Chapter 17 #2
I shrugged as it began to ring. “That’s who she is. Madam of her brothel, pimp on the streets. Madam Pimp.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . I’m aware of what the job titles entail.”
“Well, well, my favorite slice of cheese,” she purred through the line suddenly. “Will this be business or pleasure?”
I chuckled. “Business but I think you’ll get a good deal of pleasure from it as well.”
“Intriguing. Unless it’s another prank on Crackers.” She sighed. “I can’t be put in between two brothers.”
“Well, there goes my birthday plans,” Andreas said with a grin.
Her deep laughter rumbled through the phone, and I wondered just how many cigarettes she’d had. “Don’t tease me, Andreas. I’m fragile.”
“No, you’re not, Rebecca.”
She cackled. “Fair. So what can I do you boys for this evening?”
Boys. That made me smile every time. She thought we were younger than her, not that I blamed her. We didn’t look more than thirty years old, and compared to her fifty, we were children to her. Maybe one day we’d tell her the truth, just for shits and giggles.
“So, uh . . . thing is, can’t tell you all the details but we’re working with the NYPD on a case, and we need a little assistance.” I licked my lips and glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “Are you interested?”
“Will the cops take interest in me?”
I shook my head. “Nah, you’re not their problem.”
She scoffed. “I’m a madam and a pimp. Of course I'm their problem.”
“Not the ones we’re working with right now.”
Andreas leaned closer to me. “We need you to set up someone who we think you’ll enjoy setting up—”
“Hamilton?” she almost growled his name.
“Hooker Hamburger himself,” I said with a grin.
“He’s put five of my girls in the ER, one of which he nearly killed.” She cursed violently. “Little freak show needs to rot.”
“We agree.” I grinned as excitement rushed through me. “How soon can you be in Times Square?”
“Give me twenty minutes. I gotta get my girls secure first.”
“Perfect. See you in twenty near the red steps.” I hung up the phone, and we turned from Rockefeller Center and headed toward Times Square.
“I hope this works,” Andreas grumbled as he matched my quickened pace. “We need this to work.”
Together we wove our way through the crowd of people lining the streets.
In New York it was always tourist season.
Twenty-four-seven-three-sixty-five. But Christmas in New York was mayhem.
Pure pandemonium. I used to love it. I used to thrive on the energy of all the humans’ excitement, with all the twinkling lights and panicked shopping.
Not to mention I wasn’t too old to love staring at a Christmas tree.
Usually Andreas and I snuck in a bit of ice skating at Rockefeller or Central Park, but this year we’d been . . . distracted.
The image of Chanel in her Mrs. Claus costume Friday night flashed through my mind.
Again. It wasn’t the least bit helpful. I cleared my throat and tugged on my cashmere turtleneck.
It’d been too long since I’d seen her, and I just wanted a moment with her.
I didn’t know what I was going to say, but I was going to get my moment.
“If it doesn’t work, at least we’ll get to see ‘em.”
We quickened our pace and made it to 7th Avenue in no time.
That overbearing, sweet stench of roasted chestnuts burned my sinuses.
I used to think it was a nice break from the piss smell, but now it was just roasted candy piss smell.
My frustration was growing by the second, which meant heading into the busiest section of the city at the busiest time of year was a terrible idea.
I was setting myself up to fail. Andreas shoulder-checked some drunk college kid, then glanced back at me with the same thin, frayed mental rope.
Yet we knew why we picked this location.
The crowd grew thicker here, most of the streets were shoulder-to-shoulder kind of overpacked, but they also weren’t paying attention to anyone around them.
It was the kind of crowd where someone could die right next to them and they wouldn’t notice.
The city may have cleaned up a bit since our old mafia days, but it hadn’t change that much.
The lights were too bright, the billboards too enticing. People in costumes ran around after tourists trying to take pictures with them. The day I paid to take a picture with Elmo was the day I’d set myself on fire. Yet it worked every time. The damn Elmos were making at least twenty bucks a pop.
