"I was told you were acting strange at the front door two days ago." Lev says in an easy tone with shoulder against the closet door. I let out a dry laugh unwillingly through reflexes as my mind's still trying to convince the other voice the obvious.
"And what? You got bored on after hour?"
"Quid pro quo." His pose remain relaxed but the mischievousness can't be found in them no more. "You know it better than most."
What you give, what you get.
One of golden rule of the lanes that keep all the screw looses and psychos in line. Don't expect no consequences to whatever foul or decent act you commit. Funny how it rhymes with Miss Qin's tone, and how he mentions it now.
"Does that mean the service's on the house?" Lev tilt both brows in a 'What you think?' I sign sarcastically, the need for a hit's never this urgent. "In that case,..Think you can mange another drink before the business hour?" The White Russian shut the panels and gestures an open hand at the heavy drapes behind me, as much a yes as denial.
Splitting the burgundy red apart leads back to the relatively lascivious space and the rare sight of warden sitting on a stool, minding a half empty bottle of beer.
Didn't even know they have it in stock.
He gives a glance at us walking out the booth and each find their spot on sides of counter, then takes swig with his head lean a bit backwards. The stool under the giant squeaks a whimper.
"One drink." Lev tog the blackened-tip filter on ashtray, letting it slip down the groove of the ashtray before taking it down the counter. "I don't want a circle of ashtray at the front." I nod and a peek at warden at one of the tables by black washed wall at southeast.
"Bobby burns." Might as well, since it's the last drink of today. Lev gets in motion wordlessly a hand on the Benedictine from earlier, a brush on the labels of whiskies on shelf.
Xiao wants me dead isn't unspoken for. I finally let the thought stuck at my throat goes further up my mind. She expressively made it clear many times at the start of last night. Fuck me, actions were taken too. The first time I'm outside Qin Yen's room, that wasn't a bluff of any means. The girl's eyes don't lie.
Bartender slips a scoop of rocks in a Boston shaker, brittle edges on stainless steel sounded like a squeal without the music's blur, more so when he drops a stirring rod in it.
Nonetheless. A rush of spite isn't the same as sneaking into a basement full of mercenaries just to put a hit on me. Still, those actions was before me and her got ....well. aquatinted sounds off. Cognize'd be more plausible.
A hint of pressure nags my nape, it's not of oppressive nature, more of a brush. I lean my body on the counter, squeezing my arms before cocking my head to the right as my eyes tilt at the same direction to see warden indolently taking a swig of the small bootle in comparison to his palm. He gives another nod when he founds my glance.
"You look calm enough to stay sober." I turn around to lev's dry remark as the strainer blocks the cubes from pouring out with the liquor. I smiles bitterly with a corner of mouth dropping. Knowing me well, (As infuriating as it is) he serves the drink without twist or cherry. Two fingers at the base of cocktail glass, he maneuver the glass over the outspread counter designed to be just out of reach for someone trying to grip the bartender's neck or use a club or knife on him. It also lets him play tricks by pulling whatever the fuck he desires under the counter.
"Let's just say she's not the most pressing matter." I turn the glass half a circle to see if the dribbles on its exterior's on the same level under the edge before taking a sip. It tastes sweet without leaving emphasis on the strong booze and a chocolate finish reminds me the pack of black in my jacket. The drink, despite the soothing taste, ain't no Sunday afternoon shit.
Lev picks up the cigarette he castrated earlier and lit it up again. With his index and thumb on the filter, he looks at the a spot above the ceiling before darting down at me.
"....I just remembered something after those videos."
I crow a brow.
"I'm listening."
"The woman on camera, Xiao. She was across the street on almost every night in the past couple of weeks." I raise both brows.
"Spying the entrance?"
"Presumably. Two nights ago was her first attempt on anything else." I take a sip to digest the information which leads to the same conclusion, she really hates the idea of having me as a courier or associating with Qin Yen.
"Didn't knew you got cámaras outside the market too." I joked through a
"We don't." He takes a quick drag that squeezes his thin lips to the side. "I just happen to notice her every single day when I'm leaving."
...Don't know why but the idea of Lev living outside Stynx is so unnerving. But this piece leads to another insight. Why, as a bodyguard, could she spent so much time away from the employer?
I've never seen Lev leaving the pub, his opening and closing hour fluctuates but usually sits around 4 to 6 am. Which means Xiao had spent most of her nights in the past weeks stalking the entrance. I doubt she was task to find me like Nan, those two are like water oil. Which means she did all this under her own choose. Accompany with the fact Xiao's unaware of why dear Miss Qin chose me as the start of the show even though her position's suppose to be the closest. The dynamic between those two is...bemusing from what little information I have and the few instances of their interaction two.
