“What way—”
“They took the other exit.”
It wasn’t Lucas, oysters jammed in his nostrils and eyes streaming from the sting of lemon, who answered. Somerset turned his head to look at the heavy-set man with the scarred knuckles who’d come out of the back office.
“There’s another exit?” he said.
The man nodded as he pulled a cap out of the pocket of his coat and pulled it on over his close-cropped hair. The red brim if it came down past his ears.
“I can show you.”
Somerset let Lucas go. The man staggered back, hit the table, and slid to the ground. He spat out some parsley and picked the meat from his nose.
“I’m going to kill them,” Somerset muttered under his breath. He looked at the redcap. “Lead the way.”
Lucas threw a chunk of raw fish across the floor. It skipped on the flat carpet tiles and rolled under someone’s chair. “Why do you care?” he demanded. “They’re justmortals. A dime a dozen, for fuck’s sake. Easily replaced if they’re your pets.”
Somerset held up a finger at the redcap to buy himself a moment. Then he bent over and grabbed the front of Lucas’ shirt to haul him back to his toes. They were nose to nose as Somerset leaned in.
“Piss me off more,” he warned, “and we’ll see how long it takes your patron to replace you.”
Lucas curled his mouth into a sneer. “You wouldn’t dare,” he said confidently. “My mother would never allow it.”
“Who’s going to tell her?” Somerset said. He let go of Lucas with a shove that sent the other man staggering into the buffet table. “People disappear into the cold all the time. They always have.”
Lucas caught himself, his hand in a plate of eggs, and glared at Somerset.
“I have friends,” he said. “Important friends.”
Somerset smirked as he turned to go. “Liar,” he tossed over his shoulder as he followed the redcap toward the fire escape.
“The wolf came with the woman?” he asked as they headed down the narrow, bare concrete stairwell.
The redcap looked over his shoulder for a second and then nodded. “It didn’t want to leave without her either,” he said and frowned. “What would a wolf want with a pregnant woman? It’s not like they have a taste for mortal meat.”
Somerset grimaced.
“I don’t think they were here for her,” he said. “The paramedic who came for her—”
“He’s one of Yule’s,” the redcap interrupted. “You can smell it on him.”
“HeisYule,” Somerset corrected him grimly. “That was Santa, St. Nick himself.”
The redcap took a moment to absorb that.
“I should have told him what I wanted for Christmas,” he wisecracked eventually.
“Why?” Somerset asked skeptically. “You been good?”
“Doing pretty good tonight,” the redcap pointed out.
Chapter Three
The Jeep smashed intothe side of the ambulance. The impact threw Dylan to the side and snapped him back, half-throttled by the seatbelt as it cut into his collarbone. Glass chunks showered him from the smashed side window. Instinct kept his hands on the wheel as he tried to straighten the ambulance out. Behind him he heard Irene scream and the distinct, meaty slap of a body hitting metal.
Alice hadn’t been buckled in.
The weight of the ambulance meant it kept going, just jarred off course as it slid over the icy roads toward the sidewalk. The Jeep came along for the ride, front end jammed against the ambulance as it scraped along the road.
