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Crazy Eights

Well, here it is, a little treat for my followers - the first chapter of Crazy 8′s, the sequel to 52 Pickup. I’m sharing since it’s Day 7 (AU) of Rogue/Gambit Week 2020. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish this story, even though I got a fair way through it, since I wrote myself into a corner, and I’m not sure I like it very much. But I hope you like it anyway. Enjoy!

Crazy Eights

Chapter 1

Thieving 101.

Simplest rule in the book.

Don’t get caught.

I can hear pere’s voice in my head, clear as day, literally beatin’ the words into all of us, his snotty-nosed, grass-stain-scuffed li’l Fagin’s gang.

Don’t. Get. Caught.

And then his face, leaning in towards mine, grinning, saying:

Unless, o’ course, you have a reason t’get caught.

Yeah, that was mon pere, full of good, subtle ideas. He’d usually direct them at me cos he knew I was like the worst kind of sponge. I’d be soakin’ all that shit up, swimmin’ in it like a gator swims in swamp water. As a kid, I’d always figured he was just picking on me. As an adult, I realise all he was doing was laying down challenges, cos he knew this punk-ass kid would rise to the bait every time, pushing every damn boundary he could along the way.

You got potential, boy. But you got no discipline. Always halfway t’ bein’ in a rage, t’ ventin’ it out on some poor trash. You play de con, kid, you live de con. No heart-on-your-sleeve shit. Dat stays inside. Cos y’know what? Folks can read dat crap a mile away.

“C’mon, pretty boy,” the man to my right grunts, as the alarms I’ve set off still scream all around us. “Getcha arse in gear. The boss don’t take kindly to waitin’.”

He prods me in the back with the barrel of his gun, a little too sharply than is strictly necessary; but I get it, he has a job to do, and actin’ mean is part of it.

“Yeah, well, that’s what bosses are like, mon ami,” I answer with a smirk. “Never got time for nothin’. Mebbe you should think about goin’ freelance, neh? It has its advantages. No calls at unsociable hours… Don’t gotta do all the dirty work y’self… Get t’ have a couple of pretty femmes hangin’ on your every word… Still. I reckon mebbe you two ain’t smart ’nuff yet t’ graduate from the ol’ ‘Crime Boss 101’ course, am I right?”

“Hey!” The guy to my left gives me a crack on the back of the head with what I assume is also the barrel of a gun. “Shut the fuck up!”

See? Boring, predictable, run-of-the-mill flunkies. These couyons ain’t never gon’ make it past mid-tier bodyguard material.

And those alarms are still screaming. Ain’t some asshole gon’ shut it off already? It’s givin’ me a headache.

Whatever. I do as I’m told and shut the fuck up. Mostly because I’m busy scanning the décor of this corridor we appear to be walking down. The walls are lined with paintings, a mess of eras and styles that could tell anyone with an ounce of taste that whoever’s collecting this shit has none. Taste, that is. All it tells me is that this guy has cash, and he don’t mind throwin’ it ’round. We walk past a Cezanne, and I grimace.

Hang on in there, li’l guy, I say to myself as we sweep right by it. One o’these days I’m gonna free you. Soon.

Cos let’s face it.

You think I’m gonna leave a Cezanne to rot in Cain Marko’s fuckin’ playboy mansion when it could be on my wall?

I think not.

We get to the end of the corridor and, thankfully, as soon as we do, someone finally finds the off switch to the alarms. My lovely escorts throw open the burnished oak doors that I can only assume lead to Marko’s private hidey-hole; and before I have a chance to admire the woodwork, I’m being pushed inside in yet another unnecessary show of who’s boss. I stumble a little over the threshold, and there he is. Cain Marko, kingpin of London town. A big, ugly, concrete slab of a man with a mat of red hair and a jaw like a foot. He’s sitting on a burgundy-red velvet sofa that looks to be late Victorian. Possibly a Chippendale? Something to research later. True to form, he has a girl on each knee.

Crimes bosses. I toldja so. Predictably borin’. Boringly predictable.

“Well, well,” Marko greets me with a menacing grimace and a Cockney rasp. “Robert Lord. Your reputation precedes you. Finally, we get to meet face ta face.”

