Fear Her Wrath III: It Runs on Blood

Chapter 25

"Izzy just left."

It was Ellie's voice, and I was two blocks from the Devil's Stepdaughter, a house of (very) ill repute that served as the headquarters of Bruno the Horse.

Bruno Scianca was the top earner among the Montagnese family's waterfront pimps. He got his nickname for how hard he worked the girls—and how brutally he punished them if they didn't meet expectations. Even Rosie Scargill was a little hesitant when she found out my plan would involve saving Bruno the Horse, and I wasn't a huge fan of the idea either—especially since he would have to be in on it too. But once I explained to him that cooperating with the "hero freak" was basically the only way he'd make it out alive, Bruno became surprisingly pliant. I guess like most tough guys, given the choice between dying for his principles and saving his own skin, he chose the latter.

"I'm on my way," I said. "Let's hope this works."

About two dozen girls were gathered outside the Devil's Stepdaughter, pretending to wait for customers. This was part of the plan. Too many witnesses for it to be hushed up. The cops that usually protected the brothel had been given the night off, but Corrigan and her people were waiting just a few blocks away. Declan Lovejoy and his photographer were on their way from the offices of the Marbrose Evening Examiner. Everything was in place.

We just needed Tourniquet.

"She just passed Essing Park," came George Rusby's voice, forwarded to my mask by Prioress. With the way Izzy moved, that meant we had ten minutes at the most. I took a few steadying breaths and rubbed my arms with my hands. It was cold tonight—unusually cold. Even for Marbrose. The kind of night when people who could stayed in.

"Five minutes, Maggs."

I leaned over the roof of the Devil's Stepdaughter and held up five fingers to Rosie Scargill, who nodded. The other girls shifted nervously on their feet. They knew that if this plan failed, they would be the victims. Being here was an act of faith. In me. I couldn't let them down.

"Two minutes. Get ready."

I anchored my grappling gun on the edge of the roof and got into position. I could see the approaching figure of a masked girl leaping over the rooftops. She was almost here.

"Let's do this, Prioress," I said.

As Tourniquet approached the entrance to the Devil's Stepdaughter, she found about twenty working girls blocking her way. They didn't say anything, but their presence—and the fact that they obviously weren't going to move aside—seemed to confuse her. The red glow of the brothel's neon sign was reflected in her mask. She tilted her head to one side, then raised her nail-studded bat. I noticed that her wild, frizzy hair was no longer tied back, since she didn't have anything left to hide.

I counted myself down, then swung down from the roof and landed in front of her.

"Hello again," I said coldly.

"Hiya," she said in Tourniquet's unhinged sing-song. "Looks like someone still hasn't learned their lesson. You know, I don't want to hurt you. But if you keep getting in my way like this..."

"This is the end," I said. "Isn't it? For one of us."

Izzy let out a long, uneasy breath. She lowered her spiked baseball bat and started to tap it against the pavement. All around us, girls were taking out their phones to record what was about to happen.

"I just don't get it," she said. "Why do you keep trying to stop me?"

"Because this isn't good for you or anyone else," I said. "Because if you saw things clearly, you'd want me to stop you."