"Sometimes I feel like God… when I order someone killed, they die the same day." ~ Pablo Escobar.
Bullets whizzed over my head as the rest of the cabin shattered all around me. A lamp that had been resting on the table blew apart, scattering pieces of porcelain all across the room. I heard two of Boris' guys outside return fire only to retreat to the safety of the cabin and take cover as they found themselves ambushed with overwhelming firepower.
I lay on the floor bleeding from the shot that had pierced my side holding one of the holes closed with my hand as I took stock of the situation observing everything as best I could. Neo was on the floor with Hush drawn, Dove had also taken a bullet and was currently inspecting the wound while he cursed up a storm. Despite the pain he had drawn his sword along with the rest of my crew who were hunkered down with weapons drawn.
Boris had thrown himself protectively over Sophia, shielding her as he yelled out for his men to try to get a location of the shooter, sending a couple to slowly crawl across the ground and out the back.
"They haven't needed to reload," Boris observed as bullets continued to tear through the wooden walls splintering furniture. "We have one shooter with a belt fed, perhaps more," he told the rest of his team. "Do not return fire without my command!"
"Russel window!" Cardin cried to him since he was the closest to one of the blasted apart windows. He crawled across the floor strewn with glass and porcelain.
I looked down at my scroll to the text that had just been sent to me warning me to hit the deck. I texted back to them as the gunfire continued to rattle off suppressing us all and keeping us pinned to the floor.
'Where is the shooter!?' I texted, in the hope that this mysterious number would lead to some help now that whoever was manning this machine gun was attempting to mow us all down.
I waited for a moment watching as Russel raised his scroll up so the camera could get a peek out of the window. He linked his phone with ours so we could see what he was seeing.
Should be northeast of the cabin. The text answered me a little disjointedly after a few long seconds of waiting.
"Russel look towards the northeast!" I ordered him.
"Where is that?" He asked me.
"Turn it to the right!" Sky said to him, staring at his own scroll. "Zoom in!" he ordered again, staring intently at the little screen. "There! I can see the muzzle flashes!"
"How did you know that?" Sophia asked me.
"I was told to hit the deck before the bullets started flying, it seems there's a guardian angel texting me!" I told her, holding my scroll up to make a point to her.
She frowned, not liking that I was getting strange texts about the situation but I only shrugged. It wasn't like I was expecting this either.
"Sky you got a rifle, get a line of sight through the window!" Cardin ordered him.
"Got it!" Sky said, moving into action crawling prone across the messy cabin floor.
"Neo!" I said, getting her attention. "Care to make a distraction for us?" I asked, figuring that her semblance would be a good way to divert the attention of the shooter.
"We got a couple of vehicles coming up!" Russel reported to us.
"Hold on!" I ordered, not wanting Sky to take the shot just to have some of these new guys blast him when he got up.
I turned my attention back to the screen to see that indeed two squad cars and a truck were heading right for us to stop in the dirt driveway. The Sheriff was here.
"Fuck! Gates is here!" I felt like such an idiot watching him step out of his vehicle and toss away a cigarette as he watched the cabin turn to splinters. A part of me felt like I should have suspected that a dirty huntsman was in on this.
Seven other guys got out of the vehicles with various shotguns, rifles and other weapons. It was his two deputies along with some other guys who lined up to storm the cabin. Only Sheriff Gates stood back with his deputy Gabe.
Gates waved his hand up and the machine gun fire immediately stopped. "Clear it out boys!" I heard him say.
I grabbed for my weapon only to hear the sudden popping of a pistol. I looked back to my scroll watching as Deputy Gabe shot Sheriff Gates right in the back. The other men turned, surprised to have one of their own suddenly firing on them. Gabe drew his second pistol and proceeded to move as he popped the other deputy and the others with cold almost mechanical precision.
"Sky now!" I yelled and he rose to aim his rifle out through the window. In the confined space of the cabin the rifle was extra loud as it roared from the single shot.
"Got him!" Sky said working the bolt and ejecting the spent rifle casing that rolled smoking across the floor.
The rest of Boris' guys moved into action. They rose from the floor and moved out smooth and practiced as if rehearsed. Outside deputy Gabe had taken cover behind one of the squad cars as the two others tried to shoot him, only for Boris and one of his men to pop them in the back, killing them.
"Toss them out!" Boris ordered Deputy Gabe after all the threats were neutralized. "Hands up and on your head!"
The Deputy compiled, discarding both pistols and lacing his hands up on the top of his head. He offered no resistance as Boris himself stepped forward and padded him down while the rest of his men fanned out to better secure the area; they weren't going to be ambushed again.
It was only when Boris declared that the Deputy was clean and the rest of his men combed the area for immediate threats did Sophia pick herself up off the floor of the cabin and dust herself off and stepped out still managing to look regal despite her state. I stood up and offered Neo my hand so we could step out together onto the porch.
The Desperado members that Boris and his team had tied up for questioning were dead now. The machine gun having torn them to bloody pieces, I averted my eyes. Killing their own, it was disgusting.
Boris led Gabe out in front of us and Sophia's grey eyes narrowed into slits, glaring at him. "Who do you work for?" She asked him as I stood beside her examining the man I had thought to be a simple lackey.
"I was hired by the Cimitarra Cartel to investigate the Sheriff's office and the disturbance to the distribution network," he said, unbuttoning his tan uniform shirt and showing a tattoo of a sun over some crossed Vacuan Scimitars.
"You knew he was in league with Cueball!?" Sophia hissed at him, motoning over to the corpse of the sheriff bleeding in the dirt, his dead face still looked smug.
