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Archie sat in the lobby, waiting his turn to see his attorney.He’d been told that the person he was meeting was running late and asked to wait for her.Archie hadn’t minded.After the last few days of what felt like him getting his shit together, he was easier to relax and not be short-tempered anymore.Especially since the chair he was sitting in seemed to be about the most comfy that he’d ever been in.
“Hey, mister.”Archie hadn’t realized he’d fallen asleep until someone poked him.The whispered voice by his shoulder told him not to move.To go on pretending to be asleep.“There is a man in the office over there that has a gun.He’s powerful pissed off at the woman in there.All I’ve been able to hear was that he just wants a loan.”
He could hear more than the person behind him did, so he sat up in his seat and watched.He could see the gun that he was waving all over the place but not the person on the other side of the room.The young man who was wanting a loan looked to be in his mid-twenties and desperate.Standing up, Archie slowly made his way to the office.
“What is it you think you’re doing?”He grinned at Sunny when she spoke to him through their link.“Just sit your ass down and leave well enough alone.Nothing you can do there will help the situation.”
“Has he killed anyone yet?”Sunny told him that he’d not.That he was in debt to his eyeballs and would be losing his house by the end of the afternoon.“What sort of loan does he want?Is he remodeling his home?Buying a pool with the money?What are his plans to use—”
“He’s behind in his house payments by four months.He’s been working hard, but the person that he is currently working for isn’t paying on time.Wait, that’s not right.”When she paused talking to him, Archie stood outside the door and listened in.“All right.It’s bad.The people that he works for will pay him, he deposits the check, and then they take the money out as soon as he takes a bit of it out.Then, because they are doing that, everything that he has paid is now subject to bounced check charges.And you know how that works, I’m sure.You start an avalanche of check-bouncing charges that seem to never end.He just wants to get his account set up so that it stops happening to him.In addition to him living in the house with his wife and three kids, he’s also trying to support his parents and his wife’s younger brother.He’s a good man, by all accounts.So how are we going to help him?”
“How are we going to help him?You told me to sit down and let it go.”He told Sunny to make sure that the police don’t bother them while he figures something out.“I don’t know what I’ll do, but I have to do something.”
“I can do that.”After clearing his throat and having the younger man turn to him, Archie smiled at the man.“You probably don’t care about his name right now, but it’s David Goss.”
“My name is Archie.I could hear that you’re having problems, and I’d like to help you out.”The man told him his name and that he was working with the attorney.“Yeah, that doesn’t look like it’s getting you very far.How about you and I sit down here after you put the gun away and have a conversation?I really do want to help you.”
“No one wants to help me.I don’t even know why I thought that this might work.”David looked at the woman and then back at him.“I fucked up here.I’m only just realizing that no one is going to help me for sure now that I’ve dragged a gun into this.”He put out the gun toward him, and Archie took it.“You can have this.It’s not loaded, anyway.I just…Christ, my wife is going to kill me.”
An hour after meeting the younger man, Archie felt like he was on top of the world.Not only did he hire an attorney from the offices that he was in to represent David, but he also was able to help him file a lawsuit against the company that he’d been working for.The Attorney, Mrs.Vander Welk, it had been her office that he’d been directed to, was helping them file paperwork so that the bank couldn’t take their home, car, or no utilities shut off.Taking them out to lunch and inviting his wife to join them, David was working for him now as a foreman while the construction was going on around his home.After that was finished, he promised him he’d have work lined up to keep him working all the time.Archie even made arrangements for a large line of credit to be put at the stores around town so that not only could David feed his family but also to make sure that they had clothing and diapers when they needed them as well.
“You’re a good man, Mr.Sheppard.I can’t thank you enough for this.”Archie said that he had enjoyed it, too.It was good helping someone.“You did me a solid, and as soon as I can, I’ll pay this all back to you.I swear.”
“You just pay it forward.I hear that a great deal, but at this moment, I think that it really means something to me.As soon as you find yourself up on your feet, David, you pay it forward, help someone else that is on the verge.”David and his wife both said that they would.“Good.Now, we have this all worked out, and if you show up at this address tomorrow to go over the things that Mrs.Vander Welk needs to sue your company, you should be able to take a deep breath from now on.”
On his way home, he stopped off to get something to eat.Archie hadn’t felt this useful in a very long time and was going to treat himself to not just one of his favorite meals, but he decided that he was going to eat in the restaurant rather than take it home.As soon as he ordered, he got up to go to the salad bar.
