Heart and Soul by Jackie May (reading list .TXT) 📗

Russo calls after me. “Who’s the badge bunny now?”

“Save our seats,” I demand.

“Take your time,” he says, beaming with pride for his partner.

I march Brenner straight to the parking garage, battling against the flow of crowds hurrying into the stadium. Pinning him against his car with a hungry kiss, I jam my hands into his pockets, searching for keys, unlocking the doors, pushing him into the back seat. Our hands are all over each other. We’re thumping against seats and doors and the ceiling. He unsnaps my pants. I push his shirt up to his chest, purring, “Let’s try this again.”

After pushing Brenner’s shirt up, I’m tracing my tongue along the deep lines between each of his rock-hard abs when both doors are suddenly jerked open, enormous hands yank Brenner out of the car, and I’m shot in the back.

The first thing I’m aware of is music—’70s disco funk with a bass line so deep it rattles my stomach. A pungent aroma assaults my nose. It smells rotten and sweet at the same time. I feel the hum and sway of a moving car. The jolt of a speed bump sends a spike of pain up my spine, reminding me of the gunshot. It dawns on me that somebody shot me in the back. How am I not dead?

My eyes snap open to a surreal scene. Slumped in a bench seat facing me is a great, big fat man with no shirt on. He is flanked by muscled henchmen, also shirtless. All three of them suck on tubes attached to a crystal hookah, bubbling with a bright blue liquid. The men bob their heads in unison to the music. The fat man bulges his eyes at me, waggling artificial eyebrows made of red ruby studs. His giant head is bald and shiny. On his vast belly is a tattoo of a red diamond, with a demon sigil inside it.

The Diamond Dog. Rubicon “Ruby” Paizo, demon master of the west side horde. Everybody’s heard of him, but nobody outside his horde ever sees him. He’s a total recluse. Now I see why. He and his shirtless menservants are rocking their shoulders back and forth with the music, their eyes staring at me. It’s such an absurd sight, I could almost laugh, if not for the Diamond Dog’s reputation for literally ripping heads off.

Brenner sits next to me with a pillowcase over his head. When I tear it away, he flinches back, expecting to be attacked. His lips and nose are bleeding. One eyebrow is split open, but there’s no swelling yet, so I couldn’t have been out long. A few minutes, maybe.

“Shayne,” he rasps, “you were…there was a shot.”

“No, I’m okay.”

Brenner sags with relief and takes my hand.

Ruby Paizo smiles, takes one last pull on the hookah pipe, then says, “You’re right; there was a shot. A tranquilizer. Put a horse down for hours, but for a shifter, it’s nothing but a tickle.” His voice is a gritty croak, yet it’s surprisingly dainty at the same time. He sounds like an old grandma who smoked all her life. “You know who I am?”

My eyes go to his sigil tattoo. “The Diamond Dog.”

He grabs his belly and jiggles it. “Well, I ain’t Santa Claus.” He laughs, elbowing the ribs of a henchman. Immediately, the thug leans forward and slugs Brenner in the jaw. Ruby pulls his guard back. “Wait, dammit, I didn’t mean it like that. Look, I was just giving you a little elbow, because I made a joke. You know, a joke?” The henchman gives no response. Ruby shakes his head at us. “So touchy.”

I try to control the tremor in my voice. “What do you want?”

The glittering rubies that make up his eyebrows raise with a kind of sadness. “Do you know, that’s the first thing everybody asks me. It’s like magic. Somehow, everybody knows that if I’m talking to them, it means I want something. Whatever happened to small talk? Chit chat? ‘How you doing, Ruby? Are you caught up on Stranger Things yet?’”

“You shot me with a tranquilizer.”

He gives a gleeful smile. “First time?”

“Last time,” Brenner growls.

“Ooooh, good answer,” Ruby says, genuinely impressed. “You hear that? Get a load of this guy, would ya?” He elbows the same henchman in the ribs. The henchman launches forward and socks Brenner in the face. Brenner blacks out, slumping onto my shoulder. I pat his face to wake him up. This time, there is no apology from Ruby. He sucks on the hookah pipe, bobbing to the music until, finally, Brenner comes to with a groan. “Enough chit chat,” Ruby announces. “Now we can talk about what I want.”

I know what he wants. “Payback.”

He bats eyelashes heavy with mascara. “Payback? Why, whatever for?”

“For breaking up your little street race, which I could have won, by the way.”

“We’ll never know, will we?”

“You had my car.”

“A 2006 Pontiac. Truly hideous.”

“I only took back what was mine.”

“Only?” For the first time, Ruby drops the smile. His eyes lose their spark, turning cold and dead, unblinking. “If you had only taken back what was yours, I wouldn’t be here.”

I don’t like this sudden shift in mood. The music still thumps away, but the demons no longer bob to it. Their dead stares make my flesh crawl. “You’re right,” I stammer, “I…I needed a distraction, and so…”

“And so…you blew up the crown jewel of my car collection.”

“No.”

“No?” Ruby goes to elbow his henchman again.

“No, yes!” I spit out. “Yes, that happened, but it’s not what was supposed to happen, I swear.”

He blinks, and his mouth drops open. “Oh. Oh my. It wasn’t supposed to happen, did you hear that, boys? Well, heavens to Hades! This has all just been a misunderstanding. She didn’t mean for any of this to happen. My two-hundred-thousand-dollar muscle car wasn’t supposed to be wrapped in chains, and it wasn’t supposed to be hooked onto a crane, and it wasn’t supposed to be hauled thirty feet