“You know you’re bleeding all over the leather,” Balthazar said coolly, as he reached into the limo’s liquor cabinet for the bottle of brandy.
After Pablo had left Logan on a bench in the club, the shooters either got away or were apprehended, he wasn’t quite sure which. After that, it wasn’t long before Logan spotted his boss, strolling casually down the stairs, completely unaffected by the night’s events. Knowing Romano’s aversion to cops and messy situations altogether, the bodyguard had no choice but to pull himself to his feet and hobble after Balthazar. Together, the two had made a discreet exit from the Graveyard bloodbath.
“So what exactly possessed you to get involved in all that nonsense?”
Logan’s head was swimming. He leg was mangled, people were dead and despite all that, Balthazar didn’t seem the least bit worried. You sadistic piece of….. In the blink of an eye, a wave of intense dizziness washed over the injured man, causing him to lose focus as he struggled to suppress the bile rising in his throat. But, as quick as it came, the nausea left and with it, his train of thought as well.
“Cat got your tongue my boy?”
“No, sorry sir,” the bodyguard winced. “I just figured it was better for me to try and stop the shooters before they got up to the second level where you were”.
“So preemptive body-guarding is what you’re saying,” the sorcerer replied, his voice flat and ambiguous.
“I guess you could call it that”. Biting down on his lip, the man fought through the jolt of pain coming from the stab wound.
While Logan struggled to keep himself together, Balthazar on the other hand seemed cool as a cucumber. “Well you’re nothing if not proactive. I like that, you don’t find that quality in a lot of employees these days. Of course,” he added, taking a sip from his glass, “being recklessly proactive is not necessarily a good thing”. The sorcerer had to play his cards right. There were so many moving pieces on the board now and with his plans so close to completion, he couldn’t risk Logan getting himself killed.
“People were getting shot, I couldn’t just stand by and..”
“I know I know,” Balthazar said in his most understanding voice. “You’re good at being the hero Logan, but that’s a dangerous game to play. You keep tempting the odds like that and eventually your number will get called”.
“You pay me to look out for you and that’s what I was doing.” Though technically true, Logan had other personal reasons to get involved. With Cadee and her friend at the party, he definitely had had a reason to try and help put and end to the chaos.
The two sat quietly for a moment, draped in an awkward silence. Logan knew his boss well enough that he could tell the old man’s mind was elsewhere, but where? His gut told him Romano knew more about tonight than he let on, but before Logan could question, the sorcerer spoke.
“You plan on visiting Angus this week? I’m still waiting for an answer”.
“Yeah, actually, I’ll go tomorrow,” Logan replied almost eagerly. Stopping at Slainte meant he could check up and make sure Cadee was alright.
“Will you be up to it?”
“Well, if you can do some hocus pocus on my leg, I should be good to go. I heal pretty fast anyways”.
Balthazar smiled as he noticed that the bodyguard’s leg had already stopped bleeding. “They make them tough where you come from,” he chuckled slyly.