The next morning, Rafe decided it was time to set a hard boundary with Agg. Last night, he’d tried, but failed, to make Agg realize he couldn’t sleep in Rafe’s bed. In the end, Agg had spent the night smushed up against Rafe, trapping Rafe between Agg’s heavy body and the wall, and sure, maybe Rafe hadn’t ended up minding so much, but—
They needed boundaries.
When Agg tried to follow him out of the apartment, Rafe stood in the doorway and refused to budge. “Listen here now, I need a job and no one’s going to hire me with you hanging around.”
Agg’s sad eyes pierced at Rafe’s soul like needles into his skin.
Rafe shook his head and gestured between them. “You either let me walk out and find a job and go to work every day, or I’m going to have to rethink this arrangement we’ve got. You’ll be on the street, and don’t think I won’t put you out there to fend for yourself. Relationships are give and take, and it’s about damn time you starting giving a little.”
Agg whined.
Regret twinged under Rafe’s breastbone, but he couldn’t back down. There’d be no money for the apartment if Rafe didn’t bring in his share of zellis.
“Sorry, pal, but it’s just the way it’s got to be. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a job where you’ll come in handy.” But Rafe knew there wasn’t a lot of chance at that, because those weren’t the kinds of jobs Rafe would be looking for. He wasn’t willing to be anybody’s hired muscle. But any employer would take one look at Agg, and those were probably the only kinds of jobs he’d find on offer.
Agg whuffed, then turned and sat and stared up at Rafe. The deepening sadness in those big eyes seeming to say Agg understood, even if he didn’t like it.
Rafe left, closing the door behind him, then waited in the hallway, listening for anything that might tell him Agg was going to stay put.
The door across the hall creaked open.
Rafe turned his head, but the door slammed shut just as he caught sight of gray hair and wrinkled eyes. He snorted and turned back to waiting for Agg to disobey him.
The old woman across the hall hadn’t said one word to any of them since they’d started moving in yesterday, although Rafe had caught her staring out at them several times. He wondered if she’d be trouble where Agg was concerned and decided he’d have to do something about that.
Another quiet moment passed, and Rafe started to feel like maybe, just maybe, this time he’d gotten his way with Agg. He started down the musty smelling hall toward the sunlit window-wall and the door to the stairwell.
Agg didn’t follow.
Over the next few weeks, his new life settled into a routine. Rafe went to work tearing out old carpet and tearing down defaced walls inside one of the buildings being reclaimed at the outer edge of the warehouse district. He worked hard, came home tired every day, and tried to stay out of trouble in the evenings.
And tried to fight the increasingly strong desire to go find someone to fuck, because—
Agg was a problem. He wouldn’t let Rafe go anywhere in the evenings without him. He wouldn’t let Rafe sleep alone, and he crowded into the bathroom every time Rafe took a shower.
Rafe was lucky he was able to take a shit without Agg and those all-seeing eyes, but he’d put his foot down on that and threatened Agg with the street again if he didn’t get the hell out. Agg had gone, but he’d been waiting right outside the door when Rafe had opened it.
Needless to say, Rafe had taken to giving himself quick hand jobs in the alley behind the building before he left for work in the mornings.
That had stopped abruptly a few days ago when he’d caught some man he didn’t recognize watching from outside the alley. He hadn’t been able to work up the nerve to do it since. And, by all that was holy, his cock was making him aware of that fact at every turn.
He wanted to fuck so bad he could hardly think straight some mornings.
Rafe was used to finding Agg waiting at the door, but when he came in after a hard day’s work that day, Agg wasn’t there.
Berto was sitting at the creaky table that was only a few feet from the apartment door, looking as tired as Rafe felt.
“You seen Agg?” Rafe asked.
“No, he’s gone, and he can stay gone as far as I’m concerned. He thinks he owns you. Thought he was going to bite my hand off yesterday.”
“Stop trying to beat up on me and he’ll leave you alone.”
Berto scoffed and tossed back the cup of hot juice he’d been sipping. “I can’t relax with him running around in here. Pretty soon it’s going to be either him or me.”
Berto and Wicker had managed to find a job working together, as security for the main supplier to the local drafteries. They’d gone in as a team and been hired immediately, probably because of Berto’s obvious suitability for the job. They’d been guarding the supply shipments, and according to Berto, there was a hijacking attempt every couple of shipments. Rafe didn’t like how risky it sounded, but the pay was good, much better than what Rafe was earning, so he kept his mouth shut.
Berto would do what he wanted anyway, and he and Berto had worked much more dangerous jobs together in the past. Berto and Wicker were good together, and it didn’t matter that Rafe might have expected to take on that kind of job with Berto himself. Berto was happy, and so, by all that was holy, Rafe was going to be happy for him.
“It’ll be him, and you know it. He isn’t leaving.”
Rafe had gotten attached, although he wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened. He liked Agg. Berto was just being pissy because Agg didn’t like it when Berto and Rafe sparred. Berto always got the best of Rafe—probably always would, but lately, every time Berto came close to landing a punch, Agg growled at him.
Despite Berto’s complaint, Agg hadn’t actually tried to bite Berto, and Rafe might should worry more, considering what Agg had done to Teris, but he was having a harder time every day remembering just how dangerous Agg really was.
Probably a mistake, but it was a mistake he couldn’t stop himself from making.
“I shoulda let you have a pet when you were little,” Berto grumbled.
Rafe laughed, already walking toward his bedroom. “Maybe you should have. I kind of like the one I’ve got now.” Agg was probably napping on the bed; Rafe had found him there a few days ago.
His bedroom was empty.
He returned to the living room, an unsettled feeling riding him hard.
“Agg’s not that bad,” Wicker was saying, the bathroom door open behind her.
“You seen him?” Rafe asked.
