Chapter Thirty-five #2
Bobby’s wails were muffled as he wiggled fruitlessly in Jessie’s hand.
Jessie gave the bone tired mechanic an apologetic look but Nikolai waved it off.
I can rest when I’m dead. Despite the waver in his legs, or the woozy feeling in his skull for being awake so long, he needed answers.
He could survive being stinky and exhausted a little longer.
Nikolai crawled back up to his feet, following Jessie into the kitchen.
Jessie motioned for him to take a seat as he hog-tied Bobby to another one.
Sinking into the chair sucked, but then a pitcher of water was put in front of him.
Nikolai took a gulp of water from their fridge pitcher before he finally asked, “Why’s Bella here? ”
“Ma got called in. Now I’m kind of glad,” Jessie grunted.
He brought a warm washcloth over to Nikolai and draped it over his head.
“Wash off a little, you got bug guts all over you. Katarina headed in early, apparently Sera stayed up all night with her vampire fiancé and they whipped up a petition for full custody. Baby girl wanted to turn it in the second they unlocked the door.”
Nikolai couldn’t speak more, instead filling his chipmunk cheeks full of water that he steadily swallowed before filling up his face with more.
He didn’t care if it turned his stomach, the twitching of his leg muscles eased with each gulp.
Jessie grabbed a chair and sat right next to Bobby’s.
Dropping down into it, he stared at the wriggling bastard dead in the eye.
Silence filled the kitchen except for the random gurgle from the water pitcher as Nikolai downed the whole thing.
Then, with a kitchen knife to Bobby’s throat, Jessie spoke, “I’m going to take that scarf out of your mouth. You wake up the kid, and I jab this knife into your neck. Got it?”
Bobby nodded rapidly.
Jessie plucked the scarf from Bobby’s mouth. “Now, why the fuck are you working with The Executive? And why is he fucking with me?”
Bobby flapped his mouth open and shut before words actually formed.
“He wanted to invest in the car lot. A lot of money. If I just let him have some fancy car that he could tinker with, at first. Then, one night I realized what he was doing. So I goes up to him, tell him that he better pony up more money to keep me quiet or I’m going to the Enforcers.
How was I supposed to know he was a madman?
He shows up the next day with a folder of everything I’ve never been charged with and all the evidence they would have used against me.
Next thing I know, he’s making me save cars for him to tinker with then sell on the side and I make no commission! ”
Jessie glanced at Nikolai who shrugged.
“Alright, but that doesn’t explain why he’s after me? And why he’s worried about some prototype? Can’t he just make a new one? Or does he need it to make one? What’s the deal?” Jessie tapped the flat side of the knife against Bobby’s shoulder.
“He’s already got the real one…don’t you get it?
He doesn’t want loose ends. Cause that prototype, me, Pierre, all of us could be used to get back to him.
So, if you turn it into him, he’ll just set off the real one, knowing all the evidence will get destroyed.
As long as he doesn’t have me or the prototype, he can’t risk it.
Knowing someone might know it was him!” Bobby’s voice started to rise in a frenzy only to go right back down to a soft hush as Jessie lifted the knife back up.
Nikolai wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand. He got two good burps out into the crook of his elbow before he could talk without spewing water. “That explains why he wants you. Not why he wants Jessie?”
“Oh.” Bobby paled, his smile growing sheepishly.
Jessie narrowed his eyes. “In fact, that doesn’t explain why someone who, as far as I can tell, wouldn’t want to raise any alarms, just went ahead and stopped paying his bills. Knowing what would happen?”
Bobby let out an airy, half-assed laugh, “Jessie, come on, you know me.”
“Yeah,” Nikolai grunted, climbing to his shaky feet. Bobby scrunched in right tight behind his restraints as Nikolai loomed over him. “We do know you. Talk.”
“Look,” Bobby whined, grimacing at Jessie.
“I felt like he was getting ready to use the real deal and that he was going to try and make someone his scapegoat. The council already has me on a tight leash, another slip up and my friends couldn’t protect me from Blightwood.
So, I thought, maybe if I gave Bjorn someone better to be his scapegoat, someone more believable? ”
Bobby trailed off and Jessie finished with a dark, low growl, “That he’d let you live?”
“He killed Pierre for snitching, what makes you think he’d let you live?” Nikolai grabbed Bobby’s right hand and pinched his skinny wrist between his thumb and forefinger. He tweaked it a little hard to the right and Bobby jerked in his seat, trying to get away.
