Mob Sorcery / Lowlife Enforcer - Ch3

Chapter 3

Vince clicked his tongue, then wandered around the sofa and shook her awake. “Nina, get up. You’ll wrinkle your clothes.”

After a few attempts, she slowly stirred. Nina blinked her dark purple eyes at him, before pushing his arm away.

“Still dark. Sleeping. G’way,” she mumbled, then tried to turn over on the sofa.

What Nina failed to realize in her fugue state was that she was far too large to turn over on such a tiny sofa. Her body teetered over the edge for a moment and began to slide with the cushions. A yelp escaped her and she instinctively scrabbled for the sofa, tearing yet more gouges in the upholstery. Her efforts failed and she crashed to the floor at Vince’s feet.

She glared up at him. “I was having a great time in my dreams. So much amazing booze.”

“Do you really dream about booze?” he asked.

“On the good nights.” She raised her hands upward, as if asking for help.

He knew better than to help her up, however. The moment he grasped her hands, she’d pull him down with her.

Like Pola, Nina’s demihuman strength allowed her to easily overpower Vince. Unlike Pola, he couldn’t use magic to make her go away. Nina was both his roommate and the primary tenant. As shitty as this apartment might be, the landlord held no interest in a deadbeat enforcer like Vince. But an office worker like Nina banked a consistent paycheck.

“You’re no fun,” Nina whined, then bounced to her feet in a single motion.

She towered above Vince by over a foot. Not because he was short, but because lionfolk tended toward seven foot and taller. Male lionfolk rarely stood shorter than seven foot and got as tall as eight. Nina was a little above average as a woman, and her brawny physique only added to the intimidation factor most men felt.

“You should change out of your good clothes if you want to sleep on the couch,” Vince told her. “Why were you even up this late?”

“I wasn’t. I just…” She scratched her cheek and looked away. “I got home at like nine, heated up a frozen meal, started streaming a show and next thing I know, you’re here.”

“Nine?” Vince sighed. “You’ve been doing overtime for weeks now.”

“There’s a huge project and we’re behind. Everyone’s pulling long hours. Hell, I left before half my team.” Nina shrugged, then stepped past Vince as she headed to her bedroom. “Like you can talk, given you just got home.”

“Don’t give me that. I work at night, you work during the day.”

He slumped down on the sofa, which remained warm from Nina’s residual body heat. The remnants of the frozen meal she’d eaten remained on the coffee table. Something curry based apparently. A pack of cigarettes lurked on the far edge but the ash tray remained empty. He noticed that she still hadn’t repaired the smoke detector outside the bedrooms.

“Yes, Daddy,” Nina called back from her bedroom.”

Vince ran a hand down his face. “You really like calling me that, don’t you?”

A laugh echoed out from the dark doorway. “It gets under your skin and you’ve been mothering me so much lately. I might not have my shit together, but you’re a mess, too. You can try to fix me after you fix yourself.”

Vince doubted he’d be doing much fixing at all.

Once cursing emanated from Nina’s bedroom, he decided to fix himself a drink in the kitchen. Half the fridge was full of cheap beer strong enough to strip paint but awful enough to make him gag. Nina’s favorite, naturally. He decided to stick with water and closed the fridge.

“Pour me one too,” she called out.

“You’re not drinking at 2am,” he replied.

“It’s only 1am.”

“That makes a difference?”

No reply. He sighed and decided to split a beer with her, rather than risk her cracking a whole one open at this time.

By the time he returned to the sofa, Nina ambled out of her bedroom in a pair of shorts and a plain t-shirt ten sizes too small.

“That’s my shirt, you realize,” he said, amazed that it hadn’t exploded from attempting to constrain her massive chest.

Nina was larger than him in basically every measure. Bigger muscles, taller, larger frame, and her tits could probably win awards. No wonder she’d struggled to dress in the dark.

“Oh. I’d wondered why this had been so hard to put on.” Nina attempted to pick at the shirt, but it wouldn’t budge.

Without hesitating, she peeled it off, leaving her top completely nude, and flung it at Vince. She returned to her room to change, before rejoining him seconds later with a t-shirt that actually fit and covered her properly.

He certainly appreciated the view of her naked chest for the few seconds he got. While he and Nina strictly remained friends, and both avoided making things weird, Vince struggled to ignore the casual nudity his beautiful roommate loved to show off.

“Oh, don’t whine,” she said, jumping onto the couch beside him. “I bet that was in my room for months and you never noticed.”

“Don’t steal my clothes,” he said. “Why would you even need one of my shirts?”

“Don’t ask me to do your laundry, then.” Nina completely dodged the question of why she even had his shirt to begin with. No way in hell she mistook his clothes for hers.

Vince could wear Nina’s shirts as a onesie, between the size difference and the extra room she needed around her chest.

“I do your laundry. Underwear and all,” he reminded her. “I even fold your clothes and leave them in your room, ensuring no mix ups like this.”

She shrugged as if he hadn’t run a truck through her feeble attempt to shift blame onto him, then grabbed the glass full of beer. Scowling at it and his glass, she still drank it.

