Sonya groaned when her alarm went off, and barely opened her eyes to glare at it while she pressed the button to shut it up.
“I’m sick,” she mumbled, giggled to herself, and then snuggled deeper into her covers; she was almost asleep when she remembered why she hadn’t turned off her alarm.
Growling and pouting, she sat up and looked around for her cell phone. When she didn’t find it, she frowned and thought hard about where she might have left it.
“Ah, ha!” she said and leaned over the side of her bed, grabbing the jeans she’d taken off when Lloyd had told her to strip; the phone was in one of the pockets. “Found ya!”
With a huge yawn, she pushed a couple of buttons and brought up the phone number for the hospital she needed to call to report off work. She pressed ‘send’ and waited through six rings before the call went to someone’s voice mail.
When it beeped after the little recording, she said in a croaky voice: “This is Sonya Garret, calling to let you know that I’m sick and won’t be in today.”
She pressed end, yawned, and laid back down to get some more rest.
~ * ~
Lloyd awoke to a loud pounding noise; he sat up straight, rubbed his eyes, and tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. After a full minute, he realized the pounding was coming from a different room than the one he was in. His brain fog cleared quickly at the meaning of someone possibly trying to break into his abode.
He stood swiftly and picked up a 9mm pistol from the corner of his desk as he passed it, before he ventured out into the hallway to investigate the noise; it was coming from the living room area of the house.
With cautious steps he headed down the hall, holding the pistol with both hands, pointing it toward the ceiling. When he arrived in the living room – which was now nothing more than an empty, decayed, dusty space – he realized someone was knocking on the front door. He stood silently for a few moments, wondering what he should do. Logic told him to stay quiet and hope whoever was out there would just leave, thinking there was no one here. The house, and the neighborhood, had been abandoned years ago. From the faded sign that hung drunkenly, but still graced the entrance to the housing development, the acreage and buildings had been for sale for a long time.
“Open the fucking door!” a harsh, familiar voice barked from the other side of the thick wood.
Lloyd smirked and let his grip on the pistol grow lax, allowing it to fall from its ready position to be held by one hand at his side.
“Butch,” he muttered and shook his head.
Walking forward swiftly, he retrieved the key hanging from a small metal hook beside the door and unlock the padlock on the door.
“‘Bout fucking time, man!” the huge red-headed bulk of a man standing in the doorway with a bag hanging over his muscular shoulder said with a smirk, as Lloyd opened the door.
“Get in here, you big bastard,” Lloyd scolded, stepping back to allow his guest entrance.
“Why?” Butch asked, holding his hands palm up, motioning around him. “There’s no one here to see me anyway!”
Lloyd laughed. “No, there shouldn’t be, but I try to be cautious because bums could be hanging around in the empty houses, and they tell things way to easily when the cops are offering food.”
“Right you are, my friend,” Butch said, stepping inside.
Lloyd quickly closed and re-secured the door.
“I see nothing has changed,” Butch said, looking around in the dim, almost nonexistent light. “You always did pick fancy digs.”
“Whatever,” Lloyd said, rolling his eyes. “How did you find the house I was in?” He remembered telling Butch the development’s name, but not the number of the house he was living in.
“210,” Butch said, and laughed. “You always pick the place with the number 210.”
“Oh,” Lloyd said, tucking the gun he was still holding into the back waistband of his boxers; it slid down and he shrugged, deciding to just continue holding it. “I didn’t know you’d been paying that close of attention to my habits.”
“I pay attention to a lot of things people think I don’t,” Butch said, grinning broadly. “I don’t suppose you have a place I could take a hot shower do you? Perhaps at that hot little number’s house?”
“Who?” Lloyd asked, pretending not to know what Butch was talking about, while he gripped the gun tighter as he waited for the man’s answer.
Butch shrugged. “No one in particular… You just always seemed to have a hot, sexy broad tucked away wherever you were working.” He winked. “Thought maybe she’d have a nicer place, with hot water.”
“I have hot water,” Lloyd said, walking past Butch, deeper into the house; he turned down the hallway. “Come on, bathroom’s this way.”
“Wow!” Butch teased, following. “This really is high scale for you! Hot water and all, in one place!”
Lloyd shrugged, but didn’t bother to turn back when he said, “I got lucky this time. They left the water on even though they’ve cut electric to the place.”
Butch nudged the generator beside the bathroom door with the toe of his leather boot.
“You always were a resourceful one,” he said. “Do I need to wait for the water to heat?”
“No,” Lloyd said. “I knew you were coming so I left it on all night.”
“You’re a good friend,” Butch teased, shrugging off the bag he had slung over his shoulder. “Gonna share your woman too?”
“No,” Lloyd said, turned, and walked back into his bedroom, where he proceeded to get dressed; he heard Butch’s booming laugh echo through the house for a few moments before a door slammed and the sound was muffled.
After he was fully dressed, he texted Sonya, telling her good morning and that he’d be staying away from her house for awhile, since Butch had just arrived. He didn’t like the comments the man was making. Since they hadn’t worked together since before he and Sonya had started seeing each other, he didn’t think the man knew about their relationship, but Butch did know Sonya from a brief interaction on a job he’d been working when they’d met. He knew she didn’t like the man, but he couldn’t figure out why, and while he pretended to, he didn’t believe it was because he was too violent. Butch had to have done something or said something to Sonya that she hadn’t liked – that was the only explanation that made sense. He wished she would confide in him and tell him what the issue was, and he’d been disappointed when she hadn’t told him what she really thought of Butch when he’d asked her last night. There wasn’t anything he could do about it though, so he planned to wait and see how things went while they were all working the family job together.
