The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

right away when you were undercover.’
    ‘Maybe so,’ said Dante. ‘But the
rest of the clan fell for it. It’s worth a shot.’
    ‘Fine,’ said the Kid. ‘You got a
cell phone?’
    ‘I have,’ said Kacy.
    The Kid slipped the syringe and
bottle into a pocket inside his jacket and pulled out a cell phone. He handed
it to Kacy. ‘Stick your number in here so I can contact you if I need to.’
    Kacy took the phone and began
inputting her number.
    Dante prodded the Kid in the
arm. ‘What do you want us to do while we’re waiting for you?’
    ‘See if you can find out what
happened to my woman. If she’s still alive I wanna know about it. If she’s
dead, I wanna know about it too. Send me a text, okay?’
    ‘Sure thing,’ said Kacy.
    ‘What about Gaius?’ Dante asked.
‘He’s mounting a whole fucking army at the Casa de Ville. How can we deal with
that? There could be a million of them by the time you get there?’
    ‘Let me worry about that.’
    ‘Normally I would. But you
aren’t exactly demonstrating army destroying skills right now, if you
don’t mind me saying.’
    ‘I do mind you saying,
since you ask.’
    ‘Sorry, but I’m only callin’ it
as I see it.’
    ‘You’ll see it differently
tomorrow.’ The Kid got up from the table. ‘Right now I’ve got a conscience.
I’ll be back to my old self once I get rid of it. I’ll see ya later.’  
    As he walked towards the exit,
Kacy called after him. ‘So where exactly are you going?’ she asked.
    He stopped short of the door and
turned around. He pulled a pair of sunglasses from inside his jacket and
slipped them on. Then he answered her question with two words that meant
nothing to her.
    ‘Devil’s Graveyard.’

 

 
    Twenty-Four

 
    Gaius burst into his office and found
Jessica sitting in his black leather chair behind his desk with her feet up.
Her black knee-high boots were resting on his favourite notepad. She was
wearing an all black outfit as usual, with a plunging neckline on the top,
revealing a fair amount of cleavage, much to her father’s disapproval.
    ‘You’d better have found The
Book of Death!’ he snarled.
    ‘Nope,’ said Jessica
nonchalantly. ‘Got something better.’
    ‘I seriously doubt that.’
    She gestured to a cream sofa set
against the wall behind him. He looked over at it and saw a woman slumped
across it. She was lying face down and was wearing a pair of tatty ripped black
jeans and a blue cardigan. This was not the usual kind of riff-raff Gaius
expected to see in his office.
    ‘Who the fuck is that on my sofa?’
he asked.
    ‘That’s Beth Lansbury.’
    ‘Who’s Beth Lansbury?’
    ‘She is.’
    ‘Very funny. Seriously, who is
Beth Lansbury and why is she in my office, taking a nap on my sofa?’
    Jessica took her feet down off
the desk and stood up. She pointed at Beth and smiled. ‘That there little lady
is the Bourbon Kid’s girlfriend.’
    Gaius raised an eyebrow and half
a smile. ‘Is that so?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘Did you kill her?’
    ‘Nope. No sense in that. Look
what happened to those three idiot cops who killed his brother.’
    ‘Okay. So why is she here in my
office?’
    ‘Leverage. If he cares about her
as much as I think he does, then he’ll try and rescue her. When he shows up, we
give him a choice, his life or hers.’
    Gaius was unimpressed. ‘I fail
to see how this is better than bringing me The Book of Death.’
    ‘You’re getting cranky.’
    ‘No I’m not.’
    ‘You are. And you’re getting
paranoid again too. You’ve been keeping that Eye in your head for too long.
It’s making you all paranoid, just like the last time you had it.’
    Gaius squinted suspiciously at
her. ‘Who’s been saying I’m paranoid?’ he snapped.
    ‘Just me.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    Jessica sighed. ‘See, you’re
being all paranoid now. That Eye is having a bad effect on you. You need to
take it out for an hour or two here and there, otherwise it makes you all vengeful
and you make bad decisions based on all your pathetic personal grudges. That’s
what got you in trouble all those years ago and it’s why you ended up being
mummified for centuries. Take it out and think for yourself, for fuck’s sake!’
    ‘I am fucking thinking for
myself, thank you very much. Now are we going to kill this woman on my sofa or
not?’
    Jessica strolled across the room
to the sofa and gave Beth a prod in the back. She didn’t stir. Jessica turned
back to Gaius and smiled. ‘Calm down,