Tell Me No Spies (31 page)

“Oh.” He busied
himself getting out the bread and peanut butter. “Sorry. He, uh,
doesn’t seem the type.”

“There’s a lot about
Arnie that you don’t know. He’s a very talented blues musician
himself. He plays the guitar and harmonica.”

“Oh.”

I let him chew on that
while I dug into breakfast. A few minutes later, Arnie reappeared.
Most of the bloodstains were gone from his jeans, and his face
looked a little better without the packing. He dabbed carefully at
his nose with a bloodied wad of toilet paper.

“Are you okay?” I
asked.

“Yeah. It’s just
bleedin’ a bit ‘cause I took the packin’ out a few minutes ago.
It’ll be fine.” He inhaled cautiously. “That’s better. ‘Least I can
breathe now.”

“Breakfast?” I offered
him the bread and the peanut butter jar.

“Nah.” He dug into the
grocery bag and extracted a couple of handfuls of beef jerky and a
snack cake. “Shit, I’d kill for a coffee. Weasel!”

“Yeah.”

“Ya got coffee
here?”

“No.”

Hellhound blew out a
sigh. “Guess we’ll hafta catch a drive-through. Ya ready to
go?”

“I guess.” I surveyed
his bruised face, feeling guilty. “I really don’t want you to do
this.”

“It’ll be fine.”

I waved them toward
the Caprice. “I’ll be right there,” I told them as I started toward
Weasel.

“Darlin’, don’t…”
Hellhound cautioned.

“It’ll be okay.” I
stopped well outside Weasel’s groping range. “Hey, Weasel. Thanks
for letting us crash here and drink your beer. And thanks for
looking out for me last night at the cafe. No hard feelings, I
hope.”

He gave me his
yellowed grin. “I got nothing but hard feelings for you,
Jane-Crazy-Bitch.” He hoisted a dirty hand into his crotch and
thrust in my direction a few times, grunting. “You wanna wrap your
hot pussy around my hard feelings?”

“I’ll pass.”

He smiled. “Come back
soon.”

Arnie breathed a sigh
of pure contentment as he cradled his coffee cup. “Jesus, I might
live after all.”

“Yeah,” Dave agreed
from the back seat, slurping his own brew.

I eyed them fondly,
savouring the rare moment of peace and harmony. I leaned my head
back against the headrest and tried to ease the tension out of my
shoulders. Breathe. Ocean waves. The smell of coffee and
normalcy.

And a faint whiff of
gamy clothing. Hellhound was resplendent in one of the clean new
shirts, but Dave was on Day Three of what should have been a
one-day T-shirt. He’d washed and borrowed my deodorant stick, but
there was only so much he could do.

God, if we spent much
more time together in this damn car, I was going to have to
fumigate it before I gave it back to Bruce. Assuming I lived long
enough.

I sighed and opened my
eyes. “Now what?”

“Back to the same
place, darlin’. Time to go visitin’.”

I put the car in gear
with reluctance. “Maybe you should take Dave with you this time.” I
wasn’t actually sure whether that would be a good idea or not, but
the thought of sending Arnie back into the lion’s den alone was
making my stomach twist.

“Nah. I need Dave to
stay in the car an’ watch out for ya. I ain’t gonna be long this
time.”

“Arnie, I have a gun.
I can take care of myself. You might need the backup.”

He shrugged. “I got a
gun, too.”

“But you can’t use it.
You’ll go to jail.”

He snorted. “Better’n
goin’ to the boneyard.”

“Not for me, it
isn’t.” I shuddered. “I’d rather die.”

“You’re kidding,
right?” Dave asked.

“God, no, I’m dead
serious.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m
claustrophobic. I get panicky just thinking about jail.”

“Turn here,” Hellhound
interjected. “There, park right there.”

I pulled up to the
curb, and he gulped the last of his coffee. “I oughta only be a few
minutes. Half an hour, tops. If ya hear shootin’, get ready to
drive fast.” He considered for a few seconds. “If ya hear shootin’
an’ I don’t come runnin’, call the cops an’ bug out.”

I knew better than to
cling to him this time. I pulled him into a careful kiss, mindful
of his bruised mouth, and slipped him the tongue. “See you.”

I felt his lips quirk
up, and he kissed me back in a way that made it clear that
impending death was Priority #2.

Dave cleared his
throat in the back seat. “Uh, want me to take a walk?”

Hellhound finished up
unhurriedly, leaving me breathless. “Nah. I don’t mind an
audience.” He winked and slid out of the car.

