Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
STAN looked up at the boy as if he'd never been so disappointed in his life, as if he'd woken up on Christmas morning expecting one thing and gotten the complete opposite of what he'd asked for.
"Come on, Ronnie, really?" he cocked his head to the side slightly, "don't call me that. Where's the rest of your team? Your new boy out there, he on my tail?" Stan was smiling now, his eyes squinted closed while he was grinning up at the boy as if there wasn't enough pain in the world to force him into giving any bit of information he had to offer, which was true in a sense.
"Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie." he sighed his smile tightening, "there's your first mistake." he paused, "you never start with a real question, you start slowly, you get inside your subjects head."
The man seemed to be unaffected by Stans replies instead continuing on to the point, "Stan, I'm gonna ask you one more time." he- Stan- let out a sigh his head absently turning to the left for a brief moment, "there's your second mistake. Number two. You don't say, 'one more time', you already-"
Ronnie had begun to pullup on the pliers the older man's fingernail coming up with a disgusting pop, Margo turned away unsure of how Stan was able to endure such pain, she was disgusted with her brothers lack of patience as well.
"Now, what's that third mistake, Stan?" Ronnie taunted looking up at the man with expectancy swimming in his eyes, "huh? What is it?"
Stan grinned- clenching his teeth in the process- "Go ahead! Go ahead!" he breathed out, "I got nine more! I like this. I like it. Go ahead, bring it on, motherfucker!" Margo had turned back to watch them refraining from looking at Stan's raw finger, the sight of no nail there itched her brain in a way she didn't quite enjoy.
Two men exited from the tarped area one of them speaking in a foreign language, instead of allowing Ronnie to answer, Stan did.
"Ronnie wants to know if I got a team outside. Right, Ron?" he looked to Ronnie as if he was trying to make sure he got the story right despite the fact he knew he did, "if it's safe to move your bomb."
The man spoke a small sentence in the foreign language again before proceeding into English, "are we being followed?" Ronnie quickly replied his voice clipped as the words flew from his mouth, "where's the new me?" he questioned, "I've done my research. I know all about him." he was seething now, he wanted the information he knew Stan would never give him.
"The new me? Oh, you mean Mitch?" he looked down at him with half-lidded eyes, "you know, Mitch, he's unpredictable." He took a deep inhale trying to catch his breath, "you never know about Mitch. He might be here, he might be there" He smiled, "He's not the one you need to worry about." The man let out a hacking laugh a cough coming through the middle of it.
