Ryan’s eyes narrowed. I upped the volume on the phone and motioned him closer so that he could listen in.
“Hello, Kara,” Tracy said after a few seconds. “I figured you needed some incentive to move you along.”
“You’re a cocksucker. Where is this gate? I haven’t been able to pinpoint it.”
“That’s because you’re being stubborn and resisting it, but it doesn’t matter now. Come to three five two Garden Street. Oh, and the usual ‘no weapons’ and ‘come alone’ rules apply. I have a zhurn helping keep a lookout. If it catches a whiff of any of your FBI friends—or any other cops for that matter—your ex here will get splattered, and the cops will get torn apart.” He said it easily, with a laugh in his voice. “Speaking of, I’m intrigued by the fact that there’s been no traffic on the PD radio about a shooting victim at my house. I know I didn’t miss. How’d you manage to cover that one up?”
“She was wearing a vest,” I managed through the white-hot rage sweeping through me. He had no clue she was a demon. He meant to kill her.
“Ah, smart of her. Anyway, your ex here is not wearing a vest. So please do get your ass down here. I have shit to do. You have half an hour.” And with that he hung up.
I slowly lowered the phone. “Guess we’re going to have a confrontation after all.”
Chapter 23
The first confrontation turned out to be an argument with Ryan about whether I should go there alone or not. Obviously, Ryan was in the “or not” camp. So was I, to be honest, but at the same time I didn’t want to risk anyone else getting hurt or killed.
“Yes, it’s a hostage situation,” I finally said after he tried to convince me to call in the SWAT team. “But I’m not about to risk other cops if there really is a zhurn acting as lookout and guard. Plus, the fact that our suspect is a cop is going to raise all sorts of issues.” I checked my watch. Ten minutes left. We were parked about a block away from the address Roman had given us. I’d retrieved my ballistic vest from the trunk and put it on beneath my shirt and coat. I also wore the wire and earpiece.
“You don’t sound sure about the zhurn,” Zack said, frowning. He wasn’t any happier about our limited options or our time frame. But I had no doubt Tracy would pull the trigger. He’d killed plenty of others already.
“I’m not, but only because of Kehlirik. If Tracy summoned a reyza, would he be able to summon a zhurn as well? That’s two major summonings—tough for anybody to do, even if done on two different days.” Plus it was several days after the full moon. The summoning of Kehlirik would have already been insanely difficult.
“Tough, but not impossible,” Ryan pointed out.
“Right. And Tracy’s a smart guy. It’s quite possible he has the chops to do it, so I’d rather act on the assumption that there is another demon in play. Or something else he hasn’t told us about.”
Ryan’s mouth tightened. “Fine. No SWAT, but Zack and I are going to be watching the perimeter and listening in.”
I took a deep br