Reese gripped the window frame, and they both dropped out and down at the same time.
Reese had landed like this countless times; Tenny had, too. When he hit, he landed on the balls of his feet, bent his knees, let his whole body take the shock of impact, and he was turning within the same breath.
The two targets in hoodies let out yelps of surprise, and shrank back against the building façade.
One tried to bolt. Tenny grabbed him by his hood, whirled him around, and slammed him face-first into the plywood.
Reese took the other by one unresisting hand and followed suit.
“What the fuck, man?” one of them cried out, and his voice was young. These were kids, and not hardened criminals.
The one Tenny had, his hood down, proved to be a teenager in a beanie hat, his eyes wide and rolling in terror. “Hey, we didn’t do anything! Let us go, let us go!”
Tenny held his wrists together in one hand, and with the other rifled through his backpack. He pulled out a can of black spray paint and shot a look at Reese. “Sure. Not yet.” He was using his American accent; he sounded Southern as a local.
The kid in Reese’s grasp tried to twist away; Reese pinched his wrist until the nerves spasmed, and he subsided with an exclamation, going limp against the plywood. A quick search revealed he was carrying spray paint, too.
“Out for a little light vandalism?” Tenny asked.
“Hey!” a familiar voice shouted from down the sidewalk.
Tenny sighed. “Spoilsport,” he muttered, and Reese was afraid he might smile again. It was getting to be a habit.
~*~
Carter clocked the two kids in hoodies with backpacks, felt a twinge of internal guilt for assuming – but sent the text. Better safe than sorry. And prayed Tenny and Reese didn’t get too rough. They’d been cautioned at length by Ghost, he knew, that they were simply trying to scare whoever this was, and not add notches to their belts, or whatever sick method they used to tally their kills.
“Was that them?” Leah asked, glancing between the window the targets had just passed, and his face. She looked eager.Bored and joblessshe’d said a few minutes ago. He guessed this counted as excitement.
He pocketed his phone and pushed his chair back. “I gotta go.”
“No, wait.” She stood, too. “Was it?”
He hesitated; he had a little window of time here. Thirty seconds or so to let Tenny and Reese rattle their quarry. “Maybe. I’ll find out in a minute.”
She stepped around the table. “Can I come?”
“What? No.” He frowned at her, genuinely startled by the request – though he guessed he shouldn’t be. She’d always been the sort of person who leaped into things with both feet. “It’s dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, it’s teenagers, and you’ve got backup.” When he continued to frown at her, she said, “I’ll stay back. Promise.” And then, voice gong low so they wouldn’t be overheard: “It’s not like I don’tknowwhat the club gets up to.”
She had him there. “Just…stay behind me.”
“Dad, I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder as she followed him out the door.
He couldn’t hear the scuffle taking place down the sidewalk, but he could hear that people were reacting to it. A few low murmurs and shocked gasps. “Oh my God,” he heard a woman say. “Should we call someone?”
“Is that a mugging?”
“Hey,” a man called, “what are you doing? Break that up!”
Carter wended his way through the growing crowd and spotted a tangle of dark clothing in front of Bell Bar. Reese and Tenny, with their all-black tac gear and grease paint, had two teens in hoodies pressed face-first against the boarded-up front window.
Behind him, Leah grabbed at the edge of his cut, a gentle pressure, and let him tow her along, taking advantage of his wake to slip through the bystanders. “Your guys?” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
A woman turned and noted his cut, her eyes widening in alarm.
