Fists of Iron: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Clans of Shadow Book 3) Read online

  I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Mom to focus on the important things. “Mom, seriously–”

  “Yeah, seriously! If you fall down, you gotta get back up again.” She slapped me lightly on the shoulder. “That’s always been your problem, son. You act like such a tough guy, but when you get hurt, you throw in the towel.”

  “I do not!” Yeah, I was being contrary. The truth is Momma Butcher was almost always right about her kids. “Besides, I don’t get why I shouldn’t be upset about this shit and let me add that I think a rebound hookup of any kind is a horrible idea. Anyway, it’s not like Gabriela and I were even a thing. Not really.”

  Mom shook her head, her hair curlers bouncing as she clicked her tongue. “Deny it all you want. I know what I’ve been seein’ and hearin’. Anyway, you can’t let yourself lose out on somethin’ just ‘cause it ain’t the prudent thing to do. Sometimes the best things in life come from doin’ crazy things.” She grabbed up her cup again. “What do I know, though? I’m only your poor, old, bedraggled mother.”

  I rubbed my hands over my face. “Mom, Christ, you don’t have to pull the guilt trip, okay? Look, I promise I’ll keep my eyes open for, uh, opportunities.” Looking over at her, I tried to look and sound serious. “Let’s get past the analysis of my broken love life and get back to the whole ‘bad-rabbi-and-kidnapped-kid’ thing.”

  Betty shrugged. “I dunno. You’ve been seein’ all this stuff up close. Livin’ in all this magic stuff.” She smiled sadly. “I’m still wrappin’ my head around it all. I don’t know if my advice would be any good for you.”

  I put my arm around her shoulders and gave her a loving squeeze. “Mom, your advice is always good, even if I don’t always follow it.”

  She clasped a hand around mine on her shoulder. “Yeah, well, you ain’t wrong, Frankie dear. I wish you’d follow it more though!” Glancing back at me, she smirked. “So about that advice, about the crazy shit goin’ on now, I think you’ve gotta do what’s right.”

  “That’s awfully vague, ya know? You could argue a lot of things are ‘right’ and most of them would actually be wrong or turn out that way in the end.”

  It was Mom’s turn to roll her eyes. “I taught you better than that! By now, you should know what’s the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do.”

  I found my lips frowning. She was right. She had taught me and Bobby both what the right thing to do was. “What about you? If I do the ‘right’ thing, I won’t be around to keep you safe. You’re mixed up in this shit now.” I left out the obvious end of that sentence, namely I was to blame for it.”

  “If you don’t stop the guilt trip right now, well, let's just say you’re not too old for a spanking!” The way she looked at me made me seriously think she was considering bending me over her knee and laying into me so I wisely shut my yap and nodded for her to continue. “Frankie, you don’t hafta worry about me. I’ll be safe enough here.”

  “But Mom–”

  “No buts!” She poked me hard in the ribs. “Think about it. Your Rabbi Joe’s got what he wants, so he ain’t gonna be sniffin’ around here or causin’ trouble. He’s too busy makin’ trouble for everywhere else, right?”

  I shrugged. I was dragging my feet, trying to deny what she was saying, even though everything she was saying was right. “I suppose so.” Being a foot-dragging asshole was something I was good at, after all.

  “For fuck’s sake, boy, stop being an asshole!” Touché, Mom, touché.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Arguing with Betty Butcher was as effective as pissing into the wind. While I was known for doing some stupid things in my time, I had long ago stopped doing this particular stupid thing. Well mostly.

  “Yeah, that’s better,” she smiled. “So what are you goin’ to do then?”

  I let out a harsh sigh as I got to my feet. “Something stupid.” I gave her my patented smirk. “You know, the usual.”

  “I understand, but whatever you do, don’t get killed.” Mom sucked in a breath. “You need to come back to me, okay?”

  It would have been easy for me to promise her I’d be back, that everything would be okay. I’m not a bad liar, after all. But I wouldn’t lie to Mom. I had given that up a long time ago. Instead of that easy lie, I silently walked out of the room. It was almost worse.

