Snake Eyes

Chapter 19

The next few days were as hectic as possible and gave them no time to be together. Arackniss had been called in to handle all of the clean up from Artilluro and the foreman's skimming operation, in which they'd found a couple millions worth of merchandise had been stolen and sold for a slightly discounted price. That had been the part that had upset Arackniss the most; that they didn't even have the decency to sell it for what it was worth. Pentious had gone back home, after a few days, of course, and had resumed his typical commissions which still blew his mind. Some of the tools his lover created were more than just a little ridiculous and some of them bordered on perverse, but once he saw the figures Pentious was making off of them, he understood. It had been almost a week now and the final papers had been filed last night to wrap up the Artilluro case. He'd also put in that he was on vacation for the next week, and that if anyone tried to contact him for any reason other than everything being thoroughly fucked over, he would personally string them up next to the wolf spider outside.

"You almost done, Boss?" He looked up from the filing cabinet to see Luca leaning in the door and smiled.

"Just finished." Locking the cabinet, he moved to gather his things and the huntsman opened the door the rest of the way.

"You ready to not be here and spend some much needed time with your amore?" The larger man held his hands in front of him and batted his eyes like a love struck teenager. Arackniss rolled his eyes and pushed passed the man to close and lock the door.

"Stai zitto, stronzo." The two men burst into laughter before Stefano grabbed onto him and hugged him tightly.

"Did I mention how good it is to be back with you, Boss? They had us watchin' Molly, which is great, don't get me wrong, but your sister is not nearly as good company for us as you." He chuckled and glanced at Luca, who looked like he'd seen some things he didn't want to see.

"Jesus, what'd she do to you two?" Stefano trotted off to get the car and Luca simply shook his head slowly.

"Firstly, why did you not warn us that your sister gets her hair done once a week? And that it takes literal hours?" Now Arackniss was laughing without restraint.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know what it takes to keep that mop of hers looking half way decent? You do realize that if she doesn't go get it straightened and styled every week it'd be three times bigger, right?" The man gave him a look as though he were lying and he shook his head. "I have had to brush that shit. Molly has natural curls, she needs it. Just tell me you didn't look at the bill once it was done." The other man shook his head slowly again as Stefano pulled the car around. Luca opened the door and Arackniss slid into the back seat. "You're bringing my bags over later, right?" Stefano looked back at him and nodded. "Good, Gregory will probably meet you and help you bring them up. I'll be busy." That got a rouse from the two as the car took off. He let them laugh, because even though they knew all about his relationship with Pentious, they had no idea about the experiment. Which was just as well, since the two might feel like he were trying to replace them if they found out about the goal.

The moment they pulled up in front of the building had a smile on his face. Luca jumped out to hold the door open for him and he wasted no time moving into the building. He started by going to the apartment, but looking around, he couldn't find Pentious or Gregory, which brought him back downstairs. Opening the door, he was met with the high pitched static of a blow torch and the smell of melting metal. The walls of the lab were lined with chamber-like tubes, wires and filters, pipes and joints that all led back to a main monitor at the head of the room by one of the work benches. Another of the chambers was sitting in the center of the room, lifted off the ground on stands, and the very familiar yellow and black tail sticking out of it had him moving across the room to watch curiously. His lover was laying on his stomach inside the chamber, torch in hand, clearly correcting something. "Should you be inside that with a blow torch?" The snake jumped and his hood lifted completely for a few seconds before falling. Turning the torch off, he watched as the snake pulled out of the chamber and ended up sitting on the floor.