Chapter 15

Outside, it was dark and chilly and silent because Berns takes up almost an entire block by itself, and there aren’t any other businesses around it. I took some deep breaths of the cool night air and began to calm down. I felt like I’d just left a room where the atmosphere was tinged with a low-grade poison gas, and I needed to clear my lungs of it before I could feel normal again. Not that I knew what normal felt like anymore.

Berns is located on the far end of South Howard—the SoHo district, trendy South Tampa residents call it. I knew that if I took a left, I’d hit Bayshore Boulevard and from there it was only a few blocks to Charles’s house. But more importantly, there was a long strip of sand running the length of Bayshore that was as close to a beach as you could get on this end of town. I decided that what I really wanted was a long walk beside the water, digging my toes into the sand and smelling the cool, salty air of the bay. I needed to clear my head away from both Richard and Charles and re-evaluate where my life was headed.

I thought about telling Charles where I was going, but I was a big girl, after all, and it wasn’t like I needed his permission. As for Richard, let him wonder for a while. It might do my adopted brother some good to not be so sure of me. He and Charles both seemed to think they knew exactly what was right for me, and I was beginning to feel like a pawn in a badly played game of chess. I’d been on my own before, and I could take care of myself.

I didn’t want to walk on the main road because of traffic, so I turned down a side street that was still headed in the direction of the bay. This part of South Tampa was more residential, and the houses on either side of the street I was walking on would sell in the millions, easily. They were stately old homes surrounded by carefully landscaped lawns and huge, ancient trees that cast thick black shadows in my path. It was still a good two weeks until the next full moon, and the few street lights didn’t do much to illuminate my way, not that I needed them to since I’ve always had great night vision. The expensive Jimmy Choo heels Charles had bought me were killing my arches, and I was just thinking of taking them off and walking barefoot when I realized I was being followed.

They must have been behind me for a few blocks at least, creeping up quietly, and I hadn’t noticed because I was so caught up in my own thoughts. I might have been taken completely by surprise, but one of them stumbled and cursed in the darkness. When I turned my head, I saw two black shapes in the gloom behind me. Two ~big~ black shapes.

I’m a prosecutor, so the first thing I thought of was the rape/murder case I’d worked on with Detective Genevieve Marks a few months before. A girl had been found in one of the dumpsters behind a downtown restaurant with her throat slit and evidence of multiple sexual assaults. The PD had gotten one of the perpetrators, and we had managed to put him away, but they were pretty certain there had been more than one to start with. Genevieve had speculated to me that there might have been as many as three attackers, but the man we were prosecuting wouldn’t give up any other names.

So the minute I saw the two men following me, my mind jumped to the first scary conclusion it could find. I was sure the friends of the man I had put away were after me, intent on paying me back. My heart started triphammering in my chest, and my palms went cold and clammy. My mouth felt like I had tried to swallow a handful of cotton balls.

“Shit,” one of them said in a deep, grating voice. “She saw us.”

“Get ‘er!” the second man commanded in a nasal tone.

I kicked off the Jimmy Choos and ran.

I thought of going up to one of the mansions that lined the street and pounding on the door, but most of the windows were dark. By the time I’d roused someone out of bed to come to my aid, the two men would have gotten to me and dragged me off to do who knew what horrible things to me. My only chance was to keep running until I got to Bayshore, and maybe I could flag down a car.

I could hear the men behind me gaining on me—no surprise since they weren’t running barefoot over sharp gravel the way I was. I needed to get off the road. To my right was a small park surrounded by a wrought iron fence. It wasn’t the kind of place you took your kids because there were no swings or teeter-totters. It was just a lot of ornamental plants and carved stone benches that were dedicated to different people, probably by old South Tampa residents who wanted their relatives memorialized. I didn’t care about any of that, though. I was thinking that I could make better time on the lush green grass than on the street. Maybe I could even lose the two men pursuing me in the decorative arrangements of trees and bushes.

I zigged right and ran under the ornamental wrought iron arch that served as a front gate of the park with the two men right behind me. I could hear at least one of the men puffing and blowing which gave me hope that I could outrun them. How close were they? I had to look. I whipped my head back around to catch a glimpse of them which turned out to be a mistake. My foot caught on a flowering shrubbery and the next thing I knew I was flat on my face, sprawled in the grass that had looked so inviting moments before.

I tried to scramble up but they were already all over me. Rough hands pinned my arms behind my back and then I was dragged to my feet. I opened my mouth to scream but a large, beefy palm was slapped over my lips before I could get out so much as a peep.