For roughly a minute, they sat in silence, breaking it only with sips and the clink of their glasses against the tabletop. Nina slumped lower and lower against the cushions while leaning against his side.

Laziness became the mood of the night. That, and dodging his probing about her interest in his clothing.

Her eyes lingered on the ashtray. She clicked her tongue.

“Did you get paid tonight?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. “A lot more than I’d expected, but things went to hell.”

“Define hell?” Her eyes bore into him as she picked up the pack of cigarettes.

He didn’t look at her even as she loudly sniffed around his face. As if she needed to go to that extreme.

“If I’d snuck a cigarette, you’d have smelled it while changing,” he said, raising his hands.

“That’s what I’m worried about. You haven’t had a good job for a few weeks and it was only last month that you finally paid off your debt from that huge fine. Immanuel has been stiffing you over their fuckups ever since the police cracked down on them.” She twirled the pack in her hands. “The fact you’re not smoking makes me wonder what the hell happened.”

“Good things?” he suggested.

“From hell?”

He sighed and ran a hand down his face. “I killed a lot of people tonight. Including enforcers I’ve known for over a year. Didn’t feel a thing. Played games for hours in pools of their blood.”

Nina’s head slumped onto his shoulder and her arm rubbed his back. “It’s fine, Vince. Death’s part of the job. You’re just getting to the point where you can shut your heart off to it. Took me a while, too.”

“Then you quit the day after,” he said drily. “You’ve told me the story a thousand times, on nights exactly like this.”

“Coincidence. I worked as an enforcer while studying, and did an extra couple of years to pay off my college debt while doing an internship.” Nina shrugged. “Honestly, I still think I should have stuck around. We could have been partners. Instead, I left like a month after meeting you.”

A nice dream, Vince supposed. Nina had been a hotshot independent enforcer with almost every corporate conglomerate trying to hire her. The two of them met by coincidence, because she did some jobs for Immanuel right before retiring for the dream of a stable office job.

Now she lived in this shithole apartment with Vince. Truly the dream life that Aulfair offered its citizens.

At least the two of them had each other’s back. He’d relied a lot on Nina’s advice over the years.

“You just want to go back because of how shit your job is,” he said with a smirk.

“Well, yeah. I’m working fucking 12-hour days for weeks on end, with no overtime pay, almost no leave, terrible insurance, and I’m barely out-earning an enforcer who can hardly find work.” She huffed and pulled away from him. “But it’s also boring, I don’t wake up at night in a sweat because I murdered somebody’s father, and I can get credit. You have no idea how great it is to have credit.”

“You can’t miss what you don’t have.”

“Sure you can. I’ll wave my credit card around in front of you until you get angry.”

“Please don’t do that. You bitched at me for weeks last time I incinerated your card.”

“Damn right I did,” she growled. “It took weeks to replace it.”

As if to take the edge off the topic, she poked him in the side several times, before giggling at the way he squirmed.

The topic of money reminded Vince of his brief flirtation with wealth. He fished his wallet out and began peeling bills from the stack he’d been given. Quite a few bills.

“Huh. They did pay you a lot.” Nina sipped her beer while eying her money he counted out. “This is rent?”

“Both last month’s and this month’s.”

“I told you that didn’t have to pay me for—”

“And I’m paying you anyway, because I live here and I’m not freeloading off you.” He met her gaze.

Her expression remained resolute while she stared back, but she sighed. “Fine.”

He handed her the stack of bills he’d counted out. She didn’t bother flicking through them, probably because she’d counted them out at the same time he did. The observational abilities of lions were second to none. They could count the number of tiles on a roof while reading an essay and holding a conversation at the same time. Nothing got past one.

Rather, Nina took a few notes from the stack and flicked them back at him. He looked between them and her.

“I counted out how much I owe you—” he said.

“And this covers the random stuff you buy for me when you’re out and about, plus other stuff. Beer, groceries, doing laundry for me, replacing that shirt”—she nodded at the ruined t-shirt he’d discarded on the floor—“and all the other crap I rely on you for while I’m dying inside at my nine-to-nine job.”

“You mean nine-to-five.”

“I know what I said.”

He scratched the back of his neck. “You cover for me as well. It’s not like I—”

“Vince, take the fucking money.” She glared at him. “There’s no way Immanuel just randomly gave you a whole pile of cash for being a good ol’ boy. What’s up?”

Nothing got past a lion.

Sighing, he shoved the cash back into his wallet and pocketed it. Then he took a long slug of his beer and eyed the cigarettes. Nina kindly slid one out of the pack but he pushed it away.

“Not tonight,” he said. “Things went well, I think.”

“Then talk.” She pushed the pack to the far edge of the table, where it usually lived.

“Immanuel gave me a bonus because they can’t hire me for a few weeks. Police crackdown due to a conference.”

“Oh, shit. That’s right. We’re hosting the annual NASTA.”

“The what? Why do you even know what that is?”

She rolled her eyes and flopped backward over half the couch. Her legs kicked up in the air as if she was bored. “NASTA. North American Sorcerous Trade Association. A bunch of old fogeys determine magical trade in the New World, because it also controls teleportation networks across much of the Atlantic and North Pacific. We’re hosting this year because the new US president pissed off all the sorcerers somehow.”

