Low Sided by A.J. Downey (best detective novels of all time txt) 📕

would it look having a felon on parole working for his company? Like anyone would fuckin’ know by looking at me. Well, maybe they might, but you look at half the fuckin’ guys working for him, you would think the same thing. I guess it was the “parole” part he didn’t want to deal with.

Fuckin’ jagoff.

“Same thing about you, bro,” Fenris said when I didn’t say anything.

“What?” I asked. “What about me?”

“None of us can figure out why the fuck you were at Shoreman’s of all places. I mean, what a fuckin’ dive, man… what’s the matter? Free booze at the club not good enough?” His voice held humor, but under it was worry.

“I just needed a break,” I mumbled.

“From us?” Fenris asked, and he sounded a little offended.

“No,” I muttered. “It’s stupid.”

“Mace, man, you gotta give me something to work with here, buddy. You almost got beat to fuckin’ death. We’re fuckin’ worried about you.”

I heaved a sigh. “I’m jealous, alright?” I groused.

“Jealous?” he echoed in disbelief.

“Yeah. I get locked up and all y’all out here hooking up in these beautiful meaningful relationships and fuck me, I want that…”

“Dude, I think everybody wants that,” Fen declared, and he sounded a bit shocked. I opened one eye and looked up at him.

“Didn’t take me for the type, or what?”

“It’s not that, I just… I guess I didn’t think it fuckin’ bothered you that much being single. I mean, you got plenty of pussy throwing itself at you—”

“Not the same thing,” I countered.

“Yeah, I get that,” he said. “You didn’t let me finish.”

He didn’t get to, either. Raven came in her front door. I caught sight of her through the bedroom doorway, a straight shot to her front door as she shut it behind her and leaned heavily against it as she threw the long line of bolts.

“You look like hell,” Fen commented dryly.

“Tired,” she muttered, dragging the strap of her canvas messenger bag over her head, and dropping it with a loud clunk against the worn hardwood floor at her feet.

“The hell was that?” Fen laughed.

“Probably my pistol,” she said with a shrug.

“You got a gun in that thing?”

She stooped and dragged it out and Fen started laughing.

“Is that a fucking starter pistol?” he asked and sure as shit, it was. A long-barreled starter pistol, the kind Connery had in that popular old Bond promo shot.

“Shut up,” she grumbled, putting it back into her bag. “It got those fuckers off of him, didn’t it?”

“Oh, shit. Is that how you did it?” Fen asked and she nodded, tiredly and went over to the couch, falling onto it face-first.

I laughed, it hurt like hell. Fen stopped mid-chuckle to turn a wary eye on me.

“Raven,” I called out, but there was no answer. I felt myself soften up. Was she already out? “Raven,” I tried again.

Fen got up and went over and looked down.

“She is out like a goddamn traffic light,” he said, and I nodded.

“Some fuckin’ bullshit,” I muttered.

“What?” he asked, looking down at her curiously.

“Her sleeping on her own damn couch.”

He lifted a shoulder in a half-assed shrug and said, “She signed up for it.” He was doing that thing he sometimes did without realizing it – staring down at her a little intently, like he was memorizing every line and feature but at the same time wondering what she would look like with her skin off. It was an incredibly creepy and intimate look, and it didn’t sit well with me.

Usually, it was kind of fascinating watching him watch somebody like that. It was something that was uniquely fuckin’ Fenris – or so I’d thought until I met that one dude from the mother chapter out in Kentucky. That guy was a stone-cold fuckin’ freak.

It wasn’t a sexual thing, that look. It wasn’t gendered, or anything you could label. What it was, was nuanced, predatory, a raw curiosity that usually involved blood or ichor if the dude casting that look was given a chance to indulge whatever curiosity he had.

“Fen,” I said, and he shook himself a little, as though waking up from some terrible dream. “I can’t say I much like the way you’re looking at her right now, buddy.”

“Not her,” he said honestly. “Sorry, bro… I just have my suspicions.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

His blue eyes met my brown ones, and a silent something passed between us. I nodded and he nodded too.

There was something to it. The way she didn’t want or like to draw attention. I mean, nobody willingly lived in a dump like this that wasn’t hiding from or running from something.

“Help me up, bro.”

“Why?”

“So, I can get her in her own bed tonight to sleep. I’ll take the couch.”

He chuckled and shook his head.

“This bed’s big enough for the both of you,” he said, kneeling down, and swiping the weird wig thing she had going on off her head. He laid it over the back of the couch and spoke softly. Raven groaned and turned over in her sleep and he said, “Atta girl.”

He got his arms under her and leveraged her willowy thin frame up and brought her over. I struggled to sit up and twitched back the blankets on the one side and he set her down. I flicked them over her legs as she turned onto her side toward me and tucked her hands under her cheek.

“Thanks,” I said, and he nodded.

“Another round of painkillers?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He got me the pills and some more water. I took the tablets, wincing at the taste they left in my mouth. Fuckers dissolved too quickly.

“Go on, get out of here, bro,” I said quietly. “You’ve got Aspen waiting.”

“Doc said to not leave you alone,” he tried to argue, and I raised my eyebrows.

“I’m not alone,” I declared and jerked my head in Raven’s direction.

“Right.” He nodded.

“You don’t need to watch us both sleep,” I said, and he nodded.

“Okay. I’ll send the prospect by tomorrow afternoon with your new phone. Cipher is getting all that shit handled.”

“Thanks,