tiger, she thought about what it had been like to pack up her few things and leave the Pit the night before. Butch had tried to talk her out of going, but the decision he'd made was in his eyes, so the words he'd spoken had made no difference.
The reality was, her love had not cured his death wish or his risk-taking personality. And as painful as the separation was, if she stayed with him, it would be untenable: nothing but night after night of waiting for the call to come that he was dead. Or even more tragic, that he had turned into something evil.
Plus, the more she thought about it, the more she didn't trust him to keep safe. Not after his suicide attempt in the clinic. And the regression he'd volunteered for. And the transition he'd put himself through. And now the battling-the consuming of lessers. Yes, the outcomes had been positive so far, but the trend wasn't good: All she had to go on was a consistent pattern of self-abuse that she knew damn well sooner or later he was going to get seriously damaged by.
She loved him too much to watch him kill himself.
As tears came to her eyes, she wiped them away and stared into space. After a while, some kind of flickering thought, like an echo, flashed through the back of her mind. But whatever it was faded quickly.
Forcing herself to stand up, she was momentarily lost. She literally couldn't remember what she was doing or why she was in the hall. In the end, she headed for her office because there was always something waiting for her to do there.
One thing about being a former cop was you never lost your idiot radar.
Butch paused in the alley next to ZeroSum. Down the way, loitering at the club's emergency exit, was that Page 299
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half-pint, Euro-trash, flash-in-the-pan blond kid who'd made such a stink at the waitress last week. Next to him was one of his steakheads and the pair were lighting cigarettes.
Although why they were smoking it up out here in the cold didn't make a lot of sense.
Butch hung back and watched. Which of course gave him time to think. Which sucked, as usual. Man, anytime things got quiet, all he could see was Marissa getting into Fritz's Mercedes and that S600 disappearing through the gates.
With a curse, Butch rubbed the center of his chest and hoped like hell he found a lesser. He needed to fight something to take the edge off this perma-ache. Like now.
From off Trade Street, a car turned into the alley and came forward at a fast clip. As it flew past and stopped short at the club's side door, the black Infiniti was spinning enough chrome to qualify as a frickin' disco ball.
And what do you know, Little Blond Dickhead sauntered over like this was an arranged meet-and-greet.
As the kid and the driver gum-flapped and palm-slapped, Butch couldn't tell exactly what was doing, but he was damn sure they weren't comparing cookie recipes.
When the Infiniti reversed it out, Butch stepped from the shadows, figuring there was one way of knowing if his hunch was correct: Assume and see what came back at him. "Tell me you aren't going to deal that shit inside? The Reverend hates freelancers."
The little blond guy wheeled around, all righteous pissed. "Who the fuck are-" His words dried up. "Wait, I've seen you before... except..."
"Yeah, I got my chassis overhauled. I run better now. Lot better. So what are you-" Butch froze as he felt his instincts fire up.
Lessers. Close by. Shit.
"Boys," he said calmly. "You need to take off now. And you can't reenter through that door."
Dickhead's attitude came back online. "Who do you think you are?"
"Trust me on this and get your groove on. Now."
"Fuck you, we can stand out here all night if we-" The punk froze, then blanched as a sweet smell rode down to them on a breeze. "Oh, my God..."
Hmmm, so Little Blond Dickhead was a pre-trans, not human. "Yeah, like I said. Get gone, kid."
The pair took off, but they weren't fast enough: A trio of lessers appeared at the open end of the alley, blocking their way.
Great. Just terrific.
Butch activated his newest wristwatch, sending out a beacon and coordinates. Within moments, V and Rhage materialized by his side.
"Use the strategy we agreed on," Butch muttered. "I'll sweep up."