Thief of Hearts (11 page)

A few boxes tumbled to the floor across the room and then Anthony Carlotti was walking toward her, flanked, as always, by several musclemen.
And one musclewoman
, she reminded herself, seeing Krystal’s malevolent grin. The woman had not been nervous about betraying Carlotti. She’d been nervous that Kara would smell a trap and vamoose.

“Looka this,” Carlotti said, pushing more boxes out of the way, “we got us a thief in the house.”

Krystal cackled dutifully, watching avidly while Carlotti slipped black leather gloves over his huge fists.

Kara knew he wore them when he planned to beat someone to death. It was a special murder saved for special occasions: rivals, traitors. Hated enemies. Beating someone to death hurt his hands, broke bones, so he didn’t do it often.

“Gosh,” she said mildly, relishing his annoyance at how she wasn’t cowering, “lucky me.” She knew her expression was mellow, her tone unworried, but inwardly she was seething at her foolishness; she had stopped making such mistakes by her eleventh birthday. Jared had shaken her in more ways than one, but she couldn’t blame him for this. No, she was definitely in a mess of her own making.

And what a mess it was. She could have taken two of the bad guys, maybe three, not counting Carlotti.

But there were five total and, judging by the bulges in a few jackets, three of them were armed.

She came to the unsurprising realization that she was going to die, that it was going to take a long time, that they would probably strip her of her valued control before it was over. She didn’t mind dying so much—or wouldn’t have, before loving Jared—but above all she wanted to die well. And she was pretty sure that wasn’t going to be possible.

Worst of all, she had left Jared unprotected. Once she was bleeding her life out on the filthy warehouse floor, Carlotti could pick Jared off at his leisure. All it would take was one phone call—come quick, Dr.

Dean, your lady friend is in trouble. And Jared, blessed do-gooder, would come on the run. Dying was awful enough. Dying with the knowledge that she had killed Jared with cowardice was too much to be borne.

While Carlotti edged closer—cautious, even on his own turf, surrounded by his own people—she decided she would have to take Carlotti with her. She could do that much for Jared.

While she pondered how best to kill her killer, Carlotti had crossed the room and slapped her hard enough to slam her back against the table. She shook off the blow, blew her hair out of her face and asked with mild curiosity, “Do you throw like a girl, too?”

Carlotti reddened and raised a clenched fist. Kara gathered herself for the fight of her life…and his. Time seemed to freeze for a long moment and then there was a brisk knock.

Surprised, they all looked toward the door.

“Okay, Jared, don’t panic.” This was good advice, which unfortunately didn’t take because he was trying to put his pants on backwards.

Finally dressed, he fled the apartment, cursing himself at every step. He had known when Kara left, of course…he’d been a light sleeper all his life. A mouse couldn’t creep out of his bed without him knowing it. He assumed she wanted to get up to have some time to herself, maybe use the bathroom. The click of the front door closing had brought him bolt upright in bed. By the time he’d thrown his clothes on and gotten to the street, she was long gone.

And he knew what she was going to do. He wasn’t sure how he had come by the knowledge—no, that was a lie. He knew Kara, had watched her, fought beside her (sort of), had his hands on her while she came, held her in his arms while she slept. He knew her fear, though he only had a vague idea of its depths. And knew the only way someone with her warrior’s honor could leave his life was if she eliminated the threat to him.

She had gone after ole One Eyebrow. He had to stop her or, if he was too late to do that, help her. And there was only one person he could turn to for help.

* * * * *

“So what’ll it be, doc?” Mag asked, covering her surprise with a friendly leer. “Half ‘n half? Around the world? All my ladies aim to please. Satisfaction guaranteed.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she admitted, “all my girls are retired now. The most we could offer you is a hickey. Five bucks,” she added.

“For God’s sake! I’m here to find out where Kara went, not to indulge in a business transaction.” Jared tried for fierce and hoped like hell he wasn’t blushing. His face felt hot, but that could be because he’d run all the way here from his car. “She’s gone after ole One Eyebr—Carlotti. I’ve got to help her.”

Mag snorted. “Help her what? Get killed?”

