As Rhea returned to Sockeye, she entered the bar jammed with people at booths and tables. Music thumped from an undefined location, and she noted several new wanted posters hanging on the walls. She went upstairs without bothering Delton since she wouldn't get drinks anyway.
The living room was empty and after changing Rhea grabbed a new book from her room and sat in one of the chairs in front of the television. Noise bled through the ceiling of the bar from the living room floor where she could interpret very little aside from the rattling voices and the occasional shout from Delton at a stranger getting too drunk.
She was getting towards the end of her novel when Mirek and Lucius came up the stairs. Both had their hands wrapped and they carried boxing gloves over their shoulders. "Hello again," Lucius smiled at her.
"Oh, hey," she looked up at him. "Are you okay?" White and red gauze was stuffed up his nose.
"I'm great!" he smiled and sat down. "Nothing like boxing in Samadoya. Everyone here is nuts." He glanced at the 800-page book in her lap. "What are you reading?"
"It's called Shadows of Olympus," she said. "A mythology fiction."
Rhea had been searching Megan's shop for books and novels on myths and folklore; anything that could grant knowledge or ideas on the understandings of gods and demons and otherworldly entities. Shadows of Olympus was about a mortal girl who discovered the ability to awaken the gods after they abandoned Olympus. The protagonist navigated a world of forgotten heroes and crumbling temples, attempting to prevent the rise of something ancient that would take place atop Olympus and wipe the earth in a blanket of darkness. Rhea read about Apollo and Hermes and Hephaestus and found little that gave her clues to understanding the gods that walked the streets of Samadoya. She was drawn to The Primordial Goddess of Night, who took on an antagonist role—she was a goddess that existed before all others, powerful and feared, and had goals beyond moral understanding. She thought moral understanding was something she may need to abandon.
"I've never been much of a reader," said Lucius. "More of a film guy myself."
Lucius kicked his feet up on the coffee table as Mirek tossed him a beer can and took a seat, removing his sweat and blood-covered shirt and unwrapping his hands.
Rhea had not seen Mirek since their last incident downstairs, but he acted as though it was forgotten.
"You boxed too?" she asked, looking at him.
"I was getting in the ring with a guy who decided not to pay us after a job we took on a week ago," he said.
"That was brutal to watch," said Lucius.
Mirek grinned.
Lucius turned to Rhea. "Word is you're quite facile with cars. I got a Mercedes-Benz that could use some work."
"Yeah, I could help you out with that. Long as you got the money for it."
"She pays up to Irvin," said Mirek as he finished downing his beer, "so she's pretty stingy with money."
"Not as stingy as you think," said Rhea.
"That old bastard? My sympathies to you," said Lucius. "He's a vile one to get mixed up with."
"Don't have to tell me twice."
"He's getting into some nasty shit with the triad lately."
"What'd he do now?"
"He quarrels with Kamon all the time," said Mirek. "The two like to press each other's buttons."
"Kamon is not someone you want to be on the bad side of," said Lucius. "I saw him kill four men once with a pen. A fucking pen! Madman, as they all are, but he's got brains too."
"He's not all that he's talked up to be," said Mirek with a roll of the eye.
"I don't know. He's got a pretty threatening energy," said Rhea.
"Well, sure, you're not afraid of him," Lucius said to Mirek. "You freak of nature. But he could outsmart you if he wanted."
"Fuck you! I could slice his head off if I wanted and he would never see it coming."
Lucius gave an eyeroll at Mirek. "Sure."
The two men finished their beers and Mirek went to his room while Lucius headed back to his motel room down the street. Rhea tried to stay focused on her book, hand sliding to her pocket where the lump of the stone sat pressed against her leg. She had a theory about Mirek…but hoping she was wrong. There was an energy emanating from the man that made her think of the phantoms; like he attracted them to him. Her pondering was now over why. What made him so susceptible? She didn't want to talk to him about it; instead, she tried to keep at a distance and observe.