Page 31 of Reckless Roulette

“Heading off to rich man’s land. You think I’ll get shot for driving my cheap car through here?”

“It’s a possibility, but then there’d be a body and that’d look even more tacky than your car,” I say.

“You make a valid point. I’ll make sure that if I get shot, I’ll drag my body to your building.”

“How pleasant. It’s this place here. You can drop me off out front.”

“And let you get murdered somewhere I can’t watch? No, sir. I wanna be front and center,” he says as he pulls into a parking spot and gets out.

“Sometimes your desire to watch me die concerns me,” I say dryly.

“Only sometimes? Fascinating. Now let’s go.”

He follows me into the high-rise where I run my card at the door and let myself into the building that I’d moved into about five years ago. I have the entire top floor to myself, which has far too much room and what has to be one of the best views of the city. I head over to the elevator before looking at him. “I’m on the top floor.”

He grimaces as he looks up. “How many floors is it?”

“Ten. I’m taking the elevator.”

Len warily stares at it and the look he’s giving it makes me wonder if his journey ends here. “What are your chances of dying by the time I walk up ten flights?”

“Probably pretty high.”

He swings his hand at me, and I don’t even realize it until he’s stopped it next to my face. “Your reflexes are atrocious. How have you not died from that alone?”

“I don’t think you can die from horrible reflexes,” I promise him. The look on his face tells me that he doesn’t feel so certain.

“Clearly you need the exercise, come on. Up the stairs we go.”

I stare at the stairs in reluctance. The idea of going up a couple of flights is alright, but trudging up ten? “I’d rather face what’s in my room alone.”

He glances over at the elevator I’ve called and the moment the doors open, there’s a look on his face that I find I don’t like. There’s so much trepidation in his expression which is usually so jovial that it bothers me.

It’s just an elevator ride. That’s all it is… he’ll survive just like he did at The Anonymous, so I shouldn’t even worry about it.

Len’s eyes are fixated on that space, body so tense that it’s like he has no comprehension of the outside world; it’s just him facing off with it.

I set a hand on his shoulder, and he recoils like he had on the couch. “Stairs are this way. I better get something good out of this,” I say, trying to play it off like I didn’t notice his reaction. Pulling open the door, I head through it and find that Len is right on my ass.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine if I go up alone,” I say as I glance up the massive stairwell.

“N-No, what if someone’s waiting in your room? They probably won’t kill you yet, but they’re going to want to scare you. There are a lot of ways to scare someone into getting what you want,” Len says.

“I don’t scare easily unless you whip out that dumb game thing you have,” I say.

“I’ll make sure to whip it out tomorrow too. We can play something else. Did you like the game we played today or yesterday’s better?”

“Neither. I’d rather clean toilets.”

“Maybe you’ll enjoy a cleaning game, then!”

“That wasn’t what I meant!” I grumble as I trudge up the stairs. “How many more flights do we have to go?”

“Only seven.”

“Dear god. Do you know what I’m used to doing?”

“Looking handsome and angry? I would think that would burn a lot of calories, so I assumed you’d be extremely fit.”

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