Read J.L. Doty - Dead Among Us 01 - When Dead Ain’t Dead Enough for Free Online Page A

as horse blankets. Both were large, physically-imposing men, Karpov’s muscle, always close at hand. Vladimir on the left had high, Slavic cheekbones pitted with acne scars, long, straight, greasy blond hair that hung lankly down to his shoulders. Alexei on the right had a square face, with bristly, dark hair and a heavy, black mustache. He reminded McGowan of a young Joseph Stalin, and had a reputation for being just as brutal.
    McGowan asked, “What’re you doing here, Vasily?” Both thugs tensed at the apparent lack of respect in McGowan’s voice.
    Karpov tilted his head to one side, smiled and said calmly, “Valter! I’m here for the same reason you are, to stop a rogue sorcerer, a dangerous undertaking for us both. The least you can do is accept my help graciously.”
    When it came to manipulating the arcane they both knew McGowan was stronger than Karpov, could probably take the Russian in a fair fight, though he wouldn’t walk away from it unscathed. But while Alexei and Vladimir were both relatively weak practitioners, they were enough to tip the balance in Karpov’s favor. “Vasily, when you help, someone usually gets killed.”
    Karpov’s smile disappeared. “He’s a rogue, summoning demons without the proper protections. If we don’t kill him first, many innocents could die.”
    McGowan couldn’t hide his anger. “Since when do you care about innocents? And we don’t know what he is.”
    Both thugs took a step forward, which, together with Karpov, now enclosed McGowan in a semicircle. They made no effort to hide the threat in their stances. “Valter, Valter, Valter! Why risk ourselves for some stupid, untried amateur? He’s a fool, dangerous, so we take no chances, kill him quickly and be done with it.”
    McGowan looked carefully at Alexei, the more sociopathic of the two, gave him a hard angry look. Alexei didn’t back away, but his smug posture disappeared and he leaned slightly away from McGowan, an unconscious reaction to the older man’s superior arcane strength. McGowan turned slowly to Vladimir and gave him the same look. The ugly blond backed up a step, his right hand involuntarily lifting toward his coat. McGowan had no doubt he had a gun there, and narrowed his eyes in warning. Vladimir’s hand stopped well short of its goal.
    To Karpov, McGowan said, “If we have to kill him, then we’ll kill him. But I won’t condone murder until I know it’s absolutely necessary.”
    Karpov’s smile returned, but it was more of a challenge than a greeting between friends, and he was clearly ready to push this to the limit. He opened his mouth to say something, but a shadow stepped out of a shadow on McGowan’s left, and from the shadow a woman’s voice spoke in a thick Irish accent. “Well now, Vasily, I happen to agree with Walter.”
    The Russians stiffened and turned carefully to look at the shadow that stood openly in the light of a streetlamp. Other than its slight stature, and the timbre of its voice, the shadow itself gave no hint as to its owner’s nature.
    McGowan couldn’t hide his relief as he said, “Colleen!” His backup had just arrived and the odds had tipped heavily in his favor.
    The shadow spoke again. “Vasily, please instruct your young men that should there be any uncalled-for violence, I will be most displeased.”
    Karpov’s lips straightened into a thin line of displeasure, and he gave Colleen the smile of a man forced to chew on a lemon. “As you wish, Coleen.”
    “Good,” she said. “Then we’ll let Walter call the shots.” It hadn’t been a question, but she waited for Karpov to acknowledge the statement.
    He grimaced, the smile turned into a scowl and he grumbled an unhappy, “Of course.”
    She said, “Then let’s go.”
    Paul was content. Suzanna and Cloe were back, and the interviews were going well, and he was hoping to get a couple of offers next week. He sat at the dinner table, stomach full, watching his beautiful wife clean up the dishes