Gremlin’s gaze slides over to Mina. He takes his time appraising her in a way I don’t like. “And who is this lovely flower?” He actually licks his lips, as though he expects to be allowed to eat her later.
“ThisVenus Flytrapis with me,” I say with the subtlety of a car alarm.
He chuckles. “Fair enough. Why harm a business partnership over a broad, right?”
Mina stiffens beside me, and I know if she actually had a gun right now, Gremlin would be lying in a pool of his own blood—fuck his status—and we’d have a big reputation problem. It’s ideal in my line of work that we don’t kill business associates. It makes it hard to find new business associates who want to work with you. It’s not like we’re all getting hazard pay.
“We’re kind of on the clock,Gremlin,” I say.
His eyes widen that I actually had the nerve to utter the handle he’s known by. I mean, he started it, calling Mina abroadlike he’s in some 1940’s gangster noir film. We all have reputations to protect here, and he should know better.
“Look,” I continue. “I’m going to let your disrespect of my partner slide, and you’re going to let me saying your handle out loud, slide. And we’re going to do business and keep things professional, right?”
He definitely could have me killed right now. We are sort of surrounded by his armed thugs. Nine of them in total. Overkill if you ask me, but if Gremlin routinely runs his mouth like this, maybe not.
But again, it’s bad for business so I’m guessing he’s not going to destroy a fifteen year working relationship over this.
He wisely chooses to let it go and sweeps a hand in the direction of the glass cases filled with weapons. “What were you looking for?”
“Guns. Obviously. We need appropriate holsters, ammunition… give us all 9mm. And silencers. Knives and holsters also.”
“Throwing stars,” Mina interjects.
She loves her throwing stars.
“Knives and stars I’ll have to sell you. We don’t like our merchandise returned bloody. And of course the ammo.”
“Of course,” I say. It’s not as though you can rent ammunition. And knives and stars often get left behind on kill sites anyway depending on the situation. If we do body disposal, we keep and sterilize them, but otherwise they just stay where they’re planted.
Gremlin loads us up with the requested weapons, I pay the man, and we grab the bags.
“See, Killer? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy,” I say as we walk out the front door.
Mina just laughs.
FIFTY-SIX
mina
We’re sittingin the rental car just outside the Nolan estate. The entire inside of the car is lined in plastic. I think it’s excessive personally, but this is a rental, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. The last thing we need is blood and fibers linking us to local deaths. I have no idea what his plan was if we got pulled over for something. This isn’t exactly the most inconspicuous way to travel, even after dark.
Brian used a credit card linked to a dummy shell corporation and a fake ID to rent the car. Still, I almost think it would have been less risk and trouble to steal one. I reach around the plastic to open my door when Brian’s hand on my arm stops me.
“Wait, open this first.” He puts a black box wrapped in a gold ribbon on my lap. And a red envelope. He got me a card, too? I wasn’t expecting that.
“I didn’t get you a card,” I say. “And your gift is at the motel.”
“It’s okay.”
He looks a little nervous which is a weird look on Brian’s face. I open the envelope. The card is two skeletons holding hands inside a big red heart with blood dripping down the sides. The text on the front reads: “You and me, We got this.”
“Where did you get this?”
“A gothic shop while you were sleeping in yesterday. They had a Valentine’s weekend special.”
I open it to find a handwritten message: “I like killing people with you. Brian.”
I bust out laughing. “Romantic.”