"I suspected, but I didn't have confirmation until last night after the grimm attacked. He didn't trust me to know about his operation until he heard that you were in town. He recruited me to help him dispose of you and Mr. Arc here, he needed to make time to move his operation." He explained to the two of us while he rebuttoned his shirt. "I reported back to my superiors in Vacuo and they ordered me to sabotage his efforts and dispose of Gates, his services are no longer necessary for the cartel. They have little tolerance for cheaters."
"You could have warned us sooner!" I growled at him. "Instead of letting us walk into the sight of a machine gun!"
"I am afraid I didn't have much time, and I wasn't privy to the details of his plan until the last minute." He explained with a noncommittal shrug. "I also couldn't have alerted Sheriff Gates of my intentions if I warned you. But please understand that Mr. Machado and the rest of the Cimitarra Cartel had no intention of seeing any of you hurt, that is why I warned you as soon as I could. We are allies now, as a representative of the Cartel I am at your service."
Neo crossed her arms and frowned at him, clearly not liking it. Not that it mattered what we liked, he was an agent of the cartel and doing anything to him would just be a problem we wouldn't want to handle.
"So how can the Cimitarra Cartel offer their services?" I asked him.
"I know where Cueball and his entourage are headed," Gabe informed us, stepping over towards the Sheriff's body and fishing the scroll out of his pockets. He also removed the Sheriff's badge from his uniform and replaced the deputy's badge with it. Aside from removing a thorn in the Cartel's side it seemed he had also given himself a promotion.
He handed the scroll off to Boris who used the dead Sheriff's finger to unlock it and checked it himself. "He's been texting instructions to Cueball… seems they've taken the chance to move everything south on some of the old roads to stash everything."
"Idiots! Business shouldn't be done over text. You can never tell who's typing. Text him that we're dead." Sophia ordered him moving to her own vehicle. "As far as he'll understand it he's gotten away clean. Try asking about where he's going to be stopping, and try to tell him that we'll meet him."
"Yes Ma'am," Boris said obediently, his finger tapping away at the screen.
Sophia looked over at Gabe and down to the dead Sheriff. "I trust that you and the Cartel are going to be cleaning up this mess?" She asked him.
"Sheriff Gates will send an email to the mayor's office about his mother in Vale turning ill and needing his attention. As well as his final act to transfer his position to me." He explained adjusting the sheriff's badge on his uniform.
"And the dead deputy here?" I asked him.
"Quit after being denied promotion," Gabe answered me. "I'll be having to hire some deputies of my own to fill the position."
I motioned to some of the other guys that he had shot in the back. "Who are they? They're not deputies?" I asked him.
"Just some hired muscle," Gabe answered him. "Gates has been hiring some of the petty crooks around town to do some of his dirty work and side hustles. Turning a blind eye can be a helpful way to recruit some extra hands."
"Like grimm wrangling?" Sophia asked him.
He nodded to her. "It is indeed one of several small operations he's been doing on the side. It never interfered with the Cartel's operations so until that attack I never thought much of it."
"How many more of these fucking guys does he have?" I asked him, not liking the idea of facing off against some kind of army of backwoods thugs.
Gabe shrugged. "A dozen, maybe more."
"We'll need to be ready for a fight then," Sophia said, fishing out her own scroll.
I turned away towards my own crew. "Cardin… go with Boris and oversee the arrangements for the assault." I instructed him. I had no doubt that Boris and his people could have it all handled but I wanted to keep Cardin's eyes on everything.
"You got it," he said with a nod and looking at the rest of the crew. "Stay with Jaune, I don't want anyone to leave his side."
"Actually I want Russel and Sky to drive over and find Babe, get as many of the Motleys' together, if we're going to go after Cueball I want to do it with as many people as possible." I told them. "Dove can stay here with me."
"If you're going to include the Motleys might I suggest rallying a pack of Desperados," Sophia suggested to him.
"Why?" I asked her.
"Think of it as a team building exercise," Sophia explained. "Putting them up against a common enemy to ease tensions."
"Fine," I agreed easily enough, supposing that it wouldn't hurt to give both sides some sense of closure.
"Ma'am!" Boris said, stepping up with the scroll in hand, handing it to her. "Cueball texted back, he told me they stopped off at some place called Whillies, wherever that is it's not on a map. I felt that asking him for specifics would tip him off that it's not Gates texting him."
"Very good," Sophia said to him. "Try to stall him there while we figure it out, ask the bikers about it."
Boris nodded and moved, checking the stolen scroll once more while taking out his own.
We got into Sopha's car and I gave Neo a look as Sophia drove away from the ruined cabin.
"I suppose the town can hardly be considered neutral anymore," I commented bitterly. "It now belongs to the Cartel."
"No - shit," Neo signed bitterly to me.
"The Cimitarra Cartel isn't interested in controlling any of your trade moving through the town, they're just here to ensure that our business arrangement is safe. They don't want anything like this happening again." Sophia explained to me.
"Is that what I should tell Roman when I explain that the Sheriff we were bribing this whole time betrayed us only to be replaced by some Cartel agent?" I asked her, a little bitter that a third party had reared its ugly face here in White Peak.
"I am sure the Cartel is already arranging a heartfelt message for Mr. Torchwick to assure him they want nothing but good relations." She assured me. "But right now our concern is getting Cueball, I still need to learn who helped him skim off our shipments and recover as much of the stolen product as possible."
"I'll be sure that the Motleys know that we want him taken alive if possible," I said to her, as distasteful as I found knowing the shadow of the Cartel was looming over all of this there was nothing I could do about it right now.
