Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,53

imagining it hanging like a shield between Leticia and me, I threw it on top of Rhonda.

I figured Leticia’s mojo worked best on people who liked girls. And I’d always had a hunch that Rhonda fell in that category, but maybe not. Maybe she didn’t like anybody. Maybe she got off rolling around in money. At any 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