ticktockgrin: (attention)
ticktockgrin ([personal profile] ticktockgrin) wrote2014-07-18 12:36 am

Negotiations With Teeth

Dwayne hates this part of the act. He's pulled just about every con in the game at some time or another, some of them enough times to do them blind without a moment's warning, but this one? It never gets easier, even with the amount of trust involved.

Art items, money, contraband luxuries of all sorts, even drugs and weapons? Sure. Humans? That's one thing he can't stomach.

Next to him, Mira is just as calm as he is, probably calmer because she knows the lock on her silver collar has a quick-release that will let her get it off in half a second.

She's the quickest shifter he knows, maybe because she was turned so young. She's still too damn young... But that's what makes this work so well. The fact that she can do this without losing her shit. After all she's been through she can do the job, control her wolf, and still be rational, reliable, able to have a life outside the perversion and submission that defined her teen years? It's kind of amazing.

She can hold her own, both physically and emotionally, and he can control her if things go bad. Combined with his middle-aged, refined demeanor? They make a good team, and the pack has a lot of faith in them for taking down yet another slave dealer.

He still hates it. But he smiles anyway, genial, professional, and harmless in spite of the huge boxer's build filling out his tailored suit, copper-penny hair and beard trimmed close and neat and not showing even a hint of gray in spite of his forty-five years. A middle-aged businessman, not even a bit out of place in an upscale hotel where a little money buys a lot of discretion.

And the slender young brunette with him? Well, everyone has their indulgences, and all it takes is the right price.
tinkermoose: (sweaty and intense)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-10 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Josh has a brief moment of satisfaction as Big Red staggers, and he tries to capitalize on it by pushing himself up, or trying to, free hand now clawing for the older man's gun again. Unfortunately, the guy takes the shot to the nuts a hell of a lot better (or maybe worse, all things considered) than Josh had hoped. It might have rocked him, but it didn't take him down, and before Josh can get even halfway upright there's a massive fist hammering into his kidney again, making his head swim with pain. His kness just about give out and he starts to slump just as it connects again, this time with his skull, making the world go grey and distant, and he's barely aware of his surroundings as he slides to the floor, eyes tearing as he curls in on himself before everything goes black.
tinkermoose: (beaten up)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-10 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
Fortunately for the well being of Josh's brain, it doesn't take him that long to start coming round. Unfortunately for his dignity (and any ability to take his captor by surprise) the first thing he's aware of is a truly delightful combination of pain and nausea, and he curls a little tighter around himself with a ragged (and possibly embarrassingly high pitched) moan. He's not even with the program enough to start questioning where he is, how he got there or why for a good minute more, though when he finally does regain enough higher brain functions to go there he goes very still and quiet. Doubtless too little too late, but he doesn't have a clue if he's being watched or not.

On the plus side, the only damage he's immediately aware of are the shots that put him down in the first place: his kneecaps seem to be intact and he knows from brutal experience that he'd be feeling it if someone had taken their frustrations out on his ribs or head after he hit the ground. So all in all things could be a hell of a lot worse. Depending on where he is, anyway. He bites back another groan as he slits his eyes open and the light stabs into them like god damn knives. He has to blink a few times to clear his vision, but then Big Red swims blearily into not quite focus. Correction, Big Red and the gun Josh never had managed to get his hands on.

Shit.

Josh flexes his hands in frustration, because he knows there's not a damn thing he can do. Not for himself, and not for the kid this piece of shit just sold into sexual slavery, and the next sound he has to choke back is a sob, because there's no way in hell he's giving the bastard the satisfaction. "What are you waiting for?" he demands, though his voice is rough and unsteady and not nearly as demanding as he'd intended. "To be able to force me to walk out of here under my own power so you don't have to get a body through the damn lobby?" His attempt to come off as confident and self-possessed probably isn't helped by the fact he's pretty sure he can't manage to lever himself upright just yet.
tinkermoose: (sweaty and intense)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-10 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"Gee, sorry to be a fucking inconvenience to you." Even angry and disoriented the obscenity sounds unnatural coming out of his mouth, but he's not about to hold back at this point. Jesus, at least the buyer had looked like the kind of sleazebag he is, but this guy... if Josh just spotted him in the street he knows he'd never have seen anything but a mild mannered, kind of hot older business man. He knows it's irrational, but that doesn't stop it from being frustrating.

