Free Black Opal by Sandra Cox Page A

big white tom that was the love of her life.
    “Bella,” Sabina repeated. Her tone must have gotten through because Bella whipped around. “We’ve got company.”
    Four black youths were moving in from the shadows, forming a semicircle around them. All wore identical black shirts with a bright red spider insignia on them.
    The biggest, who stood well over six feet, swaggered forward. “Well, well. Got some pretty white ladies come to check out how the other half lives. Come to see the ’hood, pretty mamas?”
    “Who’d have thought those worthless pieces of fur I dumped would have come in so useful.”
    Sabina felt a wave of heat and fury so intense she thought her head would erupt. She cast one quick look at Bella. “Stay back. This won’t take long.”
    “No problem, sugar.” Bella’s perfect white teeth were drawn back in a feral smile. For one startling moment she looked like a tawny tigress. “Do me proud.”
    Without taking her gaze off the men flanked around them, Sabina handed Bella the dead kitten. She flexed her knees and made a beckoning motion with her fingers. “Come to mama, boys.”
    They looked from one to another confused, shifting from foot to foot, the whites of their eyes showing in the dark.
    The cocky one, who appeared to be the leader, stepped closer. “I’m all yours, Mama.”
    Sabina’s arm shot forward. She felt the amulet’s power travel down her arm and shoot out her fingertips. In less time than it took to draw a breath, the youth flew backward and landed on the sidewalk. His head bounced off the cement and he lay still.
    Two rushed her from different directions. The other, more cautious, hung back.
    She swung her arm left then right. One young man flew up against the dirty brick wall of the nearby building and sat down hard. Bella stepped nimbly out of the way as the other rolled toward the dumpster. He hit it head first and knocked himself out.
    The fourth turned to flee and ran right into Adam’s outstretched fist.
    * * * * *
     
    She’d called the stud and gotten nowhere. It was time to take a more direct approach. She’d watched him around the singer. Any fool could see he was besotted. That would change once she, Victoria, got him in her bed. Once she’d bedded him, he’d never look at that milquetoast bitch again. She doubted that even women in the world’s oldest professions knew the tricks she knew. When she finished with him, he’d be begging for it.

Chapter Six
     
    The bulky youth’s legs buckled and he slid in a boneless heap to the ground.
    Damn that felt good. Adam rubbed his scraped knuckles. It had taken the edge off his anger but hardly took care of the acid dripping into his gut. The two damn fool women had tried to drug him. He scoffed to himself. Mere babes in the woods. Or were they? What the hell had just happened here?
    “ Merda ,” Sabina muttered under her breath.
    “You can say that again, shug,” Bella agreed.
    He shot them one burning look then plucked out his cell phone and dialed 9-1-1. “Looks like there’s some kind of rumpus on,” he glanced up at the sign, “Fourth and Brown.” Then clicked off before he could be questioned further.
    “Let’s go.” His jaw locked with tension, he jerked his head in the direction of the hotel and began to stride down the street not bothering to slow down for the women as they trotted beside him. Only when his glance fell on the kittens did his expression soften. “Don’t tell me you drugged me to go rummaging through garbage cans looking for cats,” he said but his tone lacked the sting his words carried.
    He reached over and plucked the limp body that Bella carried at her side. The other kitten rested snugly on her chest mewing plaintively.
    “It’s dead,” Bella said with a faint tremor in her voice.
    Adam said nothing, massaging its tiny chest as he walked. Having been an orphan on the streets himself, he felt empathy for any creature that found itself in the same position,