, on the other hand, wore a familiar rabbit-caught-in-a-corner expression I had come to know and love.

  He turned and sprinted toward the back of the room. More of a one-legged drag really, but he did the best he could. I was happy to see our last meeting had left such an impression. The women on the couch giggled as they watched him scurry away, still not bothering to cover their naked bodies. His bare feet made a slap swish sound with every step. Somehow, he managed to kick the empty liquor bottles and drug paraphernalia out of the way as he went. There were enough bongs, mirrors, and needles in the place to supply the Hollywood elite for the next three centuries.

  I swept an empty wine bottle to the side with my foot and followed Scarecrow at a casual pace. The girls on the couch smiled and winked. One stared at me, while the other studied Zoe, licking her lips like a hungry jackal.

  I glanced back and saw Zoe’s expression. Not angry or flirty, but knowing and sad. Scarecrow disappeared through a door at the rear of the room. Zoe and I made our way in that direction. A screech came out of the darkness where Scarecrow had gone, like a mouse caught in a trap. Several meaty thumps vibrated the floor, then a crash. Scarecrow said something about please and sorry, more thumps and more crashes.

  Zoe and I waited outside the door. I pretended to check the time, and Zoe adjusted her gloves and stared at the ceiling. A few seconds later, Scarecrow came tumbling back through the door. We watched him roll by and put his hands out, simultaneously trying to defend himself and figure out which way was up.

  “Please. I never did anything to you.”

  Alex came bounding out of the darkness behind him like a cat. She was on him before his butt stopped sliding across the floor. “Be glad you haven’t. But were not here to talk about me.”

  Alex managed some sort of crazy roll and locked Scarecrow’s neck between her thighs. His hands went up to stop her, but she threw her weight over and flipped him forward, tossing his body into the corner next to his would-be escape. He landed with a grunt, upside down and struggling to right himself, as the three of us advanced on him.

  “Remember me?” Zoe said.

  Scarecrow rolled over, and his nose crinkled in disgust. “This is about her? Take her. I have plenty more.”

  Alex balled a fist, ready to pound out the national anthem on his face, but I grabbed her arm.

  “Before your mouth gets you beat into paste, we need you to understand something. You aren’t giving Zoe to us. She’s leaving, and there is nothing you can do about it. She’s under the protection of the Judas Agency now. You will leave her alone, or face what we can bring to bear on your whole organization.”

  Scarecrow’s gaze shot from me to Alex and then to Zoe. “Bull shit.”

  Zoe stepped forward and pressed her boot heel into Scarecrows splayed fingers. A scream reminiscent of a baby pig spewed from his thin lips, and he took a swing at her leg. Alex blocked his arm, reached out and wrenched his nose between her forefinger and thumb.

  “I don’t like that sort of language,” Zoe said. “Apologize.”

  “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  Alex let go of his nose, and Zoe released some of the pressure from his fingers, but she did not let him pull his hand away. “As my friend was saying, I’m leaving. And if I were you, I would find another line of work. I know I’ll never stop people like you, but I’m going to make it my mission to find your kind and make their lives a living Hell within Hell.”

  I smiled and pulled an envelope out of my pocket. The wide manila had been labeled with my cousins’ names, Franco and Charlie. “In case you have trouble remembering our conversation later, this note goes over the particulars. It’s important your bosses know what we talked about.”

  “Trust me.” Scarecrow glared at us. “I won’t forget any of you.”

  Alex and I straightened and took a step back.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “You know how it is when things get—stressful.”

  Zoe popped the latch on the metal box she had been cradling throughout the ordeal.

  “Details are lost, names get confused,” I continued. “We just want to make sure everyone gets what’s coming to them.”

  Zoe reached into her box and let it clatter to the floor at her feet. In her gloved hand, she held a pink water-balloon the size of a ripe cantaloupe. Scarecrow’s eyes narrowed with confusion for a moment, then they shot wide with terror. I wedged the letter in the door frame. Someone would make sure my cousins got it. Alex and I headed toward the exit. First, a shout, then a splash followed by lots of screams, then Scarecrow didn’t scream anymore. The two girls on the couch watched us go, still grinning with oblivious fascination. Zoe caught up, grabbed them by the hair and pulled them up. “Time for a little tough love, ladies. If I am going to start somewhere, I may as well start with the two of you.”

  She passed us, dragging the giggling half-naked women in her wake. Alex and I looked at each other as she disappeared out the door.

  “All of a sudden, you don’t look so tough,” I said.

  Alex cracked a smile on one side of her mouth. “Anytime you want to try me, just let me know.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  I opened the front window to the shop for the first time in what felt like an eternity. The foul air had an almost visceral feel, and the cold hovered somewhere near sub-testicle freezing. I watched a Woebegone with no pants stride down the street and another on the upper catwalk, trying on a pair of shiny, new rag-slacks. It felt good to be home.

