Southwest Nights (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 1) Kal Aaron (best book club books for discussion txt) 📖

justify it every time one of you kills someone, you know, contract or not.” Damien gave her a pleading look. “I’m not denying that the government understands employing a Torch or an Eclipse has a high probability of ending in the use of lethal force, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t communicate everyone else’s concerns.”

“Concerns? What kind of concerns would they have had if they’d been the ones in there dodging exploding crossbow bolts and super-punches?” Lyssa stepped away from her bike and dropped her arms. “Give me a damned break. I think the FBI and the lieutenant have been snorting whatever drugs Alvarez’s boys sell.”

“Come on. I’m—”

A handsome face and a bright smile weren’t going to save Damien from her wrath. He was a liaison, yes, but that meant he also needed to communicate her problems to everyone else.

“I could have kicked in the door and killed everyone in there without breaking a sweat or getting more than a bruise.” Lyssa gestured at the house. “Instead, I went in there with my batons and knocked most of them out.” She pulled a baton out of her pocket and flicked it to its full length. “And I used sorcery to ensure that outcome instead of caving in their skulls.”

Cameramen in the distance all focused on her. Some of the nearby cops looked uneasy, but no one went for a gun. One of the internet kids shouted excitedly. Damien gave her an exasperated look but didn’t say anything.

Lyssa wanted them to watch. She wasn’t their pet Sorceress. Everyone needed to remember that.

“The first thing they tried to do was blow me up with a shard, remember?” Lyssa flung her arm with the baton in the direction of some cops, who ducked and covered their heads. “And even after that, when they started shooting at me with their special crossbows, I tried to take them alive. You ever been shot at with an elemental crossbow, Damien?”

“No, I can’t say that I have.” Damien sighed. “But I have been shot at.”

“Oh, you’ve been shot at. It’s totally the same thing. Wait, you ever been nearly blown up by a flame-blade trap? Hmm? How about that? Fought a guy in a robe that makes him stronger anytime somebody dies around him?”

“No, I can’t say that’s happened either.” Damien averted his gaze.

“Then can we stop talking about this crap?” Lyssa frowned. “I didn’t violate my contract.”

“No one’s saying you’ve violated the scope of your contract, but they wanted Alvarez.” Damien shrugged. “That’s all I’m saying.”

“And I tried to get these guys to surrender a bunch of times.” Lyssa collapsed her baton and stuck it back in her pocket. “But they thought they could win. That’s the problem when non-Sorcerers get their hands on our toys. They don’t know their limits.”

“Yes, the shards.” Damien gritted his teeth. “That was unfortunate.”

Lyssa’s heart rate kicked up. Damien had picked the wrong word. She could have let it go if she hadn’t already been spun about her brother’s anniversary and angry about the job.

“Unfortunate?” Lyssa snarled. “What’s unfortunate is the tiny little detail where no one mentioned there’d be shard users in there. If I had known that from the beginning, I could have handled this differently, and maybe I wouldn’t have had to end up wasting an expensive penetrator round against Alvarez.”

“I’m sure you’ll finish ahead once you get paid.”

“That’s not the point.” Lyssa took a couple of deep breaths, unsure if Damien was being obtuse or was just a standard-issue myopic government agent. “The FBI wouldn’t have to complain about their suspect missing most of his upper body, either, but that’s not the main issue.”

“What is, then?”

A man that good-looking shouldn’t be annoying her. She’d barely paid attention to the aftermath after calling in the cops and letting all the government people do their bureaucratic dance. The Phoenix PD and the FBI must have pitched a fit to wind Damien up like that. It was time he understood what was at stake.

“If a SWAT team had gone in there, or the FBI had sent in an HRT,” Lyssa said, “there is a good chance you’d have a lot of dead cops and agents instead of a handful of dead gangsters. How would that look on the news? The first trap could have killed tons of guys. It might have killed me if I’d gotten hit.”

Damien looked uneasy. He glanced over his shoulder at Lieutenant Lopez and the FBI agents. “I don’t disagree fundamentally with anything you said, and you’re right. There was an intelligence failure somewhere along the line, especially considering how closely the FBI and the DEA have been watching Alvarez. Somebody should have mentioned the possibility that he was smuggling shards.”

“Something smells.” Lyssa shook her head. “I can’t be the only one who thinks so. Investigation’s a sideline for me, unlike the detectives and FBI, but I know how to poke around.”

“What are you suggesting?” Damien asked.

“It’s not cheap to hire a Torch.” Lyssa patted her chest. “And I have a hard time believing a random mayor would authorize it to clear out gangsters when he knew the feds were already on their way and eager to help. Sitting tight and letting the specialists do their job wouldn’t have cost anything more, and it wouldn’t look like they need a Sorceress to keep order.”

Damien cupped his chin. “But if someone whispered in his ear about shards, then it makes a lot more sense. Dead FBI agents all over the news would make Phoenix look like a war zone, and everyone would be screaming about why didn’t they send in a Torch to begin with.”

“Exactly. I think someone somewhere along the line knew Alvarez had shards, and I think they decided to have me clean it up on the cheap.” Lyssa leaned against her bike again, wanting to give her aching leg a rest. Getting shot could be inconvenient.

“I don’t know about that.” Damien shook his head. “You and the Society will