Chapter 24
FORREST
"What did you do?" I asked Woody as he strode out of the corridor, looking smug as fuck, which for him was saying something.
"Nothing." He flopped back down in his chair and picked up his glass to down the rest of his beer.
"Where's Sable?" Leif demanded.
"She's right there," Woody said as she stepped out of the corridor, combing her fingers through her hair.
I gave him a glance before standing, waiting for her to approach the table. "Is everything okay?"
It was her turn to look smug as she glanced at Woody, then back at me.
"Everything's fine." She lowered herself back in her chair.
I exchanged looks with Leif and shook my head. He was trying to hold back a laugh.
I sat back down, not sure if I should be furious with Woody or not. Sable could do what she wanted but the idea of those two alone? Woody had already proven I couldn't trust him around her. Someday, maybe. Today? Absolutely not.
I'd wait at least a week after he tried to kill her before I reconsidered that stance.
"So you two are getting along?" Leif asked teasingly.
"I wouldn't say that," Sable said. Except the skin around her mouth was red, as if it had been stretched recently.
My cock twitched. I wanted to feel her mouth around me. And I would, when the time was right.
Was I jealous Woody fucked her mouth first? Not really. Disconcerted, yes. But not jealous. Life was too short for that sort of sentiment. Mostly I was irritated to think what might have happened in there while they were unaccompanied. Why hadn't he acted?
Presumably her mouth was too much of a distraction for him to take advantage of the fact they were out of sight.
"We should get out of here," I said, waving for the server to bring over the check. He nodded and hurried to get things sorted.
"Does this mean you two are involved too?" Apparently Leif wasn't ready to let the conversation go just yet.
"Hardly," Sable said with a laugh. "We hate each other, remember?"
I grunted softly, recalling my words to her about the fine line between love and hate. Not to mention lust and hate. That was all this was, wasn't it? Physical attraction. Need.
What if it wasn't? That was up to them to work out. They might be cute together. Almost as cute as me and her. Her and Leif were relatively adorable as well if I had to admit it.
"Do you want to see our lair?" Leif asked.
"You have a lair?" Sable raised her eyebrows and smiled at me.
"Yes, Judgeman and his sidekicks have somewhat of a lair," I admitted.
Her smile widened. "If you're Judgeman, what does that make them? Designerman and Prickman?"
"Sounds about right," Woody said, pushing the glass away from himself. "I want to be known for the size of my cock."
Sable laughed. "It's because you are a big cock, Prickman."
He glared at her. "Same thing."
"I think I'd prefer to be called Leatherman," Leif said. "Which brings me back to our lair."
He stood and offered her his arm before I could. She took it and they started out of the restaurant, leaving Woody and I to catch up. That is to say, stroll along behind them because neither of us would trot. Me in particular. I had a reputation to maintain. I needed to be dignified in public.
Scurrying was definitely not dignified.
"How far away is this lair?" Sable asked.
"Not far," Leif was saying, leaning in so they were walking shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. "It's down at the end of this block. Forrest owns the building."
"Forrest owns half the street," Woody said.
"I own one building," I reminded him. What would I do with half a street anyway?
"Close enough," Woody said. "You own more than we do. Lucky for me my cock is bigger than yours."
"In your dreams," I told him. Honestly, I didn't care if his was. I knew what to do with mine. Could he stay the same? No doubt he thought he could. He had arrogance to spare.
"In your dreams," Woody said, looking at me from beneath his eyebrows.
"I can safely say I've never dreamed about the size of your cock," I said.
"No, he's too busy dreaming about the size of mine," Leif said over his shoulder.
"Not yours either," I said.
These men were like brothers to me. We could be related, they were as out of their minds as I was. Probably more so. How long was it since I flinched when I saw someone die in front of me?
Had I ever flinched? I might have the first time. It got easier after that.
I wasn't sure when I started to feel nothing but satisfaction and a hint of arousal. The guilt was long gone. The things Bob, and people like him, did kept that at bay. When people discovered he was gone, they'd celebrate, even if it was only a moment in their own minds. Justice was served at last.
"Are you sure about this?" Woody said, keeping his voice low, so Leif and Sable couldn't hear. "Showing her our space."
"Why wouldn't I be sure?" I asked. "Seems to me like you showed her a lot more than space back there."
"It was spontaneous," he said, as if still trying to get his head around it. "She wanted to."
"Of course she did. You wouldn't have done it otherwise." He was dubious as hell, but he'd never force himself on anyone. Not to mention, Sable would have called out if he tried. Leif and I would have been by her side in a heartbeat.
"No, I wouldn't," he agreed. "I still think this is a bad idea. Can we trust her?"
"We have to," I said. "She was there with us tonight, when we dealt with Bob."
"I know," he said darkly. "What if she goes to the cops?"
"She won't," I said. "If she does, it'll be her word against ours. Who do you think will be believed?"
Woody considered that for a moment before nodding. "Not her."
"Exactly," I agreed, although I hated the reality.
She could tell them in great detail exactly what we did and it would be dismissed. Why? Because I had influence and power and Leif was a celebrity.
And because we were men.
"We won't give her any reason to say anything to anyone," I said. "But I know she won't. She's in this as deep as we are. Her reasons are probably better than ours. She knows how it feels to be on the receiving end."
