Black Is Back (Quentin Black Mystery #4) (34 page)

I swallowed, again fighting a surge of bile in my throat.

When I looked at Black that time, he looked angry.

Only then did it occur to me to look at Angel.

She had tears in her eyes as she looked up at the mutilated bodies on the metal hook. She had one hand clamped over her mouth as she stared, like she was trying not to be sick too. Looking at her face, I felt a lot worse suddenly.

I knew Angel loved animals. Like... loved them. Maybe some of it was being a homicide detective and needing to purge some of the bad from the world by focusing on creatures less likely to kill one another for perverse emotional reasons.

Whatever it was, she worked at a lot at rescue shelters. She was also a big contributor to the zoo’s conservation efforts, and a lifelong member. She might even have been familiar with those specific animals, since I knew she volunteered at the zoo on first Sundays too, taking school kids from her old neighborhood around and teaching them about wild animals.

Nick walked over, massaging Angel’s shoulders with his hands.

He motioned with his head then, including me and Black in the gesture.

“Come on,” he said, his voice still grim. “I need to show you something else.”

Wrapping his arm around Angel’s shoulders, he steered her away from the animal corpses hanging over the water and towards the area where most of the paddle boats had been tethered. He stopped us right in front of a section of dock still being taped off by two uniformed cops.

Words had been written on the asphalt there, in white paint.

Tilting my head, I read them aloud.

“In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword...”

I glanced up at Nick, frowning. “The Bible again?”

Black didn’t say anything that time.

Nick nodded, glancing up at Black, then motioned for us to follow him again, this time down a narrow path around the side of the boathouse. More words had been written on the wall there as well, behind a cluster of trees that framed that part of the building. Whoever did it used the same white paint, covering most of the wall and leaving white paint splatters on the red flowers planted below.

I read the words aloud again, once we were close enough.

“...And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him...”

“Revelations,” Black muttered. “King James, this time.”

I looked at him. I admit, him knowing so much about the Bible still surprised me.

“One more,” Nick said, giving me another grim look. “This last one is the one that worries me the most, Miri...” He glanced at Black right after he said it.

He led us back down the path and then to a clearing among the trees, just off the main walkway circling the lake. The clearing stood right behind a park bench that faced the lake, with willow trees on one side and what looked like plum or cherry trees on the other. The fruit trees were covered all over in delicate pink blossoms.

More white paint decorated that part of the asphalt path.

Angel read it aloud.
“Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate...”

Staring down at that, I looked at Black.

He was frowning too. He gave Nick a thin-lipped smile.

“Genesis,” he said. “Always good for a few chuckles.”

Nick shook his head though, his voice hard. “It’s not funny, Black. We’re going to have put you into protective custody.” He looked at me. “Both of you.”

Black folded his arms, letting out a humorless snort. “I own a fucking security company, Nick. I can handle it with my own people.”

Nick shook his head, clenching his jaw. “You can supplement it with your people if you want, Black, in fact I’d prefer it if you did. But we need to bring you in.” He gave me a hard look. “And you too, Miri. This guy is obviously targeting both of you...”

“How the hell would he know about Black’s tattoo?” I said, looking between them.

Nick looked at me, then up at Black.

Watching them exchange looks, I definitely got the sense this wasn’t the first time they’d talked about this, and wondered again what they’d been discussing on the phone while Black had been in Angel’s living room.

I turned to ask them, shifting my eyes towards Black...

...When Black jerked violently backwards.

It happened so fast, it didn’t look real.

There was no sound.

I didn’t hear the gunshot until a few seconds later, after everything was over. Even then, it echoed over the lake from such a distance, it evoked thunder in my mind instead of what it actually was, a high-powered rifle fired from over a hundred yards away.

Then the combat thing kicked in and I found myself hitting the dirt alongside Nick. Nick grabbed Angel’s arm. She’d been on her way down too, but not as fast as us, and he helped her the rest of the way there roughly, before her gravity and reflexes caught up with ours.

Other things flashed through my mind, in that same set of seconds.

What a perfect kill zone this was.

Willow trees have thin leaves.

They were perfect for a sniper, since they provided the illusion of cover without providing any actual cover. We’d stood over that white paint on the walk, just like he’d wanted. He might as well have painted a bullseye on the ground, with a big X in the middle before he dropped the hammer. We even stood right behind a park bench––something that had been specifically placed by an opening facing the water, to provide a view for anyone who might sit there.

I knew better. Nick knew better.

Hell, Black knew better.

But we hadn’t been thinking we were at war.

Across from us, I stared at the island in the middle of Stow Lake, my face by the asphalt, panting as I looked for a glint of sunlight on metal, any indication of where he was. He was too far for me to see any smoke. I couldn’t see anything.

I knew the shot had come from there, though.

I felt a whisper of that silent presence. Satisfaction.

