Drawing Thin

Chapter 1

Hearing a grunt, I looked back towards Alexis, and I could see the impatience building in his eyes. Without having to utter a word, Alexis's face told me that I needed to hang up with Bella a while ago. Turning around, I tried to get a measure of privacy, saying, "I'll talk to you later, Bella. It looks like I need to get going."

"What do you mean it looks like?" She replied, without any frustration coloring her words.

"Alexis wants me to hang up."

"Um-hum," Bella replied through a smile I couldn't see. "And why do you say that?"

"Because he's staring at me with fire behind his eyes."

"Oh," Bella muttered. "It sounds like you jumped from the frying pan into the fire," she said through a yawn.

Scratching behind my ear, I kept my attention on nothing as I corrected her, "Reverse that, I traded your uncle for a more temperate master."

"Master?"

"Alexis's word," I replied risking a glance back at the stoic man behind me. "Of course he's using the more classical definition, of a teacher."

"So, you jumped from being a criminal in training to a student?" She asked and the exhaustion I heard a moment ago vanished, replaced with warmth.

"Something like that," I answered with a chuckle. But before Bella could respond, I voiced a thought that floated around my mind. "I'll talk to you later, Bella. Though I'm not entirely sure when that'll be."

"Sounds good to me Mar..." She fumbled as she automatically tried reaching for my alias, "No, it's not Marcus its Francis, right?"

"Yeah, sorry about that, Bella," I said as I dragged my hands through my hair. I took a slight breath as I tried to compose what I wanted to say next quickly. "To be honest, I'm not used to that name. I left it for dead over ten years ago. I have no idea how your uncle managed to dig it up."

"He's capable of quite a lot, isn't he?" Bella asked her words losing warmth with each syllable.

I could hear Alexis's foot start booming a moment before his fingers started tapping my shoulder like an ice pick working on a chunk of ice. I heard him whisper, "Wrap it up, Francis. We have things to get done, and I would like to go to bed."

I winced at the reprimand. Though I wondered how Alexis managed to issue a command while keeping it from sounding like an actual order.

With the gentle reminder, I decided to stop pressing my luck, and succinctly said, "Goodnight Bella."

"Goodnight Francis."

Fortunately for me, she hung up the phone. Otherwise, I may have kept right on talking. With the call finished, I watched the screen go black before turning around to face Alexis. With the phone locked I slipped it back into my pocket and looked up to see Alexis leaning against the door. As the light struck him, he reminded me of Dempsey or one of his goons. I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat as I took a small step away from him. It didn't help my nerves that he was standing in the same doorway where he threatened to kill me earlier that night. And with a grim face, he looked down at me, and without saying a word, he let me know that I better not try something like that again.

When he saw me choke down my agreement, he gave me a slight nod and broke the silence. "Francis, hand me your cell phone."

With the expression on his face, I knew that trying to argue the point, wouldn't go over well. But I still found myself asking, "You want my phone?"

Keeping his hardening eyes upon me, he spoke at me, "Yes, Francis." He placed so much extra emphasis on my name that I forced a cantaloupe-sized lump down my throat. But before I could say anything, he extended his arm towards me and continued, "Now please." His voice was so syrupy that I felt like I could have used it over a plate of pancakes. Taking a step towards me, he shoved his hand in front of my face, "Hand me your phone."