Chapter Nineteen
~Jessie~
Jessie was in the middle of explaining how important it was to change the oil every couple thousand, and that when the vehicle starts to smoke is not the first indication the vehicle needs attention.
..when he heard screams from the graveyard behind him.
His heart leapt up into the roof of his mouth as he tore away from his customer.
Charging through the shop, he ignored all the mechanics calling his name and asking what was wrong.
He headed, headfirst, toward the dusty area behind the fence.
Nik came around the bend mere seconds after Jessie, the pair coming to a screeching halt.
About sixty yards from the fence, Katarina continuously, mercilessly wailed on a group of screaming men in with a tire iron.
With every swing, she hit someone somewhere.
One guy was face first in the dust, a bloody ear and lopsided hand visible.
She was stood on his back, thwacking her way to victory through two minotaurs who tried to avoid her blows.
She caught a random human on the back of the leg, then sank a goliath man to his knees.
Her tail zapped him on the back of the neck, and he dropped like she’d electrocuted him.
One of the minotaur’s yelped as she wrapped her forearm around his neck and tugged him back, her wings flapping rapidly.
“Uhh...you gonna...stop her before she brains that guy?” Jessie glanced at Nik with an arched brow.
“Me?” Nik scoffed, glaring up at him.
“Yeah! You’re my muscle!” Jessie huffed, hands on his hips as he twisted to Nik fully.
All while Katarina swung the tire iron from over her head down onto the back of a goon.
She sank him to the ground. Like he was a rat she was beating into submission with a broom.
..except he was a large man and she was using a heavy steel rod.
“I don’t have a death wish,” Nik grumbled.
“Neither do I!” Jessie flapped a hand at the violence happening before them.
Jessie opened his mouth then quickly closed it as the bald-headed guy started crawling desperately toward them.
He screamed out as Katarina got him by the ankle and slammed the tire iron over his tailbone. Jessie blurted out, “Is that Pierre?”
“I don’t know, can’t see his...nope, that’s Pierre, cause that’s Louis!
” Nik snarled, the pair storming forward.
Jessie snatched the tire iron from Katarina while Nik hoisted her up onto his shoulder like a sack of rice.
She kicked and screamed for a moment until Nik deposited her onto the hood of a car a foot away from the fight.
Jessie didn’t hear what Nik was whispering to her face because he was too busy striking Pierre like a golf ball with the tire iron.
“Pierre Fuckin’ Simmone!” Jessie roared with evil laughter.
He pressed a hoof to the chest of the washed-up paladin.
Pierre ran with a small crew of thieves, fencers, smugglers, and forgers.
The last time Jessie dealt with Pierre, he was trying to sell the mechanic a lemon of a car for parts.
They’d tried to pass off sawdust and when Jessie broke Pierre’s left knee for the offense, the pair came to an understanding.
So long as the ‘Burning Wheel’ crew stayed out of Bonesaw business, they didn’t care what they did.
“Now what’s a cockroach like you doing in my backyard?
I thought I made myself clear the last time you darkened my doorstep. ”
“Fuck you, Bonesaw,” Pierre spat a glob of blood out of his mouth.
“Let me guess, I give someone a good price for a car you were going to boost? No-no, wait, you were trying to sell them another lemon like you did me, and they came to me instead? I don’t know what I’ve done, but I’ve pissed in your oatmeal somehow?
” Jessie swung backward, clocking Louis, the black and white minotaur with a chipped left horn.
Wherever Pierre went, his right-hand muscle followed.
It was the only reason more people didn’t choke out the idiot Jessie had pinned.
“You took something from Bobby!” Is that what this is about? Was Bobby that whiney of a baby he’d hired a handful of goons to come jump Katarina? It wasn’t even that much coin! There’s gotta be more to this?
“And so jumping my fence, harassing my girl, and picking a fight? All for a handful of gold that he fucking owed me? What’s Bobby got on you that you’re now a bully for hire?
Don’t you have anything better to do?" Jessie pointed the tire-iron at one of his other goons who immediately ducked back down into the dirt.
“This isn’t about—Hey!" Pierre yowled with pain as Jessie pressed down on him. “This isn’t about the money!”
“Then what are you—?”
The shouts of mechanics behind him and a general sense for something going wrong ran up Jessie’s spine as he dropped the tire iron on Pierre.
