Page 57 of Beastly Armory
“You’ve got a hold ofme, foxy.” He shakes his hand. “Let go.” I drop it like his skin just burned me.
He chuckles and walks around the car to get inside. I should just take off and leave him here with his best friend, Tony, but as soon as he gets in, I punch the start button for the ignition. One final warning leaves my lips as I jolt off toward the seaside road. “You’renotstealing that ring.”
If he does, I’ll kill him.
Fifteen
MAXIMILLIAN
In the next few days, I don’t hear from Livia, as to be expected. It really is better that way because Derichs and I have been on a reconnaissance mission to find the collector in Appleton. The fox made her point loud and clear about her mother’s ring, so I knew immediately I’d go on the quest to find the alternative. Sans Livia. It would be my gift to her for her connections. Maybe, secretly, I was hoping it would finally get her to open up to me.
Cruising down the main strip, I look for a decent hotel that’s somewhere between the Waldorf and the roach motel we almost stayed at during the last visit. Derichs’s long legs are bent wide in the passenger seat next to me while his voice rings out in the cabin, talking to his girl, Hannah, on the phone. “I told you she was jealous of you, baby. Don’t pay any attention to her.”
Using a loose fist, I punch his upper arm and point to a respectable-looking establishment. He nods in agreementwith my decision and continues to chat up his girl. Pulling into the parking lot, I find a spot in the back, away from everyone else. It’s dark, but at least no one will hit my car.
“Baby, I love you so much. I miss you. I’ll see you soon, okay? Yeah, Max wants to meet you, too. We’ll all go to play pool or bowling or something. Love you. No, I love you more… Bye.” He hangs up and sighs heavily, happily. “Hannah says hi and to take care of me.”
“How exactly does she want me to take care of you? ’Cause I’m not really into dudes. Sorry.” I grab our bags from the trunk and shove his into his arms. Part of me is annoyed at missing something I’ve never had. Something I can’t even put my finger on. Safety? Security? Love…
A short chuckle interrupts my jealousy. “Me either, but a beer tonight before we scope out the joint would be nice.”
“You want me to get you liquored up first? No problem, I can do that.” Once inside, I get us a room with two doubles, and after dropping our bags in the room, we head back to the bar area for some grub. Before I exit the elevator, though, a familiar voice calls out, causing my heart to stop beating.
“Million-dollar Maximillian. How is my Maximum East?”
Fuck. Slowly, I turn around to face the man who ran my life for most of my early 20s. “Hey, Buddy.” Buddy Dapper. My handler from my fighting days, known associate of Tony “Two Fingers.” And he’s using my old stage names. This cannot be good.
“TheBuddy Dapper?” Derichs’s jaw drops as he whispers the name in reverence.
“Hey, Max. Good to see you! It’s been a long while. What are you up to?” Buddy grabs me into a half hug, his pudgy middle poking me more than it did in years past. The scraggles of his thin gray comb-over tickle my nose before he pulls away.
Clearing my throat, I attempt to sound resolved. “Went back home and am working on setting everything up.”
“Like you always said you’d do. Good for you, kid.” His fat fingers pat me on the back as he eyes Derichs.
Shoving a finger toward him, I say, “Oh, this is my friend Derichs.”
“Hello. Looks like you know your way around a ring, too.”
Derichs nods, but keeps his mouth shut and eyes wide, staring at Buddy like he’s a god.
“What’re you doing around Appleton tonight, Bud?” I ask with some trepidation.
“I’m glad I ran into you. We have a fight going on in a bit, and I need that money you owe me.”
Damn. I thought I’d never run into Buddy again. At least I was planning on it. There was one fight I was supposed to throw back in the day that lost him twenty grand when I just couldn’t. Pride costs a lot. “Sorry, man. Can I get it to you soon?”
“Ha. No can do, Max-a-million. If not me, then you know Greedy, or Kinks, or Falsies will pay you a visit. I said I would be the one to tell you. As a friend, youknow.” So, they’ve been watching me since I got back into town… Can’t say I blame them. Maybe recognized the Barracuda. I know the other guys won’t hesitate to start breaking bones or taking off body parts, so at least it was Buddy who found me first.
The money I had earned from our gun trade was going into renovations and East Side’s hands. Rebuilding the community was expensive. Our earnings belonged to the workers, the ones risking their lives to sell those weapons daily, the ones on the front lines of facing Strauss’s men. I didn’t want to pay off this debt. I also didn’t want Tony Two Fingers to send his goons after me. If I owed Buddy for a fight, that meant I owed my old boss. And he always got paid either with a pound of cash or a pound of flesh.
Buddy’s shoulders slump. “Ah, son. You don’t have it, do you?”
Swallowing the tight lump in my throat, I tell him flatly, “Not right now, but I can get it.”
“How about youearnit? Tonight.” Above his heavily sunken sockets, his light brown eyes sparkle with his proposition.
Pinching the bridge of my nose between my finger and thumb, I allow a heavy breath to escape my lungs. “I’m not fighting anymore. I’m done with that. In the ring anyway.” It’s not that Icouldn’tthrow a fight for them, it’s that I was master of the east side. If anything happened to me, what would happen to Arianna? To my employees?