"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." Vito Coreleone, The Godfather 1972.
Leaving Vale had been a nice change of scenery for me. I actually found myself happy for the distance it gave me from almost everything that had been happening. A work vacation as Roman had told me to look at it was becoming appealing. And it gave me a chance to drive through these winding mountain roads in my car, that had certainly helped lift my spirits.
As much as I loved my custom Atlari I never really got to appreciate all the horsepower driving around a cramped city stopping every five minutes for a red light or stop sign. But here on the open road I was really able to enjoy the benefits of having a high performance engine under the hood. Though the rest of my crew was hardly happy around it, piled in a four door sedan that had no chance of keeping up.
Neo's scroll rang and I looked over to her in the passenger seat as she accepted the call and put it on speaker phone for me while lowering the volume on my stereo.
"Dude… come on I know you're enjoying that car but you're leaving us in the dust here. We should be sticking together right now." He told me over the line as I stayed in the fast lane passing by trucks and other slower vehicles. I felt like I was king of the road zipping past everyone.
"What are you worried about?" I asked him. "You never try sticking to me like glue when we're in Vale?" I said to him.
"We're not in Vale, and you told us yourself that we're having to deal with an Atlesian backed gang, it makes me nervous. They could try something, and while those wheels are fast they certainly stick out like a sore thumb."
"I have Neo with me," I told him, earning a happy smile and nod from the girl. I was certainly enjoying our drive together, she was certainly enjoying it too. The countryside certainly made for pleasant scenery that we couldn't appreciate in the city. Also plenty of fresh air through the open window and nice tunes on my stereo.
"Can you just consider slowing down and letting us catch up to you? Just for some piece of mind?" Cardin asked me.
I sighed because I could see his point. I didn't think the Atlesians and a bunch of bikers would be bold enough to attack two made members of the Torchwick family but I supposed that it was better to appease Cardin's desire to stay close and ready for trouble than my own thrills.
I took my foot off the gas. "Alright I'll find a place up ahead and stop so we can regroup, I could use a good leg stretch anyways," I told him. "Then I promise I'll stick to the speed limit with you."
"Thanks boss," Cardin said, hanging up.
I followed the highway for a little bit until I found a lookout that we could stop at. I pulled off onto the gravel and we both got out of the car to look at the view overlooking the countryside.
"Wow!" I exclaimed looking at the mountains in the distance, even though it was summer plenty of them were still capped with snow and the air had a very crisp clean chill to it that I breathed in. It was nothing like the air in the city.
Neo gave a nod as she leaned on the hood crossing her arms. I noticed her shiver a bit. It was a bit nippy out, I had made sure to get myself a long coat to go over my suit but Neo was dressed in her usual attire that might have come with a jacket but wasn't exactly suited for colder weather. Plus it exposed her hips which I imagined couldn't be pleasant given the wind.
"Are you cold?" I asked her.
"I'm - a - city - girl," she told me, "Besides - it's - summer - it's - supposed - to - be - warm - out."
I shrugged off the coat and handed it to her. She looked at it and raised an eyebrow. "You're - giving - me - your - coat?" She asked me teasingly, calling me out for being cheesy. Like some dumb guy in a romance movie.
"I'm a Gentleman, aren't I?" I asked her, trying to play it off as cool. "We can get you something warmer to wear when we get to town."
She took the coat and pulled it around her shoulders. We just sat in silence taking in the view and waiting on Cardin and the rest. I lit myself a smoke as we waited on them. "I thought someone who's named after ice cream and enjoys it so much would be comfortable with a little chill," I teased, unaffected by the chilly wind.
She raised a middle finger to me and I laughed.
"Well it's nice to get away from Vale for a change," I said to her. "We certainly don't get a view like this out in the concrete jungle."
She gave a little nod as she continued to stare at the mountains.
I heard the sound of wheels on gravel behind us. I turned around expecting to see my crew pulling up but instead I saw a green and black car with a gold shield painted along with the words County Sheriff on the side. The vehicle pulled alongside us and the doors opened with two men stepping out crunching the gravel beneath their boots.
The sheriff looked at us through his aviators for a moment before putting on his white ten gallon hat. He gave a low appreciative whistle. "Those are a fine set of wheels young man!" He told me, tucking his shades into his breast pocket.
He wore a tan uniform as did his deputy, but a heavy steel vambrace adorned his left arm and a stubby lever action hung from a leather holster on his shoulder off a bandolier, it certainly cut an imposing figure.
"You know son, I've been getting some reports about a vehicle matching this description being a little loose with the speed limit," he told me with a frown.
I chuckled and scratched the back of my head. "Sorry about that, I have quite a few horses under the hood and I thought I'd let them gallop a bit."
According to Roman the Family had been paying its fair share of bribes to the local sheriff's department for years, so I didn't see much reason to worry. From what Roman had explained most of the local law enforcement were huntsmen having to protect their rural communities from grimm as much from anything else.
"Well tell me city boy, what brings you and the little lady racing down my roads?" He asked me, giving Neo a glance.
Neo crossed her arms and glared at him. She didn't care for being called a little lady.
"I'm on a business trip, for Mr. Torchwick," I explained, trying to cut past the crap before he insulted me anymore.
"Oh!?" He said, his dark eyebrows raising up at me and his frown disappearing into a grin. "So you're here on Family business then?"
"Yes," I said, offering him my hand. "My name is Jaune Arc, and this here is Neopolitan."
Neo gave him a half hearted wave as she stayed bundled in my coat. She had no interest in conversing with him herself.
"Sheriff Gates, William Gates," he introduced himself, taking my hand. "I don't suppose you can tell me the nature of this little business trip of yours?"
"I'll inform you if you need to know anything," I told him, releasing his hand and taking a puff off of my cigar.
"This about the Desperados?" The deputy asked me, speaking up for the first time since they had arrived.
Neo gave me a weary look, she didn't like the fact that he had brought that up to us. I wasn't exactly too thrilled about it either.
I looked over at him. He was maybe a few years older than me and he didn't have quite the impressive build that Sheriff Gates did. He was dark haired and tanned with a pair of pistols on his belt, he wasn't wearing a big silly hat like Gates. And I detected a trace of a Vacuan accent when he spoke.
"Gabe! Mind your manners boy!" Gates reprimanded. "That's none of our concern at the moment!"
The deputy shut his mouth and looked over at the road to see a black sedan pulling off into the overlook. It was Cardin and my crew.
"I hope you don't mind if I brought some friends along," I told him, wanting to make it very clear that it wasn't just Neo and I rolling into town on business.
Gates flashed a white grin. "Not at all," he said, looking over at Cardin and giving him a friendly wave.
Cardin just looked over at me. "Is there a problem here boss?"
"Not at all," I told him, echoing Gate's words with a wave of my hand, "Sheriff Gates and I were just getting acquainted with one another. And he was already telling me all about the Desperados." I figured since his deputy had already broached the subject of the Atlesian backed bikers I saw no reason not to get that conversation over.
"So it is about them?" He asked me.
"I might take time to look into it," I told him, pulling a roll of cash from my wallet and flipping through the lien. "By the way, what do speeding tickets run for these days?" I asked him.
"There's no need to worry about that," Gates said with a wave of his hand. "You're a busy guy after all."
