Cross the Line: A Gabriella Cross Paranormal Romance Book 2 (7 page)

As soon as Gabby got home she changed into her workout clothes and hit the treadmill. Maggy had converted one of her bedrooms into a little gym years ago. It had a treadmill, a stair-climber, a weight bench with over three hundred pounds of cast iron weights, and a mounted TV for workout videos.

She worked herself hard for nearly two hours, wanting to sweat out not only the alcohol, but any lingering vampire blood still in her system. The exercise did good to calm her racing mind and her frayed nerves, and by the time she was done she was covered with sweat and panting.

After a cold shower to further clear her mind, she made herself a smoothie of kale, blueberries, and vanilla yogurt, and then sat down at the counter.

No sooner had she taken her first drink than the doorbell rang, causing her to jump. She cursed under her breath and hurriedly walked to the door.

Before she reached the door, her phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Cross, this is Bob. There is a man outside who says that he is your husband’s lawyer. Do you know this man?”

Son of a bitch.

“Hold on,” she said and peered out the peephole in the door. A man in a suit stood nervously before three weres who had not let him pass onto the walkway.

“Yeah, I recognize him. Let him by.”

“I suggest you nullify him, just in case.”

“Yeah, thanks,” said Gabby, rolling her eyes and ending the call.

She had met Derek’s lawyer before. Unfortunately, Derek was trying to sue her for half of her inheritance. She opened the door before he could knock.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Baxter?”

“Hello, Miss Cross,” said the pudgy lawyer, glancing over his shoulder sheepishly at the men standing behind him with arms crossed. “I’ve come to serve you papers.”

“Fine,” said Gabby, reaching out her hand.

“Your husband—”

“Ex-husband,” said Gabby.

“My apologies. Your
ex
-husband is suing you for alimony, as you know. I have attempted to reach you numerous times.”

“You can tell Derek to go fuck himself. I’m not giving him anything.”

“I suggest that you get a lawyer, Miss Cross.” Baxter handed her a manila envelope. “Everything is detailed within.”

“Great,” said Gabby. She took the envelope and bade him a good day before turning and slamming the door.

Furious, she flung the envelope across the kitchen and dialed Derek’s number. He answered on the second ring.

“Gabby?” came his eager voice. “Hi, how are you? I’ve been—”

“You are such an asshole. Why don’t you just leave me alone? Trying to take half of the money my sister left me? Are you fucking kidding?”

“As your ex-husband, I’m entitled to—”

“You’re not
entitled
to anything.”

“Gabby, you’re getting all worked up again. Maybe you should calm down and we can talk about this like adults.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, you rapist asshole.”

Derek sighed. “Look, Gabby, we don’t have to do this. I don’t like it any more than you do. The truth is…the truth is I’m still in love with you. Why can’t you just give me another chance? We had something real. You know we did. I’m sure we can find it again. We’re soul mates, Gabs.”

“Soulmate? Are you out of your mind?”

“I know that you still have feelings for me.”

“You’re right, Derek, I do. And those feelings are hate, loathing, disdain, and disgust. You’re not getting a penny of Maggy’s money. I’ll drag you through the courts from now until eternity.”

“Gabs…”

“Don’t call me that! You don’t get to call me that.”

“Gabs, babe. Let me come over and see you. I’ll drop all this legal shit if you just give me another chance. I don’t want your sister’s money. I just want you.”

“You come anywhere near me and I’ll kick your ass…again. You understand? Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me!”

Gabby hung up the phone, wishing it was the old-school type you could slam down on the hook.

A knock came at the door, and Gabby stormed over to it and yanked it open furiously. “What!”

“Is that any way to answer the door?” her father asked.

“Dad!” said Gabby, throwing herself against him in a big hug. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Dad showed up, we’re going to have dinner. Mind a raincheck?

Gabby sent the text to Quip quick before getting her father the promised shot of forty-year-old whiskey. He sat at the kitchen table and groaned like a man suffering from arthritis, but unlike those fortunate folks, General Cross was suffering the lingering effects of a fight with a ghoul, one that had been terrorizing a small town in rural South Carolina.

“Man, it was good to be on the road again with Mickey. Just like old days,” said her father.

Gabby put the glass in front of him and tapped it with her own. “To the good old days.”

He laughed that familiar, merry laugh. “To good old days.”

Her father, like Riggs, took much longer to bring the glass to his lips. He smelled the whiskey, swirled it in the glass, and then slowly let it pour over his tongue like the delicacy that it was. “Ah,” he said once he had swallowed it. “That was just what I needed.” He smiled at Gabby and tapped the glass for another.

