The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) 📕

Square Jaw remained staring at me. A tiny camera in the corner of his glasses clicked and whirred. By his silence, I guessed someone was speaking into his earpiece.

After a moment he opened the car door. “Out of the vehicle.”

My heart lurched. “What do you mean?”

“You deaf?” He took the rifle strapped around his torso into both of his hands. “I said out of the vehicle.”

“You too,” the guard on the other side ordered.

I peered over at Vega, the skin of her brow taut. I remembered her telling me these guys could turn an NYPD officer into Swiss cheese without fear of reprisal. All thanks to the vampires holding the city’s purse strings. Vega gave me a single nod before stepping out on her side.

“What’s this about?” I asked in a tone of professional impatience.

Square Jaw used his rifle barrel to jab me around. “Hands on the hood.” He spoke over the car to Vega. “You. Open the trunk.”

Fear and humiliation burned over my face as I splayed my hands against the sedan’s warm metal. A moment later, hands pummeled my pockets and slapped up and down my legs. I’d left my cane and necklace at home and secured Grandpa’s ring behind the metal button of my pants. The guard missed the last, no doubt because he wasn’t looking for it. I widened my stance to hold up my slipping waistband. The potion in my system was starting to thin.

“Where’s your piece?”

“I’m not carrying one today,” I said.

He called to the back of the vehicle. “Anything?”

I turned but couldn’t see Vega or the other guard behind the raised trunk door.

“Vehicle’s clean,” the other guard said. “Her piece is standard.”

Square Jaw pulled me from the hood and shoved me toward the car door. “You’re clear to pass.”

The trunk door slammed closed and Vega got in on her side, brows angled sharply down. I was ducking my head to join her, relieved the enhanced screening was over, when Square Jaw seized the scruff of my jacket and yanked me back.

“Hey,” I cried. “What do you think—”

He spun me around against the car, looking me up and down.

“What’s your problem?” I demanded.

But I knew. The firming of my face, the thinning of my body, the itch of hair growing back atop my head—my potion was running on fumes. I was changing before the man’s eyes.

“Hey, Parker,” the guard called to his partner. “Come take a look at this shit.”

Parker sauntered around the vehicle, rifle in his grip. He snorted. “Magic user. I’ve been itching to bag one of these freaks.”

“That’s not all,” Square Jaw said, a hard grin pulling his mouth to one side. “It’s the same guy who gave us shit about the ring, remember?”

Parker nodded slowly, then ducked to look into the sedan. “And isn’t this the broad who pulled her piece on us?”

“Sure is,” Square Jaw said. “Close the line.”

10

The hydraulic-powered gate whirred closed behind us, clunking into the cement wall and sealing us inside an area the size of a large garage. Bollards blocked our way forward. Parker trained his rifle on Vega, while Square Jaw moved his own rifle around to his back. He pushed his sleeves up.

“C’mon, guys,” I said, one hand held out, the other balling up the side of my pants to keep them from puddling around my ankles. “I’m sure we can work something out. I’m decent with love potions if you guys are having any trouble in that department.”

Square Jaw snarled.

“N-no,” I stammered, “I didn’t mean with each other.”

The fist Square Jaw drove into my chest stunned my heart. I pawed toward him, mouth gaping, no air going in or out. His other fist came up beneath my chin, slamming my mouth closed with a bloody clack. I landed against the car, my head thrown back on the roof.

“Not such a smartass now, are you?” he said.

“I don’t know,” I answered blearily, buildings whirling overhead. “My reserves are pretty impressive.”

I straightened and stared around. I could hear Parker behind me, shouting for Vega to drop her weapon and get out of the car. But the more immediate danger was Square Jaw, who was moving in with both hands as though to throttle me. I jacked my right knee up and caught him square in the jewels.

Square Jaw’s hands changed course, diving for his groin as he grunted and collapsed to his knees. Behind me Parker’s shouting rose in treble before getting drowned out by the sedan’s engine.

What the…?

I skipped back as rubber screamed over road top, foul smoke billowing from the rear tires. The sedan began to spin, slamming into walls. The front fender came around and clunked Square Jaw in the helmet, dropping him like a sack of bricks. Parker opened fire, bullets pinging off metal and reinforced glass.

I called power to my casting prism. Aiming a hand at Parker, I shouted, “Vigore!”

Without my sword to concentrate and direct the force, it burst from my palm like branch lightning. Launched from his feet, Parker slammed into a wall, his weapon and pieces of gear clattering around him. He landed face first, like a flipped pancake. But my force had also caught the rear of the sedan, pushing it sideways so that its front end was now aimed at me.

I could see by Vega’s startled expression that she’d lost control. She wasn’t going to be able to stop the car. And I wasn’t going to have time to cast.

I stumbled back against the steel door. The sedan fishtailed, Vega’s side plowing toward me—and then stopped with three feet to spare.

I looked from Vega, who had thrown her arms up, to either side of me. I was no longer alone. I recognized the blood slave to my right from last night, Blondie’s hands clutching the side of the hood. He and the other blood slave shoved the car away, the heels of their patent leather shoes braced against the metal gate. They looked