The armory in Sanctum was officially the only place weapons were allowed. It was heavily guarded by Mercy’s fairies, but while there, you could use most weapons and train with them. I was a fan of a nice handgun, there was control in it, I didn’t pull my gun out if I wasn’t going to use it, and when I was about to—run. I was a good shot.
Artemis was eager about everything, eager to shoot, eager to punch, eager to be the picture of obedience for me. I wondered if it was a performance, or whether he was actually submitting completely. I didn’t believe it for a second, there’s a reason Mercy wanted him here to train as one of her pets. I must’ve seen it first, the way he could switch from sweet to sass. I just assumed it was because he was a Gemini, which he wouldalways go on about—and yet, I hadn’t heard a peep about his astrology hoodoo bull since being down here.
We took to the shooting range, using Glock 19s since that’s what we’d be taking with us. While it was a low risk job, according to the hierarchy of things here. And once more, he surprised me, hitting some close bullseye shots. He’d done it before with me breathing down his neck, and maybe I’d pushed him too hard with the bag so his hand’s weren’t reflexing properly.
As the paper came flying forward for us to check the bullet holes, we pulled the protective earmuffs off. And Artemis looked at me with a big grin. “So, how did I do?” he asked.
“Standard,” I said. “I’d prefer it if we’re ever in a hostage situation and you’re the only one with a shot, don’t take it.”
He rolled his eyes. “Ok. Then show me what you can do.”
“You’ve seen what I can do, but if you want me to show you up, maybe punishment for that little eyeroll thing you just did at me,” I said. “I’m not saying it to be mean, I’m saying it to save my life. These couple inches off you were.” Gesturing to the holes on the paper. “That could be the difference between life and death.”
An annoying smirk formed across his lips. “So, what you’re saying is, you might end up a hostage at one point, and I could be the only thing to save you,” he said, beaming with the idea. “Because I would try, but now that I know my aim is off, maybe I won’t try too hard.”
“Firstly, I’d never end up—” He cut me off as he put the protective ear gear on again. He’d hear, but muffled. “By all means, go again. And let’s wager it, if you come out of the fatality zone, I get Mercy to remove you from the delivery job.”
He reloaded the gun, slamming the mag into it. “Deal,” he grumbled as I put the muffs over my ears again.
After firing the entire mag into the paper, it came flying toward us, and he’d done a good job. My threat was baseless anyway, Mercy wouldn’t have any of it, she wanted Art on this job, she wanted to see how much he’d learned.
“Good job.” I gave it to him with a pat on the shoulder.
“Thank you.” He shimmied. “I do have a question.”
“Ask it.”
“Can I sleep in my own bed tonight?” he asked. “As much as I like sleeping on your floor,Sir, I think a good night of sleep would help me prepare for the job tomorrow.”
I loved having him in my room on the floor. The tile was padded out some with the blankets he’d laid down, but I wasn’t going to keep him there forever, even if I did think eventually he’d graduate into my bed again—a thought I always dismissed because we weren’tthosepeople anymore, we weren’t a couple. “Ok, I think a good night of sleep is important. Same rules apply. No touching yourself. No taking off your ring. And I want eight hours of sleep. You wake up at 6 sharp. Got it.”
“Got it.” He nodded. “Can I also take the file to look over everything?”
“Yes. But don’t lose it. It includes a list of items we need from the armory in the morning.”
“I wanna learn more about this family we’re delivering too as well,” he said.
“Don’tdig too deep,” my voice breaking slightly. “They’re not involved in anything you’d want to kill them for, but their family has a past.”
The Bianchi family were now three brothers, one of them adopted, but if you ever dared say anything about it, they’d pull you down into some dirty old cellar and pour all sorts of nasty shit in your mouth as punishment for ever using it to say something against them.
I wanted Artemis to have as much information as he wanted about them, but they were a ruthless bunch. They’ve had to be to carve their patch out in Boston. I also knew this was aneasygig, but my gut told me something about it was going to go wrong.If I was a rival family, the shipment of money is where I’d hit them to hurt the most.
We had to be ready. I had to be ready to see Artemis fight.
9. ARTEMIS
I was finally being given some freedom. I didn’t realize I was going to be quite so under Donovan’s thumb when I decided to stay here—I wanted to make a change in the world, and the only way I knew to do that was with a gun—or a knife, I was still testing the waters on the best way to take someone out. I knew for certain, it probably wasn’t going to be my fists. They ached a lot, but with the cream from the med bay, you wouldn’t know how bruised they’d been.
After a night in my bed with my teddy crushed up in my arms, I woke to my alarm and headed straight to the bathroom to shower. My body almost told me to be on my hands and knees and wait for Donovan to come scrub my body with soap—but it passed, I was somewhat free of that, even if I really enjoyed the way he touched me.
I didn’t dig too deep into the Bianchi family, other than their dad’s death, which seemed to be from natural causes, turns out greed can still get you when your enemies can’t. Something about a heart attack. They had all the money in the world—well, at the minimum the 2.8 million we were going to be delivering. But they didn’t have the foresight to be checked over by a doctor.
I was at Donovan’s door just before six. I managed to get completely ready before the supposed time he told me to be up for. His door swung open and that smug face appeared, dropping like all of his dreams of banging on my door had gone to shit. “You’re here,” he grumbled. “Where’s the file?”
With the hand behind my back, as if I was going to present a bouquet of flowers, I revealed the file. “This file?” I asked. “It’s right here.”
“Good, good. Well, we let’s go get outfitted,” he said.
