“Fuck!” one of them cursed, nearly tripping over my feet.
I winced, my muscles tensing. The lance of agony never came, however, as the man managed to avoid jolting my foot. Thank fucking gods. The last thing I needed was to roll in pain for the rest of the day in front of Zayr and Ray’s foot soldiers.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” one of them yelled at me.
I ignored him, speaking to Zayr instead, “I need to speak with you.”
He waved me away.
“We have no business left between us. Your debt is paid.” He sounded tired, not annoyed. It seemed that working for Ray took its toll on Zayr.
He released his people with a dip of his chin, then tried to sidestep my chair on his way into the caves.
“Very well,” I said, stopping him. “Let’s make it about business then.”
Shifting aside my cloak, I placed my left hand on the heavy pouch with gold strapped to my belt.
Zayr’s gaze followed my gesture with some curiosity, but it was far from the hungry smolder of greed.
It made sense. Ray wouldn’t put Zayr in charge of collecting gold for him if Zayr had a greedy side, would he?
“I already told you many times,” he exhaled wearily. “Ray isn’t starting any new businesses right now and isn’t making any new deals.”
“What if I wanted to make a deal withyou?”I asked. “Not him?”
I had no plan on how to spin it from here. I needed a cave to keep Elaine safe. The caves belonged to Ray. I knew Zayr had no authority to rent or sell one to me. But I’d been turned away too many times already following that line of thinking. I had to come up with something new, and I hoped inspiration would strike me at some point in our conversation. As long as I had a chance to actually have that conversation with Zayr.
“Just hear me out,” I said confidently. “A minute of your time, and you can always turn me down. Again.”
His massive chest rose with a deep inhale, making his heavy chain-link armor clink. He ran a hand over his bald head, flicking his ear. Maybe he was too tired to argue with me. Maybehe remembered all those gold coins I’d tossed his way while repaying my debt to Ray. Or maybe his curiosity won over his weariness, but he finally gave up.
“Fine. Come with me. I know a place.”
I followed him with hope blooming in my heart. It was way overdue for me to move Elaine to a safer place. She deserved better than the ramshackle hut on the beach. She deserved everything.
The walls of the corridor moved closer around us the farther we went.
“How much longer?” I asked with concern. “I can’t fit through every passage in here.”
He turned over his shoulder, sliding an assessing glance over my chair.
“It’ll fit,” he assured me, not slowing down.
Darkness thickened around us. The noise of the crowded corridors stayed far behind when we finally came to an arched entrance carved in the black rock.
Several men congregated at the entrance, looking like they were just socializing and passing time. At the sight of us, however, they straightened and grabbed their weapons, acting as the guards of whatever lay beyond that arched opening in the wall.
“Who’s there?” one of them asked gruffly, raising a curved sword in his hand.
“Zayr,” my companion replied. “Get me my water and fuck off.”
“Ah, hi Zayr.” The guard lowered his sword.
“Here.” Another one of this pack of thugs handed Zayr a metal tumbler with water sloshing over the rim.
“And who are you?” one of the bunch turned my way.
“He’s with me.” Zayr waved him away, then gestured to me to follow him.