It’s at that point that Jake decides to kick in, a harassed voice in my earpiece, hissing: “Remy? Remy, where the fuck are you? Is everything okay?”

I jerk my head to one side and Jake’s panicked questioning cuts out.

“Yeah,” I address the man on the sofa. “Coulda been under better circumstances, though. Don’t much care for bein’ kicked around and chained up.” I clink the restraints at my wrists and ankles meaningfully. “Unless, o’ course, it’s consensual and there’s a woman involved.”

An ugly grin crosses Marko’s face. He shifts a little and pats each girl on the ass; they get the message and get to their feet, tottering out on stilettos that take a certain art to walk in – neither of them have it.

“Well,” Marko says with mock disappointment as he, too, gets to his feet. “If ya wanted to meet under better circumstances, you coulda made a less shitty attempt to rob me, Mr. Lord. I’d heard you were supposed to be some thief extraordinaire, but you ask me? You, breakin’ into my safe? That was pretty fuckin’ amateurish.”

“Hey,” I banter back good-naturedly as I watch him walk over to the bar and pour himself a drink. “I got through most of your li’l traps jes’ fine, mon ami. You wanna talk amateurish, let’s talk ‘bout your alarms. They’re more fuckin’ painful than Tante Mattie boxin’ me onna ears. And it takes too long to shut ‘em off. Either that, or your flunkies are too stupid to figure out how.”

Marko, who’d looked half-amused up to this point, lets his mouth drop into a disdainful sneer.

“Y’know somethin’, yank?” he growls at me, turning back from the bar. “You talk too fuckin’ much.”

I raise a wounded eyebrow at him.

“Yank? Hey, now you’re just insultin’ me.”

“Oh really?” He laughs; and I take back the comment about his alarm system. This is worse. “Mr. Lord, insults are gonna be the least of your problems tonight. No one steals from Cain Marko and gets to just walk out again. You picked the wrong house to rob, mate. This is one job you ain’t walkin’ out of.”

He lifts his chin slightly and calls out:

“Klein?!”

There’s no answer, and he gives an irate little pause, looks over his shoulder and says again:

“Klein?! Where the fuck are you?”

“I’m here,” a woman’s voice replies from a darkened corner, her presence so unexpected it even causes me to jump.

“Fuck me, woman,” Marko rasps at her. “How long you been standin’ there?”

The woman says nothing, simply stepping out from her corner. I realise there’s a door there. It’s impossible to say whether she’d just walked through, or whether she’d been there all along. Marko ain’t big on lighting. Which is a shame, ‘cos Klein is a woman to be looked at. Mile long legs and a figure to get all wrapped up in. Brunette hair scraped back into a bun that begs to be loosened. A glance like wildfire.

“Sorry,” she says with a small twist of humour, all delivered in a perfectly delicious and proper English accent. I feel some sorta expression begin to form on my face; an appreciative little smile begins to shift round my lips.

Forget pretty girls tottering around in sexy stilettos they can’t walk in. This is a woman.

She glances over at me, then back at her boss with an expectant expression.

“This shit thief stole me old lady’s engagement ring.” He takes a cellphone out his back pocket and stares at it. “Lesse how fast you can find it for me.”

Klein don’t waste time mincing words. Unlike the two couyons behind me, she’s calm, quiet, efficient. She marches on up with a roll of the hips that’s entirely unconscious. When she’s finally in front of me, I catch a whiff of her perfume – a barely-there scent that’s not quite fruity and not quite flowery.

I cock my head to one side and hitch her a smile.

She doesn’t take the bait. Her expression is composed as she sizes me up, wondering where to start. It’s as if she hasn’t even noticed my smile at all.

“Be gentle, chere,” I quip.

That’s when she raises her eyes and gives me a look – part disinterested, part unimpressed. Her facade is almost frosty, but it don’t fool me. Beneath the cargo pants and the bomber jacket and the unadorned face, there’s a something to this woman. It’s in the sway of her hips and the sensuousness of her scent. It’s in a whole lot more besides.

She frisks me in all the usual places, and, Goddamn, her hands alone are enough to set me on fire. Her movements are precise, clinical... yet as insinuating as the touch of a lover.

Did I mention yet I haven't had sex in 8 fucking weeks?

