I kept my foot on the gas and hurtled down the street getting as far away from the other two as I could. Once I felt confident they couldn’t catch up, I swung the van around a corner as sharply as I dared. The wheels screeched in complaint and the van shuddered, but I’d accomplished what I wanted. The side door slid shut, catching Meinie’s hands in between it and the frame. He shrieked in agony as the door locked with a metallic click, crushing his fingers. His feet slipped from the step and bounced along the asphalt as I dragged him along. After a few spiteful seconds, I slowed the van and turned into an alley. I rode alongside a dumpster and turned the van into it, pressing Meinie into its metal side, wedging him between it and the van. I could hear his ribs snap inside his chest. He gurgled in complaint, Page 41 nearly unconscious. That’s when I stopped. Ignoring my own pain, my wounds still burning, I climbed out and walked around to have a chat with Meinie, his head angled toward the front of the van. I lifted his chin so we could see eye to eye. “Who sent you?”

His eyes rolled around in their sockets, not quite coherent. I growled and asked him again, digging my fingers into the soft spots under his chin. His eyes came into focus, but just barely. I could see him debating whether or not to tell me. Self-preservation won out.

“Veronica. It was Veronica,” he gasped, his voice giving out at the end.

Her name hit me like a gunshot to the gut. I stumbled back, the urge to vomit rearing up once again. I steadied myself against the hood. “Are you serious?”

He nodded as best he could.

I hadn’t expected that. I figured Baalth had set me up with his taking my gun and all. I would never have suspected Veronica, seeing how I hadn’t heard from her in twenty years. I know we’d split on some pretty acrimonious terms, but I certainly didn’t think she’d try to kill me. I guess you never truly know a person until they come gunning for you. This was really turning out to be a shitty day. Numb, I turned to leave.