He glances at the ginger ale and then away, he's not taking anything from this bastard, and if anything he's sort of tempted to just give in to the way his stomach's rolling. It's a petty and pointless revenge, but tempting... if it weren't for how much he hates throwing up. "Oh that's really special, coming from a guy who just sold a kid to one of the biggest perverts in town as a sex slave!" And he does push himself unsteadily up now, hoping the movement will distract from the tears that are pricking at the corners of his eyes... banking that the guy won't just shoot him because that'll create a mess to clean up and probably attract attention, no matter how good the sound proofing in this place is.
tinkermoose: (tank top)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-11 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
Josh sits tensely on the edge of the bed, trying to gauge whether he has any chance at overpowering Big Red and making a break for it. Honestly, it doesn't look good, even with as tired as the older man looks, and Josh tries to focus on getting the room to stop wobbling in his vision and getting his stomach to settle. He's only giving half his attention to what's being said to him until he manages to blearily register the general gist of Big Red's words, and then his eyes narrow and he leans forward tensely... until he starts to sway alarmingly and has to sit back again.

"And how the hell is being able to handle herself going to help in that kind of situation?" Because as Josh has just had categorically proven to him again, sometimes it doesn't matter how well you can handle yourself when the odds are stacked against you. "Do you have any idea what that bastard does to the people he buys?" He sounds sick and miserable, and not just from the after effects of Dwayne putting him down so effectively. "We thought if we threw enough money at you-" He stops. Really, they hadn't thought the kind of person who'd sell people like objects would have enough integrity to pass up that kind of profit. "They're going to be watching for me, you know. You won't be able to get out of here with me."
tinkermoose: (beaten up)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-11 10:07 am (UTC)(link)
Josh listens in growing horror to the emotionless descriptions of atrocities. He doesn't know what to make of it, of the big redhead. It's not the kind of litany a man who approves of that kind of treatment would recite, but... there's no discernible anger, no disgust. Just facts and figures, as if the people he's describing, the horrors they're subjected to, don't matter, and Josh realizes that he might actually be sick soon.

"Jesus, how can you-" He voice breaks and he stops and scrubs a hand over his mouth, swallowing back bile and wishing his head would stop pounding and his vision would clear. "You're selling people to that monster and you expect me to care about your hide?"
tinkermoose: (tank top)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-13 08:25 am (UTC)(link)
Josh is, frustratingly, caught off guard when the big redhead stands, and he makes an automatic and ill-advised effort to follow suit... which ends with him collapsing back onto his ass before he gets six inches off the bed, his stomach twisting and his head pounding in protest as he tries to follow the older man's words. What he does manage to process has his hands flexing anxiously into the bedding to either side of his thighs, the 'bigger picture' the man's already mentioned once before finally starting to come at least a little clear. He drops his chin to his chest, brow creased in consternation as he works his way laboriously through the explanation and its implications, and after a moment he swallows hard and looks up again, still frowning.

"How are you getting her and the others out?" Because if this is really the carefully planned intelligence gathering mission he's implying then he and whoever he's working with have to have an extraction plan, right? And... for now he's just not going to let himself think about whether he believes that silver poisoning, real or faked, will be enough to keep her from being... touched for those first few days.
tinkermoose: (sweaty and intense)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-14 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Josh has seen a wolf's skin blister and curl at the touch of silver, and it had made him want to be ill, he doesn't actually have a clue what it does when it's actually introduced to a wolf's system... and it's probably just as well right now. What he does know is that--maybe, just maybe--this guy isn't the profiteering, inhuman piece of shit he'd been led to believe, and he leans a little farther forward on the bed, though not so far as to compromise his balance this time as he listens.

"... then don't let me walk out, and don't lock me in your trunk." His lips quirk faintly in something that doesn't quite make it to a wry smile. "It'd probably be a bitch making me fit anyway." He pauses, head cocked slightly and expression completely serious. "Let me help. I'm not as incompetent as I probably managed to come off out there. Put me to work."
tinkermoose: (stare)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-17 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
Josh just nods seriously at Dwayne's admission, because pointing out he'd learned to get out of cuffs well before he was ten probably won't really help. At least not right at this moment. Maybe when he can present it as an asset rather than a deterrent--and when he doesn't have to worry about the man using the information to find a more secure way of confining him if things don't go the way he's hoping.

