That evening before I hauled it off to bed to rest for my early morning shift, we were all gathered in the great room: members and probates alike, just hanging out. I was standing near the bar by myself, my gaze falling on Renny as he seemed to be back to his old self.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Duke asked, sidling in beside me.
"Saw what?" I asked, turning my head to look at his profile.
He jerked his chin back toward where I had been looking. "Renny-two-point-oh," he said, his tone a little guarded. But, then again, Duke's tone was always guarded.
"Renny-two-point-oh," I repeated.
"Yeah. Saw that shit on my third day here. It comes and goes. No real rhyme or reason I can find. Something triggers him and he's that fucked up robotic version of himself."
"Has Repo and the rest of them seen it?"
Duke shrugged. "If they have, they have reasons they're not telling us for keeping him around."
"I heard something about his particular skill set."
"Yeah, heard that too. But no one will say what it is. Maybe they like his snake-ish ways."
"Repo hates snakes," I said automatically, feeling a jolt at the casual intimacy of that admission. Duke's gaze went to mine, curious. "His tattoo," I covered quickly. "The one on his back with the snake getting stabbed. 'Snakes and snitches get it where they slither'," I added with a casual shrug.
"Who the fuck knows. All I do know is you keep your cards to your chest around him, okay Ace? There's no telling what someone like him is capable of."
With that, he pushed off the wall and moved away from me to go grab a pool stick, leaving me feeling even more on edge about the whole Renny situation. Because if there was one thing Duke didn't seem like he was, it was an alarmist. So if he told me to worry, to be careful, I needed to heed that advice.
I made a mental note to bring the situation up to K when I spoke to him. He would do some digging, find out what he could about Renny, what his supposed skills might be. And, what's more, he could tell me how to navigate him when he was in one of his moods.
I sighed, making my way back down to the basement and curling up in my bed, back pressed up against the wall and knife tucked under my pillow, my hand resting over it.--I woke up later than usual, crawling out of bed with a grumble, my thigh muscles sore from... earlier activities I was actively trying to not think about. Along with the mess with Renny. And, let's not forget, the very dangerous, garrote-wielding Russian traffickers who could very well be looking for me right that moment.
"My life is ridiculous," I grumbled into the silence of the abandoned kitchen, pouring myself a cup of the seemingly always-fresh coffee before making my way outside.
"He's in the back," Repo's voice met me as soon as I stepped out the back door, making me start and splash some of my coffee over my hand.
"Jesus," I hissed, shaking the liquid off my hand and locating Repo where he was sitting on top of one of the picnic tables.
"Didn't mean to scare you," he said.
"It's alright," I shrugged, scanning the dark distance for a sign of Duke. Seeing nothing and knowing it would be another couple of minutes, I took a deep breath and looked over at Repo. His eyes were swollen and red, the purple smudges underneath even more prominent than usual. "Do you ever sleep?" I heard myself blurt out.
Repo gave me a tired smile. "Not often."
"Why not?" I asked, my legs carrying me closer to him despite better sense telling me to keep distance between us.
"Nightmares," he said with a shrug.
"Every night?"
To that I got a wry smile. "I stopped trying to sleep nightly about five years ago, honey."
There was a vulnerability about him in that moment that I felt tug at a similar feeling buried deep within me. It was underneath all the training, under all the determination I built up while lying alone in that panic room every night. It was something I had tried to squish, tried to pretend wasn't a part of me. But it was. And maybe I found it a little comforting that someone as put-together and strong as Repo also had a part of him that was softer, weaker, uncontrollable too.
"Is it..." I started, only to be interrupted by Duke.
"Early again, Ace? You make the rest of us look bad," he said, holding out the flashlight toward me and I took it. "Don't know how the fuck you look so rested so early in the morning. It's unnatural," he said, jerking his chin at Repo, then making his way back toward the compound.