“So you’re paying me to keep quiet? Want me to pretend this conversation never happened, forget what you look like? You must be doin’ something real shady. Unless you’re a cop. Are you a cop? Because you’re legally required to tell me now, otherwise it’s entrapment if you try to bust me.”
He doubted law enforcement would hand over cash like that unless it was some kind of sting operation, in which case, it automatically had Lex feeling more unsettled and nervous.
“Not a cop and I don’t really give a damn what you tell people because you don’t really have shit you can say. You don’t know anything other than my general appearance, which really won’t get anyone anything,” he pointed out, a slight smirk touching on his lips. No one ever mistook his dead eyes for a cop’s and it was amusing that that was on the kid’s list of go to’s.
Lex eyed the money suspiciously, well aware that nothing was ever a free ride down on the lower levels, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to drop his guard over it.
”Y’know, when a guy comes cruising the red light district, tells you he’s married and tries handing you a wad of cash, it usually ain’t because he’s lookin’ to be charitable. Least not without something in return. So what’s the catch?”
“You don’t want me to give an honest answer as for why I’m in this area.”
He was looking for victims more than anything. People forcing kids into prostitution, people actually paying to abuse young children, that sort of stuff. He was between larger jobs and this was an easy enough spot to find people that deserved to die.
Lex shrugged vaguely, not really seeing how any of what he did was the guys business unless he was going to pay him for it, and from how he’d chased the other guy off, Lex doubted he was looking to take up a transaction instead.
“I dunno, a couple of days ago, I guess? What do you care? You’re not one of those bleeding heart, “trying to save my soul from a life of sin” type creeps, are you? Because I don’t believe in any of that shit, so save yourself the breath.”
“That would be my husband, not me.” He honestly didn’t care if the kid was selling ass to make a living, but he could at least be a little safer about it. Besides, who could he judge when he was a serial killer?
Instead, he pulled out the black leather wallet from his back pocket and dug out some cash, a couple hundred, and handed it to him. “Get yourself something to eat and maybe screen your clientele a little better so you don’t end up dead, kid.”
“You didn’t have to fuckin’ do that. I could have handled that shit.”
He wasn’t necessarily trying to sound ungrateful, but Lex was used to clients getting a little too overly handsy sometimes, so having some stranger intervene and chase the guy off didn’t help the fact that he’d have to be out longer tonight to make up for the money he’d have made otherwise if he wanted to eat for the next few days.
Still, the upset in his tone wasn’t just about the inconvenient position he’d been put into now. He was genuinely a little shaken up, hating being faced with aggression and the posibility of rougher treatment than he generally liked, but he put on a tough front to hide any sign of vulnerability out in the open.
“Didn’t look that way from where I was standing.”
There was no emotion to his words, grey eyes as cold as winter skies as he looked the kid over. He was human, young, that much was obvious, but there was something else that he couldn’t place. Whatever it was, it reminded him a little of Ollie at that age.
“When did you eat last?” Most people didn’t work the streets by choice, that much he knew.
“That wasn’t the arrangement. My deals aren’t meant to be changed after I’ve completed my end of the bargain. I needed an assistant. Not another corpse. Accept it and make both our lives easier.”
“Then drag his worthless ass out of the nuthouse and leave me the fuck out of it. I wan’t absolutely nothing to do with creepy fucking pricks that make my skin crawl.”
“I don’t care was I deserved. I wanted you, you fucking moron. You made me happy, even if you were broken. You were still a good guy. And I wouldn’t change any of it, even if it hurts. It’s more than I ever thought I’d get to have.”
“Yeah, well, I do care about what you deserved and you damn sure deserved better than me or the shit show situation you call a normal life.” He sighed heavily and glanced at the clock. He didn’t have much time left. “Should have just let him kill me before you got attached.”
ofviolentdeath 