I avoided Dave’s eyes
until the heat left my lips and cheeks. The ones on my face,
anyway. It was going to take a while to cool the others off. We sat
in awkward silence, both making a show of watching out the windows
for potential threats.

At last, Dave spoke.
“Uh, this morning… um. Don’t get me wrong, he deserved it, but…
would you really have killed him? Didn’t look like you were gonna
stop.”

I turned to meet his
troubled eyes and sighed. “I don’t know, Dave. I didn’t even know
what I was doing.” I sank my head into my hands. “I’m so fucked up.
Before this year, I’d never hit another person in all my adult
life. If I’d killed Weasel today, I’d never forgive myself. He’s
just a harmless little shit. I don’t know what’s the matter with
me.”

“He’s not harmless.
And you’re under a lot of pressure,” he said.

“Lots of people are
under pressure. They don’t go around beating people half to death
for nothing.”

He reached over the
seat and patted my shoulder. “Aydan, it wasn’t nothing. He’s a sick
pervert, and he attacked you.”

“He didn’t attack me.
He never even touched me, and I don’t think he would’ve pushed it
too far even if we’d been alone.”

Dave gaped at me in
disbelief. “He’s a scumbag. He belongs in jail.”

I sighed. “Dave, I’m
pretty sure he’s harmless. Trust me, I’ve met guys who really like
hurting women, and he’s not one of them. He just has some… unusual
preferences, that’s all. And not much sense of personal space.”

“He’s a sick,
disgusting pervert.” He scowled. “And I can’t believe you thanked
him.”

“He’s one of Arnie’s
contacts. I don’t want to mess that up for him.”

“Contacts for what?”
Dave spat. “Drug deals? Stolen cars? They’re both bottom-feeders.
You’re wasting your time with him. Why can’t you see that?”

I swallowed my
annoyance. “Arnie isn’t a criminal. Sometimes he needs contacts
like Weasel so he can do his job as a private investigator. That
doesn’t mean he likes it.”

Dave frowned.
“Why-”

We both jerked around
in our seats at the sound of two gunshots. I had just met Dave’s
wide eyes when a third shot rang out. Icy fear squeezed my chest
and I started the car, willing Arnie to be safe with all my
might.

I’d barely begun to
panic when he pounded out of the alley at a dead run. I reached
across and flung the passenger door open, then put the car into
gear, one foot on the clutch and one on the gas.

The car lurched as he
dove in, bellowing, “GO!”

I didn’t waste time.
The tires squealed and the Caprice shot forward as two men dashed
out of the alley. The car roared and accelerated as I slapped the
shifter through the gears, the tires chirping with each shift.

Another shot rang out
behind us. I snapped a glance in the rearview mirror, but my vision
was obscured by Dave’s white face and panicked eyes.

“Aydan, train!” he
shouted. “TRAIN!”

I jerked my eyes
forward again, adrenaline slamming into my system like nitromethane
into a top-fuel dragster. Goddamn sonuvabitch fucking train tracks
in the middle of the fucking neighbourhood, what the hell was with
that?

Another bang, and
something thudded into the rear of the car. I gauged the speed of
the train in an instant, catching a glimpse of Hellhound’s white
knuckles locked on the dashboard.

I could make it.

The train whistle
blared and the engineer waved frantically from his window. The
crossing arms were almost down.

I slapped the shifter
one more time and punched the gas. The car screamed like a wild
thing. Or maybe that was Dave.

At the last second I
flipped the switch, and the kick of the nitrous blasted us across
the tracks, the rear end fishtailing while the tires spun and
smoked. The guardarm scraped over the roof and thudded on the
trunk, and then we were through the crossing.

Lots of time to spare.
Hell, I could’ve backed up and gone over again. Almost.

Hellhound let out a
wild whoop and pounded the dashboard with the flat of his hand,
laughing like a maniac. “Woo-hooo!” he bellowed. “I love ya,
darlin’, marry me now! Woo-hooo!”

I concentrated on
slowing the car and headed for Deerfoot Trail, the most direct
route to anywhere-but-here. The engineer had gotten a good close
look at the car. I hoped he hadn’t gotten a close look at me. Or
the license plate.

Hellhound was still
laughing. “Jesus Christ, darlin’, where’d ya learn to drive like
that?”

“Bruce taught me. We
used to drag a lot, back in the day.” I grinned hugely, feeling the
rush blooming into euphoria. “Goddamn, that was fun!” I let out a
whoop of my own, and the laughter bubbled up. “God
damn
! I
need to do that more often!”

