The Immortal Doc Holliday: Rogues: (The Immortal Doc Holliday Series Book 5) Read online

  Copyright © M.M. Crumley 2021

  Excerpt from MY BETTER HALF Copyright © M.M. Boulder 2020

  Excerpt from BURIAL GROUND Copyright © M.M. Crumley 2019

  All rights reserved. Published by Lone Ghost Publishing LLC,

  associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of

  Lone Ghost Publishing LLC.

  The moral right of the author has been asserted (vigorously).

  No part or parts of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (including via carrier pigeon),

  without written permission of the author and publisher.

  Author: Crumley, M.M.

  Title: THE IMMORTAL DOC HOLLIDAY, ROUGES

  ISBN:9798764302225

  Target Audience: Adult

  Also available in this series

  THE IMMORTAL DOC HOLLIDAY: HIDDEN (Book 1)

  THE IMMORTAL DOC HOLLIDAY: COUP D'ÉTAT (Book 2)

  THE IMMORTAL DOC HOLLIDAY: RUTHLESS (Book 3)

  THE IMMORTAL DOC HOLLIDAY: INSTINCT (Book 4)

  Subjects:

  Urban Fantasy/ Horror Comedy

  This is a work of fiction, which means it’s made up. Names, characters, peoples, locales, and incidents (stuff that happens in the story) are either gifts of the ether, products of the author’s resplendent imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead or dying, businesses or companies in operation or defunct, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Also by M.M. Crumley

  Urban Fantasy

  THE IMMORTAL DOC HOLLIDAY SERIES

  BOOK 1: HIDDEN

  BOOK 2: COUP D'ÉTAT

  BOOK 3: RUTHLESS

  BOOK 4: INSTINCT

  BOOK 5: ROGUES

  BOOK 6: EMPIRE

  BOOK 7: OMENS

  THE LEGEND OF ANDREW RUFUS SERIES

  BOOK 1: DARK AWAKENING

  BOOK 2: BONE DEEP

  BOOK 3: BLOOD STAINED

  BOOK 4: BURIAL GROUND

  BOOK 5: DEATH SONG

  BOOK 6: FUNERAL MARCH

  BOOK 7: WARPATH

  Writing as M.M. Boulder

  Psychological Thrillers

  THE LAST DOOR

  MY BETTER HALF

  THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

  MY ONE AND ONLY

  WE ALL FALL DOWN

  FB

  https://www.loneghostpublishing.com/

  Book 5:

  ROUGES

  M.M. Crumley

  For my readers...

  For your support, your encouraging comments, your time, and for saying "more, more, give us more"!

  No you; no me.

  Thank you.

  Chapter 1

  Doc Holliday tapped his fingers irritably on the hood of his borrowed car. He was so sick of waiting. Granted, he'd only been standing here for an hour, but an hour was much too long. If he leaned on the car very much longer he might dent it, and that wouldn't be very considerate. He had every intention of returning the car when he was done with it.

  He sighed and restrained his desire to pull out his cards and start shuffling. If Andrew caught sight of the pin-up girls on the cards, it would be a dead giveaway. And Ahanu, sneaky shaman that he was, had specifically warned Doc that if he screwed this up, he screwed up everything.

  I should just go, he thought, glancing at the house one last time and jerking slightly when the door cracked open. Doc had to fight not to lean forward anxiously; instead he forced his body to maintain its casual pose.

  A young man stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him. He wasn't as tall or as broad as he would be when Doc met him, but he was definitely Andrew. Same alert movements, same air of thrumming power.

  Doc pulled out his phone and pretended to look at it, but he was really watching Andrew walk past from the corner of his eye. How he wished they were in a different time. How he wished he could greet Andrew, listen to one of his ridiculous jokes, ride into battle with him.

  He felt a surge of sorrow, knowing this was the last time. The final goodbye. The end. He'd never see Andrew ever again. He was already dead.

  "Hey, kid," Doc said, moving away from his car and pretending to pick something up off the sidewalk. "You dropped this."

