Flamingo Fugitive (Supernatural Bounty Hunters 5) (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Stone awoke to find his chest disappointingly bare.  His flirty flamingo was missing.  She better not have gone far; he was looking forward to a repeat of last night.  His rhino chuffed in agreement.

A brief moment of panic assailed him that she might have run off, but the strong scent of chocolate cake and the soft thrum of voices made him realize she was still around.  He found her downstairs in the kitchen with his dad and Magda.

Magda was cooking while they were talking and laughing.  His flamingo looked so happy, so relaxed, so much better than last night that his rhino was almost relaxed, too.

He joined them, and they ate breakfast together until his dad had to leave for work, and Magda had to get back to her kids.  He pretended he didn’t notice his dad pinching Magda’s butt.  Francine did, though and she smiled.  Well, if she liked that kind of thing he was more than happy to accommodate her with some butt pinching.

Stone was about to say just that when the burner cell rang.  Francine had been twisting and turning it in her hands.  She almost leaped up the wall.

He moved to pluck it out of her hands, but she pulled away.  “You can’t answer it, Stone, it has to be me.”

His rhino stirred unhappily.  “Well, I’ll listen and if he starts getting nasty I’m cutting in.”  He pulled her onto his lap and pressed his ear as close to the phone as he could.

The conversation with Michael was short.  The dickhead just gave her an address and told her to get it done.  He threatened to call back later that day.

Francine chewed on her lip, and Stone gently rubbed her thigh.  She was worried.  She didn’t know what to do, and she was scared.  Stone didn’t know what to do, either.  And he was worried and scared.  Scared of losing Francine.  But he wasn’t panicking.  He never panicked.  He wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who made plans.  In fact, people might be surprised about how little he thought ahead about anything. 
Then again, maybe they wouldn’t
.

“What should we do?” she murmured.

Stone made soothing noises.  “Let’s just go out to this address and take a look around.”

*

“Is this the place?”

“Well, it’s the address he gave me.”

It was well outside the city and about a mile from any other house. 
It looked like it had inspired the saying ‘off the beaten track’
.  If it weren’t so big, it would look like the house of Red Riding Hood’s grandma.  Given that it had the air of a place that was about to be attacked by a big, bad wolf.  Stone shrugged, and his rhino huffed.  “Well, if we do decide to kill her, this place kind of looks like a haunted house, so it can’t be a surprise if someone died here.”

“Reassuring, thank you,” she grouched.

Francine screeched as Stone’s phone rang.  “Oh my god!”  She clutched her chest.  “Sorry, I’m just on edge.”

“Easy, feathers, it’s my boss.”  He patted her knee, and then squeezed her thigh and then… she slapped his hand and told him to behave.

“Who is it?  The scary snake?”

“No, just a mildly worrying bunny.”  He answered the call.  “Hey, uh huh, uh huh.  No, I don’t know when I’m bringing her in.”  He gave Francine a lopsided smile.  “For a flamingo she’s surprising wily.  How mad is Marcus?  Good.  Nah, the crazy bird made a break for it to Los Lobos, I’m on my way to find her.  Sure, okay.”

“Crazy bird?” she pouted.

“It seems like a fair point.”

“Everything okay?”

“Well, the good news is that my scary snake boss is too exhausted from taking care of his newborn twins to care what we’re doing.  Apparently he turned up this morning, put his cup of coffee in a file cabinet, shredded all our open files and then had to be taken home because he fell asleep.  They’re taping all the files back together; they’re not too worried about you at the moment.”

“One less thing to worry over.”  Unexpectedly she slapped his neck.  It didn’t hurt, but he was just surprised and she seemed to enjoy it far too much. 
Probably payback for the ‘crazy bird’ crack.
It made his rhino laugh anyway.  “Was that a mosquito?  Are we actually in swampland?”

“Looks like it.”

Francine chewed on her lip and spent a few moment crossing and uncrossing her arms.  He considered soothing her to stop her from fidgeting, but he was enjoying the show too much.  The bouncing of her breasts as she moved her arms was mesmerizing. “Nothing’s happening.  What should we do?”

They had been watching it for twenty minutes, and she was right - nothing was happening.  Stone was naturally quite patient, and usually could happily sit and stare at nothing all day long.  Getting the hang of boring stakeouts was an important part of bounty hunting.  But, while Stone would have been content to wait there all day, especially given the added bonus of sneaking kisses and touches, Francine was becoming edgier by the moment.  Reluctantly, he admitted that it was time for some action.

“Let’s knock on the door.”

“And if this mystery woman and future murder victim is home?”

“We lie and make something up.”

She sighed in annoyance, as if he was being deliberately taciturn.  “Like what?”

Stone cocked his head and gave her a lazy smile.  “You’re the actress, you’ve probably got a better idea than me.  What would you suggest?”

Her brows knit together as she considered this.  Finally, she said, “We pretend we’re an engaged couple, and we’re in love with the house and want to buy it.”

“Sounds terrific,” he said immediately. She could have said anything really.  If she suggested they pretend to be time travellers, he would have gone along with it and told her it was a great idea.  Plus, his rhino was very in favor of pretending to be engaged to the flamingo.  That was a feeling that Stone might revisit later.  For now, he added, “But, bear in mind I’m not much of an actor.” 

Francine winked and blew him a kiss.  She seemed to be a lot more confident now she was going into acting mode.  “I’ll do the talking, you just act like you can’t keep your hands off me.” 

“No problem-o.”  Now that was a plan man and beast could get behind –
no pretending needed.

*

They knocked on the door, but no one answered.  While Francine tried to peer through the windows, Stone barreled through the door without even stopping to think. 
So much for being subtle
.

