Chapter Eight
“Whatthefuckwas that?” Alex shouted and pushed Will against the closed door with a muscular arm banded across his throat. “You just sat there doing nothing while that fuck had his hands all over her!”
His breaths were in ragged pants, his shoulders rising and falling with every inhalation as he fought to contain his rage. Will’s hollow chuckle was somewhat muffled by the pressure against his windpipe as he placed his palms on his younger brother’s chest and shoved him off.
“Don’t be so fucking foolish, little brother.” He rubbed at his throat, then loosened the tie from around his neck, folding it neatly and tucking it into his suit pocket. “She was safe, and you know it.”
“He’s sold women too, Will, fucking sold them like cattle,” Alex spat, throwing his hand in the direction of where Oscar had accompanied Wesley off the premises.
“We both know that would never happen to her. She would never have had the opportunity to leave with him, so stop acting like a petulant child.” Alex’s face flushed red, the veins in his neck bulging as he stared his brother down with his hands fisted by his sides. Will brushed past Alex, finally addressing the other two men still sitting at the poker table. “Clark, thank you for coming tonight. Any money you lost will be reimbursed back to your account.”
Clark stood, shaking Will’s hand, and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze on his way over to me.
“It has been far too long, sweet girl,” he said, his voice raspy from the countless years of smoking several packets of cigarettes a day. My shoulders tensed as he tucked a lock of blonde hair behind my ear and tapped my chin with his knuckles. “How’s that car of yours treating you?”
I beamed at the mention of my baby back home. “She runs like a dream,” I answered, and Clark smiled broadly. “Retirement seems to be treating you nicely.”
“That it is,” he replied, pulling me in for a hug, “but it’s still nice to be in the thick of it, just like the good ol’ days every once in a while.” His eyes flickered towards a sulking Alex. “I hope my nephews are keeping you out of trouble, sweet girl. You stay safe.” He shot his youngest nephew a salute and left.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked, appearing in Clark’s vacated place in front of me. His eyes skimmed down my body, as if looking for any injuries, but paused when he noticed the poker chip still lodged in my dress. His top lip curled over his teeth as he reached out to remove the green disk, throwing it hard onto the table, and then he pulled me into his chest in a sharp tug, wrapping his arms around the back of my shoulders. “Perverted old fuck,” he muttered into my hair, holding me tighter to his body.
I returned his hug, awkwardly patting my hands on his back a few times. Alex had been, and always would be, a massive hugger and could not be deterred by my discomfort.
“She’s fine, Alex,” Will exhaled in annoyance, then ran a hand through his short dark hair, an act I found particularly amusing, considering how the strands were barely ruffled thanks to the closely cropped style he kept it in. I inclined my head to rest my chin on Alex’s pec. His brows were furrowed over his dark brown eyes, a tormented struggle plaguing the depths of them.
“I’m fine, big guy,” I said soothingly, reaching up to rub away at his frown lines. “You never needed to worry.”
Alex placed his cheek on top of my head, the tension that filled his body subsiding as he held me. And this was why I let him. Alex was always a worrier. He saw himself as my protector and saviour, and for this reason, working alongside me didn’t do any good for the whole momma bear thing he had going on.
“Thirty minutes?” Will asked, pulling me from my moment of comforting my best friend. He reached into his jacket pocket to remove his phone and flicked his wrist to check the time.
“Less. I’d say around fifteen, given how long it took for him to leave.”
“Fine. Noah, tell your guys to be at the deputy D.A.’s home in half an hour,” he ordered, not looking up from his phone as he instructed the police commissioner how to do his job. Noah stood, reaching for his suit jacket that was slung on the back of his chair. I stepped forward and touched his arm.
“You may also want to have animal control with you.”
“Why? What did you do?” he questioned, glancing at Will before returning his focus to me. I pressed my lips together, curbing a smile, and instead quirked an eyebrow with barely controlled glee, accompanying it with an innocent shrug of my shoulder.
