“Just Barry.” I shrugged. Regge moved another step. His hand was on the counter now.
“Tell him to get down here,” Shorty ordered.
“Oh, he’s coming. Don’t worry.” I braced.
With a terrifying roar, Barry thundered down the stairs in two giant leaps.
All three guns fired in his direction. The worker wolves went into action, taking down the nervous kid, ripping his gun out of his hand and his jugular out of his neck in seconds.
I dove around Shorty and army crawled my way to the front desk as shrieks and growls erupted in the room. Regge leaped over the counter, retrieved the sword, and attacked. Pink gun guy lost his gun and hand in one fell swoop. He screamed, holding the bloody stump to his chest.
Shorty was backhanded into the wall by a pissed-off giant. I ran for his dropped gun, scooping it up and holding it on him.
“Barry? You okay?” I asked, glancing over at the stairs where Barry had landed on his butt.
“I’s got these pesky pellets in me. I kinnae get them out.” The big man fussed over his bloody shirtfront.
“Hang on,” Regge said. “Stop this guy bleeding all over my hotel, please.” He nodded at the wolves who circled the handless man. Pery was up and moving by now and picked up the pink gun, tucking it into his waistband. Regge moved toward me, helping me up. He kept the sword at his side. “You okay?”
I nodded. “What are we going to do now?” We both looked at Shorty. “If they’re dead, they can’t bother us anymore.”
“The boss will just send more,” Shorty said, his eyes not leaving Barry. His hands raised, he half rose to a sitting position. “Is he for real? And the others?” He glanced across the lobby at the wolves, half of whom had fully shifted to their wolf form. “Jesus God. Am I having a psychotic break?” He jerked his head at the giant. “Did he… ah… did he really eat Julian?”
Barry, who was not at all prone to cannibalism, frowned at him. “Och, everyone’s a bleedin’ critic.” He sat gingerly on the third step, holding a handkerchief the size of a dish towel to his chest.
“That was a few weeks ago, so he’s probably hungry again,” I snarked at Shorty. “Who’s after Julian?”
“The new boss. Castenada’s lieutenant. Wants to make an example,” Shorty said. “Look, can I help Jake?” He nodded at his wounded friend, holding a bar towel around his wrist.
Regge had one of the workers grab the detached hand and put it in a baggie on ice. Skylar, still sporting claws, went to check out Barry.
“So what are you going to tell this new boss?”
Shorty couldn’t do much for Jake, so he simply sat beside him as one of our workers duck-taped the towel to slow the bleeding.
“Julian was a good guy. Better than the boss most of the time. But I just do what I’m told. It’s a clusterfuck up in Jersey.The old man’s dead, so’s Ramon. The lieutenant in charge is an asshole at the best of times, and this ain’t the best of times. If Julian’s dead, I need a body or something. I need proof.”
I thought for a moment. “What about blood? If you showed him a huge amount of blood and could prove it was Julian’s, would that work? We want nothing to do with you guys.”
Regge lowered the sword. “Take your guy and go. Get this one to a hospital. Make up some industrial accident story for his injury and we’ll see about getting proof. Come back to the rear entrance in an hour. Just you. I’m not partial to killing someone in cold blood, but you did threaten my partner.”
Shorty raised his hands. “Yeah, I got ya. But I can’t hold off the boss for long.”
“What about Andrew?” Jake looked at the body of the third gunman.
“Were sorry about him,” I said. But I was also grateful we hadn’t installed the new carpeting.
“No. We’re not,” said Pery. “But you can have the body.” He turned to his guys. “Let’s wrap him up in some drop cloths.”
Regge looked at Shorty. “We done here?”
Shorty nodded, looking at the gun in my hand. I emptied the chamber and handed it back to him. Regge escorted them to the front door while I went to check on Barry.
“Barry, my man. You were awesome. You okay? I’ll call Ziggy, see if we can’t get you patched up.”
“I’m getting most of them.” Skylar pulled a bullet from Barry’s hairy chest and held it between her claws. “Barry’s hide is so tough the bullets are more like scatter shot, so just under the surface. I don’t think anything got through to do serious damage.”
“Am I ginna hae a scar, d’ye reckon?” He looked worried.
