that was coming undone and looked as though a surge of electricity had shocked it free. She was underweight, something the makeup people had struggled to deal with, and bags bulged beneath her red eyes, one of which was brown and the other an exotic lavender. Evidently, she’d lost one of her contacts.
“You can’t just break into my home,” Melanie protested.
Krauzer looked around in disdain. “This dump?”
“Hey,” the big bruiser rumbled. He sounded like a cement mixer coming to life. He was in his forties and had scars on his head and cheeks that Annja could see through the graying beard that hung to his chest. He wasn’t wearing a shirt under the biker jacket. His jeans were tucked into motorcycle boots. “Don’t disrespect the lady.”
Krauzer turned to the biker. “Did you help steal my scrying crystal?”
The biker stepped forward. “Hey, man, you stole Melanie’s job. I’m just helping her even the score.”
“I gave her that job, you idiot! I took it back because she can’t handle it. She’s the one who prefers squalor and nose candy over working. And her taste in boyfriends isn’t so great either, evidently.”
The biker closed his fists and took another step forward. “Now you’re gonna get beat.”
Krauzer pointed the pistol at the biker’s face. “Keep coming, you big ape.”
Melanie closed her brown eye and squinted the lavender one at Krauzer. “Oh my God, Barney! He’s got a gun!”
Barney the biker? If Krauzer hadn’t been waving the big pistol around, Annja wouldn’t have been able to keep from laughing.
Eyes popping, Barney stepped back. “Hey, man. No fair.”
Annja knew Krauzer was already in danger of getting arrested for threatening Melanie and her guy, and maybe she was, too, at this point. Getting arrested for felonious assault with a deadly weapon would not sit well with Doug. She also knew that if Krauzer accidentally shot someone, things would get even worse in a hurry.
She moved automatically, trapping Krauzer’s gun hand, pinching a nerve in the back of his hand that caused him to release the pistol and catching the weapon before it hit the carpeted floor. She popped the cylinder open, dumped the bullets into her cupped palm and walked over to the window at the back of the living room.
Below the room, a half-filled garbage bin sat open. Annja opened the window, wiped the gun and the bullets clean on the curtain, and dropped them all into the trash. The gun and the rounds disappeared into the discarded debris.
She turned to face the three other people in the room, who stared at her in disbelief.
Krauzer peered out the window and looked apoplectic. “Did you just throw my gun away?”
“Yes,” Annja replied. “Way too many things could have happened with you waving it around.”
“Well, did you happen to think of the things that could happen since I don’t have it to wave around?” Krauzer looked back at Barney the biker, who had pulled a ten-inch hunting knife from behind his back.
“I’m gonna cut you, loudmouth.” Barney waved the knife as if it was a weaving cobra waiting to strike. “Then you’re gonna get that money you owe Melanie.”
Krauzer cowered back and nearly fell through the open window. Annja caught the director and moved him over in front of the wall and put herself between him and the biker.
“Move,” Barney ordered, waving his arm in a serpentine motion.
“I just saved your life when I took the gun away,” Annja pointed out.
He scowled at her and maybe there was a little hurt pride in his slit eyes. “If I have to, I’ll cut through you to get to him.” He continued moving the knife in the air.
Annja grabbed the big man’s wrist with one hand and popped him in the throat with the open Y of her other hand. When he stepped back, gagging, she nerve-pinched his hand and let the knife fall to the floor, where it stood embedded upside down.
Barney yanked his hand back. She stood between him and the knife.
Shaking his head, Barney sucked in a breath, then said, “You’re gonna be sorry you did that.” He’d clearly meant the statement to be intimidating, but his words came out in a high-pitched squeak. He rushed at her, intending to use his size and weight against her.
Annja swept his lead foot as it came down, putting it in front of the other foot so that he tripped himself. At the same time, she grabbed his jacket lapels, twisted tightly to accelerate and direct his fall, and pulled him face-first into the wall hard enough to break the plasterboard.
Without a sound, Barney dropped to the floor unconscious.
Melanie held her open hands to either side of her face. “Did you kill him?”
“No.” Annja knelt to unlace one of Barney’s boots, intending to use the string to tie him up. She didn’t need him waking while she was trying to deal with the other two in the room.
Seeing how the tide had turned, Krauzer started to reach for the knife.
“Don’t,” Annja warned as she looped the lace around the unconscious biker’s wrists.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Krauzer replied, even as he pulled his hand back from the knife.
“I’m going to do exactly that for the moment.” Annja finished tying the biker’s hands behind his back and rose.
In the hallway, neighbors stood in slack-jawed amazement. Several of them were talking into their cell phones. And some of them were taking pictures and video.
Great. Nothing’s ever private these days. Annja sighed and turned her attention to Krauzer and Melanie. “The police are going to be here in minutes, so this is how this is going to go down.” She looked at Melanie. “You’re going to tell me where the scrying crystal is.”
For a moment, Melanie acted as if she was going to refuse. Then she collapsed onto a nearby sofa and started to cry. “It’s in the bedroom closet.”
Annja turned to Krauzer, not trusting him to be in the room alone with Melanie. “Go get the crystal.”
Krauzer frowned, but he went to the adjacent bedroom, rattled around and came back with a boot box. “Found it. And it doesn’t look counterfeit at all.” He smiled in relief and satisfaction, then glanced at Melanie. “Wow, you and Barney boy are into some kinky stuff.”
“And you,” Annja said, ignoring the comment, “are going to let me examine that scrying crystal.”
Krauzer wrapped his arms around the box protectively. “This is mine. I risked my life to get this. I’m never letting it out of my sight again.”
On the floor, Barney snuffled, waking, then struggled and tried to get up.
Annja
