With a clean bathroom, we could also enter our makeshift vault without facing the smell of blood and death. On the topic of our vault, we’d gotten a lot more money than expected, but I guess sometimes good things happen to bad people. Just don’t think about how many people we killed for it.
I took a sip of my beer, bringing myself back to reality. “Okay, it was a pain in the ass, but we finally have the money counted.”
“Pain in the ass? I was the one who counted most of it,” Frank spoke up.
“Yeah, it was a pain waiting for you to hurry up and finish,” laughed Reload.
I interrupted them, “We all worked hard last night. Not only did we take out a Disciple lieutenant, but we managed to make a fortune while doing it. And, I’d like to thank all of you. We’re in this shit together, and while we’re still strangers, we’re also family.”
Reload and Frank cheered to that, taking a drink. Tóxica stood off to the side, finishing her second bottle of tequila. She was one hell of a drinker, even that wasn’t enough to get her tipsy. And even if she didn’t cheer with us, she was still family, in her own dangerous, and slightly murderous, way.
“Having said that, family takes care of each other.” I tossed each of them a duffel bag, each one struggling to stay closed. “So here’s your cut of last night’s job. Each bag has a hundred and fifty grand, in cash. The rest is going towards everything we need to take out those bastards.“
The group cheered, celebrating as they opened their bags, checking out their share of the fortune. I couldn’t say what their lives were like before this, but they all seemed to feel the same way I did when I heard the total amount. Shock and excitement at just how much fucking money we have.
After paying their cut, I still had about three hundred grand in cash. The rest was in gold, jewelry, and drugs. If we needed more money, we could easily sell that shit off. But the cash was enough to get us anything we needed. Whether it was cars, henchmen, or weapons.
As I was enjoying our small party, I accidentally made eye contact with Tóxica. While she wasn’t acting as excited as the others, I could see a single tear around the corner of her eye. After I looked away, she sent me a message.
She wiped the tear off her face and went back to her bottle of tequila. It was oddly bittersweet looking over my group. I barely knew them, hell, it hadn’t even been a month since I met Reload. But at the same time, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as close with anyone else as I do with them. I guess I bond best when fighting for my life.
While they were distracted, Reload drunkenly butchering a joke about a pianist, I slipped out of the room with a stack of hundreds in hand. What I was about to do would go against the most basic principles of being a villain, but I guess I just wasn’t interested in acting the same way everyone else did.
I entered the main office of the motel, finding the older clerk, the one I met on my first day here, sitting behind the desk and reading a magazine. He looked up at me and put down his magazine.
“Greetings,” he grunted.
“Hey, you’re that girl’s dad, right? The owner of this place?” I asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“Just wanted to make sure. I’m the guy who’s using the second floor. I just wanted to pay you back for any lost business.” I put a stack of bills, far more than our rent would be, on the desk.
“No thank you.” He pushed it away from him.
“No thank you? What are you talking about?”
He stared at me. “I accept paying protection money, it’s a fact of life. Taking rooms instead of money works too, not like there’s much business with the lockdown. But I will not take money from a criminal.”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Then take this money from a customer. You think every single asshole who stays here is a good person? It’s a motel, basically the home of sketchy bastards and criminals.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Be that as it may, I’m not interested. You can have your rooms in exchange for protection, that’s the deal we made. I’m not interested in anything else.” He pulled his magazine back up, ignoring me.
This guy was pissing me off. His shitty motel was struggling because of the fact that no one’s traveling and he’s just going to refuse my money? What, was my money not good enough? Part of me wanted to go further, find a way to make him take the money. But, I stopped myself and took a deep breath, cooling off my anger.
“Fine,” I forced through gritted teeth.
I turned around and left, leaving the money lying on his desk. His refusal hurt my good mood, but I couldn’t blame him. He had his own reasons, his own convictions. Even though they were dumb convictions, that wasn’t a good enough reason to start a fight. I wasn’t a henchman anymore, I needed to control myself.
I walked into room eleven, finding the three of them watching the Spanish drama that Reload had been obsessed with. I couldn’t complain, though, since it was better than watching Seinfeld. Reload was laying on the bed, Frank sat on the floor, and Tóxica stayed standing. There was a new bottle of tequila in her hand.
