I shook my head again. “I had my eyes covered for most of it,” I confessed.
“Consider yourself fortunate,” she said, still shaking her own head in amazement. “Who knew the big, gay teddy bear had it in him, huh?”
I stared at her for a moment. “I’d imagine anyone who stopped to look at him would know that he had it in him, Candy. Have you ever stopped to look at him? He looks like he could carry a truck like it was a toy!”
“Yeah, well, whatever,” she said with a shrug. “All’s I know is that if that man wasn’t gay I’d let him to play Wiffleball with me.”
“I heard that,” Danny said as he walked by us. I noticed with no small amount of shock and disgust that he was using a grease rag that he normally kept in his back pocket to wipe blood off his hands. “An’ I still ain’t interested, ya skanky whore!”
“ONLY ‘CAUSE YOU CAN’T AFFORD ME, YOU FATASS FAGGOT!” Candy screamed after him.
I could only stare after the two, astonished at how, only a few moments after such an insane display of aggression and violence had ensued following words like “whore” and “faggot,” these two could casually throw them around as playfully as they were.
This, however, I was forced to chalk up as the nature of the company I kept.
And they call Jace crazy, I thought with a smirk.
****
We continued through the factory and I wondered if Liam was the only person we were going to be dealing with.
It was a pleasant, almost peaceful thought, and one that was quickly laid to rest.
As if on cue, right before I was about to suggest to the others that we head back, the room burst into a bright light as a series of fluorescents screamed to life above us. Squinting against the glare, I looked around and saw the silhouettes of six more men circling the factory around us. Along with the half-dozen surrounding us, I spotted another man occupying the balcony above us, seeming to recreate the dominant role that the one called Liam had taken.
Doubt this one will be so quick to come down, though, I thought.
“I kinda liked that guy,” the man said, glancing down at Liam’s body. “Even with all the steroids, I mean.”
“Well, he ain’t too far gone, y’know,” Danny said, actually going so far as to sound genuine and compassionate. “So why don’t’cha come on down? If ya let me handle ya right quick I’m sure ya can catch up to ‘im in no time!” Even as he said this, he started sliding his revolver out of the holster.
The man sneered in disgust. “Anyone ever tell you that you sound like you got a mouthful of dicks when you talk?”
“Only when I got their dick in my mouth, actually,” Danny called back, still managing to sound friendly, right before taking a shot at him.
“MOTHERFU—” the man ducked at the last second, narrowly managing to keep his head, and shouted, “THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOTS WAITING FOR? TAKE THEM OUT!”
“Hide! Quick!” Danny called out to us, then, not waiting to see if we’d listen, sent off another shot in the direction of the nearest man.
Candy and I started a panicked half-run towards the first sign of cover—some sort of old, seemingly junked machine from years ago—as the bullets started whizzing through the air. Even while running away, I marveled back at Danny, who in the short span since we’d started running had managed to kill two of the six men and severely injure a third. Though I hadn’t seen what had put the still-living man on the ground, the noises he was making and the large puddle of blood he occupied told me that he wasn’t soon going to be rejoining his fellow Carrion brethren in trying to take us out.
“THE WHORES!” the man from above shouted out. “KILL THE FUCKING WHORES!”
“I think… that asshole… nutted… in my hair… last Christmas,” Candy revealed between nervous pants and uncertain glances around.
“How does that help us?” I asked.
“It doesn’t,” she answered flatly before drawing her own gun and beginning to fire on another of the Carrion Crew. It took seven shots, but she eventually got him when, in a panicked effort to see where her shots were coming from, he stood directly into her line of sight. “But that does!” she boasted.
I felt my heart seize then as I spotted a slim, weasel-like shadow creeping up behind my beaming friend, and I was quick to draw my own gun and pull her out of the way before firing three shots straight into the man’s chest.
“F-fuckin’… who-ores!” he managed to croak before finally dying.
“Rousing choice in last words, dingleberry!” Candy cursed, driving a kick into his lifeless crotch. “Want it carved in your tombstone?”