I stepped back, folding my arms across my chest, feeling marginally self-conscious of my extremely revealing outfit now that the adrenaline and the high of working the job had started to wear off. Noticing this, Alex shucked off his jacket and held it out, which I accepted graciously. It was warm and smelt of birch and hints of vanilla.
Noah considered me for a long moment as I buttoned up the jacket. He reached his hand out and gave one firm shake of mine. “It was lovely to meet you, Natalia. I hope this will not be the last.” He bid his farewells, leaving the three of us in strained silence.
“Have you got your replacement for Wesley lined up?” I finally asked Will and slumped back into my chair to kick off my heels and pull on my hair. The blonde wig fell from my head and landed on my lap in a golden silk puddle. Finger-combing through the strands, I set it gently on the poker table and started to remove the hairpins securely binding my hair in place one by one.
Long, dark waves of curls cascaded down my back and framed my face. I rubbed deep into my scalp, and then at my temples, a dull headache ebbing slightly at the release of my tight braid. Taking my hair out was the equivalent of taking a bra off at the end of the day. Unexplainable freedom and joy at no longer being confined.
“I have someone in mind. They have been on my payroll for a while now and would be good for the city,” he said, typing into his phone as he addressed the room. Alex looked like he was about to ask more, but pursed his lips together, knowing it was pointless when it came to his brother. We would only be privy to information when Will deemed it necessary. Not that I was complaining. I liked it that way, but it was unfair Alex was always kept in the dark, considering this was meant to be a family business.
Alex moved from the middle of the room to join me, loosening his tie and rolling the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows, uncovering the compilation of ink detailed on his forearms.
“You ready to go home, Stevie baby?” Alex asked.
“No one is leaving until this is done,” Will barked suddenly with a bang of his fist on the bar top. I jumped and snapped my head to the eldest Jones. “You were testing my patience tonight, Alex, with that hero complex bullshit, barely containing your hatred for the man who was a fucking target.” He ground his teeth as he spoke, his eyes close to black as his fury boiled close to the surface.
“Have I taught you nothing, little brother? Perhaps it isn’t Stevie I need to watch, but you.” He sneered, pulling a glass bottle with a spout pourer on top from behind the bar. He grabbed a shot glass, pouring clear liquid into it with such vigour that he sloshed more tequila over the sides than in the actual glass until, eventually, it was full. He slammed it back and prepared another with more control. “Tonight, she was mine, mine to keep safe as she worked for me, and you were here as someone I trust as we played this little game of cards. Instead, you almost lost your shit, thus being a distraction to Stevie and a disappointment to me.”
Alex’s face fell, his shoulders sagging as his brother reprimanded him for getting pissed off that a known rapist and trafficker had his dirty hands all over his friend, pawing all over her, and there was nothing he could do because this was a job.
When Will said jump, we had to get in line and ask how high.
I sat playing solitaire as Will continued to pace back and forth, still glued to his goddamned phone like he had been for the past forty minutes. He paused, tapping the side against his mouth in thought, and then sat it on the bar. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he resumed wearing holes into the carpet.
“Enough, William,” I snapped, placing the four of clubs on top of the five of hearts. Alex startled in his seat, where he had been dozing, at the sound of my voice. I shot him an apologetic smile before looking at Will. “You’re making my headache worse with all your pacing. Either sit down, or get yourself another drink.”
Will’s phone buzzed on the bar top, and he flew over to it, nearly sending it careening off the bar. He tapped the screen a few times and a live video feed began to play. A woman dressed in a red anorak, holding a microphone, stood outside a large cordoned-off home with blue and red lights flashing in the background. A man in a white boiler suit came down the stairs with a white animal control box in one hand and a large metal stick with a hook at the end in the other.
“What will happen to Joey?” I asked as Will brought the phone over to the table to let us watch the event on the device. He frowned. “The snake?”
“You named the snake?”
