Crossroads by Jeanne C. Stein Read Free Book Online

can talk it out.”
    Abe is quiet and still. It gives the manager the impression that he’s getting through to him. He takes a step closer.
    “No!” The word rips out of me at the same time Abe raises the assault rifle. He fires a burst that slams the manager back against a checkout counter. I see the gaping chest wound, smell the blood as it explodes out of his back, and I know.
    Miriam’s boss is dead before he hits the ground.
    I step out, fire at the broad of Abe’s back. I squeeze off every fucking round and pull back. I know the shots hit the mark but Abe doesn’t go all the way down. He’s knocked to his knees, staggers back to his feet, whirls toward me.
    He’s wearing a full torso vest.
    He sprays a burst in my direction, shattering the door and sending glass flying into the parking lot. Instinctively, I duck and step back behind the door. In the distance, a siren shrieks. Reinforcements.
    Abe hears it, too, and moves deeper into the store, yelling Miriam’s name.
    There’s a service counter about ten yards inside the door. I pull a speed loader from the pocket of my jacket, reload. I could be at that counter and over before Abe could take another step. But there are too many eyes on me now after that exchange of fire. I suck in a breath and sprint toward the counter, feeling like I’m moving in slow motion.
    I dive over and startle two female employees, pressed like frightened rabbits against the counter. They look up at me with eyes round with fear. I place a finger to my lips, push up to squint over the counter.
    Abe is heading toward the back of the store. He stops at the office door, tries the lock. When it doesn’t yield, he kicks at it and screams, “Come out, Miriam. If you don’t, I’ll kill everyone in this store. The blood will be on your hands.”
    One of the women beside me grabs my arm. “He’s crazy. You’ve got to stop him. You’re a cop or something, aren’t you?”
    I shake myself free of her grasp. I fall in the “or something” category. But she’s right. Fuck restraint. I can’t give that maniac the chance to kill someone else. Before she can say anything else, I’m up and over the counter.
    I have a decision. I could break his neck. But how would I explain getting to him faster than is humanly possible and then using strength that is humanly improbable? No. I can explain one much easier than the other so I tap him on the shoulder and let him spin toward me. He has a heartbeat to look surprised. Then I fire. It takes only one shot. To the bridge of his nose. Abe collapses like a deflated balloon, leaving bits of his head plastered against the office door like a macabre Halloween decoration.
    There’s blood. Lots of it. Pooling around his head. He fell faceup and there’s only a small rose blooming on his face. The pool is coming from the exit wound. Still pumping from a heart that hasn’t gotten the message yet.
    The smell. When I look down, I realize I’m splattered with blood, too. My clothes, my hands. I want to lick at it. Instead, I set my jaw and tense every muscle to keep the vampire in check.
    It’s a good thing I fed yesterday.
     
     
    THERE IS A REASON I CHOSE TO BECOME A BOUNTY hunter and not a cop. I’m reminded of it in the minutes that follow. Cops appear from everywhere. I’m ordered to drop my gun, put my hands behind my head, kiss the ground.
    I do what any sane person in that situation should do.
    Obey.
    My gun is kicked aside, my hands secured behind my back.
    I can hear the same thing happening to Tracey behind the closed office door. In a second, she’s led out and pushed to the floor beside me.
    Miriam is hysterical. She’s yelling at the cops that it was her sister and I who saved her. Soon the two women who were hiding behind the counter join us and add to the din.
    It takes six cops, a couple of detectives and two hours to sort out the story, check that Tracey and I are fugitive apprehension officers and are indeed licensed to carry.