A few more shots from Danny’s gun rang out, and we turned in time to see the sixth Carrion Crew member fall.
“Damn,” Candy said, almost sounding disappointed, “that was easy!”
“Don’t jinx it, slut,” Danny grumbled.
“Oh get off it, ya fab-fag! Don’t go acting like we didn’t make a great team,” she countered, giving him a slap on the back.
“I’m sorry, Da—er, Mercury, but she’s got a point. We did do a good job together,” I said, smiling back.
“Yeah, I know,” he said with a heavy groan. “I’m just not lookin’ forward to tellin’ Jace ‘bout this. Ya two know he’s gonna kill me dead fer lettin’ the two of ya come out here wit’ me, right?”
“And we will mourn you exactly how you’d want to be mourned,” Candy boasted, “by stuffing our faces with pizza and cocks.”
“Saints be praised,” Danny grumbled. “My two loves in life reduced to the ongoing mockings of a money-grubbing gutter-slut.”
“Not to break up your rousing chemistry,” I cut in as I made a show of glancing up at the balcony and seeing that the other man had disappeared. “But did anybody see where that guy ran off to?”
I glanced over at Candy, seeing that she had noticed as well. While Danny hadn’t seemed unsettled by the missing Carrion Crew member, his demeanor did not change in the slightest as his disappearance was brought to light. He was either doing a fantastic job of hiding his own surprise or he’d been staying calm for our sake and was just continuing to do so after we’d caught on. In either case, he signaled us then, and we moved out of hiding, heading towards where Danny now stood. Though he seemed to be making an effort to conceal the act, I could see his eyes drifting about—left, right, and back again in slow, sweeping scans of the upper-area—in a subtle effort to pinpoint the man. Slowly, slow enough to elude my senses at first, he raised his revolver and began to work the cylinder open. Having caught sight of the slight motion a moment in advance, I was prepared for the sound of spent bullet casings clattering across the floor as he shook them free from the revolver’s wheel.
Candy, however, was not.
“SON OF A WHORE!” she shrieked, startled.
This time I jumped, caught off guard by the outburst and certain that it was about to call down some fresh fury from the wayward Carrion.
Danny looked like he wanted to laugh but didn’t. Instead, he was still looking around, making no effort this time to conceal his efforts as he went on trying to figure out where the man had gone.
“That must’ve been the leader, right?” I said, slipping instinctually into a whisper.
“Yeah. More than likely he was,” Danny said, also whispering—whether this was in response to my own whisper or if he genuinely thought it was necessary I couldn’t be sure. “I recognized him as one of the four.”
“So where did that little cocksucker go?” Candy asked, not joining us in our whispering as she narrowed her eyes and scanned the rafters. “HUH? WHERE ARE YOU, YOU FUCK?”
“Well…” Danny grumbled, “That’s certainly one way to git someone’s attention.”
The sound of metal squeaking above rang through the room and we heard a soft curse in response. I wasn’t sure if Candy’s shouting had been what motivated the slight movement or if he’d just spent too much time crouched awkwardly out of our eyesight, but in that instant we s
eemed to have a location.
“ON IT!” Candy called out, already starting to sprint towards the stairway.
I was already starting after her before I was fully sure that I wanted to. Though I didn’t want anything bad to happen to my friend, I couldn’t help but think that such a brash move wasn’t exactly “survival friendly.”
“Candy!” I called after her, forced to work to catch up and unable to summon more volume than a weak bark. “Don’t!”
If she heard me she made no sign of it.
I heard a faint click behind me, thought nothing of it, then thought a great deal more of it as Danny began firing his revolver up towards the length of balcony we’d heard the sound emanating from.
More cursing, louder this time, rose in response. A moment later we heard the pounding of footsteps crashing against the metal grates as our target took off across its length.
“WE GOT HIM!” Candy called, starting up the stairs two at a time.