“Again, why do you know this?”

“It’s water cooler talk at work. Offices are boring, you know. People talk about shit like this.”

Amazing. And Vince had thought that becoming a bouncer would be dreadfully boring. Turned out that retiring and becoming a salaried office worker might be the literal death of the soul.

“I know that look. You’re judging me,” Nina growled. “Anyway, so you have no work for weeks? The fuck are you paying me for last month’s rent, you fucking idiot?”

She grabbed the cash she’d dropped on the table and shoved it back at him. He held his palms out, refusing to take it.

“Three reasons,” he said, trying to stay calm as he saw Nina’s hair and ears rising on end—a surefire sign she might lose her temper. “One, I just told you that I won’t freeload. Two, it’s only three weeks and there’ll be lots of demand for enforcers afterward.”

“Maybe. The cops will know that and they’ll be kicking teeth in like there’s no tomorrow,” she warned.

Vince hadn’t thought of that. He shrugged, then moved on to his final point. “The third reason is that a new employer is interested in me.”

“Go on.” Nina’s hackles lowered and she stopped trying to force the money back into his hands.

“Alessia Lionetti—”

“Holy fucking shit, Vince, what are you doing with a mafia heiress?” she blurted out. “You realize her sister will rip out your spine and drink your bone marrow if you touch Alessia, right?”

What a lovely image. Worse, Vince easily imagined Pola doing exactly that.

“I take it you know them?” he said drily.

“I didn’t work for them, but rubbed up against Pola years ago. The Lionettis lost most of their territory following the death of the previous don. Pola became a wild animal and even the cops avoided her. I haven’t heard much for years, which is probably a good thing.” Nina looked at her now empty glass. “So, what sort of job are they offering?”

“I don’t know. Alessia invited me to lunch to make up for Pola’s attempt to murder me tonight.”

Silence. Nina stared at him for several agonizing moments, then stood up and walked over to the fridge. He heard the crisp snap of a beer can opening.

“You know, I intentionally only poured half a beer for you,” he called out.

“Tonight’s a full beer night,” she said.

Fortunately, she did share this beer instead of trying to guzzle it down herself. Although she basically smashed half her share down in a single gulp. Vince refused to even attempt that feat given how awful it tasted.

“So, Pola tried to kill you?” Nina asked.

“Yup.”

“And you fought her off?”

“Yup. Nearly burned down a club, though.”

“And the result is that her sister invited you to lunch, rather than have her enforcers drag you back to their turf and take turns using you as breeding stock?” Nina gave him an incredulous look. “I’m not the paranoid sort, but I’d be careful tomorrow. The Lionettis don’t like being embarrassed.”

“Alessia didn’t appreciate Pola embarrassing her, I think,” Vince said slowly. “Something about damaging a neutral establishment.”

“That’s never stopped them before, but…” Nina swirled her glass and watched the beer foam up. “Maybe things have changed. Or maybe the fact you held off Pola fascinated her. What was the fight like? She was like 17 when I fought her. Wild, but untrained. Absolutely vicious and ferociously strong, though.”

“Oh, she’s still strong. Threw me across the club like I was a toy and hurt me through my barrier.” He rubbed his back, which still hurt.

“Want me to massage it?” Nina offered, entirely serious.

“Nah, not now. I’ll see how it is tomorrow.”

She nodded, then gestured for him to continue.

“Powerful wind magic, but no flexibility. I have brute force in spades, though, so I held up fine, but I can see why she’s dangerous,” he said. “She blew up one of my spells and nearly burned the club down.”

Nina laughed. “Yeah, that sounds about right. You’re as bad as her, but more restrained. When you went nuts on main street, that was basically Pola for her first few years as an enforcer. Bet she hated dealing with you. I still remember the utter fury in her eyes from when I fought her. Most enforcers will kill you without blinking in a fight, but it’s not personal. For her, it was.”

Fury and hatred, huh?

Vince couldn’t help but feel that the Pola he had witnessed tonight and the one in Nina’s memories stood worlds apart. What a difference 5 years made.

“Anyway, be careful. Text me the location and when you arrive and leave. If something goes wrong, I’ll show up and save you from your fate.” Nina clinked her glass against his, then drained her beer.

She rose and shook her entire body like a dog, which flicked her hair against Vince’s face. After rubbing feeling back into his cheek, he looked up to see her wandering into her bedroom.

“Night, Vince. Shut off the heating when you turn in,” she called out.

“Don’t forget your alarm,” he called back.

She gave him a thumbs up.

A minute later, she wandered back out and fetched her phone from underneath the coffee table.

With only silence as company, Vince nursed his beer for another hour while mulling over the night’s events. A lot had happened in only a few hours.

The Lionettis seemed like a dangerous new employer to get involved with, based on everything he knew and that everyone else said. But he needed an employer and a paycheck.

A desperate man will do crazy things, and Vince was desperate for money in his life. He just needed to make sure he never forgot that he was just as desperate to stay alive, unlike the poor, dumb bastards he’d slaughtered for trying to cross Immanuel earlier tonight.

Read Chapter 4