We got back into town and started consolidating what we had. A few phone calls from Russel told me that about fourteen Motleys with aura were ready to ride and they were gathering more. Just mentioning the name Whillies was enough for Babe to tell us about an old abandoned mechanic shop and gas station on the side of an old abandoned road.
It took a little convincing but I managed to get Babe to agree to ride with the Desperados as we planned to attack the place, perhaps strong arming her would be a better description. Russel and Sky having done their job of rallying the Motleys were able to take a car out on those old roads and hiked a part of the way to scout the station for us. Tower service was spotty out there but they managed to get news out that there were a half dozen trucks and over twenty different men with Cueball, all armed and ready for a fight.
Within two hours we were ready and on our way there.
I had Vendetta unfolded and between my knees as we drove. I was certainly accustomed to seeing dirt roads thanks to the last couple of days I had spent in this area. But this was certainly different, this was on some of the roads the Motleys' had marked with red. These were old roads that had been built to go to Mountain Glenn and surrounding ghost towns and settlements that had been abandoned.
Saying the ride was rough would be an understatement. The faded asphalt and crumbled concrete had Neo and I bumping around in our seats. Boris was driving for Sophia who sat in front looking unphased from the rough driving.
Outside the Motleys and the Desperados were riding together. The twenty some odd bikes certainly made a lot of noise announcing us as we got closer to the target. I certainly had to respect them for being able to keep formation and speed despite the rough nature of the roads. Those bikes weren't exactly made for this kind of terrain but they didn't seem to mind rolling right over it all.
A text came through on my scroll from Sky.
'They hear you coming, they know something is wrong.'
We had expected this. Over twenty bikers on hogs didn't stand a chance to take them completely by surprise. But considering the numbers that Cueball was expected to have we had all agreed that it would be best to come in with our own numbers.
'Start putting holes in engine blocks. And have Russel shadow Cueball if able.' I ordered him, looking up at the road as we drew closer and closer.
"They've heard us coming," I told everyone, getting a look from Boris and Sophia. "I just ordered my sharpshooter to start engaging them."
"Very well," Sophia said looking at Boris. "Let the bikers draw first blood, no need to jump into the fray ourselves."
"Yes, ma'am," Boris said, slowing down for the rest of the gang members to pull ahead of all of us and speed towards the target location.
I watched as all the shiny bikes passed us leaving an impressive cloud of dust behind them. And as the din of the bikes slowly faded I heard the muffled report of Sky's rifle echoing through the woods. It didn't take long until I heard the first sounds of the fight starting up down the road. The dull booms of a shotgun or the rattle of automatics.
I spotted the old station. A number of trucks and bikes were parked and I looked up at the hill where Sky was supposed to be providing fire with his rifle.
Most of the fighters were using simple firearms, handguns and hunting rifles and shotguns with a few sub machine guns. But others braved the gunfire with their aura to get in close with blades or clubs they had brought with them.
Babe rushed a group hidden in the old station firing out the window, she moved with surprising speed despite her bulk as she shattered through the boarded window to swing her axe at them. Vixen was firing off her ornate revolver like she was in some kind of old spaghetti cowboy movie while Panic stood beside her offering rifle fire when she needed to reload the old six shooter.
It was certainly an interesting spectacle to behold as both sides clashed against one another. By the time we had pulled up most the fighting had already ended, a few had managed to take off in their trucks or their bikes only to be pursued by the Motleys or the Desperados. Or be stopped by Sky putting a slug through an engine block.
Boris stopped and threw the door open to get out. He leveled his automatic rifle and started laying down fire as the rest of the convoy stopped behind us. Neo, Sophia and I got out as well. Neo opened Hush's parasol to act as a shield, she activated her semblance to create the illusion of other gunmen like Boris filing out of the vehicles and rushing towards the fight. They were distractions that were quickly cut down by gunfire.
Cardin and Dove on the other hand moved in close to fight with more strength than precision, if Boris and his team were water then those two were like rolling boulders.
I leveled my shotgun and fired off a shell towards one guy on the roof with a deer rifle. I peppered him with rubber buckshot and he fell off crashing onto the ground. I proceeded to unload Vendetta's nonlethal rounds at anyone that peeked their head out. I suppose they were lucky to have me shooting at them as opposed to anyone else there. But I still had buckshot for when things would get ugly.
The rest of Boris' guys fanned out and moved across the area like water flowing through areas of least resistance. Between their aura and the armor they wore, any attack that landed on them was hardly effective and it was quickly cut down by return fire. It was fascinating how mechanical and precise Boris and his team were.
I knelt behind the car I was using as cover, sliding more shells into Vendetta readying to move in close myself to end the fight when I felt my scroll buzz again in my pocket. I pulled it out to see another message from Sky.
'Russel spotted Cueball fleeing into the woods. He followed after him.' The text read, I frowned at that. Of course that piece of shit would tuck tail and run right now while the rest of his guys were being cut down.
"Neo! Sophia!" I said getting their attention. "Russel followed Cueball into the woods!"
"Shit!" She cursed "Then let's go!" Sophia said, looking at Neo who nodded in agreement. I ejected the non lethal shells from Vendetta, working the charging handle again and again until it was empty and I was able to switch to buckshot. I wasn't going to run after Cueball with rubber bullets.
We left our cover and moved. The fight was already coming to a swift end so we had no real problem moving through the area as everyone else mopped the rest up. I signed for Cardin and Dove to follow us as we ran into the woods and fanned out to find them.
