āIt was supposed to be a fucking meeting. Arin watched their exchange, keeping his expression blank, and wondered if the two fuckheads who had hired him had missed the message that was being laid out plain in front of them. This wasn't a meeting; it was a fucking ultimatum. āFuck me.
āBoth of Remi's guards were armed ā pistols, maybe blades ā and would his organization care if he fucking bit it? Syndicate politics was the last fucking thing Arin wanted to be involved in, and would they come after him if this bullshit turned into a firefight? The cunts at the table were the fucking hand, really ā Arin was just the gun, and if some other fucker used Remi's corpse as a fucking stepping stone to replace him, would they bother to give a fuck?
ā"Fuck you." Kory growled, sending the phone back across the table and into the brunet's lap. Remi picked it up calmly and held it back up over his shoulder, where it was taken off his hands immediately. ā"So you've fucked us, you think." NiƱo rested his chin on his hands. "Like we don't have⦠contingencies. Like we got no fucking backup plans. Backed into a corner, right?" He drew his shoulders up. "So why're we talking? What's in it for us? 'Cause you don't own the fucking market in Batteryā" He does. Arin suppressed an eye roll. "āAnd you sure as fuck don't own our fucking shit."
ā"I do." Remi took a slow drag. "We're talkin' 'cause I'm offerin' ya a chance." His eyes flitted between the two men across from him at the table. "Y'wanna move product, fine. Move it for me. You'll still make more silver than you'll know how ta spend," he lifted a shoulder in a careless half-shrug and dropped it, "ain't a big cut." ā"Bigger than none," Kory jabbed his finger onto the table's surface to accentuate his point, "which is what our own fucking operation gets us. Why the fuck should we pay you?" ā"Be fuckin' serious," Remi made a disdainful grimace. "What operation? Somethin' y'ain't gettin'?" ā"Yeah, yeah, motherfucker, we heard you." NiƱo held a hand up for his partner to shut it, which he did, begrudgingly. "Now hear me." He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "Fuck. You." āKory smirked triumphantly. Remi resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
ā"I've taken down bigger'n you two. 'N this ain't a bargain ā 's fuckin' charity." Remi sat back in his chair. "Ain't yes 'r no. 'S yes or you're both gettin' dropped. Now." ā"The fuckā" Kory sputtered and scrambled to his feet, aiming a pistol at Remi with an arm that was shaking with either fear or rage. He didn't move. Remi didn't have to look over his shoulders to know that he already had two guns pointed back at him; Amari and Tom. ā"Sit down," he said calmly. ā"Fuck you!" āRemi sighed, annoyed, his attention moving from Kory to NiƱo to Arin. All three were looking at him. Kory with some mix of panic and rage, NiƱo with wariness, and the mercenary with⦠irritation? Remi's eyes flicked once more between the two upstarts and their hire, settling on his mismatched ones. ā"Double," he said, no change in his expression. Arin looked back equally unchanged ā but Remi saw the debate in his eyes. ā"What?" Kory bellowed, his head whipping back and forth, not knowing where to look. āRemi ignored him. "Triple." ā"Enough with the fucking merc!" Kory took a step forward. Tom and Amari reacted immediately, countering him so in sync that he looked like he'd almost stumbled back again.


















