Rarities Unlimited 02 - Running Scared

made of braided gold chains that radiated power like heat off a fire. A golden god-mask looking through time into man’s shadowed soul. The sight of the gold was so mesmerizing that Risa had to force herself not to fall into the deep past, where Druid gold was the burning center of death and renewal.
    Forcing herself to move, Risa turned toward Cherelle, who had followed her partway out of the main room. From her position at the head of the passageway, Cherelle could see both the front door and Risa.
    Risa could see only Cherelle. She was watching Risa with a stranger’s eyes, brittle and calculating. Strung out. There was no point in trying to reach whatever was left of her friend beneath the hard surface. The Cherelle that Risa remembered wasn’t there.
    All that was left was the money and the gold.
    “I’m amazed,” Risa said. “All that gold and you don’t even have a gun.”
    “Brains are better than guns any day.”
    “So where’s Gail? You’re all alone here.”
    “You snooze, you lose. She just lost. Where’s the money?”
    The front door crashed inward, gunshots exploded, glass shattered.
    Cherelle staggered toward Risa and went to her knees in a bright burst of blood. “Baby-chick? What happened?” She shook her head and tried to brace herself against her palms. “No. Not like this. I’m too smart.”

Chapter 71
    Las Vegas
    November 5
    Night
    S hane was out in the parking lot before the intruder’s semiautomatic spit out the second and third shots. When he saw the blocky figure in the doorway to Cherelle’s room, Shane snapped his gun into position and squeezed on the trigger.
    In the split second before he could fire, a shotgun blasted from across the lot. The attacker’s arms jerked up, and he staggered into Cherelle’s room. Another blast spun him around. A third one knocked him down. He stayed there.
    Both Niall and Shane had tracked the last muzzle flashes. They fired twice each in a staccato hail. A hoarse cry came, followed by the sound of something hitting the ground. Gun at the ready, Niall ran across the lot in a zigzag pattern.
    Shane made a long, diving roll that took him inside Cherelle’s room. “Risa.”
    “Back here. Hurry!”
    He kicked the gun out of the intruder’s lax fingers and ran toward Risa’s voice. As soon as he reached the little passageway leading to the bathroom, his heart jerked and his guts turned to ice.
    There was blood everywhere.
    Risa and Cherelle were in the middle of it.
    He went to his knees beside Risa. “Where are you hit?”
    “Help Cherelle!”
    “Where are you hit?”
    “It’s not me. It’s Cherelle. Oh, Jesus, it’s Cherelle!”
    If Shane hadn’t already been on his knees, relief would have put him there. “Let me see her.”
    “I can’t let go. She’s bleeding too much.” Tears left trails down Risa’s blood-spattered face. “Cherelle! Cherelle, can you hear me?”
    Shane saw what Risa couldn’t accept: Cherelle’s blood no longer pulsed between Risa’s fingers. He measured the utter slackness of Cherelle’s body. With gentle fingertips he closed the pale, staring eyes.
    Risa made a raw sound.
    In the front room Niall peeled off the attacker’s ski mask. “It’s our old buddy Socks. Deader than dirt. Risa?”
    “She’s all right,” Shane answered.
    “Cherelle?”
    “Dead.”
    Shane eased Risa away from Cherelle’s body. “What about the one in the parking lot?” he asked.
    “White male, somewhere between fifty and sixty. Looks more like an executive than a shooter.”
    “Dead?”
    “He should make it.”
    “I’ll be right back,” Shane said to Risa.
    Wearily she nodded.
    Both men headed out of the room at a trot. There wouldn’t be much time before the cops arrived.
    Dana was already at the second man’s side. A gun gleamed in her hand. She pointed a flashlight at his face and hit the switch.
    “Recognize him?” she asked Shane.
    “Rich Morrison.”
    From all directions sirens wailed, still distant. But not for long.
    “Get the money,” Shane said to Dana. “Our story is that the gold changed hands before Cherelle died.”
    “Back to the room,” Dana said. “We need to get the rest of our stories straight. It’s going to be a bloody long bitch of a night.”

Chapter 72
    Las Vegas
    November 7
    Afternoon
    A pril Joy walked in and looked at the five people who sat around Shane’s office in varying states of exhaustion. She knew how they felt. It had been a long night and longer morning