As to be expected we encountered grimm. It was an inevitability we had already discussed, fighting and killing were bound to attract the beasts as it had before. And now it seemed that the one person we wanted to take alive had sprinted right into their kind of territory after ringing the dinner bell.
A beowolf leapt at me from the trees only for Neo to shield me with her parasol, knocking the creature to the ground with a kick so I could deliver a thrust from Astuzia to it's throat, killing it. Cardin and Dove engaged their own targets, smashing and cutting through the monsters with more ease that I could.
We kept on running together, with the sounds of the fighting at the old station having died down we could hear gunfire guiding us forward. Sophia had drawn her saber as well as a machine pistol that she used to pepper grimm with automatic fire before cutting them down with her curved blade.
It was difficult to keep our pace as we moved, we weren't willing to let anyone fall behind to face the monsters alone so we were forced to stay and fight just about every beast we encountered, which turned into quite a bit.
Within a clearing we spotted Russel with Shortwings drawn and a number of beowolves at his feet dissolving into black smoke. One of the monsters turned its attention to us as we arrived only for me to kill it with a single shot from Vendetta.
"Hey! You alright Rus?" I asked him, stepping forward and seeing that he indeed looked winded from the fight, he was panting up a storm and flush with sweat.
"I... lost... Cueball," Russell told me as he panted, unable to speak, he pointed deeper into the forest where he had last seen him leave.
"Take a breath," I told him with a pat on the shoulder and checked my scroll to see that his aura levels were just above ten percent. I turned to Dove. "Get him back, he's in no shape to keep fighting."
"I'm fine," Russel assured me.
"No you're not, a few more hits and you're grimm chow!" Cardin said to him. "Come on, you got a girl to get back to don't ya?"
Russel frowned but relented, ashamed that he had let Cueball get away from him.
The sound of gunfire deeper in the wounds told us that Cueball was at least still alive and we pursued him. Sophia it turned out was skilled at tracking, she was able to find a trail easily enough and we continued on.
Thankfully the amount of grimm we encountered became few and fewer. Stepping down a small ridge I blasted apart a beowolf only to see who it had been mauling.
"Fuck!" I said, Cueball was on the ground torn to shreds. Various bite marks and scratches marred his body, his stomach was torn open and his intestines were pulled out. It made me sick and I vomited in my mouth before averting my eyes. But he wasn't dead, he wasn't that lucky.
"You son of a bitch!" Sophia cursed, seemingly unphased by the blood and gore kneeling down beside him.
Cueball looked up at the two of us, wheezing from weak lungs and bleeding from the mouth. "That fucker Gates… I told him to use a bomb against you. That would have cleared you all right up."
"The real mistake was trying to steal from me," Sophia snarled at him. She opened her cigarette case and pulled out a smoke, lighting it and taking several long puffs as she watched him die. "Who helped you do it?" She asked him.
"Fuck you bitch!" He growled at her. "I'm dead whatever happens so what have I got to lose? What the fuck can you do to me?"
She pulled the cigarette out and thrust it into his eye, burning him and making him hiss in pain. "I am not above torturing a dying man!" She told him coldly. "Some of my guys are pretty good medics, I could bring them here to make these last moments take a long painful time. That is what I can do unless you start talking."
"Fuck you!" He looked at Cardin and me. "And fuck you Valean bastard and that cunt you brought with you."
I stabbed him with Astuzia in his chewed up leg making him scream in agony. "Don't call her a cunt!" I told him dangerously, feeling my anger flair up just from that. Neo just looked at me with surprise as I sheathed the blade and turned the weapon back into a cane.
I knelt down and looked him in the eyes. "It doesn't have to be this way, Cueball… It never had to be this way." I pulled a cigar from my jacket and held it up to him. I wassn't sure how much he could get out of it with his weak lungs but I figured it'd be better to offer a dying man some comfort.
"What? You think I'll talk just for one last fucking smoke? Piss off!" He growled at me, coughing up some blood.
"It's just a cigar," I said, clipping it and putting it to his mouth. "How about we smoke a couple together and talk."
"I have nothing to say to you! There's no deal you can offer me!" He said, holding the cigar in his bloody teeth, taking a few puffs as I lit it for him. I share a look with Sophia, silently asking her to let me try my gentler hand with him.
"I doubt that," I told him as I took out my own smoke, lighting it up before speaking further. "I don't like torture or violence Cueball… I've been trying to avoid it since coming here but my hand was forced by you and Gates. And I don't want to go home thinking about how I watched a dying man being tortured."
"That's not my fucking problem," he told me with a snarl.
"No… but I'm sure you would rather have me end it quickly with a bullet instead of letting this drag out. Hell you should tell me just because you're probably sick of talking to me. But honestly… don't you want to get at whoever put you up to this shit storm?" I asked him.
"What makes you so sure it wasn't my idea?" He asked me.
"It could have been," I said. I didn't believe that but saying that I didn't think he was that smart to his face would do me no favors. "But I don't think so… I think someone put you up to this and I think right now you want them to pay for getting you into this. You're about to lose everything except a chance to screw over whoever screwed you."
He puffed feebly on the cigar for a long moment of silence. I could tell that he was considering my words, I could tell that he was suffering and that promise of a bullet was appealing.
"You're not going to be able to do anything about him," he said, giving Sophia a glance. "It won't matter if I fucking tell you."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"He's more powerful than you two," he said simply.
"That's a bold claim," Sophia said to him, flicking some ash off her cresh cigarette.
"It's true," he scoffed. "You're not as tough and in charge as you seem to think bitch."