  Andrew turned slowly, cautious eyes searching Doc's face. Doc grinned blandly, and Andrew's eyes dropped to the twenty dollar bill Doc was offering him. "It's not mine," Andrew said, eyes narrow.

  "Pretty sure it is," Doc shrugged. "I saw it fall out of your pocket. Anyway, I don't need it, so you can have it."

  Doc practically held his breath, waiting for Andrew to take it, hoping he would. He'd written "I owe you, Doc" on it, and someday he imagined Andrew might read it.

  With a shrug, Andrew took the bill and slipped it into his pocket. He turned to leave, but paused by Doc's car. "Is that a Ferrari?" he asked.

  "It surely is," Doc chuckled.

  "It's pretty cool." Andrew said with a crooked grin, and somehow Doc knew what he was thinking. He was thinking, "My horse can beat it."

  "You're right," Doc said with a laugh, slipping into the driver's seat. "He absolutely could." Doc revved the engine and was gone before Andrew could say another word.

  "Did not exactly toe the line, did you?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," Doc replied. "And it's a terrible idea to zap into people's cars when they're driving."

  "You are still on the road," Ahanu said evenly.

  "I nearly ran into that mailbox," Doc countered.

  "You did not even twitch."

  "But I wanted to," Doc retorted. "Only years of self-control kept us from dying."

  Ahanu snorted and began to light his pipe.

  "No!" Doc snapped. "Not in my car."

  "I can make it smokeless," Ahanu offered. "And furthermore, it is not your car."

  "It is right now; put it away."

  Ahanu sighed, "Fine. I allowed you to see him. What now?"

  "How the hell should I know?" Doc growled. "This whole thing is insane, and your timing could literally not be worse." Ahanu chuckled at that, and Doc fought the urge to punch him. "Unless, of course," Doc ground out, "you know something I don't."

  "There are many futures," Ahanu said vaguely. "You just have to pick one."

  "But I have to pick the right one?"

  "Naturally."

  "And how am I supposed to do that if you don't steer me in the right direction?" Doc questioned.

  "I suppose we will just have to hope that your quintessential nature will guide you," Ahanu replied.

  Doc sighed and pondered the upcoming onramp. He could plow the car into a semi-truck, cause a pileup, and maybe kill them both. Except Ahanu was invincible, so he'd just walk away, and Doc would have destroyed a perfectly good Ferrari for no reason.

  Doc zipped between two cars, pulled into the left lane, and pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor.

  "The speed limit is not merely a suggestion, you know," Ahanu said thinly.

  "Sure it is," Doc replied, pleased to see that Ahanu's jaw was tight. "And anyway, you could just zap us there."

  "'Zap' is a truly derogatory term," Ahanu retorted. "What I do requires—"

  He broke off as Doc squeezed between a semi-truck and a van, slammed his brakes, pulled back into the left lane, tailgated the car in front of him until it moved, then shifted into sixth, and zoomed past several cars. r />
  "Enough," Ahanu ground out.

  For once Doc was unable to control his outright shock as both the car and the interstate completely disappeared.

  "My car!" he gasped.

  "It is fine," Ahanu said dismissively. "I returned it to its owner."

  "You mean you zapped it," Doc mocked.

  "I am about to 'zap' you," Ahanu said irritably.

  The ground solidified beneath Doc's feet, and he sighed. They were back at the cabin. The one room cabin. With no running water, no silk sheets, and no way to escape. The same cabin he and Jury had been sitting in for the last two days. A grey cabin in the middle of a grey forest, surrounded by grey mists.

  "If I could do it again," Doc muttered as he sat beside Jury and yanked the whiskey bottle from Jury's hand. "I would kill everyone Mitcham asked me to."

  "No, you wouldn't," Jury sighed. "I've run through it a million times in my mind, and every time we end up here."

  "I hate here," Doc grumbled.

  "It is a tad... wearing," Jury agreed, glancing around the cabin with a caged expression.

  "I thought you liked the woods," Doc retorted as he drank the rest of the bottle, then took Jury's coffee as well.

  "Yeah." Jury glanced nervously at the door. "Where's Ahanu?"

