Wolf on the Road (13 page)

Jake clenched his eyes shut. “I know,” he said. “Like I told you, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world for me to do, but I’m trying my damndest.”

“It’s this way,” Mali said softly. “And I know you are.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed one last time. “We got each other, right? We’ll make it. As long as we have each other, we’ll make it through anything.”

“You sure?” Jake asked, his eyes focusing on Mali’s. Before she could answer, he shook his head. “You’re sure. And so am I. We’ll get through it, but right now, someone needs my help.” He paused for a moment, and then chuckled. “Our help.”

“
Our
help,” Mali repeated. She poked the door with her toe. “Ladies first.”

Jake curtsied, Mali snickered, and the big wolf took a step toward the door. As he grasped the handle, he turned back and opened his mouth, but paused and then shook his head. “No,” he whispered, “not yet. Gotta keep something up my sleeve.”

Mali wasn’t listening though. Her adrenaline pumped heavily in her veins with each of her hearts dull thuds. Something was coming, something big and something dangerous, and she was at once terrified and exhilarated by the thought. “Wait,” she said just as Jake was starting to turn the knob. “Why is it quiet?”

He shrugged. “Won’t know until we’re in there, I guess.”

Mali’s senses were tingling though. “No,” she said, touching his hand in warning. “Something’s not right.” She pressed her head to the door, trying to get a hint of whatever was on the other side. There
were
sounds, but exceedingly faint ones, like someone nervously shuffling their feet while trying not to make any sound. She pulled back from the door and surveyed the surroundings. “Another way in,” she answered before Jake asked the question. “There has to be another way in. A vent, some air conditioner ducts, something...”

She crept around, trying to channel every single spy thriller and action movie she’d ever seen into her brain at the same time. Vents, ducts, crawlspace she repeated the words over and over again as she carefully examined the room. It was an old place, the sort of architecture she expected from the turn of the 20
^th
century with all sorts of fancy baseboards and crown moulding on the ceiling. The only problem was that the other facet of that design—lots of floor-level vents—didn’t seem to have been done when the place was built.

Jake cleared his throat, but Mali was so absorbed in her search for a secret passage into the room, that she didn’t bother looking up. He did it again, and she waved him off. When he did it a third time, she shushed him. “Mali,” he finally said. “I’m clearing my throat to get your attention.”

She stood up from where she was crouched and stuck her fists into her hips. “I’m trying to—”

Jake cleared his throat again, only this time, Mali saw he was poking the ceiling, and lifting a tile. “You even
said
ceiling before you started looking,” he said. “No one ever seems to look up unless a bird shits on their head.”

“You’re either a genius or an idiot,” Mali said. “This time I’m tending to think genius, but the next time you get pigeon shit in your eye, I’ll go with idiot.”

“Idiot, huh?” he asked with a grin. “How about you climb up into that ceiling and let’s this over with and go home?”

“We have a home?”

For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other, and then Jake took Mali’s hand. “If we’re together somewhere, then as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter if it’s a five bedroom house in the ‘burbs, or a Motel 6.”

“I like that,” she said. “How about a boost?”

“Be careful. Keep your feet on the ceiling braces. If you step on a tile, you’ll go straight through. While that might be funny, I doubt it’s the best way to sneak up on anyone.”

He lifted her onto his shoulder almost effortlessly. Mali stuck her hand up in the air and prodded the old, pitted foam ceiling tile. She stood up after sliding it to one side, and then climbed up into the structure as carefully as she could. Quickly, she disappeared upwards. Jake grabbed a bench, and managed to work his way up into the ceiling.

Shafts of light came in from around some of the looser fit of the older tiles, and as they made their way through, more noises started trickling up as well. Individual sounds were difficult to discern, but there was a general feeling of tension below them. With every step, every lifting and lowering of her knee, Mali slowly made progress. “One problem,” she whispered. “How do we know when to drop?”

With her head turned back in Jake’s direction, she lifted her knee again and brought it down. This time, instead of cold steel her leg came down on something that crackled. “Oh shit,” she squeaked, in the split second before the tile cracked and she tumbled through. “That’s how.”