"So give us a name!" I urged him before Sophia reacted to him calling her a bitch. "If you're right then it doesn't matter if you snitch, and where you're going there's nothing this guy can do about it."
He chewed on that for a moment considering my offer seeing the logic in it. He had nothing to lose and a swift painless death to gain. He took a few more weak puffs of the cigar before releasing a cloud of smoke into the air. "Grigori… it was Grigori's idea, he helped me and Gates put this all together," he told us.
"You lie!" Sophia hissed, her face twisting in anger.
Cueball laughed and coughed, "I knew that'd piss you off, but I got no fucking reason to lie!"
I recalled the bearded old advisor from the sit down. How Nicky had insisted he sit with him along with the other bosses that night, how he had whispered in Nicky's ear the whole time. "Why did he do it?" I asked him.
"He said he wanted us to rule these highways, he wanted you fucking olive oil drinking mafiosos coming to us to haul your shit so he could put the squeeze on you." He told us with a laugh.
I looked over at Neo and she shifted her glare at me, she clearly believed him. "They're - trying - to - start - a - war."
I frowned at her but nodded in agreement, it seemed our trouble with the Valeans had only started.
"Did Nicky put him up to that?" Sophia asked him pointedly. The question surprised me. Not that I wasn't wondering the same thing myself, but that Sophia was asking it in front of me of all people.
"I don't know," Cueball said, spitting more blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Tell me!" she barked angrily.
"I don't fucking know, like I said it doesn't matter. You fucking think Girgori is going down for this you fucking bitch!?" He laughed mockingly at her. "Even if that shitty brat you call a boss didn't call it I doubt he's going to be giving him up!"
"Motherfucker!" Sophia spat moving to kick him only for me to get in her way stopping her with a hand to her shoulder and a look into her eye.
"He told us what we wanted to know. He answered our questions." I told her calmly.
"He could be lying," she told me, baring her teeth at me.
"You know he isn't… that's why you're angry," I told her, feeling her frustration at knowing her own superiors had orchestrated this. "And I promised him a swift death, and I keep my word Sophia. Even to a piece of shit like him I honor my deals."
She looked down at the dying man and scowled. "Fine… keep your word," she told me, turning away from all of us.
I turned back and found Neo looking at me with a sullen look in her eyes. "I - can - do - it," she signed to me.
I shook my head no to her. I had made the promise so it was on me to pull the trigger, and putting someone out of his misery was hardly the worst thing I've done for the business. Besides with Sophia right there I didn't want to appear weak.
Looking down on Cueball I reached into my jacket to draw my revolver. I leveled the weapon at him and pulled the hammer back as I looked into Cueball's hateful and weak eyes. I took a deep breath, steeling myself to finish him.
Cueball sneered,"Come on you fucking pussy! Keep your fucking work and pull that trigger! I'll see you-!"
I pulled the trigger and the bullet passed through his skull ending his sentence. His head fell back leaving his still open eyes staring up into the sky as his brains leaked out onto the forest floor.
I released a sigh and lowered the smoking gun. With a single shot it was over, a part of me wondered if a lot more violence could have been avoided if I had just decided to kill Cueball in the first place. It probably wasn't that simple but I couldn't help but shake the feeling that a lot more people would still be alive if I had just decided to cut the cancer out sooner.
"I need you to keep this under wraps," Sophia said to me. "As far as my story is concerned I will state that Cueball was in no position to reveal anything to me. His backer shall remain unnamed in my report."
I slid the magnum back into my shoulder holster. "I have to make my own report to Roman and I'm not going to lie," I told her flatly.
"Go ahead and tell Mr. Torchwick the truth, but I need to know that no one else is going to be talking about this. Though I have my reasons to believe him, he could still have been lying to spite us in his last moments." She said, giving Cardin and Neo a weary glance.
"My people don't gossip about business," I assured her. "But if Grigori was trying to put the squeeze on us then I am sure you can understand how it looks."
"That is why I want to keep this quiet," she told me. "If Nicky really is trying to bring the Bratva to war with your family then I don't want to give him or Grigori any reason not to trust me. What's more I would like to keep this an internal affair, I would not like to give the Cartel a reason to meddle in our affairs."
"I will personally keep myself and the rest of my people quiet," I assured her, earning a frown from Neo. "But ultimately it is Roman who will decide what he wishes to do with this information."
"That is all I can ask for," she said with a nod as she sheathed her saber. "But I am sure your superior will see the wisdom in my wishes. If war is on the horizon it is advantageous that your Family have someone in the Bratva who wishes to prevent it if at all possible."
"How - do - we - know - that - you - really - wish - to - stop - it!" Neo signed to her, holding her frown.
"I am not interested in risking my life or the lives of my comrades for Nicky's foolish ambitions," she told us both. "And there are many within the Bratva who share my feelings on this. Our organization has been changing under his leadership and I cannot say that we are pleased. We have always prided ourselves in being few and strong, to operate strictly in the shadows. But this expansion has pushed us in a different direction. It goes against everything our brotherhood has been built upon and we are not happy with it."
"You would stand against Nicky?" I asked her.
"I can consolidate my allies within the Authority," she told me. "Even Nicky wouldn't be foolish enough to stand against his own officers united against him. And if he was his father back in Atlas would surely tug on his leash."
I frowned at that, from what little I knew it wasn't Nicky that was the real problem, it was his father and other superiors back in Atlas who held the real power, Nicky was just an extension of that. But I kept my thoughts to myself. Sophia was offering a form of alliance and I'd be foolish to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Very well, let's go back. I'm tired and I have to start making calls," I said to her, turning away from Cueball's corpse, the cigar still smoking in his mouth. We left his corpse there to decay in the woods or be chewed up by grimm.
