“I don’t know, maybe the same person who decided to kill a division head?” I throw out. “So this code? I don’t suppose you happen to know said code now, do you?”
His lips twitch at my words. “Maybe. What’s in it for me?” He turns and stops me from walking with a hand on my hip.
“Well, I promise not to stab or shoot you for the next twenty-four hours no matter how strong the urge might be,” I graciously offer.
His eyes widen before he laughs.
I stand there watching him, silently threatening to pull the wings off each and every butterfly taking flight in my stomach.
“Okay, fine. I’ll help, but you’ll owe me a favor,” he concedes.
“That, my friend, will depend on the favor. If you can deal with that, then fine.”
He stares at me for a moment, before nodding. “Deal.” He winks before walking back over to his bike and climbing on.
I walk toward him, reaching for the hand he holds out to me, scolding myself for remembering too late that you should never make a deal with the devil because he’s a tricky fucker who will try to outmaneuver you at every turn.
I’m just going to have to make sure I remain one step ahead.
Climbing up behind him, I wrap my arms tightly around his torso once more and hold on tight as he roars down the street. It only takes about fifteen minutes to get to the docks and much like the street earlier, it seems far too quiet for a city this size.
“It’s not as busy here in division twelve as I assumed it would be,” I tell him when the bike stops.
He flicks the kickstand down with his foot and plants his feet to steady his bike as I swing my leg over and climb off.
I pull the helmet from my head and shake out my hair as he climbs off and takes the helmet from me.
“People are being cautious as they wait for the new head to be instated. There’s been some unrest—gangs turning on each other—and it’s spilled onto the streets more than once.”
His answer has me frowning as I ask the next question. “What exactly happened to the last Gemini?”
“He was shot dead in his office right here at the docks.”
“Of course, he was. Let me guess. It was a gang-style execution shot. In the head, right?”
He nods, a look of surprise on his face.
“You know, every time you look surprised, it makes me want to punch you in that pretty little face of yours,” I growl.
He steps closer to me. “You think I’m pretty?”
I shove him away. “That’s what you got from that? I don’t even know why I bother.” I sigh.
“It’s just hard sometimes to remember that you’re not just some girl, especially when you start spouting off shit about gang-style executions.” He shakes his head.
I don’t know why, but him calling me some girl makes my temper flare.
“You do know that this shit is my life, right? This might be me turning up for my first day at work, but I’ve been in the game since you dragged me into it. Fuck, I’ve been dealing with shit on Zodiac’s behalf for the last, however freaking long it’s been. It feels like forever, a monotonous cycle of fucking people up before they could do it to me first.”
He scowls at me, mulling over my words before crossing his arms over his broad chest.
“I thought you had people working for you?” he spits out as I stare at him in disbelief.
“What, a teenage throwaway street thug? Oh yeah, I had droves of people willing to watch my back,” I sass, not mentioning Wyatt or Megan at all.
“Then how the fuck did you manage to end up here? Only the best of the rest get picked by Zodiac for this shit.”
“There you go assuming again. Just because I didn’t have anyone at my back doesn’t mean I wasn’t capable of handling my own dirty work.”
He stares at me for the longest time, likely trying to bridge together how I look with the pieces of information he knows about me. I can be ruthless when needed, but it doesn’t change the fact I look like a high school cheerleader. He knew I was one of Zodiac’s top earners, I just didn’t realize he thought it was because someone else was doing the heavy lifting. Honestly, it wasn’t often I had to result in using brute force or bullets, most people gave me respect because