It was neither Tye nor Matteo that drove us but the young man that had driven us the first ti I had gone on this errand with Alisha. I didn’t know his na but Alisha and him had this process down already to the point they didn’t really speak to each other more than a brief greeting.
I rode in the back seat with Alisha and watched the usual outside world go by as we went from the wilderness to the city. We even passed the exact street corner Alisha had found on and I felt a strange bittersweetness at seeing it. It hadn’t been fun there, but I’d been free of my parents at least and for a while, that ant I felt like living.
The SUV stopped outside of the bodega and Alisha stepped out with her usual air of confidence. Her hair has been straightened back to its usual pin-straight condition and it flowed like silk behind her.
I couldn't help but feel a little envious as I hurried behind her. We went in the back door and walked past the guard with the assault rifle in his hands.
Alisha's own guard eyed him warily but didn't say anything, simply followed behind us as we went down the steps.
The sll of marijuana still perated the air here and a man was sitting on the sa couch as last ti and just like last ti there were stacks and stacks of money on a table next to him.
“Alisha, darling,” the man said and I imdiately recognized his voice. This was Sergei. I had t him before but at the ti the na hadn’t really sunk in.
“Sergei,” Alisha acknowledged. I sensed the annoyance in her voice without needing to see her face. “Do you have the numbers for this week?” she asked.
He frowned. “Yes,” he said and handed over the papers before folding his arms and almost pouting. Then his gaze began to wander over to . “You brought the cute little thing along, too,” he said in a voice that made my blood run cold.
Alisha looked up from the papers and for a second glared at him before taking a couple steps to approach him and with a swift motion backhanded him with a great deal of force.
Her guard readied to fight as Sergei’s n braced themselves for the sa purpose but Alisha made no move to harm him further. He rubbed his jaw where her hand had connected with it but there was more amusent in his expression than anything resembling fear or submission.
I shrank away from this scene letting Alisha’s guard step in front of .
She grabbed his jaw this ti forcing him to look at her face. “Do I need to treat you like a child, Sergei?” she asked.
“Children don’t get the hots for cute girls,” he said. His smile said it all. He was enjoying this far too much, simply for the sake of torturing Alisha. I regretted coming. I hadn’t foreseen being quite a liability.
Alisha sighed then gave and her guard a look. “Take her outside,” she ordered. “I’ll be up in a mont.”
“Miss…?” her guard said. He eyed Sergei’s n, there were three in total and two of them had pistols visibly shoved into the waistband of their pants. It was not a smart decision to leave her side in this situation.
“I’ll be okay on my own,” I said quickly and turned to go up the stairs.
Alisha hesitated to allow this but in the end accepted my decision and let go.
I didn’t need to know–didn’t need to see–what she was about to do, but I suspected Sergei was not going to be quite the sa afterwards.
I passed the ard guard by the door and avoided making eye contact, instead going straight outside and sat on the curb there, letting the sunlight batter my skin.
This was my fault. I had underestimated how much my presence would be noticed when I was with her, and Sergei had already made eyes at the first ti we t. It hadn’t been fun then either. My stomach was unsettled now and I let my head droop.
I could hear so loud discussion coming from under the bodega and glanced back just to see the closed door. I looked to the ground and the bits of broken glass glittering there.
I felt like a small child, sent away for the adults to discuss matters. Perhaps worse than the yelling was the silence that followed.
Was Alisha okay? I had left her there with five n, four of which probably wanted her dead. I didn’t know how the politics were supposed to play out here. Were Sergei’s n loyal primarily to him or to Alisha, who was his boss? If Alisha gave them orders would they obey?
At the very least, there were no gunshots, and within a couple minutes Alisha’s guard appeared, carrying the potato chip boxes loaded with cash.
Alisha followed, scowling and polishing sothing in her hands. When she pulled the rag away I saw it was a knife, which she slid into a sheath and put in her purse.
I stood, recognizing their business was done and joined them, even offering to take the box from her guard but he shook his head. I at least opened the trunk for him so he could slide the boxes in all at once.