He props his elbows on his knees and leans his weight on them a little, the fingers of his right hand curled loosely around his left wrist as he considers his captor, and just how to answer him. "We usually buy wolves in public sales." Or at least as public as something as secretive and illegal as the buying and selling of supernatural creatures most people still don't even know exist can be. "We've got some contacts with safe packs that'll take them in and help them get back on their feet. This... one of our contacts heard about this sale, and it seemed like a good chance to keep anyone else from falling into that fucker's filthy hands. It... seemed worth the risk." He shrugs and looks down at his hands for a moment.

"I'm usually back up, not the con," he admits. "Either that or I play security. But for this-" He looks back up at Dwayne, a little fidgety. "Figured sending someone in with a body guard would be too likely to set everyone on edge, and... I'm the only one who's actually any good in a fight." He looks back at the phone, fingers twitching slightly with the desire to get his hands on it again. "I'm not gonna give you any names or descriptions, but... no one'll give you any trouble." That's a reluctant admission, but it's true. His backup, such as it is, isn't meant to do any more than be watching to get him the hell out of there as fast as possible if he manages to get out and free. No one's going to actually try a rescue, they're simply not equipped or qualified.
tinkermoose: (stare)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-24 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
He could probably still get out of them. Eventually. If he was left alone for long enough. But they'd definitely give him more trouble than standard issue cuffs. None of which is hopefully going to be an issue here and now, and Josh watches Dwayne closely, trying to read his responses and figure exactly where he stands. It's still a bit difficult doing the one-eighty from thinking of the man as an immoral piece of shit who'd sell people to line his pockets to realizing that they're actually on the same side... and that Dwayne obviously knows a hell of a lot more about what he's doing than the organization Josh has been working with. The fact he's so slow to resort to violence, that even without knowing jack about Josh he'd been willing to risk himself and his plans to keep him from ending up kneecapped in an alley, leaves Josh particularly well disposed towards him, though. As does his calm quiet, even when he's obviously wound up and stressed the hell out. And, okay, it doesn't hurt that he's ridiculously easy on the eyes, but that's really not relevant under the circumstances.

"We're small." He shrugs. "We have some reliable contacts and some good financing and support, but we're not equipped to handle anything big or deal with actual conflict." Which is frustrating as hell at times. Knowing that sales are going down they can't step in on, seeing abuse they can't stop. The idea of getting involved with something bigger, more organized, more effective is incredibly appealing, and he frowns at Dwayne's question, brows furrowing in obvious confusion. "... why wouldn't I be able to?"

It's not that he doesn't realize the man's asking if he'd be prejudiced against working with a werewolf, possibly with a side of wondering how he'd do taking orders from a little slip of a girl, he just... doesn't get why the hell the man thinks he'd be doing this in the first place if it would be a problem for him.
tinkermoose: (tank top)

[personal profile] tinkermoose 2014-08-27 06:42 am (UTC)(link)
Damn, that smile- The guy had always been objectively hot, but there's something about him now, despite his obvious weariness, and it's not just that Josh now knows he's not a sadistic racist bastard. Or, well, maybe it is at least a little. He doesn't feel dirty looking anymore, anyway, and he smiles back despite his still pounding head. And, hey, he suddenly realizes that he doesn't have to refuse the ginger ale on principle anymore and reaches across to pop it open and take a sip as Dwayne answers him.

"Yeah, well, most people are tough to deal with sometimes, and I grew up around mercenaries and, well-" He ducks his head and frowns, an shamed flush spreading up his neck. "Hunters," he admits, voice going low and pained. He's seen plenty of the wrong side of this trade, and plenty of wolves as well, most of them in pretty damn bad circumstances. "I'm not much bothered by dangerous... and I have some debts to settle." Even if they were mostly accrued by his father, he can't shrug off the weight of them, the knowledge of what the man had done, and where at least some of the money had come from when his 'normal' avenues of employment had begun to tail off as he became more and more erratic.