Gun for Hire by Kris Ripper

Author:Kris Ripper [Ripper, Kris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kris Ripper

Chapter Twelve

“Oh fuckety fuck fuck fucking hellfuck.”

“What?”

When I’d asked to speak to Mistress Rosa, we’d been shown to a table in one of her many dining rooms. This one featured for entertainment a few lithe tumblers in a very small amount of clothing doing honestly amazing things with each other.

No, not like that. Tumbling sorts of things. Gymnastics. Flips and junk.

But that wasn’t who’d caught my eye this time. I made a small, low gesture in the direction of the kid serving three tables away. Yeah, those were the lips from the picture. Goddammit. “We’re in so much shit right now.”

“I suppose…we’ve found him. That’s a good thing.”

“I was expecting to find a waif without any ability to take care of himself who I could nobly volunteer to take off Rosa’s hands. Not, like, an employee I now have to find a way to steal.”

“He’s a person. He can’t be stolen.”

I glanced aside. “This is more my world than yours, okay? In my world, people can be bought, sold, stolen, and returned.”

The lights were brighter than I’d expected, leaving me a perfectly good view of Percy’s profile as he stared at the tumblers in the central performance area. A bit noble, a bit tragic, not quite as seasoned as he assumed. Like any prince, probably.

“You seriously think after everything I still need to be protected?”

I looked pointedly at his once-shiny shoes, which had experienced rough times since our trip through an old drainage and waste tunnel and out at the edges of the Denahan territory. “You seriously think after everything you’re not totally in over your head?”

“My mistress will see you now,” said a Quality Minion, appearing suddenly between us.

Maybe I could head this whole thing off at the pass by getting to the kid first. “Yeah, see, I kinda need to talk to that—”

QM’s expression remained glassy and unmoved. “My mistress will see you now.”

Then again, maybe not. “Right-o. Thanks.”

Percy leaned slightly toward me. “This is the most polite kidnapping I’ve ever heard of.”

“That’s ’cause you haven’t met Rosa yet.”

I’d been there before, of course. I’d been there quite a bit during my brief and ill-destined courtship with He Who Rosa And I Bailed Out Of Trouble Who Then Repaid Us By Running Off With Some Gangster He Was Secretly Banging. But it had been a while, and to be honest, I’d forgotten some of the finer points. Or maybe it was less that I’d forgotten and more that the place had looked a bit less tawdry when I was all rose-gazed and twitterpated.

Leading Percy between mismatched chairs and too-close tables where young people of every possible hue and gender expression served patrons of every possible hue and gender expression with slightly strained smiles reminded me that while Mistress Rosa’s domain was one of the better places to work, it had never been a particularly good place to work.

I glanced one last time over my shoulder at The Nephew, whose name I still hadn’t learned. He seemed off balance and his smile hadn’t yet acquired the practiced edge it would if he stayed in this line of work.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.