The rest of the day was spent questioning what few survivors we could and uncovering the skimming operation. We managed to recover some maps leading to the hidden stashes and with the help of the Motelys and the Desperados we recovered what we could, cash, drugs, guns, all kinds of illicit goods worth a lot on the black market. Eventually we managed to find our dust in some old abandoned ranch house.
In less than twenty four hours Sophia had managed to help me achieve objectives I had been spending over a week trying to accomplish. Sure her way had made enough bodies to fill a mass grave but I couldn't deny her effectiveness. Such means would have been considered sloppy and unacceptable in the mafia, but for her Bratva it seemed more than acceptable.
I was left to ponder what I should have done differently.
With the dust recovered and both gangs in a ceasefire I was able to finally tell Roman that we had succeeded. I called him up and explained everything to him. I explained how Gates was acting in the background while the Cartel was observing and moving their own piece from the shadows. I explained how we were able to confront Cueball and recover all of the stolen dust, and how he pointed his finger at Grigori before I killed him.
"This certainly turned into a far bigger mess than I could have imagined," Roman said with a regretful sigh.
"All for some strips of asphalt," I said with a shake of my head.
"It's more than that… it's a means to control what comes into and out of the city. But indeed far too much blood has been shed to control something we had been trying to share between us, and in the end nothing has changed," he said to me.
"Why do you think Grigori did it?" I asked him.
"If he did I am sure it was on Nicky's orders," Roman explained to me. "When Nicky lost the railyard he lost his monopoly on transporting narcotics into Vale. And with the docks and the airport firmly under our control it only makes sense that they would want to secure his other means and not pay tolls to one of our gangs."
"He risked a lot trying to secure his one other means of transport," I told him. "He could have lost it all."
"Indeed he could have," Roman agreed. "In a way we're all lucky that the Cartel had an agent in the Sheriff's office, we might have had trouble covering this up if not for them."
"So are you going to inform those drug pushers in Vacuo about his risky business venture?" I asked him, curious about what he wanted to do with that little bit of news.
"No… if the Cimitarra Cartel decided that their arrangement with the Atlesians wasn't to their benefit they would probably decide to get involved themselves. They'd come to Vale themselves." He told me with a concerned tone to his voice.
"I take it that'd be bad," I said to him.
"As filthy as their business is, we have to accept it to some degree," he explained to me. "Believe me, it's better to deal with the Atlesians pushing that shit on their streets than have the cartel come here and try to take it all for themselves."
I sighed seeing his point, it wasn't like the Family could just run drugs completely out of town, but we were lessening the flow in our own territories and I supposed that was the best we could hope for. "I can't help but feel like we lost this one," I told Roman. "This turned a lot more violent than it should have, and now the Cartel has control of the town."
"You protected the Family business in the area Gent. It might have been a bit more messy than anyone wanted, but that's what happens when people let their greed get the better of them. What happened is simply not your fault." He told me plainly but assuringly.
"What would you have done differently?" I asked him, wanting to know what he felt could have at least been done better.
"I would have had Neo wack that Cueball son of a bitch when he refused my offer and had his officers consider the same deal then," Roman told me. "But that might have upset the Atlesians and the Desperados into a similar conflict, but that wasn't my call to make, you're the one there seeing things first hand. Perhaps if I had seen it the way you did I might have made a similar call. Just know that you haven't given me any reason to doubt your judgement."
"I see," I said, feeling a little better from his words. It felt good to get that kind of recognition. A part of me wished that Ozpin had talked to me like that when we used to have our little phone meetings.
"Whatever the case, what's done is done and I find the results favorable at the moment. You stopped the turf war, kept it so we could continue moving goods through the area unimpeded and you even got some dirt on Grigori. It might not feel like it Gent, but it's more of a victory than I could have hoped for." Roman assured me. "I was curious how you'd handle it Gent and you did not disappoint."
"I can't wait to drive back," I told him truthfully, "I'm starting to get home sick." My club was going to be opening up in a few days time so I was pretty anxious to be away for so long and so close to opening night.
"Just take a day or so to make sure that this matter is put properly to rest before coming home." He instructed me.
"Fine, Sophia has already left for Vale but she left behind one of her soldiers to ensure the Desperados are put into line. Some guy named Pavel" I explained to him.
"Very well… I suppose now that the matter has been handled she has other more important business to attend to," he commented. "Just one more day is all I ask, then dinner is on me when you get back."
"Good, I can't wait to have some real food," I told him before hanging up.
The next day was indeed spent working on righting what wrongs I could. We cleaned up whatever stash houses we could and I arranged several more meetings between the Motleys and the Desperados. They were mostly cordial and involved negotiating certain reparations for the conflict like paying for certain damages and other wrongs that no one wanted to stew into bitterness and future scuffles.
With that all done I spent the last night in White Peak relaxing in the pool with Neo wearing a pair of tropical print swim trunks she had bought for me at Scheemart. I regretted not making use of the indoor pool sooner, the view of Neo in a white bikini with pink trim was certainly enough to make me wish I tried it sooner. I could have done with more relaxation while I had been at White Peak.
I floated on my back looking at the ceiling enjoying the relative feeling of weightlessness in the warm water. I felt like all the stress of the following days was being drained from me and I couldn't help but release a groan of contentment.
"I should have done this days ago," I said to Neo as she backstroked beside me. She smiled and gave me a nod of agreement. "But I suppose it's just as well… guns don't exactly fit well into bathing suits." Neo and I had kept our weapons resting on the edge of the pool just to be safe. The danger might have passed in White Peak but we weren't taking any chances. Paranoia was running high after everything that had gone down.