  "How the hell should I know?"

  Jury's eyes darted around the room, and then he whispered "These woods aren't... right."

  "Right how?"

  "I don't know. They're... frozen?"

  Doc raised an eyebrow. "Exactly how much whiskey did you drink before I got here?"

  "No, seriously," Jury hissed. "It's not dead or living. It's neither. There aren't any... I can't... I'm like human," he said, tone a little desperate.

  "That's not possible," Doc snorted. "Is it?"

  "I don't know." Jury got up to pour them more coffee. "I think... God, I feel crazy just saying it," he said as he sat back down. "I think we're out of time."

  "I think we knew that," Doc said. "By now there are probably wanted posters all over the Hidden."

  "No, no," Jury interrupted. "I mean out of time! Outside of time. Not in time!"

  "What?" Unfortunately, Doc knew exactly what Jury was trying to say; he just wished he didn't.

  "Like we were in time, and now we're out. We're not in the past or the future; we're like... time adjacent." Jury met Doc's eyes and said, "That makes no sense. Even I know that doesn't make sense."

  "If only," Doc muttered.

  "If only what?" Ahanu asked from the doorway.

  "If only I'd never met you," Doc smirked.

  "That truly hurts," Ahanu said with a short chuckle. His pipe was already smoking, and a large grey smoke ring drifted lazily towards the ceiling. "This is not the first time I have gotten you out of trouble, hence why you owe me."

  Doc sighed. "You haven't gotten me out of anything; all you did was move me. The trouble is still there; in fact, you've probably made it worse."

  "Definitely made it worse," Jury chipped in.

  "These things happen," Ahanu said dismissively.

  "Goddamn, just tell me what you want from me, and I'll do it!" Doc exclaimed.

  "I already did."

  "Fine. You want me to wake the Black Shaman. How? Where is she? When?"

  "You will figure something out. You will have to find her. Anytime within the next three months."

  Doc's eyebrow twitched. Which made him absolutely furious. His eyebrows never twitched without his express permission.

  "If I didn't know that Andrew still needs you, I'd kill you right this minute," Doc snarled.

  "I'm invincible," Ahanu laughed.

  "I would find a way. Are you seriously not going to give me anything more than that?"

  "I suppose not."

  Doc clenched the coffee cup and felt it crack in his hand.

  "I just filled that," Jury muttered.

  "If you're not going to help us, why exactly are we here?" Doc demanded.

  "I thought you might like some time to regroup," Ahanu replied, lips turned up in a sly smile.

  "If I agree to do this," Doc said sharply, "are we square? I will never see you again?"

  "Most likely."

  "I can't do it," Doc muttered. "I have to kill him. It's the only way."

  "Just remember," Ahanu said cheerfully. "Three months."

  Ahanu was gone before Doc could strangle him, and then Doc and Jury were standing in the middle of a sidewalk, just a stone's throw from Union Station.

  "I absolutely hate him," Doc ground out.

  Jury didn't respond, and when Doc glanced at him, he had a goofy smile on his face and his hands were glowing.

  "Put that away!" Doc snapped. "We're in the middle of the goddamn street."

  "I don't care," Jury responded happily. "You have no idea what it felt like. I don't ever want to feel that way again." The blue glow around his hands flared, and Jury laughed out loud, drawing several people's attention.

  Doc smiled widely and announced, "Sorry, folks. He's testing out a new invention. Rave hands." Doc wiggled his hands in the air and winked at them.

  They all stared at Doc for a brief second before dropping their eyes to the sidewalk once more and hurrying past.

  "I love humanity," Doc murmured. "We better get out of here." He headed down the street toward Dulcis, pausing when his phone beeped. And beeped. And beeped.

  Doc pulled out his phone and stared at the screen. He had thirteen hundred and twelve messages. Which was really strange. He tapped on Jervis's name.

  The first message read, "You had better be dead, because if you're just ignoring me, I'm going to kill you."

  That's a little unlike Jervis, Doc thought as he scrolled through the messages, frowning when he saw there were hundreds of messages just from Jervis, spanning...

