“Ok, so what did you find?” I asked.
“An operation in Long Island City,” he said. “The Ashford family have these safe houses dotted around the city, they bring people in, store them almost, training them to do—whatever it is they’re being forced to do, and then they’re shipped off againacross the country.” He shuddered and in the light, I swore I saw the fine hairs on his body stand. “I want this to be my first op.”
“Ok,” I said, looking at Jinksy and Finley all quiet. “Can we speak alone?”
The fairies left and I pulled a seat in close from the empty computer terminal to his left. There was still a lot that he had to learn, and I didn’t want it to be a difficult lesson, but I knew neither of the fairies would’ve told him—they were probably just glad to have someone else around to talk to IRL.
“You’ve got to send everything through Mercy,” I said, quietly. “If she doesn’t sign off on it, as in, you go against her, it’s basically a death sentence. So, make sure you’ve got an airtight job before you do it.”
“We’re getting bad people off the streets, why would she not approve it?” he asked. “It’s not like she has shared in it, does she?”
I bit my tongue slightly and shrugged. “She might. She doesn’t have them in Ashford, but competing companies, she could be working with. She might not approve of them with certain things, but it doesn’t mean she’s going to let you go in there killing their people.”
Artemis’s shoulders deflated. “These are Ashford, so, it should be fine.”
“It should, but you can’t get your hopes up,” I said. I wanted to coddle him, to keep him from actually finding people. I thought sending him up here would have him using their computers and getting distracted—but instead, one-track mind, he was just here to find someone to make pay.
“You don’t have to crap all over my research,” he said, frowning and pouting. I hooked a finger under his chin, pushing it upward for his lips to reach mine.
“I wasn’t shitting all over it,” I said. “I’m just trying to let you know, if something is easy to find, and nobody else has taken them out, there’s probably a reason for it.”
“Someone else is protecting them?” he asked. “Well, this seems easy. I’m going to ask Mercy.”
***
I admired Artemis’s tenacity, it was hand-in-hand with his sass and often brattiness, but I knew the softness, the sweet, the gooey, the center of him that was mine, all etched and scribbled on with my cock.Mine.
There must’ve been favoritism happening since Mercy didn’t hear much and she approved the hit. It was a low level boss, not even on her radar, on nobodies radar, and the payout for it wasn’t much since nobody was asking for it. It came out of a much larger budget assigned for additional jobs—this was like a job that would’ve been attached to a much larger hit.
“I’ve got a good eye for things,” Artemis said as we walked back to the apartments together. “You wanna be on my team for this one? Or should I solo?” he giggled.
I remembered my first solo hit, and it hadn’t gone as smoothly, I was sucker punched in a bathroom, my head bashed through a stall. All because I took a job. Safe to say those two guys were removed from Sanctum, and blacklisted from almost every other global agency. “Obviously, I wanna be on your team,” I told him. “I need to make sure I don’t lose you again.” I pressed a finger to his lips before he could speak. We weren’t going to get into the whole debate over who lost who—I knew I would always lose thar argument.
Artemis went to his apartment with his file of information as I went into mine. It was as far as I was comfortable lettinghim be right now. “I’ll come over later,” he said. “I want to make notes on this action plan.”
“Ok. Spend the night with me?”
“Duh, your bed is comfier,” he said.
“Haven’t they upgraded your bed?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe we could check it out.”
“I like the sound of it,” I said. “I’ll let you work a little before I come over and destroy your focus.”
We kissed before letting our bodies leave each other.
My apartment was a reminder of the dynamic the two of us had been in when he was training. It was intense, but consensual, and now that our dynamic had changed once more, the leash I had on him was a lot more subtle—in the form of jewelry.
I could only last so long in my apartment here before I would inevitably go crazy, and since I had no work contracts currently on, I had nothing to focus my mind on. I walked around Sanctum for what must’ve been hours, I went by the medical wing for a quick check-up, to the training cages where Reaper was throwing money down on bets, and then to the climbing wall where I free climbed all the way to the top—rang the bell, and didn’t feel the same level of happiness I usually got from it.
Until I saw Artemis’s face, staring up at me. It made me realize I didn’t like being left on the outside, I wanted to be in on all his decisions, and actions. But at what cost? The cost of letting him on all of mine? By now, he’d worked for it. He deserved it.
On the floor, he gave my arm a punch—holding back a real jab. “You said you were going to be in your apartment,” he said. “But I figured you’d be here.”
“You needed me?” I asked, lifting my t-shirt up to wipe sweat from my face. “Because all you had to say was that you needed me and I’d be right there.”
“No, I didn’t need you,” he said, biting his lip and blushing. “I wanted you. Your door was open, so I went in ready to attack your—” his eyes dipped to my crotch, already bulging from the intense beating and rush of blood around my body. “And to my surprise, you weren’t there, so you blue ballsed me.”
