Page 16 of Triple Threat

“Lighten up, he says? Lighten up?” he scoffed. “The man with his dirty shoes on my desk, drinking my spiritless spirits, and messing with my spaghetti westerns, and that’s not even bringing up the wee lass you deposited on me before taking your weekend on the town; lighten up?”

“Yes, lighten up,” I said. “The job went well, they paid us. Verba was so happy with that post-mortem erection, he gave us a bonus. A bonus. How often do our clients give bonuses? You can probably buy the mock distillery that makes your mock juice. But, since you mentioned Sadie, who did that dye job, you or her?” I asked.

“I did,” he said, almost defensively.

“It should do until we can get her to a proper salon, or until it can grow back in her natural color,” I said.

“Priorities,” Roan muttered.

“I’m glad you understand,” I said. “So, give me the rest of the details, how is she?”

“She’s doing much better. Doc Max gave her some pretty strong meds. She’s a fighter, stubborn as a mule,” he said.

“And?”

“Aside from being underweight, and lingering upper respiratory issues, she’s fine. No sexually transmitted diseases and no drug addictions. She doesn’t even smoke,” Roan said flatly.

“Fantastic. I hope you’ve been feeding her well.”

“Crust of bread, cup of water,” he said sarcastically. “Now who is she?”

“I already told you, Sadie Brooks,” I said.

“Who is Sadie blessed Brooks?”

“The girl in the guest bedroom,” I said. Didn’t he get that I just wanted him to take care of her for now? I would deal with the rest later. I had no desire to lay out the painful and awkward parts of my past.

“Yeah I know that,Kyle,” he said.

“I don’t owe you every chapter of my life,Conan,” I fired back. “Just fucking take care of her until I’m ready, or is that too much to ask?”

“Just another mess of yours to clean up, is she?” he asked.

“Is that going to be a problem? More than you can handle?” I felt my temper rising. Why couldn’t he just do this, just accept it?

“Do you plan on visiting your guest before you leave again?”

“Leave again, where the fuck am I going now?” I asked.

“While you were slagging that five-thousand-dollar-a-night whore, we were offered another job. A certain French ex-pat, likes to call himselfle Generale, wants to contract us to take care of some problems for him,” Roan said. “You have a meeting set up for the day after tomorrow with one ofle Generale’slieutenants, first impressions and handshakes, all that. I bumped it to the itinerary on your phone. You might know if you ever checked it.”

“Are you going to be a little bitch because I won’t tell you who she is?” I asked.

“Goddamnit, Lach, you just threw her in my lap and vanished. I don’t know who she is, and there is no way I can run a proper search. There are too many variables, too many different ways to spell her name, and that’s not even bringing up if Sadie is short for something, a nickname, or if it’s even her first name.”

“Right now, all you need to know is that she’s important to me, and that’s all I’m going to say. Just fucking take care of her, for fuck’s sake, just fucking do that. Okay?” I felt my nerves going raw, remembering those dark pages of my past.

“Fine,” he said. I could see his jaw muscles clenching. “You’ll be heading to DC tomorrow to set up for the meeting. Contract looks like it could be big.”

“What’s big?” I asked, relieved that we’d finally fucking switched back to the upbeat business of killing people.

“Same as we would normally take in two years,” he said.

“Nice, that kind of money could get me a really nice car,” I said. Lamborghinis and Ferraris were nice and all, but there were plenty of tools who had those cars. The silver sedan chaffed, with its mediocrity, and even the Aventador was starting to feel stale. Koenigsegg? Those were certainly rare, expensive, and fast. But they were rare enough that most people didn’t know what they were. “Maybe a Bugatti, just a super-fast car,” I said, mostly to myself.

“Yes, Bugatti money, Lach,” Roan said. “Which is why we do it by our books, and we take the job and the money. You should spend a little time with your love in the guest room and figure out what you’re going to do with her. Then, tomorrow, off to DC.”

“There’s nothing to figure out. We’re done talking about this subject,” I said. “Has she done something to piss you off?”

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