Page 22 of Beastly Armory
Jakob enters the room with a serious expression. But he never has anything different. “Derichs will be fine,” he says in a deep bass. His habitus is such that I’d hate to meet him as an opponent in the ring. The tattoos weaving up his neck to the sides of his head make him even more foreboding than his large shoulders. All the hair on top of his head has migrated to his thick, black eyebrows, which furrow with some concern. “We lost Holland, though. He was a good man.”
“I’m sorry about Holland. We barely made it out, but Von Dovish’s healer helped us. Where was ours,Markus?”
Markus sighs and falls into the faded striped fabric club chair across from me. “She’s new. She hadn’t arrived from out of town in time and got lost on the way.”
Clenching my jaw, I release the irritation with a deep breath through my nose. “Well, she could have cost us a tank.” I eye Jakob. “She could have cost us a cousin.”
Markus leans forward. “I’ll make sure she’s trained up properly. But Max… how do you ever expect to get a meeting with Strauss now?”
Avoiding any skin pinches, I take apart my gun, setting the pieces on the desk pad. Grabbing a cloth, my fingers polish the guide rod mindlessly. “I have to think.”
“There’s not much time to think. We all need to get paid. The workers here will stop or burn the house down if they don’t get their money. Strauss will be looking to slaughter us all after tonight, and we don’t have the weapons to fight back.” Markus shakes his head and pulls off his glasses to clean them. “It wasn’t smart.”
“Oh? Wasn’t smart to keep usalive? What would you have had me do, Markus? Die?”
“No, I just...” Almost stabbing his eye with the arm of his glasses, he swiftly replaces them on his nose and squints his eyes behind me at the picture of my grandfather and father. Papa is holding a baby me in his arms. Our foreboding manor is in the background. In the dimness of the light in the room, Markus’s eyes glisten. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m just worried.”
Deciding to broach the topic that I know will cause a controversy, I clear my throat, then assume my role asmaster of the manor. “Livia Von Dovish had a proposition.”
“Livia? When did she?—”
“It’s no matter. She can get me a meeting with Strauss.”
“Even after tonight?”
I raise my eyebrows. “She says she can.”
“And you believe her.”
Gripping the little nylon tool, I plunge inside the barrel with a little twist at the end. “Yes.”
“You know those Von Dovish are foxes, right? She could be playing you.” Markus pauses, preparing me for an insult. “Are you just thinking with your dick?”
“No. And what other option do I have now?”
Markus stands and paces in the back of the room while Jakob’s dark brown eyes study his movements, his neck twisting the ink there into distorted images. “I don’t like it… But you’re right. I think you need her,” Markus says.
“I don’tneedher. I canuseher.” And my dick agrees, picturing plunging into her as the wire brush thrusts into the little hole I hold in my hands. And, if I’m being honest, I kind of like having her nearby. Keep your enemies close and all that.
Jakob moves from the wall near the door and sits down in the other club chair, his massive quads spread out as he puts his elbows on his legs. “What does she want in return?” he asks.
I swallow, preparing for an argument. “A third.”
Markus whips around. “Athird? Max, come on.Think. Athirdof the guns to the Von Dovish clan could get nasty. Next, you’ll give a third to Donovan!”
Looking down at my gun pieces, I respond, “I have a suspicion that I can work with Livia. Get her to lessen her percentage.”
Jakob smirks, then nods in understanding. One black eyebrow raises with amusement.
“So, you’re going to give her your massive cock and get her to fall in love with you?” Markus sits down and shakes his head. “You arrogant boy. She’s too independent for that. She’d probably lop it off before she fucked it.”
“I think he can do it,” Jakob says.
“I know I can,” I tell them. Getting Livia to catch feelings wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Markus sighs heavily before asking, “How are you going to contact her?”
“I’m going to visit an old friend.” I smile.