Chapter Twenty-Nine
Meanwhile…
“Do you honestly think those bullets are going to do anything to somebody like me?” Viktor glared down at the two men who were holding his life purpose between them as if he was nothing more than a rag doll. He had never been torn in so many directions at once. On the one hand, Ant was his mate and should always be his first concern.
But Ant cared about very few people and one of them was his sister, who Viktor was supporting in his arms. While her color was slowly coming back, she was showing no signs of waking up anytime soon, and clearly needed medical attention.
And Viktor refused to forget about the dog. That furry lump with an overactive tongue had accepted him with no qualms whatsoever after their first “getting to know you bite,” and Viktor could admit he absolutely loved the furball. That meant getting veterinary help as well. Viktor knew that help was necessary because if it wasn't, Able would be down with them, chewing the skinny muscles on those men’s legs.
Fast and careful. Viktor was starting to see they could be common themes in his life with his mate. While those bullets might sting him, it wouldn't kill him. But they could kill Ant or Bridget which meant he needed to keep the guys’ focus on him.
“You ruined my life!” Colin shrieked, waving the gunned hand around as though that made him important. “Tony was everything to me. He understood me. He fed into my desires. He knew what I needed, and he never made me feel bad about myself. I did all I could for him, keeping his family safe. Then what did you do? Just picked him up and tossed him at the police as though he was nothing? All because of this damn mage. You had no right. You had no right to destroy my life with what you did.”
“Your life has never been a concern of mine,” Viktor growled. “Why the hell should I be concerned with the likes of you? You're a lousy person and a lousy lawyer. Why the hell should I care what happened to you?”
“And as for you…” He fixed his glare over at the police officer, who was standing firm, a smirk on his face as though he had the secrets of life playing through his mind – or porn. It wasn’t as though Viktor was a mind reader. “What the hell are you doing? You're supposed to uphold law and order. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re standing here with a gun pointed at the wrong person.”
“I should be thanking you. In one quick move you've managed to solve my little problem with our annoying little psychic here.” Mike actually laughed.
Asshole. But Mike hadn’t finished.
“For months and months Ant has been chasing a murderer, tracking down all these scenes, doing his magic mojo on all the body dumps and the abductions, and all the while he was completely foiled by the person who was committing these horrible acts. He gave me so much information about those crimes, so many details. But he never once – do you hear me - he never once suspected that it was me he was searching for. The cop who he was giving his information to.
“Me, the bum boy in the office who made sure everything he noted, everything he told me was duly recorded.” Mike laughed again as if he’d just heard the funniest joke. “I was learning from him all that time. I got all my tips from him. It’s thanks to him, I learned how to be the most effective murderer in the state and there's not one damn thing anybody can do about it, including you. When he’s gone, no one will ever catch me.”
Viktor growled again because frankly what else he could do? His arms were full, his mate was unconscious, and somewhere on the floor above him Able was probably unconscious too. At least Viktor hoped so. He couldn’t hear a sound coming from upstairs and he refused to believe that dog was dead.
“So you're a murderer, so what? Welcome to the club,” Viktor shrugged. “I’ll be interested to see how you face off against that truth-sayer you have in the office, but it's really no big deal is it? I mean, yeah, so you kill people for some sick perverted reason, and you get away with it. You're still gonna die.”
“Not today,” Mike said, that damn grin making Viktor want to punch those teeth down his throat. “You see, the way I look at it, I couldn't have set this up more perfectly if I tried. Picture the scene. Imagine my horror when I find out that a vamp's gone rogue, has stolen a respected mage’s sister, and then went on and killed the mage and the sister in a fit of rage.
“Damn, he even took out the dog. People who trusted him, a mutt who probably wagged his tail at the vampire in the hopes of getting treats. It’s so tragically sad when these simple people literally handed their lives to a known gangster. And to my shock and horror this rampaging vampire took them all out. I had to shoot him, I had to kill him, I had no choice.
“And you know what'll happen after that? When they lock your ass up in a paranormal jail, or you’re pushing up daisies somewhere? Do you know what'll happen then? I'll go back to my job, I'll probably even get a promotion. I’ll be awarded a gold star by the mayor. It will be glorious. I might even get a pay rise, and my colleagues will treat me with respect. And meanwhile those murders will continue, so sad, and this time there won't be an interfering mage with all-seeing eyes watching what I do.”
“Hey,” Colin said. “What about me? I thought you said you were going get Tony out.”
“Tony's a lost cause, give up on that side of things,” Mike grumbled. “For goodness’ sake he was done even if Ant's dead. The mage’s testimony will still stand. He’s twisted too many judges around his little finger over the years and they all think Mr. Fancy Pants Doctor Channon can walk on fucking water. Tony's just gonna have to suck it up and do his time. Tony will still have his power, he'll be fine. He'll be running things from behind bars the way he always has done.”
“But what about my needs?” Colin thumped his own chest with his gunned hand.
Oh, what Viktor would have done for a misplaced bullet about then. The way the gun was angled, it would have hit Mike right in the face.
“What about my needs? Tony was the only one who understood. Tony was the only one who could supply those needs to me. None of this is going to do me any favors.”
“You’ll stay out of jail. You won’t get caught,” Mike said. “I know all about your sordid little needs and frankly you can take that shit and do it in another town. Get in touch with the next person that takes over Tony’s family and source yourself some new contacts. Transfer to another law office while you still have a shred of reputation, somewhere quiet, where you can start over. Your name doesn't have to have any part of this.”
“This is my house!” Banks screamed. “For fuck's sake, do we have to kill people here? My wife’s only out of town for two days and you’re talking about three bodies and the dog. That makes my house a crime scene. Cops will be in and out of here, with their size ten boots. My wife will have a fit. I’ve got kids, man. They don’t need to see any of that shit.”
“How the hell are we going to take them anywhere else? I'm not lugging that vampire anywhere. Dead or not he’ll weigh a fucking ton and that’s without moving Bridget, the mage, and the dog.”
“Have you two finished?” Viktor snarled. He could feel his other side warring with him to get out, and he was really inclined to let him. Admittedly, his second form was huge. There'd be a good chance he'd have to bend his neck or risk sending his head through the ceiling.
But the issue, the way Viktor could see it, was that when bad guys monologued, they took too much damn time doing it. Viktor needed to get help to his mate, his mate's sister, and the dog upstairs.
“Look, I don't know about you guys, but maybe we can talk about a deal,” he said. One thing he had learned in all his years of existence was that bad guys always had the idea they were invincible and held all the cards.
“Think about this logically. You could empty your entire clip from both of those guns and they're not going to do anything to me. It'll be like a scene out of any action movie you've seen. The bullets will just ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, out of my body. And you know what I'll do if they do get anywhere near me? I’ll just scoop them all up and I’ll throw them back in your fucking faces. I don’t think they’ll still be pinging then.”
Colin went from having a bright red face, to looking as though he’d seen his own ghost. Mike was made of sterner stuff. “You've got nothing to bargain with. That doctor and his sister are not leaving here alive. The dog’s already gone. I mean, what the hell do you want? What the hell can you offer us? We’re holding the only weapons here. The mage is one bullet away from seeing the spooks he claims to talk to. The dog's already bleeding, and Bridget won't be long for this world either once we stuff her back in that trunk. She always thought she was too good for me, the bitch.”
Ah, there’s a little bit of small dick energy there , Viktor thought to himself. But keeping himself focused, Viktor said, “I can offer you eternal life.”