He clearly thought this last statement was hilarious, and he totally cracked himself up.
“Wha,” Lula said, the twitches turning to thrashing. “Whaaaa’s happening?”
“I might have to shoot her first,” Miguel said.
Lula’s eyes slid half open. “Jesus?”
“No. I’m Miguel,” he said.
Lula pushed herself up to a sitting position. “I’m all tingly.”
“Stun gun,” I said.
“Oh yeah, now I remember. That asshole stun-gunned me.”
She got to her feet, tugged her ultrashort spandex skirt down over her ass, adjusted the girls, and glared at Miguel.
“What the hell’s the matter with you?” Lula said. “Didn’t your mama teach you anything? You got no manners. And where’s the rest of my pizza?”
The Chihuahuas had stopped vibrating and were at rigid attention, focused on Miguel, their tiny lips pulled back in a snarl.
“Move to the wall,” Miguel said to Lula. “Hands on your head.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“I’ll shoot cutie pie here.”
“Why you gonna shoot her and not me?” Lula asked.
“She’s got a gun.”
I was still holding the gun on him, and I was feeling freaked. Not only was I totally incompetent with a gun, but I had the gun in one hand and a fistful of leashes attached to Chihuahuas in the other. I dropped the leashes to have better control if I had to shoot, and the Chihuahuas flattened themselves to the floor and stalked Miguel.
“That’s friggin’ creepy,” he said.
“You better believe it,” Lula said. “Those aren’t any ordinary feral Chihuahuas. Those are minions. Those are trained killer Chihuahuas.”
“Maybe I need to shoot them,” he said.
Lula went into angry rhinoceros stance. “Kill!” she said to the Chihuahuas.
The dogs lunged at Miguel and sank their tiny Chihuahua teeth into his pant legs and held on.
“What the fuck?” Miguel said, trying to shake the dogs off, swinging his gun at them.
I caught movement from my peripheral vision, and Morelli stepped into the room.
“Police,” Morelli said. ?
??Drop your weapon.”
Miguel turned on Morelli and fired. Morelli and I fired back, and Miguel dropped to the floor.
“Are you okay?” I asked Morelli.
“I swear I felt that bullet skim my ear, but yeah, I’m okay.”
Miguel was on the ground, bleeding from a single chest wound. The Chihuahuas were crowded in a corner, vibrating again. A second cop appeared and went to Miguel, cuffing him, checking on the gunshot wound, calling for backup and an EMT.