Chapter 13
A crash from the living room met Noah’s ears.
Half-dressed, he popped out of his bedroom and saw their front door in pieces and two strangers standing inside—only they weren’t strangers.
Here in his living room were the two guys from Kizzy’s backyard.
That was something he hadn’t remembered until now.
These two guys had been after something… and Kizzy had stopped them. With magic.
“What the hell do you want?”
The older of the two strode right up to him. “Where’s the book?”
“Goddammit. Everyone’s asking me about a book. I don’t know anything about it. What book are you talking about? I have textbooks. I have cookbooks…” With a sweep of his hand, he gestured to their bookshelves. “I have all kinds of fiction, but I don’t know what book you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what we’re talking about. And it isn’t fiction. You were holding one of the books this morning at your girlfriend’s house.”
Noah tried to remember holding any kind of book this morning, but he couldn’t.
He saw in his mind these two armed and dangerous thugs, coming after Kizzy.
He had tried to block her, then she had done something behind his back that resulted in the two guys flying backward.
They had been holding guns but dropped them.
Then Kizzy had just extended her arms, and the weapons flew into her hands.
She was a witch. He remembered that. He remembered teasing her about being a witch doctor.
Okay. He was getting some context, at last. So what the heck did these guys want with him? Were they after a book she had, thinking she’d given it to him?
The younger one leaned around Noah and asked, “Is there someone else here?”
“Yeah. My brother’s taking a shower.”
“Tell him to get dressed. Unless you can just hand us the book. Then we can be gone without his even seeing us or knowing we were here. That would be best for him.”
“What the hell do you mean by that? How did you find me, anyhow?”
The guy had a sinister smile. “I think you know.”
Noah had no idea, but he had to concentrate on getting them to leave. Maybe Kizzy knew how they learned his address. He’d ask her later. “As I recall, you lost your guns. I don’t know why you’re threatening me in my own home. It seems like you’re at a disadvantage here.”
“No. You’re at the disadvantage,” the elder one said. “You don’t know what else I might have at my disposal.”
Noah shrugged. “And you don’t know what I have at mine. I think you should go.”
At that moment, Dante exited the bathroom with a towel around his middle. He glanced at the living room. “Whoa. I didn’t know we had company.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call them company. They broke in here.”
The two strangers laughed. “Instead of making introductions, which would just be worse for you later, why don’t we just get to it? Where. Is. The. Book?” the older one demanded again.
Dante glanced at Noah. Noah said with firm conviction, “I don’t know what book you’re talking about. Seriously. I don’t.”
The intruders turned their gazes on Dante. The younger criminal said, “You know though, don’t you, towel boy?”
Dante scrunched the towel tighter. “No, I don’t. You want a book? What kind of book?”
The older one stomped his foot. “The book! Goddammit, the ancient book! It’s in Latin. It looks as if it’s leather-bound. Actually, it’s bound in skin. Human skin.”
“Gross.” Dante wrinkled his nose.
Noah had the same reaction. “Human skin? Why? Why would anyone bind a book in human skin?”
The two guys just laughed.
“Look, guys. We’re getting ready for work. We have to be there in less than half an hour. We’ll be missed if we’re not there. I have to go put on my uniform now.” Dante turned and strode down the hall.
“I’m coming with you,” the younger one said.
“Keep an eye on him,” the elder man ordered. “He knows something. I can tell.” Then the guy whirled on Noah and demanded, “If you want to keep your brother safe, you’ll hand over the book right now.”
Noah stared at the ceiling and tried counting to ten. This whole thing was frustrating as hell.
The older man decided to take a stroll through their apartment, and Noah followed him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get out.”
“Not yet.”
Noah didn’t like violence. He didn’t want to get into a fist fight, but these two guys weren’t giving him much of a choice. He followed the man into the kitchen. The guy spotted his phone on the kitchen counter and grabbed it.
“Hey. Give that to me.”
The bastard smiled wickedly. “I don’t think so. I think there’s something on here you don’t want me to see. Maybe you had the book digitized?”
“Unless it’s an ebook, I don’t have it on there. I’ve never had a book digitized, and may I remind you, I don’t know what the fucking book is,” Noah yelled.
“Open this!” the man demanded.
They stared each other down for several moments. Sick of this idiot making demands, Noah said, “I’ve had enough of your shit. Get out, or I’ll escort you out.”
