Chapter 13 Ransom
RANSOM
The noise of the grinder squeals through the garage as I hold it steady, cutting through the metal of the frame on the car. Sparks fly, and I’m grateful for my goggles, keeping the worst of it back from my face.
When I cut through the connection, Malice yanks on one end, pulling it away and separating out the parts.
The whole time, I can feel eyes on us, and it makes my shoulders climb up toward my ears.
I force myself to take a breath and relax my posture, but this shit is so irritating. I can tell from the look on Malice’s face that he’s not thrilled about it either, but there’s not much we can do.
Work is work these days, and we need the money.
The guy who brought us this car to chop is some kind of low-level criminal.
Scum, basically, and not the kind of person we’d normally do business with.
Most likely, he was sloppier with the theft of this car than someone more professional, and that means there are more chances he could lead the cops right to us if they decide to investigate.
But work has been so lean lately that we’ve been strapped, and we need cash on hand more than ever these days. If we’re gonna be able to protect Willow from her grandmother, then we need some resources.
We can’t even dream of the kind of resources Olivia has, so we need all we can get.
It doesn’t help that the ratty little fucker who brought the car in insisted on hanging around to watch the work. “I wanna make sure I’m getting my money’s worth,” he’d said, and Malice had almost decked him right then and there.
I was able to calm him down with a look, but the longer this dude has been standing there, watching us work, the more I wish I’d just let Malice go off.
“There might be a lot more where this came from,” the guy is saying.
His eyes dart around, but it doesn’t even seem like he’s looking at anything in particular.
“Buddy of mine has a buddy who’s a valet.
” He waggles his eyebrows significantly.
“Lots of fancy cars left overnight in weird places, you know? You know?”
Malice ignores him, focusing on the job, and I nod, just to acknowledge him before I fire the tools back up again, thanking fuck for the sound drowning out this dude’s voice.
Finally, over an hour later, we finish with the car. The guy hands over a stack of bills, and then he and his buddy load the parts up into another car.
I flip through the money as they head out, counting the stack. It was a lower rate than what a job like that probably deserved, but we got paid, so that’s all that matters.
“Fuck,” Malice groans, mashing the button to close the garage door. “I thought that fucker was never gonna leave.”
“We need a new policy,” I mutter. “Drop it off and we’ll call you when it’s done.”
“We need better fucking clients. Not greasy little rat fucks, who are likely to get us arrested one of these days,” Malice fires back.
I shrug and give him a look. “Right now, we have to work with what we’ve got.”
Malice rolls his eyes and pushes open the door between the garage and our living space. I follow him, moving into the kitchen and washing my hands in the sink.
Vic comes down a second later with his laptop, settling at the kitchen table. “Ransom,” he says, and I roll my eyes.
“I know, I know. I’m cleaning it up.”
I grab a towel and wipe up all the grimy water that splashed on the counter, giving Vic a look as I hang the towel back in place.
He just arches an eyebrow and looks back to his computer.
“We got another message from X,” he says.
As if this fucking day couldn’t get more annoying.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Malice demands. “We just finished doing shit for this bitch.”
“I know,” Vic says. “It’s bullshit, but it’s clear she’s trying to prove a point. And it’s not like we can argue with her about it. Not yet anyway.”
Malice grumbles and then so does my stomach.
I open up the snack cabinet, the one that Malice and I share because Vic thinks we’re slobs. I rummage through it, looking for the crackers that I like, but the box is gone.
“Did you eat all my fucking crackers?” I ask, turning to glare at Malice.
“I bought the damned things,” Malice says, shrugging. “So yeah, I had a few.”
“You bought them because I asked for them. And you had more than a few. The box was half full last week.”
Malice just shrugs again, and I glance at Vic.
“Don’t look at me,” he says, not even glancing away from his laptop.
“Vic. My favorite brother. The best of us.” I lay it on thick, batting my lashes even though he’s not looking at me. “Do you have any crackers?”
