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He thought of the number of lessers who had been lost tonight.
“Hey, asshole,” Lash said to the sw’old-up one, “your boyfriend give you those p-tats? Or was he too busy fucking you in the ass?”
The guy’s eyes narrowed. “What’d you say to me?”
The gangbanger shook his head. “Gotta be out ya damn mind, white boy.”
Skinhead laughed like a blender, high and fast.
Who knew recruiting would be this easy, Lash thought.
Phury did not dematerialize to ZeroSum. He went to Screamer’s instead.
As it was nearly the end of the night, there was no wait line outside the club, so he just walked right in the front door and went back to the bar. While hard-core rap thumped, the dregs of the party set were hanging on to their buzzes with death grips, drooping over each other in the dark corners, too blitzed even to have sex.
As the bartender approached, the guy said, “We’re last-calling it.”
“Sapphire martini.”
The guy came back with the drink and flipped a cocktail napkin out flat before putting the triangle glass down. “That’ll be twelve dollars.”
Phury slid a fifty across the black bar and kept his hand on the bill. “I’m looking for something. And it’s not change.”
The bartender looked down at the green. “Whatchu after?”
“I like to ride horses.”
The guy’s eyes started cruising the room. “Do you. Well, this is a club, not a stable.”
“I don’t wear blue. Ever.”
The bartender’s eyes drifted back, and he gave Phury the once-over. “Clothes as expensive as the ones you’ve got on… you could wear any color you like.”
“I don’t like blue.”
“You from out of town?”
“You could say that.”
“Your face is a mess.”
“Is it. I hadn’t noticed.”
There was a pause. “You see that guy in the back? With the eagle on his jacket? He might be able to help you. Might be able. I don’t know him.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Phury left the fifty and the drink and walked through the thi
Just before he got within range, the guy in question sauntered off, leaving out of the side door.
Phury followed him into the alley, and as they stepped outside, something fired off in his mind, but he ignored it. He was interested in one and only one thing… was so locked in that even the wizard’s voice was gone.
“ ’Scuse me,” he said.
The dealer turned on his heel and gave Phury the same kind of head-to-toe the bartender had. “I don’t know you.”
“No, you don’t. But you know my friends.”
“Do I.” When Phury flashed a couple hundred dollars, the guy smiled. “Ah, yeah. What you looking for?”
“H.”
“Perfect timing. I’m almost out.” The guy’s class ring flashed blue as he put a hand into his coat.
For a split second, Phury had an image of that dealer and the druggie in that alley, the ones he and the lesser had walked up on all those nights ago. Fu
“I’m here”-the dealer nodded in the direction of the club’s door-“pretty much every night-”
Lights hit them from every direction-courtesy of the unmarked police cars parked at the foot and the head of the alley.
“Hands up!” someone yelled.
Phury stared into the dealer’s panicked eyes and felt no sympathy and no complicity. “I gotta go. Later.”
Phury wiped the memory of himself from the four cops with the guns and the dealer with the aw-fuck-me expression and dematerialized with his buy.
Chapter Forty-two
Qhui
Di
Which was cool. The two of them had plenty of their own shit to deal with.
When they got to the door that led into the office closet, Qhui
“Year the house was built, evidently.” As they stepped through the closet and came out next to the desk, he shook his head. “I always wondered how they got here.”
Blay made a noise that could have been anything from “Me, too,” to “Fuck you with a chain saw, you rat bastard.”
The route to the PT suite didn’t require a leader, and once they got into the gym, it was hard not to count the yards Blay put between them as soon as he could.
“You can go now,” Blay said as they came up to the door marked EQUIPMENT ROOM/PT. “I’ll manage the cut on my back.”
“It’s between your shoulder blades.”
Blay gripped the knob and went again with the noise in the back of his throat. And this time it was definitely not a me-too kind of thing.
“Be reasonable,” Qhui
Blay’s eyes stared straight ahead. After a moment, he opened the door. “Wash your hands first. Before you touch me, I want you to wash your hands.”
As they went in, the guy made a beeline for the gurney that Qhui
“We should get a time-share on this bitch,” Qhui
Blay popped himself up on the table, shrugged out of his shirt, and winced as he looked down at the barely closed bleeders on his chest. “Shit.”
Qhui
Hard not to wonder what was underneath all that modesty. Qhui
With the supplies gathered, he went over to the stainless-steel sink and pressed the foot pedal to get the water ru
While he washed his hands, he said quietly, “If I could, I would.”
“Excuse me?”
Qhui
“Yeah, on second thought, I’ll work on myself and to hell with my back-”
“I’m serious.” He released the pedal to stop the water ru
“You have?” Blay whispered above the dripping.
Qhui
Blay did as he was told, and Qhui
“I didn’t know- Motherfucker!”
“Stings, huh.” Qhui
Qhui
“Bet you say that to all the-” Blay stopped right there.