A visit from the boss.

The house was currently being renovated, carefully under the watchful eye of Eddie. Eddie was verifying was done correctly, and that no bugs were being placed by undercover law enforcement personnel.

It didn’t matter. Damien assumed he was always being recorded. I’d not by the cops, than by Eddie’s fantastic memory. It didn’t matter who got wind of something they shouldn’t. Either would pounce on Damien.

Around 7pm, a black sedan pulled up out front. All of the workers had already left, paint cans, trash, drywall, plaster, and hardware fasteners were laying haphazardly everywhere. When the doors of the sedan opened, it as his boss who got out of the car.

The boss hesitated briefly, looking around seemingly aimlessly but was probably anything but and began walking once his driver and bodyguard joined him. Together all three came to the door, which was already open. Damien has seen them coming.

Damien opened the screen door.

“Good evening sir. I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

Politely, that was code for ‘what the fuck are you doing here, and do I need to worry?’

His boss said nothing and instead the bodyguards pushed Damien aside to make room for the boss to enter. Damien followed them inside, not taking the obvious bait to be intimidated or provoked.

Finally, once the door was closed and they were all standing in the empty living area, the boss spoke.

“I’ve heard about an issue with Mr. Mitchell Crosby.”

“Past issue, we’ll in-hand.”

“Is it though? This runner contacted my people to tell me that you were abusing your authority. They tell me that you are volatile and can’t be trusted.”

“Eddie was here for the entire, so-called issue. Mitchell attempted to rape a customer. I kept the customer a paying customer.”

“So you punished a rule breaker?”

“I did.”

“What was the punishment?”

“You mean he didn’t say?”

“He was oddly silent on that matter.”

“A little pain and humiliation. That’s all. I gave him...perspective.”

The boss sighed. “I see.” He turned to Damien. “I said don’t be noisy. Your first day was noisy.”

“Uneventful but temporary. I will send a token of appeasement with the monthly earnings. I do hope you can forgive this transgression, as necessary as it was.”

“Very well. And Damien... don’t be noisy.”

They left as quickly as they Came.