Chapter Eleven
Matteo
“Tell me again why we are stalking this prick instead of just going and getting the job done?” I ask Ryker
“Damon said to get more intel first,” Ryker says as he watches this huge suburban house. It looks like a mini version of the white house. My grandfather's Buick blends right in with the rest of these old fuck’s cars.
“What do you know about this guy anyway?”
“Not much. Sawyer told me a little and what he told me wasn’t anything good, so he deserves what is coming to him,” he smirks. Sometimes I forget that Ryker is younger than all of us. At first glance, he doesn’t look like he belongs in our group, but he’s a cool-ass dude.
“Are you ready for your first killing?” I ask. Ryker hasn’t gone in with us to any of the jobs. I knew he would
eventually, but I didn’t think it would be with just me. I don’t mind doing solo jobs, but I have to be careful after getting caught with those douchebag college guys.
“ Definitely,” he says in an eager voice.
“Be careful, you're starting to sound like me,” I smirk.
“Hopefully Damon doesn’t make us wait too long. This guy has been on our radar for a while,” I add.
“ How do you guys find these guys?” Ryker asks .
“Mainly Sawyer, but you’d be surprised how many of them give us the names of others. It's crazy to think that most of the time they're connected in some way. Think of it as a ball of endless yarn. You keep pulling thinking you're getting closer to the end, but it just keeps going. That’s how it is with these types of people.”
“A ball of yarn? You couldn’t think of anything else to use as an analogy?” Ryker laughs.
I punch him in the shoulder. “What's wrong with yarn?”
“I didn’t think you would even know what yarn was.
You don’t seem like the knitting type,” he smirks.
“My gran used to knit and may have shown me a bit of it.” I watch Ryker’s expression change to shock. “You better not say a word to the guys. I don’t need you going around broadcasting that I know how to knit,” I added firmly.
Ryker shakes his head. “There is a whole other person under you isn’t there.”
“What about you? There isn’t a hidden talent that you can do?” I push. Ryker looks like he is thinking and finally answers with the most generic answer.
“ I can cook,” he shrugs.
“ So can 80% of the population.”
“ No, I mean I can really cook. I like cooking from
scratch. My parents paid for a cooking class when I was a kid and I was convinced that I was going to be a chef when I grew up.”
“How did that work out for you,” I laugh. Ryker nudges my shoulder and tilts his head in the direction of the house. A short man walks out of the house and heads straight for the Porsche 911. I look back down at the picture of Max Penfield and back at this barely five-foot-tall man.
“ I didn’t think he was that short. This will be easy,” I
say.
“ How can you know that just from his height? Short
people can be crazy as hell,” Ryker says. We watch him whip the car out of the driveway and peel away. We wait a few seconds before pulling away from the curb and following him. It feels weird to be the driver for once. Ryker said he needed to be careful borrowing cars from his father. I get where he is coming from. His dad is some fancy senator and his cars would set off alarms if someone got the plate number.
“Where do you think he is going?” Ryker asks.
“Hopefully somewhere fun. This stalking outside his house shit is boring. I’d rather be drinking and fucking,” I
smirk. I turn the corner that takes us into the city. He whips in and out of traffic and I follow him just a few paces behind. No one is going to be suspicious of an old Buick Regal.
He turns again and pulls in front of a bar called Alchemy. It's one of the fancier bars in the city. We have
Frank’s which I am probably banned from now, and Midnight Mass, which is in between both when you compare the audience it gets. We pull to the curb down the street but still have a perfect view of the club entrance. Max walks up to the bar and the bouncers let him right in.
“Looks like we're going to have some fun tonight after all,” I smirk.
“Remember we need to stay invisible. We’re working Matteo,” Ryker says in a motherly tone.
“Come on sport, I’ll show you what true fun is.” I wrap my arm around his shoulder as we walk to the bar .
“First off, don’t ever call me sport again or I’ll tell the guys that you knit in your room while watching porn and that’s what they hear instead of your sex escapades with who knows who.”
I can’t help the laugh that rolling out of me. I don’t
think the guys would believe Ryker even if he did decide to tell them. Ryker may be the youngest out of us, but he comes in handy sometimes. Especially tonight for this reason right here. He is the perfect demographic for this bar. I belong over at Frank’s, but Ryker is like a free pass into Alchemy.
We walk through the front doors and music blares around us. I look at Ryker and he nods before moving to the other side of the bar. I walk up to the bartender and order a drink. As I scan the people in the crowd, I down my drink. I spot Ryker across the dance floor and we make eye contact. He narrows his eyes and nods toward the center of the dance floor.
I follow his eyes and see little Max Penfield surrounded by women. I don’t see the appeal in him besides his family having money. He reminds me of Lord Farquaad from the movie Shrek. I try not to laugh when I make the connection. The guys would give me shit if they found out I watched a kid’s movie. Granted it was when I visited my gram back when she was kicking in the nursing home.
Maybe Ryker is right and there is another person under my rough exterior. It’s not like I hide who I am. What you see is what you get. I am the best of both worlds, but I’m not interested in sharing both sides with anyone. I don’t mind being alone, especially when I get to have fun with fucks like Max. He has no idea what is in store for him when we get our hands on him. He’ll wish he was never born by the time I’m done with him.