text: After Johnny disappeared around the corner of the building with a promise to stay out of sight and not cause any trouble, Lisa glanced at the marquee over the front door. A staffing agency's main office isn't too bad. At least they're not holding this Johnny-hater meeting in the basement of a church or something.
  
  She opened the front door and stepped inside in her full redheaded Stephanie illusion. The front room of the staffing agency was empty and all the lights turned off, but some were on down the hall, so she followed them and the sound of low, agitated voices.
  
  When she stepped into the room off the hall, the conversation stopped. A dozen heads turned toward her—magicals and humans—and the massive shifter seated at the head of the long conference table nodded at her. "Look who finally decided to show up."
  
  A witch in a thick black hoodie snarled at Lisa. "Did you have a hard time getting away from your new boyfriend without him noticing?"
  
  The agent took the last empty chair around the table and didn't bother to meet the witch's gaze. We were right. The Red Boar's not here but I'm willing to bet that shifter's his mouthpiece. She sat and nodded at the shifter. "I hope you didn't get started without me."
  
  "You're not the one who put this together, Stephanie." He sneered when he said her name. "Merely another invite."
  
  She glanced around the table at the disgruntled ex-bounties and recognized most of them from their photos under the episode descriptions on the Johnny Walker fan site. This is surreal.
  
  "Man, that fucking dwarf must've lost most of his brain cells if he brought an ex fucking con on with him for this joke of a show," a half-Kilomea grunted. He picked at his long eyeteeth with the pointed end of a shish-kabob stick, his takeout box open and empty on the table in front of him.
  
  Lisa shrugged. "He lost a lot of things fifteen years ago."
  
  "Not nearly as much as the rest of us." A crystal woman seated across the table tossed her long braids over her shoulder. "That's for damn sure."
  
  "And not nearly as much as he deserves," the agent added with a firm nod. "That's why we're here, isn't it?"
  
  Two gnomes closest to the shifter at the head of the table—one with an eyepatch and the other with his left ear missing—lowered their heads together for a whispered conversation. The one with the eyepatch sneered. "Do you expect us to believe you've been running around Baltimore with that damn bounty hunter for days and don't give a shit about what happens to him?"
  
  She gestured toward the shifter. "I sent all my details exactly like the rest of you. At least I assume the vetting process was the same given that we all found each other in a place where most people—and magicals—do what we can to stay anonymous. I don't know about you, but I'm very sure the shifter, whoever he is, wouldn't have told me how to get here if I didn't check out."
  
  "Kellen," the shifter grumbled. "If you need a damn name, call me that."
  
  "Okay, Kellen." She folded her arms and glared at the gnomes. "I thought we were here for the bounty hunter with his head so far up his ass he still thinks he's Oriceran's gift to Earth, not to interrogate me."
  
  A few ex-cons chuckled at that. The gnomes huddled together again for another unheard conversation but didn't say anything else.
  
  At least that got their attention. Whatever Johnny's picking up with that spy bug, I'll have to remind him later that I don't mean any of this.
  
  "But I'm having a hard time buying all this," the witch in the hoodie added, her glare still extremely hostile. "We've all seen the clips that stuck-up prick put all over the Internet. It looks like you two are cozier than you want anyone to believe. And I don't think I believe you."
  
  "And that's why I'm on the show with him now and you aren't. Because I'm smart enough to know that the best position to turn on someone and rip their life apart from the inside out is from right next to them. Up close and personal. The dwarf trusts me enough for that. And when I'm sure he trusts me with his life, that's the best time to strike." Lisa leaned sideways in her chair and raised an eyebrow at Kellen. "I assume you guys didn't do a meet-and-greet before I arrived."
  
  "It's not exactly something we need," a half-wizard interjected and smoothed his oiled hair away from his temples with both hands. "Our identities were plastered all over the TV for months after that shithead dwarf put us away. But you haven't shown up anywhere."
  
  "Look, he didn't break into bounty hunting when he started that stupid show," Lisa told him. "That was merely something he added to his fucked-up resume. And I happen to be on his bounty list that predates his idiotic scrounging for ratings and his sucking up to the goddamn FBI when they pulled him in as a regular contractor. It doesn't mean I don't want to see him bleed any less than the rest of you."
  
