Thank you Petronille, MDawn, and FrostyAutumn for reviews!
Grady continued to spot the person in the red jacket. It mattered much less who it was now that she knew what it was. She stood at a crossroads. Two choices. Her decision surprised her but maybe it shouldn't have. Had she changed or was this the Grady that was buried?
"I thought you hired me to make less work for yourself? Couldn't you have one of the boys bring me the numbers?"
Florence the accountant was sharp. Very sharp indeed.
"Aye well, you know how it is," Grady said. "You want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I'm doing you a favor and keeping Connor away."
Florence laughed. "Connor isn't so bad... I heard you have a partner in crime, no pun intended. But the boys are very secretive about it. Will I ever meet him?"
"I don't expect you will. Likes to keep himself to himself."
Florence raised a thin brow over her cup of coffee. "How mysterious."
"Not so much mysterious as careful. Funny thing about secrets is, they aren't very secret when they're spread around."
"Yes, funny how that works." She set down her coffee and picked up her paperwork without batting an eyelash.
She was very good, no doubt about it. But Grady was just a little better.
"You look good in orange."
It was a lucky thing a pane of glass separated her from Charlie to protect her from the glare she received which surely would have burned a hole through her.
"Here to take the piss?" Charlie shook his head. "I was a fool to let you anywhere near my business. I think I've paid sufficiently."
Grady shifted in her seat, checked over shoulder. Walking into prison felt like tempting fate.
"Sorry. I'm a shit... look, you understand why I had to do what I did?"
"You sacrificed an old friendship for personal gain," he shrugged. "What else is there to understand?"
"Mate, you have to believe I wasn't going to. But the business you were running... I couldn't find out about that and walk away."
"Saint Grady," he spat and pointed through the glass. "You've no right to judge me. I'm sure your crimes outnumber mine."
She gave a nod. "That may be true. But I've never robbed a person of everything that makes them their own."
Charlie threw up his hands. "What can I say? If you aren't here to gloat, what are you here for?"
Grady leaned back in her chair. "Shouldn't it be obvious?"
Charlie scowled. "What, I'm supposed to admit to something?"
"Just wondering where you found Florence. She's good at what she does."
Charlie cursed loud enough to draw the attention of one of the corrections officers. He forced a smile to his face and the officer stepped away. When he turned back to Grady he wore a menacing expression she'd had no idea he possessed.
"Grady, if you hurt her I swear by all the saints that the next time I try to get even with you, I won't fail."
She folded her arms on the small ledge in front of the window. "Ah, so it's personal then. I'm in no position to hurt Florence. Well, I could... but what I've done here is quite delicate and I'm not about to throw it off kilter out of spite. See, I'm quite unhappy with you. But also impressed with you. And her. I almost didn't catch what you were doing in time. In some ways it was already too late for me. But I've done some damage control. I'll live. And I won't rot in a cell either. But I won't have the future I planned for. So congratulations on that, I suppose."
Charlie brooded over his clasped hands. "I thought you weren't here to gloat."
"I'm not. I came for a shred of security. You gave it to me. I had no way of knowing for sure you sent Florence to leak information unless one of you admitted it. It seemed logical, but it was a guess."
"Unbelievable," Charlie sagged like a man defeated. "But if you caught on too late... what have you done to fix it? I don't understand."
"Trade secret," Grady said.
Charlie gave a long sigh. "I suppose I should have stayed on your good side. How was I to know you'd object to the trafficking?"
"I liked how you used to be. It's a shame you refused to like him yourself," Grady said quietly, barely audible through the speaker in the glass. "Should have kept your soul or at least a bit of it."
"That's rich coming from you," he replied. "Hypocritical even."
She gave a short, bitter laugh. "One thing that's come of this... it's surprised even me to find I do have a soul. A small one."
"And your soul will stop you from hurting Florence? She's only trying to help me," Charlie pleaded.
Grady stood and adjusted her jacket. "Such concern... but no," she laughed. "That's pure practical motivation. And I do like her, you know. You chose well."
