by Logan Jacobs
“Alright, I’ll bite,” he sighed. “Tell me your information, and I’ll let you go.”
“There is a wedding happening in two weeks for the nephew of the mafia leader,” I informed him. “You and I both know the attendees will be mafia members, and I also know for a fact they plan to serve a boatload of alcohol in celebration of his marriage.”
“Where is this reception taking place? Miner’s Hall?”
I shook my head. “They knew holding the reception with that amount of alcohol would be too risky in their own district, so it’s being held at the theater in the Entertainment District.”
“And how do you know this?” the elf asked suspiciously.
“I’m friends with a few of the dancers in the theater,” I continued. “All I ask is that you don’t arrest any of the theater folk when you raid the dwarf party. My informant knows quite a lot about the black-market dealings in the area and if this partnership works out, maybe I’ll feed you more information in the future. I’ll leave a letter in the nook outside of this building with information on how to tell the mafia from the thespians.”
He nodded his head as his eyes gleamed. “We have ourselves a proper arrangement then.”
“Good,” I responded, “are we going with the usual screaming routine to get me out of here, or did you have something else in mind?”
The large elf before me grinned.
“You had better believe I will whip you until your flesh hangs off in irreparable pieces,” the captain bellowed at me.
“Very creative,” I whispered.
He answered with a wink as he gripped the back of my neck with his spindly fingers. Then he shoved me into the hall as I raised my hands in surrender.
“I swear it’ll never happen again!” I cried out.
“Yeah, yeah I’ve heard that one before you little sewer rat,” the captain raged as he shoved me out the back door. “Your friend said the same thing last week before I fileted him after he begged for mercy like any other human coward.”
I tumbled into the street and took off at a sprint across the cobblestones.
“Don’t you ever steal again, or I’ll have your head!” the corrupt elf threatened, and his voice faded as I escaped into the darkened streets.
Chapter 16 - Hagan
I swirled one of my last few glasses of wine from the stash I’d kept after the annoying human stole it for me. I’d honestly hoped Wade would have been killed during the extraction, but, much to my disdain, he returned. I didn’t even care much for Dar, and I wouldn’t have sent Penny if she hadn’t insisted they needed her help.
She was so much like her father and aunt it was unbelievable. I might have been the man who had Penny’s father and aunt killed those many years ago, but anyone who knew what I’d done was long dead. I made sure of that myself. I probably would have had her killed too, if I hadn’t had a thing for pixies.
I remembered the days I’d spent thieving and running from the law, but now I enjoyed women and nursed a drink while I had others do it for me. I wanted Wade dead, and soon I would get my way. I always got what I wanted, and everyone knew they would be next on my list if they questioned my orders.
This power fulfilled me, and it was the reason I had Penny’s family killed at the hands of the elves. They were well-liked and the Guild members would have chosen her father over me for next Guild leader. I hadn’t had a reason to have Penny’s aunt killed, but once I’d told her I wanted to fuck her, she’d given me a look of disdain I’d never forgotten.
The bitch deserved to die.
Both of them were better than me at everything, and I hated it. I wanted to have the power of the Guild in my back pocket, but Penny’s father continued to outshine me in every aspect of thievery.
I wanted to be leader of the halfling branch and had done everything in my power to make it so. I hadn’t wanted to serve a human rat for the rest of my life. I was a halfling, a superior breed, and Penny’s father needed a reminder he was nothing. A reminder that would soon be delivered to Wade by the members of the Thief’s Guild for his total disregard for my authority.
“Wade. Wade. Wade,” I grumbled over and over. It was his fault I wasn’t fucking Penny every night. She obviously had a thing for the human. Been that way for years even though I was the branch boss and should have been the one who she made her pretty eyes for. I should have been the one pumping her full of my juice every night. Not Wade. Her belly should have been ripe with my babies ten times already.
But fucking Wade had to be around. Penny didn’t even look at me. It was like I wasn’t the boss at all. It was always Wade this and Wade that with her. Hell, everyone in the Guild always talked about him as if I wasn’t even here.