  "So prove it, then," the Crystal woman said. "I wanna hear what you think you know about him that earns you the right to sit here and call the rest of us idiots."
  
  "Fine." Lisa folded her arms. "What do you want to know?"
  
  "When did he bag you?"
  
  "2016."
  
  "Doing what?"
  
  "I'd lifted a new Mercedes in LA and got it as far as Kansas City before I ran out of my stash and had to re-up." Lisa sneered at the other ex-cons. "The fucker picked me up right after that and didn't even give me the chance to get right again. He took all eighty bucks worth of what I'd just scored too."
  
  "How the hell'd he even find out about you?" one gnome snarled.
  
  "The owner of the Mercedes dealership was a wizard and must have gotten word of the bastard's skills through the grapevine. You know how it was before Earth even knew about us and magic."
  
  The cons grumbled amongst themselves and glanced at Kellen for confirmation. The shifter shrugged. "Like she said, she checks out."
  
  It's a good thing I spent time researching my fake past. Lisa pressed her lips together in irritation. "So can we quit focusing on my fuckups and get down to the real issue here or what?"
  
  "You're not running the show, Light Elf," the half-wizard snarled. "So shut the hell up and let the big dogs handle the meeting, huh?"
  
  "Oh, sure. All you big dogs have considerable personal information about Johnny Walker already, right?" She gestured to include those present and smirked. "You've merely been waiting however many years to use it in a fun group setting. I get it."
  
  "This bitch's head is as big as the dwarf's," the witch spat. "You think you're better than the rest of us."
  
  "Well, you assholes aren't exactly making it hard for me."
  
  The woman leapt from her chair and leaned over the table and black-and-silver light illuminated in a sharp-tipped vortex within her palm. She snarled at Lisa. "Say that again."
  
  "Sit down!" Kellen barked. "All of you need to shut the fuck up. This isn't about who's got the biggest criminal sack, understand?"
  
  With a hiss, the witch snuffed out her unused attack spell and slumped into her chair.
  
  The shifter shook his head and glared at every face around the table. "We're here because the guy I answer to who reached out to all of you on that fan site wants to hear what each of you brings to the table. If you don't have anything useful to add to what he's looking for, you can get fucked. Understand?"
  
  Those present subsided, the silence punctured only by a few grumbles.
  
  At least I'm playing the part. Lisa focused her gaze on the shifter. "You're talking about Lemonhead, right?"
  
  "You saw the message boards," he replied flippantly. "It was a ballsy move to insert yourself there without having any real ties the way the rest of us do."
  
  "I saw an opportunity and I took it." She shrugged. "And it worked, obviously."
  
  "Uh-huh." The shifter studied her speculatively, then slid both his hands onto the table and drummed his fingertips on the surface. "So why don't you take this as another opportunity to tell us what you know about Johnny Walker. What makes you useful?"
  
  Lisa glanced at his drumming fingers and tried to hold back a smirk when the thick silver ring on the shifter's finger caught the overhead light and flashed red. The shape carved on it was the same profile of a boar she and Johnny had seen on so many drug baggies and tattooed on a random low-level drug dealer in Portland. If he's been on the Red Boar's payroll this long, I bet at least one of those red stones is a real ruby.
  
  "Sure." She took a deep breath and scanned the faces of the other criminals around her. "It wasn't on the YouTube clips, and it won't be on the episode, either as per Johnny's orders. But I know where he lives in Florida. I've been inside his house."
  
  The witch scoffed and shook her head. "But you won't tell us where?"
  
  "Everglades City, right on the main strip and backed up to the swamp. I'd give you an address but I didn't think I'd have to bring that information with me. And no, I haven't memorized it."
  
  "But we're not in Florida," the gnome missing an ear piped up. "We're in Baltimore. The fucking dwarf's in Baltimore. We shouldn't wait until he goes home and gets nice and cozy before we move."
  
  "And that's why I'm here—why we're all here, right?"
  
  The gnome scowled at her.
  
  "Look. Here's everything I know." Lisa tapped her fingers on the table. "Those dumbass dogs are as close as he gets to having family. Johnny lost his mind after his kid was gunned down fifteen years ago. I know you all know about that. And he hits the bottle every night like it's still fifteen years ago. He tries to fill his time pretending to be useful with all his stupid fucking gadgets, but he's still hung up on how badly he failed to keep his kid from eating a bullet.
  