"You would," Charlie smirked. "She reminds me of you, in a way. Tell me then, what are you going to do?"
"You'll find out soon enough. But I don't expect you'll be seeing me again," she pressed her palm to the glass. "So in that case... let's call it even?"
"How can I do that when I don't know what you're planning?" Charlie said. "You can hardly blame me for being frightened."
She took her hand from the glass. "Nothing to be frightened of. I'm not going to carry on this grudge forever. Because I am sorry I had to turn you in and I'm sorry you turned out this way. It occurred to me that maybe I could have done more for you. Maybe things would have been different."
He fixed her with blue eyes. There was a flicker of his old smile. "Goodbye then, Grady. Maybe you weren't lying about your soul." He raised his hand to the window.
She had just enough time to give him a pseudo handshake before the officer told Charlie not to touch the glass.
Grady tried to settle down Fionn.
"It's alright. They want us to be scared. That's the point."
She scratched at his wiry fur and tried to avoid the smell of his breath. He was panting like it was a hot summer day, a sign of his nerves. She looked away from the big dog. The sight of him made her sick at heart. If this was what having a soul felt like, she was not sure it was worth it.
For once, Oswald arrived on time.
"There's no sign of anyone lurking around," he reported. "But I'm not sure it's a good sign. I've had Gabe do sweeps, but he turned up nothing."
"I told you not to use Gabe. He has more important things to do."
"I find it hard to believe you're comfortable with the idea of someone watching your home. Because I'm not at all. And neither is Fionn, clearly," He nodded at the panting dog who pushed his way through the curtain to look out the shop windows.
"I think I'd enjoy terrorizing whoever has frightened you," he added.
"Remember when I was supposed to get all misty eyed over that watch you planned to kill me with?"
"Don't remind me," he rolled his eyes. "I was drunk."
"I was just going to say, I find this much more touching. To hear you threaten my stalkers, it warms the heart," she teased.
"Good. Because I've stopped by for your company mostly."
He watched her to see what she would do. It was funny how he could still be shy at times. That pesky soul was bothering her again. Throbbing like a broken bone. The thing that had gotten her into this mess.
"We can forget about the stalkers at any rate. They're not the real concern. I fell for the oldest trick in the book."
"What are you talking about?" he frowned.
"Here, let me show you something." She took a seat and he followed. Curled around her with his arm on the back of the couch. Had it really been months ago that they sat on opposite ends and glared at each other like animals claiming territory?
Grady fished in her pocket for a coin. "You might know how this is done. But if you do, pretend you don't." With a few deft motions of her hand the coin appeared and disappeared. As if it were swallowed by space, pinched into nothing. "Now, where were your eyes?"
"Here," he twined his fingers in her left hand. "But the coin stayed in the right. I know how sleight of hand works."
"Correct. The motion is fairly simple," she showed the palming technique, now clear and obvious in her right hand since he still had hold of her left. "The left is key. The left distracts from what's really happening."
"Magic tricks. You are full of surprises," he smiled. Again, she was reminded of months ago. Oswald used to look at her as though he were trying to decide the best way to kill her. Ironic how the smile had proved to be more dangerous.
"There's a point to this though," he continued. "You're saying the person in red... is a distraction? From what exactly?"
"That's the question, isn't it," she kept her eyes on their twisted fingers.
"If you don't know, you can't be sure. Maybe they want you to think they're a distraction. A false sense of security," he suggested.
"That could be," she said, because it was easier to agree.
"There's something you're not telling me," he said.
Damn how well he knew her. She kissed him to keep him quiet. Kissed him as her soul snarled up and pushed out her fingers, her mouth. He was surprised by how soft she was. Tender even. Something was wrong. He couldn't let her mouth and her hands lull him. Distract him. Her clever hands that could sleight.
"You'll tell me your secrets Grady." He ran his hands over her for they had grown just as clever.
"In due time," she agreed.
I did think about drawing out that first meeting with Charlie, but I always planned to bring him back in the end! But I had to keep it a secret of course.
As a heads up, the next chapter will be the last and will explain what both Grady and Charlie were up to.
