[OOC Note: This is a series that I started in SVW that I’ll be continuing here in FFW.]
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PLAYING WITH FIRE - PART ONE
August 2015
Location UnknownIt had been a night like any other. The bar had been steady with the usual regulars; all drowning their sorrows with their usual orders of beers and bourbon. Raven Knight had lost track of how many she had served now...if she had even cared enough to try and keep count in the first place. Which she didn’t. As soon as she had enough cash put aside she was going to be outta here. She had no idea where she was going to go. Or even what she would do once she got there. She just knew she didn’t want to be stuck in this dive bar, with it’s cigarette smoke stained walls and run of the mill, deadbeat clientele.
As usual, two regulars Johnnie and Mike were nursing their drinks. Despite the fact she had called time a good half hour earlier.
“Come on guys, do we have to play this game every night? You might not have anywhere better to be, but I sure do. Cut me some slack, will ya?” she said as nicely as she could. She hated having to be nice to these guys but tips were the difference between making rent that week or not. And for all their flaws the regulars were good tippers. Not surprising since none of them spent their money anywhere else but in this bar.
“Sure thing sugar lips, just give us a minute to finish these here drinks.”[/b] Johnnie replied while Mike just nodded slowly in agreement.
Raven gritted her teeth and forced another smile.
“Just don’t make a night of it. Ok, guys?” She hated when they called her things like that, but for the sake of the tips she let the regulars get away with it. Even if she did have thoughts of removing Johnnie’s lips with her bare hands filling her mind. They all knew they couldn’t push it too far. She had made that more than clear the night Mike had tried to cop a feel and ended up with a broken nose from Raven introducing his face to the wooden bar top….repeatedly.
“Ya know I’d leave right this second if you came with me, doll.” Johnnie said as he leered Raven. He tried to pick her up every single night. Despite the constant rejections he still kept trying. It was almost like a game to him now.
Every. Single. Night. She was tired of this game, but she played along anyway, knowing that she would get a decent tip from him before he finally left for the night.
“You’re like a dog chasing a truck, Johnnie. Even if you caught me ya wouldn’t know what to do with me.” She winked as she responded. On the outside it looked like a good natured barmaid flirting with a regular. On the inside, she was fighting back the bile that rising in her throat.
“Ya know Vinnie’ll have my ass if I don’t get you two out of here and get this place locked up.” They were scared of Vinnie, the owner of the place. There wasn’t anyone she knew of that wasn’t. He didn’t do anything obvious but everyone knew what he was capable of, if crossed. Years of stories of what he had done, or more specifically had ordered someone else to do, to so and so’s cousin twice removed, had instilled it into people.
Picking up a couple of the empty beer bottles that were littering the bar, she tried to force home the point of it being time for them to leave.
“Tell ya what guys. If ya leave now, I’ll buy your first drinks tomorrow...can’t say fairer than that, can I?” Biting back her true thoughts of just kicking their asses out of the door, she squeezed the bottles. A little too tightly it would appear as the glass of one of the bottles, shattered in her hand.
“Fuuuuuck.”“Shit doll, are ya okay?” Johnnie said as he jumped off his stool, trying to be the white knight and save the damsel in distress.
Dropping the pieces of glass, Raven quickly grabbed the bar towel she’d been using just a few minutes before and wrapped it roughly around her hand. Her blood quickly seeping the cheap white fabric.
“Aye, just a scratch.” The last thing she wanted was these guys fussing over her. Hearing signs of movement from the back office she tried again to get rid of her last two patrons.
“Seriously guys, Vinnie’ll be out wondering why you’re still here any second. Plus I kinda need to get this cleaned up.” She raised her hand as if to prove her point.
Finally Johnnie and Mike seemed to get the hint and finished the last dregs of their drinks before reluctantly leaving the bar. Raven honestly didn’t think she got paid enough for this crap. As she locked the door behind them, she made a mental note to hit Vinnie up for a raise. As soon as she had sorted out this hand. Her blood at completely drenched the towel and was now starting to slowly drip to the floor.