"It's no problem at all," I said, reaching out and handing him a few hundred. I wanted him to understand that the Family was still very much interested in staying in his good graces and a little bit of cash tossed his way seemed like a friendly enough gesture to me.
"Well uh…" Gates started tucking the bills in his shirt pocket. "Things have been a bit messy between them and the Motleys. I don't know the details but it started up a couple of months ago. And it's been getting worse the last couple of days, the Motleys' lost their Chapter President gods rest his soul."
"He was murdered?" Cardin asked him.
"Might've been," Gates said with a shrug, "I was the first to find him, he was on the side of the road and getting chewed up by a pack of beowolves, him and a half dozen chapter members. I don't know if I'd call it foul play but it's a hell of a time for something like that to happen. But this isn't the big city, folks are always getting attacked by grimm. That's why they get a huntsman like me to protect it."
I cursed under my breath. I hadn't even arrived in town and I was already going to have to deal with the fact that the very person I was looking to come and help was already dead. "You said that things have been messy, how so?" I wanted to get an idea of just how violent things were.
"Ah you should know how these thugs are, a few shootings and scuffles here and there. We had one guy's cabin get burned down after some Desperados tossed a molotov cocktail in through the window. And they've been trying to take a crack at one another's trucks and harassing the others for their "tolls," I'm guessing that's what brings you folks here."
I didn't answer him, he was putting the pieces together just fine by my questions alone. "Has it reached the town?" I asked him simply.
"No, as far as I know they're still keeping their shenanigans away from White Peak, it's just the highways and the back roads that are getting this treatment. And they better keep it out of the town if they don't want me to start making arrests," he said to me with a serious tone.
"It's only a matter of time before it does end up in town," the deputy Gabe commented.
"Well thanks for the intel," I said to them looking back in my car. "This has been pretty enlightening."
Gates tipped his hat with a friendly grin. "Anytime, I just hope that you can conclude this business of yours quickly and smoothly." He said moving back into his squad car. "Oh and if y'all are wanting to talk to the Motleys I think you can find them in town at the Brown Jug. The funeral for their President should have ended hours ago so they're probably celebrating the wake right about now. Ask to talk to Babe."
"I'll keep that in mind," I told him watching as he got back into his car and took off with his deputy.
"Well at least we got a meeting with the local huntsman and sheriff out of the way," I commented with a sigh and a few more puffs of my cigar. "Seems friendly enough."
Neo shook her head. "He - was - only - friendly - when - he - learned - who - we - work - for." She commented, clearly not convinced by his welcoming nature. "And - that - was - too - friendly - for - my - liking."
I nodded to make it clear that I had at least heard her apprehensions but I wasn't so convinced. He was a huntsman, a dirty huntsman that was pocketing our bribes that just made me want to trust him. "Do you think anything is wrong with him?" I asked her.
She shrugged to show that she wasn't quite sure. I trusted her judgement but I knew that she didn't have a lot of trust or respect for law enforcement to begin with.
"I think it hardly matters," Cardin said. "Our business is with the Motleys, if that sheriff knows what's best he'll stay out of our way while we try handling this."
"That could be why he was so straight with us," Dove said as he lit his own cigarette, struggling with the flame and the wind. "He wants this shit dealt with so he can go back to guarding a boring little town and pocketing bribes to look away from the more subtle things that pass through."
That made the most sense to me. It'd only figure that someone like him would want a Family member to roll up and smooth things out.
"Well whatever the case we need to get to town and meet with the Motleys." I said tossing away my cigar butt and opening the door of my car.
The rest nodded and we loaded back into the vehicles and got back on the road.
"Thanks for your input by the way," I told Neo as I drove within the speed limit keeping Cardin and my crew within my rearview mirror. "I'm still new at this so I'm a little nervous about handling this for Roman."
She nodded to me. "That's - probably - why - Roman - had - me - tag - along. You - do - the - talking- I - do - the - listening."
I nodded to her. "I suppose that's one benefit of being mute," I commented.
She gave me a nod and a wink.
We reached White Peak within the next half hour. It was a small and quaint little community with maybe a population of little more than a few thousand people. It was a far cry from the thriving metropolis I had just come from but it made me a little nostalgic for my old home town. It had a few shops and motels and the largest building was clearly the Scheemart. It didn't have quite the rustic charm of home but I could see an appeal to it.
We used our scrolls to look up the location of the Brown Jug and we found it sitting off of a dirt road next to a gas station. It was easy to spot, the little ramshackle bar wasn't much to look at but the massive collection of bikes parked outside with a ton of leather clad bikers was a dead give away.
Pulling up into the gravel parking lot earned me a number of curious stares from the bikers. When I stepped out of my vehicle I could hear the heavy metal blaring inside.
"Nice! Cabbage Point Killing Machine, there guys have good taste," Dove commented appreciatively, bobbing his head to the beat of the blaring music.
The bikers walked towards us crushing gravel as they walked looking us all up and down. They all wore leather jackets and vests with various patches and the logo on the back showed a collection of flaming skeletons both human and obviously faunus riding a bunch of bikes with the title Motley's above.
One of them rolled his way closer in a wheelchair. I realized that more than just my flashy car and our suits many of us did have visible weapons on us. Namely my crew, Cardin's mace the most obvious hanging off his belt.
"Can we help you folks?" The wheelchair bound biker asked us, looking a little cautious but sounding more courteous than threatening.
"My name is Jaune, I'm here to talk to Babe," I said to him, closing the distance and offering him my hand. He looked at it for a second before moving a smoking corn cob pipe into his teeth and taking my hand.
"Call me Mac," he told me. "You'll find Babe inside near the back.
"Thank you Mac," I said, stepping past him and towards the doors with my entourage right behind me and Neo by my side.
The Brown Jug was dark and smoky and absolutely packed to the brim with bikers. It stank of stale tobacco, beer and leather among other things and I had a hard time moving through without accidentally bumping shoulders. At least at first, when the burley gang members realized that I was moving through their little bar they started moving out of my way. It seemed they all had some idea of who I worked for and why I was here.
In the back booth with a large mug of beer on the table in front of her was who I figured was Babe. She was a faunus with impressively large ox horns atop her head, dark earth colored skin and bright blue hair. She was built like a boulder and it was a little comical seeing her squeezed into that little booth barely fitting.
"Hello, I take it you're Babe?" I said, looking at her leather vest that displayed both her name and her newly acquired title of Chapter President.
"Are you Roman's guy?" She asked me bluntly. "That "Gent" guy I was told to expect?"
"I am," I told her, taking a seat across from her, Neo slid into the booth with me and I looked at my crew. "Are you willing to stand Cardin?" I asked him.
He nodded, "stick around… the rest of you go get a bite and a drink, mingle a little." I told my crew, there was no need for them all to crowd around this little booth and after what had been a pretty long drive I figured they deserved to enjoy themselves. Besides, they could probably learn a thing or two talking to everyone.
"Can I buy you a drink? This place doesn't have a lot but I'm sure they can mix you up something to wet your throat," she said to me, being friendly.
"How about some of your beers?" I asked her. I didn't want to look like some kind of snob that was too good for them so I figured drinking whatever she was currently having would make me seem approachable or at the very least friendly.
"Jackie! Bring me three mugs for the Gent and his friends over here, and see that the rest of the suits get whatever they want," she cried across the loud bar. Thanks to Junior I had become accustomed to talking to people in loud clubs. I had never thought that it would become a necessary skill in life.
