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“A couple of police cruisers just pulled up a couple of stores down. The cops are getting out. It looks like they’re checking all the buildings in the area.”
Shit. My pulse stuttered, and I leapt back to my computer. “Are they coming straight here?”
“No. The Blood Hunter mustn’t have been able to tip them off to exactly where we are. Maybe he figured out the neighborhood, or maybe they’re patrolling for other reasons.”
“But either way it isn’t good,” Garrison added, snatching up as many bags of supplies as he could lift into his arms. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Hold on,” I said quickly. “I think I can divert them, and then we won’t risk a chase. Let me just…”
My hands whipped over the keyboard. There. I sent a falsified signal to all the police scanners nearby—an alert of gunshots fired reported at a location several blocks away. A second later, the thump of footsteps reached my ears.
“They’re running back to their cars,” Talon reported, and tipped his head to me. “You pulled it off.”
“For now.” I rubbed my hand over my face. We kept getting found, kept having to flee at a moment’s notice, and I could only use that trick one or two more times before calling wolf stopped being effective. Next time I might not be fast enough, or close enough to my computer—next time they might barge right into the building we were hiding out in, no chance to deflect them.
I glanced at Dess again as she went to grab her brother from the back room where we’d left him. A pang ran through my chest. That short interlude we’d had together back at the guest house felt centuries ago. When would we finally be able to relax again and enjoy the closeness we both got so much out of?
I might have managed to get at least some of the mercenaries off our backs with our attack on the office building yesterday. Interfering with the general could have put a wrench in the Blood Hunter’s military efforts as well. If only I could find a longer-term solution to keeping the police at a distance too…
An idea clicked into place in my head, so brilliant and also bonkers that I could already imagine what the others’ reaction would be. I said it anyway.
“I think I have a way to make sure the cops won’t be on our tail for at least a day or two so we can properly regroup. But I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”
* * *
“Why do I feel like I am so dead?” Dess whispered through the headset that I’d given her.
“There’s no need for theatrics,” I teased. “We’re just… diverting all the resources of the police department.”
Okay, that was a bit of an overstatement… but only a bit. I intended that when we were done here, no amount of anonymous tips would be able to convince the police to look for us anywhere other than where I’d pointed them.
But I needed help on the ground to accomplish that, and Dess had been the ideal accomplice. She could move faster than Julius or Talon, she was highly skilled at stealthy maneuvers, and she was smaller, so she could hide in more places than either of them. It was a no-brainer.
I wasn’t sure she’d be thanking me for giving her the honor, though.
“All you have to do is plant three more bombs, and we’re home free,” I reminded her.
“Right. Three more bombs on top of the dozen or so I’ve already placed, positioned perfectly so they won’t actually hurt anyone but will make a commotion to draw attention,andleave traces of the blood you ever so helpfully donated. Piece of cake. I should do this every day.”
The corners of my mouth quirked up. I loved a lot of things about Dess, and right now I was particularly loving the sarcastic side of her that’d come out.
“And I trust that you’d pull it off perfectly every time,” I assured her with a grin.
She sighed, and then the connection went quiet as she must have come up on her next target location. I’d plotted out a map of key spots all in the same general neighborhood where it’d look as if the terrible criminals the police had been tracking based on their new DNA results were attempting to wreak havoc on a rival gang that operated there. Both the investigation and the clashes with that gang should keep a whole lot of officersverybusy for at least a little while.
The tips the Blood Hunter had been giving them hadn’t gotten them anywhere. They had to be wondering how many of those were calling wolf too. There wouldn’t be the manpower to follow up on anything unverified while they had so much obvious evidence to sort through and leads to pursue.
I hunkered down in the middle seat of the van, monitoring police activity on my laptop. A minute later, Dess tuned back in. “Okay, it’s done.”
“Only two more now!” I told her cheerfully.
She snorted, sounding not even a little out of breath as she loped through the back alleys to the next target. “Lucky me. When I get back, you are going to owe mesomuch chocolate.”
“I can think of other ways of repaying you,” I said slyly, and her laugh electrified me.
“I’m sure you can,” she said. “Here we go. Give me a second.”
It took more like thirty, but I wasn’t going to complain when that was plenty speedy all on its own. A buoyant warmth filled my chest, and it occurred to me that despite the stress of the past few days and our current predicament—not to mention the crazy stunt we were about to pull—I felthappy.