“So, spill the beans. What happened?”

“We had a hell of a time with that son of a bitch. But it was unlike any I’ve ever encountered. It was smart for one, and devilishly fast. I don’t know how it crossed over, but there’s some weird shit going on in South Carolina, I’ll tell you.”

He paused to take another drink and light up a smoke. Gabby took one as well and settled in for a good tale.

“So the local cops down there in South Carolina chalked it up to a string of bear attacks and that was that. Well, the
bear
seemed to have gotten a taste for human flesh, dead human flesh. A cemetery was vandalized, and they found a grave that had been dug up, and not with a shovel. This one still had fresh claw marks in it, and hair samples found by Mickey’s buddy, Tom Felcher. He’s the one who asked Mickey and me for help down there. He’s not what he used to be, poor bastard. Lost an arm to a Sasquatch in ‘03, hasn’t been the same since. Anyway, where was I?”

“Graves dug up by claws,” said Gabby between sips of whiskey.

“Right. So Tom hears about this and gets his hands on the hair sample. He’s got all kinds of old, mostly homemade equipment for lab work, even uses some spells once in a while in his work. Well, sure enough, the hair matched that of a ghoul. He first reported his findings to the FBSI, even though he hates the crooked sons of bitches, but like I said, he ain’t what he used to be and wasn’t about to go after the ghoul himself.”

“Wait a minute,” said Gabby. “What is the FBSI?”

“Federal Bureau of Supernatural Investigation.”

“Why haven’t I heard of it before?”

“Because they aren’t hardly worth mentioning. Get the feds involved in anything and sure as shit they’re going to screw it up. Same goes for the Otherworld. They’re just as corrupt as all the others down in Washington.”

“So, what, they investigate, like, X-files?”

“I guess you could call it that. They call themselves guardians, but they only guard their own self-interest. Anyway, we started first scoping out the woods around the cemetery, and it didn’t take long to find the trail. Mickey’s got an uncanny sense of finding these things. You’d swear he was a magic user. Well, we followed the son of a bitch to an old abandoned schoolhouse. Seems the thing had taken up refuge in the boiler room. We were both armed, me with my Winchester and him with the big sawed-off. We were packing iron rounds infused with holy water, which might not kill the bastards every time, but it sure gives them a hell of a rash and gets them running. That’s the important part. It’s easier to flush ‘em out and trap ‘em sometimes than it is to fight ‘em. And you’d be surprised how cowardly half of ‘em are. If they get a chance they’ll run. We had to blast him pretty good to get him to come out, and let me tell you, he was pissed. Had claws like meat hooks and teeth like nine-inch nails. The beast slashed Mickey on the arm good and blew by him. I was there waiting with the Winchester, but with Mickey behind the thing I didn’t dare, so instead I clocked the ghoul a good one when he charged me. Hit him square in the chin I did, but you think it would matter? Hell no. It kept on like nothing happened, slamming into me and knocking me on my ass before tearing up the stairs to the main level.”

“Where you had a trap set,” said Gabby.

“Exactly. And boy that bastard squealed when it realized it was trapped.”

“What did you do then?”

“Doused it with gasoline and burned the son of a bitch to ash. Best way to make sure they don’t come back. The fire sends ‘em straight back to hell where they belong.”

Gabby shuddered when she thought of the burning, screaming ghoul.

“And this is the kind of thing you want to be a part of,” said her father, watching her reaction closely.

“Do I really have a choice? If I can save lives with my powers, then I must. It’s the right thing to do.”

General Cross nodded. “I’m proud of you, Gabby. I hope you know that.”

“I know, Dad. Thanks.”

“I know you’ve been chomping at the bit to get your feet wet in the field, and I think it’s time you did. You up for a mission?”

“Hell yeah,” said Gabby, nearly jumping out of her seat.

Her father chuckled and shook his head. “Alright. I’ll have everyone meet here tomorrow and we’ll go over it. You’re going to like this one, Gabs. We’ll be doing a good thing.”

“What’s the mission?”

“That is for tomorrow,” said her father teasingly.

“Well then,” said Gabby, raising her glass. “To tomorrow.”

Gabby woke early and did some house cleaning after working out. She had hardly been able to sleep all night, but rather lay there half the time staring at the beam of streetlight on her ceiling and imagining what the mission would be like. She was filled with excitement, but also fear, anticipation, and slight foreboding.

I’m not ready,
her mind told her over and over.

She ignored the thoughts as well as she could and focused on all that she had done and all that she had learned over the last six months. Juliette had brought hundreds of items before her, and a dozen people with afflictions ranging from witch curses to transmutation, and each and every time she succeeded.

