I lighten the pressure on his throat enough that he can croak out, “I’ll go get the rest.”
I snort, lowering him to his feet, but don’t release him. “Hardball isn’t your game, Michael. Stick to flipping what we give you like you’re good at.”
“Yes, I’m sorry,” he squeaks, but our hands are tied now.
Annoyance blends with Grave’s excitement. “You show a bit of mercy, and suddenly everyone thinks they can try to fuck you over. Julian would have our hides if we let this go.” He licks the shell of Michael’s ear and a tear slips down the poor son of a bitch’s face.
Just before he passes out, I remove my hand, his legs giving out as he crashes onto the tile floor of the side room of the gallery that we use for these meetings. He sucks down several lungfuls of air, pushing himself upright. Promptly, I put a boot on his chest, pressing him back down.
“You’d do well to remember your hands aren’t exactly clean, here,” I remind him.
Grave swaps his gun for a knife, crouching and tracing along the base of Michael’s fingers as the man starts openly weeping, all former traces of false courage long gone. He keeps the pressure light, not enough to draw blood, but enough to scare the shit out of the guy.
Grave’s face is impassive, contemplative. He doesn’t give any indication to where the first strike is going to hit so Michael can’t brace himself, letting the adrenaline flood his system with no way to fight or flee; just stay on edge.
He’s so focused on Grave that he doesn’t notice me raise my gun until there’s a hole in his shoulder. He howls in pain and I wait several minutes for the shock to start ebbing away, ensuring he’s feeling every bit of the pain. The next shot tears through his shin and I step back, letting him try to put pressure on both wounds to stop the bleeding.
Grave pouts. “You’re always too quick. I’ll be sure to warn Elyse of that.” I put a bullet through his thigh on principle and he falls on his ass with a hiss of pain. “You’re such a fucking asshole!”
Ignoring him, I glare down at Michael. “Now, I’d like the rest of the money you agreed to, and don’t forget to add a nice tip for me being so kind as to keep Grave at bay for another day, yeah?”
Michael nods frantically and hobbles to his feet, heading out the door to where he’s parked right outside. Honestly, a part of me hopes he gets in and takes off. It’s been far too long since anyone tried to run, and the others back home love a good chase. But that would just mean more work in the long run, and a selfish part of me wants to hurry this up and call it a night.
Michael hobbles back with the rest of the money and an extra ten grand, apologizing profusely. I walk across the room, grab the painting wrapped and packaged inside of the oversized tote bag, and return to the others. Grave grabbed a rag to rig a bandage over his wound, already on his feet by the time I’m back.
“Pleasure doin’ business with you.”
Michael hurries out to his car and takes off, leaving me looking around at the bloody mess with a sigh. “Fuck, now we need to clean this shit up before we can leave.”
Grave is already walking to the door, favoring his good leg, but this isn’t his first rodeo pushing through pain. “Should have listened to me and let us bring Elyse; girl’s magic at getting bloodstains out.”
He isn’t wrong. After a lifetime of abuse, that girl can get month old, dried bloodstains out of a pair of jeans and have them looking good as new. Add in the training room at home, and she’s had an abundance of practice these last few weeks. But I wasn’t about to put her at risk like that when she doesn’t even know how to protect herself, not when any transaction has the potential of turning south in a heartbeat.
The door clicks shut behind him and I curse, heading to the janitor’s closet to scrounge up some bleach and set to work. A couple of hours later and the place doesn’t have a speck of dust left, let alone any evidence that could possibly be used against us. Julian wouldn’t hesitate to bring his wrath down on me no matter our history if I left anything potentially damning behind. Even if it had been Grave’s fault and he walked out, I’d be held just as accountable if I left a mess when I knew it existed.
We take care of each other, because that’s all we have in this shitty world. We may have come to work for Julian in different ways, but we’re all in far too deep now not to lean on each other, and I’m sure as shit not getting locked up again for something as petty as clean up duty.
Trust doesn’t come easily to any of us, and certainly not in this line of work, but those men are like brothers to me now. Even fuckin’ Grave, who would easily scoop my eyes out with a spoon if he was bored, has grown on me over the years. When you hide enough bodies together, you eventually develop an unspoken agreement… or gather enough blackmail in case someone ever tries to turn on you.
I finally get back home, punching in the security code to the door since keys are too easily lost and replicated. It slams shut behind me as my heavy footsteps reverberate down the otherwise quiet halls. The rooms are pretty well insulated; not soundproof, but enough that it doesn’t feel like we’re living in a college dorm. Still, there’s usually more going on this time of night.
Pulling open the door to the basement stairs, laughter echoes up and I lose some of the tension in my shoulders. A few of the guys are in the middle of a game of pool in the giant rec room, but the one person I actually want to see is notably absent.
“Where is everybody?”
Caleb finishes his shot, snatching up a bottle of beer and taking a swig before answering. “Mav and Jake are on a job. Haven’t seen Elyse or G.” Seth and Aaron make their shots in quick succession and Caleb’s attention drifts back to the game, cursing.
I thought that bastard was screwing with me.
Quickly heading back upstairs, I knock on Elyse’s door, but she doesn’t answer. My stomach churns, knowing I should just call it a night and go to bed, but that nagging sensation in the back of my head won’t let up.
She was so damn nervous when she got here. What if she feels cornered, trying to tiptoe around Grave’s volatile moods and caving into doing shit for fear of getting kicked out?
Fuck.
I slap the wall, more pissed off at myself for being an idiot than anything else. But until I know for sure, I’m not going to be able to get any sleep. Hell, depending on what I walk in on, I likely won’t anyway, but it’s better than all of the shit my brain will come up with wondering.
At least I’ll be able to stop obsessing over her if she starts hooking up with Grave. They can keep each other busy, double date with Aaron and Seth, and the rest of us can hit the bars or some shit.
