Jasper fell into step with me. He had a cigarette lit and the familiar trail of bluish, tobacco smoke wreathed him periodically before the breeze would snatch it away. The smoking was a bad habit that he’d never kicked and frankly, I didn’t think he wanted to.
We were all a little fucked up. Some of us were a lot fucked up. If he wanted to smoke, he got to smoke. Lighting cigarettes gave him an excuse to check behind us. I paused closer to the building than the street.
“Light one for me?”
He paused, glanced behind us then made a show of patting himself down. Then we huddled to block the breeze while he lit the cigarette. I made a face at the taste but only lipped it.
“We’re clear. Pretty sure we lost the babysitters before you took the train halfway around the city.”
I chuckled. “There are a lot of different lines. Still trying to learn them all.” I turned us down a pathway into the underground garage. The boom gates were both closed and their pathways were marked red, but they weren’t actually preventing anyone from walking in. “Sometimes the best way to learn is to just get lost and figure it out.”
“Makes sense.” Of course, Jasper got it. “Big fucking city though.”
Yes, it was. Lainey and the guys occupied the upper echelons. They knew everyone worth knowing and a few more besides. I had a feeling Bodhi had more of a feel for the street as well, but it wasn’t his focus. I wanted to know everything. Hard to prevent trouble if you didn’t cover all the ways it could come at you.
The path down followed a curve. The concrete pavement was discolored by years of vehicles coming and going. By the first turn, the sound from the street behind faded along with the breeze. At the second curve, I turned toward the door that was tucked away there and opened it, letting Jasper inside before we closed it and then waited by the grimy window.
“Ah,” Jasper said with a long slow sigh as he extinguished his cigarette then mine. “The good old days of paranoia and keeping one eye firmly over our shoulders.”
“You make it sound like we’ve had new days where we don’t.” I raised my brows at him but he only shrugged, that faint smirk back on his face.
“Every now and then,” Jasper said. “But you know, I don’t mind it like I used to.”
“You never minded it,” I pointed out before heading deeper into the service hallway and taking the stairs up into the building above. The door was locked behind us so even if we had someone following us, they’d have to break the door to get in. That would set off an alarm.
Still, Jasper was right. Paranoia fit like a well-worn jacket and my favorite pair of shoes. At the first floor, I entered the code to unlock the door. It buzzed when it opened. Mickey J turned from where he was standing in the middle of the gutted floor, a cup of coffee in hand. The smell of fresh brewed carried.
“You two are late,” Mickey said as we crossed to join him.
“Milo wanted to go fishing on the way here. Sadly, no bites.” Jasper rubbed his hands together to warm them before he poured himself a cup. “I thought Liam was going to show up for this one.”
“Later,” Mickey said, then fixed a look on me. “Where’s your head?”
“Where I need it to be.” I waited for Jasper to finish then got my own cup. “We have three of his men here. He’s going to know someone grabbed them. So whatever details they have are likely to be thin.”
“If he’s kept anything of his security since making you move in, after you moved out, then he’s an idiot,” Jasper said. “Of course, I don’t mind if he wants to be an idiot. I will happily take a baseball bat to his head and close that chapter.”
“I know you would, but Ivy’s still on the fence.” Not that she didn’t hate him, but it was harder for her to make that call where King was concerned.
“She’s not on the fence,” Mickey said and that dragged my attention and Jasper’s. Only instead of curiosity, there was rough agreement in Jasper’s expression.
“Agreed,” he said and I frowned.
Mickey eyed me briefly then said, “She doesn’t want you to have to make this choice or to have to do it. She’s trying to work herself up to doing it for you.” The compassion in his eyes was no match for the depth of feeling in Mickey’s voice.
He loved my little sister. He might be too old for her and maybe once upon a time he made bad choices, but he was also the same man who did penance for those mistakes, who loved her to distraction, and would do everything he could to protect and keep her safe. He was also steady enough in a group of hotheads to keep the peace when they needed it and to tell her no when she did.
“Ivy never has to do that for me,” I said, but the rest of the protest died unspoken in the face of the bland looks they were both favoring me with. “But you guys know that.”
“So does she,” Mickey said, saluting me with his coffee. “Doesn’t mean she doesn't want to protect you.”
“She’s a pain in the ass like that,” I muttered and Jasper smirked.
“You love it.”
Having my sister back? Yeah. I did. Even if she was with all of my best friends, and I was with hers. Or maybe because of it? Fuck, I didn’t care. Considering I wouldn’t give Mayhem up without a bloody battle and my corpse on the ground, I could hardly fault Ivy for how stubborn and intractable she’d proven about keeping the guys.
I downed a couple of swallows of coffee before I stripped off my coat. “Do you have a preference on who we start with?”
We’d debated this, the three guys all worked for King. They weren’t civilians. They were definitely muscle. He used them for a lot of the dirtier jobs—including watching me. Business was one thing, but these pricks enjoyed hurting people. While I found that behavior rather despicable, it did free me up to deal with them how I saw fit.
“Which one do you like least?” Jasper asked.
“Clive,” I answered without missing a beat. That fucker had been on my ass from day one. I’d caught him following me before I went to live with King. After, he’d been downright insufferable. “He’s been sizing me up for a coffin since day one.”
“Well, the first one is usually the hardest to crack.” Jasper grinned wide. “It means we get to inflict more damage.”
“I like how you think.” We saluted each other with our coffee cups and I downed a couple of swallows. After, we all dressed in the plastic coveralls. We were going to be making a mess.
Once ready, Jasper led the way into the room where the three men were secured to hooks buried four feet into pillars around the room. When we were ready for full renovations, all of this would go. For now, it gave us a quiet place to work. With the clocks counting down, I didn’t want to waste time.
“Gentlemen,” Jasper said as he clapped his glove hands together. “Thank you all for waiting for us. My name is Hawk, I’m going to be your host on this magical interrogation ride. You’re probably thinking you can handle the pain. I’m here to tell you, that’s okay. Keep telling yourselves that. We’ll disabuse you of the notion soon enough.”
I didn’t laugh, but Jasper was performing like he was the master of ceremonies and this was our three ring circus. Then again, maybe these assholes were very much our monkeys.
“Don’t everyone volunteer at once, we’ve taken the stress out of deciding who goes first for you.” He mimed pulling out a card and flashing it at the room before he glanced at it. “Clive… do we have a Clive here?”
The man in question gave a little jerk, yanking his death-filled stare off of me to look at Jasper.
