Shadow Men – 7 – Rafe and Steele

Steele kept well in the shadows as he walked cautiously down the narrow street. He found the address Rafe had given him, a small home neatly tucked away behind a brick wall. There was no way he was just going to walk up to the door and knock, however. All he had were Rafe's words that all was good and he knew from experience it was very possible, under the right circumstances, to make anyone say what you wanted them to.

He studied the house, what he could see of it over the wall, and then walked away. When he reached the corner of the street, he made his way to the backyards of the homes and worked his way down to the one he needed. It was also surrounded by a brick wall but for him that was no barrier. Soon he was beside the small back porch. He pulled both his guns, used the butt of one to rap on the back door when he got to it, then waited.

The door opened slowly to reveal a slender young man who then stepped back, hands held out from his sides. "Rafe's in the other room," he calmly told Steele.

"I'm sure he is, but by his own volition is the question." Steele pointed one gun at the young man's chest as he moved in just enough to check what turned out to be a very tidy kitchen. "Take me to him and no dumb moves. I will kill you if necessary."

"I'm sure you will." Without another word the young man headed to a door at the other side of the kitchen and swung it open.

Steele remained several steps behind him as he followed him into the living room. Then he holstered his guns when Rafe said with a grin, "Hi honey, you're home." That was their code to let the other one know that everything was all right in a situation such as this.

Steele ignored the slight look of shock on the young man's face when Rafe immediately crossed the room to wrap an arm around his waist. Rafe didn't ignore it, however. He chuckled and said to the young man, "Guess you don't know everything about us after all."

"Well…apparently not," the young man replied with an expression of disgust.

"Look, kid," Steele started to say, and then decided it wasn't worth the bother to chastise him. "Where's Jensen?" he asked instead.

"Close by. I'll let you know once you get rid of your guns."

"No way in hell," Rafe and Steele said at the same time even though they both had known that would probably be part of the deal. Steele looked at Rafe then, shrugged, and set his guns down on a small table well out of the young man's reach.

Rafe hesitated, more for show than anything else. If this had been a trap the young man would have taken his already, by force. He set his on the table as well and returned to Steele's side. "Now?" he asked the young man.

The young man nodded then whistled a sharp series of notes. Rafe and Steele immediately stiffened. Steele swung around so his back was to Rafe's, both of them prepared for the worst. Rafe's stiletto, which he had put back in its sheath on the way to the house, was again palmed in his hand. Steele was equally armed.

Footsteps sounded, a door opened, and Jensen stepped into the room. Rafe saw him first and hissed angrily. "Who the hell ran you through a blender?" he asked.

"People who work for our mutual employer," Jensen told him as he limped over to the sofa and sank down onto it. "Well," he added once he was comfortable, "your employer. I'm out of the picture and out of the game now." He looked up at the young man. "You're certain you weren't followed, Lou?"

Lou rolled his eyes. "I do know what I'm doing. Of course I can't speak for him." He nodded toward Steele.

"Kid, I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. I wasn't."

Lou seemed to do a quick mental calculation and replied, "You're fifty?"

"That was a figure of speech," Steele growled.