Bloodfire (Empire of Fangs) by Andrew Domonkos Read Free Book Online

           Maybe his brother smelled a high profile case.   He said he was getting on a plane immediately.   He said that everything the DA had was circumstantial, except for a rather unfortunate surveillance video of Zara entering a mental hospital shortly before a large explosion went off and several patients went missing.   It sounded like Leo had already done quite a bit of research.   Mark had no idea what he was talking about, what is she accused of? What mental hospital?   He was full of questions.
     
    It was while he was stammering and pacing his apartment that the front door suddenly launched off its hinges and a team of armored SWAT police came storming in with machine guns trained on Mark.    Mark went completely limp immediately, but a cop tazered him just the same.   It had hurt like hell.   He could hear his brother shouting from the cell phone, “Don’t say a word!” and then he repeated loudly several times.   “I’m coming!”
     
    And Mark had kept quiet as instructed while every cop who watched too much television had made a go at Mark with their best CSI impressions.   They shouted and banged on the table.   Mark said nothing, and they accused him of everything.   They threatened him with stories of terrorism.  
     
    But Mark held firm and bit his tongue.   He sweated and squirmed while they circled him and flicked his ears and occasionally showed him pictures of a beautiful young woman.   Dead now because his daughter had killed her.   Blown to bits.   Not even a body left to bury, they said, shaking their heads with disgust at him.   They told him he would fry for this.
     
    When Leonard Lane finally came into the room, the cop’s faces drooped like they both had gotten a whiff of some noxious gas.   Leo shoved court orders in their faces and began to take pictures of Mark with a little digital camera he retrieved from his briefcase.
     
    “Oh yes, this is good.   Very good,” he said musically.   “Nice work gentlemen, just the type of savagery I’ve come to expect from the DPD.   You guys are really going for the gold medal in brutality this year.”
     
    The two cops bristled and folded their arms.   “He got that resisting,” the big one said. “We have our interrogations on video.”   The shorter bald cop pointed up to a camera in the corner of the room.
     
    “We’ll see how a judge feels about it.   What’s this?   Spit?” Leo touched a wet spot on Mark’s shirt.   “You should know better than anyone that spitting is a form of assault, right?   You should.   How many people you put away for it last year for assault by saliva? However many you needed to validate your existence?”   Leo shook his head as if the absurdity of things was too much to bear.   “Now since the DHS has ruled out terrorism, nice try by the way, you have no grounds to hold my client.   We’re leaving.   Let’s go Mark.”  
     
    Mark looked around like a little kid who had two parents giving him contradicting instructions.   One of the cops shrugged and opened his hand towards the door.   “This isn’t over.   I would stay in town if I were you,” said the red-haired man who had been breathing his coffee-breath all over Mark for hours.  
     
    “My client can go to the moon if he feels like it,” Leo said confidently.   “His trumped-up charges have been dropped.   Why don’t you spend your time looking for the real criminal here, Nicolas Sollero , he’s got a mental history you know.   So does his father.   Zara is an exemplar—”
     
    “Yeah, yeah,” the big cop said.   “Save it for someone who gives a rat’s ass.   We know what’s what.” He then stomped out of the room with the other cop in tow.  
     
    Leo patted Mark on the shoulder.   “Don’t you worry, I’ll have both those Micks swinging from the rafters before dinner.   They don’t know who they are messing with.   C’mon little brother, we got a lot to go