Chapter 46: Echoes of Regret.

The stench of stale piss and rotted garbage rose with each step down the dank alley; the stink was almost like a miasmic slap across Chloe's senses. She recoiled, pressing a hand over her mouth and nose as she squinted against the fetid darkness. "Are you sure about this place?" She muffled the question with her fingers. "It smells like a damn sewer backed up." Next to her, the burly figure of Taz grunted, apparently unbothered. The permanent sneer that etched her face seemed to carve all the more through the gloom as she appraised the ramshackle doorway in front of them. "You want payback on that snake, Liam, or you want the Ritz? Buck up, princess." She turned that disdainful smirk at Chloe. "Unless you're having second thoughts already?" The insinuating challenge set off a flare of defiance in Chloe. Her shoulders squared, her hand dropped, and her chin tilted in a quiet rebuff. "Let's do this. I don't care how low we have to slum it." Taz laughed, but it was a wheezing sound.