Chapter 138: Lip Goes Looking for Mickey's Help—And Walks In on Mickey and Ian at the Worst Possible Moment
Lip stomped down the main road, getting angrier with every step.
Why the hell did that asshole William get to sleep with so many women just because he had a bit of money?
And him?
He was still stuck seeing doctors.
"Fuck," Lip spat. "I have to teach that bastard a lesson."
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that simply stirring up chaos in William's love life wasn't enough. That would be too soft.
What he really wanted was to have someone rough him up.
And almost immediately, one name came to mind—Mandy.
The Milkovich family was more than capable of putting a beating on some pretty-boy rich kid.
As for the law?
Talking about the law with the Milkoviches was a joke. Whether it was Terry or Mickey, prison and juvie were basically family reunion spots for them.
With that thought, Lip finally felt like he had a plan.
That said, he wasn't stupid enough to go through Mandy.
Both of them worked for William. If he used Mandy to reach Mickey and it got back to William, he'd be completely screwed.
As for why Lip thought Mickey wouldn't be afraid of someone dealing arms on the South Side—
That was simple.
Rage had clouded his judgment, and hatred had taken over his brain.
By the time he reached the red-light district, Lip flicked his cigarette onto the pavement and crushed it under his shoe.
"Hey, Irish boy—you're early today."
Svetlana was there, directing a few girls as they loaded up a vehicle. When she saw Lip, her brow creased slightly.
Truth was, she never liked working with this Irish idiot.
But William had forced him into the operation, so she had no choice.
Lip looked smart—but it was the wrong kind of smart. All tricks and clever talk.
And in their line of work, clever tricks meant nothing.
That was why Svetlana had never held much respect for him.
Lip had always been self-centered to the extreme. He'd never cared about hierarchies or chains of command in any organization.
In his eyes, that kind of structure was just an outdated relic of another era.
"Mandy, you got a minute? I need to ask you something."
Seeing Lip ignore her completely, Svetlana frowned and muttered in Russian, "nevospitannyy musor."
Lip, of course, had no idea what she was saying.
"What do you want?" Mandy replied. She used to have a decent opinion of Lip, but ever since they started working together, she'd grown to dislike him more and more.
Self-righteous. Arrogant. Overgrown ego. Zero cooperation. Always acting like he was the smartest person in the room. No sense of boundaries. Constantly pointing fingers and bossing people around.
Those were the charming traits Lip had revealed over the past few months.
"Uh… is your brother out yet?" Lip asked. "I need to talk to him about something."
"What, you wanna fuck him too? Like Ian?" Mandy shot him a look full of disgust.
"Fuck no," Lip snapped. "Just tell me—he out or not?"
His impatience was obvious—and honestly, a little intimidating.
Mandy didn't feel like dealing with him anymore. "Yeah. He's out. Probably working security at Kash's convenience store. Go there if you're looking for him."
With his answer in hand, Lip didn't even bother pretending to work. He turned around and walked straight out of the red-light district.
"Hey, Irish boy! Where do you think you're going?" Svetlana shouted after him. "You just ditching work?"
"I'm taking the day off," Lip replied without looking back, completely indifferent to discipline.
Watching him leave, Svetlana shook her head. "Self-important asshole."
---
At Kash's convenience store.
Kash had gone with Linda—his wife—for a prenatal checkup that day, so only Mickey and Ian were inside.
The sign on the door said Closed, but the lights were still on.
And the shelves in the storage room were shaking.
Lip pressed his face against the glass door, peering inside.
"Shit… where is everyone?"
What he didn't know was that Mickey and Ian were currently going at it in the storage room.
Still unwilling to give up, Lip remembered the store had a back entrance. The summer pop-up shop he ran with Kev got supplies from here all the time.
So he circled around to the back.
Sure enough, the rear door wasn't locked.
He pushed up the rolling shutter and stepped inside.
Once inside, Lip glanced around and immediately sensed something was off. This didn't feel like a normal closed store.
That's when he remembered the last time he'd accidentally walked in on Ian and Kash.
With a sinking realization, he hurried over to the freezer and peered through the gaps between the soda bottles toward the storage room.
Sure enough.
One red-haired head.
One dark-haired head.
Driven by either morbid curiosity or pure asshole instinct, Lip yanked open the freezer door and shouted, "Hey! What the hell are you two doing back there?"
The shout startled both Mickey and Ian mid-action.
"Holy fuck!"
Ian scrambled to pull his pants on, heart pounding, glancing back over his shoulder.
He'd thought it was Kash.
Instead, it was Lip.
"What the fuck, Lip? Are you sick in the head?" Ian snapped, relieved but still furious.
Mickey, on the other hand, reacted very differently.
After yanking his clothes on, he stormed out, marched straight up to Lip, grabbed him by the collar—and punched him square in the face.
BAM!
Caught completely off guard, Lip went down hard.
"Fuck! Mickey! What the hell are you doing?!" Lip yelled, stunned. He'd come to ask for help—and instead got dropped.
"What did you see?" Mickey snarled, eyes wild.
"Goddamn it, seriously?" Lip ignored the question, staring at the blood on his hand—his lip was split.
"I asked you what you saw!" Mickey roared, pulling a Glock from his pocket and jamming it against Lip's head.
"Fuck! Mickey, what are you doing?!" Ian rushed out just in time to see the gun pointed at Lip.
"This bastard saw us," Mickey said coldly. "I gotta kill him. Can't let this get out."
"He won't say anything!" Ian shot back. "Lip's not a snitch!"
"Only dead people aren't snitches," Mickey snapped, pressing the gun in harder.
That was when Lip finally realized Mickey wasn't joking.
"Dude—listen!" Lip raised both hands. "Ian's right. I won't tell anyone. I swear. I really won't."
"Nah. Nah. Nah," Mickey shook his head, furious. "You think I'm stupid? You think I'll fall for that bullshit?"
Truth was, Mickey was all bark at this point—he didn't actually have it in him to pull the trigger. But now that things had gone this far, he had no idea how to back down.
"Put the gun down, Mickey!" Ian pleaded. "Lip really won't betray us!"