Jake lunged, but his outstretched fingers grabbed only empty air. Mali crashed through the ceiling, hit the floor and yelped in pain as she jumped to her feet. Jake followed her, but had the good sense to go feet first. Instead of landing square on his face, he hit with his feet, but it didn’t help much; as soon as he hit the ground, one of Petunia’s slack-jawed biker enforcers charged and nailed Jake square in the stomach with a shoulder block.

“This is the
last
time I screw with you!” Petunia screeched. “I should’ve killed you back at the house, but you locked me in the basement and now I’m
really
pissed! I hate both of you! But I’m not gonna let you ruin this for me. No one’s gonna ruin this! I’m so close!”

“Now just calm down, Petunia,” Erik was pleading from across the small conference room. His face was running with sweat. “Just stay calm. Nothing’s ruining your plan. Nothing’s keeping you from getting this money and getting out of here. Don’t be an idiot and don’t do anything crazy.”

Petunia was, of course, fuming. She was breathing hard, and almost frothing at the mouth, but she also had an almost frightening calm to her. Two bikers had Erik’s cub, who was unhurt, but very plainly not happy about being held. He struggled against them, and seemed to be challenging their strength with his wiggling. “Nobody’s gettin’ hurt as long as I get my
money
! And, you know, the car.”

“It’s
coming
Petunia,” Izzy said. “We told you that a half hour ago. It takes some effort to get a million dollars in unmarked bills. You have to be patient. Duggan’s coming back with the money, you know that.”

Mali shook her head and climbed to her feet. She opened her mouth to say something, perhaps confused about how Duggan was apparently supposed to be getting a sack full of money, but was also the one who came to tell them about Petunia’s absurd plan and her kidnapping, but Jake silenced her with a quick glance. He shoved one of the bikers back, and popped him in the jaw with a quick jab that sent the biker reeling. Jake started to pursue, hoping to take care of a few of them before he got swarmed, but Petunia’s squawking stopped him in his tracks.

“I don’t want to hurt this kid, but I will! I’m desperate! You ever seen a cornered bunny fight?”

Jake scrunched up his forehead. “Well, no I don’t think so. Is it more like a badger, or more like a ‘possum? I’d imagine ‘possum, since badgers are, you know, scary and bunnies just make a lot of noise and hiss and spit and try to puff themselves up.”

Petunia’s fuming slid one step further into pure rage. Her cheeks, red with anger, puffed out and in with every breath she took. “Get them!” she shouted. “Get the damn wolves! Keep Danniken alive because I’m still getting my damned money and I don’t care what happens!”

“Wait,” the biker named Jimmy started, “ain’t they both Dannikens? Or I mean there’s three of ‘em if you count Izzy. Right?”

“Oh my
God
!” Petunia waddled up to the big, dumb-eyed biker, stuck her metal teeth in her mouth, grabbed his arm, and bit down. “Any questions?” she screeched as Jimmy yelped. “Leave the one alive whose getting my
money
!”

In all the furor, Erik managed to slowly slide over to where the bikers held his cub, grabbed their heads, and thudded them together with a sickening
clunk
before they fell to the ground, limp. “Come on, Freddie!” he shouted, grabbing his son and running back to where Izzy stood. “Get him out of here,” he said. “I’ve got something to take care of.” Izzy grabbed the cub and shuffled out the room with him, and everyone else from the council in tow. None of them made much of an effort to
not
go, probably all thinking about the apocalypse that was about to unfold, and wanting absolutely no part at all of it. Izzy shot one last glance back to Erik, who winked in a way that would have been supremely dorky from anyone but him. When
he
did it, somehow, he made winking cool.

The coppery smell of fear once again flooded Mali’s nose, but this time she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Was it from the bikers, who all seemed, if she was being honest, too simple-minded to be afraid of anything? Or was it somehow coming from
her
? Her heart pounded and her mouth was dry as a sun bleached skeleton buried in the Mojave. “If this is fear, then I can deal with it,” she said under her breath.

“What the hell are you waiting for?” Petunia squealed. “Kill these dumb sons of bitches! Kill those two and keep Erik alive!
Hurry up
!”