Andreas smoothly dodged a Minnie and Mickey Mouse duo trying to wrap their arms around him.
We were through the crowd and next to the large red stadium steps at the center of it all.
Humans stood there with phones raised, taking pictures of the billboards and turning to take selfies with the city as the backdrop.
Not one of them noticed the pickpockets sliding in and around groups or the people sizing them up for their next mugging. But I did. I saw it all.
“I’m really here for this brother sandwich idea.” Rebecca sauntered up to us looking as glamorous as ever.
She was tall and slender with bright-blonde hair curling around her face. Her eyes looked icy-blue and there was heavy liner around her eyes. She wore a black wool coat with a faux fur collar, black leather leggings, and knee-high boots.
I moved in closer and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You sure you’re down with this?”
“He’s put enough of my girls in the hospital.” She shrugged. “Plus, I’ve had worse than a little bite from a wannabe vampire freak.”
I wanted to tell her that she would be dealing with a real vampire freak, but it was against the rules and I’d broken enough of those to get myself banished.
Andreas groaned. “I’m pretty sure the blood loss might be . . . significant.”
“As long as I don’t die.” She glanced at me. “You won’t let me die, right?”
“I won’t let you die.” I’d rip Hooker Hamburger’s head off before I let him kill Rebecca.
“I don’t tell this to many people, but I trust you two.” She glanced around with sharp eyes. “So where is he?”
Andreas pulled his phone from his pocket and held it up to take a picture of her. “Say Kaso.”
She turned around, giving him her back and glanced at him over her shoulder with narrowed eyes and pouty lips. “Kaaayyyyyysooooooo.”
I chuckled as she drew out my name and Andreas snapped a few pictures. “That should do it. Text him.”
“Now what?” Rebecca turned back toward us. “I make myself available?”
Andreas’s fingers flew across the screen. “Aaaannnnd sent . . . I’m sure he’ll have no problems finding you now. I made sure to get a lot of the background.”
“In that case, we better blend in.” With my vampire speed I ran into one of the little tourist shops and grabbed two I love NYC shirts and matching hats. I handed a wad of cash to the attendant behind the register and hurried back.
I tossed the shirt at Andreas, and he narrowed his eyes at me. “You’ve got to be kiddin’ me.”
“Just put it on.” I yanked the shirt over my clothing and shoved the hat onto my head.
Andreas groaned and followed suit. Then we backed away from Rebecca, finding two seats at a table set up behind the red stairs. Rebecca strolled to one side of Times Square then to the other.
I sat back and rested my arm on the table. “Ya know, if we pull this off, imma be real impressed.”
“We’ve gotten away with worse.” Andreas’s eyes lingered on Rebecca.
“I mean, we’re actually helpin’. That’s different.” I shrugged. “It feels better than I realized.”
“Who woulda’ thought, eh?” Andreas sat forward. “Here we go.”
Hamilton slithered through the crowd looking as creepy as ever.
He was tall and lanky with beady blue eyes, sickly pale skin, and a hook-shaped nose.
When he spotted Rebecca, he licked his lips.
He glided up toward her, and she turned to face him.
A seductive smile spread across her face and she crooked her finger at him, then turned away.
“Oh, she’s good.” Andreas snickered.
“I can’t imagine bein’ in a profession where you have to pretend to like people.” I rose to my feet. “Makes me wanna start being a criminal again.”
Andreas stood beside me, and we followed Rebecca through the crowd as she guided him away from the hum of Times Square and down 7th Avenue, then turned onto 48th toward the Theater District.
The crowd grew thinner here, yet it was easy enough for us to follow the two of them without being noticed.
Hamilton suddenly leapt for her, wrapping his arm around her body and yanking her into a narrow alley that was blocked by scaffolding.
We hurried forward and stopped at the alley just as he wrenched her head to the side and sank his fangs in.
I lifted my phone, snapped several pictures, and sent them to Chanel with a quick message. ‘You're gonna want to come over here.’