Fucking humans. They all deserved to die. Halflings were the superior race. We did everything better, but then there was Wade, and no matter what job I threw at him, he just kept surviving. I should have let him rot in jail the few times he got nabbed, but each time I caught word Penny was going to try to break him out, and I didn’t want that to happen.
He needed to die already. Then she’d be done with him and move on to me. Where she belonged.
I lounged in my chair in the foyer of the Guild as I awaited my payment from the Guild members who were due to return at any moment. I looked at the clock on the wall, surprised no one had returned yet from their day of pickpocketing.
Suddenly, the back door flew open, and my best thief and most-trusted advisor, Wynn, waddled in.
Blood ran down his arms, and there was a gash that oozed red from the crown of his skull. He brushed the dark hair back from his eyes as he panted on the threshold, and his knuckles whitened where they grasped the edge of the doorway.
“The Dwarf Mafia attacked us, boss,” he explained. “They’re picking us off the street one by one. I escaped, but others weren’t so lucky. It was an orchestrated attack, boss.”
I knew it was Wade. I felt it deep within my bones and every fiber of my being screamed in agony as the bastard’s plan unfolded before me in Wynn’s few words. He went behind my back again and struck a deal with the leaders of the Dwarf Mafia.
First it was the orcs, then it was the dwarves. Who had he planned to recruit next? Centaurs? Imps? Pixies?
Maybe even the elves?
“That bloody scoundrel thinks he can best me,” I screamed as I chucked my wine glass against the wall. It broke into thousands of pieces as the liquid stained the faded yellowed paper blood-red.
“Wade, boss? You think he’s behind this?” Wynn questioned me.
“I know he’s behind this, ya fool,” I bellowed. “Why else would the damned Dwarf Mafia be after us, huh? I made a deal with ‘em years ago that they could kill any bastard who stole from ‘em and I wouldn’t hold it against ‘em! Why else do you think I gave Dar and Wade that tip their leader’s shop had a magic artifact. I wanted them dead, so it didn’t look like it was me hands that did it!”
“You set Wade up?” Wynn asked, and the halfling’s eyes blazed in the dim light of the foyer.
“Ya wanna argue with me about that right now?” I growled as I pulled a dagger from my belt.
“Naw, boss.” Wynn gulped as he waved his hands. “But, uhh, wadda ya wanna do?”
“What do I plan to do?” I fumed. “I plan to kill the big rat and pin his head to a bloody spire. I plan to feed his bloody body to them orcs. I plan to have him finished so he can never bother or steal from me pockets again. Double the bounty on Wade’s head.”
“I meant about the dwarves,” Wynn said as he gestured to his injured arm.
“I’m talking about Wade!” I shouted as I slammed my dagger hilt on the table.
“You’re offering sixty silvers?” Wynn questioned with an uncertain look. “Don’t you think that’s a bit much to kill a simple human?”
“I think as me advisor and best thief it’s not ya job to ask questions,” I hissed. “Tell the others and don’t come back until he’s dead or ya head will be next.”
&
nbsp; “Of course, boss, I’ll tell the others,” Wynn confirmed. Then he wiped at the blood on his face before he turned toward the back door.
I watched as he exited the Guild without another word. Wynn was just another thief on his way to fulfill my orders without a second thought. The way things were meant to be before I mistakenly took in the human rat after his farm burned to the ground.
I plopped back into my chair as I stared at the wine-stained wall before me. I wanted nothing more than for it to be Wade’s blood and to do it myself with one of the glass shards that littered the floor. I wanted his death to be as slow and painful as possible. I wanted to hear his terrified screams all the way from my seat in the foyer. I wanted his blood to run the rivers red, but most of all I wanted him dead.
And I wanted Penny to watch him die.
