Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick Read Free Book Online Page B

spun toward me. “Screw the waiting!” he bellowed. “I shouldn’t have needed to call you in, Drothe. If you’d been doing your job, instead of dicking around after relics, I’d have heard about Ten Ways two days ago. As it is, I’ve been having to get word from the street. I shouldn’t have to listen to the fucking street, Drothe—that’s what I pay you to do.”
    “Ten Ways?” I said. I sucked on the seed in my mouth and ran through everything Mendross had told me about the cordon earlier, then through everything I’d heard about it in the last two months. Nothing important surfaced. “Why the hell are you worried about what’s happening in Ten Ways?”
    “The street,” said Rambles.
    I looked over at him. “Was I talking to you?”
    Rambles smiled coolly. “The street says someone’s planning on making a move against Nicco down in Ten Ways.”
    “ ‘The street’?” I said. “What the hell do you know about listening to the street?”
    “I have ears,” said Rambles.
    “Yeah, I can see them from here. Nice jingle.”
    “Word is it’s serious.”
    “Serious,” I said. “All right. Then answer me a couple of questions, O Sage of the Streets. Did you run this by anyone else? Maybe another Nose, or someone in the cordon? Did you drag your ass down there and check it yourself? Did you stop to consider this might just be a rumor? Or did you come running the moment you heard it?”
    Rambles pushed himself away from the wall. “I don’t need a Nose to tell me how to work the street!” he snarled.
    “Of course you don’t,” I said. I turned back to Nicco. “He’s full of crap.”
    “Why?” said Rambles. “Because you don’t agree with me?”
    I made a show of crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair. The light from the window was playing hell with my exhausted eyes, and I could feel a nasty headache coming on, but I smiled benignly nonetheless.
    “Answer him,” said Nicco.
    “Why?” I said. “If Rambles wants to believe everything he hears on the street, that’s his business. I don’t give free lessons to the help.”
    Nicco took a step. The floor creaked beneath him. “I said, answer him.”
    I bit down hard on the ahrami in my mouth. The crack of the seed was audible in the room.
    “Listen,” I said, starting to get annoyed. I’d been dragged in here for this ? “This is bullshit. One person gets leaned on, and suddenly it’s a move against you? Think about it. This is how Ten Ways works. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. If Rambles wants to—”
    For a big man, Nicco could move fast. I didn’t have time to flinch before he’d taken a step and backhanded me across the face.
    The blow sent me halfway out of my chair and filled my head with a ringing sound. For a moment, my cheek was numb—then the pain made its way inside. I felt hands grab my shoulders and haul me back into the chair. At first I thought it was Nicco, but when I saw him standing in front of me, I realized the two Arms at the door hadn’t stayed in the room for show. They were behind me, leaning down on my shoulders, holding me in place.
    I worked my jaw, tasted blood. I could feel the liquid starting to slip out of my mouth and into my beard. My cheek felt half the size of my face. If that weren’t enough, the headache that had been threatening moments ago was now in full, agonizing bloom.
    Out of habit, my hand reached for the herb wallet at my belt. There would be painkillers there—waxed packets full of powders and leaves and unguents, maybe a little Saint’s Balm for my cheek. . . .
    One of the Arms stopped me before I could reach it.
    “Careful,” said Nicco. He was rubbing the hand that had hit me. “Be careful here, Drothe.” He leaned forward, putting his face close to mine. I noticed he had had onions with breakfast. “You know why you got that?”
    I nodded and slowly retrieved my hand.
    “Because you agree with Rambles?” I said.
    “In part. And?”
    “And because I