For a second, Horace thought that he could try to con those ten-time-damned Riders. They had behaved as such saints so far, hadn´t they? Helping out the peasants, letting the workers from his mine escape, giving out his money at every corner… They wouldn´t really dare to hurt an innocent woman, as it would be such an awful stain on their reputation among the poor ones, wouldn´t it?
But then, the Lieutenant Governor noticed that look in their speaker´s eyes and he didn´t find any softness in them. That gunman was young, but his dark eyes were sharp, cold and somehow disgusted. At that moment, Horace was almost sure that it was Leo Akanishi himself. And he was damn serious in his threats… Not to mention that the bandit, who held Baby in a firm grasp, seemed to have no scruples at all.
Horace clenched his jaws and gave one thought to the revolver, which was still hidden in his inner pocket. But no, that was not a good idea. There were too many of them and even if he managed to endanger the leader, the rest of them would have reacted right away, which would also expose Baby to great danger.
The dark eyes suddenly narrowed and then the speaker turned to the Rider on his left: "Take his gun."
The youngster put the lamp aside and approached the Governor. Upset, Tabor let him reach inside his coat, still trying to find the way out of the situation.
"Have you lost your voice now?" the presumed Akanishi asked coldly.
Horace couldn´t make himself talk right away. There was quite a big amount of cash in that safety deposit box. Right the day after, he intended to give it out the City Council members to make them agree with the Cursed Mine re-opening. It was a lot. How could he give it up so easily?
The speaking Rider got up from his chair and pointed at the bed: "Put her down here," he ordered.
"What?" Horace´s voice got stuck in his throat for a while. "What do you want to do?!"
One of the younger ones took the spot at the door, instead of the oldest Rider who dragged uselessly fighting Baby toward the bed and the other youngster helped him to push her down on the mattress.
"I don´t make empty threats," their leader reacted, watching Tabor closely.
Horace´s eyes widened when he noticed a sharp blade shining in the yellow light.
"Stop it! Immediately!" he demanded angrily, when the oldest Rider brought the knife near terrified Baby.
"Do you remember how to talk now?" the speaker asked placidly.
"Don´t you dare to hurt her!" Horace fumed in righteous anger.
"I won´t hurt her, I´ll just alter her pretty face a little," the other Rider assumed quite viciously.
"Damn you! Get away from her!" Horace gritted through his teeth.
"Give us the combination then," the speaker requested again.
Baby screamed fearfully, when the tip of the blade touched her cheek. And that was all Horace could handle. No dirty bandits would deform his love´s face!
"All right! All right!" he made a step forward closer to the speaker, before a cold barrel in his back clearly told him to stop moving. "I´ll give it to you," he breathed out in defeat. "Just don´t hurt her."
"Wait," the leader said nonchalantly, and only then other two Riders froze, but they kept pressing his love down.
The Black Rider in front of him; and Horace was certain now, that it was Akanishi himself; pulled out a small paper and pencil from his pocket.
"Go on," he looked at him defiantly.
Horace started to dictate the short line of numbers to him, while trying to hide his anger.
A bunch of cowards outsmarting me, huh? Let´s see about that…
"Tie both of them up," Akanishi gave out his next order, once the paper was folded and hidden again.
Shortly after, Horace ended up with both his hands and legs tied with a strong rope on the bed next to his dear one, as those bandits did the very same with her. It seemed they would leave them in the room like that.
Good, good… Somebody will notice something is off once they try to open that box. Let them try, Horace thought, suppressing a mocking smile.
"Wait a moment…" the Riders´ leader said suddenly and only then Horace noticed that Akanishi kept observing him quite closely all that time. The young bandit leant over him: "Did you give us the correct number, Tabor?" he asked slowly.
Horace huffed annoyed: "Of course I did!"
"All right then… But just in case, we´ll take her with us," Akanishi decided, making the others look at him and Tabor gulp down heavily. The young leader leant even lower, staring in Horace´s eyes. "Let´s say that for every failure to open it we…"
"Cut one of her fingers off?" the oldest Rider completed him in an awfully satisfied way.
Horace´s face turned almost white: "You can´t do that…"
"You´ll have it confirmed soon enough," Akanishi assumed, straightened up and gestured to his subordinates.