“Great, as if I need more to fucking clean up in this dive.”“You calling my place a dive, Raven?” The voice came from the direction of the back office, catching Raven slightly off guard.
“Yeah, I am Vinnie.” she muttered under her breath only loud enough for herself to hear.
“Course not, Vinnie. As if I’d do that to ya.” she actually responded as she walked to the now open office door. Spotting the stacks of hundred dollar bills on the desk, Raven’s eyes widened a little. She knew Vinnie was into some dodgy dealings but she’d had no idea just what that was. Managing to quickly hide her surprise and wishful look at the money, she cleared her throat to get Vinnie’s attention.
“What can I do you for, sweetheart?” Vinnie asked without looking up from the document he was reading.
“Had a little glass related accident. Just looking for the first aid box, boss.” ‘and a couple of those stacks’ she thought to herself after she’d spoken.
Vinnie left his desk making quick strides across the office towards the brunette. Seeing the blood soaked towel he sucked his teeth and furrowed his brow.
“That don’t look great. Sure you don’t need a couple stitches?”“Nah, it’s nothing. I’ll just wrap it up and it’ll be fine.”Starting to head back towards his desk, Vinnie paused as his cell phone rang. After a brief look at his screen he made his way back towards Raven, the phone still ringing.
“Help yourself. Second drawer down, right at the back. I gotta take this.” he said as he indicated to the filing cabinet behind his desk. He gave her a swift pat on the butt as he passed her, answering the call as he stepped out of the office
“What the hell’s going on Leo, I don’t need these kinda hold ups….”His words faded away as he walked out of earshot of Raven. She was used to him taking private calls so it didn’t surprise her. Walking towards the desk his words
‘help yourself’ kept replaying over and over again. Grabbing the first aid box quickly she hesitated at the desk, her gaze going from the money, to the open door and back again. He had said to help herself….
With a final glance towards the door to make sure the coast was clear she grabbed a few notes from the top of the nearest stack and hurriedly stashed them inside her bra. Checking she hadn’t moved anything on the desk, she clutched the first aid box to her chest and made her way back out of the office. One last look back towards the desk to check everything looked the same…..
…..she was certain, he’d never know the difference. Right?
PLAYING WITH FIRE - PART TWO
17th February 2016
11:30PM
Raven Knight’s ApartmentRaven Knight’s apartment was hardly the lap of luxury. In fact it was probably just about as far from luxury as you could possibly imagine. The peeling wallpaper. The grubby paintwork. The fact that every item contained within the four walls of shoebox size proportion had been salvaged from skips or the side of the road. Castoffs...items that other people had deemed no longer good enough and with good reason, since nothing ever worked as it should. Still, it was better than the alternative...having nothing at all. To say she hated it was being overly generous. She detested everything about it, and her existence here.
Just a couple more months she kept telling herself, over and over again like a mantra. That was all it was going to take to have saved enough money to hit the road and never, ever look back. As long as she didn’t get caught, everything would turn out perfectly. It really is amazing how much you can skim from your bosses illegal activities when you really put your mind to it. And she really had been putting her mind to it. The bills stacked up neatly in front of her on the top of the lime green formica table was evidence of that. Twenty five grand so far….sure that would have probably been enough to just leave now but she knew it would run out quickly. Another couple of months. Double the amount...at least. Just another couple of months.
She hadn’t planned to save money this way; originally she had been scraping together whatever little she could after rent and food for the week and stashing it under her mattress. It was tough going, some weeks only being able to squirrel away a few dollars; some weeks nothing at all. So how could she resist when there were stacks of hundred dollar bills just sitting there. At first she had just taken the odd couple of notes here and there. There were so many he would never notice one or two disappearing each night. That’s probably why she had gotten braver in recent weeks. What had started as one or two notes had grown into sometimes pocketing an extra grand on particularly brave nights. The hardest part was coming up with excuses to get Vinnie out of his office long enough to grab the notes. It was not easy to get Vincent DePaulo to leave his desk when he was in the middle of counting his ill gotten gains. Once she had accomplished that the rest was easy. Pull a few notes off each of the different stacks and pop them inside her bra. Easy money and her ticket out of this godforsaken hell hole.