Jared fought the urge to choke the former madam. It was more of the street “Kara doesn’t need help and even if she did, you should leave her alone” mentality. Stand alone and never ever ask for help, because that meant you were weak.
These people
, he thought grimly,
have watched too many Clint
Eastwood movies.

Even the street punks he’d backed down had cautioned him to leave Kara alone. Funny, how the street knew her—their—business, but wouldn’t or couldn’t interfere. Scared of Carlotti, or more of that maddening street code…either way, it was an infuriating impediment.

He’d brought his car to a smoking stop in front of a fire hydrant and all but leapt onto the cracked sidewalk. He’d charged up the stairs to Mag’s place, only to find his way blocked by three husky teens, any one of whom would have been a formidable opponent.

He hadn’t cared. Clenching his fists, he’d snarled, “Out of the way, boys. I’m a doctor. I can hurt you in ways you can’t begin to imagine.” Which hadn’t impressed them, he was annoyed to note, but one of the boys had recognized him as the man who’d shown up with the Avenging Angel the day before and told the other two to back off.

Jared had strutted past them. “That’s right, punks. Touch me and the Angel will have your braces for Christmas tinsel. She worships the ground I walk on, you know.”

He had ignored the hoots that greeted this statement. He’d also ignored the parting advice of one: “Stay out of this, homely.”

"That's 'homey'," he'd muttered back, only to hear more laughter.

Now he was faced with Mag, who wasn’t any more help than the boys had been. “Don’t you understand? She’s in this mess because of me. She’s taking on Carlotti because of
me
.”

“My, aren’t you the powerful one. Didn’t think anybody could get Angel in a mess without her say-so.”

She gave Jared a long, pitiless look. “And there’s no mess she’s in that you won’t make it worse. You’re not one of us, doc. You’re a citizen. I bet you even pay taxes.”

“Thanks for reminding me and by the way, it’s not a dirty word,” he snapped. “And I’ve had quite enough of the you-wouldn’t-understand-you’re-not-one-of-us bullshit. Just because I didn’t grow up around the corner doesn’t mean I don’t know about trouble.”

Mag was silent. They both looked when the door to the entryway opened and a girl—a kid, no more than thirteen, probably—entered, carrying two glasses of ice water. She handed them to Mag, gave Jared a brief, uninterested look and left the room.

“Have something to drink,” Mag said at last, handing Jared a glass. “You probably need it. Running all over the place like an idiot. You know, Kara won’t thank you for butting in.”

Relief made his knees want to buckle; he willed himself to stand straight. Mag had said Kara wouldn’t thank him, which sounded an awful lot like the canny former prostitute had knowledge she was going to share. “
I
won’t thank you,” he said quietly, “if something happens to her because I’m not there to help.

Especially when you know where she is.”

“I don’t know exactly, I only have a guess. I didn’t have time to warn her about Krystal,” she said, sounding annoyed, “and that’s the only reason I’m telling you anything. If I thought she had the whole story, I wouldn’t say shit and there wouldn’t be a thing you could do about it, pretty boy.”

“Warn her?” he asked sharply.
Definitely don’t like the sound of that, oh no
.

“I wasn’t here when Krystal left with her. Kara can take care of herself, but Krystal’s a snake and snakes bite everybody, even snake handlers.”

Mystifying, but interesting. Jared nodded encouragingly.

“I was about a day away from kicking her skinny ass out of here. She was trouble from the start. Not because of what she’s been through, what she’s done. She’s trouble because she likes it. I can’t put up with that. Won’t.”

Well. Any woman a tough cookie like Mag didn’t like definitely bore watching. Suddenly realizing how thirsty he was and realizing he wasn’t going anywhere until Mag had her say, he drained his water glass and gagged on the lemon slice before spitting it back among the ice cubes.

Mag sighed and he had a moment of sympathy for her. The woman was getting ready to do things that went against everything she had ever learned. She was going to trust a stranger, she was going to help that stranger interfere in street business and she was as much as admitting the infamous Avenging Angel needed help. Big-time sins, where she and Kara had come from.

He didn’t care. Concern for Kara drove out consideration for Mag’s moral dilemma. If he had to, he’d throttle the information out of the woman and to hell with anyone who might get in his way.

