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One shot hit my car and caromed off the curve of the hood Another went by led with Father Vincent, and a third shattered the safety glass of a ritzy sports car parked beside ?" Father Vincent staun on the concrete as he skirted around ht and fu the hood dohile the ave way and the hood wobbled up as I reached into the storage compartment

I looked up in tiht and build, mid thirties, dark pants and jacket, lift a small-caliber pistol, its end heavy with a manufactured silencer He fired, but he hadn&039;t taken time to aim at me He wasn&039;t twenty feet away, but he un out of the car&039;s trunk and flicked off the safety as I chaunain on the way, shattering one of the Beetle&039;s headlights, and he kept shooting toward me as he skittered back the way he came

I jerked back behind the car and kept ot to eleven or twelve and the gun went silent I stood up, the shotgun already at un

"Dammit," I hissed "Get in the car"

"But- " Father Vincent staot up, twisted the hanger wire on the hood back into place, and got in Vincent got in the passenger side and I shoved the shotgun at him "Hold this"

He fuht the Beetle to life with a roar Well Not really a roar A Volkswagen Bug doesn&039;t roar But it sort of growled, and I ed to co garage&039;s exit, whipping around the ra?" Father Vincent demanded

"He&039;s an outfit hitter," I spat "They&039;ll have the exit covered"

We screeched around the final corner and toward the parking garage&039;s exit I heard soe and unfriendly-lookingout One of theun, and the other had a heavy-duty sele

I didn&039;t recognize the thug with the shotgun, but Thug Number Three was an enormous man with reddish hair, no neck, and a cheap suit-Cujo Hendricks, right hand enforcer to the crio, Gentleman Johnny Marcone

I had to bounce the Beetle up onto the sidewalk at the parking-garage exit to get around the security bar, and I mowed down some landscaped bushes on the way I jounced over the curb and into the street, hauling the wheel to the right, and lanced back and saw the original gun the silenced pistol at us He snapped off several h I only heard the last few, as the silencer started to give out He didn&039;t have a prayer of a clean shot, but he got lucky and ulped and took the first corner against the light, nearly colliding with a U-Haulaway

A couple of blocks later, h that I could think I slowed the car down to so the speed limit, thanked my lucky stars the suppression spell had fallen apart in the studio and not in the car, and rolled down myI stuck oons were following us, but I didn&039;t see anyone co behind us, and took it on faith

I pulled un pointed at my chin, while Father Vincent, his face pale, muttered to himself under his breath in Italian

"Hey!" I said, and pushed the gun&039;s barrel away "Careful with that thing You wanna kill me?" I reached down and flicked the safety on "Put it down A patrolman sees that and we&039;re in trouble"

Father Vincent gulped, and tried to lower the gun below the level of the dash "This weapon is illegal?"

"Illegal is such a strong word," I ulp "Those men," he said "They tried to kill you"

"That&039;s what hitters for the outfit do," I agreed

"How do you knoho they are?"

"First guy had a silenced weapon A good silencer, lass, not a cheapo plastic bottle" I checked out theagain "He was using a set real close before he started shooting"

"Why does that matter?"

It looked clear My hands tre light ammunition Subsonic If the bullet breaks the sound barrier, it sort of defeats the point of a silenced weapon When he saas ar it, and went for help He&039;s a pro"

"Oh, ain He looked a little pale

"Plus I recognized one of theat the exit"

"Someone was at the exit?" Father Vincent said

"Yeah Solanced back at the shatteredand sighed "Daave , trying to ignore the quivering inshot at is not so I handle very well

Hendricks Why the hell was Marcone sending goons after me? Marcone was the lord of the enerally he didn&039;t like to use that kind of violence He thought it was bad for business I had believed Marcone and I had an understanding-or at least an agreement to stay out of each other&039;s way So ould he make a move like this?

Maybe I had already stepped over a line solanced at the shaken Father Vincent

He hadn&039;t told me yet what he wanted, but whatever it was, it was i one of the Vatican&039;s staff all the way to Chicago Maybe it was ih to kill a nosy wizard over, too

Hoo- boy

It was turning into one hell of a day