Page 107 of Lucky Boys
Larsen jerked his head between the two of us, his pupils dilated slightly, and I wasn’t sure if he recognized us from when we’d planted the bugs. All he said was, “Great, I was taken by the fucking infant comedy show.” All traces of the accent he had were gone, and he spoke to us in perfect, generic American English.
“Infant? Oh, come on now, there’s no need to be rude. Besides, I turn thirty next month.” I wrinkled my nose in disgust, even if I didn’t really care.
Brooks snorted. “Ancient.”
Larsen ignored us and glared at me. “Who are you? Who do you work for? Where is my son?”
I stood up and walked over to the weapons table. I didn’t think he’d be intimidated by them, but the psychological aspect was part of the fun. “Those are a lot of questions for a man tied to a chair. Kinda ballsy.”
“Go fuck yourself. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
I laughed. “I think it’s you who has no idea who you’re dealing with. Now? It’s time to play.”
Four hours later, Larsen was unconscious, and I was full of adrenaline but had no answers. I rested my head on Maverick’s shoulder. “Fuck, I’m starving. I’d kill for a bacon cheeseburger.”
Maverick laughed and squeezed me tightly. He wasn’t much better off than I was, both of us sweaty and bloody and disgusting, but it didn’t matter. This was when I felt most alive, and I barely got a chance to show off these skills anymore. I was having fun, even if it was frustrating that Larsen was being so fucking tight-lipped.
Brooks had left a while ago now. As wild as he was, he was a sweetheart, and things were getting a little too violent for him. He’d called it quits right around the time I’d started pulling teeth. Luca had been there through all of it and had done his fair share of damage, but about twenty minutes ago, he’d gotten a call and we hadn’t seen him since.
Brooks appeared on the bottom of the stairs. He must’ve showered because he was wearing something clean. “Hey, Luca said you guys might be hungry. can I make you something while you shower?” He wrinkled his nose. “Please?”
“Yes, thank fuck. I’m fucking starving.”
Brooks nodded and ran back up the stairs, and Mav and I followed him.
We showered together but kept it PG. Just a little groping and suggestive talk, but unfortunately it didn’t go further than that. I understood even if I was a little bummed. We did have a prisoner in the basement and a missing kid.
By the time we were done, Brooks had heated us up some food that Mav had cooked, thankfully, and was sitting at the table, drinking one of those energy drinks. I bent down and kissed his cheek. “Hey, sunshine, miss us?”
He laughed. “Yeah, kinda. I ended up cleaning up around here just to do something. I didn’t want to bother Luca,” he added quietly.
I met Maverick’s eyes, who looked as bothered by the situation as I did. Those two needed to fucking talk. “You’re not bothering him, Brooks,” Mav told him quietly. Brooks just shrugged.
Ugh. This was the downside of a relationship like ours. It was stressful when there was some kind of issue between two of the partners. It didn’t happen often to the three of us, but it did happen. We always worked it out, but there would be some awkward nights until it was all resolved.
Luca burst into the room. He froze when he saw us all eating. “Sorry to interrupt, but we gotta get back to it. Diego thinks he found something.”
“Larsen is knocked out, Luc,” Mav said. “Can it wait, or do we have to wake him up?”
“Diego found correspondence between Larsen and Bradley Fieldburg. It started seven months ago.”
I cursed under my breath. “Right before he took Sawyer?”
“Yup, and it stopped just around the time Sawyer stopped seeing Matthew and he managed that call to Sawyer’s mom.”
“Do you think Bradley has him?” Brooks asked.
“There’s been no sign of that, but it’s possible.”
I sighed heavily before taking a huge bite of the food. Chances are it would be a while before I got to eat again.
We all went back down to the basement, including Brooks. “You know none of us will think less of you if you stay upstairs,” Maverick reminded him.
“I know. I don’t want to be up there by myself. I’ll be fine.”
“Do you wanna wake him if he’s still out?” I asked. “You can use the shocker thing.”
That got a titled half smile from Brooks. “Yeah, that looked fun.”