  "Oh hell," Doc whispered.

  "What?"

  "I hate Ahanu."

  "You said that," Jury replied.

  "But I hate him more than I did a minute ago."

  "Okay?"

  "You know how we've only been gone two days?" Doc asked.

  "Yeah?"

  "Turns out we've actually been gone eight months."

  "No way..." Jury breathed.

  "Yes, and by now... Well, I don't really know what will have happened, but one thing I can say for sure is that Jervis is going to flay me alive."

  "Well, that's... Goddamn," Jury stuttered. "Mitcham's going to... I don't... Oh hell. We're totally fucked."

  Chapter 2

  "You really think Mitcham's still watching the hotel?" Jury asked as they walked casually towards Dulcis's revolving front door.

  "He strikes me as the kind of man who carries a grudge," Doc replied.

  "So yes?"

  "Yes."

  "I wish Ahanu had fed me something other than jerky and dried fruit," Jury grumbled. "You know, if we'd taken a taxi instead of walking I wouldn't have had to hold these damn glamours for so long."

  "Quit complaining," Doc replied. "We're almost there."

  Doc caught sight of Jervis as soon as they were inside the lobby, and he immediately noticed the tension in Jervis's frame. A tension that wasn't generally there.

  When Jervis's eyes met his, Doc nodded his head slightly, then said with a slow drawl, "Perhaps you can help me, sir. I have a standing reservation under the name Eric Young."

  Jervis's eyes lit with immediate recognition, but he controlled all his mannerisms, gave a short bow, and said, "Of course, sir. Please follow me."

  They stepped into the elevator, and Jervis pressed the button for the sub-sub basement. They didn't speak as they rode the elevator down or as they walked through the short hallway. They didn't speak until they were inside the room.

  "What is this place?" Jury asked, only letting the glamours drop as the door closed behind them.

  "Just bits and pieces of the past," Jervis replied before turning to Doc and demanding, "And where exactly have you been?"

  "Before you
kill me, let me explain," Doc said, holding up his hands in surrender. "You remember me telling you about Ahanu, right? The Grey Shaman, timey wimey? Anyway, he took us, and we were only gone two days. I swear it was just two days. But it appears as if Ahanu returned us to a slightly different time," Doc finished tentatively.

  "Slightly different?" Jervis replied coldly. "It's been eight months."

  "But I didn't know that," Doc insisted.

  "You would not believe what I've gone through," Jervis stated. "Between dealing with Mitcham and searching for you. I can't believe..." He trailed off and breathed deeply, controlling his anger.

  "Sorry?" Doc said.

  "I hate it when he does that," Jury said from his position on the fainting couch. "The least he could do is say it with a straight face. I mean, he lies all the time."

  "Shut up," Doc said wearily.

  "I'm hungry," Jury complained.

  "Get some food then."

  "I'm a wanted man in a basement," Jury pointed out.

  "Use one of your hole thingys."

  "Hole thingys? It's a... Well... It's a... Never mind," Jury muttered.

  Doc turned back to Jervis and said, "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean... Anyway..."

  Jervis shrugged stiffly, and Doc figured that was the most he was going to get in the way of forgiveness.

  "So where are we at?" Doc asked.

  "Three million merlin bounty."

  "Goddamn," Doc hissed. "That's a little higher than usual. Mitcham's pretty upset then?"

  Jervis's lips turned up fractionally. "Indeed. He attempted to seize all your assets and was very disappointed when he found you don't have any."

  "He obviously has no idea how long I've been at this," Doc chuckled. "Did he cause you any trouble?"

  "Of course not," Jervis said dismissively. "Since Dulcis isn't part of the Hidden, there really wasn't much they could do. They acquired a norm search warrant, which allowed them to comb through our records and search your suite, but that was all they managed."

  "Did they find anything of importance?" Doc asked, thinking of his safes.

  "No."

  "Good." Doc paced for a minute, then asked, "Did you find a home for Lydia?"

  Jervis snorted. "Yes; and I gave myself a raise."