  3

  As I stepped out of Mom’s room, arguing filled my ears. It was loud enough in the main hallway for me to almost make out random words here or there, but it rose in volume and clarity with every step I took toward my own quarters. It wasn’t hard to parse out the two voices.

  One of them was Gabriela’s, and the other was John’s. The shitty part of me almost jumped for joy, ecstatic to hear evidence there were cracks in the foundation of their relationship. After all, if they were fighting, they might split up. The better part of me was trying to stuff that shitty part down into a dumpster and close the lid. He was a bit squirmy about it though, so it was a lot tougher than it should have been.

  Now, the little cell of a room I had was connected to a common room, like a cheap college dormitory, with the Perez family’s room branched off of that. As I rounded the corner to the common room door, the voices continued to get louder but were still too muffled for me to make out the conversation. There were a couple of people who probably could hear exactly what was going on and those were the two folks at the door.

  Molly stood there, grinning like a fool, her two forefingers pressed against the wood and glowing faintly. Tyrone loomed over her, frowning and shaking his bullet head.

  “You’re not allowed to use scrying spells in the building,” he grumbled. “You’re still under probation or whatever you wanna call it. Besides, it’s not polite.”

  “Ye ain’t stoppin’ me, boyo,” she replied with a cocksure smile. “Don’t you lie and say ye dinnae want ta know what’s goin’ on. Yer happy I’m doin’ this. Admit it.”

  Neither of them saw me yet, too engrossed in their back-and-forth to notice, so I let out a loud cough as I walked up. That got their attention. “So what mischief are you crazy kids getting up to?”

  Molly only started for a second before giving me a mischievous wink, while Tyrone looked more embarrassed than anything else. “Dammit, Frank, I’m doing my job here.”

  Even without the juju Molly was using, I could make out enough of the fight to get the gist of it. It seemed to be a private extension of what had been brewing before: Gabby wanted to go save her kid and John was putting his boot down on the matter. I knew the doc was stubborn, and I was getting the strong impression the Peacekeeper was just as pig-headed. If I were any judge of arguments, I’d also guess the big fireworks had already gone off and the whole thing was starting to sputter out.

  “Come on, man, you aren’t stopping shit,” I said with a smirk before looking at the Irish girl. When Mom had referred to other fish in the sea, it didn’t take a genius to figure out who she was referring to. Molly was certainly my type of girl, which meant any relationship with her would likely end in a toxic fireball of bad decisions (or maybe a literal explosion in this particular case). Besides, it hadn’t been nearly long enough to snuff out the flame I had for the doc. “Sounds like it’s breaking up. Anybody coming out or are they going to make up with a quiet cuddle?”

  “A quiet cuddle sounds like a right fine idea, Frank,” she grinned, “but I dinnae think–”

  Molly was cut off by the resounding SLAM of an interior door. Whatever charm or spell she had been using to listen in must have amplified that thunderous sound a lot because she clamped her hands over her ears as her entire body shuddered with vibrations.

  The stomp of angry footsteps coming our way wasn’t my imagination either, and I knew it would look awfully suspicious (or at least pretty embarrassing) for either Gabby or John to find all three of us lingering outside like a bunch of teenage gossips.

  Chalk it up to either my Army training or the quick wits developed by talking my way through too many late deliveries for the American P
arcel Delivery company, but either way, I sprang into action. See, with my room on the other side, my being about to go in wouldn’t look too strange, so the priority was to get the other two out of the way.

  I grabbed Molly by the shoulders, trying to ignore the shudders moving from her body into mine, and pushed her toward Tyrone. “Get you two out of here,” I hissed, “or turn invisible or some magic shit.”

  The big guy had a look of confusion for a split-second, but he instinctively took hold of Molly. Maybe he hadn’t heard the oncoming footsteps or maybe it was something else that made him look at me dumbly, if a bit flushed. Goddamn, this wasn’t the time for high-school hi jinx, but it looked like we were indulging in it all the same.

  “Come on, Bullet Bill, snap out of it.” It was hard to sound forceful when you’re trying to whisper, let me tell you.

