Page 96 of Run From Me

I turned around just to see her smirk at me. Rylee was right next to her as Cas caught up to us.

This place would run as it always did while we took care of other business. Business that had a lot less to do with legal money.

While Enigma catered to the powerful and rich, the club adjacent let them live out those darker fantasies. Right after they bought the art they romanticized, we got their money while they rode out that high. Stupid rich fucks.

The three of us left out the back of Enigma and headed to the hidden entrance of Paradox. I chuckled at how these elite assholes missed the irony of where they chose to hide their sins.

“Who do we have?” I asked now that the three of us were hidden behind closed doors, descending into the pit of someone’s hell. Not mine though. This was our heaven.

“Our boys caught three guys that somehow were of no interest to the police,” Zeid said before tapping on the door at the base of the nearly pitch-black staircase. The door was the only thing stopping us. He knocked a knuckle against the metal in a rap-rap-tap-tap that gained us entrance and no one else. No one would have gotten this far.

One of our guys opened the door from the inside.

“Boss, boss, and boss,” he said. He raised his hand, and we each took it in a silent show of respect.

Down here, no names. Down here you either were a Spector or you disappeared.

We headed down the short hall to one singular door. We wouldn’t hold anyone here for long. There were other locations for that. This was purely emergency. Cas opened the door, letting us pass.

“Brother, who are these three gentlemen?”

Two hung by their wrists and one was strapped to a chair.

“Boss, I’ll leave you three to it then,” said our guy from the corner just as I heard the click of his safety as he stored the weapon.

I caught his shoulder as he turned to leave.

“Tomorrow morning, coffee nine fifteen. Bring your boys.”

He nodded. “Thanks, boss.”

One of the pricks on the chains chuckled.

“I’m here dangling like some bitch and you’re making coffee dates?”

A thud and a pained groan were all that followed before I turned to the task. My boys knew what coffee was. There would be coffee at the Dove, but it would be followed by cash and Visa cards, all legit and all well worth their loyalty.

I strolled closer to the one with enough energy to talk.

“Hey, sweetie. You jealous you weren’t invited?”

Zeid hid his amusement well, but I knew enough to hear the snort as he handed me a knife.

“Fuck you. Who the fuck are you?”

Another thud from next to me, and a few choice swears from the victim as Cas got his rocks off using the shit for a punching bag.

“I’m your best or worst friend depending on how this all goes.”

The guy spit at me, and I bent down and stabbed his foot. He howled in pain.

“Good to know,” was all I said.

The guy next to him spoke a few octaves higher than his little counterpart.

“What the fuck? Why'd you stab him?”

The single bulb barely cast enough light to see the victims. The entire room was coated in black paint from floor to ceiling. But it was clear enough to see the knife dripping in a bit of blood as I held it up to my own victim.

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