“Komodo dragons eat meat, alive or dead. I once saw Bruce devour three suckling pigs in the space of twenty minutes. He ate so much that he literally couldn’t move for several hours.”
“Where’d you get him?” Lorelei asked.
“Bruce belongs to a couple of magicians who have quite a menagerie.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Bruce is getting a little old. Last year he started to develop cataracts. I’ve been monitoring his eyesight since then, and we’ve decided that it’s time to operate and correct the problem. Later today I’m bringing in a veterinary ophthalmologist from Virginia to perform the surgery. She’s the best in the country.” Newman laughed, pushing his Coke-bottle specs high on his nose. “In fact, if my eyes get much worse I might have her take a crack at me.”
Dr. Newman glanced at Tura and Lorelei. He thought his joke was uproariously funny, but the Lynch sisters weren’t laughing at all. Obviously, they weren’t listening to a word he said.
Tura knelt and peered into the cage. “Daddy would just love him.”
Lorelei nodded. “And he’s got a birthday comin’ up at the end of the month.”
“You get him anything yet?”
“Nope. How about you?”
“Nope.”
Lorelei chuckled. “Could you imagine the look on his face if we brought him one of these?”
“We’d have to change his name, though. Daddy wouldn’t want a dragon named Bruce.”
“Yeah. Maybe we could call him Yog Soggoth.”
“Works for me,” Tura said. “How about it, Doc?”
Dr. Newman didn’t know what to say.
But there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he had to say something.
“Tura,” he began, “you have to understand-”
The world’s greatest lap dancer leaned forward and removed Dr. Newman’s Coke-bottle glasses, placing them atop Bruce’s cage.
Suddenly, Dr. Newman’s throat was uncomfortably dry. “No, darling, you really must listen. I just can’t let you do this-”
“Sure you can,” Tura said. “You want my phone number, don’t you?”
Dr. Newman couldn’t see a thing without his glasses, so he didn’t see Tura’s hand moving toward him. But as soon as he felt it, he made his decision.
He would tell the magicians that the dragon had been stolen. Or kidnapped. Yes, kidnapped. That would be better. He’d send the magicians a ransom note-
“The dragon is yours,” he said, and suddenly his bow tie seemed very tight indeed.
Tura kissed the vet. He had just consigned himself to hell. He was sure of it. But at the moment he didn’t care-
Until the door to the operating theater burst open.
Until someone yelled, “Get your hands in the air. . and give me that Chihuahua.”
Tura couldn’t believe her eyes. The asshole was dead.
“C’mon,” Jack Baddalach said. “Just give us the dog and no one gets hurt.”
“Yeah.” The bimbo aimed her.45 at Tura. “Like he said.”
Tura raised her hands, just slightly. “Okay,” she said. “Okay.”
She angled behind Doc Gooddoggy. He was squinting in Baddalach’s direction. Obviously, he couldn’t see a thing.
Tura sucked a deep breath. So far so good. Her heart was out of the line of fire. So was her left hand. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled the Walther PPK.
Lorelei saw her do it. She had a firm hold on Spike, cradling the dog over her heart. Baddalach and his bimbo wouldn’t shoot her. Not when they might hit the dog.
“I’m not going to wait forever,” Baddalach said. “Bring me the dog. Now.”
“Okay,” Lorelei said. “But don’t shoot.”
Quite suddenly, Tura grabbed Doc Gooddoggy by his prissy white hair. Using him as a shield, she aimed the Walther over his shoulder and started shooting as Lorelei dumped the mutt and yanked a Heckler from the shoulder holster concealed under her coat.
Baddalach and his bimbo dove behind a metal counter near the operating theater door.
They rose a moment later, guns blazing.
Warm blood splashed Dr. Newman’s face. He heard a few stumbling steps, and then something thumped to the floor in front of him.
He heard a dog barking, claws scrabbling over tile floor.
The pistol next to his ear barked several times, and then he couldn’t hear a thing.
“No,” Dr. Newman moaned. “Oh please God.
Tura yanked his hair. At least he thought it was Tura. He couldn’t see a thing without his glasses.
She pulled him backwards, hiding behind him, until they were on the far side of the Komodo dragon’s cage. Then she yanked his hair again, and he dropped to his knees behind the cage.
People were shouting. He knew they were. But his ears were ringing with the sound of gunfire.
He couldn’t hear a blessed thing.
“You killed my sister,” Tura shouted.
Jack and Angel crouched behind the metal counter. Angel was holding Spike. Her.45 lay on the ground. Suddenly, she had forgotten all about it.
“You blond bitch!” Tura screamed. “I’m going to make you pay!”
Angel glanced at Jack, her face creased with worry. He shrugged. “You
“Either I walk out of here,” Tura said, “or the vet dies.”
“Oh, man,” Jack said.
Spike coughed, and Angel held him tight. “What are we going to do?”
“We’ve got the dog,” Jack said. “The vet probably doesn’t have anything to do with any of this. I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“Yeah, but we can’t just let her go.”
“So what do you want to do? Shoot it out? That’s great. Maybe one of us will plug the vet by accident and save her the trouble of killing him.”
“Yeah. But if we let her go, do you really think this will be the end of it?”
On the other side of the room, a door slammed.
“Shit,” Jack said.
Dr. Newman couldn’t see a thing. The gunshots had rendered him as deaf as Beethoven, but at least Tura had stopped pulling his hair.
He undid his bow tie and wiped the blood from his face. Then, scooting along on his ass, he moved away from the Komodo dragon cage. He didn’t want to be too close to the bars. Bruce’s claws were sharp as a samurai’s blade. One slash and Medicare wouldn’t begin to cover all the reassembly Dr. Frank Newman would require.
There. That was better. Bruce couldn’t reach him now. And no one had grabbed his hair to stop him from moving. That was better still.
Dr. Newman reached out tentatively. He couldn’t remember where Tura had put his glasses. Maybe they were on the floor.
His fingers drifted across the tile and touched cold metal.
The door to the Komodo dragon’s cage. .
