A Man of Honor.

Chapter 32: Reunions.

"When you decide to be something, you can be it. That's what they don't tell you in the church. When I was your age, they would say we can become cops or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: When you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?" ~ Frank Costello.

A few days after I opened the Moonstone I got a certain call on my scroll late in the middle of the night. I heard Russel's ringtone going off and I groaned as it forced me awake from what had been a very pleasant sleep. Downstairs my club was in it's last hour open and I had fallen asleep hours before with Neo nestled in my arms.

Displeased to have my pleasant rest interrupted I pulled away from her soft embrace and looked around sleepily. My makeshift home was located in the loft of the club and the angled windows provided a decent amount of illumination as I looked around seeing that the scroll wasn't on my nightstand like it usually was.

The memory of how Neo and I had gotten into bed slowly faded back as my half asleep brain woke up more and more with every passing second of that cursed scroll ringing. I remembered that it was in my pants pocket, which were currently strewn on the floor after I had quickly discarded them getting into bed with her.

I cursed leaving the bed and Neo's warmth to search for a moment naked across the dark floor to find my pants and my scroll which continued to ring loudly. Neo had woken up as well sitting up with the blanket wrapped around her as I managed to find the accursed scroll and accept the call.

"What do you want, Rus!?" I asked with an unamused growl. I was not happy being ripped away from my pleasant sleep and having Neo's own rest distrubed as well. I was starting to learn more and more as I slept next to her that she too had her share of nightmares. I never learned specifically what they were about, but I imagined that she didn't sleep easy for a lot of the same reasons I didn't sleep easy. Pleasant dreamless sleep was a commodity both of us valued.

"I'm afraid Russel isn't here at the moment Gentleman," I heard an unpleasantly familiar voice say to me over the line. My blood went cold and I shivered kneeling naked in the middle of the bedroom.

My weariness vanished at the sound of that voice but my anger only grew hot. "Adam!? Where the hell is Russel!?" I asked him urgently not liking his casual tone of voice.

"He's here with me," Adam said cooly over the line. I stood up and stood in the dark squeezing my scroll tightly. "We should really meet and have a little talk."

"What the fuck to you want to talk about!?" I asked him firmly. Neo sat up straighter in the bed, rubbing her eyes as she listened to my half of the conversation.

"You'll see when you get here, come down here to the northside docks, pier seventeen," Adam said to me.

"Fuck you!" I said to him, "I'm not going anywhere unless I know he's alive," I said, I had no idea what kind of game Adam was playing on me suddenly but I wasn't about to just charge blindly into what was very likely a trap. Neo, not one to just sit and ponder what was going on, turned on the lamp illuminating my bedroom and moving to collect her scattering clothing, dressing herself as I talked to Adam on the scroll trying to contain my rage and worry.

A second later a text came over the phone and I heard a sputter come over the line. "B-boss," I heard Russel say. I looked at the picture texted to me and sure enough it was him, bloody and bruised and looking almost naked. "I-I'm... I'm sorry boss," he said to me meekly.

"Don't worry about that Rus," I said to him. "I'm coming to get you."

I couldn't make out Russel's next words as Adam clearly took the scroll away from him. "Satisfied that he's alive now?" He asked me. "Come over the docks if you want him in one piece."