Wanted: Undead or Alive

Mx. Landry Was Right

I forced a little grin for her. "I am."

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." She made the sign of the cross.

I gestured to the Amazon next to me. "This is my associate, Benji."

Nick leaned forward and barfed.

"That's Nick," I said. It brought me a weird sense of pleasure that I wasn't the only one in the group with a problem keeping my guts on the inside. "He's had a hard day."

I told Benji, "This is my friend, Chantelle."

"Why did the medic leave?" She took a step toward Nick. "You need to get checked out—"

"He'd prefer to see his own doctor," Benji said. "And Nowicki and I are fine."

Chantelle shook her head, pressed her lips into a thin, grim line, grabbed my arm, and dragged me away from Nick and Benji. "What are you doing?" she hissed when we were out of earshot.

I glanced back at Nick, who watched me with normal, human-looking, exhausted eyes. No bizarre urge to throw myself at him came over me, only relief at seeing him alive. "Look, the hotel job isn't cutting it. I'm beyond broke. I'm going to be homeless if something doesn't give. This job came along."

"It came along?" She planted her hands on her hips, just above her utility belt. "There is training for a job like this, sis. And licensing. You can't just hire in and start on day one."

"I think this is actually day two." Or was it three? It was all a little blurry. "And you can check up on me. I have a license. It'll show up in your computers and everything." Probably. I hoped.

Chantelle crossed her arms and cocked her head. "Is this about that pretty white boy tossin' his cookies over there?"

"No." It definitely wasn't about Nick. I looked at him again. He really was pretty, even when he was scowling at the ground as if the earth had personally offended him. "It's not about him." I'm not sure if I added that for her benefit or mine. "It's about the money. I'm good at this, Chantelle. I've already earned enough to stop the shut off notices, and if we catch the guy we're after now—"

"Is he the one who blew up your car?"

Behind us, the Charger smoldered. Smelly black water poured off of it onto the scorched pavement.

"It's not my car."

"Does Mandrake know you're doing this?"

"I haven't had a chance to talk to him, but even if I did, he's not my dad and he's not my husband, so he doesn't really get a vote."

To my horror, tears filled her eyes. "I don't want you to get dead."

"You do this stuff every day."

She gestured at the pile of twisted metal on the side of the road. "I do not do this every day."

"I'm good at this, Chantelle. I can't explain it. I don't understand it myself, but Nick sees it, too. That's why he hired me."

Instead of answering, she pulled me into another bone-crushing hug. "Is there anything in the world I can say to talk you out of this?"

"I can't think of anything."

I felt her nod against my shoulder. "You need a ride home?"

"No. That's Nick's Lexus."

She let go of me and looked at Nick. "He don't look like a man in any shape to drive. You keep the keys, okay?"

I promised her I would. It took a few more minutes to arrange for a tow truck and share insurance information. By then Benji had stuffed Nick into the back seat of the Lexus and we headed toward headquarters to regroup.