After cleaning the entire house, she made herself a big hearty breakfast of bacon, home fries, rye toast, and a ham and cheese omelet. After she had downed almost an entire pot of coffee, the doorbell rang.

Gabby practically ran to the door to answer it.

“Hi, Dad,” she said, hugging him.

“Big day, Gabs. Big day.”

Gabby let her father into the house and smiled at the man following behind him.

“Hello, Gabriella,” said Mickey Gallagher.

“Hey, Mick. I heard you kept my father out of trouble in South Carolina.”

“Hah, I tried, but trouble follows him like flies to shit.”

Mickey Gallagher was every part the bad-ass old biker dude. He wore a denim jacket with cut-off sleeves. The jacket boasted numerous patches, representing everything from bike clubs to old rock bands. His arms were covered in strange tattoos, which Gabby guessed were some sort of spell runes. He wore a handlebar mustache and long braided goatee, both of which were as gray as his short-cropped hair.

“You two want coffee?” Gabby asked.

“Thank you, dear,” said her father.

Mickey nodded as well.

“How do you like it?” Gabby asked.

“I like my coffee like I like my women. Black and bitter,” said Mickey with a laugh. He had one of those deep, gritty voices only earned from too much whiskey and cigarettes. But Mickey Gallagher wasn’t a cigarette smoker, instead he enjoyed fat Cuban cigars, and always had a few in his front pocket.

“Coming right up,” said Gabby, putting on a pot.

Quip walked in like he owned the place and sniffed at the air. “Coffee, I’ll take mine black.”

“Just like you like your men, eh?” said Mickey, puffing up a fat cherry on one of the cigars and smirking at Quip.

“Mmm hmm, when you get done practicing on that cigar, how ‘bout you suck my big black—”

“Play nice, ladies,” said Gabby’s father with a laugh.

Michael and Juliette arrived next, and to Gabby’s surprise, Valentine came in behind them, followed by Bob the werewolf.

Gabby didn’t miss the snarky look that Quip gave Valentine.

“What is she doing here?” Gabby asked Michael.

“It’s good to see you as well, Gabriella,” said Valentine.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just surprised to see you.”

“I’ve asked for Valentine’s help, and she’s kindly offered to volunteer her services,” said Michael.

“Are we finally hitting the vampires back?” Gabby asked hopefully.

Michael nodded and glanced at Gabby’s father.

“Michael told me about what happened,” said Nicholas. “We’re going to find the son of a bitch, but not the way that you suggested to Michael.”

“I’m all ears,” said Gabby.

“Please,” Nicholas told them all. “Gather around the dining table and we will outline the plan.”

“I’ll take my coffee black,” Juliette told Gabby as she passed.

“Coming right up,” said Gabby, trying to hide her annoyance.

The group gathered around the table, and Nicholas spread out an aerial map of the Chicago docks. Gabby gave everyone their coffee mugs and took a place beside her father, who stood leaning against the table.

He pointed at the building at the center of the map. “Alright, listen up. This warehouse is known to be controlled by vampires and is suspected to be used to transport sex slaves to and from Chicago by way of Lake Michigan.”

“Sex slaves?” said Valentine with an arched brow and a glance at Gabby.

“Yes, teen sex slaves to be specific,” said Nicholas. “The vamps get them all hopped up on vamp blood and sell them to the highest bidder. Once they’re hooked, they’ll do anything to get their hands on more.”

Gabby didn’t miss the look that Quip gave her. It was one that said, “ya hear that?”

“Michael has had eyes on the place for a few weeks,” said General Cross. “Reports say that no more than four guards are ever patrolling the outside, and an average of five vamps are usually inside when they send out their shipments.

“We’re going in tomorrow night with two teams. Mick, myself, Valentine, and Quip will make up one team. Michael, Juliette, Bob, and a few other weres will make up the other. The weres are going to clear the outside, and then our team will follow them in for the mop-up. Should be an easy in and out.”

“What about me?” said Gabby, sure that her father had left her out by accident.

“We’re going to need you to nullify them once we’ve taken the place. Until then, you’ll remain outside on watch.”

“You’re benching me? Jesus, Dad. The vamps are after
me
.”

“I know they are. Which is why you’re staying out of the warehouse until it has been cleared.”

“Dad, I—”

“That is the end of the conversation,” said General Cross, looking at Gabby as though she were an insubordinate soldier.

“Yes, sir.”

Gabby didn’t like it, but it was a start. She had been egging to go on a real mission for months and was ready to take whatever she could get.