Perilously Fun Fiction: A Bundle, Pauline Jones [top 100 novels of all time .txt] 📗

Zone. Mickey grinned. Luci had called it right. He was almost at the end of his tether. “Get in the car and drive toward me. I’ll drive toward you. Stop at Dreyfous.”

Luci got in the car. Just before she fired the engine, Mickey heard her murmur, “I was hoping you’d do that...”

Then the whine of the engine drowned her out. Mickey frowned. She had told them everything, hadn’t she? Of course she had. She’d said he could trust her. Trust involved full disclosure.

He realized she was driving away from him and pulled down his goggles. Keeping low, he followed. He didn’t have to cross the road. Maybe that’s what Luci had meant. That’s it. Had to be. And the twitch between his shoulder blades was just...a twitch.

Luci stopped the car when only the width of the side road separated her car from Maxwell’s. She shut off the motor, then her headlights, when he shut off his.

He got out.

She got out.

“Give me the money,” he snarled, the white of his eyes showing all around the irises, even in the half-light from the streetlight.

“Give me my aunts.”

“Happy to.” His gave a twitchy grimace, then turned and yanked open the rear door of the car. “Get outta the car.”

Luci heard a familiar and most welcome twittering precede the first aunt’s egress. The twitch got worse when she extended a hand for assistance. She noticed, trying not to grin, that he helped her. He growled while he did it, but he helped them all out.

Miss Hermi caught sight of Luci. “Dear little Luci, Reggie kidnapped us! Can you imagine?”

Miss Weena just wriggled her excitement and pleasure, while Miss Theo gave the fake Reggie a glare that had him shuffling his feet until he remembered he had the gun.

“Just stop it!” He turned to Luci, his shoulder and his eye twitching. “They’re fine. Now show me the money!”

“How do I know you won’t kill us as soon as you have it?” Luci asked.

“You don’t!” he snarled, then had to wipe a bit of foam from his chin.

“An honest, if intimidating response.” Well, faint heart never won anything. She lifted the whistle she’d hung around her neck and blew it hard.

The sound blasted through the microphone with painful intensity. Mickey cursed and pulled it out of his ear.

Delaney did, too. He knew, because he heard a tiny cursing from the dangling piece.

Artie cursed, jumped and looked wildly around. “What are you doing?”

Luci looked surprised. “Summoning your money.”

“It ain’t in the car?”

Luci tapped her temple. “Think about it for a minute— “

Her words were lost in the roar of a truck. It almost, Mickey thought with awe, sounded like a...dump truck. Red taillights appeared in the dark tunnel of Dreyfous Drive. The roar got louder and the lights moved closer and closer until Mickey could see that it was indeed a dump truck.

Luci stepped toward it, using the whistle and her hands to guide it toward them.

“Who’s...driving?” Then he realized he was missing his cue. He shoved the ear piece back in. He almost had to shout to be heard over the roar. “He’s distracted, Delaney. Can you get the old ladies?”

“Yeah, sure.” He sounded as dazed as Mickey felt.

Mickey crouched and moved around to the back of the car Luci had been driving. He could see Maxwell shouting something. Luci indicated she couldn’t hear him, then gave a final, long blast of the whistle. He saw Delaney reach the old ladies, but none of them seemed able to move as the rear of the truck began to tilt up.

24

Maxwell jumped forward and grabbed Luci, shoving the gun into her side as the contents of the truck rushed toward the point of no return.

“Nobody move!” he shouted, but what was in the truck wasn’t listening or intimidated by his firepower.

Mickey had only time to curse himself before the contents shifted, then rushed out of the swinging gate and over the top. “What...?”

Bills. Dollar bills. Hundreds of thousands of them. All of Artie’s ill-gotten gains roared toward him like the wrath of God. One minute he was shouting at Luci, then they were gone.

It seemed to take forever for the bills to stop coming, but as soon as it slowed, Mickey and Delaney leaped on the pile and began digging. Mickey saw a hand pop out of the mass. A woman’s hand. He had crawled forward and started to grab it when the bills under him shifted, then Maxwell erupted from the mass, knocking him onto his back.

He still had the gun, pointed it right at Mickey and started to pull the trigger. Mickey heard Delaney yell, saw Maxwell turn toward him. Mickey knew he yelled “No!” but he didn’t hear it, just felt it erupt from his mouth as the gun flashed once, then again. He saw Delaney drop out of sight and the gun swivel back toward him, but before he could fire again, a new voice spoke out of the dark.

“How many people are you going to kill Maxwell?”

Mickey saw Maxwell falter and started to move, but Maxwell snarled at him, “Don’t move! I’ll shoot.” With his free hand, he rubbed the sweat from his face. “Who’s there?”

“You know who it is, Maxwell, or whatever your real name is.” Mickey saw a woman, also dressed in SWAT gear, step into the light. He heard the creak of the dump truck door and another figure climbing down from the cab. And other figures, all in black, moving into a circle around them.

“H-Helen?” Artie swallowed, the sound loud and dry in the silence. “What-what are you doing here?”

“Well, if the wanted poster the police sent hadn’t done it, the phone call from Luci would have. Do you have shit for brains?”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about your other wives?”

Maxwell staggered off the money pile, pulling Luci with him, pointed the gun at Mickey and snarled, “Get back, cop!” Then he faced Helen. “Love bear, honey, they