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Crystal had been watching us? She knew where we were each time? So her instincts had worked better than any GPS bugging device. I had completely underestimated the woman. Big mistake.
“At first,” she continued, “Solomon was really surprised to hear Max was alive. Surprised and very, very hurt. He couldn’t get over it. It started affecting his work, and I knew I had to take care of this for him. Poor man.”
I had a hard time believing Solomon was “hurt.” But Crystal had bought his act completely. So she had killed Angelica and sent her body in a box to my home through a delivery service. Oh yes, I had most certainly underestimated Crystal Byers.
“What about that delivery guy?” I asked. “You killed him, too?”
“Oh, I hated to do that, but he was a loose end,” she explained. “Melody helped me. I didn’t want to drive into the Pit of Satan all by myself.”
I assumed the Pit of Satan was the city of San Francisco. “Your sister helped you kill that man?”
She bit her lip. “I probably shouldn’t have involved her, but she insisted on helping.”
I gaped at her. “Melody insisted?”
“She distracted him while I came from behind and slipped the plastic bag over his head.” She smiled again. “We’re very close, Melody and me.”
The sisters are going to be even closer, I thought. Maybe they could share a jail cell. “You’re right. You really shouldn’t have dragged Melody into this.”
“Please don’t judge me, Brooklyn,” she said. “Only Ogun can judge me. And he has judged me worthy.” She held the gun with both hands and pointed it right at me. “Now stop trying to distract me. Just do what I asked you to do.”
“Fine, but I think you’re going about this all wrong.”
She sighed. “I’m not listening to you.”
“Well, you should.” I unzipped my jacket slowly, but instead of pulling it off my shoulders, I shoved my hands into the pockets, grabbed the candy kisses and flung them all at Crystal.
“What?” She cringed and held one hand in front of her face to fend off whatever she thought was attacking her.
Taking advantage of the moment, I rushed forward and knocked the gun out of her hand, but not before a deafening gunshot blast rattled the quiet air of the forest.
I had the advantage of surprise, but Crystal was even stronger than I’d always thought she was. She punched me in the face and I saw stars.
But I got a handful of her hair and yanked. She screamed and shoved me into the dirt, and we rolled around. She was slapping my face so hard, I could barely see. She got up and straddled me and started pounding. I held up my hands to protect my face from her flying fists, but they were fast and beefy.
In a surge of energy, I bucked her off me and we rolled in the dirt again. I was not strong enough to do any real damage to a crazed Ogunite built like Crystal, but I did my best. I had to hold on until Derek followed those Hershey’s Kisses.
I tried to wrap my arms around her, if only to trap those dangerous hands of hers, but her chest and back were too broad. So I settled for scraping my fingernails down her face until she howled in outrage. Really, as a fighter I was pretty pitiful.
I was losing this fight by a mile, losing steam and consciousness. My head was spiraling from too many hard smacks. I made one last swipe at her face and raked my nails deeper across her cheek, drawing blood.
“There’s your true blood, bitch,” I snapped.
She grunted and slapped me again, and I knew I was close to finished. That’s when I heard what sounded like a wolf pack stomping through the trees and into the clearing. There was snapping and growling, and Crystal was suddenly yanked off me.
Through blurry eyes I thought I saw the head wolf. Derek?
With one tremendous, incoherent roar, he flung Crystal away from me and pulled me close.
“My God, Brooklyn,” Derek said, burying his face in my hair. “Are you all right?”
“Jus’ fine,” I muttered. “I coulda taken her.”
“Of course you could’ve,” he crooned, and swept me up into his arms.
From the corner of my rapidly puffing eye, I saw Gabriel catch Crystal. She tried to tangle with him, but he subdued her with one hand, yanking her arm and whipping her around. He clutched both of her hands behind her back, then dragged her over to the fallen tree where he found the duct tape and managed to wrap it around her wrists. Then he shoved her down to the ground.
Okay, Gabriel was back in action. Hooray!
I smiled at Derek. Everything was right in my world again. Except for a little head spi
When I woke up from my little nap, a female EMT was cleaning blood off my face.
“It’s not my blood,” I murmured, wincing when she touched a tender spot on my jaw.
“Yeah, it is,” she said, chuckling as she continued daubing antiseptic on my chin and neck. “She nailed you good.”
“Hey, I got a few jabs in.”
I tried to sit up, but she stopped me. “Easy, Sugar Ray. You barfed the last time you tried that.”
“I did?” I winced. “How pleasant for you.”
“I love my job.”
I felt dizzy again and decided to take her advice and stay right where I was. Looking around, I saw that I was lying flat out on some kind of tarp in the clearing where Crystal had almost killed three of us in the name of her beloved Ogun. Or maybe it was for her beloved Solomon. Who cared, as long as she rotted in prison for a few hundred years?
I assumed Emily and Minka were being treated by medical techs somewhere nearby. I couldn’t see them, but I did see Crystal being led away in handcuffs by two Sonoma sheriff’s deputies. She was screaming to Ogun to smite the nonbelievers. But apparently Ogun wasn’t taking her calls.
I felt better already.
“Emily!”
I recognized Max’s bellow and turned to see him rush into the clearing, glance around, and dash over to Emily. Aw, that was nice.
“Back off,” someone groused. It was Minka, of course, bitching at whoever was trying to help her. Always the charmer. “Just get me the hell out of here.”
I tried to ignore her migraine-inducing snarls and sputterings as I closed my eyes to conduct a mental checkup of my physical condition. Every muscle in my body groaned in pain. My neck ached and my head was pounding like I’d gone ten rounds with the champ. I guess I had, sort of.
Apparently my face was also bloody and bruised. Saving Emily made it all worth it, but why did the events of this horrific night also involve my saving two people who didn’t deserve it—Minka and Solomon?
That whole Nemesis thing Guru Bob had talked about was highly overrated. Right now, all I wanted to be was the mild-ma
“Darling Brooklyn.” Derek knelt on the tarp and took hold of my hand.
I told him what had happened in the parking lot with Melody, then blurted out, “I should have stayed inside the restaurant.”
“Yes, you should have.” He ran his knuckles gently along my hairline. “But by going outside and talking to her, you helped lead us straight to Emily. You saved her.”
“What took you so long to get here?”
He paused, then said, “Gabriel ran into Melody.”
“He ran into her?”
His mouth twisted in a sardonic grin. “To be accurate, Melody ran into him. She tried to run him down with her burgundy van.”
“Is he all right?” I whispered. “Those women are formidable. And crazy to boot.”
“He’s fit as a fiddle. He shot out her tire and she ran the van into a tree.”
“Good,” I said darkly. “I thought I saw him wrestle Crystal to the ground.”
“You did indeed. You’ve no need to worry about Gabriel any longer.”
“I’m glad,” I muttered. But I was going to hold a grudge against both sisters for a long time to come.
Derek stretched out on his side next to me and wrapped his arm over me. My anger faded and I was warm and safe for the first time in a few hours.