"Anything on the menu good?" I asked her, "I'm starving."
"Best burger in town," she bragged to me with a proud grin.
"Then I'd like to have one," I told her, looking over at Neo. "Do you want anything?"
"That's - fine - for - me," she signed.
"Two burgers," I said, knowing that Cardin wasn't going to be eating while he was standing guard. He was a lot more dutiful in his position of my number one than I had expected. And right now he seemed to think that I needed a bodyguard despite having Roman's top enforcer sitting right next to me. I just hoped that this paranoia wouldn't stick when we got back to Vale.
Babe yelled across the noisy bar for two burgers and looked back at me. "So I suppose we should get to it," she said to me, grabbing her beer and taking a sip.
"Sounds good to me," I told her, not really sure where I should begin.
"Is this it?" She asked me. "Just the six of you?"
I raised an eyebrow at the question. "I'm not sure I understand the meaning of the question?" I told her.
"I was made to understand that you're here to help us, I figured you'd roll into town with plenty of guys, maybe a dozen or more." She told me.
"It's just us," I told her.
"Did you bring weapons?" She asked me.
I did have a number of guns in the trunks of both vehicles but I got the impression that wasn't quite what she meant. "I think there's been a misunderstanding," I told her, folding my hands on the table as a waitress set down a couple of beers in front of us. "We're to get back the dust that was stolen and see that this transportation avenue gets back on track. We're not here to start a war."
"We're already at war!" She growled at me. "The Desperados have been putting the pressure on us to leave White Peak and it's worse now than ever. They killed Paul!"
"Your Chapter President?" I asked her, figuring that it could only be him since this was his wake we were at currently.
"Yes," she said looking down at the President patch that had been recently sewn onto her vest, she didn't seem pleased with her new title. "And we can't very well forget that can we?"
"I was told that your late President and those with him were killed by grimm," I commented to her.
"Did the Sheriff tell you that?" She asked me. "You should have talked to me first."
"I had a run in with him on the drive here," I explained to her, giving a look over towards Neo. "Should I doubt him?" I asked Babe.
"He's too interested in keeping things quiet in this town," she told me.
"That is what we pay him to do," I reminded her. "Do you have any reason to make me doubt his story?"
She looked away telling me that she didn't exactly have anything that could be considered evidence. "The timing is too advantageous to the Desperados… the grimm might have chewed them up but I don't believe in coincidences."
"Well I do," I told her coldy.
"Well there's been other trouble, plenty of fights, even a few deaths. Am I supposed to ignore those?" She asked me, staring into her beer.
"Babe," I said, feeling a little ridiculous calling her that but I powered through it. "We were not called out here to settle your personal grudges with the Desperados, we're here to put this matter to rest. Nothing more."
She sighed, deflating at my words. I had half expected her to explode with rage but she had more sense than that it seemed. "I thought you mafiosos were all about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," she told me before taking another gulp of her beer.
"When it's profitable, sure," I told her. "But if it's good for business I'm perfectly happy to also turn the other cheek. How about you tell me a little bit about this little turf war right now. What can you tell me about your operation? When did this fighting start?"
"A couple months ago, we control the roads to the north and east of White Peak while the Desperados controlled the roads to the south and west. A lot of merchandise comes in or leaves Vale through these roads, most of these company or union trucks pay our tolls to be left alone. But lately the Schnee Dust Company stopped shipping with union trucks and they've been refusing to pay the tolls. If they don't pay for protection we hit them and we have been."
"You think the SDC is behind the Desperados trying to run you out?" I asked her.
"I know they are!" She told me. "Believe me we found more than just dust in those trucks. They've been hauling all sorts of stuff for the Atlesians, guns, drugs, money, and the Desperados have been providing protection for those shipments. At first we had an arrangement, we let the Desperados move the stuff through our turf in exchange for a cut, it wasn't as profitable as collecting tolls but it kept things peaceful between us and Paul was worried that if we kept robbing the Atlesians of their drugs and other stuff then it'd be bad news. But the Desperados eventually went back on that agreement. They told us to pull out of White Peak despite the fact that this town is supposed to be neutral territory, now they're all over our turf. If we lose our operations here then we lose everything."
"And that means that Roman is going to have to go to the Desperados if he wants the trucking unions to use these roads, and that means he'll have to answer to the Atlesians," I commented, realizing just how much these roads and this little feud meant. I had been briefed a little on it and Roman had already given me an offer on a new toll to give the gang to bring back to their Atlesians masters but Babe had given me a little perspective on the timeline.
The fact that this had started just a couple months back I also found interesting. It had coincided both with the SDC breaking the contracts it had once held with Paulie's trucking union but also with my little stunt to have Coco attack the Atlesian smuggling operation at the trainyard. I supposed after losing one avenue for smuggling they now were trying to gain a foothold for another.
"Can you arrange for a meeting with the President of the Desperados?" I asked her plainly.
"That's going to be difficult," Babe told me. "It's not easy to call a meeting when there's a war going on. A lot of paranoia and not talking to one another going around."
"But can you?" I asked her again more firmly that time.
She sighed and took another drink from her mug. "Yeah… but I'll take some time to get together, I can't talk to them directly so I'm going to have to put word out through some proxies." She explained to me. "I might be able to convince him to meet with me tomorrow at a neutral location."
"Then get the word out," I instructed her, picking up my beer glass. "I'm going to try to negotiate with them, is that understood?"
"And if they don't agree to your terms?" She asked me.
"Roman has made my objectives here clear. I'm getting the dust back and seeing that the roads you already lay claim to remain so. If the Desperados aren't going to be reasonable about this then I'm going to have to persuade them to take me seriously." I explained to her, earning a grin as she doubtlessly was excited to have an excuse to enact her vengeance on the rival gang.
"Just remember that I'm not here to settle your grudges, I'm here to get things back on track and I'll do what I have to do that," I told her.
"Oh I hear ya," she told me, picking up her beer. "I just happen to know that the Desperados are far more bullheaded than me. I'm pretty sure that they're going to need quite a bit of persuasion."
I raised my beer to her. "Well then I'll be counting on you to help me do that, and believe me Neo here and my boys might not look like much, but they're tough."
"Well then here's to what I hope to be a satisfying conclusion, for the both of us," she said.
Her beer mug clinked against mine sloshing the frothy liquid about before we both drank. The brew wasn't exactly to my taste but I drank it down regardless.
The burgers came and Neo and I dug in, finding that it actually was a pretty decent burger, one of the best I've had. Even Neo was impressed, giving a nod of approval when I had asked her about it.
"How much do you know about the Desperados operation?" I asked her, I figured that if she was right about them being too stubborn then I should probably have some plan on the backburner. Roman had told me to be prepared just in case the Desperados refused the offer, he told me that I could hear them out if they wanted to negotiate certain terms but I wasn't to haggle with them.
Plus I figured that I could indulge her desire to seek retribution just a little and let her know that I was prepared in case things got ugly.
"Mostly what I've already told you, they've been escorting those SDC trucks and others coming into and out of Vale. Mostly smuggling drugs in and money out, to and back from Vacuo."
"They're smuggling money?" I asked her, picking up a ketchup bottle and applying some on the corner of my plate for my fries.
