Page 64 of The Primary Pest
“Already sent.” Peter narrowed his eyes.
“Then what? You planned to return to Iphicles without the three of us? Say the drop went sideways?”
Peter sighed. “I’m afraid you and Bartosz die trying to save Ajax during the rendezvous. Terribly sad. There’ll be a firefight? Only Chet and I make it back alive.”
Dmytro nodded. “Have you mentioned this to the rest of the crew?”
“About that.” Peter laughed. “Sorry, I lied. They were hired to go with us to Catalina and disappear. There’s only the three of us aboard now. Plus our golden goose there.”
Chet paced across the cabin, back and forth, holding the gun in one hand and gnawing on the thumbnail of the other.
“Are you certain that’s wise?” Dmytro asked.
“Shut your pie hole and get up those stairs,” Chet demanded.
That got Chet the sneer he deserved. “You think you can sell this scenario? That Bartosz and I couldn’t fight our way out of a ransom drop gone south? You think Zhenya is going to believe that? Believe Chet? You’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were.”
Peter glanced between them, hesitating.
“Oh, fuck this!” Chet wailed. “I’m the one who did Bartosz. He didn’t see a thing coming ’cause I got the drop on him. Leaving Kolisnychenko alive issuicide.”
“But I want tostayalive.” He turned his gaze to Peter. “You know me, brother. I fight on the side that wins because in the end, all I care about is getting home to my girls. Always.”
“Don’t listen to him—”
“Shut up, Chet,” Dmytro snapped. Peter’s gun hand trembled. “Skill like mine doesn’t come along every day, Peter. And loyalty. If you swear I go home to my girls, it’s all yours.”
Peter shook his head like he couldn’t believe he was even thinking about it.
“If you fuck us, your girls are dead,” Peter taunted. “I’ll take them and sell them. I’ll kill you and then your girls will spend their very short lives suffering in Cairo or Dubai.”
Dmytro tightened his jaw. “I’m your man.”
“Remember, I’ve played you for days. I can play you again anytime I want.” Peter’s feral eyes glittered, leaving no doubt he would take the girls, kill Liv, and slaughter everyone Dmytro cared about if Dmytro betrayed him.
Wrapping both hands on the grip of his gun, he eased up to Dmytro and placed the barrel at the bridge of Dmytro’s nose, directly between his eyes. “I will burn down your world if you fuck me. I’ll take everything that belongs to you, Dmytro. Tell me you know this.”
Dmytro didn’t blink. “I believe you.”
“Look me in the eye and swear your loyalty.”
“No.” He met Peter’s grim, glittering brown eyes. Everyone knew his loyalty couldn’t be bought. Peter would know this. Peter would see through a lie like that one immediately.
But his heart stuttered. He expected to hear the gun go off.
When it didn’t, he played his best card. “I am loyal only to my daughters. For them, and for my life, I work for any man.”
A long moment followed, during which the only sounds in the cabin were Peter’s harsh pants, Chet’s grinding molars, and Ajax’s soft sobs. Water lapped insistently against the hull. The scent of rust, of mold, of his own fear-sweat, filled his nostrils, filthy and rank, reminding him how many times he’d smelled it on his body and in the air around him.
Beneath his feet, the boat rocked gently.
The world had tilted on its axis again.
He was nothing but a roach scrambling for survival, and every time the world went sideways, he’d managed, just barely, to keep crawling through it.
He’d eaten the garbage life offered him, avoided the chunks of concrete that fell all around him, and although he’d buried his wife, he’d brought his children to a land full of new promise, his heart filled with hope that this time he could be a better man.
Instead, here he crawled. Just another cockroach making another bargain, the wretchedness inside him fueling nausea and the instinct to survive. Perhaps he still had a chance to live. To do that, he had to ally himself with Peter—God, what a wretched bastard—and the useless waste of skin Chet.