"No! No, please don´t!" Baby begged and cried, helpless against those bastards.
There was no trace of resistance in Horace all of the sudden. The other two were already dragging crying Baby toward the door. They meant it, and he couldn´t allow anything bad happening to her.
"I understand!" he spat out, trying to sit up on the bed without any success. "The last two – they´re in vice versa order!"
Akanishi turned to him and didn´t say anything. He just stared at Tabor motionlessly, while Baby wept in the other Riders´ grip.
"I´m telling the truth now, I swear!"
"Very well," Akanishi pulled the paper out and corrected the numbers. "No more games, Tabor…"
"Yes! Yes!" Horace nodded willingly. "That´s the real combination! Let her go now!"
"Good. Just one more thing…" the Riders´ leader pierced him with his dark eyes once again. "I want the combination for your personal safe as well."
Tabor almost choked. How could they know…? That was impossible! Maybe that bastard was just bluffing…
"What…? What do you mean?" he asked carefully, trying to put on his best confused expression.
"Don´t play stupid," Akanishi pointed at shaking Baby. "Give us the other one. Now."
"I don´t have my own safe in…" Horace stuttered.
Akanishi´s eyes shone with something very dangerous: "I don´t care where it is, but you have one. Give us the number."
"And be glad we don´t request anything else," the oldest Rider completed him no less viciously.
Horace was shaking in anger despite the ties. At that moment, he couldn´t imagine anything worse than those bastards robbing him off his money. But what other choice he had, if he wanted to protect Baby? Well... He could at least try again, what already almost worked once…
*
It was a blind shot from Leo, to mention Tabor´s personal safe, but it worked out more than well. The Governor seemed that he would sooner bite his tongue off, before he would say the whole combination, but in the end they had the second line of numbers written down too.
Then they left the couple tied up like some strange Christmas gifts on the bed, forcing gags created from torn out bed sheets into their mouths. The blonde girl avoided even looking at them, as she just kept weeping, lying on her side, but Tabor seemed to be pretty pissed. Once he would be free, he would go after them with everything and everyone available, they knew. But if the combinations were correct, they couldn´t care less.
"You should be grateful," Koki teased them on their departure. "We could have left you on the floor instead," and with that he shut the door, locked it and threw the key out of the window on the way to the stairway.
*
Jin stared at the open safe in utter surprise. Augusta Tabor was a strange woman, really. She did give them the combination and it was the correct one. He looked to his side and found an equally surprised look there. But as always, Kame seemed to be more thoughtful about the situation, than shocked.
"I must say, I half-expected you to be joking," Jane, standing behind their backs hummed toward the woman in the armchair.
Augusta kept observing their small circle around the safe, seeming almost as if she enjoyed the situation. Jin reached inside and whistled appreciatively, when three thick packages of notes were brought to the light.
"It´s not much, just a deposit for unexpected situations," Mrs. Tabor noted lightly. "Is that sufficient for your needs?"
Jin looked at that fortune again, feeling a little dumb-founded. Just a deposit? Tabor family was on a completely different level…
"More than enough, Madame," Kame reacted to the question.
"Good… May I ask you to take that folder with you as well, then?"
The younger one looked inside the safe now and pulled out a thin dark-brown folder and another one, a little thicker blue one. Both of them were holding some papers together, carefully tied up with thin strings.
"You mean this, Madame?" he straightened up and showed them to the woman.
"Yes, exactly those," Augusta nodded, somewhat more quietly than before. "Both of them," she added after a short moment of hesitation.
"Why?" Jane asked sharply, her suspicious look piercing the woman.
"Don´t ask me about anything and just take them away," Augusta replied. "I don´t care what are you going to do with them, once both of them disappear from this house."
The Riders looked at each other hesitantly.
"And if we don´t?" Jin wondered curiously.
"I just ask you for a little favor in exchange for my cooperation. Is it too much to ask from you, Black Riders?" Mrs. Tabor reacted caustically.
Her remark was obviously meant very offensively, but for once Jin rather didn´t react on it.
"Is it something personal?" Jane asked instead, still frowning.
"Yes," Augusta admitted. "It has nothing to do with you, you don´t need to worry about it."
Both Jane and Jin turned to Kame, who kept observing the lady of the house for a while, before he nodded: "All right then."