"Cash shipments for the drugs," Babe clarified. "The Desperados help smuggle the drugs in and the money the Atlesians made back to the Cartels," She explained to me. "It's usually in small used bills so it can be a ton at times."
I nodded to show that I understood. Smuggling was something I wasn't familiar with but it made sense. Most of this business dealt in cash, and while laundering was certainly an option it was slow going so they instead chose to have their cash transported all the way back, at least a sizeable amount, I had to imagine they did have some people clean their money in Vale itself but that would only be a fraction of their overall earnings.
"Well, have your people keep an eye on things. It might be useful in the coming days," I told her.
"Can do," she said, watching as I ate my meal with Neo. "Where are you and your people going to be staying while you're in town?" She asked me.
"I don't know," I told her honestly. "Any recommendations?"
"Try the Pine Lodge," she told me, "it's one of the nicer hotels in the area, otherwise it's cheap motels full of truckers or people passing through on their summer vacation."
"Will do," I said to her as I finished the last few bites of my burger and looked over to Cardin who continued to silently loom over the table. "Go get the others, there's little to do here at the moment," I told him.
He nodded and moved through the bar to collect the rest of the crew while I washed the meal down with the last few sips of my beer cleaning the glass.
I gave Babe my scroll number and told her to call me before heading out of the bar with Neo and my crew. Deciding that I should get set up in my temporary lodging while I waited for her to arrange the meeting with the Desperados.
"So what are your thoughts?" I asked Neo as we drove through the town to find that hotel Babe had mentioned to me.
"She - wants - to - settle - a - grudge. That - could - be - a - problem." She told me.
"I figured that much, but do you think she would work against our wishes?" I asked her, voicing my primary concern.
She shook her head. "She - needs - the - support - of - the - family. She'd - be - a - fool - to - become - a - problem. But - her - judgement - might - be - clouded."
That made sense to me. These small-time gangs needed the backing and influence of more organized groups like the Family or the Clan to operate well. They might have more members but we had the necessary political connections.
"What - do - you - plan - on - doing - if - they - refuse - our - offer?" She asked me.
"I'm currently thinking about that," I answered her. "But I'm not going to do anything without consulting Roman first." I explained to her.
She nodded to me, agreeing with my decision.
We pulled up in front of the Pine Lodge. It was impressively big and seemed to be built like a giant log cabin with plenty of big windows and stonework. Despite it being rather opulent for the area, the empty parking lot told me that it wasn't getting a lot of business despite the sign advertising an indoor pool and gym. It was apparently more for a winter crowd wanting a place to stay when they took skiing vacations.
We walked in through the lobby that was adorned with taxidermy animals and big windows that let in a lot of natural light.
I suppose pulling into the parking lot driving an Atlari and there being six of us planning to stay indefinitely the manager tried pitching to use the executive suite. Cardin was quick to point out that it would probably be best if we all stayed together and when Neo told me she didn't mind so long as she got a room to herself. I agreed and paid for a couple of nights with the cash I had brought with me. Gangsters tend to travel with quite a bit of cash stashed away. We unpacked all our luggage including the guns that I had brought with me and since it was only three beds with two couches with pull outs I made sure that the hotel brought up a cot so we could all at least have a bed of our own.
"Fuck this is swanky!" Sky commented as we finally got to our room, setting our bags down near the entryway. I didn't want any of the staff carrying any of the bags that held our guns so I made sure that we carried everything up ourselves. "Look at that view!"
Indeed there was a magnificent view of the mountains and a balcony to overlook it all. I groaned and stretched my tired muscles before settling into a chair. "Well at least we're going to be comfortable." I said looking over at the rest of them. I reached for the TV remote, wanting nothing more than to just numb my mind in front of a screen.
I heard the ting of a text message and I looked over as Russel took a seat on the couch to check his scroll quickly typing out a message as the rest of us got settled in. "Who're you texting?" I asked him casually as I started idly flipping through the channels.
"His girlfriend!" Dove teased opening one of his bags and pulling out some of his clothes. Neo moved into one of the rooms on her own and closed the door to claim some privacy for herself.
"You got a girl?" I asked him, more trying to just make casual conversation than anything else.
They all chuckled as Russel sighed in exacerbation. "Yes! I have a girlfriend!" He told me and the rest of the room.
"He's been glued to his phone the whole drive up," Sky explained. "You should have seen him when we lost tower service for a whole hour, I don't think I've ever seen him so anxious."
"She got a name Rus?" I asked him, ignoring the teasing the rest of his friends were laying on and just trying to have a conversation since I wasn't finding anything of particular interest on the television as I flipped through channels.
"Of course she has a name… I just…" Russel trailed off.
"He's been tight lipped about it all," Cardin told me. "We haven't been able to get any details from him, but feel free to twist his arm for us."
"I think she's a stripper," Dove joked.
"She's not a stripper!" Russel protested.
"She isn't," Sky confirmed.
"You know?" Dove asked him.
"He's told me a little," Sky said proudly. "But I'm not saying anything."
"Come on, tell us something!" Dove pressed.
"No way, Rus would cut my throat in my sleep," Sky laughed.
"Damn right I would," Russel said as he continued to text his girl.
We all laughed at that as the door to Neo's room opened and she stepped out. "I'm - going - to - go - get - a - warmer - jacket." She signed to me.
"You want company?" I asked her.
She shook her head. "Just - lend - me - your - car." She told me.
I reached into my pocket and tossed her my keys which she snatched out of the air. "Don't - relax - too - much. We're - going - to - train - when - I - get - back."
I groaned, I was sore and tired from a ten hour drive and the last thing I felt like doing was sparring with her. The rest of my crew chuckled at my distress but I just smirked. "I don't know what the four of you are laughing about," I said, "you're going to be helping!" That had been something Neo and I discussed on the drive up, group training seemed to be one of the best things for me. And having heard about my trouble fighting Tukson and getting in the way of Emerald and Mercury she wanted to focus on my training even harder.
The rest of them groaned and it was Neo and I's turn to laugh at their expense. The drive had worn us all down, but if Neo was going to make me suffer then I was going to pull them all in with me.
Neo left to go off on her little shopping trip while the rest of us settled in. I took the room that was directly across from Neo's connected by a door and even shared a bathroom with double doors. "I think you should avoid windows while we are here," Cardin explained to me, claiming the one bedroom that did have a window and sliding glass door that led to the balcony.
"You're being a little extra paranoid on this trip," I told him, setting my bag down on the bed and opening it up to get into some clothes that would be better suited for training. I had gone on a bit of a shopping trip before coming here, going to a shop in little Mistral where Paulie fenced some of the nicer clothes he stole off the trucks. "I'm made now… if the Desperados tried to make a move against me it'd bring the wrath of the Family down on them. It'd be suicide!"
"Did that stop you from putting a bullet in Michail's head?" Cardin asked me frankly while crossing his arms over his chest.
"That's… that's actually a good point," I relented, the details of that hit were still secret but I did in fact get away with killing a made member of the Atlesian mafiya.
"Glad you see it my way," Cardin said, crossing his arms. "Besides… I figured you'd like to be sleeping next to her room."
I frowned at him and crossed my arms. "Dude… come on, it's not like that."
Cardin looked over to the open door. None of the guys outside seemed to be paying much attention to us but he closed the door to give us some privacy before speaking.
"Melanie and Miltia told me otherwise," he said to me, matching my gaze and crossing his own arms to show that he wasn't buying it. "I heard about the two of you making out on their couch."
