She and her three goons came within a dozen feet of us when Bobo barked then growled, low in his chest.
She pointed the gun at him. From the other two Escalades, another eight mercenaries, also decked out in full paramilitary gear, emerged but remained beside the cars. The threat they posed was clear, however.
I rose to my tiptoes and glared at her over Griffin’s shoulder. “Don’t point a gun at my dog.”
Griffin reached behind himself to hook his arm around my hip in a steadying touch.
“I asked you a question,” Fanny said, keeping the barrel pointed right where it was.
Bobo bunched his shoulders and dipped his head into them. His lips pulled back to bare sharp teeth. His tail was pointed, stiff as an arrow.
“And I told you not to threaten my dog,” I said.
Bobo’s growls were vibrating through his barrel chest.
“He’s threatening me,” Fanny said.
“Becauseyou’rethreatening us,” I said.Like, duh?
“Drop the gun and he’ll calm down,” Griffin said.
Fanny tipped her head as if in consideration, taking in the lot of us, all huddled together.
“No.”
“Whaddya mean,no?” Brady asked. “What the fuck are you pointing that thing at any of us for anyway? What the fuck did we ever do to you?”
Fanny chuckled brightly, as if she found real humor in his questions—or maybe it was in our predicament. Being such a fan of Magnum—and of Magnum Four, even—I didn’t doubt her gauge of normal behavior was skewed.
“What did you do to me, he asks,” she muttered. “You ungrateful little shits!”
She waved her revolver in the air before settling it back on Bobo, whose rolling growls came without ceasing.
Brady crossed his arms over his chest. “Does Uncle Magnum know you’re here, being all crazy with us like this?”
Fanny snorted before her features pinched back into cruel angles. “Does Uncle Magnum know… ?Of course he knows! Everything I do is for him. Everything I’ve ever done is for him.”
Her tone was strident, as if she were as close to a mental breakdown as the rest of us, which seemed ridiculous, given that we were the ones under constant threat of death and not her.
Fuck. Her.
Layla sidestepped Hunt and also raised her hands in a silent,Don’t hurt me, you crazy bitch.
“So, I’m megaconfused right now. What happened to you? You’ve always been so nice to us. Why you been actin’ so messed up toward us right now?”
I suspected theZoolanderreference was lost on our audience.
“We just wanted to go for a nice drive. But … something’s wrong.” Layla shook her head artfully, and now I was sure it was all theatrics. My girl was aces.
Her face scrunched up into dumb-bimbo levels of confusion. “For some reason, it’s like we can’t … leave. I dunno. Do you know what’s going on?”
I said privately.
Fanny no longer considered Bobo from along the pistol’s barrel, but she still pointed it at my sweet boy. Her eyes on Layla, she sneered openly.
“Of course I know what’s happening. I know everything. And you are idiots for making Magnum work so hard for everything he’s fighting to accomplish.”
“What… ?” Layla looked from her to us as if flummoxed by this change of direction. “What are you even talking about?”