Then someone bellowed the word ‘Enforcer’ and he knew the jig was up.
He stepped off the man who held his hands to his broken nose.
Jessie turned in time to see four Enforcers in all their golden armor storm the backyard fence.
..followed by the big ass Fowlst, Aravis Blightwood himself. Damnit!
What’s the Lord Commander doing here? Who snitched?
“Hey man! You can’t be back here!” Oats yelled as he scurried after the Enforcers. Jessie held up a hand that caused the skinny kid to skitter to a stop. Oats gave his boss a look that asked ‘you sure?’ to which Jessie shook his head and waved him off.
“Lord Commander, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Jessie growled, stomping in the direction of the dark cloud that loomed over his junkyard.
Thankfully for him, the only thing damning out in the yard at the time was the broken bodies of the men Katarina walloped.
All other products were locked away or already enroute to their destinations.
Jessie crossed his arms over his chest. Aravis Blightwood stopped five feet from him with his usual marble face and fowl expression.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time Jessie ran into Aravis Blightwood.
The tall, broad-shouldered, sharp-faced man stared down his bold nose at Jessie.
He has two inches on me cause of the fancy talons.
Aravis had long arms of raven feathers, deadly, obsidian claws that tapped against the sides of his wings, and a pension for ruining Jessie’s fun.
The Lord Commander let out a slow, calculated breath. “Edwin Bonesaw—”
“It’s Jessie,” he snarled darkly, trying his best not to bite off the head of the only man in King’s Fall that could end it all for Jessie right there. “Not even my Ma calls me by my first name.”
“Mr. Bonesaw, we’ve had complaints about a fight breaking out here at the establishment...” Aravis trailed off and Jessie’s stiffened as Nik and Katarina joined the group at the center of the dusty pile up. “Ms. Witchbane, what interesting choice of company you’re keeping against my advisement.”
Jessie’s eyebrows shot up to his horns as he glanced at Katarina, then back to Aravis with accusation burning in his gaze.
“I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself. Case in point,” she grumbled, motioning at the boys. “These guys are trespassing.”
“Are they now?” Aravis arched an incredulous brow in Jessie’s direction.
“They don’t work for me,” Jessie shrugged, rocking back on his heels. He saw the Enforcers behind Aravis all scoping out the car graveyard. He smirked to himself as their faces grew less cocky with each passing second.
“And as the business owner, are you going to press charges?" Aravis rolled his eyes with a groan.
“Oi! Don’t I have a say in this? They beat us with a tire iron!” Pierre roared as he clambered up to his feet.
“You’re lucky I didn’t rip you apart!” Katarina was held back by a firm, fuzzy Nik arm as she lunged at the bloodied man.
Pierre jerked away from her, only to flinch when he met gazes with Jessie.
While he didn’t want to let Pierre off easy, he couldn’t press charges.
That would end up with all five of them in a jail cell overnight.
Long enough to decide better than to tell him what they were really here for.
It’s not about the money! That’s what Pierre said just before the Enforcers ruined the party.
If Jessie wanted answers, then he couldn’t let Aravis leave with them.
Jessie opened his mouth to tell Aravis no thank you when Katarina whirled around on her heel.
“If he won’t press charges, I will! They dropped in here and told me to my face they were here to hurt me. All of this was self-defense!”
Nik and Jessie swallowed audible groans of displeasure as Aravis smirked from ear to ear. “You heard her, men. Cuff them for aggravated assault.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Pierre cried out and Jessie almost joined him, but he bit his tongue.
Face scrunched up, glaring at Aravis, he stepped aside to let the enforcers round up and cuff the five bloodied men in his yard.
Jessie and Nik locked eyes. Nik told him in a single stare, we gotta tell her.
To which Jessie replied, I need to know what Pierre knows first. But that conversation was cut off as Aravis stepped up between them.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Bonesaw.”
“You know that arrest won’t stick,” Jessie spoke in a low growl, making sure Aravis alone heard him.
“Pardon, I didn’t know you were in the business of doling out legal guidance to criminals, Mr. Bonesaw. Especially the ones who attack innocent bystanders.” Aravis cocked his head to the side, narrowing his obsidian gaze on Jessie’s face.
“I’m not,” Jessie sneered with a cruel smile on his face. “Just don’t see how this is a good use of taxpayer money, Lord Commander.”