None of the two protested, actually they were glad that Kame agreed. At least, they would not have to feel indebted to the woman.
"I´ll take it," Jane accepted the folders from Kame and the money from Jin, hiding both inside the leather bag on her shoulder.
Then Kame approached Augusta Tabor once again. Just hours ago, he thought that he would feel much more guiltily about doing something like this, but Mrs. Tabor´s attitude did the actual opposite to him – it was as if they were doing a good thing.
"Aren´t those ties too tight, Madame?" he asked. "We may loosen them up a little."
To the surprise of them all, Augusta smiled at him: "No, it´s all right. Thank you for asking, young man. I just hope you treated my servant the same…"
"Yes," Jane confirmed. "She´s in her room, scared but otherwise fine."
"Good. You should be going now then, shouldn´t you?"
"You´re more than right, Ma´m," Jin tipped the hem of his hat and headed outside the workroom as the first.
"We…" Kame shifted from one foot to another a little anxiously. "I want to…"
"Oh, you don´t want to thank me, do you?" Augusta looked in his eyes, not hiding the mocking tone.
But Kame didn´t let himself be discouraged: "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Tabor," he said. "And thank you."
"Well… It was an unexpectedly interesting meeting for me as well," Augusta admitted, obviously amused now. "I expected the Black Riders to be more…"
"Dirty?" Jin offered from the hall.
"Rude," the lady corrected him.
"Those money… They´re for a good cause, Madame," Kame stated a little apologetically in the end.
"I´m sure," Augusta reacted almost chuckling.
"Come on… You´re so sweet, Handsome, but let´s go already," Jane placed both hands on Kame´s shoulders and directed him toward the door. "Good night, Mrs. Tabor. And we´re sorry for the inconvenience," Jane looked back for one last time.
"I can handle some discomfort for a while," Augusta reacted already in that same noble tone as before. "Just leave already before I regret my decision."
The brunette´s face hidden behind the scarf seemed to brighten up a little, before she nodded and then all three of them were gone.
"And don´t get caught," Augusta whispered to herself, only after their steps ceased away and disappeared from the house.
*
As the main celebrations were focused in the further part of the city, the main street was so calm and empty, that it was really tiring to keep an attention on it all the time. When Jack forced himself to keep on alert, his head started to ache as hell. But when he closed his eyes, it was much better. He meant to let his mind rest just for a moment, really a short one. He would hear if someone was coming anyway, right?
Something wet touched him on his neck. Jack yelped in surprise and almost jumped out of his skin.
"What a nice guardian we have, really," an upset voice above him commented Jack´s clumsy slip along the wall, over which he was leaning, and ended up on his butt.
"What…? Who…?" the youngest Rider stared at the huge, pitch black head, which was leaning to him. It took him three seconds to realize it was Kuro, who tore him off his almost napping and his master was standing right next to him.
"Get up, sleepy head, we´re leaving," Jin announced.
"Already? It´s done?" Jack finally shook the surprise off. "You have it?"
"We have, more than enough," another voice confirmed from his side and a slim hand reached toward Jack to help him to get up. "Kuro, leave him already," Kame asked the horse, who kept pushing his big head against the youngster.
"He deserves a bigger punishment than only this," Jin assumed, but still clicked his tongue on the stallion to make him pull away from the young Rider.
"I´m sorry, I didn´t..." Jack, already back on his feet, stammered.
"See that woman going inside the house?" Jane, waiting on the street with the reins of two horses in her hands, finished for him. "We´ll definitely discuss that later."
Poor confused Jack followed Kame through the bushes feeling rather guiltily. He didn´t know exactly for what, but he was sure that he would get scolded later. Just when he managed to put his boot into the stirrup, the sound of some horses approaching made him freeze.
"Back behind the corner!" Kame, already nestled in the saddle, commanded sharply.
Their little group managed to lead the horses into the shadows just in time to avoid being exposed to the approaching riders. Kame slipped down from his mare again and returned to the side of the street quietly, leaving the other three behind. He had a hunch there was no need to be worried, when he noticed five riders, riding fast right toward Tabors´ house, but he couldn´t be sure until they were right in front of it and stopped.
"Go check it out," Kame heard Leo´s voice, sending probably Nick on the spy and quite relieved he straightened up.