“All of this so you could weasel your way out of paying for your mistakes?” Jessie growled.
“Jessie, man, you gotta understand, things are different now that you’ve taken up the throne. People aren’t as scared of the Bonesaw name anymore. You’re softer than he was.”
Nikolai watched Jessie intently. What’s the plan now? Standing up from the chair, Jessie dropped the knife onto the table. “You know what Bobby, I think you’ve got a point. People aren’t as scared of the Bonesaw name. And what a shame that is, ain’t it, Nik?”
A wicked smirk crawled up on Nikolai’s face behind his tusks. “Such a shame.”
“Because I’m just getting started,” Jessie added with a laugh.
He took up the scarf and shoved it back into Bobby’s mouth.
Nikolai waited till it muffled everything before breaking the gnome’s wrist. That’s for running you little shit.
Bobby’s screams died as Nikolai made sure to jerk it the other way, in case any bones were cracked.
Jessie stepped up, shooing Nikolai away with one hand and grabbing the foot of Bobby’s chair in the other.
He whipped the chair out, turning Bobby upside down in his restraints, and dangled the sleezeball upside down.
“What are we doing about him?” Nikolai asked as Jessie viciously rattled the chair with Bobby still in it.
Like a scrambled egg, Jessie jerked the gnome about till he was a wobbly, jiggly mess.
A gasp echoed around the kitchen. Both mechanics and their current problem vehicle, aka Bobby, froze at the sound.
Nikolai’s stomach twisted up as he found Isabella, clutching Barnibus in little rubber ducky pajamas, staring at them.
“Ooooooh! Jessie going to jail!” She jabbed an accusatory finger at him.
Jessie dropped Bobby’s chair on the floor. Nikolai was pretty sure he heard something crack and he hoped blood wasn’t currently oozing out of the salesman.
“What? Who says? Who did you talk to Bug?”
“Momma says if you break the rules and hurt people, go to jail,” Isabella pouted, squeezing the platypus tight to her chest. “I don’t want Jessie to go to jail.”
“Oh, oh, you’re so very right, Bella-bug.
But you see, Jessie is different. Jessie has a…
” Jessie patted himself self quickly, mid-third person dialogue and panicked look on his face.
We’re in so much trouble. Our kid’s gonna rat us out to Katarina so fucking fast. Nikolai scrambled to right the chair and keep Bobby turned away from Isabella, just in case.
Jessie let out a triumphant snort as he whisked out his wallet and shoved his work badge into Isabella’s hands. “A permit.”
“Permit?” Isabella whimpered.
“Yeah! A permit gives me permission to do something that other people aren’t allowed to do.
This permit lets me do this…to Bobby. Nik’s got one too, show her Nik.
” Jessie flapped his hand at the scrambling mechanic who patted his body down till he found his wallet.
He pulled out his employee ID and put it into the open palm of their curious child.
“Permit!” Isabella beamed, bouncing on her toes. “I want permit.”
“Yeah! I think we can do that,” Jessie put his hands to his hips. “But it’ll have to wait till later today, okay? We got a bake sale and gotta go see Momma at the…”
Nikolai and Jessie came to the same sudden realization.
A cold shiver ran down his spine. The council building.
The council building where Katarina was at trying to file for full custody.
Where the jackass was expecting Nikolai to be by 8am with the prototype and Bobby.
Where, if they didn’t get to soon, he might just use the real device and say “fuck the evidence” because the evidence was in Jessie’s hands.
“We gotta go,” Nikolai roared, rushing forward, scooping up the little girl.
“She can’t go out in pajamas!” Jessie bellowed from behind him. Nikolai only stopped to pick up the prototype off the floor and fly out the front door.
“She’s like five! Plenty of five year olds live in their pajamas!” Nikolai glanced back long enough to see Jessie locking the door behind him, Bobby no longer hog-tied to a chair but bundled up and carried under his arm like a sack of potatos.
“I’m six!” Isabella huffed.
“Happy Birthday!” Nikolai huffed right back, earning himself a giggle as he fumbled with the backseat of the truck.
Thankfully, the car seat was still in there.
While he buckled her in, Jessie stuffed Bobby into the floorboard behind his seat.
Nikolai hissed under his breath, “Put him in the trunk box!”
“You want to roll up to the council building with a child in one hand and a full grown man locked up in the trunk?” Jessie raised both brows.
Nikolai grumbled but said nothing else as he threw himself into the passenger side seat. That’s it. Bjorn dies today. I don’t care. He dies. Today.