Chapter 10
Kane
“Have you worded up our esteemed leader to what you’re planning yet?”
“Xavier?”
“No, Daffy-fucking-Duck. Yes Xavier. Who the fuck else would I be talking about?”
“Nah, I haven’t told him yet, and the more I think about it, the more I’m thinking I might not tell him at all. Technically, this isn’t Cygnus business, so it’s none of his concern.”
“Ha! And back here in the real world, he’ll have your guts if he finds out you’re sneaking around behind his back and lying to him.”
“Well that ship has already sailed, and he needs to suck it the fuck up. He doesn’t own us just because we’re apparently his humble servants in Cygnus. Fuck that, and fuck him.”
“Now I know you’re high.”
“Nah, I had a smoke, but I’m not high. I’m just pissed at being someone else’s foot soldier all the damned time.” The tension radiating from his body was a concern. A big one, in fact.
He was normally pretty chill, especially after a blunt, and definitely in comparison to the other guys in Cygnus. The fact was, despite what Fox had said earlier, Cygnus was all generals and no foot soldiers, which made for an interesting dynamic when opinions differed, as they frequently did.
It seemed like two or more of the Cygnus brothers were always threatening to tear each other limb from limb, over this thing or that, at any one time, sometimes over the most inconsequential shit.
I’d never really seen that tendency in Fox, which was saying something, given how long I’d known him, and the shit he’d gone through in that time. He was no pussy or pushover. He trained like his life depended on it—and it kind of did—and he was lean and ripped. Physically, we were very similar like that. Neither of us was as musclebound as guys like Drew and Bear, but we could still hold our own when the situation called for it.
More than that, though, Fox was normally less hot-headed than most. He tended to keep his emotions in check at all times, and instead of losing his cool, he made a habit of rolling with the punches, and letting shit flow over and around him. Or at least he used to.
The version of Fox I’d been dealing with for the past few weeks was a different kettle of fish entirely. He was edgy, and vindictive, and bubbling with rage that had lain lethally dormant for years.
“Yeah, well, that’s all well and good, but even without a crystal ball, I can see this shit getting ugly, when it all comes out, and you know what they say about the truth, right? It has a way of getting out.”
“Is that an intentionally ironic statement?” His voice had a hard edge to it that I’d rarely heard before.
“No, but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do.”
I watched him as he was deep in silent thought for a moment, then asked, “All that aside, how did you contact Dillon, if you haven’t told Xavier shit?”
“Through Xavier, how else?” He looked at me as though I was simple.
“Okay, but he doesn’t just get in touch with Dillon on someone’s behalf, or give out his details without knowing what they need him for. So what did you tell him, another lie?”
“Nah. I basically told him it’s none of his fucking business.”
“And you’re still standing here, talking to me with all of your limbs, digits and joints in their rightful places, and your head still on your shoulders? Now I know you’re lying to me.” His body language suggested otherwise, though. What the fuck was going on?
“Nup. Success in life’s all about being in the right place at the right time; you know that. I just got really fucking lucky with the timing. Or maybe I kind of also planned it that way.”
“Planned what, what way?” The irritation was evident in my voice, though I did try to rein it in a little.
“I hit up Drew, and basically worked out when I thought Xavier would be ‘otherwise engaged’, and called him then.”
“Meaning...?”
“Meaning, I called him when I had a pretty strong suspicion that he’d be in bed with his girl, and I killed it.” He smirked like the cat who’d got the cream.
“But he still picked up the phone?”
“Yep. Though I’m ninety-nine-percent sure he was balls deep in Rocky at the time.”
“Jesus. That guy really is something else.”
“He is, but thank God that she has exposed his soft underbelly, so to speak.”
“Yeah, not the prettiest image you’ve ever conjured up, but I get it.”
“I’m pretty sure he pinged me Dillon’s details just to get rid of me so he could come.”
“Oh, shit.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Rocky was totally Xavier’s blind spot.
“Yeah, but like I say, one man’s weak moment is another man’s master stroke, no pun intended.”
“And he hasn’t hit you up since to find out what you wanted it for?”
“Nope. Probably a case of post-coital amnesia.” He grinned smugly, clearly pleased at his handiwork.
“Don’t push your luck. This is Xavier Cross we’re talking about. I’m sure it’s way more a case of him biding his time to catch you when you have your underbelly exposed to the world, or whatever the fuck. And knowing him, it will be when you least expect it, long after all of this shit is a dim and distant memory.” Such a poor choice of words. I regretted them as soon as they left my mouth.
Fox’s face turned to thunder. “As if this is something I could ever forget.”
“I know. Sorry man, you know I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Whatever,” he snapped. “And as for Xavier, he’s going to have to get up early if he wants that to work out for him. You know I have every angle of this thing covered, including how to deal with our ‘esteemed’ leader, if and when the time comes. There’s no catching me on the back foot on this one.”
“You know he’s going to be crazy pissed when he finds out you’ve been lying to him all these years, right? In fact, that we’ve been lying to him.”
“Well he can eat a dick. I don’t owe him shit, least of all my tragic and sordid backstory. I’m not some charity case that he needs to bestow his venerable pity on. It’s bad enough that I have to put up with that shit from you”—Ouch—“let alone deal with it from him too. Besides, we didn’t lie, we just didn’t tell him every detail of our fucking lives. He knows what he needs to. He doesn’t own our fucking souls.”
“Your life. He knows everything about me, except the parts that pertain specifically to you.
“My life, then. Whatever.” Fox was so snappy, I wondered if I needed to be worried.
“Also, I’m pretty sure he has a different opinion about the rightful ownership of both of our souls, and our first-born children.” I was only half joking. “And for the record, most people agree that a lie by omission is, in fact, still a lie.”
“Yeah, well both he, and ‘most people’, can bite me. It’s done now, anyway. And though I never thought I’d say these words aloud, Xavier Cross is really the least of my fucking worries right now. I have way bigger fish to fry. So big, they make Xavier look like Jonah lost adrift in the belly of the whale.” Definitely words I never envisaged coming from either of us, about Xavier, that was for sure.