She shakes her head and starts to walk away from me. I am not a fan of her dismissing me—at all.
“Listen, I’m not tryin’ to poison ya.”
“Then what do you want?”
“To take down big pharma and the corrupt men who are filling their pockets with the money of the sick and hungry,” I reply plainly.
The corner of her mouth twitches, but she shakes her head.
“I’ll just go to a different pharmacy.”
“You’ll have to call up your physician and get the script transferred, who knows how long that will take,” I point out, picking up a box labeled as a menstrual cup. I shrug my shoulders as I look at the branding before putting it back.
“You’re quite strange,” she comments.
“The best minds are,” I tell her with a smile that she returns.
A dimple forms on the left side of her mouth when she smiles, and I can’t help but find it charming. I’m starting to realize what all the fuss is about, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“Where do you get them from?” she asks, and I know I have her hooked.
“Depends, you never told me the brand.”
“Kelcinon,” she replies.
“Top-shelf shit right there.”
I hold my wrist out, looking at my watch, the pharmacy closes in an hour.
“Do you have an hour and a half to spare?”
She looks around. She’s clearly uncomfortable, not liking being in such a crowded place. Part of me is bothered by the fact that she’s specifically running from me, yet she has no idea. I’m starting to see why Cillian wants it to be her choice. It’s kind of a karmic justice to make her fall for the men she ran away from.
“There’s a hole in the wall Thai place right down the street, if you're keen.”
She bites her plush bottom lip. She should say no to me, but maybe she can read that I mean her no harm. Or maybe she just has no fucking self-preservation.
“You can really get them today?” she asks, and I nod my head. “Alright, but just so you know, I have a taser in my purse, and I’m sharing my location with my brother.”
Little liar.
I grin at her and nod my head towards the exit. “That’s smart. You never know what kind of eejits are walking around on the strip these days.”
Neither of us mentions our designations, and I wonder if she finds as much comfort in it as I do. I enjoy being a Beta; I’m not driven by anything but my own instincts and wants. But that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been hard to succeed in my line ofwork. There’s also a lot of pressure being placed on the pack that is to become the future leader of the Irish mobs’ west coast operations.
She wears her hideous sunglasses and keeps her head down as we walk to the Thai place. At one point, I have to grab the sleeve of her sweater so she doesn’t get lost in a throng of people.
When she sees how dark and fairly vacant the place is, she seems to calm down. We place our orders, and I pull out my phone.
Me: Which one of you bastards is free to rob a pharmacy?
Finn: No.
Cillian: Why can’t you do it yourself?
Lorcán: I’m busy.
Me: Our little Italian problem has run out of suppressants. Her stupid brother cut off her insurance, and the cunt of a pharmacist told her it would be four days.