  A movement caught my eye just below the level of the window. When I leaned forward to see what it was, my heart turned to stone. Mastema crouched just out of sight, poised like a cat ready to strike. Her clawed hands were stained in blood, and more of the crimson gore streaked her face and lips just under her ever-present blindfold. She moved her non-seeing gaze in my direction, showing her jagged teeth. She had been hunting.

  I couldn't even force myself to react. My hands locked onto the cold steel countertop, and I clenched my teeth so hard my head began to vibrate. If Judas wanted me dead, fine, but he didn't have to send Mastema to my home. To Zoe and Alex. This had nothing to do with them.

  I managed to open my mouth, ready to say something, but Mastema put a gory finger to her lips to shush me. She reached back to slip something out of her spiked bikini armor. Maybe if I died quietly, she would forget about Zoe and Alex back in the bus behind me. She revealed the item with a flourish. I braced myself for some sort of blow, then let out a breath and stared in confusion.

  Mastema didn't have a weapon, not that she needed one. She held a cloth, a scarf—not just any scarf. Mastema had my cousin’s ridiculous yellow scarf in her clawed
hand.

  She ran the fabric across her cheek, throwing her head back as if in ecstasy, then I noticed the blood soaking the second half of the bright yellow fabric. It looked as if her hunt had been a success.

  Mastema snapped her head back toward me and then tossed the ruined cloth to the ground, revealing an even wider grin as the realization of my cousin’s death washed over my face. Then without another word, she spun and loped away. She stayed low, moving with the grace of a jungle ape, then spread her wings to take flight. I hadn't noticed, but Woebegone in the area were conspicuously absent around my shop. Now that Mastema had moved on, I heard terror filled screams fill the air as she streaked above the shanty rooftops and disappeared.

  “Those bastards wiped us out.” Zoe hopped out of the old bus, crinkling an empty Twinkie wrapper in her hand. “They even took your locket.”

  I let out a screech and spun around to face her.

  Zoe stopped in her tracks. “What’s wrong with you? Your face is whiter than Casper's ass.”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” I tried to regain my composure, but my brain still seemed to be rebooting. “I just can’t believe they took my locket. What are they going to do with something like that?”

  “Nothing.” Alex stepped off the bus behind Zoe and leaned against the battered door jamb. “They took it because they could, and because the locket belonged to you.”

  “I’m sure I’ll get lots of chances to pay them back.” I turned around and propped the other window open, taking an opportunity to calm my nerves and make sure Mastema had left the building. That was one encore I did not want to see.

  “How are our guests doing in the bus?” I eyed the open door and tried to regain a little of my home-happy smile. Zoe had brought the two girls from Scarecrow’s pleasure palace and insisted we keep them until they recovered from whatever ordeal they had been through.

  “They’re coming down hard,” Zoe said. “Scarecrow had them so doped up they forgot they were in The Nine—literally. They thought this was all a dream, and Scarecrow was some kind of billionaire gigolo.”

  “Wonder where they got that idea.” I sneered. “At least they have room to crash now that the bus is empty.” The words came out more venomous than I had intended. None of this was Zoe’s fault, but when it came to my shop, sometimes it was tough to resist lashing out at any available target. “Have you come up with something to do with the girls once you scare them straight? We can’t house the entire Woebegone population in my broken-down bus.”

  Zoe curled her upper lip and looked like she was about to say something more than a little nasty—which I probably deserved. But she took a breath and relaxed. “No, but I will. Don’t worry.”

  She started to turn away, but she paused and faced me again. “I’m sorry. I still have trouble sorting through things sometimes.”

  I nodded. “Take all the time and space you need. You all deserve it.”

  Zoe gave me a weak smile and stepped through the opening to go outside.

  “You better be careful.” Alex reached over to help Zoe lift the door off the ground and break my sad stare. “Threatening your cousins’ organization, even with the Judas Agency behind us on this, will only slow them down for a while. Sooner or later, they’ll figure out you’re on your own out here. When they do, they’ll be looking for payback.”

  “Let ‘em come.” Zoe slammed the door against the wall, jerking it out of Alex’s fingers. “I’m an old hand at the Gnashing Fields. If they think they’re going to take me without a fight, I’ll serve them up a Whip-Crack course in severed limb anatomy. This girl doesn’t take any shit, especially from some lowlife Disposable dealers who think they can pick me up and smoke me like a carton of old Marlboros.”

  Alex and I blinked. Neither of us had gotten used to Zoe’s new persona. She still looked like Stray, and even held onto many of her kind and caring traits, but when her darker side peeked through, Zoe was a whole different person.

  I couldn’t help but glance out my window at the bloodied scarf again. “Something tells me we won’t see them again, at least not anytime soon.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Zoe said. “They can bring an army, but they aren’t running me out of my home.”

