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Chapter 18 - What to Believe

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” said the tiger sitting next to me, his rich, deep voice much like smooth liquor. He put his arm around me and slid a mug of warm coffee into my waiting hands.

I was sitting next to the window on the second level, a book in my lap barely touched. I guess I looked lost in thought because Tin walked over. I looked up to him and smiled and leaned into the crook of his arm, closing my eyes as I took comfort in the familiar. Tin was the only thing I really had from New York and I was desperately missing my friends. I didn’t know what to do.

“Not a ghost—just someone’s true side.” I put a bookmark into the book and put it aside, no longer interested in reading. I turned a little and wrapped my arms around his massive chest, letting my cold fingers burrow against him for warmth.

“You mean your friend Tristan?”

I already let Tin know what Ciel had told me. I even told him about sneaking onto the presidio and stealing weapons for Tri. At that we had…a bit of an argument, but you know what they say about arguments and couples, right? We both left feeling much more relaxed but still…there was something bigger here.

“Yeah.” I looked at the buttons on his shirt. His new shirt. The buttons were handsome and brass. I let a finger come up and play with one, just feeling it move against a claw. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I do have to say, for a little fox you get your ass in a lot of trouble,” Tin said, with a soft chuckle to show he wasn’t serious. “You’re just a dock worker, and before that a pharmacy assistant, then a sailor…and before that a chimney sweep, right?”

I didn’t respond to the rhetorical question. Tin knew my resume pretty well.

“So how does this English kid get wrapped up in murder, mystery, and everything else you’ve gone through? Most people would have died from the stress alone, Simon.”

“I’m just lucky,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could include in my voice. “I can’t ever say my life has been boring.”

“It looks like you could do with some boring.”

“Ever since London I’ve had this…feeling in the back of my head that I’m never safe. I knew Mordecai would follow me, and I was right. I almost lost a lot of good people—”

“But you didn’t.”

I stared at the tiger who interrupted me. “Right, but still, people got hurt. Rut is still recovering because I couldn’t fight like he can.”

“Which you’re working on.”

“And Fiz nearly died. You too.”

“But we didn’t. You even saved me. You. Not Renaldo, not Rut, not my brothers. You.” For good measure, he even pointed his finger at me and tapped me on my forehead to emphasize the last word. “You, Simon, put your neck out there to help me when you really didn’t have to. That told me all I needed to know about the great Simon King.”

“And what did you learn from my heroics?”

“That you’re an idiot,” Tin said. And he chuckled at my shocked expression. “Seriously. You went and got me with just a knife. No backup, no gun. You shoulda had a posse. But you still came, and you walked into the lair of someone who’s been tormenting you for years, yeah? That took courage, Simon.”

“Right,” I said with a sigh. “And I know what I have to do, I know why I’m here. Mordecai needs to be stopped but he feels…more in control than ever.”

The tiger shook his head. “He’s not outsourcing anything. He’s doing it all himself, and he’s playing people against each other. He’s good at that. He got Iron to turn on me with just some suggestions. He manipulates people. Hell, he was at our doorstep not too long ago.

“But,” the tiger continued, “he ain’t got it all that you think he’s got. Everything I can tell, talking to a few friends of friends tells me he got no gangs working for him, and he’s not building something crazy like Crossbell Tower. He’s got the religious folk and some of the politicians, but that’s far less dangerous than when he was courting the underbelly of New York. He’s on the ropes, and that means we can get him if we’re smart about it.”

“I don’t see how…”

“You need to wait.” Tin rubbed my shoulder gently. “You know an opportunity will present itself. I’ll be there to help you, too.”

I smiled a little, but then groaned and pushed my face into his chest. “What about Tri?”

“He’s…Iunno, Simon, he’s slippery. He reminds me of something. He’s a nice guy, and I know you two like each other, but he’s got this…something, under the surface, ya know?”

I nodded. I had sensed it too, whatever it was. It was like a river underground. You could hear it flowing but not see it.

Tin scratched his head. “He hasn’t hurt ya or done ya wrong, but that doesn’t mean he has an agenda that’ll keep you safe, either. He’s smart. Smarter than me, anyway, and that bugs me. I feel like I’m playing some kind of game with him.”

“You know what, Tin? You’re right.” I sat up and rubbed the small of my back. “But I’m tired of being the last one clued in on anything. I’m not going to be surprised ever again, not if I can help it.”