For a moment, the five bikers and Jimmy Dutch stood in place, frozen in the middle of the wood-paneled conference room as though it took them longer to process instructions than normal people. Petunia was starting to get cranked up again, but before she could ratchet back up to Maximum Petunia, her biker mercenaries launched into action. Jimmy Dutch with his droopy moustache and gnarly, patchy beard, dove head first at Erik and Jake. Mali recoiled instantly, but the two big wolves caught big ugly with simultaneous gut punches. Jimmy pitched backward, stumbling into two of his compatriots, who grabbed him and tossed him forward.

“Erik! Your left!” Jake shouted. He lashed out a punch that cracked one of the goons on the jaw and set him sprawling to the floor. Erik wheeled around and stuck out an arm, catching another of the bikers with a clothesline across the throat. He made sort of a croaking, gasping sound as he sputtered and reeled. The big, leather-clad werewolf stumbled backward and almost took out a confused Petunia, but at the last second, she sidestepped and let the big wolf trip bang into the conference table and then sprawled out on the floor.

“Mali, duck!” Erik shouted, raising a knee into the jaw of a lunging biker as he sailed over Mali’s head. Suddenly, the adrenaline coursing through her body seemed to erupt like a lupine volcano. She threw her head back and roared as fur and claws grew longer and sharper. Her muscles hardened, her limbs stretched and when the transformation ended, she was breathing hard, and feeling every shred of energy in her body flare at once.

Her vision went red and narrow. The only thing she could see were the bikers bearing down on Jake and Erik, and the stumpy runt commanding them as she screeched into some kind of walkie-talkie from the corner where she hid.

“Damn,” Mali heard Erik say as she clipped a shifting biker with a claw. Her jeans tore with her thrashing. Her seam split halfway up her fur-covered thigh and when she turned back to Jake and Erik to see them both transformed, a very good feeling washed over her. This was going to
work
. This was really going to work, and they were really going to survive. She hadn’t been so sure just a few moments before, but the three of them working together had her convinced that everything was going to be fine.

Well, that and Petunia squawking so angrily into her handset that the raging bunny was shaking and sputtering instead of talking with any sort of coherence. It was hard to understand what she was saying, exactly, but after Mali gave a biker a big boot to the mouth, which sent him flying through the air until he smashed into the wall directly to Petunia’s left, Petunia froze.

“I said come
get me goddamnit
!” she hissed. “Everything’s going to shit! I’m not going down, not like this. Come
get me
!”

Jimmy Dutch was on Mali. The normally slack-jawed, brainless wolf was snarling and spitting with rage. His patchy, grungy fur was just like his beard: stringy, unkempt, and decidedly not fresh smelling. It wasn’t just his stench that was strong, either. He locked his claws around Mali’s throat, and squeezed so hard she thought her eyes were going to pop out of her skull. Jimmy lifted her off the ground and then slammed her into a 1970’s vintage wood panel that exploded out around her with the impact. She let out a blasting roar, swiped him across the face with a claw and then delivered a savage backhand.

Jimmy smiled at her, blood running down his lupine snout and covering his teeth. “Jake! Erik!” she shouted, “could use some help!”

“They ain’t helpin’ you, little girl,” Jimmy said as the blood dripped down his chin. “They’d be lucky to be helpin’ themselves. You got ‘em chained, boys?” he asked.

She heard Jake grunt, and a moment later Erik groaned. “How? When did...?”

“Doesn’t matter!” Petunia squeaked. “I win! I win! I really won!” She started shaking so hard that the only way she could let out the rest of the kinetic backflow that had built up in her tiny body was to start hopping in place. “You’re all screwed! String ‘em up, boys, and let’s get the hell out of here!”

A deep, rumbling, thundering sound was coming down the hallway and seemed just about to overrun them. It was booming, almost painfully so, and with her sensitive hearing, the rumbling bass of extremely heavy footsteps, and then a roar so loud it sounded like thunder, shook Mali to the core. She could hardly stand the noise, but when she realized the bikers were reeling too, it gave her a shot of relief. Her head might be aching, but this was her chance.

She charged forward, catching Jimmy Dutch off guard. She head butted him viciously in the nose, and shoved him backward. He went flying over the table in the middle of the room. He skidded over the surface and tumbled back into Petunia.

All the while, the noise coming down the hall was getting louder and louder until the thundering was in the next room, where Jake and Mali had climbed through the ceiling. “Hey Erik! Where you at? Jenga told me to come here!”