Page 54

“I’m so over this fucking shit” I moan. We pulled an all nighter on some bullshit surveillance job only to be home less than an hour before being given something new to do. “I hate how hard your dad has us working. We should be enjoying ourselves, not being whipping boys for some gang banger.”

“I know,” Axel’s response is tight. I can’t tell if he actually agrees with me or if he’s just trying to keep the peace. He’s been even more uptight than usual lately, especially where his dad’s concerned.

“We didn’t even ask to sign up for this shit,” I rant. I”m on a roll now, my dangerous anger sparking and threatening to get the better of me. “It’s always the same shit. ‘Shake this guy down for money, rough this asshole up a bit, threaten that one’s family. Good work, boys, now can you get rid of half a dozen bodies for me.’ I’ve had enough, Axel, I didn’t sign up for this! I don’t care what perks there are to being in your dad’s favour, I didn’t want this!”

“What do you want?”

“Right now? A day off and twenty-four-hours solid sleep. The chance to hang out with Peony without being called away and having to lie to her, and maybe a really large greasy pizza.”

“Okay, the pizza I can do. I’ll speak to my father about the other stuff but if you only get one day off and you want to sleep and see Peony, you can’t snooze for twenty-four hours.”

“Unless she sleeps with me,” I muse. Axel huffs, unimpressed with my joke. Nothing is funny to him anymore where Peony’s concerned. “I bet if we had their money, power and connections we could do a much better job.”

“I know we will.”

Axel’s pitch is so low I almost think I imagined it. “Huh?”

“It’s only a matter of time. They have to retire eventually. I’m pretty sure my father’s training us up to take the reins of the…business. Hence us having to sample every aspect of their enterprise.”

I scoff at that. If Axel’s control freak scale is off the charts, his dad’s is in another stratosphere. He’ll never stand down or hand over shit. And Axel damn well knows it too.

Axel sighs. “We shouldn’t have sat down. I don’t want to get up now either, but those two fridge vans aren’t going to empty themselves.”

I grind my teeth at the thought. Who would have thought that refrigerated delivery vans would be the perfect ruse for storing and transporting bodies all over the city.

Unfortunately, our bonus job is now to empty them and dispose of the evidence. They probably haven’t even been chopped up ready for us, which means hours of back breaking work ahead.

Axel’s phone beeps with an incoming text and he looks at it before swearing quietly.

“Do I even want to know?” I complain.

“No. But I’m going to tell you anyway…we have cleanup on the vans when we’re done too.”

Now I really groan.

“For fuck’s sake. Why are we being punished?”

“Fuck knows. Bring the enzyme cleaners, we’re dealing with brain matter.”

Fuck my life, that shit hardens like cement. “Yay.”