Free Embrace The Night by Joss Ware Page B

position and placement was for good fortune.
    That was early on, when he’d been assigned as her bodyguard, and he’d had no choice but to listen to her prattle on. And on. And on. But then she’d tried to get too friendly with Simon, Mancusi found out…and he’d shipped Florita and her fake tits off with her crystals and bamboo and red candles. But not long after, in true fuck-you spirit, she’d made it huge on the big screen.
    And back in East Los, Simon had been promoted, so to speak, because of his loyalty and prudence. And cuffed even more tightly to Mancusi.
    “Simon!”
    He turned from the bamboo growth in the Jacuzzi tub, making his way quickly toward her voice.
    “I found something!”
    No fucking way.
    When he came into the room, which appeared to have been an office, Sage was standing in the center of a pool of sun. She was holding a small black item. “Look!”
    “A jump drive?”
    She nodded, her aqua blue eyes shining. “It was wedged inside that desk drawer there, and it’s so small, it would have been easy to miss. Besides, I’m sure they took any computers or files he might have had.”
    Simon examined the small black flash disk drive and came to the conclusion that it might just have survived fifty years exposed to the elements. The USB plug slid in and out, and the whole thing was cased in soft, protective plastic that appeared intact. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He looked up and gave her a little smile. “It might have something interesting on it. Or it might just have a bunch of old Neil Diamond songs.”
    “Who?”
    He smiled before he caught himself. “Look him up. Isn’t that what you do?” Simon turned away before the bantering could go any further. Bantering led to camaraderie, and camaraderie led to flirtation, and flirtation could only lead to fucking trouble.
    He wandered close to a massive opening in the wall, a window broken completely away, and looked out over the ruins of Las Vegas.
    The ocean—the damned Pacific Ocean, here in Vegas!—sparkled blue and green to the west and north, and between this structure and the water were a variety of buildings and ruins. Brick, glass, curling steel beams, all fringed with green and other organic trim.
    “Do you have to stand so close to the edge?”
    He cast a look over his shoulder. “You afraid of heights?”
    Sage shook her head. “No. But I don’t see why you have to stand so close to the edge.”
    Simon shrugged, fighting a grin, and turned to look back out over—and froze. “What the…” he muttered, moving closer to the side of the window where he wouldn’t be seen. Curling his fingers around the edge, he carefully leaned forward for a better look. Space loomed before and below him, and a little breeze skimmed his cheeks.
    “What is it?” Then, she must have seen how near the edge he was, because she added, “Simon! Be careful! You’re going to fall.”
    He swallowed a chuckle. If she only knew how close he’d come to death so many times. “Looks like a boat of some sort, on the shore…” Some type of watercraft had definitely been pulled up on the rough beach. Out of sight of Envy, here on the northwest side of the deserted area…That didn’t bode well.
    He scanned the area between the shoreline and the building, the hair on the back of his arm lifting and prickling like it did when he knew something bad was about to happen. It was like a sixth sense.
    The ruined buildings and their rubble-strewn footprints hid much of the ground, but then he saw them. Three men, walking…pushing a large, enclosed wagonlike object making their way toward the Beretta building. Much too close; in fact, they were just about to the vehicle barrier.
    Pinche.
    But how were they going to get that big cage through the barrier? He watched a moment longer, and then saw the ramp. The men had pulled it from a pile of debris and were putting it into place.
    Damn.
“They’re coming,” he said turning to Sage, adrenaline pumping