  "And if you intend to keep asking me about all those clips of me and him, then yeah. I'm playing the 'go straight to Johnny's heart' card. Hell, I may even be the first living being on two legs instead of four that he's opened up to in fifteen years. And when he opens up all the way, which he will, his guard will be completely down."
  
  It took everything she had to not grimace at the way she twisted Johnny's pain and his past merely to make it look real in that context. He knows what I'm doing. I only hope he doesn't get so pissed about it that he forgets the plan.
  
  "Why you?" Kellen asked. "Specifically, I mean. Why would he take some Light Elf he bagged in '16 under his wing for this failure of a show trying to crawl its way back into the public eye now?"
  
  "Because I told him what I thought he wanted to hear." She forced herself to not look at the boar ring on the shifter's hand when he lifted it to stroke his chin. "His team was holding interviews for an assistant in this stupid thing so I called in and got myself a slot to talk to the bastard. I told him to his face how he'd ruined my life back then and sent me off to spend ten years behind bars, and that I'd come full circle to recognize how he saved me."
  
  The witch snorted.
  
  "Yeah, I know. It sounds like a load of shit." Lisa nodded at her. "And it was. But he was so desperate to feel like he'd done something good in his life that I had him eating from the palm of my hand after the first five minutes. I told him I wanted to work with him on the side of justice and all that crap, and that I admired him for what he was doing and how he got the job done. I convinced him that I decided this was the best way to repay the dwarf who tore my life apart and helped me to turn it around and he still believes that's exactly what happened."
  
  The other thugs sniggered around the table. The witch didn't seem all that convinced, but she assumed the woman had come in there looking for someone to tear down anyway and it happened to be aimed at Stephanie Wyndom.
  
  "Fair enough." Kellen leaned forward at the head of the table and folded his hands. "It sounds like we have an in, then."
  
  "Sure. And we get to go over all this with Lemonhead too, right?" Lisa gestured toward the other criminals. "He wants to see the dwarf burn as much as we do, doesn't he?"
  
  The shifter smirked. "He couldn't make it tonight. I could. And I know he'll be especially grateful to hear more details from someone who's done more than spend the last decade or two stewing over a revenge plot. It looks like you're the only one who's taken any action."
  
  "Yeah. I spent enough time doing jack shit behind bars." She grinned.
  
  "I bet. So where's he staying?"
  
  Lisa paused for a second. Careful. This could turn south very quickly. "We're both at the Sagamore Pendry right now with the whole film crew."
  
  "Uh-huh." Kellen pulled his phone out and typed something into it. He didn't look up at her when he asked, "What room?"
  
  Shit. "424. Fourth floor. Right across the hall from me in 427."
  
  The shifter's gaze flicked up to meet hers and he nodded. "Well, that's a start."
  
  Yeah, and we'll have to move quickly to get whoever's staying in those rooms the hell out of there before the Red Boar shows up. At least we'll have the element of surprise.
  
  "We should go after him tonight," the half-wizard said. "Now."
  
  "Yeah." The gnome with the eyepatch pounded a fist on the table. "While he's curled up with his dumb mutts and has no idea this Light Elf turned on him."
  
  A round of shouted agreement rose from the other criminals and some of them banged on the table in their excitement.
  
  Kellen studied Lisa with a raised eyebrow, and she shrugged. "I wasn't planning on tonight, but I sure as hell won't object if that's the way you want to go."
  
  "Then let's grab that bastard in his sleep and tie him up like the fucking animal he is," the Crystal woman shouted and pushed from her chair.
  
  "No." Kellen turned a warning gaze onto her and pointed at her seat. "Sit."
  
  "You want us to wait even longer?" the witch hissed. "I thought we were here to do something—"
  
  "We will do something but not tonight." Kellen slipped his phone into his pocket and stood. "I'll take this information to Lemonhead, and he'll call the shots from there. The rest of you sit back and wait for us to reach out."
  
  "This is ridiculous," the one-eared gnome growled. "Why should we wait for instructions from some asshole who won't even show his face here when we already have everything we need?"
  