“You don’t catch your bounties through subtlety, do you?” she asked trailing after him.

Stone gave her an innocent look as if wandering into other people’s houses was the most natural thing in the world.  “No one’s home and the door’s unlocked.”

“If the door’s unlocked,” she whispered, panicking as her flamingo flapped, “that means there probably is someone home!”

He seemed completely unconcerned.  “Maybe in the city, but probably not out here.  Out here, outside the city you can leave your door unlocked, and no one robs you.”

“Says who?”  Francine took his hand and tried to tow him back out the door, all to no avail. 
There really was no moving a stubborn rhino.

“Well-known fact.”  He walked through the living room into the kitchen, easily pulling her with him.

“Like when you told me earlier that it was a well-known fact that not wearing my bra would make you a better driver?”

He beamed.  “Yep, just like that.”

“I would question the source of these well-known facts if I were you.  And seriously, the bra thing was never going to work.  No way am I letting the twins roam free.”

He affected a look of disappointment, and she slapped his arm, calling him a pervert.  He started pottering around the kitchen, opening cupboards at random.

Francine wrung her hands.  “I really don’t think we should be doing this.”

Stone pawed through the fruit bowl and virtually inhaled two red apples.  Francine glared at him while her flamingo tittered.  He stopped mid-chew and tried to offer her one.

“Stone!” she admonished. 

“No one’s here.   I’d be able to scent them if they were.  Although…”  His brow furrowed.

“Although what?  Do I really want to know?”

He sniffed.  “Scent lingers.  I don’t know; it’s like there’s an absence of scent here.  I’d say no one lives here, but it looks too
lived in
.  Plus those apples are fresh.”

Francine shivered, and her bird had a little tremble.  “This place is kind of creepy.  If we were teenagers, we’d already be getting murdered by a demon.”

His eyes ran up her body.  She hadn’t gone home for a change of clothes.  She had borrowed one of his baggy t-shirts – that said ‘horny is a way of life for me’ - and was wearing it with her own jeans.  Much to his delight she had foregone panties. 
She had to
.  She couldn’t find them when she was getting dressed, and Stone swears he had no idea what happened to them.  She doubted that, but she didn’t have time to argue.

“If we were teenagers we’d already be making out,” he drawled while waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

She pursed her lips.  “And we’d be murdered by a demon mid-make out.” 

“Worth the risk?” he suggested, hopefully.

“Maybe she’s already dead,” said Francine, changing the subject before he became too excited.  “But I have no way to check because Michael wouldn’t even tell me her name.  But I guess she could be dead in bed or something.”

He only growled slightly at the mention of Michael.  “I’d smell the body.”

“Maybe she’s already buried.”  It was a terrible thing to hope for, but…

Stone looked confused.  “You mean like she buried herself?  Dead people don’t do that.”

Francine let out a gasp of laughter as a memory flittered through her mind.  He looked at her quizzically and she waved a hand.  “Clearly you haven’t seen my early horror movie, Alien Zombies from Outer Space.”

“Can’t say it rings a bell.”

“It was one of my first roles when I was nineteen.  I played a college student.  I was a bioengineering student with greasy hair and thick glasses and a huge, padded bosom hidden under an ugly sweater.” 
And no, that wasn’t the worst part
.  “Then I was bitten by an alien zombie and lo and behold I suddenly didn’t need my glasses anymore or the sweater.  Me and the very fake bosom ran around seducing and biting men.  They died and buried themselves – they didn’t turn into nymphos like me.  In the end, I was taken into space by my alien maker to be his sex slave for all eternity.”

Stone gaped at her before bellowing with laughter.  “No way, how could I have never seen it?”

“Because it’s truly awful.  It never even made it to DVD.”

“It sounds amazing.  I’ll bet you were great.”

The bird inside preened, but Francine had to be honest.  “I wasn’t, and I’m not being modest.  I used some of my pay from that to get acting lessons.  And I definitely needed them.”

“I’d like to see it,” he told her, simply.

She blushed.  “I have it on VHS somewhere.”

“Can’t wait.  I’ll bet you’re the best thing in it.”

She studied him for sarcasm and felt a tingle of joy as she realized that he was serious.  He actually did want to see that terrible movie, and he actually believed she would be good in it!  He was the least negative person she ever met.  It was really…
refreshing
.

Stone poked around a few more cupboards.  He noticed there were no photographs in the hours, or mirrors for that matter, and very little food.  But he wasn’t sure what any of that meant.  The house was clearly lived in, but by who or what?  It gave the appearance of being homely, but it wasn’t.

Francine followed him around, biting her plump lip and frowning so hard her face look like a nut. 
A pretty little nut, but a nut all the same.

“We could…”

Stone stiffened.  The scents had changed in the house.  He couldn’t smell anyone, but the scents had altered as if the smell of fresh grass had suddenly come into the house.

Francine was about to say something, and he clamped a hand over her mouth.  He wasn’t a natural born predator, but he could hunt when he needed to, and without hearing or scenting it, he knew something dangerous was nearby.

Something was in the house with them
.

Francine was scowling at him until the tiniest creak made her eyes widen, and she froze, a worrying look of horror on her face.

With much-practiced softness, he walked out of the kitchen and peered into the living room.  A woman was there.  A tall, thin woman with long ash blonde hair, ruby lips and a smile potent enough to make Superman think twice about approaching her.

“I know you’re there,” she crooned in a melodious voice.  “I’m surprised, I didn’t think that scabby, little hyena had it in him.”  Stone moved to the entrance of the living room and she sneered.  “Well, don’t just stand there, give me your best shot.”

The woman flung an arm out. Francine screeched and threw herself at his body with just enough force to move him out of the way as several devilish looking knives lodged in the wall behind them.