We Are Both In The Dirt Ch. 05

"The way I see it, Mandrake is the answer," Mira says. Mint nods, his face awash in the blood red light that permeates the room. He takes a sip of his third gin and tonic, lets his eyes rake across the people gyrating beneath him on the dance floor. He'd wanted a quiet bar and Mira had brought him here, Club Fate, a place that boasts gaudy décor, illuminated dance floors and over priced drinks.

"Mandrake. Even his name is awful, you sure this is necessary?" Mint asks.

"It doesn't look like we have a choice."

"There's always a choice. I don't need saving."

Mira sips her cocktail and rolls her eyes in exasperation. "This isn't saving, this is collaborating. You have something Mandrake wants, has wanted for years, and we get his muscle. Considerable muscle."

We'll see," Mint says. They sit with only the pulsing club beats between them. A girl approaches Mint, falls onto his lap and flips her long blonde hair in Mint's face. Mint breathes in her scent of cigarettes and vanilla. He catches Mira's eyes for just a moment, and she averts her gaze when Mint doesn't deflect the attention but revels in it instead, runs his hands through her hair, palms her ass as she giggles drunkenly. She is beautiful, yet her attractiveness barely registers as he is only entertaining this to pay Mira back for bringing him to Mandrake, and he enjoys the familiar sight of her fidgeting as she tries to keep her composure.

"Every time I see you it's like I haven't seen you in years," Mandrake says to Mira as he approaches a few moments later. He is flanked by two large men who don't meet anyone's gazes. One of the men whispers to Mandrake in Russian and then takes a seat at the bar. The other lifts the blonde from Mint's lap and sends her on her way. Mandrake embraces Mira and rubs his nose in her hair.

"Mint, don't get up," Mandrake says.

"I wasn't going to." Mint tosses back a gulp of his drink and throws two stacks of money on the table. "You'd have gotten this sooner but I was in jail, you know, the whole me taking the heat for the last heist, thing?"

Mandrake pockets the money without counting it and takes a seat beside Mira who signals for the waitress.

"Scotch on the rocks," she yells over the music.

"We all appreciate it, didn't we Mira?" Mandrake asks her.

"I wouldn't know," Mira says, "I didn't get caught." All three fall silent.

"And what's with sending away my entertainment?" Mint asks, keeping his eyes off Mira-though he can feel her gaze on him.

"You and I both know Mira doesn't want to watch some bitch rub her twat up and down your leg," Mandrake says with a smirk.

Mint smiles back. "Can't argue with that," Mint says. Before long, the three of them slip into familiarity and engage in general conversation. Mandrake is his usual animated self, throwing his hands around as he gives Mint a quick rundown of the last three years of his life, and Mint can't help but feel like there is so much that he isn't being told, so much that he would like to know. He talks little, and for the most part he is occupied with handling the wave of indistinguishable emotion that washes over him as he watches Mandrake and Mira, the familiarity, the comfort between them. He is just about to lose his cool when more pressing matters present themselves.

A gunshot rings out clear and deadly over the music and panic ensues below them on the dance floor. Mandrake is on his feet in an instant, his eyes scan the crowd below them. Another shot rings out and one of Mandrake's companions hits the floor, blood gurgling from the hole in his neck. Mandrake and Mint are on their feet instantly, and Mira pulls her gun but takes cover. Mandrake shoots into the mass of fleeing bodies on the dance floor, his gaze narrowed ever so slightly. He shouts a curse back at Mint and then disappears down the metal staircase into the strobe lit chaos Club Fate has become. Mint is close behind.

"You recognize him?" Mandrake asks, after he has shot the stuttering man pointblank. Mandrake stoops, hoists the dead body up by the collar for Mint to get a better look.

"That's Fowler Jones." Mira says, appearing behind the two men, her voice shaking in fear. "Montana's brother."