I stood and walked into my office as I pondered the best way to handle my unfortunate predicament. Wade had disappeared from the Guild’s halls and from the realm itself, but it was obvious he was still here. One of the boys told me he spotted the wretched human, but I hadn’t seen a reason why Wade would return to the place he’d betrayed. It irked me that he took something from the Guild right underneath our noses.
I sat behind my desk and rummaged through my drawers as I searched for something to make my dreams come true. I needed Wade’s blood spilled, but it was hard to do with piss poor help. I was too prideful to request the help of the Assassin’s Guild, and I never could if I wanted the other Guilds to respect me.
I also couldn’t talk to my boss. I’d only spoken with the woman once, behind a shadowed veil when I got promoted to boss of the Halfling District branch. Her voice had both aroused and terrified me, and she gave me simple instructions about delivering tithe payments and clear directions about staying in the Halfling District only. They didn’t want me messing with the other Guilds, or the dark voice on the other side of the curtain would mess with me.
The Guilds tended to fight with one another, but I’d worked out deals with all of the major players in the area to leave us alone through some unconventional methods. If I’d asked them to help me, they would have taken advantage of my weakness and encroached on my territory.
I would find a way to win some other way. I shuffled through the papers in my drawers until I came across what I’d searched for. Then I pulled out the intel I’d received from one of my spies in the elven capital about a magical artifact. I had thought it too risky of a venture at the time, but now I was desperate.
I drafted a letter to my spy, sealed it in an envelope, and then I poured myself another glass of elven wine. I planned to stay very drunk for the remainder of the evening before I headed over to Madame Rindell’s to experience all of the pleasures her girls offered.
I went back to the foyer, pulled aside the musty curtain, and gazed out into the darkened streets. There was little activity going on now that everyone had taken cover indoors to hide from the Dwarf Mafia. Cowards. I should go out there and show them how to deal with the dwarves. But then again, I was the boss, and it was my job to stay here and direct the troops.
I took a swig of wine, and I waited for one of my minions to return.
I hoped one of them would bring me Wade’s lifeless head.
Chapter 17
I lounged in a stack of moldy hay as I threw scrap pieces of meat to Azure. Suddenly, his ears perked up, and he let out an elated chirp as he stamped his feet upon the stone floor.
The door flew open, and Penny’s livid face became visible in the dimly lit doorway.
“Wade, did you make a deal with the Dwarves?” Penny hissed.
“Yeah, why?” I responded.
The pixie-sized thief stepped further into the stables, and I gaped as I took in her disheveled appearance. Penny’s ponytail was in disarray and her clothing was torn and bloodied in some places. I stood and walked over to her, but she held up a hand that stopped my advance.
“I saved your ass in the courtyard from Maldon and this is how you repay me? By sicking the Dwarf Mafia on the Guild?” she screamed. “It’s fucking chaos out there! More than half of our members are either missing or dead.”
“Shit,” I sighed. “I thought they were just going to go after Hag--”
“Well, they are going after everyone!” she snarled.
“I only did what had to be done to save myself and the business,” I responded calmly, but dread pooled in the pit of my stomach.
“I was just attacked on my way back to the Guild and had to fight the dwarven demons off me,” she said as she wiped dirt and grime from her face. “Did it ever occur to you what might happen to our other friends? I don’t know where Dar ran off to, but Thurgood and Basher? What about poor Selius? You and I both know he looked up to you, and now he’s probably dead because you needed to save your own damn ass. Have you given up all loyalty to the Guild?”
“Hagan put a hit out on me,” I growled at her as I grabbed her by her shoulders, “or did you forget that small detail? There is a bounty on my head for thirty silvers, and it’s not to capture me, no, it’s for my head. My dead and lifeless head. So yes, I’ve fucking given up my loyalty to Hagan and his fat lazy ass.”
“Hagan saved you when you were orphaned,” Penny argued. “You could have been indentured to the elves or homeless and starving on the streets, but he took you in. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“And how much money have I made him since then?” I asked with a scowl. “I don’t owe him a damn thing, and you don’t either.”