I growled in frustration. "Those two should really learn how to keep their mouths shut," I told him. "And that was a mistake."
"How was it a mistake!?" Cardin pressed.
"It just… it just was," I explained to him, unable to think of a legitimate excuse.
"That's bullshit!" Cardin told me. "What the fuck are you afraid of Jauney Boy?"
I turned away from him to rummage through my bag a bit more. "I'm going to get changed now," I told him, avoiding the question altogether.
"Dude… I'm trying to talk to you as a friend," he told me, not willing to budge on this. "Your balls have dropped since Beacon so I don't understand what the problem is. I know you like her, I didn't need the twins to tell me about that."
"It's just…" I said actually trying to think of some way to talk about this without mentioning what was really bothering me. "I don't know if I want a relationship with someone in this kind of life." I figured that sort of addressed my problem.
"Why would that be a problem," Cardin told me. "Dude… you're made… how much farther into this life can you get then that? You're in the Family! You're in for life!" He told me.
To him it really was that simple. But Cardin didn't know everything.
"Just because I'm in the family doesn't mean that I have to let this business become everything I am," I explained to him. "I think I'd be happier with someone who's… normal."
"You think a normal girl is going to understand any of this?" He asked me. "If you ask me I'd be a lot happier with someone who I could explain all of this too, someone who's allowed to know it and understands."
He had a point. But what's more I wasn't like I had actually talked to Ozpin since I had lost the scroll. I wasn't even sure if I could call myself Ozpin's spy anymore. As far as I knew he wasn't even attempting to reach me. And even if I did go back to Beacon, then what? I couldn't imagine explaining any of this to my friends, especially since I figured that Blake had already told everyone about seeing me working for Roman. And I couldn't imagine Ozpin explaining to them all about this far from legal mission he had sent me on.
For all I knew the headmaster had written me off as dead. I had saved Tukson thinking that was what he wanted and to spare myself from having to take a life I never wanted to take. But in all honesty if it hadn't been for Emerald and Mercury getting cocky and walking into that I could have made a lot of trouble for myself.
And all because of some mission I wasn't sure if I even believed in anymore? For some goal that seemed to have slipped away somewhere along this path?
"You've… you've given me a lot to think about Cardin," I told him. I wasn't really sure but I figured we had talked about this enough. "Thank you."
"Anytime boss," Cardin told me, opening the door and leaving so I could get changed and wait for Neo to get back for training.
It was around sunset when she got back with a few bags from Scheemart, it seemed that was the only place that had decent clothing in the town. I hadn't known any member of the family to wear anything so cheap myself included but she seemed to be a lot warmer wearing a nice white jacket with some faux fur around the collar along with some form fitting jeans and a long sleeved blouse.
"Warmer now?" I asked her.
She nodded to me before moving into her room and deposing the bags. Me and the guys got our weapons as we went out to finally enjoy some training. We exited the hotel together and went off into the woods finding a somewhat secluded clearing.
Since it was the first time Neo had been training with the rest of us she had me spar off against Dove at first. I certainly held my own against him for a while, my training was having some effect. But naturally he managed to score plenty of hits on me.
That as I had come to learn was Dove's semblance. When he scored a hit against an opponent his strength and speed was boosted for a short time and it only increased when he landed more blows. Though Dove explained that it could be a drain on his aura when used carelessly. Dove called it Hot Streak.
Neo asked us about the rest of our semblances. We explained that Cardin could take blows and channel them into a single devastating blow. Sky could almost perfectly predict the movements of his opponents which made him a pretty effective duelist and sharpshooter. And Russel was able to make quick flash steps, it wasn't quite the burst of speed Ruby could do but it was handy in slipping around his opponents or getting in and out of their defenses.
I was embarrassed to admit that I still had no idea what my semblance was. I had tried to make something happen with it but so far I had nothing to show. Neo told me that she was going to have to push me in the hopes that something would eventually happen.
We proceeded to spar with Neo watching us or occasionally having a bout or two with me providing instruction where she could. Since we didn't want to attract any attention with gunfire or use up our ammo we kept it to stricky melee combat, and considering that was what I needed to work on the most I could hardly complain.
We were all sweaty messes when we got back to our room. I offered Neo first use of the shower while Cardin took the other bathroom. The rest ordered pizza as we readied to spend the rest of the night relaxing.
Some action movie was playing on the television as we sat around when I got the call.
"Hello?" I answered as Sky muted the TV.
"Jaune… it's Babe… we got the meeting arranged." She told me.
"That was faster than I expected," I told her, leaning back in my chair.
"I think the Desperados caught word of someone from the family coming to town," she told me. "But I received a call from a guy named Panic, he's the Desperados Sergeant at Arms, he says the President is willing to meet with us tomorrow night."
"When and where?" I asked her.
"Tomorrow around eight, in town, there's a titty bar named Girls Girls Girls. They promised it'd just be the President and his officers with two other guys." She explained to me.
"How many is that?" I asked, I was unfamiliar with how these motorcycle clubs structured their chain of command so I had no idea how many that could be.
"That's five guys and he agreed to let us do the same, plus your people," she explained to me.
"Got it, thank you Babe," I told her.
"I thought I'd send some of my guys there to check it out for any funny business," she explained to me. The door opened and Neo stepped out in one of the hotel's white bathrobes and her hair up in a towel. The steam from the bathroom was very fragrant, seeing me on my scroll she crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway listening and looking at me.
"If it's not in violation of any agreement then fine," I told her. "I'll send one of my guys there too, just to be on the safe side."
"Alright… I'll see you tomorrow night if not sooner," she said to me.
I hung up and everyone looked at me. "We have a meeting scheduled," I told them, setting my scroll down on the table. "Tomorrow at eight, apparently it's supposed to be at some topless bar called Girls Girls Girls."
"Creative name," Sky scoffed.
"They usually are," Dove said, sharing in the sarcasm.
"I need someone to go check it out, maybe reserve a private room for the meeting," I explained to them. "Any takers?" I asked them.
"Sure I'll go after I have that shower," Dove told me.
"Take Cardin with you," I told him, since he was the one that wanted to play this little trip safe. I figured that he'd appreciate the chance to scope out the meeting area. Plus he would see that Dove didn't get distracted by the girls or the booze.
"Got it," Dove nodded, moving to shout to Cardin what was happening through the bathroom door.
I looked at Neo and she smiled at me. "The - shower - is - all - yours." she told me.
I nodded and went in to wash and change for the night.
The rest of the night was uneventful. We enjoyed some pizzas as well as a couple pay per view movies before Dove and Cardin came back and reported that the strip club seemed alright and that they reserved a private room to accommodate all of us. They also were going to make sure they checked the place again before the meeting tomorrow just in case.
We went to bed and woke up late the next morning. With little for us to do before the meeting we took it mostly easy until Neo decided that if I had an abundance of free time then I might as well spend it training with her. So a good portion of the day was spent out in the woods with her and some of the other guys brushing up on my fencing.
I had thought that getting away from Vale I could have treated it as a work vacation but that hope was quickly dashed when it became clear that Neo intended to use every moment she could towards my training. And since the hotel even had a small gym I even exercised a bit with her. No rest for the wicked it seemed. Though it was nice to watch her practice yoga while I ran on the treadmill.