At that moment Dante appeared, cinching up his belt. The younger guy followed close on his heels.
“I’m telling you to get out,” Noah yelled.
“Interesting. He didn’t get riled until I picked up his phone.” The blond man, speaking evenly, as if noting the results of an experiment, tipped the phone back and forth in his hand.
“I think anybody would feel that way about a phone they kept their contacts in,” Dante said. “I’ll bet you wouldn’t want us calling any of your friends.”
The guy tucked Noah’s phone in his inner jacket pocket. “I’ll just keep this. Unless you want to use it to call that girlfriend of yours. She knows where the book is.”
Dante looked at him imploringly. “Is this something Kizzy could tell them over the phone?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Yes,” the older one said. “Call your girlfriend, and ask her where the book is. If she can tell us, then maybe we can avoid harming you two.”
Dante laughed. “How are you going to harm us? I haven’t seen a weapon.”
The guy pulled something out of his boot. “Oh? You mean this?”
He had some kind of pistol with a long, thin black barrel, and now it was pointed at Noah.
“Don’t tell him anything, Bro,” Noah said. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about, and Kizzy probably doesn’t either. Leave her out of this.”
The younger guy looked surprised. “You were there this morning! She had the book and tossed it to you. How are you claiming neither of you know where nor even what the book is? Liars!”
Dante looked from the pistol to Noah and back. “I don’t know, Bro. I think you’d better tell them something. Or get Kizzy on the phone. Maybe she knows enough to get them off our backs.”
Noah noticed the guy who wasn’t holding the pistol moving toward Dante. Unfortunately, a wooden block with a butcher knife was closer to the guy than to his brother.
“Listen to your brother. He’s making sense,” the elder one said.
“Fine. I’ll call my girlfriend. But let’s all leave the kitchen.”
“Okay.” The older guy nodded to the younger.
The young guy lunged for the knife and grabbed it before Dante could. Then he moved behind Dante and, with the blade pointing at his back, said, “March!”
* * *
“Kizzy? It’s Noah.”
She was glad to hear his voice, but something was wrong. It was higher pitched and seemed to tremble a bit. “Noah? Are you okay?”
“Not really. There are some guys here that claim I have some kind of book that belongs to them. I don’t think I do, but they won’t leave without some kind of explanation. They think you might know more about it.”
“Oh shit…”
“Kizzy!” Her father had heard her swear.
She strode toward his voice and pressed the speaker button on the phone at the same time. When she saw him in the living room, she held her finger in front of her lips, showing him he needed to be quiet.
“Who are these guys, Noah?”
“I don’t know.” After a brief pause, he answered, “They said to call them ‘the entity.’”
Kizzy’s eyes widened, and her father’s face fell. “Oh no. Please let me speak to them.”
Her father reached for the phone, and she swiveled at the waist, keeping it away from him.
“Hang on,” Noah said. “I’m putting you on speaker.”
A familiar voice said, “Hello again. Kizzy, is it? That’s an odd name for an odd girl.”
Damn. It was one of the brutes from that morning. She shouldn’t have let them get away.
“If I’d known you’d be bothering my boyfriend for something he doesn’t have, I wouldn’t have let you run off—like cowards.”
“Oh? And what would you have done instead?”
“Why should I tell you? I might still want to do it.”
The guy laughed. “I don’t think you will.
You see, I have hostages. I have a gun trained on your boyfriend, and my partner is holding a knife to his brother’s neck.
It’s a big knife too. I’ve seen him use one like it on animals and reptiles—he has sliced living things in half, all the way through and down the middle, without blinking. He’s quite deadly.”
“Noah?” she said, her voice suddenly an octave higher. “Is he telling the truth? Are they holding you at gun and knifepoint?”
“Yes, but don’t let that influence you.”
She almost dropped the phone. “Don’t let…”
Her father grabbed for it again. She got herself under control and stayed out of his reach. He wouldn’t negotiate with these guys. He’d tell them to go ahead and do anything they wanted to the Fierros.
“Look, I’ll cooperate. Don’t hurt them. They’re completely innocent. They know nothing about any books. Noah just happened to be visiting me this morning. He still doesn’t know about—anything.”
“Kizzy,” Noah’s voice announced. “Don’t give him what he wants. My brother and I know how to get out of this.”
Both members of the entity laughed. “Your boyfriend is very much at a disadvantage. I think he’s trying to be a hero. You won’t let him sacrifice himself though, will you?”