She gets on her knees and runs her palms down my legs, and it’s almost more than I can take.

“While you’re down there, chere...” I can’t help but say; and she pauses, looks up at me with steely eyes and says... Nothing.

Her gaze fixes on my fly like it’s the only option left, and now we’re talkin’.

She holds eye contact as she raises both hands, and thumbs open the button of my pants. Her look is impassive; but there’s an undercurrent there, a something that’s signalling to me loud and clear. She unzips my fly slow as a strip tease, and that’s when the shadow of a smile flickers across her face – a brief split second of something more, something to work with.

Jesus Christ, I’m holding my breath.

She knows what I’m thinking. She rises to full height and this time she doesn’t bother to hide the smile. She knows exactly what she’s doing to me.

“Thought you were s’pposed t’be lookin’ for contraband, p’tite,” I can't help but drawl. The comment wipes the smile from her lips and her gaze drops. She yanks open my fly and within a few short seconds she’s found the fob pocket hidden inside the waistband of my pants. Another split second later and she’s found the ring.

She turns and flashes it triumphantly at Marko.

“You made record time, Klein,” he observes approvingly, glancing up from his phone. “Twelve seconds. I’m impressed.”

Twelve seconds? I swear it coulda been a lifetime...

She throws the ring to her boss and I watch on, with a wistful sense of loss, as it arcs across the room and into his hand. Oh well. Next time, maybe.

“If you’re done, chere,” I pipe up behind her, “mebbe you could zip me up again? O’ course, if you ain’t, we can always take dis somewhere a li’l more private... ...”

I hadn’t exactly been expecting an answer, so I’m doubly taken off guard when she whips round and socks me hard with a fist to the face.

I totter a bit, tasting blood and seeing stars.

Damn, this woman packs a punch!

In the background, Marko’s laughing raucously.

“Looks like you chose the wrong woman t’ try and charm, yank.”

Seriously? Enough with the ‘yank’ thing already!

I grit my teeth and scowl as he continues:

“Zip ’im up, Klein. I can afford to be charitable to trespassers. I think we can let him leave here with his dignity, if not his life. He has taste after all. Me old ma’s engagement ring,” and he grins sardonically over at me, “is my favourite piece outta my entire collection.”

Klein obediently turns around and zips me up with more force than necessary. No more smiles and subtle flirtation. She doesn’t even look at me.

“Sentimental value,” Marko is saying, turning the ring between thumb and forefinger as he approaches me. “That’s what this ring has, Mr. Lord. Me old ma woulda been turnin’ in her grave if I lost it. Specially to some shitty low-feeder like you.”

I lick the blood from my lip slowly. Low-feeder, huh? This guy is really throwing out them punches tonight.

“Yeah, I getcha,” I retort with a sarcastic grin. “Momma woulda slapped ya t’ kingdom come if you ever messed wit’ her jewellery. Beat you wit’ a belt, prob’ly, told ya you were a good f’nothin’ piece o’ shit, I’m willin’ t’bet. Sure, I can read a mommy complex a mile away, homme, and you got it bad.”

I dunno what’s gotten inta me tonight. Or maybe I do. Frustration is a thing and a half. I'm fuckin’ wired, and I can’t stop running my damn mouth off. I ain’t usually this lippy. Honestly.

Anyways, I’m steeling myself for a beating from my End-of-Level-Boss, but surprisingly he don’t take the bait. Judging from his get-up, he’s ready for a night out, and he don’t want my blood soiling his purple Savile Row suit. Which is good for me, ‘cos the rings on his fingers look like they could double up for some pretty nasty knuckle dusters.

“I take it back,” he sneers down his nose at me. “This bloody yank don’t deserve jack.”

He sweeps away and grabs his jacket.

“You’ve been lookin’ t’prove yerself, ain’t’cha, Klein,” he throws over his shoulder at the woman still standing beside me. “Take care of Mr. Lord for me, and consider yerself one of the gang.” He walks over to a side table, pulls open a draw and takes out a gun. When he throws it to her, she catches it like she doesn’t even have to think about it. “Just make sure you keep some suitably gory keepsake for me to remember ’im by. I’m thinkin’ his teeth. He’s got them pearly whites you can only get in ’Murica. It'll remind me of ’is charmin’ smile.”