Rightness.

“Miri! Goddamn it, Miri! Help me!”

The sound came back on, echoing that shot in my ears.

My ears rang. My knees hurt like hell from how hard I’d thrown myself into the asphalt.

Nick was already down next to me, and he had Black’s arms and was dragging him, throwing me even further into a flashback of being with Nick on very different terrain. My mind blanked out, shifting into its own kind of muscle memory as I jerked to my feet. Walking low to the ground but fast, I reached his side in seconds. Then I had Black’s legs, helping Nick, who had Black’s shoulders. We carry-dragged him out of that open patch of land and behind the trunk of a wide-branched cherry tree.
 

No more shots came though. He knew exactly what he’d hit, and where.

Only when we had Black behind cover did I look back for Angel.

She was behind the other trunk, her gun out.

She was already talking into her phone.

When I looked back at Black, Nick was kneeling over him, his hands putting pressure on the wound. He used most of his weight, leaning his upper body over Black’s chest.

“Fucker got him right in the heart...” Nick’s voice shook, even as he turned sharply towards Angel, raising his voice. “Call a fucking ambulance! Then get Mozar at the boathouse. Tell him to get SWAT down here. Get those uniforms moving... every inch of this fucking path! Look for boats, floating debris big enough to hide someone... anyone or anything in the water. We need coverage on all sides before SWAT does their sweep of the island. I
want
that asshole!”

His voice still shook at the end, but I heard fury in it now.

I knew the shooter was already gone.

Somehow, I just knew.

That ringing grew louder in my ears.

The ringing wasn’t physical. I felt like a bullet was stuck in my own chest, forcing my lungs into a space so small I couldn’t get enough air. For a few seconds, I really thought I might pass out. I looked down at my own chest, looking for the hole, but I saw nothing.

That one shot was all I’d heard.

I stared at Black’s face, feeling like my vision was telescoping around both of us, the longer I looked at him. He looked deathly pale, like something had already drained most of the blood from his body. He was out. Like way out. His eyelids didn’t so much as flicker.

His eyes were closed, and blood streaked one side of his long neck.

“He’s breathing, Miri...” Nick said. Stopping to stare at me, without taking his hands or his weight off Black’s chest where he was applying pressure, he snapped at me, loud, forcing my eyes to him. “Goddamn it! You’re not going to go into
shock
right now, Miriam! I need you! He’s fucking
dead
if we don’t do the right thing right now...” His voice grew harsher. “Look at me goddamn it. Not him... me! Look at
me,
Miri!”

I didn’t realized I was staring at Black, willing him to open his eyes, until Nick said it.

I forced myself to turn, to focus on Nick’s face.

I gripped Black’s arm and hand now, but I didn’t remember when I’d taken hold of either. Maybe I simply never let go of him after I helped Nick drag him to cover. I was throwing myself at him in some way I couldn’t explain. Throwing some part of myself at him––something inside me, something I couldn’t see.

Maybe that “light” thing that Black always talked about.

Whatever it was, I threw as much of it at him as I could, without holding back. Anything of me I could give, I gave. Anything that might help to keep him alive.

Anything that might keep him from dying right in front of me.

Without realizing it, I’d turned to look down at him again.

“Miriam!” Nick snarled.

I jerked my head sideways, seeing Nick only a few inches away. Nick with blood all over his hands and his leather jacket as he pressed down on Black’s chest.

“Can we take him to a hospital, Miri? A human one? Can they help him?”

My brain clicked on somehow in the question.

Black was...

God. Black wasn’t human.

I’d never thought to ask him what to do if he ever got seriously hurt. I’d never thought to ask him where I should take him if anything like this happened.

It suddenly struck me as such an insanely unforgivable oversight.

I shook my head. I knew that from combat too.

Don’t fudge. Tell the truth.

People died faster without the truth.

“I don’t know. I have no idea.” My voice didn’t even sound like mine. My mind continued to click through scenarios, options, resources, people. I thought about my Uncle Charles, about whether he might have people nearby. The techs at Black’s Securities company.

But I had to prioritize. Nick was right. Mere seconds had gone by, but each one felt like another second Black might be dying.

“I’ll call his people,” I said. “They’ll know something.”

Nick nodded, his jaw hardening. “Okay. Talk to whoever there you trust. At least we’ll know what to do when the ambulance gets here...”

I knew he was talking more to keep me focused on him.

It almost worked.

I’d already yanked out my phone, which was still, miraculously, in my back pocket. I had to force myself to let go of Black’s arm to do it. My hand shook violently but I stilled it through sheer will, scrolling through and hitting the number for Black Securities and Investigations.

I caught hold of Black’s arm again as soon as I had the phone to my ear.

I don’t think I ever stopped throwing that part of myself into him.

Whatever I was doing to him, it was starting to make me light-headed.