Chapter 2 Donovan
The lights in the back of the limousine were glorious, sparkling as I laid almost on the floor completely. A bottle of champagne in one hand and a cigarette in the other. No smoking was a guide, and the driver had already told me I was being fined for it. I took a long drag on it and exhaled.
The visor into the front of the car opened. “Sir, please refrain from doing that.”
“Are you going to stop me?” I asked, pushing the gun on my hip into view.
“No, sir.”
I laughed until I coughed, then pulled myself up onto the chair. I’d been celebrating since midnight. The driver had taken me all around Manhattan as I drank the bar dry and watched the little dots of light embedded in the fabric of the interior sparkle. They’d changed color and hypnotized me.
The car pulled up to an abrupt stop, hauling me forward on my knees. I pulled myself up, my head swinging on my shoulders, but my hands were able to find my head and let me sink back more of the champagne. I’d paid for it, I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.
“Sir,” the driver said.
People were talking outside the car before the door opened. Daylight invaded my space and I recoiled as if I was allergic, and I didn’t want my fund to end.
“This isn’t protocol,” one of them said.
“We’ve got orders.”
It was River, one of the tech geeks. He peered inside the limo. “Ok, you haven’t done too much damage,” he said, tapping away on his little tablet. “You best have the funds for this, Mr. Kurt. Mercy isn’t going to foot this bill, not like last time.”
“Where am I?” I grumbled, staring at him. I knew I couldn’t be at Sanctum, they’d never let a random civilian near—or even see where it was located.
A larger guy climbed into the limo, the light behind him cast a shadow that had me squinting—I couldn’t see who it was. “Come with us,” he said, and before I could put up a fight, and I would’ve, but I was thinking, and then that’s all I was doing because I passed out.
* * *
The machine beeping woke me, followed by the chemical smell of Doctor Timothy Cole medical suite. It was a vile smell he seemed immune to the effects of. Instantly retching, a nurse was by my side with a bucket, and my vision completely blurred as I was guided to throwing up into it.
“Ah, you’re awake,” Dr. Cole said, coming into vision as my eyes focused.
He wagged a finger at me as my instinct to yank at the wires coming out of me nearly took over.
“We’re pumping you with necessary vitamins and hydration,” he said.
“You’re lucky we found the car and had it rerouted.
We had to get Jinksy to carry you in, from a block away. ”
I laid back in the back and wiped my mouth on my arm, feeling the aching tug of the tubes plugged into me. “That was Jinksy?” I asked. “Jeez, what did he do to me?”
Dr. Cole shrugged. “Just a sedative,” he said. “An entire syringe, given your mass, and—all those muscles, we couldn’t take the change on you raging out about it. We heard you had a bit of an exciting night, and didn’t check-in.”
“Blah, blah, fucking blah,” I let out, that rage he was talking about bubbled inside me, readying itself, but my entire body ached against it. “I was celebrating, I got a fucking bullseye, right between his eyes. The hit happened, the payment hit, and I celebrated.”
“Maybe you should’ve followed protocol before that,” he said.
I saw the way he looked at me, like I was in trouble with the big boss, which was funny. It was a choice to take hits from Mercy’s kill list. She didn’t own me. “Then where is she? I’d like to check-in with her.”
“Don’t mind that now, you’re here, and the weapons have been returned to the armory,” he said. “But you should be more careful where you leave them. Anyone could’ve found them on that rooftop.”
I screwed my eyes as a clusterfuck of a headache rolled through. “Put me back to sleep already,” I snapped. “Let me just fucking gather my thoughts.”
The clop of heels on the floor had my eyes spring wide.
Mercy was stood in front of me at the bottom of the bed.
She smiled and brushed a hand through her hair.
“Nice to see you’ve rejoined us, Donovan,” she said.
“But you know the rules, when you use the armory, and go out on an op with our tech and resources, you’ve got to check-in.
We don’t need you to personally bring them back, we have people for that, you know this. It’s been—god, countless years.”
“I was celebrating,” I said.
She walked to the side of the bed, tutting. “Luckily, I had eyes on you for most of the night, otherwise, I might’ve been worried.”
“You, worried?” I laughed.
