Page 70 of PortCity Killers

“I know.”

I threw my hands up, stepping back, “Then please explain where the hell you’ve been and why it was so hard to contact me.” I poked him in the chest. “Me. Who killed a man for you. Me. Who now owes all of PortCity favors left and right for you.”

He had the graciousness to wince, but I wasn’t sure he got the picture, not with the way he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck like he was just about to tell me he might have switched the sugar with the salt shaker.

“I’ve been down under the docks, trying to find a way out of all of this.”

Under the docks. Where criminals and runaways scattered themselves claiming spaces they couldn't in the broad daylight above the slats over their heads.

“Unbelievable.” I scoffed, “Jaymes, we already took care of it. There is no other way short of leaving PortCity and neither of us has start over money. All we can do from here is pay our debts and be done.”

My debts, but I refrained from rubbing it in any further.

His eyes were pleading, wide, bright gray-green that told me he was bound and determined to get his plan out, “No, I promise. I have a way out. I just need some time.”

“Time for what, Jay?”

There was a knock at the door, startling me again, but at least I only half jumped out of my skin and hadn’t screamed. Jaymes looked towards the sound like it was a snake poised and ready to strike at him.

“Are you expecting anyone?”

“No,” I shrugged, “But I seem pretty popular as of late. It could be anyone.”

“What do you mean?”

The knock sounded again, a soft, but sure rapping. I moved to the door, but Jaymes caught my arm. I looked at him, taking in the light sweat across his temples and the wide panicked eyes.

“Jaymes, what is going on?”

“Listen, Alex, you can’t trust the Giovenni’s or the Vosco’s. Neither of them even scratches the surface of what’s going on in PortCity-”

“Muñequita?”

“Is that Valentina?”

This time it was me who winced. Jay’s face flushed with anger, his eyes moving rapid fire between me and the door.

“I have brought things for our date!”

“A date?” Jay hissed a laugh. A cruel, vicious sound that said he was disappointed in my very existence, “Obviously, I’m not the only one who needs saving here, Alex.”

I hardened myself against the look he gave me and how it hit directly through my heart. He could fuck right off. I turned to open the door, but his long legs took him farther, quicker. He was at the door, ripping it open with a glare in Valentina’s direction.

I tried to catch it before it shut on her but it was no use. It slammed right back in her face as he blazed right past her. When I opened it back up with an apologetic look. She just laughed.

The sound wasn’t the pretty tinkling of bells it had been in her office but a harsh, cacophonous sound that matched the fire in her eyes as she tracked Jaymes's frame as he backed into the rickety old elevator with a middle finger salute.

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