A/N: Here's the next chapter! Sorry this took so frecking long...
And be grateful! I broke my effing GIGAPAUSE to write this chapter because I felt bad for not updating in so damn long.
Chapter 5: All Men Are Assholes (Yes, even Rudy)
All men are assholes. Every single one of them. If they weren't necessary to reproduce, I'd say, 'kill 'em all, the bastards'.
Now, there are some men I can consistently stand being around, but at this point Rajan was not one of them. He was avoiding me and therefore making me upset, and my depression quickly gave way to anger. Every time he so much as accidentally got close to me, I spat insults at him. Very swear-word infested insults.
It was over a month after Keaton's return attack, and Ritchie had finally given me the all clear for my head, since it had showed signs of still being extremely jumbled up till then. Despite my jumbled mind, I had insisted on stealing Hell's Unholy Mess, and had done so.
Rudy hung out with me often, helping me with Speakeasy and giving me ideas if I ever wanted to write a sequel.
Lindsey hung out with us as well, making comment on certain situations and giving me ideas for stuff she might say in certain situations. We were in the kitchen doing this one day, laughing it up and basically just having an all-around good time. Ritchie walked in, smiling at us.
"Speakeasy, again?" He asked.
I nodded, "We actually probably shouldn't be laughing." I confessed, "I just killed off one of the employees."
He barked a laugh and rolled his eyes, "Leave it to you to make something like that into a joke. How'd you kill them, anyway?"
"Well, he was low on money and was heading off to be a nark in hopes of getting some cash, so Frankie sorta cracked him upside the head with a golf club before stringing him up by a rope around his waist and shooting him repeatedly in the head."
Ritchie stared at me silently for a while before shaking his head. "You kill off characters in the most brutal ways, Sophie."
"It was the 1920s!" I exclaimed defensively.
"That's no excuse for killing somebody off so brutally."
"Yeah, actually, it was. Much worse things happened." I said wisely, "I did my research."
After a second I added, "Not to mention, Devi Ray Cooper was a part-time Flapper. She's got the most gruesome stories."
I saw, briefly, Rajan peek into the kitchen. When he saw me he quickly left. I felt a stab of what I thought was insult.
...One that quickly turned into pain. You don't feel insult in your shoulder anyway.
I shook my head to clear it and touched my shoulder. Lindsey and the others were confused until I pulled the small spike out and showed it to them. All of us turned to look out the kitchen window. I saw a brief flash of blue and green, and a very male face, and then whoever had thrown the spike was gone.
Rajan hadn't left because of me. He'd been trying not to get hit.
...So nice of him to tell us to get out of the way.
Frowning, I stood and was quick to climb out the kitchen window and onto the roof. I could see the spike-thrower running away, mostly his lynx-like tail. On instinct, I grabbed my knife and threw it.
It caught the lynx just below the ribs and I had to cringe a bit. Injuries anywhere near the ribs hurt like the dickens.
In one hop I was off the kitchen roof and a few yards away from the hideout, landing in a crouch so my first move after that was a very cat-like lunge - the Feral Pounce. I only had to repeat the move once and then I was next to my prey. I carefully removed my knife from his side and he groaned.
He was, as I had initially thought, a lynx. Much like me, he was black and gray, but his gray fur was darker than mine. As was typical for a lynx, he was sort of short, but I couldn't be sure how old he was.
While I was examining him, he opened one eye. Fear and pain were the dominant emotions in his eye.
...And damn his eyes were pretty. They were mostly blue, with some green around his pupils and on the edge of his iris. He even had little brown and gold flecks in them. Whoa. Swoon. Thankfully, I managed not to swoon out loud.
"There a particular reason you decided to literally spike me in the shoulder?" I asked, keeping a blank expression.
"Um..." He gulped.
"Yes?"
"I-I'm not supposed to tell..." He seemed near tears, "If I tell... He'll hurt my mom."
I may or may not have let some concern creep into my expression. "How old are you, kid?"
"Fourteen." He said shakily.
"Come on." I said blankly, "I'm taking you to Henry."
He looked confused, but allowed me to pick him up. I carried him toward the hideout. "I'm taking the kid to Henry." I called up to Ritchie, who was leaning out the kitchen window, "Tell Rudy to come and give me the van keys."
He nodded and disappeared back inside. When I got to it, I opened up the back of the van and put the kid on one of the seats. "Try not to bleed on my interior."
He said nothing, but clamped one hand over his injury. My shoulder hurt, though I was mostly ignoring it, and so I adjusted my shirt until I could sit in the driver's seat without bleeding on it.
"Here." Rudy handed me the keys, "Just so you know, I think you need to change the oil soon, and this baby's prob'ly due for a tune up."
I nodded, "Thanks, Rudy. I'll do that when I get home."
He nodded and backed off so I could leave.
"So..." The kid said quietly as we made our way to Henry's house.
I looked at him in the rearview mirror.
"You are Sophie Cooper, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Just... Making sure I didn't mess up too bad."
I didn't question him. We pulled up to Henry's house, and I noticed his cruiser was gone. I hummed and pulled around back so no one would see the van. Probably better the kid didn't know Henry was a cop.
I let the kid out and walked him up to the back door, picking the lock with ease of practice.
"Is 'Henry' going to mind that you picked the lock on his back door?"
"If he does, I'll just have to remind him that he never gave me a key and he told me to 'always make myself at home'."
The kid looked sort of perplexed, but followed me inside regardless. He gave a low whistle as he looked around. "Geez, it looked big from outside, but damn."
"I said pretty much the same thing the first time I came here." I smirked at him, "Now come on. I probably ought to patch you up so Henry doesn't have a coniption about me throwing a knife at you."
I did bandage him up and after some argument I convinced him to tell me who had told him to attack me. He insisted on bandaging my shoulder before he did, though.
"I... My step-dad put me up to it." He finally said, "He always tells me to do stuff, and if I don't do it he hurts my mom. His name is Dodger. He told me to attack you because his boss wanted you... wanted you to be on your toes."
"Who's his boss?"
"I don't know his name. He's a fox."
That sounded like Keaton. Not because he was a fox - hell no, Ritchie was a fox! - but because he had had a kid attack me so I'd be 'on my toes'. Man, what an asshole.
Eventually I decided to just take the kid back with me to the hideout without seeing Henry. Unfortunately, he noticed that I'd used some of his bandages and I got a very swear infested call later. The kid tried not to laugh, Rudy and Ritchie were on the floor, Lindsey was giggling, and even Rajan, off in his little corner, contrived to look vaguely amused. Seriously, some grandfather figure Henry was. Cussing out his grandbaby!
...Yep. All men are definitely assholes.