Chapter 10 DONOVAN
I knew this was going to get fucked. It wasn’t the kids fault—Artemis reverting in my eyes to the guy I’d never let set foot near the action.
He was my eye in the sky at one point. And once again, he looked like him—but I knew he wasn’t the same now.
The innocent had really gone, and I think I liked him more this new way.
“You stay in the car, I’ll go out and see what we can do. The windows are bulletproof, so you won’t get hurt in here,” I said in a low voice. Jinksy was in my ear telling me he should’ve been the car tailing behind us—and I felt just as foolish for not noticing it. “Four cars.”
“I heard,” he said. “I can see the one in the back, you think he’s their boss?”
“Good question, Artemis,” Jinksy said.
“We don’t have time for speculations right now, we need a way through this,” I said. “What’s Mercy comfortable with us loosing?”
“Nothing,” he chortled back in our ears. “We don’t negotiate in hostile situations.” He was offering up the same sentiment Sanctum was pretty much known for. It was ground people could hash out the differences without fighting.
“Who do we think it is?” I asked him.
Artemis clicked his tongue. “The file said something about a family tapping into their territory,” he said, annoying me with how spritely effective he was with every action. “It’s some other Italian name, I think. I don’t—”
“Come on, Art, you should know this.”
“You should know this,” he snapped, his face all red. “I’m—”
Donovan laughed. “Took you a while to burst, I’ll try harder next time,” he chuckled. “I think it’s the Morrell family.” He turned to me and nodded once. “We stay calm. We don’t deviate. We get to the rendezvous point, and we make them pay from there.”
“But—”
“Artemis. You listen to me. No improvisation. This isn’t a baseball bat to the back of the head.”
The one time before this when we were together—I didn’t know why he was mentioning it. We were different people back then. “Good job I don’t have a baseball bat then. I’ve got a gun and a knife.”
Donovan nodded. “You’ve also got two fists. If you need to—you should go in showing them you’re unarmed, then get them when they approach.”
“But what if they—”
“Do as I tell you,” I snapped.
He stared right ahead with a blank stare, as if composing himself, as if this was the professionalism Mercy wanted for Sanctum.
We rolled to a stop and I stepped out of the car.
Three in front, one pulling up in the near. Artemis seemed to already have eyes on the money in the back, and the wing mirror.
“Keys, wallet, hands where I can see them,” the central man steps forward with a Glock 19 in hand. I fought the urge to reach for mine—and risk them shooting. This might’ve even been a dispose and dump for them—killing us both.
“You’re gonna have to trust me when I tell you, this isn’t what you want to do,” I said, giving them a full body turn, catching my second glimpse at the door behind us. “It’s not advisable, at least.” Approaching them, I gave my knuckles a crack.
“Get the other guy,” he ordered one of them. “You, get the money, and you, search the vehicle.” He ordered three of the five men over tot he van. He must’ve been new. This was clearly a training exercise for me to bust my name in his mouth—as many times as he needed.
I could see Artemis twitching in the passenger seat. I didn’t need him making any move right now. Flashing back to him in the dark readying a baseball bat even though he didn’t really know how to swing it. His hands were moving away from the dashboard in front of him.
Snapping my fingers, I pulled all of their attention, or at least enough of it. “Hey, you all. You know you’re all better alive here, I don’t want to have to get a couple snipers on you, would you.”
The man laughed. “I know why they hired you,” he said in a whisper stomping forward. “Because you’re the only way they might see a single dollar from it.” He rubbed two fingers together. “Besides, you should’ve aged out of this game. It’s not for the old guys anymore, you’re all useless.”
It happened in an instant. Artemis pushed the door open, knocking him to the ground, then aiming his gun at their apparent leader. I took that opportunity to grab both of their heads hands, spin him around like he was a ballerina, and place him in front of myself.
“What are you going to do now?” I asked as all his men aimed their gun in our direction.
