Main Attraction by Anna J. Evans

to close them down, but until they succeeded in making it illegal to traffic in sex, it was Frank’s job to provide the workers of the red light district with equal protection under the law.
    “You will refer to me as Mistress, you will not look me in the eye and you will be punished if you dare to speak before spoken to again. Is that clear?” Edna ordered the man in front of her, still sounding amazingly strong and confident.
    But then again, why shouldn’t she? The guy was even shorter in real life than he looked in the photographs, well under five and a half feet, even with the strange little fedora he had left on his head. Once he’d taken off his bulky overcoat, he was downright scrawny, so scrawny that he seemed reluctant to remove his oversized gray
    t-shirt. It trailed down over the loincloth that hung limply around his thin, hairless, almost feminine-looking legs.
    Scratch that, very feminine-looking legs.
    “Shit,” Frank cursed to himself, beginning to smell a rat. His gut was screaming that something was very wrong, a feeling that was confirmed when Nate came scurrying into his hiding place.
    “Captain, there’s another one!” Nate’s face was pale and sweat beaded on his mostly hairless upper lip.
    “What do you mean another one?” Frank whispered harshly, fighting the urge to cuss the hell out of his soldier. It wasn’t necessarily his fault, Frank had bought the suspect’s identity at first. They were obviously being toyed with. But by who? And why?
    “There’s another stalker down in the lobby right now. We managed to stall him, had a janitor say the elevator was broken, but he’ll be here soon. It’s only ten flights up and it’s just a matter of time until he finds the staircase,” Nate panted.
    “All right, cover me.” Frank darted a quick look at the surveillance monitor to see that stalker number one was still a safe distance from Edna before he armed his weapon and made for the door.
    “Should we stop the second one, sir?” Nate asked.
    “Not unless we have to,” Frank returned. “Use your judgment, Officer. If I don’t have the situation in there under control by the time he reaches the lobby, then take him into custody.”
    “Will do, sir,” Nate said.
    “I knew it!” Edna suddenly screamed.
    “Freeze, Queen’s Guard,” Frank bellowed as he burst into the room, nearly dropping his goddamned gun seconds after he found his mark.
    What the fuck was going on?
    “Captain Frank?” Queen Cindy squeaked. Her blonde hair spilled out in a mad tangle from the cap she had just whipped off her head and her big blue eyes started to tear. Her full bottom lip quivered and her hand trembled like she was about ten seconds away from a seizure, a fact that wouldn’t have worried him so much if that hand hadn’t been holding a small silver revolver trained right at Edna’s chest.
    “Put the gun down, Cynthia,” Frank said slowly, dropping the “Queen” before her name without a second thought. The less power she thought she had in the present situation, the better. He had no idea why she would attempt to murder her stepmother on the same night she sent him and his men in on a mission to save her, but she needed to realize right away that he wouldn’t be an accessory to whatever she had planned.
    He’d take her down like he’d take down any other criminal, especially anyone foolish enough to threaten someone he considered under his protection. Whether it made sense or not, Edna was now on his very short list of people he’d kill to protect— no matter what the law, or the queen, had to say about it.
    “I thought you were going to be here tomorrow,” Cynthia cried, tears flowing freely down her face.
    “Put the gun down, Cynthia. Now,” Frank ordered, his voice harder as he slowly positioned himself between the two women.
    “You still haven’t learned to use a day planner?” Edna asked. “You really should get organized if you plan to start killing people. Time