---

While San Francisco didn’t get snow, the wind from the bay could be brutal. The Pacific Ocean was cold and the fog it brought in was dense. There were days I didn’t see the sun and couldn’t even see across the street. Honestly it felt like winter without the annoying snow. I could get used to this. This was my first winter since arriving in New York harbor on the Paramour that I had a winter without snow. Maybe I just wasn’t cut out for the cold weather.

I walked to St. Andrews early that day. I had a lesson in Chinese and basic martial arts with Tri later, but this was when he worked with the kids of the neighborhood. Tin had walked Lucas over that morning and we were keeping an eye on the pup. He hadn’t run off and did exactly what he was told. I had to give him credit; he seemed to know when we were being serious about danger.

I stepped into the large back room and rubbed my hands together to warm them, blowing hot breath across my fingers as I watched Tri work with just Lucas. Either the other kids had already finished their lessons or he was the only one to show up on such a cold day.

Lucas was shirtless, doing the various kicks and punches required of him, Tri walking around him and correcting his stance when he needed to. Tri, for all his effort, was wearing his nice buttoned-up shirt, vest, and slacks. He didn’t change into his workout clothes until his harder classes. Right now he wasn’t working up a sweat, so why bother? Washing clothes was annoying, especially in cold weather.

Lucas looked over at me and smiled, raising his hand to wave. Tri tapped him on the back of the head. Not hard, but a warning.

“You don’t ever take your eyes off your opponent,” the fox said sagely, walking around the boy some more with his hands behind his back.

“I’m not fighting anyone,” Lucas grumbled.

“No, but you would have looked away from them had you been sparring. You must maintain focus when doing these moves, Lucas. They could save your life one day.”

Lucas, instead of giving a glib response, rolled his eyes and went back to doing the moves he had been taught. He was farther along than I was in his lessons—much more—and was moving with practiced grace. I stepped over to them and smiled at Tri.

“He giving you a headache?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Tri said with a smile. “He’s been helping me clean up the attic since he’s here all day when no one at the Arc can keep an eye on him.”

“I’m not going to just run off, you know,” Lucas said, keeping his eyes focused but his ears tilted toward us.

“In all likelihood you could do just that,” Tri said, “and then we’re running around the city trying to find you.”

“I don’t want your mother coming after me saying I got her cub in danger,” I added with arms crossed in front of my chest.

Lucas finished his motions and sighed, wiping the sweat from his brow and glaring up at the two of us. “You two aren’t any fun when you’re working together.”

“You mean you’ve just met your match,” I laughed.

Lucas shook his head. “Nah. Just means I have to think of new tricks.”

Tri warned, “Lucas, I swear, if you try that thing with the soap again…”

Lucas’s ears flattened dramatically for a second but he then burst into a laughter, bouncing outside of Tri’s swiping range, just in case. The marble fox laughed and turned back toward me.

“You’re early,” he stepped closer to me. “Not that I mind, of course.”

I stepped up to him as well, letting my muzzle brush the side of his and sigh. I loved his scent, the richness of it was comforting and familiar, though I couldn’t exactly explain how or why. I looked at him and curled my arms around his waist, holding him close. “I hope I’m not getting in the way of anything.”

“If you two are going to kiss,” Lucas said from the wall where he was using a towel to wipe his face with, “do it where I can’t see it! You two get all mushy when you kiss.”

“There’s nothing wrong with sap, Lucas,” I pretended to scold him as I looked into Tri’s eyes. “But if I am going to be in the way…”

“Nonsense.” I felt Tri’s cool nose rub against the side of my muzzle. “Maybe we could find a way to enjoy a few minutes alone?”

I felt myself start to harden and I knew that if I didn’t act soon I would find myself naked and in bed with Tri. I wanted it. I wanted him. But I had to stop thinking with my penis. My hands rubbed the small of Tri’s back softly.

“You think you’d have time?”

I smiled at him and watched as he started to respond. It was in that instant I yanked the back of Tri’s shirt up and grabbed the hard thing I had felt many, many times when hugging him. I knew it had been a weapon of some kind, and this was my best way to get an answer out of him.

In an instant I was leaping backwards and holding the odd bladed weapon. There was a long, curved blade with what looked like fine rope coiled around it, tied tightly with another small blade at the weighted end. It had a leather guard on it. I looked at it closely and saw it was painted, decorated. It felt heavy and unwieldy.

Tri’s eyes were wide when he saw me holding the blade and then looked at my hand and then my face. He looked confused, hurt, betrayed, and finally angry. His ears flattened and he growled. “Simon, what the hell are you doing?”

