The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

Geno’s hired thugs began to snicker openly and Tyler joined them, leaning back even further in his chair and surveying the action with joy.  Caleb squirmed in his chair uncomfortably.

 Even though he didn’t like the guy, he wasn’t the type of man who enjoyed watching other people be made the butt of a joke they didn’t know was happening. 

Geno’s expression got even darker still, and Caleb held his breath, knowing that what was coming was probably not going to be good.

“Let me be clear. If I want you standing near me, I’ll snap my fingers and you’ll appear.  Then you’ll leave and I won’t have to look at you again until the next time I snap those same fingers.  See, I don’t give two sh*ts how you’re doing or if I can help you.  I pay you, don’t I?  That should be enough.  Unless you’re trying to say that what I’m giving you isn’t enough.  I guess that’s a different conversation altogether.”

The ratman’s eyes bulged out of his head and he shook his head quickly, backing up and bowing at the same time.  It was pathetic to watch and Caleb turned his head in disgust.  The only men not laughing at the table now were Caleb and Geno, who quickly poured two large glasses of bourbon and slid one Caleb’s way with a little wink.

“Chin chin, son.  What do we drink to?”

“How about your health, Geno?”

“Bah, I’ve drunk to that enough.  How about we drink to your health, or better yet, your happiness.”

“If you say so.”

The two of them took long, deep sips of the glasses, Geno smacking his lips contentedly and Caleb wincing ever so slightly.  Geno continued to look at him, staring so long it was beginning to make him uncomfortable.

It was usually Tyler who did the talking when it came to the boss; Caleb had the luxury of being a background man, someone who hid behind the scenes and did what he was told, slipping away when his job was done.  But when he looked for him he saw Tyler engaged in raucous conversation with a couple of the other men.  There was nobody to behave as his buffer.

“You know what I think, Caleb?”

“No sir, I can’t say that I do.”

“I think you’re too smart for this business.”

“I doubt that, sir.  I’m not so smart.”

“Bullsh*t.  Don’t do that with me, OK?”

“I’m sorry.  Don’t do what?”

“Don’t try to play like you’re dumber than you are.  I see it.  I see it in your face and the way you act.  Take what just happened, even.  Let’s use that as an example.  What did I just do there?”

“You put him in his place.”

“But what did I do?  What did it mean to him for me to put him in his place?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes you do.  Don’t not say anything because you’re afraid of what I’ll say.  I’m asking you.  I know what I did.  I want to know if you know it, too.  Am I mistaken?  Am I overestimating you?”

“You humiliated him.”

“Again.  Say it again.”

“You humiliated him.”

Caleb could feel his face flush hot and his blood pounding against the sides of his skull.  It was the first time he had ever spoken to Geno that way, aggressive and maybe even judgmental.  He felt afraid, sure, Geno was a powerful man; but more than that, he felt liberated. 

He was tired of men who felt that they were gods.  He was tired of men who were above the persecution of any of their peers.  If Geno wanted to back him into a corner, fine.  Let him.  But if he was going to push him for the truth, Caleb was going to give it to him.  He had humiliated the ratman, and he had done it on purpose.  There was dead silence and for a moment Caleb was afraid to even breathe, but then he looked up and saw that Geno wasn’t mad at all. 

Caleb would have known.  For one thing he had seen Geno angry enough to know what he looked like before he was going to start screaming or knock over a table for effect.  For another, Caleb could smell the anger on him whenever it was there.  His senses, as a shifter, were incredibly heightened.  He could smell things, taste things in the air that normal people simply couldn’t.

It was even more noticeable when it was with a person he knew well, and Geno was one of the people he had spent the most time with over the past thirteen years.  The only person he knew how to read better was Tyler and the two of them shared a bond that was completely unrivaled by any other.  Sometimes Caleb thought that no two people had ever existed before or would ever exist again that were so perfectly linked to one another. 

But learning Geno had been a calculated thing.  It had satisfied his survival instinct and he had been very thorough with the process.

“You’re right,” Geno said with an earnest expression as he leaned towards Caleb, placing one heavy hand over one of Caleb’s shaking ones, “that’s exactly what I did.  I humiliated him.  And what did I do after?”

“Nothing.  You took a sip of your drink and you did nothing.”

“Also correct.  Everyone at this table started laughing and did I?  No.  The necessary thing was done.  Laughing was too much.  It was cruel, and it didn’t help prove the point.  The only other man who didn’t laugh was you.  Now why was that?”

“Because it wasn’t funny.”

“But why?  Why wasn’t it funny to you when it caused such a stir with the rest of the men?”

“There isn’t anything funny about a broken man.  There isn’t anything funny about being so pitiful.  There but for the grace of god, right?  Any one of us could wind up just that way, given the right circumstances.  Ain’t one among us who can say we’re immune to falling that low.  It isn’t smart to laugh about things like that.  You’re only asking to bring it down on top of yourself.”