  The footsteps stopped at the door, and there was a momentary pause, like whoever it was had heard our shenanigans on the other side. Really, the whole thing would have made me laugh if I had seen it on the big screen and it wasn’t playing out in real life.

  Stupid or not, that pause was a split second more for the eavesdroppers to disappear. Tyrone’s reflexes, surprisingly sharp for a big lumbering wall of muscle, came back online, and he pulled Molly’s stunned frame back down the hallway, tossing a handful of glittering dust in his wake. Magic rippled in the air and the shadows wrapped around the pair. Though I could see them with the help of la Corazon, I had to assume most people wouldn’t see the pair huddling in the shadows.

  As I turned back toward the door, it rattled open, and Gabriela stepped out. We almost collided in that one step, Gabby’s eyes watery despite the flash of anger in them. Our gazes met and locked for a few seconds before she pushed past me into the hall while closing the door behind her. The look on her face broke something inside of me, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure if I should punch someone or hug her. Probably both, you know, just to be safe.

  With full-on honesty and concern, I asked, “Doc, are you okay?”

  Now, I know I should have kept my nose out of the whole mess. I’m no homewrecker and I certainly didn’t want to fuck up a husband and wife getting back together after one of them was missing for over a year. I’m not that kind of guy. But I couldn’t help myself. I mean, I was still her friend, right? I should be concerned, right?

  She didn’t turn back to look at me, but she didn’t keep on going down the hall. “Honestly, Frank, I’m not.” Her voice was a dangerous mix of anger and sadness, that volatile state where a person might wind up doing just about anything. “I thought you would still be with your mother.”

  “Uh, no. Well, I was, but I figured I should probably talk things out with the folks in charge. You know, make sure they know I’m not telling them to totally fuck off.” Yeah, avoid mentioning his name. That was the smart thing to do, right? It was also smart to resist the urge to put my hands on her shoulders, to soothe the tension I knew I’d find there.

  “That’s certainly not the impression you left when you stormed out.” I could hear the pain there. Yeah, I couldn’t fault her for feeling that way, not after I had sworn I’d stick with this to the end. She glanced back over her shoulder, but I still couldn’t see her eyes. “That hurt, you know, but I’m glad you’re not running away from this.”

  Part of me wanted to say something sappy like “I didn’t run away because of you.” But I didn’t. What good would it do? Still, as I opened my mouth to say something, she turned around and waved me off.

  “I know you’re not a jerk, Frank. I know that’s not why you did it.” Those green eyes were smoldering, the fire only accented by the few tears that had rolled down her face. “I was actually coming to find you, to ask you for your help again.” She glanced sidelong at the door to the common room. “I’m guessing you heard…”

  I frowned a bit. Look, even if I was a total asshole and saw this as some kind of opening romantically, I couldn’t help but feel horrible for Gabby. It looked like there really was trouble in paradise. “Hey, lovers argue. I bet he’s just trying to do what he thinks is best, ya know?”

  “I love him, but I won’t sit by when I think he’s wrong.” That shouldn’t have surprised me, not one bit. That just wasn’t Gabriela. The one thing that had been driving her onward since this whole shitstorm began was getting Max back. That wasn’t going to stop just because John had come back into the picture.

  “Well, are you asking me to break the orders of the last Peacekeeper so you and I can go get Max back?” Shit, might as well get to the point, right?

  It was Gabriela’s turn to smile, even though I could still see the distress mixing with the anger in her eyes. “I suppose so. After all, it’s what we’ve been doing this whole time. Why change up a good thing?” She glanced over my shoulder, right where I knew Tyrone and Molly were still hugging the enchanted shadows. “And maybe we could scrounge up some extra help while we’re at it.”

  Almost on cue, Tyrone broke the spell of shadows and came forward with one finger to his lips. He led us silently to the stairs before climbing upward. Unlocking the hatch to the roof with a muttered incantation, the big guy took us to a specific spot looking out over the back alley.

  “There,” he grumbled. “If you’re going to keep on this crazy talk, we do it here.” He sat down on the low ledge on the edge. “It’s about the only safe spot outside the director’s office.” Considering Tyrone was the head of security around here, I took him at face value on that.