And then there's the grinning asshole seamlessly standing among all the mess so far....
"Hey Lev! I got your biggest tip this week for a simple question." He dust off the pilling ash by the sink and motions forward with his left arm on his end of counter.
"I thought the drink stuffed it back down your pipe." I smile and push the drink bit farther to rest my elbow.
"Do you remember a man goes by Nan? Nan Shi Pei, bout as tall as me, sleek as shit, grins all the time. He works for the Qins as well although not too sure where he stands......Oh." I take a sip and gesture my left hand backwards without noticeable direction. "And he was at your nice little establishment couple days ago."
Lev frowns lightly but oppose the same demeanor, he brings the cigarette back up for a quick puff before leaning back up with left hand in pocket. "I don't gossip about my own patrons."
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I almost chuckle at his response before a take a swig of the drink, the heaviness of those sweet are showing.
"Then how'd you respond when he asked about me?" He roll his eyes to the corner as if recollecting.
"Said I haven't see you in while." He shrugs.
"How'd he respond?" He takes a drag.
"Some bullshit and a hefty tip."
"How much was it?"
Leaving the cigarette between lips, the bartender raises his spider like hand, spread out like a dome and wobbles like a bird between our eyes. The lamps on either sides casts shadows of scarecrows down. I slowly breathes out as his motionless eyes.
I reach to the envelopes in my jacket as he retracts his hand under the counter. I pull out the last two in them, white sheets wrinkled up by ludicrous amount of cigarettes.
Placing them side by side between us on the metal counter adds a layer of starkness on the warm lights.
"Quid pro quo?" Lev acts taken back with brows that couldn't move the eyelids. He tilt to the left supposedly to warden and a slip of winsomeness laughs with those eyes. I take another sip and that turned to a swig.
"Certainly." He swipes those envelopes away like a dealer to a table of bust out. Hell, he even dress like one.
***
"He came 2 months after you disappeared." Twirling whatever, Lev got both of his hands on under the empty space of metal counter. "Smiles like a dog, dress like a blue blood, acts like a jester....truthfully he kind of reminds of you." I give him a look, he returned a quick raise of brows before carrying on.
"He wasted no time, by the end of first visit half of the patrons knew him and knew who he was looking for." He tilts his eyes to warden behind me for a silent second and resume focus back under the counter. "Told folks he had some rumors he thought you would be interested, next time he said he got something with your name on it, two days later he said he'd been admiring your 'work atheistic' for a while and would like to meet you in person." Sounds like him alright.
"They bought his nonsense?" Lev shrugs and takes a step left to open the faucet.
"They love things like this, adds to the topic of your disappearance without a cost." He takes another glance at warden while I ponder the amount of bullshit about me they cooked over these time.
"And you?"
"Not interested." I take a quick sip.
"Lev."
"I was occupied." He states dryly and tilt his eyes up behind me again, but this time a squint of eye made him move two more steps to
the left in an instance and draw his lengthy left arm in the air when a humming, round whoosh draws my attention too. As I turn around almost too late to witness the brown beer bottle flies horizontally across the bar, as it rotates to the second spin precipitously to lev's open palm.
Issuing a wet splash and a low 'tin' from the empty bottle.
Wordlessly, he kicks open a dumpster under and let the bottle slipped off his...still surprisingly pale palm. "And talking to him is same as running circles in a cage. Furthermore," Turning off the faucet, he brings the whisky glass I used earlier under the light, twirling the rim with a drop of mouth before placing it down by the lowest shelf behind him. "I already knew who he is the second he came in." I twitch a smile by the mouth and gulp the liquor with a tilt of head, a rush of light tinges crawls down my throat as a scent of herbal sweet climbs up.
"It doesn't bother you that an affiliated man's sniffing around your bar?" I ask half heartedly, knowing how the rule of no gang members allowed was mostly legislated by the drinkers instead of him. Unsurprisingly, he let out a bitter smirk.
"Why would I? He didn't state it out loud or try to start trouble, the most he did was annoyed a couple of customers. They have a pretty good idea where he's from." Lev did a short pause turn back to where I presume the sink is. "Just so you know, he goes by Dai in the Stynx." Lev gives me a foretelling look at the end, though I wasn't paying enough tension to tell if it was a heads-up or a suggestion.
"I'll bear that in mind." Lev crook an eye up but doesn't say anything. I take another sip of the cocktail and find myself looking at an empty glass. "Anything else. At all?"
"Nothing more than what you knew," He shrugs. "Which I think is much, much more indicative." I let out a sign and slide the empty glass halfway across the table before he catches it. For the first time in a while, I'm out of ideas.
"Lev. I've been up on him for two fucking days and I got jack shit. Come on, give me something more than rumors to work with." With my last plead uttered, the bartender rinsing the coupe glass smiles.