"That won´t be necessary, we´re right here," he announced loudly enough for everyone.
"Kame?"
"Yes," he moved to a better light, while also Jin, Jack and Jane incited their horses forward, the older Akanishi leading Ukushi as well.
"Everything all right?" Leo focused his eyes on the members of the second part of their group one after another.
"Yeah," Kame confirmed. "We´re already done here."
"Done? So there was no safe at all?" Cullen reacted as the first, sounding quite upset.
"On the contrary," Jin replied, already stopping next to Kame and handing him the reins over. "That lock was a piece of cake."
"Are you kidding?" Koki gaped. "That line of numbers is never ending!"
"You´ve got the combination from Tabor?" Kame asked.
"Yes, it took some pressure, but he spat out both of them in the end… We managed to empty the safety box in the hotel. But how did you get the combination for his personal safe?" Leo asked in return.
"I think it´s better if we explain that later," the younger one reacted and hopped up on his mare again.
"Right, we should get out as quickly as possible," Cullen agreed.
Leo nodded: "Fine. Save your energy, we won´t stop until tomorrow evening. I don´t want to give Tabor any chance of catching up with us."
"Was he sad that you broke into his money-box?" Jin assumed gleefully.
"Actually, he seemed ready to burst out from anger any second," Ryo reacted.
"And it was more than an amusing view," Koki completed him. "We should have taken a picture."
In the light and amused atmosphere, the Black Riders left the Harrison Avenue and soon after that Leadville itself, while the night sky above the city burst out in hundreds colors of the celebratory fireworks.
***
It was long after lunch time when the director of the Clarendon Hotel finally broke inside the Governor´s suite, with a blacksmith´s help and he found Mr. Tabor helplessly rolling on the floor and his mistress only half-conscious on the bed.
As soon as the gag was out of Governor´s mouth, all the hell broke loose over the heads of the director, his employees, and basically everybody in the city, his loud swearing stirring up the whole hotel, before he requested the Sheriff to come immediately.
Just an hour later, a twelve-man-group set off from Leadville, searching for the tracks of certain outlaws, more wanting to get as far as possible from Tabor´s anger, than believing they would actually find anything.
At that moment, Augusta Tabor was sitting at the window in the living room, enjoying the late breakfast and coffee. Her hands and legs were still a little stiff from the long sitting, as it took quite long before they were found by Tom in the late morning, but still, she seemed to be content.
Mrs. Tabor calmly watched the Sheriff´s men hurtling down the street ridiculously fast, pondering how she would explain the open safe to her dearest husband, who was about to appear. Actually, she could already hear him stomping up the stairs and then down again and she was almost playing with an idea to tell him the truth, just to see his expression.
"Where´s my wife?!" Horace´s voice resonated somewhere in the kitchen.
"Madame is dining in the living room, sir. She needs to gather her strength back; it was such an awful night…" Bertha talked on in a quieter voice, but the words were still recognizable, even though another stomping of her husband almost drowned it.
"What the hell happened here?!" Horace burst inside the room.
Augusta was of an impression that she had never seen him walking so fast. She looked up at Horace´s flushed face and had to suppress an amused smile. His fine suit was all crumpled and his mustache, about which he was so damn proud, was so messy that he looked like a walrus.
"Nice to see you too, Horace," Augusta noted and sipped on the strong coffee again. "I´m glad you are all right. I´ve heard from Sheriff – you´ve been ambushed at the hotel, right?"
"Screw the hotel, I´m asking you about the safe here! How the hell did they open it? I gave them the wrong combination!"
Augusta put the cup down on the table: "I don´t understand, Horace. Those outlaws, who broke into our house, didn´t know any combination, I´m sure. They threatened me with my life; I was forced to give it away. They were so menacing…" she placed a hand on her chest sighing. "I´m shaking even now. I suppose we both had an awful night."
Horace´s mustache twitched, as he tried hard to suppress another outburst of anger.
"What about those folders then?" he snapped another question. "Did you hide them somewhere?"
"Oh, no, they took them too, unfortunately," she reacted regretfully. "They probably thought it would be useful to them."
"This isn´t happening…" her husband wheezed and collapsed on a free chair heavily.
