Page 82 of Double Shot
“I’ll tell them what agency you worked for, and let them arrest you. You know the cops around here and how they feel about hysterical foreigners.” That seemed to throw a speed bump in her path. “If you’re still out here after I cool off, Iwillcall the policeandmy lawyer, and we’ll sort this out with those lawyers and a bunch of needles. Oh! And fuck you if your green card isn’t in order. They’ll have you back in Siberia or Ukraine or wherever the fuck you came from.”
She didn’t follow me as I stepped into what amounted to a high-end dive bar off the main strip. I decided to have a few drinks, cool down, and give Roan time to get Sadie home and see what he could do to defuse that situation. I had my facts straight, and some of them made me look like a right bastard, but I wasn’t a breeder. There was no way, being raised an orphan, my own mother likely having been a junky whore, that I would do the same thing to someone else.
I wouldn’t have bastard by blows running around anywhere.
The bar didn’t have anything but shitty mid-tier gin so I had a beer.
Then a second.
I texted Roan to assess the situation. A pretty waitress brought me a gin and tonic, complementary. She had a pretty smile. I returned the smile and hammered the gin. There was a bit of a weird taste to it, but it was shelf stuff, and maybe it all really tasted like that.
“Good evening, Mr. Lachlan,” a woman said, sitting down across from me. I looked up at her, and my vision blurred for a moment. I wasn’t buzzed or drunk enough for that to be happening. I knew that this should be alarming, but everything felt sluggish.
“Did you know that one of the very first things a woman learns while in a bar is to never accept a drink from a stranger?” There was a familiar accent, French? “Ah, yes, you are feeling it now, aren’t you?”
I looked up into her eyes, and I recognized her.
“Kaij…” My lips felt thick, my tongue was numb.
“Hello, you didn’t stay for any hospitality when you visited my home, that was very rude, you know?” Her fingernails didn’t have animals on them now, but they were still talons, emerald green, a flourish of geometric pattern at the base.
“What…”
“Did I do to you? Surely, you’ve figured that out, Mister Lachlan? Kyle, may I call you that?” It took almost every ounce of willpower I had to keep my head up, staring at her.
“I’ve poisoned you, I thought that was obvious. You men, so stupid, you make it easier than slippingRohypnolin an underage girl’s coconut-flavored vodka.”
Was this how it was going to go down? I had thought about my own death many times. Gunfight? Knife? Car crash, or helicopter crash? In none of those dark fantasies, almost memories now, did my end come as a glass sitting in front of me.
There was a fleeting moment of worry, would this hurt? What would Roan and Sadie do? I fumbled for my phone, to send a call, a text, anything. She took it from my hand like I was a child, and my head sank toward the table.
This…
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.
This fucking bitc…
* * *
It wascool wherever I was. My mouth felt like a bag of cotton, and my eyes were made of sandpaper, set in glass sockets.
“Oh, there you are.” I heard a fuzzy voice. “I bet your head hurts like nothing else.”
“Water,” my voice cracked.
“You’ll not have that pleasure, not yet,” the fuzzy voice said again.
“Where?”
“My personal residence, it’s a nice place, I think you would appreciate it under other circumstances.” The fuzziness was receding. My eyes were still agony, but light and dark was starting to sort itself out. There was a feeling of cold, pressure, and the person stepped back.
“What?”
“All you do is ask questions, and it’s annoying, no?” the voice asked, female, French accent.Fuck.“Do relax, you’re only going to hurt yourself if you struggle, and that ismyprivilege. I’m going to let you come up a bit, and we’ll have a little talk, just you and me.”
“Kaijin…”
“Yes Kyle?”
