And despite his patience and forbearance, friendly Matthew had had enough.
“You fucking bastards…”
Only death would help them learn this lesson. You want money that badly? I’ll give it to you. Sacks full of gold and silver that you can take with you to hell. Just as I squeezed the temporary sun in my fist, a small figure cut through the crowd.
“Stop it!”
Eddie the orphan rushed up, teary-eyed, and body-slammed the man on top of April to knock him off. While the man staggered, Eddie got down and covered her.
“Move it, kid!”
“Get off!”
The crowd stomped and kicked him, but Eddie just set his jaw and curled up like a turtle’s shell, refusing to move off April.
“Hey, what are you doing…?” she demanded, not understanding what was happening.
“Shut up! Just shut up!” Eddie shouted, shortly before he was yanked backward. The man he’d knocked off April had his hands on Eddie’s hair and face, lifting him up and hurling him away.
“Get off, you damn kid.”
“No, you get off!”
Eddie didn’t give up. He bounced back to his feet and flew at the man, biting his fingers. The man screamed.
For whatever reason, he’d bought us a chance. I started to rise, looking for an opening to rescue April, when the crowd suddenly opened up. All the human scum who had been clinging to me and April so desperately melted away without warning.
Strolling down the empty space in the path was a group of hardened criminals…the Devil’s Alliance. Fire-Lightning Harrison was at the front.
“We meet again,” he said, looking down at us. He raised his hand.
His toughs spread out, blocking the alleys I might have used to escape. We were trapped by the mob. They grabbed my arms and forced me to my knees. They knocked April over and took her to the ground, too.
Harrison loomed over us, condescending and smug.
“There are three certainties in life,” he said. “Meetings, partings, and—what is the last one?”
“Assholes who preach like they’re philosophers? Trust me, trying to give yourself a quirky characterization is only going to turn into a headache for you, so you should quit while you’re ahead.”
Harrison’s foot pressed down on my head, forcing me to kiss the ground.
“The answer is ‘disaster.’”
“That’s not something I really needed explained to me.”
My life had been one disaster after another. It was the farthest thing from news.
“You guys made a real impressive entrance, but you’re just a bunch of stiffs. If you entered the costume parade, you’d get last place.”
“You sound a little too pleased with yourself, wisecracker.”
This time he kicked me in the face.
“Stop!” April cried, trying to defend me. Harrison and his men just smirked.
“Don’t worry, little girl. You’ll get your turn—in front of the old geezer.”
Harrison grabbed April by the hair and hurled her. A few silver strands clung to his fingers.
“You need some lessons in how to treat a lady, boss,” I said.
“All I need is for her to be alive.”
They only wanted April to serve as a tool to threaten the old man. They could drown her in drugs, force her to service perverts and sickos, even pull off her limbs and gouge out her eyes, as long as she was alive. And I was just a gigolo who happened to be owned by a notable figure. My life wasn’t even worth sparing.
“Unfortunately, even the old man doesn’t know where the hidden fortune is. You can bet on that one.”
He still wasn’t coughing it up, even after the hell his beloved granddaughter had been through. Clearly, he didn’t know where it was.
“You should probably leave before you embarrass yourself,” I went on. “No doubt your lover is currently entwined with a much younger man while you’re wasting your time here. You’ll be raising another man’s children. I didn’t know you were such a charitable fellow, Mr. Cuck.”
Harrison thrust the end of his knife into my mouth. The tip pricked my tongue rather painfully. April watched in terror, her face pale.
“You can’t keep quiet unless I cut out your tongue?” he said. I would have offered a rebuttal, but moving my lips and tongue would put them in contact with the blade.
“Stop it! I don’t know anything, and neither does Matthew! We’ve never even met this safekeeper! It’s true, we don’t know!” April insisted, though it was more of a plea.
Harrison picked her up by the shirt and hurled her away. “I’ll be the one to decide that.”
A member of a criminal organization was brutalizing a girl in broad daylight before a crowd, and no one moved a muscle to help. No one would stop him—not because they were afraid of the Devil’s Alliance, but because these men were the sponsors of the bounty. The only voices shouting were demanding money. Not a single person was concerned for our safety.
I could see Eddie getting stomped by mobsters through the seams of the crowd. Thankfully, April couldn’t see it. He wasn’t giving up, and even lying prone on the ground, he continued to shout something. He was probably begging for April’s life, but I couldn’t hear him. He was drowned out by the ranting of the crowd, just like our own voices.
I could see guardsmen, too, but no one was beseeching them to help us. They were unable or unwilling to attack the unruly mob around us.
I sent Harrison a pleading look. There was no way we could have a conversation like this.
“What? Are you begging for your life?”
He pulled the knife out of my mouth. It was nasty seeing all that saliva on the blade, even knowing it was mine.
April was going to end up being their plaything. Arwin would never forgive me if I just let it happen.
“All right, fine. You win. I’ll tell you where the treasure is.”