I leaned on the kitchen island, my phone lingering in my hand as the screen dimmed again. All I had to do was make the damn call. Glory was in the shower after a rough night, and I was about to wade into fucking nightmare territory of my own. Those two fuckers were the kind of people you don’t want to owe favours to, and this would be yet another we were racking up.
“Fuck,” I groaned, tapping my passcode in again, and tapping the button to call them. It rang four times, enough that I was thinking maybe I could just say they weren’t in, but of course…
“Not sure you’ve got the right number, bruv.” Ugh. Definitely one of them.
“What made you assume it was a man calling? Or do you call women that too?”
The bastard chuckled. “Do you want me to tell you your real name, and address, and god knows what else? Of course we always know who’s calling us…Henley.”
Jesus fuck. What didn’t these assholes know at this point?
“Well, I guess in your line of work it makes sense to know these things, even though it’s creepy as fuck. That’s actually why I’m calling.”
The bastard chuckled again, and I gritted my teeth at the sound. There was nothing pleasant or friendly about it.
“You wanting a job, bruv? I could definitely use another enforcer to beat people up. Not sure you’re gonna scare them much though.”
Asshole. “Which one of you am I speaking to?”
Another chuckle. “Samuel. Would you prefer Seb? I could get him for you. He’d like that.”
“No!” I remembered that fucker was even worse than this one. Jesus. They were both dicks.
“He’ll be touched that you remember him so well. Wanna get to the point though, bruv? I was on my way upstairs to fuck Cass.”The fuck?
“Do you just tell people anything…no, forget I asked. I really don’t want to know. Look, about the asshole you guys uh… helped us with.”
He cleared his throat, lowering his voice. “Not a convo for the phone, bruv.”
“No, I just wanted to ask-”
“Be at the address I’m texting in two hours. Bring your girl.”
The phone went dead and I cursed out every swear word I knew, even some I made up by stringing others together. Whatthe actual fuck? My phone buzzed and the address came through that I read once, then again and shuddered.Not there.God no.
“Everything okay?” I jumped, my phone flying from my hand and skidding across the counter.
“Henley?”
I grabbed my phone before it could slide off the counter and flipped it off with the other hand several times.
“Ah. You called them.”
“How did you guess?”
“And?”
I shoved the phone in my jeans pocket and cursed again.
“And he wouldn’t talk about it over the damn phone. We have to meet them. We have to meet them there, at that fucking place. In two hours.”
Glory gasped, both hands covering her mouth, but I could hear the muffled ‘oh god no’ from behind them.
“Oh god yes. Why the hell do we need to go there? It’s some kind of power trip for those fuckers.”
“I’m so sorry. I should have just called Lenore. I just… she’d already told me, and I didn’t want her to think I don’t trust her, and I was sure she’d just… this is my fault.”
I stepped around the island and tugged her into my arms, hugging her tight for my own comfort as much as hers.