I did call Roman once to give him the rundown on the situation so far as well as go over the details of his offer once more. I wanted to make sure that everything was clear for us.
Soon enough however it was around time for the meeting so I dressed in one of my suits with Astuzia and Vendetta tucked in it's holster under my jacket along with my .357 Python in it's shoulder holster and my .38 in an ankle holster. The rest of my crew also had their pistols tucked away and strapped on their normal weapons before we headed out.
The strip club was a simple brick building with the only sign being pink neon with the name Girls Girls Girls and an outline of a woman that I am sure I had seen on the mudflaps of a few trucks on the drive over.
It wasn't long after we had parked outside that we could hear the Motley's coming. The engines of their bikes roared as they drove through the town sounding like echoing thunder. Babe was in the lead, a custom helmet that accommodated her ox horns and a large axe was slung over her shoulder. Her blue bike looked particularly powerful, clearly built for her massive body. The other four followed behind in a formation with no obvious weapons.
I remained outside as they pulled in and parked their bikes on their kickstands and got off looking at me. We had arrived a bit early and since I didn't see any other bikes parked here so I assumed that we were the first to arrive.
"Good to see you," I greeted as Babe walked across the parking lot with her guys in tow.
"Likewise, this is my Vice President Heavy and our Sergeant at Arms Vixen," she said, introducing her officers respectively. Heavy true to his name was rather large and beared with a heavy chain draped over his shoulders while Vixen was an obvious fox faunus with a red fox tail trailing out from her daisy dukes. A flashy old style revolver with pearl grips hung at her hip where everyone could see it.
I was absolutely not surprised that they had come armed but a look at them made me want to clear things up before we went inside.
"Good to meet you all," I said to them shaking each of their hands respectfully before giving Babe a look. "Remember, we're here to make peace and put this matter to rest. Understood!? We're going to have a good time and talk business so everyone can leave as happy as possible."
"I understand," Babe assured me with a nod and a nervous touch of her horns. "I'm here to do what's best for the Motleys."
"Good," I said, looking at her officers to see that they heard that and moved to go in.
Since joining this business I had come to appreciate strip clubs as useful cash based businesses that were excellent for money laundering. And that was where my appreciation for them mostly ended. I never really saw the point of tossing my cash around at a bunch of women that'd just pretend to like me and leave me blue balled at the end of the night. I'll admit that I found the pole dances fun to watch, but it wasn't like I wanted to spend an entire night or afternoon watching them.
Unfortunately my disinterest in such establishments was not shared by most of my peers and superiors. I had gone to my share of strip clubs in Vale for business meetings or had been dragged along by others. This particular establishment was distinctly dingy with most of the club bathed in a low red light and the music blaring from speakers.
We informed the front desk that we had a room reserved and I slipped them some extra lien telling them to have their most popular strippers attend us. I might not have been interested in their services but since we were having the meeting here I might as well do what I could to make the Desperados feel happy and comfortable.
We went to the back room and got ourselves comfortable with some of the strippers bringing us a few pitchers of beer and trying to get friendly. I took a seat on the edge of the couch with Neo next to me so none of the girls would sit by my side.
Thankfully the Desperados were not that far behind us as they arrived, five guys as promised. A stripper led them into the room and I got up to greet them.
The leader was a tall bald headed man with his arms covered in tattoos. He wore a red leather vest with the title of President and the club emblem of a skeleton holding a crossed revolver and bowie knife. He seemed to be unarmed aside from a double barreled sawed off that hung from a large shoulder holster.
His Vice President and Sergeant at Arms were similarly dressed and armed.
"Hello!" I greeted walking across the room and offering them my hand which they took. "I'm Jaune Arc, I'd like to extend the thanks of myself and Mr. Torchwick for you all agreeing to this meeting.
"You can call me Cueball," he said, giving my hand a bit too much pressure. If I hadn't been working on my strength I might have had my hand crushed but I was able to match his vice like grip. "This is my Vice President Razor and my Sergeant at Arms Panic," he explained, releasing my hand.
"You can call me Gentleman or Gent if you prefer," I said, if they were going to have me calling them all by their nicknames then I saw no reason for them not to do the same.
Panic chuckled, "Well I'm glad I chose a gentleman's club for our meeting with the Gentleman," he joked, flashing me a friendly grin as I shook his hand.
I suppressed a groan and forced a chuckle. I had already heard that kind of joke a few times already. When word got out that I was opening up a club I got my fair share of ribbing about a "gentleman's club" but I was at least able to take his humor as a good sign.
"Come on let's sit," I said to them motioning to the table and couches where we could sit together. "Can I get you a cigar? I brought a box of Vacuan Churchills for us to all share."
We all got situated around the table. To Babe's credit, she and her officers did remain cordial to the Desperados. We poured some drinks and ordered some appetizers and lit up the stogies as we began the night. As much as I would have liked to have gotten down to brass tacks and pitched Roman's offer I had to spend the time here wining and dining them so to speak.
"Can I buy you and your boys some lap dances?" Cueball asked me as he took a puff on the cigar I had given him. He gave a look at Neo sitting next to me. "If your girl there doesn't mind."
"She's not my girl, she's my business partner and Mr. Torchwick's right hand woman," I informed him, looking over at her. She gave me a nod and a smile.
"Tell - him - I'd - like - a - lap - dance - too." She told me looking over at Cueball who just watched the exchange. "I - think - he - expects - us - to - be - uncomfortable. Just - play - along - with - it."
"What's she saying?" Cueball asked me.
"She says she'd like to have a lap dance too," I told him, looking over at some of the girls that were already there. "From that little brunette over there!" I added in following her advice and acting like we were ready to have the time of our lives.
Cueball called for the strippers to come over and handed out some bills so they could begin their work. Cardin abstained since he wanted to be free of distractions only talking with the Vice President Razor. The rest were enjoying themselves how they could, Vixen was even talking to Panic about some of their bikes with a ton of technical mechanic talk that was completely over my head.
Some pretty girl in lacy lingerie named Cherry started her dance making me feel incredibly awkward. The girl was fairly attractive, but I personally found the oversized and obviously fake breasts to be a big turn off. Having them thrust right in my face was hardly what I found to be a good time. Neo on the other hand was certainly acting like she was having fun running her hand over the brunette's back down to her rear where she stuffed a few bills.
"How long have you been President of your chapter?" I asked Cueball, from what I had come to understand, the Desperados and the Motleys were both split up into chapters that were scattered across Vale's highways. Meaning that Cueball was only the leader for the local chapter.
"Eight years," Cueball said, getting a little handsy with the stripper, running his meaty hand down her ass. I certainly wasn't going to be touching any of the girls, most of the clubs in Vale already had no touching rules and no matter if it was allowed here I just always felt skeezy with strippers. Not to judge the profession, throwing money at a person to let me lust over them just doesn't sit right with me.
I gave a low whistle to feign being impressed. "Must be quite a job," I said, trying to start up a little small talk. I would certainly play along with this little strip club venture but unless Neo told me otherwise I felt like I should show that I wasn't going to be easily distracted, especially not from the business at hand.
"It's not easy… but it's fulfilling in its own way," he went on, clearly more enamored with the stripper than the conversation. "Do what you love, you know? Hell, how many jobs can call this a work meeting?" He asked me.