Popping the top off of her beer bottle on the side of the table, she rolled her eyes as she saw it leave another chip in the cheap material right in front of her eyes. She leant back on flimsy tubular legged chair and kicked her feet up onto the table. Admiring the notes all neatly stacked. It had started to become almost a nightly habit now. To sit there with a cheap beer and let herself daydream for a little while of what was awaiting her once she escaped. Tonight however, it seemed her usual nightly ritual was going to be cut short as a loud, insistent knock came to the door. She wasn’t expecting company and try as she might, she couldn’t actually remember the last time anyone had come knocking at her door….expected or not.
The knock came again, louder this time.
“Just give me a minute would ya?!” she called out as she hurriedly started to scoop up the stacks of notes. Throwing them into a brown paper bag and then stashing that in the small cupboard under her sink. Just as she finished, the knock came again even more insistently than the previous two times. She had a bad feeling about this. Reaching the door she opened it a crack. Keeping her foot pressed against the bottom of the door to stop it from being flung open. Safety first after all.
“What took ya so long, doll?” The voice of Vincent DePaulo greeted her.
“Are you gonna let me in, or….?”Her first instinct was to look back over her shoulder to make sure there was no sign of her money. His money.
“Course I am. This door just sticks give me a second.” She closed the door and kept her foot in place to make it seem like she was struggling to open it, before she finally opened it fully.
“It’s not like you to make house calls, Vinnie. What can I do for ya?” she said as she stepped aside to let him enter.
It was the first time he had been to Raven’s apartment and he made no effort at all to hide the disgusted expression as he looked around at the shabby surroundings.
“Never pictured you living somewhere like this, doll. Maybe you do need that raise after all.”“Why’d ya think I keep asking for one?” if she wasn’t so disgusted by the place herself she might have been offended, but as it was she was already fully resigned to her current living situation.
“What’s on ya mind, Vinnie? Sooner you spill it, sooner you can get yourself outta here. No reason we both have to be subjected to my squalid living conditions.” Opening the refrigerator door, she pulled out two more beers and held one up in front of Vinnie with a questioning look.
Spotting the cheap label his nose scrunched at the sight of it.
“I’ll pass.”“Suit yourself.” she bit back her initial thought
ignorant asshole and put one bottle back. Opening her own bottle, this time on the kitchen counter she took a sip before speaking again.
“I would offer you a seat but something tells me you wouldn’t take it.” she eyed her shabby kitchen chairs.
“As happy as I am to see ya, obviously boss. Ya wanna tell me what’s earned me a visit at near midnight on my night off?”“Straight down to business, huh?” he briefly looked at the chairs Raven had indicated but after scrunching his nose again he chose to lean against the wall. Or as much as he could lean while trying not to let too much of his suit actually touch it.
“Something less than pleasant has come to my attention.”She kept her expression blank but inside she was cursing herself. He knew, she could tell.
“Ya mean other than my palace here?” “Other than that, yeah. You know I treat all my staff like family. So you can imagine how I feel when I find out one of them has been stealing from me. It is like a kick in the teeth to know that someone I trust just throws everything back in my face and betrays that bond. Can you imagine?” Quickly she swallowed a mouthful of her beer. Trying desperately to calm herself before she spoke.
Fuck, he knows. I’m gonna end up being tossed in a ditch somewhere. FUCK. “I don’t know what to say, Vinnie.” “There’s only one thing for ya to say.” his facial expression was unreadable.
“Say you’ll help me catch whoever is responsible.”It took her a moment to process what he had asked.
“Oh….” He wanted her to help catch the thief, which meant he didn’t know it was her. She was safe...for now.
“...of course, boss. Anything ya need.”PLAYING WITH FIRE - PART THREE
24th February 2016
10:30AM
Vincent DePaulo’s BarWhen Vincent DePaulo set his mind to something nothing would deter him from his course. It had been just a week since he had arrived, unannounced at Raven Knight’s apartment; telling her that he knew somebody had been stealing from him. What he did not know however, was that it was Raven who had been helping herself to some of his ill gotten gains. His trust in her hadn’t faltered even for a second. A fact she was extremely relieved about, especially given the fact she had seen first hand the kind of punishment that was dealt to anyone who got on the wrong side of Vinnie.