"Horace, are you all right?" Augusta asked, wrinkling her eyebrows in a pretended concern. "Should I call Bertha? She can prepare a cup of tea for you. That will make you feel better."
"The only thing, which would make me feel better right now, is those bastards hanging in the air by their damn necks!" Horace hit with his fist over the table so hard, that the rest of her coffee almost spilled out.
"Calm dawn, Horace, this is not good for your stomach," she warned her husband.
"Stop acting like you care, Augusta! You know very well what was in those folders!"
"Yes, I do know that. But I was only a lonely woman, I couldn´t stop them from taking it," she reminded him calmly. "Maybe if you were here, at home, you could have done something. But me, Horace, a weak woman, you can´t blame me for this."
The Lieutenant Governor stared at his wife for good five seconds, his face completely red. He opened his mouth for a few times to say something, but he couldn´t. In the end, Horace got up and without any other word, he left the living room. Augusta smiled for herself. Finally, she got some satisfaction for how Horace treated her all that time and it felt damn good.
It was true that a certain mine was very profitable for her as well, but she had always hated the way her husband ran it, forcing those poor people to work themselves to death in there. And she couldn´t do anything with it until now. And as for the other folder… Well, she knew she couldn´t resist forever, not with how persistent Horace was, but the missing papers would definitely buy her more time to prepare for it. Getting rid of those folders was definitely worth of the night spent tied up in the armchair.
Augusta finished her coffee and with a flavor returned to her meal.
***
Leo was not joking; they really didn´t stop for longer than a few minutes until the twilight of the day after. By then they were tired, sore from the long ride, and also wet to the bones. It started raining right in the morning and the sky didn´t seem to be clearing up any time soon. But the exhausting ride was worth the relative safety they felt, when they finally settled on the hill above the Idaho Springs.
For most of the travel away from Leadville they used the main road, as it was the quickest way, but at the first convenient spot they ascended to the hills and continued more slowly, but securely over the rocky terrain. It would be much harder to track them like that for their expected pursuers.
With the weakening light, the rain turned into drizzle, which was not much better as the air remained awfully damp. Since they were hidden quite far from the road, it was worth some risk, so Leo agreed with setting up a small fire.
While Nick and Ryo kept cursing over the wet wood, Jane with Jack took care of some modest dinner preparation, and Leo with Cullen sat together under the group of trees, counting up the money they stole from Tabor. Jin, Kame and Koki unsaddled the horses and gave all of them something good to eat, as a reward for the long trip.
After that Kame asked Jane if she needed any help, but she sent him and also Jack off to rest, since the other two Riders still didn´t manage to get the fire going anyway. At first, Kame thought that he might show them a little trick the Indians taught him, but since both Nick and Ryo snapped at him not to disturb them from their task, he just shrugged and went to find a blanket for Ukushi in his stuff. The mare didn´t like to get wet, when it was cold.
On his way, Kame noticed Koki sitting on the fallen tree and sharping some long firm sticks, which they could use for toasting of marinated beef, since the kettle was prepared for potatoes and beans.
Kame looked around, but didn´t see Jin anywhere, as he probably went to relieve himself. So, he quickly headed toward the blonde one, determined to get at least one answer to many questions in his mind. Since it was far enough from the others, he wanted to use the opportunity, which wouldn´t have to occur again any time soon.
"Koki, can I ask you something?" he started as soon as he approached the log.
"Sure," the blonde Rider looked up and patted the spot next to him, before grabbing another stick. "What´s up, Handsome?"
Kame sat down and kept looking at the wet grass for a while, before he spoke: "I just wonder why. Why did you react so calmly about… you know…"
"About you and Mr. Upset?" Koki figured and stopped working with the wood.
"Yeah…" Kame nodded. "People are usually… disgusted, or angry. Or ignore something like this in general, but you… You didn´t seem to be surprised with two men dating, more like with the fact that it was me and Jin," he was glad he managed to express what bothered him somehow and looked at the other Rider curiously.
Koki grinned a little: "Well… Haven´t you ever heard of the mutual solace?"
Kame was honestly confused and shook his head.
