Doppelgangster - Laura Resnick [133]
Buonarotti shoved me aside so he could shoot Nelli. I flung my full weight against him, unbalancing him. We fell against the doorway together and struggled. I heard Nelli barking. Buonarotti backhanded me across the face. I spun around, staggered into the room, and fell down. I heard Max shout something in another language.
My doppelgangster cried, “Nelli! Watch out!”
I looked up to see Max pointing at Buonarotti’s gun. His expression was disconcerted. It was still a gun, it was still in Buonarotti’s hand, and it looked fully functional. Max’s gaze flew to the priest. I looked at Gabriel, too. He was holding the bloodied hand ax and eyeing Nelli. She was crouched down, snarling, and looking for an opening to attack him.
“What happened?” my doppelgangster said, looking at Max and then at the gun which was now pointed at him.
“Nelli! No! Don’t!” I was winded from my fall. My voice was weak. The priest looked more scared than menacing. But the ax looked deadly. And since it was covered in chicken blood, he evidently didn’t balk at killing animals with his own two hands, even if he was fastidious about whacking people.
“Nelli,” my doppelgangster said, attempting to sound calm. “Come here. Nelli.”
The familiar starting shaking with confusion and nerves. She looked at me and made distressed sounds in her throat.
“Call off your dog!” Gabriel ordered.
“Don’t say ‘dog,’ ” Max said tersely, poised to jump Buonarotti if the gangster moved the gun off him to shoot Nelli.
“Call it off!”
“Nelli,” Max said. “Down.”
With obvious reluctance, Nelli backed away slowly from the ax-wielding priest. Now we were spread out well enough that Buonarotti couldn’t cover us all with the gun. We needed to keep it that way.
Still holding the ax, Father Gabriel looked at Max’s painted face, then mine, then Nelli’s. He frowned thoughtfully. “Interesting solution. But not one, I think, that will catch on among wiseguys.”
Max look at the gun again. “You anticipated me.”
“Transformations? Of course.” The priest added, as if this were a great compliment, “You’re not just a crazy old man.”
“I’m afraid,” Max said to me, “I can do nothing about the firearm. Father Gabriel has taken precautions in that respect.”
“So I gathered,” I said.
“Well, that’s just great,” said my perfect double. “Now what?”
I said to it, “What are you doing here?”
“What do you think I’m doing here? I was kidnapped .” It looked at Max. “What’s going on?”
I said to Gabriel, “Why the hell did you kidnap it? You created it.”
“It?” my doppelgangster repeated.
“I didn’t kidnap her,” Gabriel said with renewed exasperation.
“You told me to grab the actress!” Buonarotti snapped at him. “I did what you wanted!”
“Grab me?” I said. “I thought you were trying to kill me.”
“Yes, well, after your little stunt with the widow today, I realized you weren’t likely to go down as easily as the others,” said the priest.
“So you did suspect!” I said.
“Suspect what?” said my duplicate.
“Of course,” said Gabriel. “And so I thought of a better use for you.”
“You adapted,” Max said. “Excellent.”
“Max,” my doppelgangster and I said in unison.
Buonarotti said, “She’s leverage against the cop.”
“We believe your young man is getting rather close to us,” Father Gabriel said to me. “It seemed a good idea to create circumstances that would distract him.”
“Kidnapping me would distract him,” I said. “He won’t miss that thing.”
“Excuse me?” said the doppelgangster.
“Oh, I don’t think the good detective knows what you know, Esther,” said the priest. “So either one of you could be useful in that respect. That’s why I kept her when I saw that Michael had brought me the wrong one.”
“I did?” Buonarotti looked stunned. “So which one is the real one?”
Gabriel sighed and looked at Max. “Take my advice, don’t ever get a partner. It’s really more trouble than it’s worth.”
Buonarotti scowled. “Oh, really? So who’d whack the targets if I didn’t have a piece of this action? You, you little pansy?”
Max said, “I gather this was a partnership of convenience, rather