His biggest weakness certainly wasn’t. I drove my free leg up between us, slamming my knee into his nuts. Evan’s eyes almost popped out of his skull. He gasped and mouthed a few unintelligible words before he collapsed to the side in a fetal position, clutching his stomach like I’d just ripped it out through his belly button.
It wasn’t exactly an elegant way to end the fight, but it did the trick.
Domino was there, helping me up. “You all right?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.”
The bartender had run around the bar and was trying to help Evan, but she couldn’t do anything besides rub his back. By then, two massive bouncers were running toward us. I put my hands up to prove I wasn’t a threat.
“Get him out!” Evan shouted through the tears that were streaming down his cheek, his voice sounding a pitch higher.
The bouncers grabbed me by my elbows and practically dragged me to the exit, pushing me out into the bright sunlight and slamming the doors shut behind me.
12
Charlie Marsh
“No, Charlie, no, not like that. You stack the cans like this.”
Liam pushed me aside and rearranged the shelf of cat food so that it looked even uglier than how I had them. I couldn’t even tell what his original intention was, but I also didn’t care all that much. Liam Hardy joined the team two weeks ago, a college graduate with a degree in philosophy, who had to move back to Blue Creek and live with his parents. He was quick to tell me that we had a brief friendship a few years ago, although I couldn’t remember a single inch of his face.
I also wasn’t sure how we were friends in the first place. Liam wasn’t only shitty at stacking cat food, he was also a pretty shitty guy. He had a bad attitude, a terrible work ethic, and always had a shady comment to say.
“There, much better. Now it doesn’t look like a rabid cat got into it.”
I started to walk away. “That’s exactly what it looks like,” I said.
On top of all that, I just didn’t get any good vibes from him. There were moments I’d catch him staring, either at Shelly or at customers, in a way that set off some red flags, and the muttering he constantly did under his breath definitely didn’t help his case.
“You done for the day?” Shelly asked, knowing very well that I was done for the day.
“For the weekend,” I said, grabbing my stuff from the cubby in the back room. “I’m heading upstairs to meet with Austin. He’s got an update on my case, and then I’m going to the cabin.”
“Oh? Is that why you’re going upstairs?”
“Why else would I go upstairs?”
Shelly shrugged, sitting down in front of her computer and moving a stack of loose papers off her keyboard. “So that someone else could go downstairs.”
“What’s that—Shelly!”
She threw a stress ball at me. “Go, go,” she said, the two of us laughing. I left before she could clock the blush I felt spreading across my face.
The Stonewall offices were coming along quick. They moved in about a week ago, and there was already furniture in the front room and art hanging up on the walls (although some of the furniture seemed a little tiny for the space). Darien smiled at me from behind his desk. On his shoulder was an inquisitive Houston, who appeared to be memorizing whatever Darien had pulled up on his computer.
“Hey, man. Austin’s waiting for you in his office.”
“Perfect, thank you.” I gave a friendly knock on his desk and walked into the short hallway. “And don’t let Houston bother you too much.”
“Don’t worry, he’s not. We’ve got a good partnership going. I’m heading out, but he’s taking over the night shift. Ain’t that right, Houston?”
Houston gave an agreeable caw. I laughed and knocked on Austin’s door. His gruff voice answered, and I walked inside. He sat up in his chair and gave me a warm smile, the kind that reached his eyes. I hadn’t seen him since I left his place (and jumped into his lap) the other night, so it was good to see the smile and not a frown.
Meant I still had a chance.
“The office is coming along great,” I said, looking around Austin’s cozy office. He had a bookshelf in the corner next to the window, and although it was only half-full, the books that were there all looked like books I had read and loved. A mix of high fantasy and some young adult books that crossed over into an older audience, along with some big nonfiction books. There were a couple of different trinkets and mementos placed throughout the shelf, one of them catching my attention.
“Hey, I have that same figurine.”
“Not surprising—we bought it together on a trip to Canada. It was for a club we were both in, but we ditched the group and spent two days exploring Ontario alone. We had a blast, even though you almost got me arrested.”