I shot a grin into the
rearview mirror at Dave slumped gasping in the back seat. “You
still with us, Dave?”

He clutched his chest,
grey-faced and sweaty. “Think I’m having a heart attack.”

“Shit!” Terror
flash-froze the blood in my veins. I glanced at Arnie’s suddenly
grim face. “Rockyview?”

“Yeah.” He turned to
lean over the back of the seat. “Hang on, buddy, we’ll get ya to
the hospital. Gimme your wrist for a sec. Just gonna take your
pulse.”

“No, it’s okay,” Dave
muttered. “I was just kidding. I’m okay. Keep going.”

“Ya don’t look like
you’re kiddin’.”

I shot another fearful
look in the mirror. He really didn’t look like he was kidding. He
looked like he was in serious trouble.

Arnie gently pulled
Dave’s arm toward him and clamped his fingers over the pulse point.
“Ya got chest pain?”

Dave took a deep
breath. “No, it’s gone now.”

“What’d it feel
like?”

“Just a sharp pain.”
Dave didn’t sound so breathless now.

“Like crushin’ or
squeezin’? Any pain in your arm or your jaw? Ya feel sick?
Dizzy?”

“No.” Dave took
another deep breath. “Just a jab. Probably just a muscle spasm. I’m
okay now.”

Arnie and I exchanged
a look. “His pulse’s slowin’ down,” Arnie said dubiously. “An’ he’s
gettin’ his colour back.”

I turned off the
street into a back alley and pulled over so I could twist around
and examine Dave. He did look better. He was breathing normally,
and the sickly pallor was gone from his skin.

“Have you ever had
your heart checked?” I demanded.

“Yeah. It’s fine.
Really, I’m okay.”

“When did you get it
tested last?”

“Last year. Had to
have the physical for my Class One driver’s license.”

“Have you ever had a
muscle spasm like that before?” I studied him, feeling guilty all
over again.

“Yeah. Lots of times.
No big deal. Let’s go.”

“Dave, if you’re lying
to me…”

He gave me a twisted
grin. “What, if I die, you’re gonna kill me?”

“Uh, yeah. Something
like that. Wise guy.”

“Come on, let’s go,”
he said.

I turned back to the
steering wheel. Stopped.

“Go where?” I
asked.

I turned to Arnie in
the silence that followed. “What did you find out?”

He snorted. “Found out
those assholes had a coupla friends after all.”

“Did you, um, do
anything we don’t need to know about?” I asked carefully.

“Nah. That was them
shootin’ at me, not the other way around. My guy didn’t know
anythin’ yet, an’ I was just leavin’ when those two assholes showed
up.”

“They seemed a little
testy.” I took a deep breath and tried to stop trembling. It didn’t
work. My entire body vibrated.

“Yeah.”

“So now what?” I
asked. “Do you have any more ideas about how we can find Nichele?
All we need to do is find out where James is holding her. Then we
can pass it on to Spider and let them take care of it.”

Dave leaned forward
over the seat. “You mean we’re not going to rescue her?”

“I think that’s better
left to the professionals,” I said. “We’re just a bunch of dumb
civilians, remember? We’d probably put her in more danger than ever
if we went charging in.”

“But… you’re not…
you’ve got a gun. We’ve got two guns between us. We could…”

“Ya been watchin’ too
many movies, Dave,” Hellhound interrupted. “That ain’t the way it
works in real life. In real life, the dumb civilians interfere an’
everybody ends up dead.”

“But…”

We all froze at the
sound of rapidly approaching sirens, but they didn’t slow as they
passed the alley.

“Pull in under that
carport,” Hellhound instructed. “They’ll have their bird up in a
few minutes. We’re far enough away they won’t find us in a ground
search, but we don’t wanna get seen from the air. We can just lie
low ‘til they give up.”

I eased the car
cautiously under the sagging roof of the abandoned building and
parked.

Hellhound exhaled
tiredly and turned to me. “We gotta kill time until tonight. I’m
set up to meet my guy again then. Different place this time,” he
added as I opened my mouth to protest. “Maybe ya should see if ya
can talk to Webb again, see if they got anythin’ new.”

“Yeah, that’s a good
idea,” I agreed slowly. “I don’t want you to have to take a chance
if Spider’s already got the information. But I can’t get in touch
with him during the day. He’ll be at work. He wouldn’t be playing
World of Warcraft.”