“Not for you, Donovan, for Sanctum, the last thing we need is you being caught with proprietary Sanctum equipment,” she said. “If we have to go back to the old ways, we can, no more wireless cash deposits, I’ll make you come in and collect it all in—whatever currency we’ve got laying around.”
Biting my tongue, I eventually apologized for my lack of oversight. I knew protocol better than most people, and I was beginning to regret not following it, but only because this headache was fucking with me.
“See that you’re feeling better, Donovan,” she said. “I’ve got some exciting ideas on how you can win back favor with me.”
As Mercy left, Jinksy walked into the room. He occupied most of the door, he loomed, but the moment he smiled, he was a giant teddy bear. Dr. Cole walked out after Mercy, leaving me alone with someone I could trust—as far as anyone could trust anyone else within an agency that dealt in—everything.
“I’m sorry I had to do that to you,” he said with a heavy sigh. “They knew you wouldn’t try attacking me, but I also didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Don’t worry, Jinksy, you were great, it was the call,” I told him, struggling with the sensation of all these tubes feeling like they were taking from me instead of pumping me with vitamins. “Any ideas on when these can come out?”
Jinksy shrugged. “You’ll probably have to get a nurse to do that,” he said. “So, how was the op? I was on air support in the drone. I saw you get into that limo and I followed you for a couple blocks from the sky. I bet it was so fun, what did you do in there?”
A small laugh came out as I pushed myself up in the bed. “I just drank, I just stared at the roof, and yeah, just relaxed in there.”
“How were you so drunk?” he asked, looking at my vitals on the chart. “You were mixing meds?”
“I’ve been taking some stuff for pain relief.”
“The stuff that says don’t drink?” he asked. “Jeez, you know people die like that.”
“Normal people,” I grumbled. “I’m not normal. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me normal. It’s a bit of an insult.”
He snort-laughed. “True, you’re not what anyone would call normal,” he said.
I known—not really but here, I’d known Jinksy for years. He’d been in my ear more times than I could count with intel on ops. “When can I go to my apartment?” I asked. “I’m sure I can recoup there, unless Mercy’s given it away.”
“I’m not the doc, Donovan,” he laughed harder.
“You’re funny. I think you should be able to go when someone comes in to—” And almost on cue, a nurse arrived, although they didn’t look like nurses, they were all dressed in the same shirt with the collars buttoned tight.
The only thing that told me they were a nurse was the silver-plated tag attached to their shirt pocket. “Here we go.”
“Leah,” I said, reading her nametag. “Any idea when I’m back on my feet?” I winked at her.
“Careful, Mr. Kurt, I know I’m not your type,” she said.
“Give me a little blue pill and anyone is my type,” I told her. “And who told you that?”
Jinksy and Leah shared and look, followed by the same knowing smirk. It made my smile fade fast, there was something going on here, and I didn’t like it.
“Donovan,” Jinksy said. “Everyone knows that you and that guy were together.”
“I could be sexually fluid,” I said, it was a term I’d heard some younger guys say—and the words elicited laughter from them. “You know, bisexuality and stuff.”
“Of course, sir,” Leah said. “There’s just a little more from the vitamin bag left, then I can take the line out.”
I leaned back in a huff, my hand instinctively went to my hip where I usually kept a gun—it was my way of threatening—but there were no weapons allowed inside Sanctum. “Sooner the better,” I grumbled. “What else are people saying?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being gay,” Jinksy said.
“I know that, I just don’t want people thinking of me as my sexuality first,” I grumbled.
“Plus, everyone knows about you and Conrad having that threesome,” Jinksy snickered.
I tapped a finger at my forehead as if there was some giant reset button. “Please, I don’t wanna think about the past right now,” I said, screwing my eyes shut and only worsening the cluster of pain behind them. “I just want to get into my bed.”
One of the perks of working through the Sanctum was housing, the apartments here were basically hotel suites, except when you were assigned one, they were yours—unless you requested to change.
Before I was able to leave the medical suite, the doctor checked me over again. I wasn’t in much physical pain, probably from medication, but the hangover headache was there, and on doctor’s orders I needed to stay hydrated.
Sanctum’s layout was confusing on purpose, in case anyone found us, they’d never be able to infiltrate.