“I don’t know for sure,” Mag said at last. “But there’s a warehouse Carlotti’s been using lately. Krystal was busted there last week, but the cops only hauled her in, nobody else in the gang. You might want to try there. It’s down by the waterfront. Third and Lancaster. You can’t miss it, it takes up the whole block.”

“Goodbye,” he said, putting down his glass and turning to leave. Mag reached out, flash-quick and snagged his elbow. Jared was astonished at the smaller woman’s strength. He could have broken her hold, but it would have taken effort, as well as precious time.

“Freeze, Doctor Doofus. Do you have a plan? I mean, besides barging through the front door and getting shot in the face?”

“No. That was pretty much my plan. Let go, willya? You’re cutting off the circulation.”

“You in the market for some advice, Citizen?”

“Absolutely.”

“Some of my girls. They get sick a lot. Too many years standing on street corners, you’ll catch everything, you know?”

Jared nodded. He did know. Prostitutes were easy prey for just about any bug that came along. Many of them were afflicted with chronic colds, viruses and the tunnel honeys developed emphysema in a distressingly short time from exposure to car exhaust.

“Well,” Mag was saying, “they don’t like to go to the clinic. The wait’s long, they have to sit through lectures from people who don’t know shit about the life and if you don’t have insurance it’s…”

“A nightmare of paperwork and bureaucratic indifference,” Jared finished. “How about I make some housecalls for you? Maybe two or three times a month?”

“Dara!” Mag yelled, startling him and the same girl who had brought their drinks reappeared. She was actually, Jared noticed, much younger than early teens. He didn’t want to think about the circumstances that had led her to a home for retired prostitutes. “We still got those boxes left over from last night’s supper?”

“In the alley.”

“We also need to borrow one of your birthday presents. The one I got you for a joke.”

Dara almost smiled. The child reminded him of a younger, more solemn Kara. “Be right back,” she said, turning to leave.

“Assuming you don’t get killed, doc—which you probably will—I’ll expect you here a week from today to give some of the girls a checkup.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I don’t think your presence will make a damn bit of difference,” Mag went on ruthlessly, “but you never know. If nothing else, you might make a good distraction. So here’s what I suggest you do…”

There was another knock on the door.

“Who the hell is that?” Carlotti asked, perplexed.

He was right to be perplexed, Kara thought. This wasn’t a neighborhood where one knocked. Certainly the police wouldn’t bother. And anyone who belonged in this warehouse was here right now. So who was it?

“Girl Scout cookie time already?” she asked brightly.

“Shut the hell up. Joey, go open the door.”

Joey did, first freeing his semi-automatic and holding it loosely in his gun hand. Kara noticed he hadn’t bothered to ratchet a bullet in the chamber, a fact which cheered her immensely. How nice to know that Carlotti, a monumental idiot, still chose to surround himself with fellow morons. She almost laughed aloud and got ready.

Her mood had dramatically shifted and she wondered at it. And in another half-second she was able to put her finger on the reason for her sudden high spirits. For once in her life, she wasn’t acting like a rat in a trap, wasn’t wondering how best to scuttle away and live to thieve another day. Now she was thinking like an assassin. It was unsettling, but nice to be thinking about something besides how to run.

Joey unbolted the door and swung it open. It groaned on heavy hinges which cried out for oil, revealing…

Jared.

“Pizza?” Joey asked.

Kara closed her eyes. The stress had finally gotten to her. All those years of living by her wits, of cheating death—and various arresting officers—had finally caught up with her; in this moment of extreme peril, she was hallucinating.

“Yeah, that’s sixty-nine ninety-five,” Jared was saying. Kara opened her eyes. It
was
Jared. Dressed in a red jacket, a red cap and jeans. Perhaps most surprising, he was carrying six large pizza boxes.

It wasn’t an actual delivery uniform, she realized, but the bold colors—coupled by the pizza boxes—tricked the average observer into thinking he was a delivery boy.

“We didn’t order no pizzas!” Carlotti shouted, “So get the hell lost!”

“What?” Jared yelled back. “Dude, if you don’t pay, it gets taken outta my paycheck!”

“But we didn’t—”

“So you’re payin’! I gotta pepperoni extra cheese, I gotta meatlover’s special, I gotta vegetarian, I gotta sausage onion mushroom, I gotta cheese…”