It wasn’t a heart shot, unfortunately. I made a mental note to get more practice with moving targets. Oskar howled with pain and stumbled toward the back exit, away from me and my radius. I wanted to follow him—the last thing we needed was for him to heal and come back—but I wasn’t going anywhere until I freed Molly. I straightened up gingerly and went to her, yanking out the gag. She spat it out with more than a little blood, making a face at the taste.

“Hey, Molls,” I said, pulling another knife from my belt. “This place sucks even for a McDonald’s. Let’s find Jesse and get the fuck out of here.” I tried cutting through the leather, but quickly realized that it would be easier to undo the belts one at a time. I dropped the knife and started doing that.

“Scarlett,” she panted, “you need to get out of here.”

“No shit. I told you, we gotta find Jesse and—”

“No!” She thunked her head back against the table in frustration. “You’re not listening! Remember how I told you Alonzo had a gift for bloodcraft and it passed down his line?” she said all in a rush.

I had gotten the belt on her neck and the one below it loose, and was working on the third one down. “Yeah, I remember. So what?”

“He’s got a shitload of guns, the fucker, and because of the bloodcraft—”

I heard movement from the doorway that Oskar had just left. I looked up just in time to see a young woman in bloody clothes charging into the room, followed by more women. Their eyes were glazed with hatred, and they each held a handgun.

“My friends woke up early,” Molly finished wearily.

Chapter 42

Jesse and Shadow were circling the building to attack the guard at the south entrance when their luck ran out. There was no one standing next to the door. Instead, the guard was moving away from a nearby tree, zipping his fly. He was big, with a bushy beard that circled his whole head to blend in with his hair. He moved like an athlete, but his stomach was swollen to fat.

He saw Jesse in the same instant Jesse saw him, and both men raised their guns. “Police!” Jesse yelled instinctively. “Put it down!”

Jesse glanced down at Shadow, expecting her to attack, but the bargest swung her whole body sharply sideways, cocking her head to the side. Abruptly, she stalked off into the darkness.

“What the fuck?” Jesse mumbled to himself.

The guy ignored this. He slowly circled forward, studying Jesse. “You’re no cop,” he said in a gruff voice. “Not anymore, anyway. I seen your book.”

Jesse didn’t know where Shadow had disappeared to, but he needed to stall until the bargest could take this guy down. “You should walk away,” he told the biker. “Lee didn’t mean to send you guys here. He was forced.”

That made the other man pause. “I’m Lee,” he growled, and Jesse realized that the poor lighting had disguised the gray in the man’s hair. He was well past fifty. “And you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, son.”

Shit. Jesse couldn’t undo someone’s press, but he could poke holes in it. “Then why would you send men out here on Oskar’s orders?” Jesse demanded. “He already got two of your guys killed.”

There was the briefest hesitation, and then Lee Harrison said, “Money. A lot of it.”

“Have you seen any money?”

“Not your concern, boy,” he snapped.

“Okay, fine. Did anything seem off about Oskar?” Jesse pushed. “Like maybe he hasn’t aged since the last time you saw him?”

Lee shook his head like he was trying to clear mental spiderwebs. “I told you,” he growled, releasing the safety on his Beretta. “It’s not your concern.”

“Well, we’re kind of at an impasse here,” Jesse contended. “Do you really want to stand here pointing guns at each other until someone’s backup arrives?”

White teeth flashed dangerously in the light spilling through the window. “I got nowhere else to be, kid. And I got numbers on my side.”

“Not anymore,” Jesse informed him.

That made the other man frown. Keeping his gun pointed at Jesse, Lee pulled an iPhone out of his pocket. Jesse hoped he would stare at the screen long enough to ruin his night vision, giving Jesse an opportunity to attack, but the old MC president simply pressed down the button and said, “Call Jonesy.” He held the phone to his ear, listening, Jesse imagined, to a lot of ringing.

“Short, chubby guy, pretty young?” Jesse asked. Startled, Lee nodded.

“Dead.”

“Did you kill him?” Lee’s voice simmered with rage, but there was some confusion there, too. He could tell that the situation felt all wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on why, and he didn’t want to show weakness. Dammit, Jesse really wanted Scarlett to break this guy’s press.

“Not exactly,” Jesse said. “One of my companions. Do you know what Oskar has hidden in the basement?” he added quickly, before the older man could blame him for the death.

Lee didn’t respond, which probably meant he didn’t know. “Four girls,” Jesse continued. “College kids, from USC. Oskar wants to whore them out, but not exactly in a consenting way, if you get my drift.”

The other man’s face went stony. “Let me guess,” Jesse went on. “Our pal Oskar told you he would set you up with a whole new brothel, somewhere in the valley. Oskar will even provide most of the capital. You run the business by day, he takes over at night. Am I close?”

Lee was silent, but Jesse could see that his gun arm was starting to tremble. “Movies too?” Jesse prodded. “I heard you run a little light porn. He promised you exotic stuff, didn’t he?”

Instinctively, the MC president lifted the phone again, probably to call his other backup, but he fumbled it, sending it clattering onto the sidewalk. He stepped away from Jesse with a grunt, eyes flicking downward.

“You’re calling down too much heat, Lee,” Jesse said in a soft, dangerous voice. “Someone kidnaps a bunch of rich white girls and torches their house? It was all over the news. What do you think’s gonna happen when you and Oskar try to whore them out?”

“He told me they were into it,” Lee said at last, giving up on the phone for the moment. “They came to him after the accidental fire. The publicity will die down in a few days—”

Jesse snorted. “You’re smarter than that, Lee. Too smart to get into bed with a guy who kidnaps four girls and kills eight more. A guy who hasn’t gotten any older in twenty years. I don’t know what Oskar did for you before, and I don’t care. He’s bad news, and if you let him drag you into this brothel venture, he’ll feed you to the cops the first chance he gets.”

For the first time, Lee looked unsure of himself. “I . . . I don’t know. Something about this is fucked up, but how do I know you’re telling me the truth any more than he is?”

“You’ve seen my book,” Jesse said. “You must know people with the cops. You can call them and check—”

A gunshot came from inside the Mock-Donald’s, and both Jesse and Lee automatically turned toward the building. A second later, there was a bloodcurdling scream, and then Jesse caught a blur of speed out of the corner of his eye. Too high to be Shadow. Too fast to be Scarlett. “Look out!” he yelled to Lee, but it was too late. A vampire had appeared between them, seizing each man’s gun arm. He used the arms to wrench Jesse and the MC president violently toward each other, causing their heads to smack together.

This was why Shadow had disappeared: she’d been hunting the vampire.

Jesse staggered backward, his hand involuntarily releasing the gun. Fireworks of pain bounced around the inside of his skull at the point of impact, and Jesse barely kept his feet. He gathered his wits enough to crouch and feel around for the Glock.

“Must you?” the vampire said in exasperation. He kicked the gun away, and then delivered a vicious kick to Jesse’s abdomen. Jesse collapsed. “What. The. Fuck,” he groaned. “You must be Oskar.”

“Hardly,” the vampire sniffed. He was Asian, good-looking, appearing to be around thirty. “We haven’t officially met,” the vampire added. “I’m Frederic.”