Page 25 of Love vs The Ooze Monster!
He was already slipping away, again.
Mabel frowned.Sucha difficult man. She adjusted her grip on the tommy gun and sighed. Really, her plan had been far superior to this one. Maybe it would’ve taken a bit more time, but it would’ve been far less chaotic. If the world just let her organize it, everything would run so much smoother.
“Boyd!Fuck.” Gary’s frantic tones echoed through the funeral parlor. “Hang on… I know you’re pissed, but you and me went to grammar school together, remember? We ain’t got no beef between us. This was all just business! If you’re goofy over Mabel, it’s okay by me. We can make a deal…”
Gunshots roared.
Mabel winced. Boyd clearly wasn’t eager to strike a bargain with his old classmate.
Gus and Petey appeared on the staircase, attempting to sneak down the steps and ambush Boyd. Mabel braced the gun and pulled the trigger. Bullets sprayed out. She couldn’t be sure if she hit anyone until Petey screamed. He barreled backwards into Gus and then both men toppled down the stairs in a mass of flailing limbs.
Oh, good. That made aiming much easier.
Mabel shot them both, which they most definitely deserved. She really didn’t appreciate Sylvester and his goons plotting to abduct her, and threatening Boyd, and writing that letter that got her fired.
…And really what kind of nitwit would fire her? She was so great at her job!
“Mabe!” Said nitwit came racing back, his vivid eyes running up and down her body to assure himself she was alright. “You good?” He spared the dead men a dismissive glance.
“I’m fine.” She propped the gun on the floor, because it really was very heavy. “Areyougood?”
“Spectacular.” He casually put another bullet in the spine of each man at their feet, even though they were already quite dead. He grinned when she daintily stepped back to avoid getting blood on her shoes. “Crime is your natural environment, Miss Harrison. Tell me again you’re not a gangster.”
She sniffed. “Well, I’m not anordinarygangster. I’m the Crime Lord of Nevermore County.”
“What you are is a revelation. You didn’t even blink, when I finished them off.” He gestured to the dead men.
“Ifinished them off, Boyd. You just shot corpses in the back.”
“You gonna lecture me about sportsmanship?”
“Lord, no! We’re bootleggers, not English gentlemen in a duel. But there’s no sense in wasting bullets.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Shoot the living ones in the back, if you want to do something productive.”
He ambled forward to give her a quick, hard kiss. “You’rewhat I want.”
Mabel refused to be distracted. “Focus. It’s two against two, so we’ve evened the odds. Sylvester and Rico are all that’s left.”
“Not for long.” Boyd repeated cheerfully. He might tease her, but this was undoubtedlyhiselement. Killing people was his side of the business, after all. “Stay put.” He went bounding up the steps. “Shoot anyone who’s not me.”
Mabel tilted her head to watch his ascent. For a nitwit, the man had a lovely backside. Truly, it was a work of art. Mad as she was at Boyd, there was no denying the obvious.
Something moved outside. Somethingbig.
The moonlight coming through the window behind her was briefly obstructed, plunging the room into an eerie orange-tinted darkness. Mabel instinctively whirled around, just in time to see… Actually, she wasn’t surewhatshe saw. For just a second, there had been some kind of large, globular, formlessthingfloating past the window.
A jellyfish, maybe? A big one. On land.
A big, land-based,orangejellyfish.
The ooze monster!
Oh dear… Mabel edged towards the open window and poked her head out, peering into the yard. She didn’t see anything moving amongst the stately trees and gardenias. Certainly nothing that might be a killer jellyfish.
Had it been real? Or was it some swaying tree limb casting shadows and playing tricks on her mind? Mabel wasn’t a girl given to flights of fancy, so neither of those possibilities sat well with her. She didn’t like thinking her imagination was in overdrive, but shereallydidn’t like thinking there was a giant ooze monster outside.
And if it was actually there, she needed to shoot the odious thing, before it melted any more speakeasies. Mabel couldn’t very well allow some creature to run amok in Volstead. It would scare away all the paying customers.
Chewing her lower lip, she hoisted herself over the windowsill and dropped down onto the shaded porch. Her practical heels madeclackingsounds on the wooden slats, as she inched down the front steps and onto the lawn. The tommy gun was still in her arms. Standing on the walk, she looked right and left, trying to spot anything amiss.
