Deadline≫hemmings a.u

4.1

Luke was on his feet before I even had the chance to ignore Marcus's outstretched hand. Michael quickly followed, brushing his hand along his hip where I knew he must have kept his gun. Marcus didn't even bat an eye at their sudden jump to action. His eyebrows raised slightly as if amused, but not even the slightest bit of intimidation was hidden in his body language, despite the fact that the younger men towered over him.

"No need to get all riled up, now," Marcus chuckled, waving his hand towards the hand Michael had his gun. "Keep that thing hidden, we don't want to cause a scene now, do we?"

Michael and Luke watched him as he pulled up a chair and sat down, their bodies rigid and alert. Marcus looked up at them and then sighed, rolling his eyes at them. "Sit down, won't you? I mean no harm tonight. You can check me, no guns."

Luke narrowed his eyes at the older man, untrusting. "Yeah? And your men? What about theirs?"

Marcus shook his head, clucking his tongue. "I came alone, Luke. You know me. I like to keep my affairs private." His blue eyes flicked to me and then back to Luke. "But clearly, you must have forgotten that. Seeing as you drew quite a bit of attention to your colleagues in Arizona."

Luke's hands clenched into fists, the veins in his arms straining against his skin. Compared to Luke, Marcus was a shadow. Luke could have definitely taken him in a fight if one should occur, but he didn't. Something held him back.

"What are you here for, Marcus?" It was Michael who spoke up this time, his voice steely and harsh in a way I hadn't heard it since I first met him. Since then he had softened up to me immensely, and when he did get mad, it wasn't stone cold anger. I had forgotten this side of him, he kept it hidden more than Luke did, and it was slightly frightening. "I know you didn't come here for a peace treaty."

"Not quite," Marcus gave a sly smile. "Sit, and we'll discuss."

Michael and Luke looked at each other, as if communicating silently in the way they only could, years of having only each other proving itself useful. Michael started to sit down first and then so did Luke, moving his chair so he blocked me from Marcus as best he could without being obvious.

"How did you find us?" Luke peered at him through slitted eyes, jaw locked.

"I've had people watching you for a long time, Luke."

"What do you want?" Luke asked, his voice low. "You know I'm not going with you. You'd have to - "

"Kill you?" Marcus raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Don't be so dramatic. I know you don't value your life Luke that much, that's why I'm not bothering dragging you back. But I have a proposal. An offer, that I doubt you can refuse."

"Let us hear it and we'll see." I was surprised to find that the harsh, clipped words that hung in the air were my own.

He looked over at me, something glinting in his eyes as he regarded me again curiously. "Hm," he said, as if what I said was the most interesting and trivial thing he'd ever heard before.

"Get on with it," Luke growled, forcing Marcus to peel his eyes away from me.

He gave another laugh, but did what Luke said, pulling a bag that sat on the ground onto his lap. It wasn't anything special, just a plain simple backpack.

"A backpack?" Michael snapped. "You want to impress us with a backpack?"

Marcus ignored Michael, his eyes trained on Luke as he spoke. "Your friend Ashton has hopital bills piling up, and you need money, don't you?"

Luke made a strangled choking sound as Marcus opened the bag, showing us the stacks of dollar bills inside. "How much is that?"

"Everything I owe you and then some," he said, allowing us to gape at it. "It should definitely take care of those bills for quite a while."