Page 60 of Twisted Ruck

"I'm not easy to kill," Ramsey declared.

"They all say that until they're proven wrong," Skinner said. "We all have weaknesses. Even myself."

"Yeah?" Ramsey asked. It didn't sound as though he expected an answer, but he couldn't resist asking anyway. Maybe he'd get one.

Just in case, I listened carefully. Anything we could learn about Otis Skinner could be valuable information in the future. Potentially, not even the distant future.

Skinner snorted. "I don't trust you enough to give you that information, Ferris."

They were on first name terms now? I didn't know anyone who referred to Ramsey by his first name. It was always Ramsey, Ram, or Goat. What did it mean that Skinner called him Ferris?

"You should trust me," Ramsey said. "I'm the one putting shit in place. I mess up, you're fucked."

"Don't mess up," Skinner warned. "You won't like the consequences if you screw up and we don't, somehow, end up dead."

"Don't threaten me," Ramsey said. "I might fuck up on purpose."

I couldn't see his eyes, but I imagined them narrowing with irritation. Violence burning just under the surface. Ready to lash out without notice.

"It'll be the last thing you do," Skinner said.

"I said, don't threaten me," Ramsey growled. "It'll be the last thingyoudo."

They definitely weren't best friends. Presumably they didn't need to be, to pull off whatever it was they planned.

If I didn't know better, I'd think they didn't like each other. Like Storm and Atlas, they were thrown together. If that was the case, who did the throwing? Was it Dominic King? If it wasn't him, then who? I'd bet a season's earnings they weren't working for the Brantley family.

At least, Otis Skinner wasn't. There was no doubt in my mind of that. The doctor gave me the creeps. I always got the impression he knew exactly what was going on right under the first layer of my skin. Not in a medical way, but in a way that saw into me, peeling those layers back and worming into places he shouldn't be.

I didn't trust him as far as I could spit. Even before Atlas said he wasn't to be trusted, I didn't.

Ramsey— I still didn't want to believe he was working against us. If he was, they could go on threatening each other as much as they wanted to. If they were the enemy and they took each other out, that would save us all a lot of hassle.

Okay, I was new to this mafia shit, but I knew it wouldn't be that easy. We couldn't just sit back and wait for the trash to take itself out. Nope, I'd have to tell Chelsea, and the other guys about this and see what we'd be ordered to do.

Was there any chance we'd be told to kill Ramsey? I shook my head and scrolled past another video. If it came to that, I'd do what was necessary, but I wouldn't like it. He was my teammate. I thought he was my friend.

Fuck. Conflict swirled around in my brain.

"Just get things in place," Skinner snapped. "We're running out of time to do this. If we don't act soon, it'll be too late. Then both our heads will be on the chopping block. Possibly literally. I'm fucked if I'm going to let that happen."

"Stop being twitchy," Ramsey told him. "They said you always keep calm."

Who were they? I screwed up my face, hoping he'd elaborate, but he didn't.

"I do," Skinner said coldly. "I'm not being twitchy, I'm being cautious. Something I've come to expect from all of the people I work with. If you can't do that, I'll ask for someone else."

Ramsey laugh-grunted. "They won't give you someone else. You have the best. Be calm."

"I'm perfectly calm," Skinner said. "If a touch impatient." He sounded like Storm, ready to talk off body parts and use them as blunt instruments.

I couldn't imagine him doing that. He seemed more contained. More likely to slide a quiet blade between someone's ribs, or something like that. Not hands-on and messy.

Footsteps moved closer to the door again.

I took a few back, eyes still on my phone screen. I hadn't really watched the last four or five videos, but the couple of people who walked past me didn't give me a second glance. None stopped to wonder what was going on inside the infirmary. They didn't so much as hesitate.

The footsteps stopped right inside the doorway.

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