“No, the guy I bought him from had named him,” I deadpanned. Will ignored me, his focus fully on the tiny screen. “Will?” I nudged his arm, suddenly feeling bad for bringing a poor animal into this. He shrugged.
“I guess he will be taken into quarantine where the venom will be tested to ensure of a match, then...” He glanced at me, not needing to spell it out.
“Tell your cop friend to donate him to a zoo,” I demanded. Will sighed and hung his head in irritation. “William Jones, so help me god, you stop that snake from being killed, or I’ll get another one, ensure Missy is out of your house, and set it loose waiting for you.”
Will’s shoulders tensed and he closed his eyes tight, no doubt counting to three the same way I did when he was getting on my last nerve. If I wasn’t concerned over the snake’s wellbeing, I would have said something about it.
“Fine, now shut up and listen,” he gritted out, clicking the volume button a few times, and then muttered, “always emotionally involved, even with a fucking serpent.”
”…body of deputy district attorney, Wesley Reynolds, was found only moments ago in his home. First on the scene have ruled his death as non-suspicious, following the recovery of a King Cobra that appeared to have escaped from its enclosure,” the reporter said through the tinny speakers. ”Wesley Reynolds was an avid snake collector with over ten different species residing on his premises. Most of which are highly dangerous and had not gone through the venomoid procedure as required by state law…”
Will turned off the feed and let out a dry, humourless laugh.
“Don’t seem too surprised I managed to pull it off, Will,” I said, curling my lip and hating the deep-rooted feeling of inadequacy whenever it came to him. Like I was still the seventeen-year-old girl who needed his help. “It’s time we left. I need a shower. I can still feel that bastard’s breath lingering on my skin and I want my payment upped for that,” I said in a high falsetto as Alex rubbed a hand over his face and let out an overly dramatic yawn.
“I never doubted you, Stevie, but Wesley Reynolds was like a virus. Always mutating and spreading his poison without ever slowing down. I thought it would have been harder to end him.”
And there it was. The reason why I fought tooth and nail for us to work the way we wanted to work. We got a job, and we decided how it would go down with no input from Will. He was always harsh on Alex as his older brother, but when he doubted my abilities, my skills, all because I was in a man’s world, playing a game dictated by the rules laid out by men, he could never relinquish control, and for that, I never felt he took me seriously.
You’re a number, Stevie, replaceable, and don’t you forget that.
He might not be their father, but he was more like the man than he’d like to believe.
Will went behind the bar and crouched down. Four muffled beeps sounded, then his head popped out over the top. He slid a black device similar to a USB stick across the marble, and I spotted Alex a nod to collect it. The device was my ledger, the ultimate level of security for cryptocurrency, Will’s preferred method of payment. As long as I got paid, he could give me my money in Chinese Yuan for all I cared.
Alex pocketed the ledger, and I dug around my purse, locating his keys at the bottom and tossing them to him, watching him effortlessly catch them in one hand.
“We will check in later,” he said to his brother as Will turned off the strip lights shrouding the room in near-complete darkness. Alex held out his hand, waiting to help me out of the chair after I had put my shoes back on. My toes protested at being forcefully shoved back into the black heels, which only grated on me more. The feeling added to my sour mood from this morning, which had now been amplified vastly by the words uttered from Will’s lips. I slipped my hand in Alex’s, leaving my unfinished game of solitaire scattered across the table. The asshole could tidy that up tomorrow.
“Three jobs for you in one week,” I said coolly, brushing past Will into the empty hallway, still clutching Alex’s hand. I tightened my hold, using him as an anchor to stop the tremors of rage pouring out of my body as my brain over-thought every sentence spoken since our meeting in his office this morning, making me angrier. I needed to stop letting him get under my skin like that.
Feeling Will’s eyes digging into the back of my head, I refused to wait for him as I dragged his baby brother behind me. Speaking loudly as we walked away, I said over my shoulder, “Someone might start to think you’re trying to renege on our deal, William.”