Blind God's bluff

rate, unlike the sopranos and Raul, she didn’t look like a happy slave. She looked like she was fighting it, and maybe my power could help.

It did. She screamed and jumped up out of her chair. Raul spun around in her direction. She grabbed a half- painted cherub, threw it, and clocked him right on the nose. He staggered back and clapped his hands over the damage. Those plaster molds were deadly.

She scrambled around the end of a table and snatched up the Glock.

By that time, everybody around me, Leticia included, was turning to see what was happening. The sopranos’ grips loosened as they tried to figure out how to hang on to me and put themselves between the pistol and the boss lady at the same time.

I stamped on feet and kicked shins. I slammed in elbow strikes until nobody was holding on to me anymore. Then Mr. Invisible sucked in a breath and started to sing.

I couldn’t let him throw any more magic. I lunged at him, tackled him, and dragged him down to the floor. I pounded him twice in the face with the bottom of my fist. Each time bounced the back of his head against the linoleum. The second one stunned him.

I rolled over onto my hands and knees. The other sopranos were reaching into their pockets or inside their jackets. So was Raul. Screaming “Bitch!” over and over again, Rhonda shifted back and forth, trying for a clear shot at Leticia. Still using the love monkeys for cover, Leticia matched her step for step and stared in her direction. She was probably trying to recast the spell I’d broken.

I jumped up and rushed Leticia. A soprano started to turn toward me. I straight-armed him and knocked him staggering, grabbed hold of Leticia, and kicked her feet out from underneath her. She fell down hard, and I dived on top of her.

There was a broken, jagged-edged piece of Jesus lying right beside us. Maybe He was on my side after all. I snatched it up and put the sharp side against her throat. “Everybody stop!” I yelled.

An instant later, the Glock banged. The round thumped into stuff on one of the shelves.

“You too, Rhonda!” I snapped. “God damn it!”

“Yes!” Leticia called. “Stop, please!” She squirmed and ground against me. It sent a thrill through me, but it wasn’t enough to start me slipping back under her control.

“That’s enough!” I said. “Of all this shit. You tried, it didn’t work, now you’ve got to clean up your mess. First off, your people need to put their guns on the floor.”

“Do it,” Leticia said, and her stooges obeyed.

“Now,” I said, “get Vic out of the cuffs.”

One of the sopranos took care of it. Eager to reach me but smart enough to stay out of arm’s reach of everybody else, Vic scurried along the wall.

“Now,” I said, “release everybody from your power. Raul, Pablo, and your own guys, too.”

Leticia scowled. It was the first expression I’d seen on her face that made her look like anything but a teasing nympho or a nympho who was worried I was sick. She was still gorgeous, but now, somehow, she reminded me of a dog if you were trying to take a bone away.

“I’ll release the brothers,” she said. “The others are mine. And will still be mine, whether they carry my mark or not.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but I bet they won’t have as much ‘positive motivation’ to protect you or screw with me.”

“No one can tell a noble how to rule her own people!”

It was pure instinct that made me do what I did next. I moved my chunk of Jesus from Leticia’s neck to her cheek. “Would your magic work even if you didn’t look like a movie star?” I asked.

“All right!” she snarled. “I’ll do it.” She closed her eyes, then opened them again.

The sopranos blinked like they were waking up from a dream. Blood running from his nose, Raul started toward Leticia and me.

“Pablo,” I said.

He stopped short. Then he turned and ran for the stockroom and the stairs beyond.

I looked at Rhonda. “If Vic and I take off, will you be okay?”

She smiled a nasty smile. “I’m the only one who’s still got a gun.” And it was a pretty good point even if she was a lousy shot.

“And you and I are square?”

“Yeah. The piteog with the fingernails brought the money.”

“Then I’ll see you around.” I climbed off Leticia, and then Vic and I headed for the front door.

CHAPTER NINE

Vic and I caught a break when we came out of the crafts store. There was a cab just a few feet away dropping off a guy with a saxophone case in front of a pawnshop. I shouted, and Vic and I ran to catch it. The driver’s mouth tightened when he saw her bruises, and he started to shake his head. But I showed him my roll of bills, and then he let us get in. Money’s a wonderful thing.

As the cab pulled away from the curb, I took my first good, close-up look at Vic’s face, and then I couldn’t blame the driver for thinking we were trouble. “Take us to where she can see a doctor,” I said.

“I’m all right,” said Vic.

“You’ve been beaten up,” I said, then hesitated. “But I guess I could try to take care of it.” Meaning that Red could.

“What?”

“I… have this trick I learned. It’s like the laying on of hands. But I’m not sure how much power I’ve got left.”

She stared at me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But maybe the clinic is a good idea. For you. I saw how that man Raul hit you.”

“Okay. We’ll both get checked out.”

“And then go on to the police.”

“No. No police. You can’t tell anybody what happened to you.”

“Billy, those people kidnapped me! On school property!” She was vice-principal at a middle school, and apparently, in her mind, getting snatched right off the playground or the parking lot somehow made it even worse.

“I know,” I said, “but still.”

“Is it because they have something on you? Because if you testify in a capital case, I’m sure no one will care.”

I snorted. “Somebody still watches Law and Order.”

“Don’t make fun of me! I’m trying to help us both!”

“I know, and I wasn’t, really. It’s just… look, think about the really weird parts of what happened. Your mind may want to ignore them, but don’t let it.”

She just sat for a few seconds, while the cab rolled out of Ybor and turned right on Nebraska Avenue. Then she murmured, “Shit.”

“Yeah,” I said.

She laughed the way you do when it’s not really funny. “Not Law and Order. Buffy.”

I’d never seen that show, but I was willing to take her word for it. “Pretty much. The world is full of monsters, and the number-one thing on their to-do list is making sure normal people don’t find out. They’ll come after you if you tell.”

“And who’d believe me anyway?”

“There’s that, too.”

But she wasn’t ready to let it go. “Still, people were shooting guns. You said you shot somebody yourself. I’m sure the police showed up eventually.”