Chapter 8 #2
When I look as well, I notice Fallow seems… off. He’s been weird the whole drive back, but now he looks visibly prickly. I’m not sure why, but he’s eyeing up Savage like he’s a threat, even though there’s a dozen other guys around here who look exactly the same.
“Can we talk?” he asks.
I turn to walk toward the room that doubles as my office, not that I’m doing a lot of paperwork. I can feel Sav following behind me as well as Fallow, and I’m hit by a wave of curiosity about how these two will interact.
I’m the first one to step into the room, then Sav, but before Fallow can enter Sav starts to close the door between them.
Fallow catches it with his hand, and even though neither of them has said anything to the other yet, the air between them is suddenly crackling with tension. Not the sexy kind, either.
“Alone,” Sav snaps.
I can’t help but let out a soul-deep sigh.
“Look, it’s a long story but believe me when I say there’s no point trying to keep him out. He’ll either tunnel in here if he wants to or walk away to go cause chaos somewhere else. I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on him, which means we’re joined at the hip for a while.”
Sav looks between us, laconic as always, but mistrust clear in his expression.
“Who is he?” he asks.
“Who the fuck are you, cunt?” Fallow snaps back, testy for absolutely no reason.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I say, before things can escalate.
Sav is already bristling. “Clearly, this is my fault. Sav, this is Fallow. Yes, that Fallow. He’s also old man Murphy’s son…
or something. Pet psychopath. I don’t really know.
But I’m responsible for him right now, so he’s here.
He does not care for making literally anything easier for me.
Fallow, this is Savage, who used to be in line for my job but now is a civilian.
A fucking secret civilian, supposedly, so I don’t know why he’s drawing attention to himself by showing up here, but I guess we’ll find out if you two can stop fucking glaring at each other for no reason. ”
The words come out in a tumble, and by the time I’m finished and gesturing them both into the room, everyone seems to relax a fraction.
They move far enough inside that I’m able to close the door at least, which I slam, because I know the other guys are probably eavesdropping right now and I have zero goddamn patience for it.
I take a second to walk over to the desk, take another deep breath, and then lean back against it before speaking.
“Sav. How can I help you?”
He keeps staring at Fallow instead of answering, his brow furrowed and his thick arms crossed to make all that muscle pop.
It takes me clearing my throat before he looks at me again.
“I don’t mean to be an alarmist, but you should seriously consider getting out of town,” he says. “Just for a minute, until all this cools down.”
I raise an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue.
He works at a bar now and spends all his spare time at home with his boyfriend, so I don’t know how he’s gotten information about the underworld before me.
But I guess stranger things have happened, and I’m seeing more and more that the guys I have working for me are fucking incompetent.
“Everyone at the Feral Possum has been keeping their ears open. Y’know, for my sake.
They’re all pretty straight—” he pauses, frowning, “—you know what I mean. They’re clean.
But it’s a small town and everybody knows someone who knows someone.
Turns out Kasia has an old friend that relapsed recently and spent a little time bumping rails with the Brotherhood in between running back to Kasia to dry out.
She showed up today and started running her mouth about how they’re all gearing up for something big, and she got kicked out.
I happened to be there, asked a couple of questions, and it sounds like you are now their favorite fucking enemy.
I don’t know what you did, but they’re pissed and they’re gunning for you. ”
It takes a minute for the words to sink in. I’m not surprised, I guess, but for all the bluster between our two organizations, we rarely go to a lot of effort to actually hurt each other. Who has the time? Drugs won’t sell themselves.
“I know we’ve talked about this before, but are you sure you and Micah won’t leave town? I get that they’re pissed at me right now, but this all started with you and I don’t think they’re going to let it go.”
He sighs.
“I know. But Micah doesn’t want to leave his job or his mom, and I’m not convinced it would make a difference.
If they want to come for me, they will. I think the reason they haven’t is because they care more about talking about it than actually getting it done.
They treat me like the goddamn boogie man. ”
“I guess, man. Whatever you want. But I’m not running, either.”
“Actually,” Fallow says, reminding me that he’s been remarkably silent this whole time.