She finished drying her hands and tossed the towel she’d used back into the bathroom, then pulled the door shut. “Not since this morning. He wanted out after you left and I let him go. He didn’t come back before we left.”
“Shit,” Rafe muttered. He’d just wanted a hot bath and his lumpy bed, with Agg squished up beside him to keep him warm as he drifted off for a short nap before supper. Now—
“I’m going after Agg. Don’t wait up.”
He slammed open the door and headed back out. When Agg had wandered out last week, it had taken Rafe well past sunset to find him pissing in an alley between the abandoned buildings sitting on Old Front Street and Left Eighth.
As he walked down the wide hallway, the pungent scent of urine hit the back of his nose, and he winced. Agg was definitely going to have to stop pissing on the walls. He hadn’t actually caught Agg doing it, but that smell hadn’t been there when they’d moved in and it’d been getting steadily stronger over the last two weeks. Pretty soon that scent was going to overpower even the mildew and smoky residue of chem magic that clung to the hallway’s carpets and wallboard.
The door across the hall cracked. Rafe waved and the door slammed.
Their neighbor still wasn’t making an effort to be friendly, but she hadn’t reported Agg to the landlord yet, so that was something. He’d slipped a few zellis and a note under her door early last week, hoping it would be enough to keep her quiet—at least for a while.
Seemed to be working so far.
Rafe jammed his palm against the door at the top of the stairs and pushed it open. He leaned in, looking around. The oppressive darkness echoed with his every breath. He waited, listening for a moment.
No Agg.
He backed away, letting the door shut, and started back down the hall. The only staircase in use was the one at the end of the hall, where the light from outside could get into the building through the long windows. The electrical circuits in the other two stairwells had burned out sometime in the past.
Cheap rent gave Rafe incentive to keep his mouth shut about the true condition of the building, even though the landlord didn’t seem to be worried about being found out. But that fact probably said as much about the tenants as it said about the landlord, because no one was stopping Rafe or anyone else from reporting the building’s condition to the reclamation authorities. But what was the point? If the authorities hadn’t been bribed to look the other way, the building would end up shut down, and Rafe, Berto, and Wicker would be out on the street looking for another place to call home. If there had been bribes involved, well, then, they’d still find themselves out on the street, but only after having pissed off a wealthy slum lord.
By the time Rafe had made it to the street, sweat coated his skin and he was breathing heavy. He’d worked hard that day and his muscles ached more than usual.
“Agg!” he yelled, impatience edging out fatigue. “I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t get back here!”
A man in ratty black trousers and a too small t-shirt eyed him from across the street. He’d been standing with his back to a pole and he straightened slowly, as if he were forty years older than the thirty he looked.
Rafe cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Agg!”
The man started across the street, taking his time looking both ways before he crossed, despite the light traffic.
Rafe ignored him—the fella had been standing there for days, his back bent and his hands out to anyone who walked by. He’d also been the guy that had put an end to Rafe’s quick morning hand jobs in the alley behind the building. Maybe Rafe was holding a grudge about that.
Maybe.
Rafe started walking down the sidewalk to his right.
“That’s one big monster you got, fella!”
Rafe stopped and turned, hoping the guy was talking about Agg and not—something else. “You seen my pal?”
“Your pal?” the man said, stepping up onto the sidewalk. “That’s funny.” He cackled.
Rafe narrowed his gaze on the man, taking in the stains at the man’s knees. “I don’t see what’s funny about it.”
“Bet that monster doesn’t think of you as his pal.” The guy shuffled forward. “You want a blow job?”
Rafe tensed. “Not a chance.”
“Had to ask,” the guy said. “You look a little frustrated.” He waved his hand in the opposite direction, down the sidewalk. “I’ll tell you which direction you should start looking in—for twenty zellis.”
“I can’t afford twenty zellis, so no thanks. How about you just help a fella out? Next time I have something to spare, I’ll toss a bit of it your way.”
“Sure,” the man said, but he turned around and stepped off the sidewalk and Rafe realized the guy was going to just walk away without telling him anything.
“Okay, fine, three zellis. It’s all I got on me.” Rafe started digging into his pocket.
The man turned back to Rafe. “I want some food,” he said. He pointed up at the building Rafe had been living in. “I figure you got a nice bed and something to eat up there. I want a night off the street.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Good luck then. I’m sure he’ll come back someday. Maybe after those fellas that kidnapped him off the street get tired of whatever sport they had planned.”
And icy fear raged through Rafe’s veins. He glared at the man in front of him. “What do you mean?”
“They been watching your place. He came out this morning, and wham, snatched him right up. Haven’t seen something that well planned in years.” The guy smiled, showing teeth.
Shiny white teeth that might need a cleaning, but not much else.
Rafe’s gaze sharpened. “Alright, fella—”
The man put his hands up, his pale green eyes clear and bright. “Just want a place to sleep tonight and a hot meal. It’s not much to ask, now is it?”
“Son of a—” Rafe gritted his teeth.
“I’ll tell you everything I saw. Promise.” Another flash of too-white teeth.
Rafe exhaled. “Fine,” he said. “Maybe I’ll take you up on that blow job too. Might as well get something for myself out of it.”
One of the man’s eyes twitched at the corner.
Satisfaction surged through Rafe, suspicion confirmed.
Rafe was going to have to turn his back to the guy, no way around that, but it was also obvious the guy wanted into Rafe’s apartment. Wouldn’t make sense for the guy to try to kill Rafe before they got upstairs, if that was even his intent, so Rafe clenched his jaw and turned, waving the guy along. “Let’s go, then. I want to know what happened to my pet.”
“Pet,” the man repeated. He laughed softly, the sound carrying on the stale breeze as he followed Rafe across the sidewalk. “Now that’s funny.”