“Everybody has something to hide, Shiloh,” Micah chided. “Everyone. Even you. Find me something that allows me to take him off the chessboard. If he’s in jail, amazing. If I can blackmail him into giving up the neighborhood, that works, too. You just need to find whatever dirty little secrets he’s hiding.”
Not everyone was a monster. Not everyone had deep, dark secrets. “You know he kills people. Why isn’t that enough?”
Micah looked disgusted. “You know who else knows he kills people? The cops. They literally just look the other way. Can you believe that shit? It’s almost like nobody wants to do their jobs.”
Micah had more than a few cops in his pocket and at least one district attorney on his payroll. That was how he’d gotten Mal locked up. But, sure, the cops who knew Jericho took bad guys off the streets were the corrupt ones, not the scumbags on Micah’s payroll who had no issue with planting evidence, falsifying documents, and lying under oath.
“What if he doesn’t forgive me?” Shiloh asked, heart clenching at the thought.
“Then you make him forgive you. By any means necessary. You don’t want to know what I’ll do to you if you don’t give me what I want. You will go back to your little convenience store clerk, you will get him to fall for you, and you will find me the evidence I need to wipe the board clean.”
“I—”
Suddenly, Micah’s large hands were on his face again. “And, if you’re a really, really good boy, maybe—when all’s said and done—I’ll let you keep him…as a pet.”
“A pet?” Shiloh muttered.
“Yes. As long as he minds his own business, you can fuck like rabbits. Hell, he might turn out to be useful. Maybe I’ll even bring him on as one of my own men. Money’s money, right?”
“Someone like Levi would never work for someone like you,” Shiloh spit, unable to stop the venom dripping from his voice.
Micah scoffed. “Oh, that’s too bad for you. I’d hate to have to torture and kill him while you watched.” He started to stroke Shiloh’s sopping wet hair. I’m just not sure you’d ever recover from that…mentally. You’re such a fragile little thing.”
“Just leave Levi out of it. Once you have what you need to get rid of Jericho, just…just let Levi go. It’s better that way.”
Micah sighed. “Our little doodlebug, ever the martyr. Fine, have it your way. Get me what I want and I’ll let him live.”
“And you’ll get Mal out of prison?” Shiloh asked.
“So greedy. But, sure, I’ll get Mal out. I kind of miss him if I’m being honest. He’s nutty as a goddamn Christmas fruitcake but he sure is entertaining.”
“Soon?”
“That depends entirely on you, doesn’t it? But I’d hurry if I were you. It will only take Mal losing his temper one time for his release to be entirely out of my hands.”
Shiloh could feel that frustration from last night welling up inside him. He was so tired of being a hostage in his own fucking life. “Yeah, sure. Fine.”
“That’s the spirit,” Micah said, getting to his feet. “While you’re in here, you might as well shower. It’s well past noon and you have some making up to do.”
Shiloh dragged himself to his feet with effort.
When Micah saw his miserable expression, he laughed. “Oh, it's not so bad, doodlebug.” Shiloh flinched at the use of the nickname for a second time in a handful of minutes. He knew it was Mal’s nickname for him. He just used it to further antagonize Shiloh. “At least you’ll get to try your hand at make-up sex.”
“So, to recap. You guys were about to do the dirty, he told you it might be bad ‘cause he was inexperienced, you shut it down, forced him to talk about his body count, and then told him he wasn’tallowedto leave. But he was gone when you woke up?” Seven asked, tone mocking. “Weird.”
Levi leveled a glare at his friend from his spot on Jericho’s grimy old couch, now returned to its rightful place at the back of the shop. He didn’t understand his friends’ incessant need to break everything down into soundbites with the worst possible slant. “When I said I needed to talk to you guys, this wasn’t really the pep talk I was looking for.”
This was why he’d wanted to talk to Arsen and Ever, not the others. But Arsen was still under a ‘57 Chevy and, since Seven was there, it was a safe bet this had already made it to the group chat in some form. Luckily, for Levi, the others hadn’t arrived yet.
Why was Seven giving him so much shit? Should he have slept with Shiloh anyway even though he clearly wasn’t in theright headspace? Jericho would have beat his ass if there was no enthusiastic consent. And while Shilohhadconsented, it had been less than enthusiastic. Levi had done the right thing. It didn’t stop his current shame spiral, though.
Seven grinned. “Better me than Felix.”
“What’s better than Felix?” Felix said, breezing into the garage in a black slim-cut suit, a see-through white crop top, and four-inch heels.
“Felix is here,” Arsen called wryly.
“I swear he’s like Beetlejuice,” Levi muttered. “Say his name too many times and he appears.”