  Molly did a little spin as she settled down on the roof. “So tell us now, what sorta mischief are ye up to then?” She ran her fingers through her red hair, eyes darting between Gabby and me. “Ye know I owe ye one, Doctor dear. By me mother’s feathers, I owe ye both my life and then some.”

  “And I haven’t agreed to anything, just to make sure I’m being perfectly clear,” Tyrone muttered with clear annoyance. “I’ve got a position here and I take it damned serious, right?”

  The doc pulled a handkerchief out of her coat pocket and wiped her eyes and nose. “I don’t want to endanger anyone here. You know me, Tyrone. You know how many people I’ve helped.”

  The wind was starting to kick up, blowing grit and the smells of the aging industrial park over the roof. I rubbed my nose and chimed in, “But you’ve got to get your kid. I don’t think anyone can fault you on that one.”

  Tyrone made an ugly face, but considering his face’s usual state, I can’t say that was much different. “I get that, so why not let the Peacekeeper do his job? This is their kind of gig, plus he is your husband. He’s as invested in getting your kid back as you are.”

  Gabriela turned toward the San Diego skyline. Her face was hidden, but I didn’t miss the sharp intake of breath as she tried to keep her voice even. “I know but… John has his priorities. You may know Peacekeeper John Prez, but I know my husband.”

  “Actually I don’t know either of them,” I pointed out. “I do know about cops and duty though.” Duty could make you do some pretty crazy things, and it could make you do things that might not be in your best interest. I hooked my thumbs in my pockets and asked a question I thought I knew the answer to. “You really think John wants to get Joe more than he wants to save Max?”

  There was a long moment of silence, one that not even Molly dared to break. Even the wind seemed to still for a moment.

  Finally, the doc let out a long, shuddering breath and said, “He has to worry more about the Great Old Ones and whatever crazy plan the rabbi is brewing. That’s the job, I knew that when we exchanged our vows, but I didn’t realize how far he would take it until today.”

  The tears had started again, no matter how hard she was fighting them, and we all knew it. It made me want to hurt John for hurting her, but more than that, it made me want to help her.

  Tyrone shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, while Molly’s eyes flashed between Gabby and me as if she was waiting for me to do something. I wanted to, with all my gold-and-turquoise
heart, but those nagging scruples reined me back. Troubles or not, Gabriela and John were married and family was sacred to the Butcher clan.

  So, instead of the warm embrace I wanted to give, the soothing gestures, and maybe a kiss for good measure, I clenched my jaw and held my ground. To my surprise, seeing my inaction, Molly hopped to her feet and put an arm around Gabriela’s shoulder, whispering into her ear.

  Kicking myself mentally, I tried to make up for my inaction and addressed everyone at once. “Okay. If that’s how it's gotta be, that's how it's gotta be, we’ll let Johnny Boy do his duty. We’ll get Max out ourselves and spare him the trouble.”

  Gabriela’s head bobbed, and she turned to Molly, giving her a brief hug before turning to Tyrone and me. Despite the pain she was carrying, Gabby was in full mother-bear mode. “Thank you, Frank and I’m sorry for–”

  I raised my hands to cut her off. “It’s okay. You didn’t know. None of us did.” It wasn’t okay, not really, but it wasn’t her fault. No need to complicate things, not with what we were about to do.

  Molly gave a slight nod of what I thought was approval before eyeing Tyrone. “Well now, laddie, are ye in or out? Ye gonna turn away from a mam in need or are ye a real man, eh?”

  Bluto was turning red despite his dusky skin as he blathered back, “I’m a man, sure, and I don’t want to leave Dr. Perez high and dry but … this is breaking the law. Our law!”

  Getting a grip on my own little emotional pity party, I sank back into usual Frank Butcher form as I lightly punched the big man’s shoulder. “C’mon, buddy, everybody else took a dump on your wizard rulebook months ago when they fucked over the Peacekeepers in the first place. It’s not like we’re even going to mess with the investigation or anything. We’re just working, ya know, parallel.”