Lady of the Night (Downworlder Series, #3)

Chapter Nine: Blood Money

"The complete opposite of your type." Short and squat and unkempt. He was a drug dealer who used his own stock. The very far side of what Ginessa liked in her bed. She didn't mind the occasional joint or two but she didn't do tweakers.

"So the ape standing outside having a smoke right now?" There was a hint of amusement to her voice, a faint edge of laughter that mixed with her excitement.

"More than likely." Smoking was one of his less evil habits.

"What do you need him for?" Curiosity slowly bled into her voice and I rolled my eyes as I moved down a dark alley. Ginessa was always curious when my killing didn't include her.

"Just cleaning up the streets." I didn't play into her games. She didn't own me, I barely worked for her. I did some jobs for her on and off but our relationship was purely business. Not that she hadn't attempted to turn me into one of her boytoys. She said I had a good figure and a tight ass she wanted to grab onto. I was flattered but I didn't mess with that dominant of females.

She muttered under her breath angrily. "Fiiiiiine, I'll leave him for you but we are getting this shit done in five minutes." She ended the call and I tucked my phone back into my pocket. I was about ten minutes from Cherry and I knew I needed to get my job done tonight. If I left anything for later the snakes would slither back to their holes to hide. I needed to get them while they were lazily basking, unaware of the danger.

My beast rumbled his approval. He liked the thought of making the streets clean to protect our family. I didn't care what Quinta thought about me or even herself, I cared only about making sure she was safe and taken care of. There was nothing else I currently needed to do. I just wanted her to stop feeling like she needed to sell herself for money to feed her siblings and to no longer worry about everything around her. She could push me away and shove at me all she wanted, I was still going to be there for her.

It was just... hard because I couldn't see into her mind. I wasn't able to simply guess what she was feeling. I had never met a female who I had troubles with that. Usually they were pretty easy to read but Quinta wore a pretty convincing mask and her actual emotions were so quick to flicker through her eyes that I couldn't pinpoint them accurately enough to make even a half assed attempt at a guess.

I shook my head, apparently i had been wrong to laugh at Sutton. Mates weren't easy and I could just imagine that she would pay me back for all the times that I had laughed at her with her situation with Ajax. That was karma for me, it came back rather quickly to bite my on the ass. My abuela would have laughed in my face as she told me stupidity would always come back around so I shouldn't act so stupid next time.

I glanced at the street name, I was only a few minutes from the street Cherry was on. I already knew where the rest of the males were. I just needed to take care Grigory and the rest and I could pick up the rest of my marks. This job paid me over twenty thousand marks and I wasn't willing to let the males get away for that type of money.

I used the back alleys to cut distance to Cherry's in half, knowing I wanted to get there before Ginessa turned the place into her personal macabre theater. I pressed my arms closer to my body, feeling the metal of my guns digging into my skin through my shirt. It was a habit, a way to double check that I was not without the means of my operation.

I stood in the shadows of the alley, surveying the front of Cherrys. I knew the usual crew would be inside, getting plastered. As I expected, Grigory was sucking down another cigarette out front. The guy smoked like he was god damn chimney, which worked for me. It was easier to take out the garbage when it stuck to a schedule. A black luxury car with heavily tinted windows was parked across the street and I immediately made my way towards it.