We floated over to the shallow end and I pulled myself up onto the steps to just soak in the warm chlorinated water. She sat beside me and wrung her wet hair out.
"Happy - to - be - going - home?" She asked me.
"Yes," I said with a pleased sigh. "I've started to feel homesick… I just wish I knew when I started to think of that city as home."
"Is - that - place - above - the - club - ready?" She asked me.
"Yeah… so I suppose when I get home it'll be into a new home," I told her with a smirk.
"Are - you - sure - you're - up - to - living - alone?" She asked me. "Your - last - place - had - a - bomb - planted - in - it."
"I can't exactly live with the twins forever, it was getting awkward talking to their one night stands every morning anyhow," I told her with a shrug. "Though I will admit it'll be strange having all that extra space to myself."
I was still completely in the dark about who could have possibly planted that bomb in my apartment. As far as I knew whoever had tried to kill me wasn't going to be trying to wack me anytime soon.
"If - you - want… I - can - drop - by - and - keep - you - company - whenever - you - want," she told me.
"I'd like that," I told her with a grin. "I'll get ya a key… not that you couldn't break in if you wanted to."
She giggled her silent little giggle and checked her hands to see that they were pruning. "I'm - getting - out - before - I - turn - into - a - raisin."
"I think I'm done too," I said, standing up and grabbing a towel next to the bag we had brought with our weapons inside. We dried off the dripping water with a couple of hotel towels. I was going to head straight back to the room but instead Neo took my hand and pulled me towards the sauna.
"Oh, good idea," I commented, stepping into the hot room feeling what little chill I had from the water evaporate from the embrace of the heat. We sat down on the wooden benches in the low light together making ourselves comfortable.
"What about you?" I asked her as we stretched out and relaxed. "Are you happy to be going home?"
She nodded. "I'm - tired - of - this - hick - town."
I chuckled. "I understand, it's not as flashy as Vale but it's not that bad, I grew up in a place not too different. Though my home town didn't have any biker gangs fighting for highways or corrupt sheriffs doing back deals or getting in bed with the Cartel."
"That - you - knew of," she pointed out cynically.
"True… I was pretty blind to those kinds of things until recently. Who knows what was going on behind the scenes?" I admitted with a chuckle.
"Plus - I'm - tired - sharing - a - hotel - with - Atlesians," she told me frankly.
There was that too, not that I really minded anymore. Whatever history she shared with Nicky had led to some kind of overarching distrust with the Bratva. I couldn't blame her for being weary but I was starting to get used to having them around.
I shook my head. "Come on… Sophia and her people were actually pretty helpful… friendly even."
She frowned at me. "You - want - to - be - friends - with - everyone." She told me. "That - will - get - you - killed - one - day."
I sighed at her. "You're not wrong… but I don't know if I can look at that as a weakness," I explained to her. "The only reason I got this far is because I made friends with the right people. My mom used to say that strangers are just friends you haven't met… I've tried to live like that for as long as I can remember."
"It's - not - going - to - last," She told me seriously. "And - your - mom - probably - wasn't - talking - about - gangsters."
"You're probably right… but I remember something that Junior told me, it was on that night after that sit down with Nicky. We got some dinner and smoked the cigars Roman had given us and Junior told me. "Being at the top isn't about being the toughest, or smartest or most cunning. Because if you can get the toughest and smartest and most cunning people as friends, then you'll have it made so long as you listen to them."
"Junior - is - a - smart - guy," Neo admitted. "But - in - this - business - you - have - to - be - careful - who - you - think - of - as - friends."
"That's true… but that's why I'm glad I can call you and Cardin and Roman and Junior as friends. Because I need people like you and them looking out for me, so I don't make mistakes." I told her, flashing her a smile.
She looked away from me to stare at the plain corner of the sauna but I caught the corner of her lips curling up in a smile. It took a second before she could look back at me. "You - can - count - on - me - to - watch - your - back - friend."
I smirked and nodded to her. "Glad to hear it," I said before falling into a long somewhat awkward silence. Neo pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged herself as we let the heat and steam of the saura heat us up. I began sweating but it wasn't just from the heat.
"Neo… about where we left off…" I began not really sure how to talk about where things were heading that one night we kissed. After the grimm attacked and Sophia showed up any chance of continuing where things had dropped vanished. But now with all of that done with and with us going back to Vale tomorrow I felt that I needed to address it. I certainly wasn't going to get away ignoring it again. And I didn't want to ignore it anymore.
She looked at me and smirked at my awkwardness. "What - about - it?"
"Uh… I uh… well… where were you imagining things would lead after we went swimming?" I asked her, scratching the back of my head nervously.
She flashed me a wicked grin before inching closer to me. "I - was - planning - on - being - right - here." She told me sliding right next to me, shoulder to shoulder, a lusty look in her eye. "Alone - in - the - sauna - with - you."
I buried my awkwardness down and gave her an excited grin. "Oh yeah?" I said summoning my courage, reaching out and running a hand down one of her smooth arms, she was so soft. "Then what?"
"We'd - shower - then - bed," she told me, reaching up and touching my chest, admiring the twin shisha lions tattooed on them, tracing the lines with the tip of her finger.
"So… you wanna go take a shower?" I asked her, tucking a bit of hair behind her cute little ear. "Maybe uh… share one?" I asked her, summoning every bit of confidence I could.
She grinned like a cat that caught a canary. "Not - yet," she told me teasingly, "I - have - different - plans - tonight."
