Broken People (Serial)

Nineteen

Thick clouds hid the sunlight as Rake left the factory the next morning. The smell of fresh blood had lodged inside his nostrils, and his left eye twitched from all the squinting. They had called it a day after several difficult hours. By the time they had stopped, the client's body showed signs of distress but, as far as they could tell, the transplant had gone well. In a day or two, they would know how many grafted nerves had taken and would function properly, and which ones they would have to remove. So it would be touch-and-go for a while.

He shook his head. Armstrong didn't seem like the type of guy used to waiting. Rake climbed into the car he shared with Spinner. His colleague had stayed behind to get breakfast from the cafeteria car, but Rake was too tired to wait. Carrying the heavy door from five cars away and putting it into place by himself had exhausted whatever strength he had left after the show. He was starting to feel his age. Later than most, but still annoying. All he wanted was to fall into bed and sleep until the next show.

When he opened the door to his room, he found the bed already occupied.

"What took you so long?" Riella raised her head from the pillow to throw him a glare. As she shifted, a curly lock of red hair twisted and wrapped around her right breast. "I don't have long. Serioja should wake up soon."

The woman lay naked on his sheets, and Rake wondered if there was anything that might ever intimidate her. Her official partner finding out about their illicit affair surely didn't.

"We had a lot of work to do." Rake took off his jacket and hung it on a rack behind the door. Except for the blade locker, he kept the décor to a minimum because he never had time to clean the place, and he didn't like a messy room. One by one, he pulled the blades from around his body and deposited them, wrapped in leather sheaths, on the shelves inside the locker. Once free of them, he turned off the magnetic fields generated by various parts of his body and allowed himself to relax.

"Are you done now?" Riella asked in a bored voice that didn't accept "no" for an answer.

Rake ran his fingers through the short hair on the back of his head. "For now." He sat down on the edge of the bed and bent over to unlace his boots.

Riella crawled on her knees behind him and lay on his back, an arm wrapped around his neck. "Do you know what people are saying?" she murmured by his ear.

"Mmm?"

"They say Nicholas is on his way to take over the circus."

"Do they?" Rake straightened his back and proceeded to unbutton his padded shirt. "Would that be such a bad thing?"

"Big Dino will never stand for it." Riella's soft breasts rubbed pleasantly against Rake's shoulder blades, eliciting a small groan from him.

"Big Dino neglected to delegate a successor," Rake said, freeing his arms from the sleeves.

Riella ran her fingers over the sharp edges poking from under his skin, signaling the places where the prosthetics wrapped around his joints. With the fields off, he felt them cooperating less.

"While he's out, he has no say in the matter." Rake tossed the shirt away and rested his hands on his knees, frowning at the floor. "We can't let the circus die."

He leaned back to allow Riella to climb into his lap and straddle him. She was as flexible as the contortionists but despised their act. In her opinion, going out naked would have been preferable, as opposed to mangling her body in such disgraceful positions.

Rake's big hands slid up and down her torso, enjoying the warmth of her skin.

"It's already falling apart." Riella pouted. "The music from last night was atrocious. The Nightingale missed half of the notes. She wasn't into it at all." Her complaint turned into a moan when the Rake's thumb brushed against her nipple, and her back arched.

"She had an off night. It happens." He clasped her chin between his fingers and made her look at him, showing her who was in control. "Now, how much time do we have?"

"About twenty minutes."

"That will do," Rake said and roughly threw her onto the mattress. He wasn't that tired after all.

Riella let out a delighted laugh and pulled him to her.