Page 4 of Stealing Jia

“Really.” Resisting the urge to light him up, I dropped my shields and reached out mentally. Time to get the information I needed and end the date from hell.

Giovanni’s sweaty palm slid up my thigh.

I stabbed him with my fork.

Sir Grab-A-Lot yelped and yanked his hand away. “You bitch!”

“Si, I get that a lot.” I jammed the heel of my stiletto into his crotch. “Touch me again and I will turn you into a eunuch.”

A whimper broke from him.

I clouded Giovanni’s mind until he could no longer think clearly. “What have you done with the people you’ve abducted?”

Blinking rapidly, he said, “They are in my lab.”

“And where’s your lab?”

“Hidden in the catacombs beneath the Cistercian medieval church in San Gagliano. Once inside the catacomb you follow the red crosses down the corridor, through a burial chamber and it’s the second door on the left.”

I caught a fleeting glimpse of crowded cells and piles of rotting bodies. “Are the people from the bar in Verona there?”

He nodded his head.

“What type of security do you have?”

“I have…” Giovanni shook his head. “This is not right.”

“Tell me.”

“No!” With a roar of fury Giovanni shot to his feet. His chair crashed to the floor. “Who are you?”

“Just a girl, looking for a guy.” I stood.

A pressure injector appeared in Giovanni’s hand. “Youwilltell me everything.”

“That’s my line.”

Giovanni lunged at me.

I dodged his outstretched hand and lashed out with a solid sidekick to his left knee.Thwap!

Giovanni yelped as his knee buckled and he fell headfirst into the table.Whoosh!His hair caught fire.

Squawking loudly, Giovanni yanked off his burning wig and threw it. The wig landed on a mummified body. Poof! It went up in flames.

“Holy Mary Mother of God.” I looked around for a fire extinguisher.

“You are a dead woman,” Giovanni yelled and raised the pressure injector over his badly scarred scalp.

I grabbed a bottle of champagne off a nearby table and whacked him with it. Giovanni’s eyes rolled back in his head and down he went.

Flames raced along the walls, setting another body on fire and another and another. Panic-stricken patrons ran for their lives as the thick black smoke made breathing difficult.

Without even thinking about it, I tied a cloth napkin over my face and yanked a fire extinguisher off the wall. Pulling the pin, I quickly sprayed the burning bodies. Merda! The flames kept spreading.

A brawny firefighter suddenly tossed me over his shoulder and ran for the exit.

“I can walk. I can walk.” He totally ignored me. I caught a brief glimpse of Giovanni climbing to his feet before the smoke enveloped him. A savage rage was etched into his features. Our next meeting would be memorable.

---