Harry actually laughed in Morales’s face. “Go tell your scary stories to one of the peewees on Exposition, asshole. If a fucking Righty comes at me, he’ll limp away.”
We were burning gas and daylight, so I pulled the van to the side of the road. We were in Sanguinarian territory, not far from the alley where Harkins killed the woman the night this shit began for me. I couldn’t help but wonder how things would have been different if I’d just let him escape into the Arteries instead of chasing him toward that inevitable conclusion.
“There’s something else you haven’t considered,” Gardner said. At Harry’s raised brows, she continued, “When we get you to the precinct, the first thing that’ll happen is a search warrant will be issued for your residence. When they find ampoules of Gray Wolf in your house, you’ll go down for that, too. Maybe it’ll get you into Crowley, but you won’t be there long enough to enjoy your status. The federal potion charges plus the murder will get you a one-way ticket to the gas chamber.”
Harry opened his mouth, but Morales spoke first. “Ah, ah, ah, think for a minute. We’re talking about you being put to death for crimes your father masterminded. Are you ready to die for him, Harry?”
“Or you can give us the information we want,” Gardner said, “and you’ll be free to pursue your own ambitions without your father interfering.”
Harry sucked at the front of his teeth for a minute. By this point, we’d been driving around for almost an hour—well past the time when we could claim we’d simply taken a couple of wrong turns. I squeezed the steering wheel so tight my knuckles were white as we waited for Harry’s answer.
“So what? I give you some sort of tip and you talk to that attorney?”
“You give us a good tip and yeah, we’ll have the attorney here with papers reducing charges before you finish talking,” Gardner said.
“And if I don’t, you’ll take me to the precinct to be booked?”
“We’ll find the evidence eventually to put you away permanently.”
The white-haired wizard looked down at his hands, thinking it over. The tension in the car was thick as Harry’s musky cologne. When he finally looked up, his expression was unreadable. I turned full in my seat to get a better look. His eyes met mine for a brief, hard moment. His head tilted as he watched me and then the corner of his mouth lifted, as if he’d remembered something suddenly. “You know what?” He finally looked at Gardner. “Fuck you. I’m no snitch.” As the aftershocks of that announcement rippled through the vehicle, Harry started laughing. “Now take me to the precinct or I’ll sue all your asses for kidnapping.”
I froze and glanced at Gardner. Her expression didn’t betray any of the disappointment she had to be feeling, but her stiff shoulders hinted at her anger. She met my gaze and jerked a small nod. I sighed and turned around. As I put the car in Drive, I met Morales’s eyes in the rearview. He winked at me. We’d planned for this, but Morales looked as if he had been hoping this would happen instead of feeling like a man pushed to use a last resort.
Our destination was only a few blocks away. On the way, Harry was quiet but the smug look on his face spoke volumes. He thought he’d fucked us but good. Little did he know.
I pulled the van onto Mercury Street. It took Harry a few moments to realize I was slowing down. When he did, he tensed. “Why is she stopping?”
The SUV glided easy as you please next to the curb. We parked about half a block away from a group of Sanguinarian dealers huddled around a trash-can fire. They looked up immediately, mistaking the van as the vehicle of a buyer. A short, skinny kid broke off from the group and started in our direction.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Harry asked. The first notes of panic entered his tone.
“Now that I’ve thought about it, maybe we were too hasty in nabbing you for that gun,” Morales said. “Probably you were telling the truth about having your permit at home.” He clapped Harry on the back. “It’s getting cold, so we figured we’d take you right to your dad’s front door.”
As they talked, I kept an eye on the side mirror to track the kid’s progress. He couldn’t have been more than thirteen, but his eyes already had a street-honed hardness. Luckily the car’s windows were tinted so he couldn’t see who was inside. Yet. If Harry didn’t act soon, everyone in a three-block radius would know exactly whom we had in there.
“Take me somewhere else,” Harry said quickly. “If they see me with you—”
“What?” Morales raised a brow. “You’ll end up like Marvin Brown?”
Harry’s mouth snapped shut.
“You either get out here and receive a police escort to the tunnel entrance or you come with us to the precinct and have a conversation with the US attorney.”
“I’ll even escort you all the way to the tunnels myself,” I said with a smile. “Wanna bet those assholes will recognize me and wonder if you’re considering defecting from the covens, just like I did?”
Harry crossed his arms. “You’re bluffing.”
“Oh yeah?” I unclicked my seat belt. “Remember what happened last time we played chicken, Harry?”
His eyes widened. Back when we were around ten or eleven, Harry got a brand-new bike from his dad for his birthday. It was a cherry-red ten-speed that was the envy of all the Cauldron kids. My mom couldn’t afford a bike for me, and I was so envious of that fucking thing it burned me. So one day I decided to challenge Harry to a game of chicken. He was to ride at me full speed on the bike. If I flinched, he’d get to punch me in the face. If I won, he had to give me the bike. After my mom came home to find a red bike in our living room, she made me give it back to him. But the few hours that bike was in my possession were some of the happiest of my childhood.
The look on Harry’s face now was a lot like the one that marred his face when he pulled himself off the pavement that afternoon long ago. Back then, his elbows and knees had been bloody, and tears streaked down his pale skin. Now he was an adult and there were no tears, but the hatred remained.
Harry’s eyes burned at me. “You will regret this, bitch.”
“Maybe.” I smiled and reached for the handle. “But it will be fun while it lasts. Shall we?”
The kid outside was even with the rear bumper of the SUV now. His head was tilted up as if he smelled danger, but the promise of a sale kept him moving forward. Harry glanced back. He popped his knuckles and his knee jostled up and down, betraying his nerves. “Fuck!”