I caught myself distantly admiring how she could move so fast in heels, dismissed it as a classic “whore skill”—as she would have called it—and tapped into my own previous roster of “whore skills” to ascend the stairs in my ongoing effort to catch up with her.
“GET THIS, WHORE!” the man bellowed, twisting awkwardly and pulling out his own gun as he continued to run across the rafters, putting more and more distance between us.
“CANDY!” Danny roared, seeing that the man was about to start firing on her, and his revolver thundered two more times.
The man gave a sharp, pained cry, sounding almost confused and startled in that instant, and, with his body still twisted at the waist in an effort to run away and shoot back at us, the resulting stumble had him tumbling at a strange angle. The metal grating chimed again as the side of his head impacted, his left shoulder dragging up in a close second place while the rest of his body seemed to accordion into place behind him. He was left, ass-end up and waving almost humorously in the air as he buckled to his knees and began thrashing like a docked fish.
That was when I realized that one of Danny’s shots had caught him in his right foot. Blood seeped out through the hole in his boot as his leg went on twitching, still trying in that instant to continue running—the rest of his body not seeming to register that he’d been thrown off his feet—while he began screaming and whimpering through muffled lips into the perforated surface of the platform’s grating.
“Well, looky what we got here!” Candy said, stepping forward and slamming the grip of her gun into the man’s upturned ass, impacting with his tailbone and earning a new cry of pain.
His cries faded into an extended whimper, and he finally fell onto his side, looking back up at us with a mixture of fear and anger. I stepped forward, narrowing my eyes at him as I held my own gun out.
“Where the hell is Papa Raven hiding?” I demanded.
“We don’t know!” he said, shaking in fear. “I-I swear… he don’t tell us shit, I swear! You think he’d let us know something like that? Fuck, man, I don’t even know his real fucking name! Come on! Come on! You gotta believe me! Don’t kill my ass!”
“Oh, ew! He peed his pants!” Candy said, pointing to the growing wet spot in his pants and the trace amount of moisture beginning to seep through and rain past the grate. “YO, MERCURY, HEADS-UP! THIS ASSHOLE’S TRYING TO GIVE YOU A GOLDEN SHOWER FROM TWO-STORIES UP!”
Danny muttered something that sounded like “wouldn’t be the first time” as he made a note of taking a large step back.
The man glanced down in horror, seeming to only realize then that he had indeed peed himself. That this seemed to bother him more than the gaping, gushing wound in his foot was something of a curious fact for me, but I wasn’t positive he was fully aware of just how bad his situation had gotten. A sudden look of rage had grown like an invading ivy across his features and he moved down, starting to once again draw his own gun and aiming it towards Candy. Before he had the chance, I shot him in his hand and he cried out again, dropping the gun and cupping his wounded hand.
“A-are you gonna kill me?” he asked through a pain-soaked sneer.
“Not if we don’t have to,” I told him, though I wasn’t sure how true that actually was.
“But we will,” Candy said, then added with a wicked smirk, “And we’ll like it, too!”
“Fuck you!” he said, narrowing his eyes. “Papa Raven won’t let you win! You’ll fucking see!”
I watched as he slid out a small device that looked like a TV remote. I watched Danny’s face grow in alarm and cried out as he grabbed both Candy and me in his meaty arms and rushed down the stairs, taking two at a time. I could hear the man’s laughter behind us.
“You won’t get out in time! You will all die!” he screamed.
I heard the click, and then something a short way’s away beeped in response.
“FUCKIN’ RUN!” Danny screamed up at us, already starting in his own dead-sprint across the floor.
“OH SHIT!” Candy screamed, seeming to get the hint, and turned on her heels. Her hand found my wrist, held tight, and she started to nearly drag me across the platform and down the stairs. “COME ON, MIA! MOVE YOUR ASS!”