“Maybe you should go. You promised to keep me safe, remember? Well, I’m going to California, so if you don’t want me to die on the way and take the blame for it, you should probably come be my knight in shining armor. ”
He says it with no particular inflection, dropping all the playfulness from earlier in the day. But that doesn’t stop Sav from clocking that it’s a weird thing to say and flicking his gaze between us a few times.
I’m too distracted by the other thing to get annoyed, though.
“Why the fuck are you going to California?” I ask him, trying to remember if he mentioned this already.
“To investigate your human trafficking issue.”
Fallow drops the sentence like it’s the most natural answer in the world, and I’m getting a fucking headache.
Sav frowns, and I bring a hand up to rub at my temples.
“Why, why, why are you doing that? I didn’t ask you to do that, and I’m pretty sure that it was only an hour ago you said you didn’t give a flying fuck about Banna business.”
Fallow shrugs, but the lightness from this morning is still gone.
“What can I say? I’m capricious. And I don’t like kidnappers. You’re clearly not doing a very good job of getting to the bottom of it, so I might as well take over.”
He’s lying. I don’t know how I know, but I do.
“So, you want to fly to California—with me—to chase down Kaitlyn’s random contact in person and ask them about this human trafficking rumor. Have I got that right?”
Fallow wrinkles his nose and shakes his head while I focus on not finding it adorable.
“No way. Flying leaves a paper trail. We’ll have to drive.”
I can’t keep the look of shock from my face.
“That’s like thirty hours of driving! It’ll take days.”
He shrugs. “I can drive, you know, I have many talents. We can split it. Couple days to get there, tops. And it’ll keep you out of sight until whatever this is—” he circles his hand between me and Sav, “—settles down.”
Sav is still watching us both, clearly sucked into the dynamic even if he doesn’t fully understand it. I always knew he was secretly a fucking gossip. He’s loving this behind his impassive expression, I can tell.
I don’t know how to say what I need to in front of him, though.
“Are you sure this isn’t…. about something else?” I ask lamely.
Fallow rolls his eyes.
“Shut the fuck up, as if I need to create a whole scenario for that,” he says, which is too close to the truth for comfort.
My cheeks heat, and I steal a quick glance at Sav to remind us both he’s still in the room.
“I’m going. And I don’t need your help, but you do make an excellent driver, and it might be helpful to have a second pair of hands if I have to kill a lot of people very quickly when we get there. Just in case. Come on, what the fuck are you needed here for?”
“Ouch. Hit me where it hurts, why don’t you?”
The words come out dry, but they’re closer to the truth than I want them to be.
I’m not sure if I am doing jack fuck here, or what the point of it all is, if I’m being honest with myself.
But I don’t have a lot of other career opportunities and Sav’s escape from this lifestyle wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t the boss’s son, so the rest of us better make the best of what we’ve got.
I barely stop myself from sighing out loud. At least Fallow makes things interesting. He’ll probably get me killed, but what does that really matter?
Sometimes it feels like I’m wasting away here trying to manage a bunch of idiots to commit not very serious crimes. I owe this organization my life, but that doesn’t make it any more interesting.
Fallow’s interesting. He’s not just a croissant; he’s a whole fucking birthday cake.
“Fuck it,” I say out loud, before the thought’s even coalesced in my head. “Let’s go. Beats waiting around here to die, I guess.”
There’s a long pause. Fallow has a ghost of a smile on his face, but not as much as I was expecting. He still seems preoccupied. And Sav is staring at us both in open interest at this point.
“Well,” he says. “I guess my work here is done.”
He turns toward me and grabs my shoulder in a familiar gesture. I’m still facing Fallow, so I can see the minute way that his expression tightens at the contact.
“Try not to die, brother. Let me know when you’re back. And good luck with whatever this is.”
He gestures at Fallow but doesn’t say anything to him before letting himself out of the office.
“Who was that?” Fallow asks, more pissy sounding than I expected.
“I already told you that,” I snap at him. “Why, jealous?”
He snorts, then turns to leave himself in a movement I can only describe as flouncing. But still unbearably sexy.
I cannot survive a road trip with this person. None of this makes any sense, but I already know fighting it would be a losing battle.
Fallow seems to always get whatever Fallow wants, and right now he wants to drag me along in his wake, apparently.