He laughs to himself, throws the ring up in the air, catches it, and deposits it into his pocket.

“Sorry, Mr. Lord,” he addresses me, “but I have places to go and people to kill. Don’t worry. Klein’ll entertain you in the playpen.” He waves absently at a door to the right. “I’m sure she’s just itchin’ to get her hands on you.”

He chuckles and heads for the door, followed by one of his henchmen, leaving with a final, gleeful, “So long!”

The door bangs shut and now it’s just me, Klein, and Henchman #1.

Wise strategy on Marko’s part, if Ms. Klein is basically untried and untested. I might break her little heart, and Henchman #1 might have to put me down instead.

I suppress a laugh at the thought.

Klein says nothing. She turns abruptly and sticks the barrel of the gun into the small of my back.

“Move,” she says. Her voice is deadpan – nothing to work with.

“Y’know, chere,” I venture conversationally, as I start shuffling over to the door, “I could speed up some if you’d jes’ untie these chains… Then we could get t’ playtime in the playpen a whole lot faster…”

“Hey, shut up will ya!” Henchmen #1 barks at me, punctuated by a sharp poke in the back by Klein’s gun. All right, all right, already. I get the message. They hustle me up to the door and next thing I know, I’m being shoved inside. Henchman #1 shuts the door behind me and I hear the locks thunk shut. Now it’s just me, and Klein.

It turns out the playpen could give H. H. Holmes’ hotel of horrors a run for its money. It’s a pokey little room, and someone’s done gone and painted the walls in a nice shade of red and crusty brown. Blood, gore and brain matter. The whole place stinks of death. Merde. The light-hearted mood I’ve managed to maintain so far immediately takes a dive.

“I take it housekeepin’ don't come round often,” I quip in an undertone – hardly as insolent as it could've been, but it earns me a kick up the ass anyway. I stagger forward under the momentum, turning to face my would-be executioner as I do so.

She has the gun pointed at me.

“Chere, I’d put my hands up if they weren’t tied behind my—”

The gun fires.

And the bullet hits the wall over my shoulder.

The crazy femme don’t give me a moment to recover.

In a flash she’s lowered the gun and is marching right over to me, grabbing the front of my shirt and jerking me down into a hungry kiss.

“It’s okay,” she whispers when she sees I’m too shocked to respond. “There aren’t any cameras in here.”

The words are barely out of her mouth and she’s kissing me again. This time I slip easily out of the chains that I’ve been working on ever since they were clapped on me, and as soon as they hit the ground, I let my palms slide up over her cheeks, pulling her closer, deeper into our kiss. Her fingers wind into my hair, tugging lightly; her body presses against mine, reminding me exactly what I’ve been without the past couple of months. I grab handfuls of her perfect ass and pull her in closer.

God, I’d fuck her right here, right now, if we weren’t in this shithole and this wasn’t a very important job.

We kiss until we have no air left to breathe.

“Lord, I’ve missed ya, Remy,” she murmurs against my lips.

“Mmm, not as much as I’ve missed you,” I answer sincerely, stealing another kiss before adding heatedly, “Eight whole weeks without you, chere... It’s enough t’ drive a man certifiably insane.”

She laughs, soft and sexy, her fingers combing lightly through my hair as she backs up a bit and regards me.

“Darlin’,” she murmurs with a smile, “you were the one who said no contact...”

“Didn’t wanna risk breakin’ your cover, Anna,” I reply, bridging the slight gap between us and feathering light kisses along her jawline. “Cain Marko’s gang don’t got a real nice reputation, sweet.”

“Pfft,” she scoffs. “I can handle myself.”

“For sure,” I agree. “But I’d prefer it if we didn’t tank this mission ‘cos we couldn’t keep our hands offa each other.”

She hums with vague agreement and runs her thumb across my bottom lip.

“Sorry about the fist to the face, babe,” she apologises. “Hope I didn’t hurt you too much."

“Peh.” I wave it off absently – I'd pretty much forgotten it already. “You do what you gotta. Speaking of...”

But she’s already way ahead of me, rooting around in her utility belt and taking out the small mem-chip case.

“Nice distraction, by the way,” she congratulates me wryly as she hands me the goods.