Archie, being a cat, wasn’t always keen on green veggies.But today, with all that had been going on too in the past few weeks, he knew that he had to start taking better care of himself and his cat.Besides, this particular salad bar had all kinds of protein things, like boiled eggs as well as ham and turkey, so he could really load up his lettuce.When he sat down to enjoy it, he realized that he had more meat and cheeses than he did lettuce.It was all good, he told himself.It was still a nice salad.
When he had gone to the salad bar twice more, he came back to his table to find Nash sitting at his table.Not bothering with asking him what he wanted, he watched as he got up and made himself a huge meat-only salad, too.As soon as the waitress brought him his pizza, Nash took two slices for himself and rolled them into a long tube, eating them nearly in one bite.
“You’re paying for dinner.I hope you know that.”Nash nodded.“Why are you bothering me here?I was having a good day until you showed up.Where is Sunny?I have a feeling she’d not be too thrilled about taking my meal.She likes me.”
“Yeah?Well, she loves me, and I get to have sex with her.A lot of it.”Rolling his eyes at his brother, he asked him what he was doing there.“I have some questions for you.I don’t know that you’ll have all the answers, but it’s important that I voice them.”
“All right.But you’re still paying for my dinner.”Waving him off, Archie had a feeling that he was going to leave him with the bill.Not that he really minded, but it was the principle of the thing.“What did you want to know?”
“First, and this shouldn’t be a surprise to you, Josiha stepped down from his position just about an hour ago.He is going to hang out at the offices for our shadow until you take over.I hadn’t any idea that it was a done deal for you to be taking over.”He said that he’d not known that either.“You should go by there soon and have a talk with him.Sunny said to tell you not to go alone, either.For you to take me.”
“I can do that.What else?”He told him the second part as the waitress came to the table.After ordering another pizza for them, he had to think why it was important that Nash thought it was imperative that he took the job.“Who cares who runs the shadow?I mean, I guess I could do it.However, I’d be a bit more present than Joshia ever was.Not to say that I’m taking it, but he’s been lax for a long time.”
“He has.I talked with Lily this morning.Did you know that if you take over the shadow, you become an immortal?Lily seems to think that he’s been at it for so long.He was just doing his time.Bored, she thought that he had seen too much and was bored out of his mind with the shit, so just ignored it.”Archie could see that, too.It was why he decided that he was going to go to college and try something else.Anything else that would stimulate his mind and body.“Also, Lily said that as soon as you take it, she seems to think that it’s a foregone conclusion that you will take it, you’ll get a shit ton of power.I don’t know what that might entail, but she told me that you need to be with people in the event that it puts you down for a while.”
“Good to know.Though again, I don’t know that I’d take the job.”Nash nodded but didn’t comment.“What else?You said several things.”
“When Lily acknowledges that Sunny is her daughter, we’ll get a lot of power, a great deal of it.I was told that the family will get some as well.While I have an idea that it will make us powerful, I don’t have a lot of details about what that might mean for us.”Nodding again, he ate the last slice of his pizza.The second one was coming toward them even as he realized that he was still really hungry.“Also, and this one boggles my mind to no end.We’ll have an endless supply of funds.I had to ask because—well, endless?What the hell does that even mean?Anyway, we’ll get that as soon as she does her thing.”
“Endless, huh?Well, I guess it would be nice to be able to help out the shadow.I know it’s not all that big of one.I think that Joshia said that it was less than fifty cats.With us included.”Nash told him that there was a great deal of money already in the coffers for the shadow that hadn’t been touched in decades.“What the fuck?Do you mean that there could have been all these improvements, and he just sat on it, not doing a thing?Christ, no wonder there are only fifty people in the shadow.No one is getting help so they just went to greener pastures.Anything else I need to be made aware of?”
“Yes, plenty.”When he didn’t say anything more, Archie looked at his brother.He seemed to be lost in thought, and he found himself reaching beyond where they were to see if he could figure anything out.“Archie, do you trust me?”
“With all that I am.What’s going on?”He leaned toward him, which surprised him that he was speaking rather than using their link if he wanted it to be a secret.“Nash, you’re scaring me a little.”
“The three people over there at the booth just to the right of the front counter are planning to rob the place.The manager knows about it, she’s in over her head with owing them a great deal of money from her brother’s debt.”Archie asked if they were planning to hurt anyone.“Yes.All of us.I need you to take my hand, Archie.Just for a second so that I can protect us both.”
He didn’t hesitate at all but put his hand out so that Nash could do whatever was necessary to keep them safe.The brush of his hand over his was warm, but he could feel whatever he gave him start to heat up his hand, then up and over his body.
“Don’t pass out on me.”Shaking his head, Archie said that he was a little dizzy.“Dizzy is better than dead.Just follow my lead, and we’ll get everyone out of here in one piece.All right?”