"Because of my father," Woody said his gaze boring into the back of her.
"You understand she was the victim, don't you?" I said. "You need to stop blaming her for what happened. It was all on him." Everything he did. The actions were all his. Part of me wished he wasn't dead so I could kill him myself. Better yet, so Sable could kill him.
Would she have done it? Not before but now, having seen us kill Bob, something changed in her like a switch was flipped.
If she was going home to Wolfgang tonight, I wasn't sure he'd last until dawn.
Woody started to say something but I held up a hand.
"You saw the evidence Archer gave you and you're still questioning?"
He exhaled long and slow his shoulders slumping. "I don't know what to think. He was still my father."
"Only by blood. He was never there for you when you needed him." I should be careful what I said. I wasn't there for my own sons either. Not through any fault of mine. That is to say, I could have tried harder, but their mother didn't give me many opportunities.
Should I have pushed? Yes, but I didn't and I'd live with that regret for the rest of my life. We had time to make up for. I was doing the best I could, whenever they let me.
"I should have killed him," Woody said "If I knew what he was like. If I'd met her before."
"You didn't know about her?"
"Not really," Woody said with a sigh. "I heard something about him getting married, but I didn't pay any attention. He and I, we didn't have much time for each other. He didn't invite me to the wedding." He didn't sound too bitter about it.
"Would you have gone if he had?" I absently toyed with my phone in my pocket.
He looked over at me. "I don't know. Maybe. I might have told her to walk away."
"She didn't marry him because she wanted to," I said. "She was forced into it by her parents."
"Sounds like her parents are gems like mine," he said sarcastically. "Should we be focusing our attention on them next?"
Which loosely translated to, 'should we kill them?'
"Tempting as that is, no," I said. "I haven't found any evidence of wrongdoing, apart from pushing her into that marriage. They seemed to be absent for the most part. Busy traveling the world, going to parties, shit like that."
"They probably still deserve to have their throats cut," he said.
"If you're not careful, I'll start to think you care," I teased.
He snorted. "Hardly. I hate assholes, that's all."
"Me too," I said. "I'll keep an eye on them. If I find anything to suggest they hurt her or anyone else, you can make them bleed."
"Hell yeah," he said, punching the air.
"This is it," Leif was saying from up ahead. He pulled out his set of keys to unlock the door that led down to the basement. Flipping on the switch, he started inside. Sable followed.
"I still think this is a bad idea," Woody said.
"Noted." I gestured for him to go first, and closed the door behind us, making sure it was locked.
We didn't need anyone to get curious and wander off the street, wondering what we were doing inside. You know what they say about curiosity killing. I didn't want to have to end the life of someone innocent but nosy.
"This is very lair-like," Sable said, glancing around as we passed through a corridor and down a set of stairs.
"I keep my Batman costume in a room off to the side," Leif said jokingly.
Woody grunted a laugh. "As if you're fucking Batman."
Leif turned around. "Why can't I be?"
"For one thing, you're not rich enough," Woody said. "Batman was a billionaire."
"I might be an aspiring billionaire," Leif said with a shrug. He turned away and showed Sable the room at the end of the corridor.
Bob lay on a table in the centre. The blood on his throat was now dry. His skin already waxy.
"This is where we deal with the remains," Leif said. "You might not want to watch that bit."
I leaned against the wall while he showed her the incinerator and a room where we kept our knives and other implements. Sometimes we needed something bigger than a small switchblade.
For some reason, Woody insisted on a chainsaw, which hung off the wall. To my knowledge, he'd never used it, not to kill anyone anyway.
Leif had a space for a rocket launcher, but it was empty and would probably stay that way. What the hell would we do with a rocket launcher anyway? I suspected it was his fantasy, that was all. Since the space wasn't needed for anything else, it was easy enough to indulge him.
Mostly the room contained knives and guns.
"You know how to use all of these things?" Sable asked, turning a slow circle as she looked at them all.
"I know how to use all the weapons," Woody said, clearly not just referring to the ones in this room. He was about as subtle as the chainsaw.
She smirked at him. "If you say so."
"I do say so," Woody said. "You weren't complaining when I was fucking your mouth."
"I was a bit too busy to talk," she said. She picked up a knife from one of the shelves and held it up in front of her, letting the light glint off the blade.
"We can teach you how to use them if you want," I offered.
"We could practice on Woody," Leif said cheerfully.
Woody flipped him off. "I volunteer Leif as a tribute."
"You can't do that," Leif argued, but he was still smiling.
"No one's going to be practicing on anyone here," I said. "There's plenty of other people in the city to practice on. Rule number one," I added, taking the knife from her hand. "We be careful who we use these on. We make sure they're guilty. Then we dispense justice."
I placed the knife back on the shelf.
"Have you told Woody that?" she asked, giving him the side eye.
"Several times and I'll keep telling him," I said. "Killing innocent people isn't in our mission statement,"
"Forrest objects to killing for fun," Woody said.
"Yes, I do," I agreed. "Killing isn't fun." After a moment, I corrected myself. "Killing isn't just fun. It has to have a purpose. Killing innocent people serves no good purpose."
"Unless they're not really innocent," Woody said. "You know what they say about prevention being better than cure."
"The rules remain unchanged," I said coolly. "Don't make me use a knife on you."
He smirked.
Leif led Sable from the room to finish the tour.