"Never mind… Montana is still kind of wild after all," the blonde one noted and threw the knife in the air, just to catch it again, taking a few moments to consider his next words. "Well… We used to be working on a couple of farms, you know. Naturally, there were many cattlemen and cowboys, all men. And since there were not many opportunities for them to have some fun with girls, if you didn´t seduce the farmer´s daughter, of course," Koki laughed shortly, as if remembering something, "they had this kind of relation. They had fun with each other instead."
Kame stared at the blonde one quite disturbed by such information: "I had no idea that it´s so…"
"Common?" Koki completed. "As far as I know it is, people just don´t talk about it. Not that I´d understand why they enjoyed it so much, it was quite weird sometimes. All of them were so damn stinky. It was gross, really…"
Kame opened his mouth and then closed it again, somewhat lost on words.
"Not that you are smelly or something!" Koki completed hastily. "I didn´t mean it that way, Kame-chan! You two are the first I know, who are… different."
"What do you mean?" Kame asked quietly.
"Don´t take it in a bad way, Handsome, but it was just a pastime for those cowboys, something to fill the free time with. But in your case… It doesn´t seem to me that you´re doing it just because you are bored or lacking women. You take it…" Koki obviously hesitated.
"More seriously?" the younger one offered.
"Yeah, that´s what I meant, but…" Koki scratched his head sheepishly. "Ah, I should rather shut up. It´s not my business, anyway."
"No, no, it´s all right," Kame assured him. "I´m glad you´re saying this..."
The younger one avoided the inquiring look, which Koki gave him.
"What about the others?" he asked quickly. "Did they encounter those men too?"
"I don´t know," Koki shrugged. "If they did, they probably ignored it, just like everybody else. If something like this is kept secret, there´s nothing to talk about. Though… There was one occasion, when I heard some pretty awful things about it," the blonde one got serious suddenly.
"When was it?" Kame asked, feeling uneasy.
"When I was captured in that sandstone quarry," the other one replied frowning.
Kame stiffened, realizing whom that might be concerned to.
"I heard out the guards once," Koki continued. "They were talking about Grenet and it wasn´t anything nice. There was this boy running after him all the time, I don´t know his name. It seemed that Grenet was using him in more ways than just one."
Kame listened to Koki´s disgusted voice and felt sick. Here it went again – Math Grenet. If all homosexually orientated men behaved like him, it would be no surprise if the society condemned and burnt them all at the stake like witches hundred years ago.
"Actually, I´m not surprised hearing this," he murmured gloomily.
Koki looked at him curiously: "Do I want to know what…?"
"No, believe me, you don´t," the younger one reacted right away. "Just… Grenet is a disgusting creep."
"I do believe you," the blonde one agreed willingly.
"Thank you for telling me all of this, Koki," Kame rather left the unpleasant topic. "And also for keeping quiet about us. I appreciate it."
"Then tell that cocky boyfriend of yours that he should appreciate it as well," Koki grinned.
Kame sighed: "Jin is more… complicated."
"I can imagine," the blonde Rider laughed, not without an understanding. "Look, Kame-chan, if you want to talk, you can come to me, anytime."
Kame smiled at him gratefully. He felt much better now, knowing more about Koki´s attitude. It was good he could talk with him a bit. At that moment, he realized just how much he missed Liwan. Excluding Jin, there was no one to whom he could confide with anything. Not that Koki could take Liwan´s place, but he was a really good guy and it was damn liberating to have someone in front of whom he didn´t have to pretend.
"I´m really glad I saved you from that quarry back then, Koki," he stated in the end.
"Definitely no more than I am," the blonde Rider grinned.
*
When Jin returned to their temporary camp, he felt much better. There was no time to get some proper relieve or stretch on the way, as his little brother set up quite a crazy pace of their retreat.
Patting Kuro on the way, he looked around to see that Nick and Ryo finally won the battle against the wet wood and the first flames made the approaching evening much more pleasant. And then he stiffened a little, when his eyes fell upon a spot nearby. That blonde jerk was sitting there with his Kazuya. They were talking quietly, smiling at each other.
What so nice can those two have to talk about?
"Jin! Can you call everyone out here?" Leo´s voice disturbed him from staring in that direction.
"Sure!" he waved at his brother, who still sat with Cullen under the trees. "Sure, I can…" he added more quietly and headed to the fallen tree first.
*
Jane covered the kettle with a simple metallic plate, to keep the side dish hot, once it would be ready and then joined the circle gathered under the group of tall conifers, which protected them from that annoying drizzling a little.
