Someone knocked on my hotel room door, and I sighed heavily, getting up to tell room service to fuck off, because the sign on my door was clear, and always there so they’d stay out of my shit.
“Look, I don’t need my room cleaned, or…” I trailed off as I faced two men I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. Henley and Has-Been. What the fuck?
“Gonna invite us in, brother?”
I backed up, so thrown by their appearance that I didn’t even think to argue. They both cast their eyes around the room, and Has-Been immediately approached the bed and sat by Nixie, who clearly remembered him, climbing up into his lap for snuggles.
“Nice place,” Henley murmured, dragging a finger over the surface closest to him, and grimacing.
“I like it,” I protested, but we both knew it was bullshit.
“You coming home yet? You’re gonna miss the demolition party.”
I’d really wanted to be there for that. I’d looked forward to it, but that was before I lost everything. Now it’d feel hollow without her.
“I’m sure it’ll go great without me.”
Neither of them disagreed.
“Pricks. How did you find me?”
Henley and Has-Been exchanged grins.
“Find you? Nobody had to find you, man. We always knew where you were.”
“Bullshit. I’ve been off the grid for nearly two weeks,” I scoffed, and then fell silent, as Has-Been rattled off the names of the four hotels I’d been lounging in as I moved around. The fuck?
I turned to glare at Henley, who raised his hands in surrender.
“Nothing to do with me, I swear. I didn’t know anything, but even if I had, I wouldn’t have outed your whereabouts. I’m trustworthy, just like I promised.”
“As am I, nutfucker,” Has hissed at me, while I pondered the weird word choice there, “not that you bothered trying to trust me at all.”
“So how?” Clarity was starting to settle in, and things were suddenly making sense.
“Wait, those fuckers who got me fired. They were working with you?”
Has-Been grimaced. “Not working with us, as such. But they thought taking away your lifeline would help us encourage you back home. Me personally, I was gonna charm you, and Henley here, well, he really likes to beg.”
“Bite me.” I finally realised he was wearing a cut, but not a full club one. A prospect one.
“Prospect?”
His shoulders sagged. “Fuck. I know. I hate it, but apparently they want me to do ‘a period of menial tasks to prove my loyalty’, or some shit. Like I wasn’t fully patched in elsewhere. Trust me, I’ve been arguing this point for months.”
Has laughed. “They have him doing gate duty, and a little bar work. I mean, seriously, he’s getting off easy, right?”
Yeah, he really fucking was. I’d lost track of how many times I’d cleaned up piss or vomit during my prospect year.
I shook my head, getting back on track as I dragged the only chair out and set it by Henley, who was clearly avoiding the bed. I leaned against the wall as he made himself comfortable, which apparently took several adjustments in position, a groan or two, and various facial expressions.
“So those fuckers earlier?”
“The Bennetts? Yeah those assholes think that ‘little favours’ they do for us mean we owe them bigger ones later. Nobody asked them to get involved.” Bennetts. I had no idea why that sounded familiar, but whatever.
“So if they didn’t find me, how? How the hell did I manage to fuck this up too?”
Has lifted Nixie up and kissed her head, nuzzling her face, so I turned to Henley instead, since he wasn’t currently smooching a puppy,