I backed up some more, not holding the weapon in front of me, so much as to my side, enough we could both look at it. I stepped back some more, not taking my eyes off Tri. I jumped onto the small balance beam in the corner, feet knowing right where to go.

“You want to explain this?” I asked.

“It’s a weapon,” the voice of my friend was as cool and smooth as metal. “Most people carry one. It’s nothing special. Return it, Simon.”

“Lucas,” I looked over to the stunned cub. “Tell me about the Hangman Fox.”

Tristan froze.

“Uhm…” The wolf shifted on his small feet. “He… He’s, well, he’s a killer. He hangs you up until you die. He uses a weird rope…it’s shiny and white…” Watching Lucas start to put the connection together hurt more than I wanted to admit. I didn’t want to hurt him or his image of Tri, but I needed answers.

The rope on this weapon was silky smooth and white.

“Lucas, my office. Now!” Tri snapped without taking his eyes off me.

“But…”

“Lucas!” It was my turn to snap. “Go!”

The wolf pup finally listened and ran upstairs. We didn’t say anything further until we heard the doors close upstairs.

“Simon,” said Tri as he stepped forward some more, quicker, three steps. “You are trying my patience, my friend.”

“And you’re not respecting me!”

I flicked the blade and threw it forward. Tri caught it with ease. I watched as he seamlessly unfurled the rope from the blade and held the weighted end. He hadn’t even done it consciously—it had been reflexive. The man was spinning the end of the rope before he realized it and stopped, lowering his arms.

“It’s just a weapon,” he said matter-of-factly.

“TRISTAN!” I screamed, jumping off the balance beam. “You’re lying to me, or at the very least, manipulating me. Every time I think I know you, something else gets revealed. Are you a murderer?”

“It was in self defense.”

“But you hanged many people!”

“Three men,” he snapped back at me.

“How is that self defense? Self defense doesn’t mean killing!”

“It does when they could come after the people you love.” He took a moment to look at his rope, then back at me. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t kill to keep the people you love safe?”

“Not if I had another choice.”

“What if you didn’t?”

“I’d be damned sure they earned it, then.”

“What makes you think I haven’t?”

“Did you? Did you make sure they deserved it?”

That question made Tri freeze. He swallowed his words and lowered his ears. “At the time I did. I thought I did. I was younger, angrier.”

“So you were quick to hurt,” I huffed. “And the stories about you, in the city… Are they true?”

“You’ll need to be more specific, Simon. There are quite a few things said about me.”

I rolled my eyes. He was going to be difficult. “You collect secrets, have a temper, and aren't above violence.”

“Those are true,” he said so flatly, so coldly. He wasn’t bothered by the implications in the slightest. “Why do you even know about that, Simon?”

“Because people who seem to care about me told me,” I said with a pained warble in my voice. “People who didn’t want to see me get hurt.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” Tri answered quickly. He was tying the blade back up in the rope. “I like you.”

“But you’re using me. You’re using me to get weapons for your rebellion in China, to steal things for you.”

“I gave you the option to say no…”

“TRI!” I screamed, spittle flying from my muzzle. “You didn’t. You knew I wouldn’t say no, I don’t say no when my friends need me. You knew I would say yes.”

The marble fox was quiet, staring at me, studying how I’d react.

“So this is it, Tri,” I snarled in anger, staring down and back at my friend…or who I hoped was still my friend. I didn’t know if our friendship was ruined now, forever. “You’re going to tell me everything. You’ll tell me about your plans for the rich, the city, China, Chinatown, the weapons. Everything. And if I feel like you’re lying to me, or manipulating me, I’ll—”

“What, hurt me?” Tri said. He already sounded pained. He didn’t want to be doing this any more than I did.

“No. I’ll never trust you again.”

His ears perked up at this. He looked at my face for a long while and then sighed, rubbing the back of his head and stepping back, and motioned to me to follow him.

“Fine,” he said, “but we’re doing this over some tea. We both could use something to calm our nerves.”

I jumped down from the beam and was approaching Tri when we heard the doors in the back of the building open and then slam. Two rooms away, just down the corridor. Followed by heavy steps in confident strides and the thunk of something metallic.

Tri cursed and bit his lip. “Mr. Crossbell is here.”

My blood ran cold when I heard the name. What was Tri doing with Mordecai?

But more importantly—much more importantly—what the hell was I going to do now?