  The shifter hissed at him and his eyes flashed silver in warning, although he didn't shift. "Because unlike the rest of you, Lemonhead has outsmarted Johnny Walker at every turn, and the dwarf hasn't laid a hand on him, although not for lack of trying. And because if anyone moves on that dwarf without getting the go-ahead from me first, you won't live to see the day when we take the bounty hunter down ourselves. If Johnny doesn't kill you for moving in on him before it's time, Lemonhead will. And I could be wrong, but I assumed everyone in this room would be a little smarter than they were when a fucking dwarf with an overinflated ego tossed you behind bars the first time. On camera."
  
  The other thugs grumbled and shifted in their seats, but no one argued any further.
  
  Lisa glanced furtively at those around the table. They know Lemonhead's reputation, at least. Probably not the Red Boar, but it doesn't matter if they know who they're taking orders from. We do.
  
  On the fourth floor of the Sagamore Pendry, Phil waved his crew onward down the hall toward the front door of Johnny's suite at the very end. Cody stalked quietly behind the director, followed by David with the boom mic, Alicia in her bandana carrying lighting gear, and Fred and Brad as backup.
  
  "We'll go at this from a different angle, people," Phil whispered and pointed at Johnny's door. "He's had all day to simmer down from that little outburst at the park. And I'm willing to bet he'll be much easier to handle at the end of the day."
  
  They stopped outside the door and he knocked briskly three times. "Johnny? It's Phil."
  
  One coonhound barked inside, then the other.
  
  The director smirked. "Well at least we know he's awake. Johnny! Come on, man. Only a few more questions. You've been in there all day."
  
  The dogs barked wildly.
  
  "I ain't interested," the dwarf shouted.
  
  "I know things went a little south earlier today," Phil said. "But I'd like to get a final wrap-up of the day, Johnny. We've come up with a few talking points we think the viewers would enjoy hearing straight from you."
  
  "Get outta here before I come throw you out."
  
  Phil stepped away from the door and glanced at his crewmembers. "Hang tight. I'll get him to come around," he said quietly, then resumed his usual tone. "Okay, Johnny. I'll be honest with you. I know I pushed a little too hard when we began to dive into your past. That's okay. This new season isn't about your past, though. It's about the present. And we merely want to highlight—"
  
  Paws thumped against the door and scratched furiously as one of the hounds barked over and over.
  
  Staggering back in surprise, Phil stared at the door. "Jesus. He needs to bring those attack dogs under control."
  
  "I don't like havin' to repeat myself," Johnny called from inside. "It's none of your business."
  
  Phil sighed, took his phone out of his pocket, and pulled Lisa's number up. He glanced at Cody. "Are you rolling right now?"
  
  The cameraman nodded without saying a word and panned the camera toward him.
  
  "Not me, man. Focus on the door. He might still answer." Phil made the call and lifted his phone to his ear.
  
  Lisa's cell rang inside Johnny's suite.
  
  "This ain't what I call fun," Johnny said as the hounds barked wildly.
  
  "Johnny, we know Li—we know Stephanie's in there with you. I can hear her phone." Phil knocked again. "Come on and open up."
  
  "I'd rather be huntin'."
  
  Phil frowned. "Well, yeah. We get that. But we're here now, so—"
  
  "You look like you're about to shit yourself. Get movin'."
  
  "What?" The director called Johnny's number next, but it went straight to voicemail.
  
  "Johnny, what's going on?"
  
  "I ain't interested. Get outta here before I come throw you out."
  
  "Yeah, you already said that." Phil scratched his head.
  
  "I don't like havin' to repeat myself. It's none of your business. This ain't what I call fun."
  
  Alicia cocked her head and scowled. "I don't think that's him."
  
  Phil pounded on the door again. "Johnny! You better open this door right now or I'll call the front desk and tell them your dogs are on a rampage in that suite!"
  
  "I'd rather be huntin'."
  
  "Dammit. Did he seriously record himself on a loop?"
  
  "That's definitely what it sounds like," David muttered.
  
  "I know what it sounds like." Phil whirled around and scanned his team. "Todd, go down to the front desk and…Todd?"
  
  The other members turned around to search for their second camera guy.
  
  "Where the hell is he?"
  
  Dave shrugged. "I thought he was here."
  
  "Shit."