Personally I would have preferred to be having this meeting in some stuffy conference room with a slideshow presentation but here I was with a pair of plastic tits jiggling in my face.
"Damn straight!" Babe agreed with a raise of her beer glass and a puff of her cigar. "Ride and die," she said to him.
"Ride and die," Cueball agreed half-heartedly, picking up his own beer for a drink. I honestly didn't see why these two were at odds. In Vale things seemed much clearer with things separated by neighborhood and the various cultures people had come from. But they were both Valean and in the same line of work. But then again things like there weren't always so clear cut.
The song ended and I dismissed Cherry so I wouldn't have to endure any more dances. Not to mention we didn't need any of the strippers around to actually talk about real business.
"You wanna get some body shots going over here?" Cueball asked with a chuckle as one of the girls set down a bottle of tequila and a bowl of sliced limes.
"In a minute," I told him, not dismissing the idea but wanting to at least make some headway. I pulled out a wad and handed the woman a fat tip and told her to bring me a rye whiskey on the rocks. She moved away letting me talk to them with about as much privacy as we were going to get. "I want to talk about this turf war," I said plainly.
Cueball scowled and took a look at Babe, "Naturally," he said to me.
"I'm here to put it to an end… I figured I might know a little more about why it's started up." I explained, I wasn't going to pitch Roman's offer quite yet but I figured I should try learning a thing or two.
Cueball gave Babe a look, she was staring at him as well wanting to see his answer. He clearly didn't want to talk out his reasons directly in front of her. "How about you come over and sit with us?" He suggested to me tapping one of the two members on the shoulder to leave so I could go sit next to him.
Babe scowled at him but I motioned for her to keep her cool. "Alright," I said, getting up and walking around the table to the other couch where he and his offers along with one of the normal club members sat. I held my drink as I settled down between Cueball and his Vice President Razor.
Next to him as he puffed on the cigar I had given him he leaned over to talk to me in a low voice. The loud music of the strip club would have certainly made it difficult for Babe or any of the Motleys to overhear.
"I agreed to this meeting because I have a proposition for you," Cueball told me discreetly. "I think the Family should drop the Motleys, let us handle security for your union trucks and goods coming in and out of Vale."
He came right out of the gate swinging. I figured that he would try courting the Torchwick Family in some way, but he completely forego subtly without even trying to sweeten things up by leading with the benefits of his deal.
I remained silent letting him go on.
"Don't waste my time pretending that you really care about what scuffles our little gangs get into. This only became a problem for your people when we started raiding your trucks and took some stuff… like that dust." He went on, pausing to take a puff of his cigar. "But that's why you should drop that bag of mixed nuts and have us on your side. We're bigger, we're better and we have more guns. You should be paying winners to protect your interests."
A bag of mixed nuts? I figured that was his way of making a comment on the Motleys' being a racially mixed gang of humans and faunus. So he apparently had some racial beef with them that he didn't want to voice in front of Babe. I supposed it was best, she might have tried ramming him with those ox horns of hers if he did.
"What does your Atlesian sponsor think of all this?" I asked him, matching his low tone so the conversation remained private between us.
"This isn't about those vodka swilling snowbacks," Cueball said dismissively. "Just because we're taking their money to protect their cargo doesn't mean that we can't take yours and do the same. We don't need to be in one pocket, we can be friends with two families and see that both their interests are being protected. Just drop the Motleys, we'll clean them out of town and off the roads ourselves, and you can have your cargo back. You can pay us whatever you've been paying those mongrels, real simple."
"But what happens when things get less than friendly between the Family and the Atlesians?" I asked him.
"Like you mafiosos like to say, it's business, if that ever happens we'll just have to decide what's more profitable," he explained to me with a yellow toothed grin.
Talk about a shitty sales pitch. Dropping the Motleys just to get back some stolen cargo and trusting them to see to the family's interests after all of this. Even if we could trust these guys the Family would take a blow to their reputation, word would get around that we just dropped the gangs in our employ easily. That would be bad for business.
"I'll relay your offer to Mr. Torchwick," I told him honestly. Even I could see that there was no way that Roman would take it, but it was still my duty to relay it to him. I was sure that Roman would get a good laugh if nothing else.
I looked across the table to Neo and gave her a look and a slight shake of my head to show that I wasn't liking what I was hearing.
"Bad - deal?" she asked me in sign.
I nodded, taking a puff from my cigar, blowing a ring that floated in the air. Being able to communicate with her by sign language was certainly a handy tool. Though one we should certainly use with caution, I was pretty positive that none of these bikers knew sign language. Besides Cueball and the others were too busy looking at the girl dancing on the table in front of us to pay attention to her subtle hand movements.
"Stay - there," she told me. "Pitch - the - deal - when - I - give - you - the - signal."
I raised an eyebrow to show that I had no idea what signal she meant. But when she just winked at me to say that I'd know it when I saw it.
The song ended and I took a sip of my rye before looking over to Cueball and giving him a friendly smile. I was hoping that he'd take my feigned good mood as a sign that I was seriously considering his offer. Dumbass.
"So… you wanted to do some body shots?" I asked him, trying my best to pretend like I was enjoying the revelry. "What are those?" I asked honestly, "I've never done them."
"For real?" he asked me with a chuckle, "well let me show ya Gent!"
He signaled for the brown haired girl to lay down on her back over the table splayed out for us. Cueball took the bowl of limes and held one out for the stripper to take in her teeth which she did with a smile. He then sprinkled some salt on her chest just beneath her tits before pouring a shot of the tequila.
"It's easy gent," he said, raising the shotglass of gold colored liquor. "You take a shot, you lick up the stalt and you take the lime. You can drink it out of the glass but it's best done like this!"
He poured the shot into the stripper's navel and leaned down to slurp it right up off of her before licking up the salt and taking the lime from her mouth into his own teeth, biting down and sucking out all the juice before tossing away the rest.
"See, it's fun!" He said as another stripper wiped down her coworker with a towel making the surface Cueball had just put his mouth on a bit more sanitary.
It did seem fun, if it wasn't with a stripper and not with a bunch of greasy bikers I might have enjoyed the idea more. I did consider maybe talking to the twins about giving it a try when I got back to Vale, I was certain that Melanie would be more than willing to have me slurp tequila out of her belly button.
"You wanna go?" Cueball asked, filling another shot glass and offering it to me.
"Fuck yeah!" I said, faking excitement as I took the glass and leaned forward to pour it into the stripper's navel and sucked the fruity and bitter liquor up. I licked up the salt feeling the strippers breasts brush my face. I bit down on the lime and pulled it away to have the girl smile up at me as I sucked out all the juice.
"Like a Gent!" Cueball roared encouragingly and the rest of the room cheered as we passed the tequila around so everyone could take a turn.
We went around like that, sharing sparse conversation and switching girls here and there. Everyone did it, even Cardin and Russel when I made it clear that this was strictly for work. Neo and Vixen doing it especially got some responses, watching the two more attractive girls taking shots off of strippers had that effect.
I did several more shots off of several more girls waiting for Neo to give this signal she had apparently planned. With the body shots and booze and smoke and lap dances it was certainly turning rowdy with the bikers making rather lewd and objective jokes and comments about the girls that I was far from comfortable with.
Mom and my sisters really had drilled in a deep sense of decency when it came to women.