“I was glad I had some bulletproofing—besides their leaders body. “And who even are you?” I didn’t want to agree with him that I’d aged out the business, but he made a good point with me not even seeming to know them.
“I’m Andrew Morrell,” he said. “This money is stolen.”
“No,” I corrected him right to his ear. “This money is clean.”
“Stolen from a business on territory we own,” he said.
I made eye contact with Artemis, trying to figure out why he took the first move.
Attention was divided between the two of us .
“I hate to say this to you, the little traffic stop you set up ahead is going to get the police down here quick,” I said.
“And you wouldn’t be stealing from them, you’d be taking from Sanctum, and if I had to look back, I’d see that you asked for protection once.
” Jinksy was feeding the line right through me.
“Seems like the price of doing business,” he said, his body twitching to make a move and break free from me. I was waiting for it almost, knowing he was going to be the reason he was dead.
“Tell him Mercy will look over his application again,” Jinksy said.
“I’m gonna punch him,” Artemis added over it.
“Art, no,” I growled.
“I know you don’t have art,” Andrew said. “I want the cash. Go, he’s not going to do anything.”
All the still men with their hands either on guns or reaching for them. Artemis was such an unpredictability in all of this. Then I reminded myself of a prior job—and if I’d been alone, I would’ve rammed right into them knowing the van could handle it. But we didn’t want to make a sense.
Artemis took his shot, a punch I’d seen performed on the bag so often, it shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did, maybe it was the defining crack to the man’s jaw.
Downing him in pain. I tightened my grip on Andre’s body, knowing none of the men would shoot.
It quickly came to a head as I was ready to put a knee into his back.
“Stop,” Andrew yelled. “We can’t steal from them. We’ll get it direct from the Bianchi’s.”
My hold tightened, as if I trusted him to keep to his word.
“Make them get in their cars,” I said. “Or get a bullet in your foot. Nice sneakers, by the way.” He hadn’t noticed it at the moment, but with my hands behind his back, I was still able to angle the gun—a little movement and I’d get the Achillies—that would’ve been cruel.
As they went back into their cars and screeching off, I shot a bullet through Andrew’s shoe. Artemis flinched at the sound.
“No, you definitely won’t forget us,” I said as Andrew grappled with holding he leg. He took the center car and sped off.
In the van, I held my tongue for as long as I could. “You didn’t listen to me,” I said.
“You were about to be shot, they were about to have bargaining chips, what do you think was going through my mind?” he asked, pounding a fist into the palm of his hand. “You don’t trust that I can do this now.”
I hated seeing him all serious, mostly because I couldn’t take it. I pulled over to the side and put the hazard lights on. “I trust you,” I said. “And it was a great shot you got on that guys jaw.”
He continued jamming a fist into a hand. “But it hurts,” he let out and we both seemed to break character, before it all changed. I took his hand and looked across the knuckle ridge, feeling a little swelling appear between two of them. “Think I broke one.”
“You’re fine,” I said. “Grab the medical box from the glovebox, and you can wrap it a little. Now, I’m gonna get back on the road.”
As he wrapped his hand in the gauze from the first aid kit, I was focused on pressing forward, faster than the speed limit, but only by a small stretch.
“Do you think I broke his jaw?” he asked,
“Do you want to think you did?” I asked, It was something he might want to reflect on, violence was a messy business, especially to those who had a conscience—or started having one. “It’ll hurt for a bit, take some pain relief.”
Artemis grunted in a low growl, a sound I wouldn’t have expected from him. “This is what I have to do now,” he grumbled. “You know we’re gonna have to talk about it.”
I looked to him with a glare. “I don’t know how much you can know,” I told him. “It’s not as easy as the note I left. And if you knew, you’d want to come, and you’d end up dead.”
“No, I’d asked you to train me, then the next day, in the morning, you were gone,” he said, the gravel in his throat was from sadness.
“Because the stuff you wanted, I couldn’t give you,” I told him, slamming my hands on the steering wheel.
“You were asking for a life we weren’t able to sustain.
