Negotiations With Teeth

[ticktockgrin]

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.

Comments

[ticktockgrin]

Some wolves handle silver better than others, and the amount, purity, and level of exposure makes a difference, too. Ingestion, skin contact, open wounds, directly into an open vein (which Dwayne will never, ever, to his dying day be able to forget.)

Dwayne considers that, thumb rubbing the grip of his gun absently. Though he's comfortable with the weapon, it's clear from the way he holds it that it's only there as a practical necessity. Not something to be reviled or revelled in, just a tool. Now that he's had a chance to have a few words with Josh, wind down a little bit, he feels more like himself, still stern and a bit edgy, more cuttingly sarcastic than he usually would be, but it's rapidly being washed away by the wave of post-role fatigue and the fact that he really wants to solve this with as little bloodshed as possible.

"Not having to cuff you in the garage would make my life easier," he admits. Because yes, he's looking for an agreeable solution here, too. "Help? I don't know. I still don't know anything about what kind of operation you're running"- he looks pointedly at the cellphone on the table, thinking of Josh's threats of backup. "And getting deeper into this means you don't get back out again so easily." He sits back down again though, and reaches for his half-finished ginger ale. He needs the sugar, dammit, and if Josh is ready to talk, well...okay, they'll talk.

[tinkermoose]

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.

[ticktockgrin]

It also probably wouldn't help for Dwayne to point out that Dwayne uses the same manacles that a lot of Federal prison systems use, not the standard cop cuffs that can be shimmed in under thirty seconds. But the fact that Josh isn't completely green will definitely help his case, as will the fact that he actually knows what to do with all that size and muscle. Dwayne has taken down a lot of men expecting their mass to be the only edge they needed, and the last thing he needs is to be babysitting a thug on a job.

He listens to Josh as he talks, processing that. A small operation, but an operation that Dwayne can actually check on, ask around about. That helps, and he gives a slow nod. Packs and informants that he can talk to, see if this guy is actually what he says it is, and, if it comes down to it, they might actually have a common contact or two.

This might be salvageable. Miracles happen after all. Dwayne rubs at his beard, scruffing it with a scratchy sound in the dim room. "This goes better for everyone if you walk out of here without a ruckus," he agrees, finally. "I don't know if I'm sold on adding you to the team just yet, but on the other hand, if you got this far, that shows you're already at least partly in the game."

He's got as much as he's going to get, to work with right now. All Josh's vitals are steady, or as steady as can be expected under the circumstances, which is reliable enough to act as a lie detector. And no one's come charging up just yet, which means they can keep talking. Dwayne keeps his gun in hand, just because it would be stupid not to, but, he's listening. He tilts his head, after a moment, blue eyes intent and thoughtful. "Okay. Saying for the moment that we do go in on this. My op is a little bigger and more...complicated. Some of our rescues stay around and help, so if you had to work with someone like Mira, could you do that?"

He's deliberately left that open. Mira as a wolf, Mira as an ex-slave, Mira as someone higher in rank than Josh who gives the orders without question. Because while Dwayne isn't planning to let Josh see more than necessary of how things work, just yet, he needs to know.

And if it works out? Well, they need all the allies they can get.

[tinkermoose]

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.

[ticktockgrin]

Josh is...pretty damn cute when he does that, that look, and Dwayne has a moment of regret that this isn't a big, work-related mess and that he's not, oh, about twenty years younger. He might be a well-preserved forty-six, but he's still probably old enough to be Josh's (well, teenaged unwed, but still) father. The response gets a small smile out of him, and he rubs his palm on his pants. The suit is going to need a good pressing anyway, after the ruffle that it's been through.

He's pretty sure he's even forgiven the fact that Josh punched him in the balls. How's that for easygoing. And now that Dwayne can drop the facade, he does feel a lot better. Acts like this leave him worn-down and tired, because that cruelty and callousness is so against his nature. It takes work to pull that role off, and without fail, it always leaves him drained and a little sick afterward. The weary, practical, somewhat wry man that Josh is talking to now? That's a lot closer to the real Dwayne, though still not his usual genial self. That's a stretch so soon after dealing with scum like the fat man and knowing what he's turning Mira over to. "Some people like the idea, but they get up close with the reality and it's not quite as appealing. Wolves are tough to deal with sometimes, especially when they have a goal in mind, and they can be dangerous."

It's quiet, and matter of fact. Dwayne has over ten years of control under his belt, and he still knows when his wolf can and can't be trusted. And wolf rescue involves working with and rescuing weres a lot less emotionally and physically stable than he is. If Josh wants into an operation that's that up close and personal with the shifters' true nature, then the warning has to be given.

[tinkermoose]

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.