60
LOUISE
At first,there was no blood, just a jagged tear across his shirt. I actually thought I’d missed.
Then, as hands grabbed my arms from behind and the shard of glass fell to the floor, the blood welled up in a scarlet arc, soaking through Malone’s white shirt. It went right across the curve of one big pec and into the other.
“What thefuck?”Malone pawed at himself. “Jesus,I’m bleeding!”
I heard the metallic click of a gun being cocked and cold steel pressed against my temple. I closed my eyes.
“Wait!” snapped Malone. “Bitch does that to me, she’s going to die slow.” Strong fingers caught my jaw and pushed on my cheeks, popping my mouth open like a goldfish’s. I opened my eyes and Malone was right in my face, sneering at me. “That the best you got?” He drew back his hand and slapped me hard across the face. My head snapped to the side and the room spun for a second, pain blazing across my cheek. I saw Sean, held tightly by a small army of heavies, growl and try to lurch forward to protect me.
Malone grabbed my jaw again. “If you’re going to knife someone,” he told me, “you gottastabthat motherfucker.” He looked down at hischest. “Slashing away like that don’t doshit.Hell, I might not even need stitches.”
I saw one of the guards frown as he heard Malone slur, but everyone was too scared of him to point it out.
“You gotta go deep,” he told me. “That’s what we’re going to do to you, bitch. Godeep.You understand me? And we’ll make that Irish fuck watch.” He grinned, but there was something not quite right about his eyes. He kept blinking. And he kept swallowing, as if—
“Mouth getting dry?” I asked.
Malone swallowed again, forcing his throat to work. He frowned at me.
“Am I getting blurry?” I asked.
For the first time, he looked scared. “What did—” He pressed his lips together and then opened them again, trying to make them work properly. “What did you do to me?”
“It’s belladonna,” I told him. “Deadly nightshade. I’d say you’ve got a minute before the convulsions start. Maybe less. Next will be your heart.”
A ripple ran through the crowd. A gun pressed against my forehead.
“Wait! WAIT!” snapped Malone. He was breaking out in a sweat, now, little salty beads gleaming across his dark skin. “How do I fix it?”
“We’ll get you to hospital,” said one of the heavies. “Come on, let’s get you in the car.”
Sean’s voice broke out, loud and clear and full of authority. “Nearest hospital’s five minutes away. We checked. He’s got half that.”
There was silence for a second.
“Bullshit,” said one of the heavies.
“Really?”asked Sean. He nodded towards the crop. “You want to bet againstherwhen it comes to plants?”
I wanted to hug him. There was silence again as Malone and his men debated it. Meanwhile, the dealers were looking at each other, unsure of what to do.
The indecision ended when Malone’s body gave a jerk, as if he’d been touched by a live wire. It was enough to send him staggeringbackwards into one of his heavies...and then they found themselves supporting his weight because his legs had started to fail. “Bitch,” he croaked. “Fix it!”
“This is how it works,” I said. “There’s an antidote: here, in the club. We walk out of here with our drugs. As soon as we’re gone, we’ll call you with where the antidote is.”
The guard pointing a gun at my head slowly lowered it and I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Then Malone shakily pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Sean. “You tell me where the antidote is right now,” he croaked, “or I’ll kill your boyfriend.” He glared at me, waiting for me to break. I was only some stupid civilian, after all, the good little girl who’d wandered into the big boys’ club.
I closed my eyes for a second. Opened them...and glared right back at him. I wasn’tgoodanymore. I’d hadenough.
We glared at each other for several long seconds. I saw Malone’s finger tighten on the trigger...and then he broke and lowered the gun. “Let them go,” he said, his voice a dry rasp.
The hands holding my arms let go and I pulled away. Across the room, Sean was doing the same.
