“Come on. I’m not being bait for you. No way. That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Then consider this a new deal.”
I clenched my jaw. “I won’t do it.”
“Too fucking bad. Hedeon said I’m on my own, and this is the plan. We lure them out, we kill them, we move on. This is your part and you’re going to play it.”
“I want more then.”
His eyebrows lifted. “More?”
“More money. I want more. You said two million, right? Ten percent? I want twelve percent.”
He barked a laugh. “Fuck that.”
“Fifteen then.”
“Careful.” His voice was dangerously sharp.
“I’m not joking. You want me to risk my life? Then you better pay up.”
He opened his mouth but slowly shut it again. I stared back at him and crossed my eyes. My heart raced so fast and my mouth felt dry, but I couldn’t back down. I might pass out or puke, but that didn’t matter. I couldn’t give him what he wanted without getting something in return.
Otherwise, he’d walk all over me and take anything he wanted.
“Twelve percent,” he said. “That’s more than you deserve.”
“Fine.” I held out my hand.
He took it and shook, and held on longer than he should have. He stared into my eyes and leaned forward.
Then pressed his lips against my knuckles.
I felt a strange pulse of something exciting rush through my chest as he looked back up at me.
“Don’t fuck this up.” He let me go.
I pulled my hand back. “All I have to do is sit around and look pretty, right? I can handle that.”
He smiled. “Especially the pretty part.”
“I set you up for that.”
“But I took it willingly.”
I leaned back in my chair and tried to calm down. I felt sweat break out along my arms.
“I mean to ask you before. What’s the deal with Hedeon?”
He cocked his head and sipped his drink. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Why are you so loyal to him?”
He didn’t speak for a moment then reached out to push the glass of whisky toward me. “Drink with me and I’ll tell you whatever you want.”
I hesitated, but took the glass and sipped it. The liquid burned a smoky smooth rope down my throat.
“Why Hedeon? He looks like a math teacher. I don’t get how he’s the head of your little… what do you call it? Crime family?”
“We’re just the Crew,” he said. “And I know how Hedeon looks. But there’s something hard in that man.”
“I still don’t get it.”
He leaned back and swirled his drink. “Hedeon brought us together. He found us when we were all young and stupid and still looking for a place in this world. He brought us all together.”
“How many of you?”
“Ten to begin with. Lots more now.”
“So he’s the brains?”
Owain gestured in the air. “He’s the… conductor. You know, like at a symphony?”
“Hearing a classical music reference come out of your mouth is a little weird.”
He grinned and kept going. “He keeps the whole thing running. Keeps us all bound together. And yeah, in a lot of ways, he’s the brain. But he’s not the only brain. We have a sort of… council.”
“You have a council.”
“We meet a few times, talk about the direction of things, and go from there.”
“Democratic.”
“Not exactly. Hedeon still has final say, but he takes guidance.”
“Where did you all even come from? How’d he manage to find ten guys that wanted to get into a life of crime?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I met Hedeon when I was young. It’s not a nice story.”
“Tell me anyway.”
He cleared his throat and finished his drink. I sipped mine as he stared down at the table for a long moment.
“I told you how me and Clifton got into some shit back in the day. Well, I met Hedeon one morning while trying to rob a liquor store.”
“Trying to?” I made a face. “Doesn’t sound promising.”
“I was fucking drunk. Still drunk from the night before. Had no money and nothing to lose, so I figured, why not? I waited for it to open and I just… held the gun out. Wasn’t so hard, you know?”
“But it didn’t go right.”
“No, it didn’t. Hedeon was there, in the store. He just watched. I remember that, him just watching, like it was interesting. He wasn’t scared at all.”
“Creepy.”
“Yeah, he kind of was creepy. So I’m robbing the store and waving the gun around, and I turn my back on the cashier to grab a bottle I wanted— and that was when the guy pulled a shotgun on me.”
“Oh, no.”
“Yep, he had me. Could’ve blown me to little pieces. Except Hedeon threw a bottle at him as he brought it around. It was like slow motion, the bottle in the air, the shotgun aiming toward me, and I couldn’t turn to face him fast enough.”
“That’s insane. Seriously I kind of don’t believe you.”
“Believe it. He threw a bottle and it smashed right into the clerk’s face. Knocked him back a step and gave me time to turn and shoot. Killed the guy right then and there, left him lying bloody on the ground. First guy I ever killed.”
I felt my breath hitch and covered it with a sip. “How old were you?”
“Sixteen.”
“Jesus.”
“I had a hard upbringing. Drunk mom, dead dad. The usual fucked up story.”
“Sixteen though. And you killed a guy.”
“Hedeon was impressed. He helped me out, you know? Taught me the ropes, got me thinking straight. Made me realize that knocking off liquor stores in the middle of the morning was probably a bad idea.”
“Right so instead you’re dealing drugs.”
“Among other things.” His eyes met mine again and he grinned. “I know what you’re thinking. That’s worse, right? But you’d be so wrong. Robbing liquor stores is a high risk, low reward proposition. Selling drugs is high risk but high reward. We pull it off, we get rich. If I manage to rob a liquor store, I get a couple hundred bucks. Not a good gamble.”
“Glad Hedeon make you think of the odds more.”
“I am too. He gave me a spot in the Crew and let me bring Clifton along, at least until he left and formed the Jackals.”
I finished the glass of whisky and sat there for a second trying to get myself together. I felt a little dizzy after his story. I tried to picture a sixteen-year-old Owain murdering a liquor store clerk in cold blood, but it was surprisingly hard. The problem was, I couldn’t picture Owain as anything but a muscular, hard-eyed man. The kid he used to be was too far removed from the man he’d become.
But we all had a past. We were all kids at some point, even the big scary gangsters.
I pushed the glass away and leaned back. “So he saved your life then. Hit some guy with a bottle and saved your ass.”
“That’s pretty much it.”
“And here you are now, thriving.”