"We have thirty thousand dollars, which is definitely a better result than we expected," Leo had just summarized, holding the pile of notes in his hands.
"Considering that we didn´t need to bother with the bank at all, definitely," satisfied Ryo agreed.
"I´m glad about that too," their leader smiled. "For now, we have more than enough for anything necessary, for suppliers, bribes, or anything else happening on the way. Half of it will be carried by Cullen, the other half by myself."
"Who would say that Tabor would stock so much at one place?" Jack wondered.
"Considering how upset he was, I bet he had some dirty plans with it," Ryo assumed.
"He should be glad that we took just his money," Cullen murmured, hiding one part of the robbery. "I was really tempted back at that hotel…"
"I must agree," the black-haired one frowned at that. "He came out of what he had done just too lightly."
"We all agreed that we leave it that way for now, didn´t we?" Leo reminded them. "We have other things to deal with. Tabor will get what he deserves, eventually," the leader assured a little gloomy gang.
Jane placed a hand on Leo´s shoulder and smiled at him, when he looked up. Also the others murmured something in agreement.
"How did you make Tabor tell you the combination, anyway?" Kame asked.
Leo reached inside one of his pockets and pulled out a crumpled paper, looking at it thoughtfully: "We threatened his mistress. He seems to really care about her, so it was not so hard."
Kame frowned a little: "Can I see it?"
"Sure," Leo handed the paper over to him. "But you were really lucky with his wife; I would have never assumed she would be so cooperative."
"Neither have we," Kame murmured, reading the whole line of numbers. "Hmm, I´m not sure, since we didn´t write it down, but I think Tabor gave you the wrong numbers. The last three are in a different order."
"What?!" Cullen snapped. "That bastard! He tried to pull off the same thing with that safety deposit at the hotel!"
Leo´s expression turned quite dark as well, but he didn´t say anything.
"It seems he doesn´t care so much about her then, since he risked it," Jin noted in a disgusted tone and Kame glanced at him so briefly that nobody noticed it.
"Well, then… It had to be quite an awful surprise for him, when he got back home," Koki grinned gleefully, dragging more satisfied expression also from the others.
"Serves him right," Ryo snorted.
"All right, let´s see those folders you mentioned before," Leo looked at his girlfriend, as she already reached inside her bag and pulled out the blue one first. "I really wonder why Tabor´s wife would want you to take them away."
Jane released the knot and leant over the papers with Jack behind her shoulder, trying to read it in the rest of daylight, while the others waited.
"That´s… interesting," the brunette evaluated. "These are the divorcing papers."
"Really?" Leo raised his eyebrows.
Jane flipped through a few pages: "It seems to be arranged very neatly…"
"I bet Tabor hired some shitty expensive layer for it," Koki guessed.
"There´s only one signature though," Jane announced her discovery. "I suppose Madame Tabor doesn´t intend to make it easy for her husband."
"So, she really wanted us to take it away for her own sake," Kame murmured.
"You were right, she didn´t lie to us," Jin smiled at him shortly, which obviously improved the younger one´s mood.
"It´s nothing useful for us, though," Cullen assumed annoyed. "What about the other folder?"
"I´m dying with curiosity now," Koki joked, while Jane placed the blue file in Jack´s hands to take out another one.
When she stared at it for quite a while, not saying anything, the others got impatient.
"Jane, stop torturing us!" Ryo urged her.
"What is it?" even Leo asked.
Jane raised her eyes from the paper rather surprised: "It´s the property deed for the Cursed Mine."
The rest of the gang stared at the brunette in pure disbelief.
"You mean that…?" Jack gaped.
"Anyone, who has this paper, has the ownership of the mine and everything going out from it. Without it, Tabor is screwed," Leo summarized still pleasantly surprised.
"Actually, it will probably fall into the property of the state," Nick noted, for once with a wide smile.
Koki grinned: "Nice. So we did strike a blow to him in the end."
"With the help of his incredible wife," Jane reminded them, closed the folder and looked at Leo with a vicious smile. "Love, can I have the pleasure of adding this to our little fire? It seems to be lingering a little…"
Leo got up and pulled Jane closer for a short kiss: "Of course, my dear."