Free The Tale of the Wolf (The Kenino Wolf Series) by Cyrus Chainey Page B

the back.
    ‘ Over there!’ I shouted pointing to Leon and Kelly who were now outside the club with Boom-Boom and Muzzi. The taxi driver screeched to a halt next to them.
    Kelly climbed into the back next to the tourists.
    ‘ Not in the back.’ I yelled at Leon as he tried to climb in with her.
    ‘ What?’
    ‘ You’ve got six feet of fucking hair. You and it can’t both fit in.’
    ‘ But I can’t take it off. It’s pinned.’
    ‘ Sit in the front and stick your head out the window.’
    Leon jumped in the front and I jumped into the back and we sped off down the road. To say this was an odd looking taxi was quite possibly an understatement.
    We had ‘Superfly’, a pregnant woman, two Japanese tourists, snapping incessantly with their cameras — they had no idea what was going on but thought the whole lot worth recording for posterity — a drag queen with a three-foot blonde wig shoved out a window, and a taxi driver who must have thought he’d entered the Twilight Zone.
    ‘ Hold on, I know a short cut.’ The taxi driver shouted, cutting through a back alley and jumping a set of lights. We raced through Soho.
    ‘ We’ll be there in a bit. Hold on.’ The taxi driver was fretting.
    ‘ Don’t worry! My baby is not being born in a cab,’ Kelly replied through gritted teeth.
    ‘ We’re almost there.’ He returned.
    We took a hard left on to Westminster Bridge. The taxi’s tyres squealed as we took the bend at full blast and swung into the hospital with more screeching of tyres.
    The taxi skidded to a stop and Leon and I jumped out. Leon screamed in pain; his hair had caught in the door and he almost scalped himself trying to dash away. Freeing himself, the pair of us burst in.
    ‘ She’s having a baby,’ we wailed simultaneously. Two orderlies came running up to Leon looking utterly bewildered.
    ‘ Not him! She’s outside!’ Looking relieved, they grabbed a trolley and we all rushed back out. The tourists had got out of the taxi along with Kelly. They were still taking pictures, which, in fairness, wouldn’t you? Kelly got on to the gurney and we all sped back in.
    The doctors and the nurses took over from then on, only pausing briefly to find out who was the father. Leon wanted to go into the delivery room, to be there at the birth, but the doctor said his hair was unhygienic and they didn’t have a cap big enough to fit it.
    Kelly was in labour for three hours, during which time I paid the taxi driver, whose name was Nathan. He was a bit of an old softy, and stayed the entire time, as did the tourists, Senji and Keizo. They were an extremely nice couple who spoke excellent English and pledged to make lots of copies of the photos for Kelly and Leon.
    Over the course of the labour, the wounded and the curious from the club turned up in abundance; some under their own steam, others in ambulances. All those that had been injured survived, including Colin, who had a graze to his shoulder; a flesh wound really, barely a scratch.
    Kelly was wheeled out into the waiting room her little boy clasped tenderly in her arms. She and Leon glowed with joy.
    It was a joyous moment for all of us; we’d almost lost our lives and seen a new one born. Although I don’t think the other patients were too happy. One person who’d been under sedation, screamed wildly about being dead when she saw Elvis; it was only Colin but the woman was blasted and didn’t know any better.
    The drag queens broke into a rendition of ‘Baby Love’, which actually sounded quite good for a change. I was going to stay and enjoy the happiness, but the police had turned up. Gunshot wounds tend to bring them out of hiding, so I thought it best to beat a hasty retreat, although not before telling Leon I’d sort out the stock that was damaged. While Muzzi, pledged to fix up the bar.
    Leaving Muzzi and Boom-Boom to explain what had happened to the police — which probably didn’t take that long as none of us had any idea — I