“Didja like it?” I ask her, pocketing the small case.

“In theory. Thought you had more style, though, Cajun. You managed to set off every alarm in the fucking building.”

“Heh. Just wanted to make sure you had enough time to pull the heist, cherie.”

She rolls her eyes expressively.

“You thought it was funny pissing everyone off, admit it. And what was all that business with the fob pocket?”

“Chere,” I answer with mock sincerity. “Eight weeks of celibacy and you think I’m gonna pass up the chance to have you feel me up? C’mon.”

The punch she lands on my bicep is enough to hurt.

“You are such a troll!” she shoots at me with more affection than ire, I’m happy to say.

“You love it,” I mutter, grabbing her helplessly and kissing her mouth soundly. We end up wasting a few more precious seconds making out again.

“So what we gonna do, huh?” I ask her once we break apart. “Henchman #1 is waitin’ outside, and I figure we could both take him out pretty easy...”

“Nuh-uh,” she cuts me off with a mischievous grin. “That’ll break our cover for sure. You, sweetheart, are taking the back door out.”

Her gaze slides over my shoulder, and when I look back, I see that the back door is actually a chute in the wall. From the amount of gore it’s covered in, it’s pretty obvious it's a disposal chute – for corpses.

“You have got to be fuckin’ kiddin’ me, p’tite,” I groan under my breath.

“Think of it as payback for kicking me down that garbage chute back at the Plaza hotel,” she banters back lightly, clearly enjoying this.

“Anna, after this, we’re even and then some,” I say dolefully.

“Yup,” she replies cheerfully. She swoops in for another quick kiss before saying: “I’ll be waiting for you by the East gate in about 30. Got some stuff to finish up here, otherwise they’ll get suspicious.”

“All right.” My response is half-hearted. I ain’t relishing goin’ down that chute, that’s for sure. Anna, however, is completely indifferent to my plight. She’s almost at the door already when I stop her.

“Uhh… Anna?”

She stops, turns.

“What?”

I point down at my chained-up ankles.

“Li’l help, please?”

She gives a theatrical sigh; but she comes back anyway, dropping to her knees and undoing the chains round my ankles.

“I’m pretty sure you could do this yourself faster than I ever could, Cajun,” she says pointedly, to which I shrug and reply:

“Sure. But havin’ you down on your knees in front of me brings back all sorts of happy mem’ries I’ve been denied the past couple of months.”

The chains clatter to the floor and she quirks an unimpressed look at me.

“Jesus. You’re puttin’ out more pheromones than a skunk puts out spray.”

“Chere, I been insulted ’nuff today, bein’ called a ‘yank’ an’ all. You reckon you could find an analogy a little more flatterin’ than a skunk?”

She gets to her feet and plants her hands on her hips.

“Swamp boy, there ain’t enough analogies in the world for the dirty things I wanna call you right now,” she declares in her gorgeously titillating and rarely-bestowed native Mississippi accent.

“Oooh,” I banter back. “Dirty, huh? Beb, when I get you home tonight, you can call me all the dirty things under the sun. I can’t wait.”

She chooses to ignore the statement, walking over to the chute instead and pulling it open. When she looks back at me, she’s smiling sweetly.

“Sugar, when we get home tonight, the first thing you’re gonna do is take a shower. Cos once you’ve gone down this here chute, you’re gonna be dirty as hell, and not in a good way.”

Trust her to kill the mood. I peer down the hole gingerly. The miasma wafting up from down below is worse than any skunk’s.

“Chere, you wanna rethink this? Only I get the feelin’ one shower ain’t gon’ be enough t’ get the stench out...”

“Quit being such a baby!” She’s smiling way too hard for my liking at this point. “The sooner you get this over with, the sooner we can wrap up this job.”

I step reluctantly up to the edge of the hole, and she leans in over my shoulder, murmurs in my ear: “And the sooner I can get my hands on you again.” She lets that suggestion linger. And, Dieu, does it linger.

“Now buckle up and hold onto the railings,” she warns me.

“What railings?” I manage to get out, before her boot heel connects with my ass, and I’m suddenly tumbling through the filth and mire down, down into the depths of the Marko mansion.

-oOo-

[Chapter 2 now here!]