“Don’t think so, girly,” the man with the grating voice panted. He was a balding guy, built like a Mac truck with a gut to match. It was his palm that was covering my face and I could smell cigarette smoke on his skin. No doubt that had something to do with the grating voice and shortness of breath. At the moment, however, I was more concerned with my own health than his.

“She’s kinda pretty.” My other assailant was a thin, rat-faced guy who looked considerably younger than his counterpart.

“Shut up and do it.” The older man grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, baring my throat. “Make it look good—Mister Andretti says he wants to send this guy a message.”

So this had nothing to do with the murder/rapist I had put away—it was something worse. My mind raced. ~Andretti—as is Momo ‘the shark’ Andretti?~ What would a mob boss want with a peon ADA like me and what guy were they teaching a lesson to? Then I saw the silvery glint of a knife in the rat-faced guy’s hand and knew what the older man meant by ‘do it.’

My heart, which had been beating double time up until then, started beating triple time instead until I felt like it might burst right out of my chest. These men were going to kill me—I had to get away! I bit down hard on the beefy palm over my mouth and kicked at the same time, catching the skinny rat-faced guy in the lower shin. He went down hard, the knife still clutched in his hand.

This would have worked out fine if the guy holding me would have let go when I bit him. But though nauseating coppery-sweet taste of fresh blood filled my mouth, he kept a firm hold on my hair and I couldn’t get loose. He did yank his hurt hand away, however, and I was able to scream for help. If I could just get someone’s attention I was sure they would call the police. This wasn’t the kind of neighborhood where blood curdling screams were ignored and the PD is always quick to respond to a disturbance in the more affluent areas of town.

“Shaddap,” Gravel Voice growled. He twisted his fist in my hair and yanked my head around so fast it was a miracle he didn’t break my neck. “Keep your mouth closed or this is gonna go a lot harder than it has to,” he warned me. I could feel the cold steel of his knife blade at the side of my neck. “We got orders to do this and it can go real fast or real slow, if you know what I mean.”

“~Bitch~.” Rat Face was getting to his feet and rubbing his shin. “I’m gonna fuck ‘er up,” he told Gravel Voice.

“Wait a minute,” I babbled, my lawyer’s instinct taking over the moment I had my mouth free. “I’m sure we can work something out here. I think you gentlemen have me mistaken for someone else. I’ve never done anything to make Mister, uh, your boss come after me and I don’t know anybody who has either.”

“You know a guy named Richard Kemet?” Gravel Voice asked me skeptically.

“Well…yes,” I admitted. “He’s my brother. But he doesn’t even live here. He’s only been in town a few weeks so there must be some mistake.”

“No mistake, bitch,” Rat face growled. “Your precious brother was here long enough to kill one of Mister Andretti’s trusted associates and he wants to return the favor.”

“By killing me?” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “Gentlemen, I’m tied to the district attorney’s office. I really think you ought to rethink this. I mean—”

“Wait a minute,” Rat Face interrupted me. He grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around, studying my face in the dim light. “Hey, I know you! You’re the bitch lawyer that put me away the first time I ever came up on charges.” He looked at Gravel Voice. “I was just a kid—but she got ‘em to try me as an adult. Got me sent away with no possibility of parole.” He frowned back down at me. “That was some hard time I did, bitch. Guess I know who to blame for that.”

“All right now—” Gravel Voice started but the younger man cut him off.

“I remember wonderin’ how such a fuckin’ cunt could look like such a sweet piece of ass. Promised myself that if I ever got the chance I’d do you good.”

I felt my entire body go cold all over. Great, I had just upped the ante from getting my throat cut to being raped and ~then~ getting my throat cut. I was really batting a thousand tonight.

“Hold her,” Rat Face said to his companion, rage twisting his narrow features. “I’m gonna enjoy this.”

“Not half as much as you’re going to enjoy ~this~,” said a new voice, behind him. It was vaguely familiar and I felt like I ought to know it but the tone was so deep it was nearly a growl. It sounded like a wolf or a lion that had somehow learned to speak.

“What the fuck?” Rat Face whipped his head around just as a tall figure appeared behind him. Again the shape was vaguely familiar and as it came closer, my excellent night vision asserted itself. Richard—it was Richard come to save me! I felt a massive flood of relief but it didn’t last for long. For this was Richard as I had never seen him before.

He looked about ten feet tall for one thing and I didn’t think all of that was my perspective looking up at him from the ground. He was bigger, his shoulders broader. Somehow he had grown. His eyes—our eyes—the eyes of the Amon-kai, glowed with pale fire in the night and when he parted his lips to speak, I saw that his teeth were no longer the straight, even white rows I had grown used to seeing. They were long and curving now, horribly sharp and ready to tear flesh and spill blood. I had seen teeth like that on nature programs when they showed the lions of the Serengeti yawning lazily in the noonday heat. Predator’s teeth.

