Primal Pursuit

“I’m serious,” he mutters, sitting and ordering a double.

“Finished with your, uh, congregation?”

“Managed to get a load off my mind.”

“What brought tonight on?”

He offers me a grin that’s on the wrong side of wicked and a little worn at the edges. “A man can’t unwind?”

“It’s how you fucking did it.”

He looks at the pretty bartender and says, “My friend will also have a double.”

“Jesus, fuck, you cunt, I wasn’t looking to get drunk.”

“Can’t handle your liquor?”

“I’ve already sunk a few.”

“Dunno man, sometimes this fucking job…”

“The Elite?”

He shakes his head. “Being a priest.”

“You mean pretending to be a priest.”

He sighs as the drinks arrive and nods to me. “Pay up.”

I do, but mutter, “I’m pretty sure pretending to be a holy man has you on a paved road to hell.”

Tobias gives me such an incredulous look, and I forgive him just a little. But there’s something on his mind. So I prod. “So not us?”

He shakes his head. “Fuck, man, today I’m just doing what I’m supposed to and this fucking kid comes in. I’m alone, and she’s all stoic. She tries to make confession, she’s dirty, way too skinny, and the bruises…”

He picks up his drink and takes a long swallow. “Her father, her fucking father.”

There’s a darkness there in his words, and I know what he’s saying.

I shift in my seat. “If he’s abusing her, even on just the physical beat-up-your-kid way, call the cops.”

This isn’t standard advice for one of us, but Tobias is in a delicate position. He can’t storm into some house and blow the man away or even beat him to a pulp. We all have our role to play, but our number one rule is to not play on instinct when it comes to Dark Sovereign business, or business that can be construed as such.

“What are you going to do?”

Tobias shrugs. “Get drunk? Call in Gabriel? He’ll be happy to take fucking care of someone like that. Alexius?”

“There’s shit going down already. You and Gabriel are going to have to sort the girls we’re extracting. Find safe places for those who don’t want to work at a club, and takethose who do to the safehouse so they can heal up before joining the business. So keep your fucking nose clean.”

“Says the cunt fucking a certain bundle of trouble.”

Tobias is fucking pissed off. He knows he can’t do exactly what he wants to do.

I shake my head. “Revenge, retaliation, all that shit is best when you’re calm and calculating.”

“Like fucking Penelope Parish?”

I put my hand on the back of his neck and squeeze. “I know the pressure points to take you out, either for good or temporarily. Do not fuck with me. You already fucked with me enough on this.”