Charlie smiled. “Aw, hell, that’s like a job interview for him! Don’t you worry none about that. He’d figure if they was dumb enough to get dried by you, he don’t want them in the first place.”
“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped, setting the girl on the floor. “She’s bleeding to death while you’re making friends!”
“Just a moment, pet. Charlie and I are talking. Now, about this pie, mate. Big and sweet, you say? I’m afraid I’ll need a little more incentive to let you live than just ‘big and sweet.’ I’m sure I can find someone who would pay a pretty penny for your corpse.”
“Not as much as you can get by playing for Hennessey instead of against him.” He nodded in my direction. “You see that li’l gal your wildcat is cradling? Each one of those honeys is worth ’bout sixty large, when it’s all put to bed. We doll them up and have them work the breathers first. Then we auction ’em off to one of ours. Full meal, no cleanin’ the dishes afterwards! And then they’re a perfect plate for a hungry bone-muncher! I mean, these gals were never more useful in their lives—”
“You piece of shit!” I cried, marching toward him with my stake.
“Stay where you are, and if I have to tell you to shut it one more time, I’m going to knock your bloody head off!” Bones thundered at me.
I froze. His eyes blazed with a dangerous glint in them I hadn’t seen since we first met. All at once, I was uneasy. Was he still trying to get information out of Charlie…or being recruited instead?
“That’s better.” Bones turned his attention back to Charlie. “Now, then, you were saying?”
Charlie laughed like they’d shared a joke. “Whew! Your kitty’s high-strung, isn’t she? Better watch your small and wrinklies before she wears ’em on her belt!”
Bones laughed as well. “No chance of that, mate. She likes what they do to her too much to rob me of them.”
I felt ill, and my head started to pound. How could he waste so much time while this girl was bleeding all over the carpet? My God, what if this was the real Bones? What if everything before this had been an act? I mean, how well did I know him, anyway? This could have been his intention all along, and how amusing that I’d been tricked into helping him. My mother’s voice echoed in my head. They’re all evil, Catherine. They’re monsters, monsters….
“Sixty grand each, that’s nice, but split up how many ways? It’s not a lot of quid if you’re splashing it over a big pond.”
Charlie relaxed as much as he could while being pronged. “Naw, it’s not much if it’s only a few dozen cooches, but tally that number up against hundreds. There’s only ’bout twenty of us in this, and Hennessey’s expanding his treats. Going global with ’em. Hell, the Internet’s opened up a whole new client base for us, know what I’m sayin’? But he wants to keep his inner structure small. Just enough to keep those wheels movin’ over that sweet track to happy land. Aren’t you tired of scratching out a livin’ from job to job? Residual income, that’s the key. We’ve run through our last batch of gals, and it’s roundup time again. Few months of shoring up, and then it’s just sit back and watch the bank account grow. It’s sweet, let me tell you. Sweet.”
“Indeed. You paint a tempting picture, mate. However, there are a few chaps of Hennessey’s where there’s no love lost between us, so tell me—who else is on this quid train? Can’t sign me up if I’ve shagged one of their wives or shriveled their brother, right?”
The smile was wiped from Charlie’s face. Something cold settled over his expression and his voice lost that Deep South twang.
“Fuck you.”
With those words, Bones straightened from his easy slouch.
“Right.” His tone became crisp as well. “Knew you’d figure it out eventually. Well, thanks anyway, mate. You’ve been moderately helpful. Only twenty of you, you say? That’s less than I thought, and I’ve a decent inkling who the rest of them might be.”
Relief slammed into me with such force that my knees trembled. Oh God, for a second, I hadn’t thought he was faking. I thought I’d been played in the worst way possible.
“Kitten, I don’t feel anyone else, but take a look around this building anyway. Break down the doors if you have to, but make sure no one else is here.”
I gestured to the girl, who hadn’t moved. “What about her?”
“She’ll hold a bit more.”
“If you kill me, it won’t only be Hennessey who’ll come down on you. You’ll wish your mother had never been born,” Charlie hissed. “He’s got friends, and they go higher up on the pole than you can handle.”
I left, but heard Bones’s reply as I started on the closest unit.