I remember beggingHimto change it for me with a blade, to cut me because I wasn’t brave enough to do it myself. How that was the one thing He always refused me because He worried He might harm me, or that it might get infected because of sweating our asses off in the desert and how we had to carry our battle rattle.
This man’s voice drags me back to the present. “You’re a smart guy, Eddie,” he says. “With a smart mouth. How has someonenotshut you up before now?”
“Many have tried.” I drop into a Monty Python accent. “None shall pass.”
Again, I’m starting to think what little sense of self-preservation I used to possess has totally fled my body.
That.
Goddamned.
Chuckle.
I’ve obviously amused him. Sounds like he’s smiling and I can’t help wondering what he looks like, what color his eyes are.
If they’re brown, likeHis. “I’m sure they have.”
The finger disappears, leaving me with the ghost impression on my scalp where he touched me.
I shiver.
Fuck.
He walks behind me, so the space I’m in can’t be so tiny that there’s not room to move around in. Considering it’s December and likely cold outside, it’s moderately insulated in here.
I flinch again when his hands come to rest on my shoulders and he squeezes in a way that warns me there is likely more torture in my immediate future. I hope he can’t hear the way I suck in air as my left shoulder painfully sings under his hand.
Well bring it and let’s dance, motherfucker. I’m tired of this foreplay.
No, I’m smart enough I don’t saythatout loud. I don’t have that much of a death wish, and this isn’t the good kind of pain.
“I have to admit,” he says, “the faked nuclear material was genius. The question is, did you do it to fuck them over because you knew they were idiots and you took advantage of the situation, or did you do it because you were desperate, since you bit off more than you could chew with the contract in the first place?”
Shit.
That means he knows more about me than I’m comfortable with. I wonder who he got to and who gave me up.
I opt to dig for a little information in return. “What’d they tell you?” I ask.
“Unfortunately, by the time I arrived on the scene, they were all dead.” The hands disappear and I draw in a relieved breath as the pain eases just a smidge in my shoulder. “That’llteach me to hire cheap help on Craigslist.”
The braying laugh escapes me despite myself. If I wasn’t likely minutes from dying, I’d probably enjoy having a drink with this guy.
Maybe more, depending on what he was down for. He definitely sounds like a Top.
He stands on my left now, leaning against the table, uncomfortably close again but I don’t lean away.
I also force myself not to lean toward him.
“You’ve made a few lists over the years, Eddie. But it appeared you retired, and attention shifted away from you. People forgot about you. Then, out of the blue, you go active again. You take this job and two others right before it in quick succession, and apparently landed yourself squarely on someone’s radar.”
Fuck.
I’m already instinctively tensing in preparation of an impending blow as I speak. “Did I leave someone off my Christmas card list? Sorry. My bad.”
Instead of hitting me, he laughs again.
Fuuuuuck.