“The bounty has been raised to sixty silvers,” she said as she narrowed her green eyes at me, “so if your friends didn’t want you dead before, they sure as hell do now.”
“Hagan’s threat means nothing to me, but here,” I took my knife off my belt and handed it to her, “if you hate me so much and want this all to end, then take my head yourself. You can buy yourself a new outfit and a day at the salon with the coin you’ll earn yourself for giving him my head.”
Penny looked at the dagger, and a bright fire burned in her eyes.
Then she reached for it, and my heart caught in my throat.
She was quick though, so unbelievably quick, and before I could react she tossed the dagger over her head, and it rolled in the air a few times before it stuck in the wood of the doorway.
“I can’t do it,” Penny murmured as she stepped away from me, “but I can’t be near you right now either.”
“I’m sorry they hurt you,” I called out to her.
Penny looked back at me with pursed lips. “None of this is my blood.”
My body chilled at the thought, and then she left me with only Azure and my thoughts to keep me company for the rest of the evening.
I spent the remainder of the week after my run-in with Penny producing whiskey for the dwarf wedding. Dar had survived the mafia raid on the Guild members, and he appeared at the stables the next day. Apparently, he’d hidden out in a brothel while the mafia took care of business on the streets.
“Dar, I have a plan to take down the mafia, but I’ll need you and Penny’s help,” I told him.
Dar narrowed his eyes at me from his spot on the hay.
“What do you mean take down the mafia?” Dar questioned. “I thought you said you were using them to distribute the whiskey? How are we supposed to get paid if you take out our distributors?”
“I’m not taking all of them out, just a lot of them, and I’m sure their leader will make it out unscathed,” I explained. “I’m supplying his nephew’s wedding with barrels of whiskey in two weeks at the theater, and while that’s happening, we will sneak the rest of the barrels out of here and take them to his shop before the elves arrive.”
Dar’s lips twitched into a sly grin. “You dog. And I’ll bet you want me to fill Penny in on this plan,” he said as he gestured to the knife still impaled into the wooden stall door.
“Even if I wanted to find Penny, I doubt she’d let me get close enough to talk to her,” I sighed. “She’d
be halfway up the side of an unscalable building before I even had a chance to say ‘hello.’”
I hadn’t meant for my stunt with the dwarves to involve her or Dar, but it was something that had to be done. I should have warned them, but then again, the dwarves never told me what they planned to do.
“Well, she was pretty pissed at you for what you did,” Dar laughed, “but between us, I think it was brilliant. Hagan never saw it coming.”
“What’s so funny, boys?” Cimarra asked as she stepped over the threshold into the stables. The dancer’s hair flowed in luscious raven black waves that cascaded over her shoulders, and her sunshine-colored dress shimmered beneath the lantern light. It hugged her curves in all the right places, and it showed off the long muscles of her perfect body.
Dar and I both gaped as she entered, and our tongues became tied in a series of knots as Cimarra cast us under her spell with her beauty.
“Well?” the dancer purred as she approached us, and then she bent down to pet Azure. The dragon really liked the dancer, and he wagged his long tail like a puppy whenever she gave him any affection.
Kind of like what I did when the beautiful dancer gave me any affection.
“I’ll, uh, I’ll go and tell Penny for you. Alright, Wade?” Dar mumbled as he stood and left Cimarra and I alone in the stables with the baby dragon.
“Azure, come here and lay down, boy,” I ordered as I patted the straw next to me, and the dragon hopped over, spun in a circle, laid down, and was instantly asleep.
“I have a proposition to make.” I stood and brushed the hay off my clothes, but I would never compare to the well-groomed woman before me.
“Oh, do you?” Cimarra answered as she trailed a seductive finger over my chest. “Does this have to do with the dwarf wedding reception?” Her diamond eyes glimmered, and I swallowed and grabbed her hand before it could make its way any lower past the hem of my pants.
“Yep,” I said as I pulled her body flush with mine. “I’m going to need you to help me with a set up.”