"That's the point I'm afraid." He speaks in a candid tone that objects his usual demeanor.
"Some said, he was with the southern branches of Triad before escaping to Faust." Reaching a bit further to open the faucet, Lev's line of sight stays lower than the counter. "Some said he was associated with the syndicate and when they cut all ties and bounced, he was left behind and the Qin's took him in." A sharp squeak turned my head to meet warden's incredulous look, with his giant palm supporting his head from falling to the table that would probably break. "Some said he was a boxing champion, winning fights he was supposed to lose. Now he's repaying the debt owed to the old man." An audible exhalation escapes his closed lips. He turned off the faucet, raise the glass at the lights, and place it back on the shelf behind him.
"See the problem here?" Brown eyes looking down. My eyes fall to the counter.
"The rumors are all directed to his past."
"Indeed. Unlike your previous request. Xiao, I honestly doubt her existence was fabricated before you lured her here. She's a ghost without the flesh. Nan Shi Pei, is however real." Wet hands on the counter, his shoulder rises and fall. "He done all you could've imagined in Paio Jie, sending five Russians to hospital made him an impression. You could spot him walking down the street there any day, people know him and so does he. But there's nothing else, no record in the police force, no reminiscing by alcohol, no supposed acquaintance. As if he was born only six years ago."
I observe Lev carefully as he laid it on deliberately. The man isn't as much a mute as warden but never was talkative neither, now with his hands on the edge of counter, knuckles hinting a dark purple under the pale skin, head slightly tilted forward. It's hard to look past his obvious interest in the Man from Piao Jie as well. I suppose that's why he allowed the jinx to wander around his pub. But for what reasons beyond me, maybe he's trying to filled the cover the blind spot in on his web.
"Astute assumptions." I smile feebly. Lev takes in a deep breath and let go of his hands, the momentary rush of blood on his face had worn off as the translucent white returns.
"I'm afraid that's all I can offer you."
"Not much more than when I walk in, but I'd prefer spending my Sunday morning's here than the church of parral." Few tabs on the metal counter and a spin, I'm off the chair feeling an unexplainable dizziness. Took a solid second standing straight to realize I'm just tired, more than I care to realize.
"You know, there was a fuzz about him and you when he first came." Lev explains abruptly with a plain voice hiding a laugh. With my hand on the back of stool I shrug and lean in.
"Humor me."
"Some, few thinks he's akin to you. Splitting image even." Lev says in a whimsical tone while eyeing the warden. I coughed out a primordial laughter as some very instinctive disdain inside my chest flows through my vain.
"Care to give me a list of the people?" The owner of Stynx smiles and reach both hands under the counter again.
"I'll be on the top then." A pop came through the speakers suspended on the corner of ceiling, then statics came as if nails in a pot. "Truth been told, I thought it was you when he walk across the corridor." He raises his shoulders while keeping his sight under.
Now that's just blend slander.
"Kind of hurtful calling one of your longest surviving patron a distasteful cunt." He shakes his head slowly as the statics grow louder.
"Rest assure. The notion didn't last." The pops turned more rhythmic through a layer of electronic over it. "As far as similarity goes, I'd say he's a much more enthusiastic person than you without the puffs. You two are sides of a coin, identical but different. As one's up the other's hidden, when both's up you're spinning around to catch each other's tail." He shrugs at his own metaphor. Among them I found an odd perspective.
"Although there's one thing differentiating you two." I raise my brow in accommodating anticipation. The pops finally turned into drums as the screeches in the back became growls of electronic guitar.
"Which is?"
"Pride." His eyes a cold glint as the eyelids open up a little more. "He's an extremely prideful person underneath the jestering and fronting." I let out a quick laugh which sounded hollow and dry. "More than you let out..... prideful men are most dire. And you're chasing an egotistical one."
I let his words settle in mind as music's volume steadily goes up to you can physically feel the waves of riff on the back of your ear. Some notes of the intro solo sounds familiar but my head refuses to produce an answer, any answer really. Leading the willing, derailing the reluctant.
"Thanks for the drinks." I've dwell their business long enough. I reach for coins in pocket only to find it short again. I curse under breath and go for the wallet to which Lev raises his palm.
"You paid enough." Wrinkle climbs along my brow as I nod at his sober look in Milky Way deep blue, hard to read as usual. A squeak from behind, I turn around and warden's already standing by his spot next to the reinforced entrance. A piece of paper filled with neat italics on the table he was at. "Good luck, kid."
I wave a hand over my shoulder as I walk past the empty seats that's about to be cramped with enough voices and whatever's to bury even the blaring music.
"Outside on the turnpike, they got this new hit tone.....thrills become as cheap as gas and gas as cheap as thrills......"