  “Your home?” I grinned. “I don’t remember signing over a mortgage. Did we get married when I wasn’t looking?”

  I felt Alex’s eyes on me and wished I hadn’t said that last part.

  “You wish,” Zoe said. “And I think I’ve earned a corner in this little hole of yours. Besides what are you going to do, close the place up while you’re out on your top-secret missions? Find someone else to run it? I don’t think so.”

  “Maybe I’ll just close the shop down.”

  “Go ahead. That’ll just mean less competition for me when I open up my own shop. The Woebegone around here like me better than you anyway.”

  Alex smiled. “I really like her.”

  I narrowed my eyes and glared at Zoe. “Yeah. I guess I like her too. It’s worthless, but you can have half the shop.”

  Zoe tried to contain her smile, but I saw a bit of Stray struggling to escape around the edges. “Gee thanks. Half of an empty shop. I should be charging you for getting this place off the ground again.”

  “You know,” Alex walked over to the fallen heat curtain and gathered the heavy fabric in a long strip over her hand. “The apartments at the Judas Agency are pretty big. It wouldn’t be unheard of to have two people staying in one place. I could put a good word in for you and see if they would let Zoe stay.”

  I turned and stared at Alex. “You would try to get Zoe and me into an apartment at the Judas Agency—to live together—in the same place?”

  Alex glared back at me. “What difference does it make if you’re here or there? At least in an apartment you don’t have to worry about the fire storms or Disposable dealers sneaking up on you.”

  Zoe answered before I could open my mouth. “Thanks, but I think I’m going to stay here. I like running the shop, and I’m not afraid of handling those dealers. Besides, what would I do with my groupies back there?” Zoe gestured toward the rear door in the shop.

  “You sure?” I looked at her. “There could be a lot of heat around the corner.”

  “We’ll have to deal with that when it happens.”

  I shrugged. “I guess we’re holding the fort down here.”

  The Woebegone didn’t have much. For some of them, this shop was all they had to look forward to. I didn’t want to abandon it, either. Besides, I got the feeling Judas might be coming to appreciate my unorthodox methods. Sending Mastema to pluck my cousin out of the population was his way of saying I had done a good job. Or maybe he had the gore princess bloody her hands as a warning not to screw up again. Either way, Franco was off our tail, for now, and we had time to rebuild and reset. Zoe was right. We would deal with the rest when it came. In the meantime, I would keep doing my job with Alex at the Judas Agency.

  “I thought you might turn me down, but I figured I’d offer,” Alex said. “You did a decent job out there. You earned it.”

  “Thanks, boss.” I smirked. “You didn’t do so bad yourself.”

  “Don’t push your luck,” Alex said, but she had a smile on her face.

  “Seriously. Thank you for all you did. You didn’t have to help me get Zoe or stop Max and Jake.”

  Alex snorted. “It was worth it just to see them bolt when those kids showed up.”

  All three of us laughed, even Zoe.

  Our laughter eventually died, replaced by an awkward silence, then Alex shrugged and broke the spell. “I’m glad we helped Zoe.” She winked over at her. “Turns out she’s a pretty cool chick. And I would do anything to get one over on those two stooges. All you have to do is ask.”

  I nodded, deciding not to challenge her motivations. I knew she was happy to stick it to the stooges whenever she could, but I suspected there was a beating heart that cared about the people Topside as well.

  “I have
a little time.” Alex finished gathering the heat blanket and fastened it into its spot on the ceiling. “I’ll help you two piece this shack together before I head back. We can at least make sure the door will lock.” She patted the door, and it slid down to the ground with a crash.

  “Maybe you should let me handle the door,” I said. “You’re better at breaking than fixing.”

  “The world needs both,” Zoe said. Together we fixed the walls, rehung the doors, and re-carved our niche into The Nine.

  Thanks for Reading!

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  Not quite ready to leave, The Nine? Find out what Gabe and Alex are up to next. Read chapter one of New Dominion, book 2 in The Judas Files.

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  NEW DOMINION

  * * *

  NEW DOMINION

  Chapter One

  * * *

  “Errand boys.” I tugged at the collar of my shirt, trying to loosen the noose-tight tie around my neck. “We work for the most terrifying agency in the world ... underworld … and now we’re Topside playing the part of overdressed mailmen.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Alex smoothed her tailored black jacket and sleek pants then shifted her briefcase from one hand to the other. “I make this look good.”

  I couldn’t argue, but I wouldn’t let her know that. “Even without the hair?” I pointed to the auburn wig she used to camouflage her Ty-D-Bol blue-colored locks.

  She narrowed her eyes at me and glanced at the suit I had chosen for the occasion. “At least I didn’t come dressed as a pallbearer at a gangster’s funeral.”

  “What’s wrong with what I have on?” I peered down at my ensemble, brushing off the collar.