~ * ~
Sonya opened her eyes again when her phone chirped and vibrated under her hand, close to her head; she smiled slightly when she realized she’d fallen back to sleep still holding her phone. A glance at her alarm clock told her she’d slept for three more hours. Yawning and stretching, she pulled up the text and read it, frowning at the message.
With a sigh, she replied, telling Lloyd that she’d miss him and keep him up to date with what she found out about the FBI, and if anything happened with their plans.
Since she was already awake, she called Jan and left a message after the beep when the woman didn’t answer the phone, saying she wanted to see what time her meeting was, and if she’d found anything out yet. While she waited for Jan to call her back, she rolled over and closed her eyes again, but she didn’t fall asleep right away. Images of Butch the Butcher flashed through her brain. She heard pain-filled screams and saw blood spraying through the air and all over his body while he grinned and killed like a crazy man, enjoying every minute of it.
~ * ~
Butch was refreshed from his shower and was looking forward to picking on Lloyd a little more. He’d never liked the little weasel who seemed to always make more money on jobs when they worked together. If he hadn’t been hurting so badly for funds, he wouldn’t have agreed to come and do this job; he didn’t want any part of anything Lloyd was working on. But, alas, money came first, over his preference for coworkers.
He left the bathroom and turned down the hall, entering the other room with a generator standing outside the door without knocking.
“I see you’re dressed now,” he teased Lloyd, who was sitting fully dressed on a metal chair, in front of a laptop computer. “What happened to the wild topless look?”
Lloyd, knowing Butch was trying to bait him by referring to his state of undress and crazy hair from earlier when he’d jumped out of bed to answer the door, he didn’t respond; he’d forgotten how annoying the big man could be. Glancing briefly over at Butch, he blinked blankly as if he was indifferent to the man who was almost seven feet tall and two hundred and fifty pounds – much bulkier than he was. The man’s sheer size intimidated him, but he never let that show. He knew he had the brains and this man just had the brawn, and many times before he’d proven how that could really benefit him and give him the advantage. But he was also aware that Butch knew he’d been bested as well, so he was always careful around the larger man and tried not to provoke him unnecessarily.
“Fancy,” Butch said, plopping down on Lloyd’s bed with a sigh, causing the metal springs and frame to squeal in protest. “It almost looks like a prison cell in here, except for the computer.” He smirked at Lloyd’s back, watching him tap on the keyboard, typing rapidly. “Tell me more about this job… I remember Jennings, but not too well. Doesn’t he work with a couple of other guys and a hot blonde woman? Oh, what was her name…”
“Sonya,” Lloyd said flatly, “and yes, that’s his team. One of the guys he used to work with retired, but the other is still working with them. They hired a new guy, but he pissed me off.” He paused and shrugged slightly. “I offered you as a replacement.”
“Pissed you off?” Butch asked, and laughed. “I can’t see that being a threat to anyone’s health.”
Lloyd didn’t answer, but shrugged again.
“So…what will we be doing?” Butch asked, continuing to press for information. “You said something about a family and a lot of money.”
“Yes, we’re harvesting a family,” Lloyd said, paused, and typed for a couple more seconds, then stopped and turned sideways in the chair so he could look at Butch. “The blood type of the father was AB Negative, so we’re hoping that the kids share it. We plan to cut them up and sell their organs to the highest bidder and reap one hell of a pay day.”
Butch whistled. “AB Negative, huh? Sounds like it could be quite lucrative since it’s the rarest blood type in the world. What would I have to do?” He grinned broadly, hoping for a piece of the bloody action.
“You’ll pose as a mover and help to sedate the family and get them into a moving van.”
“That’s it?” Butch asked. “I don’t get to chop anyone up?”
“No,” Lloyd said, shaking his head. “Jennings and Sonya will be doing all the cutting up and harvesting of the parts. They’re truly professionals at what they do and I can get more money for their precision work than I can for your hacking.”
Butch blinked at Lloyd for a moment, trying to decide if he should be insulted or not; he decide on not, because this was business and he wanted to make as much money as possible even if he couldn’t get his hands bloody.
“What’s my cut?” he asked, expecting Lloyd to give him a smaller figure than the rest of the group would get.
“Even split,” Lloyd said, noting the slight look of shock on the other man’s face, smiling. “Did you expect less?”
Butch shrugged and tried to hide his surprise.
“Usually I get a flat fee for being the muscle,” he said.
Lloyd nodded his understanding. “I know, but that’s not how this team works. They all have their specific tasks and depend on each other, so they feel everyone should get an equal share of the profits because no one can do the job without the role of the other people.”
“Sounds like a bunch of tree huggin’ freaks!” Butch said, and laughed. “But I don’t mind if they want to share their money – I’ll take it.”
“We have awhile before the meeting with Jennings,” Lloyd said, “so you can lay down and take a nap if you want.” He nodded toward the bed and turned back to the computer.
“Sounds good,” Butch said, laying down, causing the metal of the bed to protest even more. “It was a long drive getting here, and it sounds like you’ll be keeping me busy for the foreseeable future.”
Lloyd didn’t respond and relaxed a bit once he heard Butch’s snores behind him, signaling to him that the man was asleep.
