I turned on Mr. Sutherland. “You were following me? Really?”
Mr. Sutherland huffed indignantly but didn’t comment, what with the silver cutting into his flesh and slowly poisoning him.
“The way we look at it, you owe us a little reward,” Lanky said, posturing and leering at me.
“Look, I appreciate the thought … and the inappropriate, ultimately doomed flirting,” I said, approaching them slowly with my hands up.
Weakened by silver, Mr. Sutherland sagged against the car. Heavy-Set was leaning on him, counting on his bulk and the silver to keep my vampire client in place. But the trucker’s feet were set too close together, and his center of gravity was too low. One hard push, and Mr. Sutherland could get loose.
Lanky was circling a bit too close to me for my comfort, arms down at his sides, because I was no threat, in his mind.
I smiled sweetly and added, “And I understand the urge to hurt him. Hell, I’ve only known him for a couple of hours, and I would gladly punch him in the junk for you. The problem with that is that the grumpy, slightly creepy guy you’re wrangling is my responsibility. I’ve got to deliver him halfway across the country in three days. I get paid less if he’s banged up and silver-scarred.”
“You work for them?” Lanky demanded, thoroughly disgusted. “For vampires?”
“I know it’s cliché, but the dental plan is amazing,” I deadpanned. “So what I need you to do is step away from the vampire and move along.”
Heavy-Set shook his head, twisting the chain a bit tighter around Mr. Sutherland and dragging him toward the bed of their truck. “Nope, I can’t let that happen. You need to be protected from yourself, honey. And that means we teach Mr. Dead here that you don’t stalk ladies in parking lots.”
“Don’t worry, he won’t be able to hurt you,” Lanky assured me. “We’ll take care of him.”
I sighed. “I’m really sorry about this, but I’m afraid I can’t let that happen.”
While Lanky was distracted by Mr. Sutherland’s struggles, I brought my arm down, just hard enough to pop him on the side of the neck. Tino would have been very proud. The bony heel of my hand connected with the supersensitive brachial nerve, and Lanky’s legs folded under him as if some cruel puppeteer had cut his strings. He collapsed, boneless, and his head bounced against the pavement with a solid thunk that set my teeth on edge.
He was going to feel that in the morning.
I shot a look over my shoulder, to where Mr. Sutherland had shimmied free from the chain and held Heavy-Set by his neck, his feet dangling four inches off the ground. It would appear that Mr. Sutherland had regained his strength rather quickly.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, attacking a vampire in a parking lot? Are you nuts?” I demanded as the redneck coughed and wheezed, clawing at the hands clutching his throat. I gently tapped Mr. Sutherland on the shoulder. He snarled at me, fangs bared. I took a step back, my hands raised. “It’s hard to understand him when he can’t breathe. Damn it, Mr. Sutherland, put him down!”
I kept waiting for him to release his grip on the wayward do-gooder, but he continued to hold him. “Language, Miss Puckett.”
“Mr. Sutherland,” I said, clearing my throat, “I think it would be better if we just sent these men on their way. They didn’t mean any harm … to me.”
“I didn’t see them coming,” Mr. Sutherland seethed.
That … was an odd response.
“Well, it’s been a while since you’ve been out of the house, right?” I told him. “Maybe your instincts are just a little off. I’m sure in a day or so, you’ll be back to your hyperaware, completely paranoid self.”
He growled, squeezing Heavy-Set’s throat until he turned a disturbing shade of puce.
“If you kill him, it’s going to mean calling the police, filing a bunch of paperwork, and missing your deadline with the Council,” I reminded him.
With a hiss, Mr. Sutherland dropped Heavy-Set to his feet. Heavy-Set sank to his knees, coughing and sputtering. He saw his friend crumpled on the pavement like a battered rag doll. “Damn it, you killed Mel!”
I stepped between Heavy-Set and Mr. Sutherland. “Your friend should be fine in a few minutes. Just make him sit up slowly, and help him get up on his feet. He’s going to be sort of wobbly. And please tell him I’m really sorry about the headache.”
Heavy-Set struggled to his feet. He pulled at Lanky’s arms, dragging his dead weight to the truck and barely missing shutting the door on his leg as it flopped uselessly out of the cab. They screeched out of the parking lot as if their taillights were on fire.
I turned to Mr. Sutherland with as much poise as I could muster and demanded, “What the hell? Why were you following me? What are you even doing out of the room?”
“I wanted to keep an eye on you. I wanted to make sure I could trust you.”
“So I’m untrustworthy because I deviated from your precious schedule?” I demanded. “What, you thought I was going to meet a co-conspirator at a diner, so we could plan the kidnapping of the most anal-retentive, fastidious vampire since Freud? You have more issues than National Geographic.”
Yes, Freud was a vampire, which, when you thought about it, made sense. It was the only plausible explanation for his theories’ maintaining academic credence for so long.