Alisha then ushered into the back seat and climbed in after . The angry furrow in her brow was pronounced, more than usual.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It wasn’t your fault. I know he would’ve found sothing else to piss off with if you weren’t there,” she said. Her tone was harsh, and I looked at the floor again.
Her guard got in and started the car without saying a word and started driving to the next location.
After an eternity of the car’s gentle swaying every now and then, and the unnatural quietness it moved with, Alisha sighed and scooted closer to , offering an arm so I could move into her hug.
I did so, feeling shy at first but appreciating the human contact.
“I promise it wasn’t anything you did, Kitten. Sergei had it coming. If you weren’t there he would’ve just taken a crack at directly,” she explained softer this ti.
“Did you take his finger?” I asked.
“No. I took… sothing else.”
I shuddered. No wonder he had been yelling. Fingers were one thing but a man like Sergei would feel especially emasculated by that treatnt.
It was also a bit horrifying to know Alisha was capable of doing her own dirty work. I didn’t know why I had assud she wouldn’t get her own hands dirty. I’d literally watched her murder a man.
I buried my face against her a little more until the car ca to a complete stop and Alisha unraveled herself from .
“Would you like to stay here?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll co,” I said. I knew Sergei was the only one the last ti that had done or said anything to make uncomfortable. I’d rather not be alone in these unfamiliar parts of the city that were most definitely having illicit activities going on.
I followed her to the back door of the diner. This ti the man nad Andy greeted her warmly and we all went into a separate back room. It was tight, not like Sergei's basent which seed to be his mancave as well as an exchange point.
Andy's space was far more closet like and slled of greasy food. He had a single guard, who looked boredly around as this had to be the everyday routine.
Alisha took his paperwork and looked it over before looking over the stacks of bills. It was so absurd to that these people could just leave them out like that. Seeing that much money made incredibly anxious, expecting there to be bloodshed over who got to grab it and run off. It had to be the repercussions that kept people from doing exactly that. Alisha must have a separate group of people that would enforce these kinds of things.
Right, my brain clicked. I'd heard of enforcers. But I didn't know so far if I had even run into one of hers. The only person I imagined that could be would be Matteo, who looked the part and seed aware that he looked the part. And he was the one Alisha sent to breath down Sergei’s neck when he was being disorderly.
This realization only made even more wary of Matteo. He had probably killed people.
“Uh, Ms. Takeno,” Andy’s voice pulled out of my thoughts.
Alisha looked up.
“May I offer you my bathroom?” he asked.
At Alisha's confused expression he continued. “You got a little sothing on your arm there,” he explained.
Alisha picked up her arm to look along it. There was a notable blood sar toward her elbow she must've missed earlier.
“Oh, thank you,” she said and set the papers down to disappear in the other room.
Her guard leaned against the doorway to keep an eye on her as she did so, but didn't follow her closely. She ca back a few minutes later, drying her hands on a paper towel and silently resud her task of looking over the numbers. After a few more minutes she nodded.
“Everything looks good,” she told Andy.
Her guard began loading the cash into a box labeled ‘French fries’ rather than potato chips.
“Glad to hear it,” Andy responded and offered her a handshake, which she accepted.
“I'll have more shipnts co in tomorrow so you should get your restock then.”
“Always so prompt,” he complinted.
Alisha ignored the comnt and turned to head back out as her guard hefted the cash box up.
I followed after, receiving a polite nod from Andy and his guard as I went.
I was glad to be back out in the fresh air, away from the stench of a comrcial kitchen.
Once again, I opened the trunk for the guard, who thanked and slid the box in next to the ones from Sergei’s.
And then we were headed off again, to the third and final stop. We got out of the car just to et up with the woman in her garage where she happily turned over her numbers and cash, which was already boxed up. She also lacked a guard watching us as we did this routine. It felt far more casual than any of the other illicit encounters I had gone through and I genuinely wanted to know what this woman dealt since she seed incredibly average and happy. She was the only one that called Alisha ‘Alisha’ and wasn't t with a disdainful glare. Not even Tye acted that casually around her.