“I might,” he says. “Because unlike the two of you, I keep track of what I have and don’t eat like I’m afraid the food is going to disappear if I don’t get it in my stomach fast enough.”
“Hey, that’s mostly just Malice,” I shoot back. “Can I please have some of your crackers? I’ll replace them. I promise.”
Vic rolls his eyes. “I’ve heard that before.”
“I really will this time! I’ve had a hard day, Vic. And all I really want is some of those garlic crackers with some cheese spread. Please?”
“Just eat something else,” Malice suggests. He grabs an apple from the bowl on the counter and doesn’t even bother to wash it before dropping into one of the kitchen chairs and biting into it with a decisive crunch. “We’ve got plenty of snack shit.”
“If you spray apple juice on my laptop, I’m going to kick your ass,” Vic says calmly to Malice. “You can have some crackers, Ransom. Just take a whole sleeve.”
“See?” I say, pointing at Malice. “This is why Vic is my favorite brother.”
Malice just rolls his eyes and takes another big bite. “I don’t give a fuck.”
Under Vic’s watchful eye, I take a sleeve of the crackers and then make sure to fold the box lid down the way he likes it before putting the box back where it was. Vic nods, and I grin before grabbing the cheese spread and sitting down at the table with them.
“What made today so hard?” Vic asks. “Was there a problem with the job?”
“Not with the job—”
“With the fucking idiot who brought the car in,” Malice chimes in. We fill Vic in on what happened and how much we got paid, and he sighs.
“We used to charge more for shit like that.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “I thought about that too. But with how things are right now…”
He nods. “Any money is better than nothing.”
“It fucking sucks,” Malice grumbles. We all kind of nod at that because he’s right. This isn’t where any of us wanted to be, and having to take shit jobs just to try to stay on top of things is dangerous as well as annoying.
I shrug a shoulder though, leaning back in my chair. “We’ve been through worse, and we’ve always figured it out. We can do that again.”
Malice nods, his face set into determined lines. “Yeah, we can. And even with all this shit we’re up against, it’s worth it.”
I know without him having to say it that he’s talking about Willow. He only gets that look in his eye when he’s talking about her.
The same spark I see in his face lights in my chest. “You’re right. It’s definitely worth it.”
I smile a little, memories of this morning playing in my head for a second. And last night too.
I can see Willow, bent over the couch, taking my cock and begging for more, taking everything I could give her.
She’s so fucking responsive, arching into every touch, coming undone so easily under my hands and my cock.
Somehow, she’s still so sweet, after everything that’s happened to her… and that’s still happening to her.
And her sweetness is edged with something wicked, something delicious that gives her a good girl/bad girl dynamic, and it’s intoxicating. Both of those sides of her are real and truly her, and she’s the brightest light in any room she’s in.
At this point, I’m beyond addicted to her. That was a good word for it at first, for the way I craved being around her, but now it’s so much more than that.
More than addiction. Something deeper.
I’m falling for her, and I know it. All the way down to my soul.
Malice catches my eye and we share a look. It feels like he can guess the direction of my thoughts the same way I figured out his a second ago, but that’s not weird. Willow is on all of our minds a lot these days.
Vic nods his agreement too. “It’s worth it. No matter what, it will be worth it.”
There’s a soft ping from his laptop, and it draws his attention back to the screen. The new message we got from X earlier today must be finished decrypting.
“What’s the damage?” I ask, already feeling unease settling in the pit of my stomach.
X’s jobs have always had a level of risk to them, but knowing what we know now, there’s no way Olivia’s going to be content with sending us on fetch quests and sabotage missions for too much longer. It just doesn’t seem to be her style.
Vic’s eyes move rapidly as he scans the message, and when worry flashes across his face, the feeling of dread in my gut kicks up a notch.
“It’s another job,” he says, stating the obvious. “But this one’s just for Malice.”