Origins: The Complete Series by J.N. Chaney

Author:J.N. Chaney [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2021-04-10T22:00:00+00:00

Continue reading for book 2, THE DEAL.

1

“You’ve got two choices,” I said, pressing my arm against the throat of a man named Marcus Richter. I was in an alley nestled between a bar and a tailor on a space station, and no one who mattered could see us. “Either give me what I want or I promise you’ll spend the rest of the afternoon bleeding out in a gutter while you wait for an ambulance.”

Marcus wheezed out a word, but I couldn’t understand him. He was small and squirrely, like the kind of fella you’d find stalking a girl he didn’t know and never had the guts to talk to. Someone without a backbone or an allegiance, who’d swear loyalty for a few credits and then turn on you for a few more.

Exactly the kind of guy I needed right now.

“What’s that?” I asked, easing my arm slightly off his neck. “You say something?”

“…easy, man… I can… I can tell you where he’s at if you… if you just take it easy…” Heavy breaths between words, bloodshot eyes, flushed face. Marcus wasn’t having a good day.

“Where is he, then? I don’t have all day, Marky.” I leaned closer to him. He stared up at me, having to bend his head back to make eye contact.

“Okay!” he blurted out. “Decker spends all his free time with his girls. He—”

“I know about that already,” I snapped. “Which girl is he with?”

I’d traveled three slip tunnels to reach Daldi, a planet in the middle of nowhere with nothing useful on it. The people in this system were mostly criminals. Smugglers, sure, but bandits and slave traders, too. And while Daldi Station had laws and even a sheriff to enforce them, they were the sort you could bend if you had the money. When you came this far out from the borders, individual wealth thrived.

“Oh, um, okay, well…”

My pistol pressed into Marcus’s belly. “Speak up. I didn’t get that.”

“Meadow,” he said, then shook his head. “No, wait. I mean, Bunny. Yeah, that’s the one.”

“You sure about that? Bunny?” I asked, jerking the gun into his rib. “If I end up on the other side of the station and find out you’ve lied to me, I’ll be right back here, and this time I won’t play easy with you. Understand my meaning, Marcus?”

He nodded quickly, like the bobblehead on my dashboard. “Y-yeah! I swear! It’s Wednesday, right? That’s the day he always sees her. She’s his favorite. Goes there every week. He’s got a thing for natural blondes, and she’s the best for the price.”

“The price? I thought you said she was his girlfriend.”

“Ah, well, what’s the difference? He buys her jewelry and she takes care of him. That’s the arrangement. Lives rent-free, too. He’s her job, you know? Ahaha.”

I pulled the gun back and then kneed him in the gut, letting the pain speak for me.

He doubled over, holding his stomach and gasping for air. “W-why?!”

“Because you talk too much, Marcus.” I kicked him in the side and he wheezed, hard and desperate.

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