Neo was up to take another shot off a purple haired stripper called Midnight. Slurping up the tequila and taking a slow time to lick up all the salt was earning her plenty of hoots and wolf whistles. But when she came in for the lime she quickly bit down and sucked the juice before bringing the stripper in for a heavy kiss.
The room went wild. All the guys hooted and hollered and let out ear piercing whistles and fist pumps. Neo straddled the girl and she seemed to be alright kissing her back giving a show with her that would hopefully provide more tips to be stuffed in her lacy thong and garter belt. I certainly was going to tip her well since I could see that this was the signal.
Cueball laughed and turned to me. "You and your girl certainly know how to have a good time!" he told me with a grin and a pat on my shoulder.
I laughed giving the two girls a lingering look. "Oh you have no idea," I told him with a grin. "Brass tacks, two million lien!" I told him quickly, dropping the offer down like a bombshell loudly enough for all his officers and members to hear, even the strippers had to have heard that. Razor choked on his drink and Panic went slack jawed.
"What!?" Cueball asked, completely blindsided by the offer.
In this line of work I had come to learn that money is a tool that can be used in two ways. One is like a scalpel, pay just what you need to get what you need. But other times like this, money can be an effective bludgeon and I could see that I had knocked the wind out of him and his men with the offer during the most surprising time for it to arrive.
"That's Mr. Torchwicks offer!" I told them flatly. "One million for the return of our dust and other stolen goods, I think we can agree that it's a fair price."
Fair was an understatement. They had stolen over eight and a half tons of our already stolen dust and it was worth quite a lot, five to eight hundred grand at best, but Roman figured it'd be best in this case to overpay just to make the idea of offloading it to anyone else ridiculous.
"And the other million for you to pull back and keep this town neutral and leave the Motleys' roads alone," I said, tossing my spent cigar into the ashtray. Neo had gotten off of the stripper now and watched, plenty of the others were still acting wild but the Desperado side of everything was now completely focused on me. I watched as Razor and Panic looked at one another before sharing a look with Cueball.
Cueball gave them a hard glare, it seemed he was more surprised at the offer than impressed. His officers were clearly impressed, especially Panic. It's best if people don't know what you're thinking in this kind of meeting and they had just revealed their fucking cards.
"W… well if Mr. Torchwick is willing to offer two million I think we can talk-," Razor started before Cueball shot up from his seat and clocked his Vice President across the jaw in front of everyone.
The strippers gasped in surprise from the sudden outburst of violence and the room became real quiet real quick.
The party was over. Sky was already hunched over the girl on the table having already poured his shot. The stripper had dropped the lime when she gasped and it rolled down her chest as she stared at Razor who was bleeding from his nose.
"Leave!" Cueball ordered the girls pointing at them threateningly.
The party was over, it was pure business now and that was where I was most comfortable.
They did and an awkward silence hung over the air as the girls got up and left. The one that had been on the table ready for Sky to take a shot off of her spilled the tequila that had been in her navel. I got up from my seat and pulled out a fat wad of cash giving the girls their final tip and a goodnight.
When the door closed Cueball looked at me. "My apologies Mr. Arc… sometimes I think in all the excitement my Vice President forgot that he's not here to make deals."
"Certainly," I said, letting him save face.
"Two fucking million!?" Panic asked me. "You're serious!?"
"It seems to be a small price to pay to recover what is rightfully ours and ensure that it is never taken again," I explained. "What's more I have talked to Babe before this meeting and she has agreed to allow you and your gang use of her roads for a reduced toll." I explained to them all so everyone could hear me this time.
"Twenty percent less of what we used to charge you," Babe chimed in. "So long as you pull back those meeting spots you've started along our highways. We also promise to leave those SDC trucks alone."
That meant that we could no longer use the Motleys as a means to steal dust but Roman figured we could just steal it when it arrived in Vale and it was no longer the Desperados problem. It certainly was a very generous offer, a little too much in my opinion but Roman was opting for shock and awe to solve this little dispute. I didn't quite see why this was all worth so much but it wasn't my place to second guess Roman's offer.
Razor looked concerned as he stopped his nosebleed with his handkerchief, Panic certainly looked interested. But Cueball looked pissed.
"Is this a fucking joke to you!" He spat. "You think you suits can just roll up here in your fancy car and flash some money and cigars and tell us what to do!?" He said turning bright red.
"No I don't think that at all," I said respectfully. Cueball's officers looked nervous watching him yell at me. There was a clear division in the ranks. I opened my hand to him to show that I meant no offence and was completely calm. I was made, he couldn't do anything to me here, hell his own people would probably stop him before mine.
"I'm here to represent Mr. Torchwick's business interests, we discussed this deal thinking you would find it agreeable," I explained to him.
"Two million!?" He hissed like it was a curse. "No… you think you can buy us! We're not for sale!"
"Cue!" Panic said only for his boss to raise a clenched fist.
"If your boss thinks it's worth two million… then I imagine that it's worth quite a bit more to you. Four million!" He said to me, I could tell that it was a trick, a way to make it seem like he wasn't a complete idiot to his officers. The way they overreacted showed that they could see we were overpaying, but Cueball clearly wanted something more than just money.
"I'm not here to haggle," I told him flatly. "This is Mr. Torchwick's offer. I'll take it that you refuse?"
"Damn right we do!" he yelled. "You fucking mafiosos think you're better than us! You think we're gonna bow and scrape just because you're willing to throw money at us like we're those stripper bitches! We're not gonna cave for some scraps!"
"Very well," I told him calmly, motioning for my people to leave with me. They all got up and we walked outside into the cool windy night leaving Cueball and his stunned officers behind. There was nothing else to discuss tonight.
"I told you he was a stubborn son of a bitch," Babe told me.
"You were right, if a couple million won't sway a man then I hardly know what will," I said to her. It was clearly more than stubbornness that had done this, no one just turns down that kind of money purely out of pride. Not when his own men were clearly questioning that decision. I hoped that if nothing else I had sewn the seeds of doubt within his officers.
"So what now?" Babe asked me, crossing her arms.
"Now I talk to Roman, I'll call you first thing in the morning," I assured her.
"Is the Family going to help us win this war?" Vixen asked.
"We'll see," I told her.
We all left and got into our cars. Neo offered to drive and since I was supposed to talk to Roman right away I agreed.
"Nice signal," I told her, it really had allowed me to blindside them and get a nice measure of their reactions. Whatever reason Cueball had to deny such generosity it wasn't shared by everyone. Plus the regular members who had been there heard and hopefully they'd spread word to the rest of the gang.
Neo smirked proudly and gave me a wink as I dialed Roman's number.
"Hey, if it isn't my favorite Gent," Roman greeted me. "How did it go with the Desperados?"
"Their President denied the offer, tried to get us to drop the Motleys in exchange for our stuff back, oh and when I told them about the money he tried to double it like an idiot," I explained to him. "Aside from the fact that I certainly need a shower after being in that strip club I'd say the night went as well as it could have. Their President clearly has some kind of angle to deny that much money in front of everyone else."
Roman sighed, "Well… I was afraid of that."
"It seems pretty clear that the rest of higher ups in the gang don't agree with his decision," I explained. "I think we can work with that."
"Alright… but for now I want you to make those gearheads understand why they shouldn't refuse our generosity. Give them hell! Assist the Motleys and put the screws to the Desperados." He ordered me.
"Can do boss," I told him, already thinking about my next move.