Page 82 of Guild Boss

Tuck grinned, showing a lot of teeth. “Remember the power failure on the Amber Strip?”

“I was there,” Gabriel said.

“It wasn’t an accident.”

“I had a feeling you were going to say that. So, you’re into the weapons trade now?”

“It’s not just a weapon. Don’t you get it? That device took down the whole fucking Strip. My client controls that gadget and the source of the liquid crystal it uses. And I’m in charge of security for the project.”

“Impressive.” Gabriel opened his hand. The blue amber tracker glowed. “I see you’re also into kidnapping these days.”

Jolted, Tuck stared at the amber. “That’s not one of my team’s ID stones. Where did you get it?”

“Pitney made one more tracker before you murdered him and burned down his shop. The Guild and the local police will be able to use it to round up your gang. It’s evidence that you and your pals are involved in the kidnapping of a weather channeler named Lucy Bell.”

Alarm, bordering on panic, flashed in Tuck’s hot eyes. “Fuck you and your evidence,” he snarled. “That rock won’t be a problem after you’re dead.”

The hair on the back of Gabriel’s neck stirred. The ghost was starting to drift toward him. At the same time, Tuck finally sensed the very small ghost that was moving toward the back of his head.

He started to turn around, but he was too late. The little ball of green fire grazed him. He jerked once and collapsed.

“Size doesn’t always matter,” Gabriel said quietly.

He focused some heat through his ring and de-rezzed the small dissonance energy manifestation he had pulled. Then he swung around to face the large ghost Tuck had generated. The monster had stopped moving, because it was no longer under Tuck’s control, but it still burned, blocking the tunnel. Left unattended, it might sit there forever, or it might start to drift.

The technique for de-rezzing a powerful ghost was similar to the one that firefighters sometimes used to stop a wildfire—a backfire. As the saying went,it takes a ghost to kill a ghost. He rezzed another compact, tightly controlled ball of fire and aimed it at the chaotic center of Tuck’s ghost.

His hot whirlwind of controlled dissonance energy clashed with the impressive but weakly structured ghost Tuck had created. Control won, every damn time.

Tuck’s flashy ghost disintegrated and winked out.

Gabriel de-rezzed his own ghost and went forward to strip off Tuck’s nav amber. There was a lot of it. When he was finished, he used his captive’s bootlaces to secure Tuck’s wrists behind his back.

He loaded the unconscious man onto the sled and got behind the wheel. He rezzed his personal locator and punched in the coordinates of the hole-in-the-wall beneath Guild headquarters.

The first item on the agenda was to have a long talk with Tuck. Then it would be time to call in the local police and alert Mr. Smith and the members of the Illusion Club.

Public relations.

Chapter Thirty

Lucy was not surprised when the other power brokers who ran Illusion Town filed into Gabriel’s office an hour after receiving his request for an urgent meeting. She stood at the window, dressed in her professional Underworld gear. Otis was on her shoulder. Together they watched the VIPs enter the room.

It made for a crowd. Aiden had called the mayor’s office, the members of the city council, the chief of police, and Mr. Smith, the owner of the Amber Palace. Smith had, in turn, summoned the members of the Illusion Club, which consisted of the CEOs who operated the big casinos on the Strip. The dramatic power outage two days earlier had gotten everyone’s attention.

Aiden had somehow managed to produce a couple of dozen folding chairs. He stood at the entrance to Gabriel’s sparsely furnished office, ushering in each new arrival and offering large cups of coffee. He had memorized every face. He greeted each individual by name and introduced the person to Gabriel.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Mayor Carson,” he said. “Please excuse the office. We’re in the midst of decorating. This is Mr. Jones, the director of the Illusion Town Guild...”

The mayor, a fashionably dressed woman with silver hair, exchanged pleasantries with Gabriel and took a seat.

Aiden turned to the short man dressed in a tailored white suit.

“Mr. Smith, so glad you could make it, sir. Apologies for the state of the office. We’ve just begun to decorate. This is Mr. Jones, the director of the Illusion Town Guild...”

Smith inclined his head in a gesture of respect. “A pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Jones. I’m looking forward to hosting you and your companion in my penthouse.”

Startled, Lucy glanced at Gabriel. Companion? Was Smith talking about her? Gabriel did not appear to notice her questioning look. He was busy greeting the next dignitary.

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