“They have about one second before I rip them apart.” Andreas stiffened, about to leap into the alley, when the sound of wings filled the air.
Chanel landed first with her sword drawn.
She was glorious with her flowing hair, sharp green eyes, and leather hunting outfit.
Visions of her riding me flashed through my mind, and I had to force myself to hold still.
Regan was right behind her along with another Virtue I hadn’t seen in ages.
She had flowing dark-purple hair and bright-grey eyes.
She was dressed much the same as Chanel and Regan, yet she wore a pouch around her hips that clinked with bottles as she moved.
Her grey eyes went wide. “What the hell?”
Regan ran into the alley and shoved her knife under Hamilton’s chin. “Back the fuck up or I will gut you here and now.”
Hamilton yanked his teeth free from Rebecca’s neck and backed away. She crumpled to the ground, her face looking pale with a tinge of blue in her lips.
Regan called out, “Bodhi, that’s you.”
“Oh, shit. Right. I got her.” Bodhi scurried into the alley and dropped to her knees on the ground.
Instantly, her hands began to fly back and forth between Rebecca’s throat and her own pouch of bottles.
She dumped the sparkling blue bottle’s contents into her palm, then spread it over Rebecca’s gaping neck.
The puncture wounds instantly started closing, stopping the flow of blood.
Regan dragged Hamilton out of the way. But Chanel . . . Chanel spun and narrowed those pretty green eyes on us and pointed her sword in our direction.
Andreas glanced down at my phone still in my hand and nodded. “Well, that was fast.”
Butterflies danced in my stomach. Surely if she responded to my text message that fast, then not all was lost. It had to be a good sign. I cleared my throat, then tried to keep the excitement out of my voice so I didn’t spook her. “So, you got my text.”
“What text? What are you guys doing here?” Chanel’s phone dinged from her back pocket. Chanel frowned as she pulled it out. Those green eyes shot right to me with a wave of rage.
I sagged. “That text?”
Regan shoved Hamilton toward Chanel, then turned to face me and Andreas. Her eyes bore into him. “What the hell is happening here?”
“Wait a second.” Chanel narrowed her eyes on me and cocked her head to the side. “What did you do? Why did you send me a picture of him attacking her instead of just saving her?”
“We thought it might be helpful to turn over a vampire who already had two strikes. He needs to go. Plus, we hadn’t seen either of you in a while, so we figured we’d say hello.
” I wanted to go to her and pull her into my arms, yet when her fist tightened on her sword, I didn’t dare move. “So . . . hello?”
Regan shook Hamilton like a rag doll. His jaw was slackened and blood trickled down his chin. “So you set up an innocent human to be potentially killed just to get us to like you? How does that make sense?”
Andreas held his hands up, amber eyes wide. “We would never set up an innocent.”
“Yeah, she was in on it.” I motioned to the alley. The color had already returned to Rebecca’s cheeks and her breath had evened out.
“Are you serious?” Regan’s eyes flared and her cheeks turned an angry shade of red. “The audacity.”
Chanel held her hand up toward me. “Wow. Just WOW.”
They turned away from us, dragging Hamilton between them. In unison they opened their wings and shot straight up into the air. They didn’t thank us or even look happy to see us. My heart sank faster than the bodies we used to dump in the Hudson off Jersey.
“What just happened?” I turned to Andreas. “What'd we do wrong? Where did we mess up?”
Andreas sighed. “Hmm. I think I know what the problem is. I’ve got a new strategy for next round.”
The tiniest flicker of hope soared in my chest, but I was getting nervous now. “Round two . . . Let’s do this.”
“Boys?” Rebecca staggered from the alley, clutching her neck. “What happened? Did you get him?”
Aside from a few drops of blood on her clothing, she looked completely unscathed. When I glanced past her into the alley, Bodhi was gone. I sighed. “Yeah, we got em’. He won’t be bothering your girls anymore.”