“Let her go,” Richard said, in his new, strange voice and my attackers weren’t the only ones that shrank away from him. I drew away too. There was something wrong here—something dreadfully wrong. My mother had tried to warn me but I had refused to listen. There was more to my adopted brother than met the eye. Much more.

Gravel Voice was the first to break the silence that fell after Richard made his demand. He was the older and presumably more experienced of the two and I had an idea he didn’t let much of anything rattle him. Just because the man he had been sent to warn was turning into some kind of animalistic monster was no reason for him not to do his job.

“You Richard Kemet?” he asked in a reasonable, ‘hey, it’s just business, don’t take it personal,’ tone of voice.

“I am,” Richard said, or rather, growled. “And the woman you are currently touching is ~mine~. I suggest you take your hands off her now if you want to leave here with your miserable lives.”

“Sorry, buddy, we can’t do that,” Gravel Voice continued in that same maddening, reasonable tone. “See, you killed an associate of Mister Andretti who just happens to be a very prominent citizen of this fair city. I’m here on behalf of Mister Andretti as a warning and a lesson to you.”

“But Richard didn’t kill Chulo,” I gasped, despite the sharp silver tip of the knife pressed against my throat. “He didn’t--”

“If you’re talking about the pimp,” Richard interrupted me, “He was scum. He was beating one of the girls in that alley for no good reason. I took great pleasure in ripping out his throat.”

“~Richard!~” I squeaked. “You said you didn’t. You said it was dark and you didn’t know he was even there. How could you?” As I spoke the questions, I felt like the worst kind of fool. Of course he’d been able to see in the dark alley—he had night vision every bit as good as my own. Amon-kai vision. The whole thing had been a lie, from start to finish and I had been so eager to see him again, so eager to reconnect, that I swallowed it whole and begged for seconds.

“I’m sorry, Rachel.” For a moment the pale green fire of his eyes rested on me. “I know there were lies and half-truths between us but after tonight there will be no more.”

“After tonight there ain’t gonna be no more of either one of you,” Rat Face snarled. Apparently his companion’s courage had bolstered his own. Too late, I saw that he had pulled a gun which he waved menacingly at Richard. “Back down, wolf man. I don’t know what the hell you are an’ I don’t give a shit either. Mister Andretti says the girl gets it so the girl’s gonna get it.”

With an inhuman roar, Richard launched himself at the man. I heard the muffled roar and saw the muzzle flash at the same instant. The gun was pointed right at Richard’s chest.

I screamed, expecting his big form to crumple to the ground, but the bullet didn’t appear to faze Richard at all. Could Rat Face have missed? He had been no more than two feet away—impossible to miss at such close range.

Whether the bullet hit or missed, it didn’t stop Richard from his intended target. He grabbed Rat Face by his narrow shoulders and then I saw something that I knew would haunt my dreams for years to come. Those long, sharp teeth closed over the vulnerable front of the young thug’s neck. Then, with a sound like someone tearing rotten linen, Richard ripped out his throat.

The gout of blood from Rat Face’s tattered flesh was black in the dim light and I heard Gravel Voice behind me mutter, “Holy Mary, mother of God,” in a low, trembling voice. All his reasonable ‘this is just business’ attitude seemed to have deserted him the moment he saw his buddy get slaughtered. I could feel the sharp tip of the knife trembling against the side of my neck and then Richard dropped the still twitching corpse of Rat Face to the ground and turned to face us.

“~Let~. ~Her~. ~Go~.” His face was covered in blood and his eyes shone out from the mask of crimson like the eyes of a demon. I felt the knife drop away from my neck and then Gravel Voice was scrambling backwards, away from me.

“Okay, you got it, buddy. Swear to God, we didn’t mean no harm. It was just business, all right? Nothin’ personal. We was just followin’ orders.”

“Oh, it’s personal, all right.” Richard advanced, stepping over the fallen body of the man he’d murdered casually, as though he was stepping over a sack of garbage in the alley. He lunged at Gravel Voice and I threw myself to one side. I didn’t want to see the bloody spectacle he was capable of a second time that night.

He pounced on my other attacker, and they rolled in the grass. I didn’t stay to watch. I got up and ran, putting as much distance between myself and the slaughter going on behind me as possible.

“Rachel? ~Rachel?” The deep, inhuman voice barely recognizable as my adopted brother’s penetrated my consciousness, but I just kept on running. I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to know. I reached the road and kept on going.

With every slap of my bare feet on the pavement, I seemed to hear my mother’s voice inside my head, keeping time to the rhythm of my feet. “You must never see him again. Never see your brother again. Never. Never again.”