It was also impossible to know if the medical floor was above or below the apartments since the elevator didn’t provide floor numbers.
You just told it where you wanted to go—after scanning your card, which someone had slipped into my pocket while I was probably unconsciously stripped searched before entering—it wasn’t the first time it had happened, and I’d consented to it the moment I agreed to Mercy’s terms and conditions.
My apartment was home—unofficially, I wasn’t getting any mail here but I also definitely wasn’t going to be attacked in the middle of the night. It was somewhere I could lay my head on a pillow and pass out—not from medical intervention.
* * *
Aches woke me in the middle of the night, alongside the urge to piss, and I hadn’t pissed the bed since I was a teen—yeah, I had nightmares a lot growing up, and now, I was the nightmare. it’s funny how life worked out sometimes.
It was the middle of the night at least from the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was one of my gripes with being down here—I never knew what was really going on outside until I was out there.
Stripping right by the toilet bowl, I walked into the shower and let it blast me with those first initial spurts of cold water before the scalding hit heat.
I was completely sober now, painfully so, I didn’t know what was next for me until I looked at Mercy’s kill list—if she even allowed me to see it again.
My mind going through all the stuff she might let me do—like deliveries or protection detail.
I hated both of those—alternatively, I could go back out there and find work like I usually did.
Walking into the fanciest looking bar or nightclub and finding the toughest looking guy—they always had work, and my name had a reputation—one I was trying to keep, so protection detail for deliveries was out of the question.
A thud knocked at the door as I was getting into flow state with the shower heat and the almost peeling my skin effect that it had. I knew better than to answer after one knock. The knock came again, this time, followed by Jinky’s voice—soft in comparison to the weight he threw into those knocks.
“I’m coming,” I shouted as I wrapped a towel around my waist and trailed water from the ensuite to the door—a short trip.
The hallway outside was in twilight with moody blue lighting—that was a signal it was the evening outside. Jinxy was smiling like a fool. “Oh good, you’re alive,” he said with a snort of laughter. “I was sent to check on you. You’ve slept for like—twelve hours.”
“Thanks, Jinksy, and imagine if I was still asleep, how annoyed I’d be at you right now,” I said, clinging to the towel around my waist. “Is there anything else you wanted? Or did you want to wake the dead while you’re at it?”
He continued to smile, no insult could take it away. “I’m following orders,” he said. “And now I can say you’re awake. It was better than sending a nurse, you would’ve chewed one of them out.”
“You know me well,” I said in defeat. “So, what else did you need from me?”
“Mercy wants to speak with you in the morning.”
“Did she give you a time to tell me?”
He shook his head. “Nope, just the morning.”
The door creaked open across the hallway. “Now look, we’re waking the neighbors.”
Jinksy turned, blocking my view. “I’m sorry, sir, it won’t happen again,” he said. “You can go back to bed.”
“Donovan?”
That voice. I knew it out of a crowd. “Oh fuck.” I wanted to close my door and avoid it, but all those aches I’d been pounding out of my muscles with the hot water had frozen me to the spot.
Artemis Gray rounded Jinksy in nothing but a pair of sweatpants, hanging on for dear life around his waist. His slim physique and gorgeous face were a little more scratched up and bruised than I remembered when I was tracing my tongue over it.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he spat. “You fucking left me!” Like a Banshee, he did he best to swing for me.
Jinksy grabbed him, his whole body in a backwards bear hug. “No way, Jose,” he said. “No acts of violence against other guests.”
Artemis continued swinging his arms and fists in my direction.
“It’s fine,” I said. I knew I’d have to face him eventually. “Let him go. I’ll take it.”
He stopped thrusting in Jinksy’s arms. “Fight me.”
“No.”
Let go, the sound of doors opening were not a good sign. If Artemis did want to fight, he’d end up on his ass out of here. I’d never report him, but others would. “Come in and talk,” I said.
“Sir, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jinksy asked. “Miss Mercy was very clear that she wanted you in her office tomorrow, I don’t think she’d want me to let him in your room.”
“I can handle him,” I said.
Artemis’s eyes narrowed into a heated glare that I’d somehow missed. I was right, I could still handle him. It had been months, but he was all bark and no bite.