And you decided to become—a criminal instead of going back to college.
” I wasn’t going to pull over, the police would be all over us for swerving.
“I hoped one day, I’d see your face in a business magazine. ”
Artemis leaned back in his chair and laughed. “You were breaking up with me?” he asked, still laughing.
“No, I was just telling you the two of us couldn’t do what you wanted,” I told him. “And I was offered a job I couldn’t turn down. And now, I’m here—”
“You could’ve taken me—”
“The entire team died,” I said, my eyes ahead now, my hands on the wheel as if I was being examined. “So, that would’ve included you. That would’ve meant you would be dead rather than right next to me, a dream, or a fucking nightmare, I can’t decide. Because you chose the nightmare path.”
“She called me,” he shouted. “Like as soon as I woke up, found the note, and cash.”
“Who?”
“Mercy.”
It was all quiet suddenly. I left and Mercy, who I’d told should watch over him—not interfere, to make sure he wasn’t doing anything dangerous, because he would, there was no stopping him. After the long pause, a loud gulp in my throat broke the silence. “What did she ask you to do?”
All quiet, Art was now being a moody brat. “Just that I wasn’t alone, and something about helping me.”
“She shouldn’t have said anything,” I snapped. “She was watching. I thought you were heading to Georgia. Wasn’t that on the google alert?”
He laughed. I swore someone was pumping the stuff in the van.
This was the first time we were in such an enclosed space—and neither of us could leave it so easily.
“I did,” he said. “Mercy practically walked me through it. Although it was some girl, I don’t know who.
Her name starts with an M, but it’s not Mercy. ”
“Marzia?”
“Yeah, her. Why?”
It didn’t make any sense. Marzia was Mercy’s wife.
She worked around Sanctum, but not in intel.
“What did the two of you talk about?” I was scared for the answer to this.
Marzia was an ex-assassin, forced to retire after their duo IVF plans didn’t seem to take in Mercy, but gave Marzia twins, so it all worked out. I respected Marzia for her work.
“She was coaching me.”
“Coaching you have to throw a punch or an arrow?”
He laughed. “Both,” he said. “I mean, she wasn’t there, but she was good at explaining stuff to me.
Like how you’re supposed to hold the knife at the bottom and let it be a fluid whip and flip moment, so it goes exactly where your straightened arm is pointing.
” He said it as if his mouth was the opening of a shredder and all the words were coming through whether I liked them or not.
“Still haven’t met her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not that I know. I’ve been training with you every day since I’ve been there. Maybe we’ve seen her.”
“What about her twin brother?”
“No, I—I don’t know, jeez.”
Jinksy came through the comms. “You know, you should know the people you’re working for. Plus I think Davide is an absolute cutie.”
“Davide?” Art shook his head. “Nope. I told you. The only people I’ve met have been people you brought by our breakfast table, and the two fairies—assistants—workers, oh my god.” He was getting flustered, shaking his head. “Why?
“You two might hit it off,” I said. “His name starts with D, and I know how much you love—”
“Guys,” Mercy’s voice came through the comms. “I heard about the incident. Delivery the product immediately. They’ll be paying extra for that. They only paid for the wash. I was doing this as a compliment, but not anymore.”
“On it, Mercy,” I said, revving the engine as it went faster.
“And Artemis, when you get back, it would be a pleasure to introduce you to my wife, Marzia, and maybe her brother. Since I know you and Donovan aren’t a good fit.”
I pulled the comms from my ear and almost bashed it to bits against the steering wheel.
In the corner of my eye, there was Artemis’s smiling face—fucking adorable, I hated it.
He should’ve gone to college, he should’ve left this behind him.
I was doing him a favor too, before he could change—and I might’ve made it worse.
“Have you told you how easy Davide is?” I asked.
“If you really wanna get off, go to him, he’ll probably already have a queue of twinkle toes at his door.
” I hated the person he was making me, jealous, angry, I was pissed off, and the only dick he was going to be near was mine.