The Little Thief || Gay MxM ||

4. Mafia Charm

Payton and I stayed by the pond the entire day. Neither of us was in a hurry to go back home. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to see Kent's face ever again, but we didn't really have a choice at that moment. Besides, all our belongings were back at the camp. And I did want to talk to Derek and the other alphas to see what everyone actually thought about stealing babies. Part of me wished there was at least one alpha who had enough good in them to do the right thing.

I mean, it wasn't unusual for a clan to split up over different opinions. Maybe we could take everyone who opposed the idea of stealing babies and make a new clan. That thought gave me reassurance and hope when it was time to head back home.

While we were returning, Payton suddenly disappeared into the crowd. I thought nothing of it because when the opportunity to steal appeared, we sometimes had to act quickly. But when he returned a few minutes later, he had a new wallet under his arm.

Neither of us wanted to steal from people, so I knew exactly why he'd done it this time.

"Payton..." I muttered and sighed loudly. "Why?"

He searched through the wallet and pulled a little bit of cash from it. "I, uh... Well... I figured Kent would be in a better mood if we brought some money with us."

"I told you I don't want to lift a finger to get him that money! It's his own fault he lost the guns," I said, lowering my voice as I spoke.

"Yes, you said you don't want to lift a finger, but I said no such things. Besides, I really don't want to sleep outside tonight," he told me sternly. "I hardly slept last night, and I need my beauty sleep."

I let out a sigh, but gave up. "How much did you get?"

He counted through the cash. "A little over fifty bucks. We can give him fifty and keep the rest."

"Or we just keep it all," I mumbled, but he gave me a stern stare.

"We need to act cool, okay? We need to be careful with him," he said, and put the cash into his pocket, then left the wallet on a bench we passed by.

And almost an hour later, we arrived at home. We heard quiet talking as we climbed to the second floor and passed by the pillars that held the parking garage together. When we stepped into our clan's view, they all stopped talking and turned to stare at us.

Kent was there too, sitting by the fire.

"So? Do you have my money?" he asked and turned to look away from me.

I chose not to reply to him, but Payton stepped forward.

"We got you fifty bucks. I know it's not much, but it's a start, right?" he spoke timidly.

I hated the fact that he feared Kent...

"Fifty bucks?" Kent repeated and stood up.

I stepped in front of Payton to glare at Kent, who took a few steps toward us.

"Fifty bucks?" he repeated again, anger rising on his face. "I told you I need nine hundred by the end of the week."

"And I told you–" I began angrily, but Payton elbowed me on my side so hard I snapped my mouth shut in pain.

"We'll get it," Payton said, and stepped past me to give him the money. "We will get it."

"You'd better," Kent said and took the money, but he didn't leave us alone. "I have a new job for you. If you care about the wellbeing of this clan and all the members in it, that is," he said so passive aggressively that I wanted to shout no to his face and go to bed.