Wicked Company

Chapter Twenty-Five

~ Present day ~

"Jesus fucking hell. Do you remember when I said you were the most dramatic person I've ever met?" Hawkins rolled his eyes, narrowing them further the longer his gaze lingered.

"Huh... vaguely. Pretty sure I told you I hated you with every fucking fiber of my being right after, yeah? Or was that another time when I just wanted to remind you that I hated you? With absolutely every, and I mean every, fiber of my being?"

"Boo who. How will I possibly go on?"

"Keep talking shit and you won't. Test me. I'll shoot your goddamn birdy little ass down." I pressed my hands into the table for leverage to stand slowly.

"Please tell me I can actually arrest her for that? Can that count as a anything? An act of terrorism? Being an excessive little shit?"

Miles rubbed at his temples, closing his eyes with a groan in an attempt to drown us out. Hawkins rolled his eyes and glared back at me, and just to egg him on more, I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him, fixing my expression back to normal before Miles could see.

Hawkins snapped, jumping from his chair and pointing at me, but Miles was quick to react to the outburst. Slamming his hands down on the metal table, the top reverberated around the room, vibrating my chair.

"I told you to stop antagonizing her, goddammit! Sit down and shut up or I swear to fucking Christ, I'll let Ava decide your punishment." Hawkins paled, his face blank as though he'd seen a ghost. Sitting down without another word, he fixated his eyes on the table, his wide-eyed look slow to return to normal.

I snorted a laugh, wishing so desperately I could see the tiny woman bark orders at the two men in front of me. Miles' angry gaze landed on me next and I almost winced.

"Fucking behave and stop biting each other's throats. You know what's at stake here. Don't fuck it up or you'll go home to an empty bed with no explanation as to why he's not there. Got it?"

Grumbling, I crossed my arms over my chest and gave a curt nod. "Got it, dad. Thanks for the time out. Can I tell my story now without Tweety bird over there interrupting, again?"

"Dani, I highly suggest you lose the attitude. I'm losing my patience with both of you assholes. You two are going to make me pull my hair out."

"Save that for Ava." I threw the joke back at him, gambling with the prod, but I had a feeling it would work. And it did. His lip cocked up in a smile and he huffed a laugh, just her name spoken aloud enough to calm him down.

I narrowed my eyes at Hawkins, who glared back wordlessly. Clearing my throat, I pulled my legs up to sit cross-legged in my chair, ignoring the uncomfortable pang of the metal boring into my ankles.

"Now, back to my story. I might've exaggerated when I said 'murdered', sure, but I explained that to him."

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~ Four years ago ~

"Well, okay, he wasn't technically murdered. But in a way... it's hard to explain if you don't know what happened. So-" I took a deep breath, glancing quickly up at Tucker, who sat silently next to me, "-my uncle worked full time as a janitor. The problem was, he was an immigrant from Sorrento, Italy. And his boss was a stupid, conniving, ball-less fucking piece of-"

Tucker smirked down at me, trying to keep his composure as I veered off track.

"Sorry. Anyway. The man's a fucking prick. He doesn't like anyone different than his old, American, white male ass. Zio used to work fifty, sometimes sixty hours a week cleaning every inch on every floor of that giant ass building. But his paychecks were always fucked. He'd be paid for fifteen, maybe twenty hours if he was lucky. And that was biweekly."