“I’m telling you, she’s being screwed with an insurance fraud case,” argued Reload.
“Just because the kitchen was on fire doesn’t mean it’s insurance fraud though? They’re going after her for arson!” Frank countered.
“She wasn’t the one who set it on fire though!” defended Reload.
Tóxica spoke in between swigs of her bottle. “Neither of you are close at all.”
“Wait, what’s happening?” I asked.
“Her ex-twin sister set her kitchen on fire, and they’re now investigating her for her murder,” answered Tóxica.
Reload and Frank cried out, upset that the plot of the episode had been spoiled. I wanted to ask some follow up questions, mainly about what it meant to be an ex-twin sister, but I decided not to interrupt their grumbling.
I joined them in watching, even if I was just as clueless as them when it comes to figuring out what happened. Thankfully, whenever Reload and Frank got too annoying with their arguing, Tóxica would tell them what was actually happening. It managed to keep their bickering down to a reasonable level.
Even if she didn’t participate in guessing, I could still see the faintest smile on the corner of Tóxica’s lips. We also ordered a ridiculous amount of food for delivery, having to make multiple trips to pick it all up. When you’ve gained more money in one day than you have in your life, you tend to go overboard.
Before I knew it, hours had passed. Frank was passed out drunk on the floor, and Tóxica offered to carry him to his room when she left. Reload was still watching the Spanish drama, but he just kept guessing the plot of Nemo. Tóxica had gone through a literal crate of tequila, enough to kill me ten times over, but she seemed to be the same as always.
I tried my best to keep my wits about me, refusing to get too drunk. If there was a problem, somebody would need to handle it. Not that I didn’t trust Tóxica, but her solution would likely involve something deeply horrific and traumatic.
It was late in the night when I decided to go back to my room. While we didn’t do much today, it was important to boost the morale of my team. If I didn’t give them time to rest, they wouldn’t be in their best condition.
“Tóxica, Reload, I’m headed out for the night. Make sure that Frank ends up in his room, or just leave him in this bed. Goodnight guys,” I called out as I headed to the door.
“Que descanses bien,” replied Tóxica. Reload was too focused on his show to respond.
When I headed to my room, feeling the cold night air on my skin, I saw something that surprised me. There was someone pounding on my door, knocking like their life depended on it. He had raggedy black hair, a puffy yellow jacket, and the dumbest face tattoo I’d ever seen.
“Vance, what are you doing? I just finished kicking your ass last night, and you’re already back for more?”
I was disappointed that he hadn’t learned a single lesson from last time. Vance stepped back, startled at my appearance. But, instead of reaching for a gun, he raised his hands to the sky.
“I’m not here to cause any problems, I swear. My boss sent me here to talk to you,” he frantically explained.
That made me sober up. “You mean Surge? Is he that desperate for money from a single motel?”
“No, that’s not it. He wants to have a meeting with you, and he sent me since this used to be my spot.”
“Does he know who I am, or is he just looking for the guy who took his motel?”
I could see sweat drip down Vance’s face despite the cold autumn air. “He knows who you are. When I described what happened, he said that you were a super named Taker.”
“What time and place?”
“Tomorrow, eight am. You need to go to the main power plant.”
“Yeah, that checks for a guy named Surge who has electricity themed everything. Tell him I’m coming with my team. If that’s all, you can go.”
“Okay, I hope you have a good day, sir.”
Vance quickly scurried down the stairs, until he reached the bottom and sprinted to his car. I watched as he drove away, desperate to get away from the motel. It wasn’t uncommon for ordinaries to act jumpy around supers, but it wasn’t something that happened to me before. It felt nice to be seen as someone worth fearing.
I gave up on my plans of falling asleep, and I marched back to our makeshift vault. Where I opened the door to find Reload doodling on Frank’s face with a sharpie, while Tóxica just watched. I had no idea where he got the sharpie from, let alone how he managed to fill Frank’s face in the minute I was gone.
“Stop fucking with Frank, we have something important going on.” Tóxica and Reload turned to me, surprised at my sudden entrance. “Surge just reached out, and the three of us are meeting with him.”
“Right now?” Reload asked.
“No, tomorrow morning. The old plan is going out of the window, right now the two of you need to get to bed. Depending on how the meeting goes, he might be our next target.”