We made it down the stairs and halfway towards the waiting door at the end of the stretch when the whole place went bright and hot. In that moment, as the air seemed to get heavier around me and a smell like burning metal saturated the area, it felt like somebody had stuffed me in an cannon and proceeded to shoot me like a human cannonball straight through every single level of Hell. Scenes from my reading of Dante’s Inferno flashed through my mind as my feet were yanked from the ground. Candy, still with me, was put through the same treatment. Then we were soaring out the front door, falling behind a large metal dumpster as the building exploded behind us. I cried out, the roaring in my ears jarring me as Danny sheltered both Candy and me still. Moments later, things died down and I glanced over at the remains of the factory. Danny helped Candy and me up and then turned to look as well, shaking his head.
“That’s a lot of product gone to waste, and I’m glad fer it,” he said, running his hand across his neck. “Buddy ain’t gonna like this.”
“Buddy?” I asked.
“Friend of mine who works on the force,” Danny said. “We’ve been buds since middle school and he’s helped me out so far.”
“Well, good riddance to this place!” Candy said, kicking a nearby pile of rubble.
“Can ya drive okay, Mia?” Danny said, glancing over at me with a concerned look.
“A-actually, would you mind?” I said, shaking a bit.
He nodded and helped us back to the car. I was glad I had parked further away from the building. If I had parked any closer, the car might’ve been damaged along with everything else. I slid into the backseat with Candy, leaning on her shoulders. I was so exhausted from everything and I couldn’t wait to get back to Jace, to be back in his arms.
ELEVEN
~JACE~
While I’d certainly been glad to hear that two territories had been taken out in one night, I was still upset that Mia had put herself in danger. I ran my hand through my hair, glancing over at Mia’s sleeping face. She looked so peaceful and she’d been so damned proud of herself last night when they’d gotten back to the shop. I smirked, thinking back to last night.
“Where is she?” I said, looking around the empty shop, the blind panic beginning to set in.
The shop was empty. Had been empty when I’d arrived. I’d sent the others home already and had come to pick up Mia. I’d decided since the last warning Papa Raven had sent, I wasn’t leaving Mia home alone. I didn’t want another Mack situation all over again. But when I’d gotten there, it’d been empty and Mia’s car was gone. I frowned, sliding out my smartphone and trying for the hundredth time to call her. I even had tried Danny to no avail, his phone went straight to voicemail.
I ran my hand through my hair again and frowned, wondering if I was going to go bald from all the stress. As I got
ready to make another call, I heard the sound of tires over the gravely surface of the shop’s parking lot. I rushed towards the door, slamming it open and saw Danny driving with Candy and Mia in the backseat…
And they were laughing.
I blinked.
Did I miss something here?
They slid out of the car and Danny gave me a wide smile as he stepped over, slapping me on the shoulder. I glanced over at the three, wondering if any of them would mind giving me an explanation. I opened to my mouth to speak and Mia stepped in front of me. She offered a radiant smile that settled all my nerves.
“Lookie that! She’s all grins and giggles now!” Candy said, nudging Danny.
I glanced over and frowned at the addition of ‘now” in the statement. Had something happened? Their clothes were covered in black soot and I raised an eyebrow towards Danny, wondering what the hell I’d missed.
“A’right, fine! I give up! These two convinced me to take them to one of the other hideouts,” Danny said, lifting his shoulders in defeat.
“We’re very convincing,” Candy said, giving me what only could be described as a Cheshire cat’s smile.
“What happened? You guys look like you just came out of an explosion,” I said, glancing back at their clothing.
“Wellll, about that,” Candy said, glancing away.
“What the fuck, Mercury?” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “I left Mia here to be safe… not for you to get her into more trouble. An explosion? Fuck!”
“Alright, calm yer ass, Jace,” Danny said, stepping over. “We handled it together and Mia did great. Yeah, there was a little complication at the end, but we fuckin’ got our shit together here.”
“A little complications?” I said and shook my head, adding, “There’s nothing little about an explosion!”
“To be fair,” Mia said, holding her own hands up defensively. “We were doing just fine when the leader pulled a grenade and then Danny got us out of there and all in one piece.”
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