We left finally and continued on to what Alisha called the laundromat, the sa large office building which was almost entirely vacant inside.
It was more comfortable as we passed the secretary, who was watching video monitors of security footage and went into the main office space where Alisha pulled a chair out for to sit and then sat herself down in another. Her guard set the boxes down on the table next to the money counter and finally looked relieved.
“Sorry about the unpleasantness earlier,” Alisha told him, checking under her nails for any filth that might have accumulated.
He shook his head. “It had to be done,” he agreed.
I wondered what Alisha would do if Sergei continued to be a problem. She couldn’t kill him but I couldn’t think of a worse punishnt than having an important part of your identity get cut out of you, probably without any painkillers or tranquilizers.
A mont later, I heard the hurried footsteps from down the hall. There was sothing absurdly amusing about soone stressing about being late much like she was going to a normal office job and then simply counting illicit money.
“I’m sorry, I’m late,” the woman gushed, just like she had the first ti I’d been here. This ti though, she was more or less on ti as far as I could tell.
“It’s fine, Claire,” Alisha said. “We’re not in a hurry.”
Claire nodded and imdiately started to sort through the papers and boxes, loading money into the machine and letting it spit it back out with a loud ruffling sound.
She compared the readouts to the numbers on the papers, which there seed to be a lot of in fine print.
When it ca to the potato chip box, she started to frown and double count the cash, and circled so numbers.
“What has he done now?” Alisha asked and held her hand out for the papers back.
“He reported way fewer sales than he should’ve,” Claire explained.
Alisha looked at the papers. “He was kicked from the North Block so that is expected.”
“Yes but the money he gave you is worth significantly more than what’s on there,” she explained.
“I see…” she furrowed her brow as she considered this. “Why the hell would he…” she mumbled and turned the page to look at the detailed print outs. “Is it each bundle is off or only so?” she asked.
“Only so,” Claire said.
Alisha took a deep breath. “Well I already punished him once today, I’ll let him have a mont to correct his behavior. Don’t give him back what he didn’t report though.”
“He won’t be happy if he finds out,” Claire said.
“I know,” Alisha stated and handed the papers back over to Claire, who finished marking them up and finished up the last of the cash deposits, keeping everything neatly stacked.
“We’re all set,” Claire said, relieved. “The usual, minus Sergei’s excess?” she asked.
“Yes,” Alisha agreed and stood. “And… could you open another company card?”
“Sure, what’s the na on it going to be?” Claire pulled out a tiny notebook and prepared to write the information down.
Alisha hesitated, then looked down at . “I know you don’t like using your old na, but do you even have an ID with it?” she asked.
I shook my head. “But I don’t really need–” Her hand plopped down on top of my head to quiet .
“Get a line set up with the na Kitten Smith,” Alisha said. “And allow all purchases on it.”
“All purchases? No spending limit?” Claire asked skeptically.
“Yes,” Alisha said.
I didn’t like that idea. Alisha was putting a lot of trust in , not just to not spend her money but also to keep that company card safe. I didn’t even have a wallet or purse to keep it in.
“You don’t have to use it,” Alisha told softly. “But I want you to have it just in case. Without an ID, I can’t make you an approved user on my personal account, so this will have to do.”
I nodded. I could agree to that
Claire jotted the notes down and then put her notepad away. “I wish you guys a good day,” she said.
Alisha began to head out the door so I hurried to stand and follow her.
“Now, Kitten,” she said once we were past the fake secretary. “I have the rest of the day to spend with you. Is there anything specific you’d like to do?”
I shook my head, still in a little shock from the day.
“How about we get so food?” she asked. “You skipped lunch didn’t you?”
“You didn’t have lunch either,” I pointed out.
“Exactly,” she said.
Her guard was following behind us as we discussed this and was making a little self conscious about being openly affectionate with her.
“How about… do you like Chinese food?”
I nodded.
“Then we’ll go to a place I know that does a good job,” she said. “If that’s alright with you?”
“I think that sounds lovely,” I agreed.
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