“I need to see what’s going on.”
“This way.”
Vic led as they eased out of Alyssa’s place and up the stairs to the second floor. All of Simon’s senses had been attuned to where Alyssa went ahead, whispering to people on the stairs, and sending them toward her apartment. He wanted to protect her, but he needed to trust in her strength. She was calm and smart. She’d be fine so long as he kept Joey away from her.
But he had to find the bastard first, assuming this wasn’t just a random robbery. So he crept after Vic and tried to listen to the sounds coming out from the laundromat. Even in the stairwell, he could hear coins tumbling on the ground. Guess they’d broken at least one machine. Then a voice, muffled and faint from the distance.
“Hurry your asses up. I told you five minutes, no more.”
He knew that voice. It wasn’t Joey’s, as he expected, but someone else he’d talked to recently. One of the shifters.
Hell. He paused, wondering if he should burst in there and take the bastard out now, and then look for Joey. But there were too many unknowns. And a ton of people still in the building.
Best to stick to the plan.
He followed Vic up the stairs, stopping another three from running toward the front door. Whispered communication sent them scrambling for Alyssa’s bedroom window. And then they were upstairs in Vic’s quarters.
His place was surprisingly organized. Messy, for sure, but in controlled areas. That corner for papers and books. That corner for entertainment of all kinds.
“All the climbing gear is in the hall closet,” Vic said as he gestured. Simon was already there pulling out rope and equipment when he realized Vic was running water in the kitchen. Even though he knew the answer, Simon spun around and demanded an explanation.
“What are you doing?”
Vic put a full glass of tap to his lips, pausing long enough to say, “Gearing up.”
“Negative!” Simon snapped. “I don’t need you drugged up and smelling to high heaven. I need you thinking.”
Vic paused, but he didn’t put the glass down. “I’m a better fighter as a hybrid. Stronger. We don’t have a gun. We’ll have to fight hand to hand.”
Simon snorted. “Bullshit. You always have a gun. Where is it?”
Vic sighed. “Locked up behind the desk in the laundromat. You know, where the bad guys are right now.”
Great. So now they had well-armed bad guys. “I still don’t want you amped up.”
Vic grimaced but set down his glass. “You’re the boss.”
Just then another boom rocked the building and that one hit the foundations. He could feel it in the way it concussed around them. Vic knew it too because his expression tightened. He stopped arguing and grabbed the gear. They both knew that whomever was doing this was making sure the building came down around everyone’s ears.
Then it was back into the hallway. One sniff told him that Alyssa was up here, too. Then he heard her bang on someone’s door.
“Mr. Pinero, it’s Alyssa. You need to come out. I know it’s scary, but there’s a fire in the building. Mr. Pinero.”
She banged again and Simon pivoted, intending to help her. But one step in her direction, and she abruptly waved him back.
“I’ve got this!” she hissed. And apparently she did because right then the door swung open and she jerked back. “Mr. Pinero!” she said with a shaking voice. “You’ve got your…um…blunderbuss. Okay. Just point it to the ground as we get out.”
Even in this chaos, his heart warmed with pride. These were Alyssa’s people and she knew how to lead them. He had to let her do her job while he attended to his. So he turned and followed Vic up to the roof. They were stopped two more times by others who needed to be told not to go through the front doors. It was a measure of how scary life had become that no one argued at the possibility of snipers. They just nodded grimly and headed downstairs.
By the time they made it up to the roof, Simon could smell the acrid scent of smoke. The building was on fire, all right. The laundromat was likely a gaping hole right now, and it pained him that Alyssa’s building was going to be destroyed because of him. Worse, they both heard the pops of gunfire. They had no idea who was shooting where and didn’t have time to figure that out as Vic eased open the roof door. As soon as it was cracked far enough, Simon slipped through.
And just as he expected, someone was waiting right there for whomever came up. It was a young man who smelled of sweat and aggression. The BO was thick, indicating he was a hybrid, but he wasn’t in control. Which made it easy enough for Simon to end him. If there’d been more time, he might have tried to simply knock the kid out, but the hybrid was ferocious.
Once the hybrid was down, they made a quick circuit of the roof. No one else was up here, but looking down gave them a wealth of information.
The building was on fire, and there were people down at the front and back of the building. People who obviously hadn’t met up with one of them or simply hadn’t listened. They didn’t look dead, thank God. Just wounded as they crawled to lie beside cars in the parking lot.
A quick look to the side where Alyssa’s window stood showed a couple people slipping out and running hard for the safety of the dumpster. It didn’t appear that anyone had seen them yet, and that was good news. Simon picked out the likely places where the snipers were hiding. Thanks to the city light and the moon, they were pretty easy to spot. None of them was trained, and most of them were too hopped up to remain still. They danced on their feet, adjusted around cars, and one even hit the roof of a car in glee when he shattered a second story window. Apparently, he was bored with waiting for targets and was now just shooting out windows.
