Tia pulled a pistol from my shoulder holster and double tapped the guy that stuck his head out from the dining room. I quickly handed Erika my pistol ...and drew the other for O'Kei. I pulled my shotgun and moved to the door leading out of the building. I had just unlocked it when someone opened it from the outside. I stepped back and leveled the shotgun waist high. The two goons coming in the door quickly to see what the shooting was about were one of the walking patrols and the shotgun dropped. I'm going to buy the answering machine. You can put our phone number on the sign."Jimmy brightened and I told him I would be ready for a full day's work on Saturday."What do you want to do?" I asked Lacy when I picked her up. She was ready to go when I got there for which I was grateful. I didn't have to listen to Jack go on about how busy he was although he did manage to tell me he had two guys working for him."Don't you have anything planned?" We could drive into town and see what's going on.. It wasn’t a one-way street, either. I would catch her looking at me when I came in from easy runs with the boys’ team, or when I started my own workouts on the track after practice. Innocent flirting would occur when we would talk one-on-one before or after races, and more than once she would give me a boob or panty shot when she caught me looking at her stretching. I saw her a few times after graduation, at various family parties for athletes and such, but we hadn’t talked in. Blackheart panted. “Tizit is going to be sending Driders, you know?” he asked. “She has a whole colony of the buggers.”“Driders ... those are drow who ride pink ponies, right?” I asked.“No,” Blackheart said, flatly.“Well, it was worth a shot!” I said, then started to look around for some kind of weapon. In the end, all I found was a spritzer that was used to add bubblies to blood. I was frowning at the spritzer when Kira stepped out from behind the planter, dry as she had been when this.