Death Match (A Magic Bullet Novel Book 2) by A. Blythe Page A

love of buddy cop movies.
    "My schedule's too busy for movies from this decade, let alone a previous one," Thompson said.
    He glanced at us over his shoulder. "You're missing out."
    The door swung open and he took a seat in the net chair behind another ping-pong table that doubled as a desk. The office was no more grown-up than the living room. There was a basketball hoop in the corner and a bookshelf behind him lined with graphic novels.
    "I'd like Simon to join us, if that's okay," I said. I wanted to gauge how connected the mage was to the Enclave and to the drug trafficking regime. Simon could be our middleman.
    Luciano waved the old man into the room. "So who can I thank for bringing two such excellent ladies to my party pad?"
    "Kieran Morrow," I said, looking around for a comfortable place to sit. There were no real chairs, just net chairs and space hoppers. Thompson and I chose to stand and retain our dignity.
    His face remained blank. "Do I know him?"
    "He was the mage who went berserk near City Hall," Thompson said. "We found a drug in his system."
    Luciano stroked his angular jaw. "I thought I read the tests came back clean."
    "Ours didn't." Thompson plucked her phone from her pocket and showed him the screen.
    His eyes moved from line to line until he finished. "What's X-caliber? It sounds cool."
    "Nice try," I said.
    He batted those baby aquamarines at me. "If I keep trying, maybe you'll eventually give in."
    "Don't mistake it for encouragement," I said.
    "If the X-caliber didn't come from you, then I guess someone's encroaching on your turf," Thompson said. "And you're 'cool' with that?"
    I looked at Thompson. "I can't imagine the Dragon would be cool with that."
    "Me neither," she replied. "The Dragon disemboweled a guy and left him on the Rocky statue because a delivery of amphetamines ended up in a squad car." She eyed Luciano. "That was probably before your time, son."
    He appeared unfazed by the possibility of being disemboweled, most likely because the X-caliber was his. "You worry about your business and I'll worry about mine. It's the American way."
    I leaned on the ping-pong table with both hands. "Our business is figuring out if there's a new drug in town causing mage meltdowns and mass casualties, so as far as I'm concerned, our businesses are inextricably linked."
    "Ooh," Luciano said, his blond eyebrows lifting. "I like a woman with a big vocabulary." He bent forward so that his face was inches from mine. "I have a few big qualities of my own, you know. We could compare."
    I groaned and pushed his face away.
    He chuckled and bounced a ping-pong ball on the table. "Vito said you were a meddling bitch. I only agree with half of it."
    The tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Vito Nocita was discussing me with other gangsters? That didn't bode well for me.
    "Can't say I'm much of a Vito fan," I said. As the head of organ trafficking, Vito was dark and dangerous and not in the sexy way. The mere thought of him made my blood run cold.
    "Don't worry," Luciano said. "O'Leary has your back. The argument was pretty heated and entertaining as hell, by the way, but ultimately the Dragon dropped the hammer and said you were not to be touched right now."
    Right now.
    My throat tightened. "Because I returned O'Leary's scian?" I'd tracked down O'Leary's stolen heirloom, a scian forged from copper and iron that was designed to kill any and all djinn. At least the weapon was tucked away in a secure vault.
    Luciano shrugged and tossed the ping-pong ball through the basketball hoop. "I stopped paying attention once the food arrived. I fucking love hot wings."
    "So you're not going to talk to us about X-caliber," Thompson said.
    "I would if I knew anything," Luciano said with a disarming smile. "I'd love an excuse to talk to you two all day. The ladies out there don't offer much in the way of conversation."
    I turned toward Simon, who looked ridiculous perched on a space hopper. Did the old man have no