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ONE

Mark

"Whose blood is that?"

This wasn't an altogether unusual greeting inin our line of business, it was a valid question On any given day, it could belong to one of fifty people who had defaulted on a loan Pops gave theht then

"My own," I said, lifting upthe dried blood there like I had forgotten it existed I had What can I say, when you lived a rough and tough life like we did, bloodstains were as norine on one of the ot a bit overzealous with the wrench Whose dog is that?"

Eli was a lot of things- an artist, good ords, laid-back, dangerous as fuck But a dog owner he was not Yet there he was, standing outside Chaz's with soe leash See, I was a dog person But ugly was ugly, even if it was man's best friend And this beast looked like he had lived a rough life You know, all ten weeks of it His hair was sticking up in patches, a mix of colors like that of a border collie, but with a flatter snout, straight-up ears, giant feet, one bright blue eye, and one gray one

"Soht" Eli's voice was low and livid and, given that it was dropping down to twenty at night and the dog was too young to be away from a mother, let alone withstand that kind of teuess he's e I had hiot a fucked up coat like that" I bent down to pet him, surprised when he rolled over and invited it "Best bet, he's like soenetic lottery"

"Hey even ugly dogs are a chick ive it a name?"

"Coop"

"The girls are gonna be over all the tis left that you could drop on Hunt's door? He'd really appreciate it," I added with a sh it was likely because she had three wild anihters

"Only one we could find, and we looked all over just in case Last I heard, Becca wanted a snake, not a dog anyway"

"It's fluffy and it has four legs, they're gonna be all over hi it back to business "Shane already talked to the asshole last week You're up"

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding, knowing the drill He was the last resort He ho made men really, really wish they had paid off their debt before he darkened their door And, for the most part, he was the most underutilized of the whole team

Pops made the deals Ryan had a mostly-civil visit with you if you are due to pay and you haven't yet Then I was called in to get a little more firm, sometimes shed soh, in came Shane who stained your carpets with your own plasma Chances were, you paid up after Shane was done with you Who would sign up for more of that? So Eli was free and clear most of the time to do whatever he wanted, run his businesses, do his art shit If he had one call a month from Pops, that was a lot Which, in all of our opinions, was for the best When Eli raged out, it wasn't pretty

"Pops said he is tagging along this ti hates this bastard"

Eli often needed a babysitter when he was on a job, soot too out of hand Usually, it was me Occasionally, Shane would step in Rarely, Ryan Pops almost never went out on the job anyot loaned to take care of his sick daughter,Pops a lot more lenient on the interest and the timeframe Turns out the fuck didn't even have any kids

Pops had been loansharking long enough to know that shit came up and people didn't always make their payments It was part of the job and he wasn't bothered by it But being lied to? Yeah, he didn't tolerate that shit

"Interesting," Eli said, still as cale was a switch that could get flipped It wasn't a part of his daily persona "Alright, well, I have to dog proof my place I'll see you at Ma's tomorrow"