The sun was streaming through the green stained glass of the barroom windows. A sight that Raven was unaccustomed to seeing. It was very rare, if at all that she was in the bar during the day. She always had the night shift behind the bar so there was no reason for her to be there during daylight hours - except today. Today was different. The phone call requesting her presence had come early. Too early Raven had thought to herself as she had groggily picked up her cell phone to silence the shrill ringing at six that morning. There had been few pleasantries when Vinnie had told her to be at the bar for ten.
Even with four hours notice she had still managed to be half an hour late, only arriving at the bar a few minutes before and letting herself in quietly with the key she had for locking up. Remembering to lock the door behind her, she tiptoed across the wooden floor. She didn’t know why but she wanted to make as little noise as possible. Vinnie’s was never the most upbeat of bars, but now, in the daytime with the bar closed it’s silence gave off an eerie quality that made a shiver run down Raven’s spine. That could possibly be explained by the fact that she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop though. Every time Vinnie called her, or appeared in front of her, she was still expecting him to suddenly strike; tell her that he knew she was the snake in the grass. If he had figured it out though he was doing an extremely good job of hiding the knowledge. Raven hoped he wasn’t a better actor than she gave him credit for.
“Fuck!” Raven exclaimed suddenly as she tripped and almost face planted on the floor; narrowly managing to stop herself by gripping on to the well worn bar top. Somebody had left a bucket in the middle of the floor - most likely the cleaner she assumed as she straightened herself up and took a couple of deep breaths to ward off the shock of nearly diving head first to the ground.
“You forget how to tell the time, doll? I said ten.”Vinnie’s voice came from the direction of the back where his office was located. His words suddenly cutting through the silence had startled Raven and she hated the fact that she had jumped a little at the vocal intrusion.
“Piece of crap car wouldn’t start. Had to get a jump.” she called back as she made her way to the office. How she was managing to act as she normally would was beyond her. Whatever the reason, it was lucky that she was. Vinnie was not easily fooled and if she started acting differently to usual he would be all over it.
“Well, you’re here now at least.” Vinnie looked up from his desk as Raven reached the open door.
“We’ve got a fair bit of ground to cover before opening so I want to get started.” He gestured for her to come in before looking back down at the papers in front of him.
“Get started on what ex--” Raven’s words trailed away as a struggling figure in a chair in the corner of the office caught her attention. She recognised him. Mickey was one of Vinnie’s lower level lackeys; nice enough as hired thugs go. At least that had been Raven’s experience up until now.
“Vinnie...what’s going on?” she was almost scared to ask, but curiosity had gotten the better of her. It wasn’t every day you walked into your boss's office to find a guy tied to an office chair with a rag in his mouth.
He looked up from his papers again, from Raven, to Mickey and back again. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as if it was the most normal thing in the world to have in his office.
“It’s time to start getting answers. I’m gonna find out which piece of scum has been stealing from me, one way or another. In my experience, this tends to be the most motivational way.”“Fair enough, Vin...but why am I here?” she had a feeling she knew exactly what he was going to say.
Standing up from his chair, Vinnie slowly took off his suit jacket and draped it over his chair. Walking around to the front of his desk, he loosened his tie and perched on the edge of it. Finally he removed his cufflinks and rolled his sleeves up.
“You’re the only one I know I can trust at the moment and you said you’d help me catch whoever was responsible, didn’t ya, doll?”“Yeah…”“Good” Vinnie’s expression darkened as he pointed to an open tool box on a shelf at the side of where she stood.
“Grab the pliers and hammer and let’s get started.”She knew that Mickey was innocent - of this particular crime at least, but she had no other choice than to go along with Vinnie’s orders. If she didn’t he would know something was wrong. He would be on to her and then she would be in Mickey’s place. As she went to retrieve the items that single thought played in her mind on a loop.
…..It’s him or you.
