Nikolai huffed, rolling his eyes.This is getting me nowhere.While he was the muscle, Nikolai knew he wasn’t the interrogation kind. If he wanted info to stop Bjorn, he’d need to bring Bobby to Jessie. Throwing his head back, Nikolai groaned.Fuck my life.He turned to walk back to town, only Bobby slipped out of his moldy shirt and dropped to the ground. The bastard bolted, and Nikolai took a moment to stand still, dropping the gross fabric out of his fingers, and stared deep into the darkness with disdain. Then, after a moment of reminding himself, he didactuallyneed Bobby, he took off after the car salesman.
It irked him to no end to chase down Bobby. His boots pounding against the earth, every zig zag earned Bobby another broken finger when he caught that motherfucker. It took an hour for Bobby to finally start to slow down. By then Nikolai had fought off a cloud of gnats, tripped over what was hopefully a fawn, and chased the gnome all over the woods. The darkness around them was slightly lighter, still hazy as a fog crept along the forest floor. After getting a face full of tree branches andstepping in something that squelched, he finally snatched Bobby by the back of his scalp. Then, in before the fucker could thwart him again, punched the man so hard in the head that all Bobby’s lights went out.
Nikolai trudged through the woods back toward the city, following the sounds and lights that slowly began to break through the tree line. Coming out somewhere near Hauntings&Company, the warehouse, he groaned again. “Fuck!”
He was at the opposite end of King’s Fall to the townhouse. It took him another hour just to walk up the gravel road that led to the massive building into an actual neighborhood. Stalking through the shadows, he found a clothesline in someone’s back yard and stole their canvas sack full of wooden pins, stuffing Bobby down into it. Throwing it over his shoulder, he ignored the occasional clothes pin poking him in the back for the peace of mind knowing Bobby was far more uncomfortable even while unconscious.
It was a long night, headed all the way back home. But at least he had the prototype! And he had Bobby…so, he counted it as a success. Even if there was definitely a dead spider up his nose and mud in his socks.Or I fucking hope it’s mud.
“Wherehaveyoubeen?”Jessie hissed softly as he pulled open the door just at the crack of dawn. Nikolai dragged his near lifeless corpse up the last step into the house. Jessie stepped aside to let the bugbear inside. With an ungrateful flop, Nikolai chucked the sack of Bobby onto the floor in front of the minotaur. Sinking back against the door, he thought he might collapse. Even using public portals, it took several hours to get home. He’d barely gotten to the driveway when Bobby started to writhe in the bag.
“Found him,” Nikolai muttered, as that was all he was capable of saying.
“Found who?” Jessie whispered as he snatched up the bag. He pulled the strings open and jerked back as a tiny fist swung out of the top. “Why the fuck is Bobby in a bag?”
“Let me outta—!” Bobby’s yell was cut off with a palm planted to his face and two sharp hushes from Jessie and Nikolai.
“The kid’s asleep, jackass, keep it down!” Jessie snarled. Nikolai managed to peel open the hall closet and pull one of the scarves off the hook just inside it. He threw it at Jessie who quickly bound and gagged Bobby. Nikolai returned to his position against the front door before steadily sliding down it. When his ass hit the tile, his legs began to shake. Jessie had Bobby by the back of the head, baffled, as he stared at Nikolai. “Again, why the fuck is Bobby in a bag?”
Nikolai managed to tug the prototype out of his pocket and drop it onto the floor between his feet. “Prototype.”
“I see that.” Jessie blinked rapidly before he dropped into a crouch next to Nikolai. “Were you out in the woods hunting Bobby this whole time?”
Nikp;ao nodded numbly.
“And I’m going out on a limb here, and assume you did this because The Executive told you to do this or else he’d what? Kill me?” Jessie cocked his head to the side. He laid Bobby face down into the tile, still jerking left and right but unable to do a thing. Bobby was at the mercy of a minotaur who didn’t care if he was comfortable.
Nikolai let out a weak, winded snort, but nodded again.
“You couldn’t have told me—”
“He threatened to hurt the kid,” Nikolai croaked.
Jessie inhaled sharply before hoisting their newest guest off the floor. He spun Bobby to look him in the face. “Hey there, Bobby, long time no see. Looks like we’ve got a lot to catch up on.”
Bobby’s wails were muffled as he wiggled fruitlessly in Jessie’s hand. Jessie gave the bone tired mechanic an apologetic look but Nikolai waved it off.I can rest when I’m dead.Despite the waver in his legs, or the woozy feeling in his skull for beingawake so long, he needed answers. He could survive being stinky and exhausted a little longer. Nikolai crawled back up to his feet, following Jessie into the kitchen. Jessie motioned for him to take a seat as he hog-tied Bobby to another one. Sinking into the chair sucked, but then a pitcher of water was put in front of him. Nikolai took a gulp of water from their fridge pitcher before he finally asked, “Why’s Bella here?”
“Ma got called in. Now I’m kind of glad,” Jessie grunted. He brought a warm washcloth over to Nikolai and draped it over his head. “Wash off a little, you got bug guts all over you. Katarina headed in early, apparently Sera stayed up all night with her vampire fiancé and they whipped up a petition for full custody. Baby girl wanted to turn it in the second they unlocked the door.”
Nikolai couldn’t speak more, instead filling his chipmunk cheeks full of water that he steadily swallowed before filling up his face with more. He didn’t care if it turned his stomach, the twitching of his leg muscles eased with each gulp. Jessie grabbed a chair and sat right next to Bobby’s. Dropping down into it, he stared at the wriggling bastard dead in the eye. Silence filled the kitchen except for the random gurgle from the water pitcher as Nikolai downed the whole thing.
Then, with a kitchen knife to Bobby’s throat, Jessie spoke, “I’m going to take that scarf out of your mouth. You wake up the kid, and I jab this knife into your neck. Got it?”
Bobby nodded rapidly.
Jessie plucked the scarf from Bobby’s mouth. “Now, why the fuck are you working with The Executive? And why is he fucking with me?”
Bobby flapped his mouth open and shut before words actually formed. “He wanted to invest in the car lot. A lot of money. If I just let him have some fancy car that he could tinker with, at first. Then, one night I realized what he was doing. So I goes up to him, tell him that he better pony up more money to keep me quiet or I’m going to the Enforcers. How was I supposed to know he was a madman? He shows up the next daywith a folder of everything I’ve never been charged with and all the evidence they would have used against me. Next thing I know, he’s making me save cars for him to tinker with then sell on the side and I make no commission!”
Jessie glanced at Nikolai who shrugged.
“Alright, but that doesn’t explain why he’s after me? And why he’s worried about some prototype? Can’t he just make a new one? Or does he need it to make one? What’s the deal?” Jessie tapped the flat side of the knife against Bobby’s shoulder.
“He’s already got the real one…don’t you get it? He doesn’t want loose ends. Cause that prototype, me, Pierre, all of us could be used to get back to him. So, if you turn it into him, he’ll just set off the real one, knowing all the evidence will get destroyed. As long as he doesn’t have me or the prototype, he can’t risk it. Knowing someone might know it was him!” Bobby’s voice started to rise in a frenzy only to go right back down to a soft hush as Jessie lifted the knife back up.
Nikolai wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand. He got two good burps out into the crook of his elbow before he could talk without spewing water. “That explains why he wants you. Not why he wants Jessie?”
“Oh.” Bobby paled, his smile growing sheepishly.