She took my hand and led it up to grasp the front drawstring to her bikini top with a lustful fire in her eye. I laughed nervously, but unwilling to let this moment slip through my fingers I gave the pink string a gentle tug and let the top fall away as I moved in to claim a passionate kiss.
Everything felt so right, we had both wanted this for quite some time and in between bouts she told me a little about it. How she had gotten earfuls about me from the twins, about how she thought I was handsome if a bit dorky from that first meeting. I told her all about how fascinating I had found her from the first time we met, how I was tempted to kiss her when she brought her lips an inch from mine on that fateful night.
We left the sauna and took that shower she had planned for washing up with one another. I was pretty sure that Cardin and the rest had figured out what had happened the minute we had gone up but they thankfully declined to comment as we stepped into our shared bathroom and eventually into my bed trying to be respectful to my crew and keep quiet.
It was a wonderful night, in hindsight we honestly should have rested up for the drive home tomorrow but we stayed up quite late together just having fun until eventually falling asleep cuddled together.
We weren't, as Nora would say, together together, just together. Like how I was with the Malachites it was just fun between friends. We were still going to be seeing other people separately, namely the twins. I guess you could say that we were dating but we weren't exclusive by any means.
We both understood that going in. And a part of me hated that. Sex was hardly something that I lacked living this life, but romance was something I found scarce at the moment and it was something I wanted. And as much as I liked Neo I wasn't in any position to suggest anything resembling a real romantic relationship with her. But I enjoyed the shadow of romance we shared together.
But as we cuddled together on the bed, with her head tucked under my chin and her arms wrapped around my chest and her having a cute little snore I couldn't help but imagine this heading somewhere a little more serious. Mel and Mil seemed to think that we had potential to head somewhere serious, perhaps they were right. I liked imagining that they were.
A knock at the door told me that I had slept in long enough and it was time to end my bliss of having Neo cuddled against me. I put on my robe and checked my scroll and saw that it was half past ten. I opened the door and found Cardin standing behind it, he looked over my shoulder to Neo resting in my bed giving me a confident smirk.
"Everything's packed and we're ready to leave boss," he told me, choosing to spare me from any smug comments about the two of us hooking up.
I nodded to him. "Alright… sorry to leave that with all of you guys… I'll get up and get ready to go," I told him.
"It's no problem boss," he told me with a wave. "I just decided to wake you up because the Motleys are here to see you off."
"To see me off?" I asked him, suppressing a yawn.
"They wanted to wish you well and give a little parting gift," Cardin told me. "If you want I can tell them to just leave it with us."
"No, just give Neo and I ten minutes to get dressed," I told him.
He nodded and I closed the door. It took a little longer than ten minutes to get Neo out of bed. She's hardly a morning person. She gave me a death glare and I promised to make it up to her. When we were finally both dressed I headed down to find Babe and her officers outside leaning against their bikes.
"Hey Gent," she greeted me. "Hey Neopolitan… we just wanted to see you guys off and send our thanks to the Family. You've done a lot for us here."
"I appreciate that," I told her with a nod. "And please keep my scroll number, if you're ever having trouble down here I'm pretty sure that it'll be me or one of my guys that Mr. Torchwick sends down to assist you and whatever troubles might occur."
She nodded to me. "I'll keep that in mind… but I'll be sure not to bother you with every little thing. I'm sure we're not done with the fallout of this mess."
"Just don't be a stranger," I told her.
"I can't be a stranger," She said turning to Heavy who handed her a couple of leather Motleys jackets. "You're an honorary member, you and your crew," she told me, handing over the jacket that indeed did have an honorary member patch. "If you ever want to learn to ride a hog the right way, you know who to call."
"Wow," I said watching as Vixen handed Neo a jacket of her own, she gave it an appreciative glance and nod pulling it on and looking actually quite fetching in leather. I followed her example and pulled mine on with her finding that it didn't fit me quite as well as Neo's jacket.
"It's a little big," I commented to Babe.
The bikers just laughed at me. "Well we know how you Valeans like to eat so we thought it was best to prepare." She explained to me with a playful slap to my shoulder.
"Well we'll see if I fill it out by the next time I see ya," I said with a chuckle.
We finished up at the hotel, it didn't take long since Cardin and the rest did all their packing so it was just Neo and I who needed to settle our luggage while Cardin returned the keys to the front desk that was still undergoing repairs. We also gave the owner a fat stack of cash to make sure they kept things about us being here on the down low and to cover the damages as best we could.
When we left White Peak we were joined by the Motleys, seeing out for the first few hundred miles before stopping at a bar for one last drink and some lunch. It was a pretty fun time hanging out with them without the threat of the Desperados hanging over our heads. Dove especially was enjoying his time with them especially since they shared a similar taste in music.
Neo and I drove back together in my car, and once again I abused the extra horsepower on my ride to race far past my crew, though this time Neo and I enjoyed a few stops just so we could have some fun together in a couple isolated rest stops. We were a little insatiable now that we had actually hooked up and still excited from our time together last night. We were taking every opportunity to have a little fun. The close confines of my car certainly didn't help.
It was around dusk when we finally got back to Vale. Coming over the mountains we stopped together on a lookout. We had planned for a final bit of fun before parting ways in Vale but when we looked out over that red sky we noticed something big hovering over the skyline of our city.
"Fuck," I said as I watched the Atlesian military airships floating over the tall skyscrapers like some kind of predator.
Neo frowned, "You - can - say - that - again," she signed bitterly.
Atlas had come to Vale. And that was bad for business.