She’s at the bar, him just a few steps behind when lose sight of her because a wall of the local football team steps in my way. When I get a visual on them, she’s next to the guy I think is Bones.
Vin’s next to her, offering her a drink, which she takes, but is staring at him like he’s a bug to be investigated, and I pull myself back, watching how she handles him, because she doesn’t seem pleased by his attention or his presence, and that’s unusual for most woman.
Bones goes to take a step toward him, but she raises her arm stopping him, and he glares at Vin. I inch closer so I can hear and be close incase Vin tries to take her.
“Vin, right?” she asks, holding the glass awkwardly away from herself like she would rather do anything than hold that glass.
“Yeah,” he grins.
“Do you know who I am?” she asks, and while I don’t think Vin can hear the seething rage in her voice, I know Bones hears it too as he quickly looks at her sharply, confused. Vin on the other hand stiffens, more at her words if I were to guess.
“Umm…what?” Vin stammers.
“an easy question, no?” she asks, not breaking eye contact.
“Look we just had a dance and I was trying to,” she cuts him off by slamming the drink on the counter of the bar and hails the bartender.
“Get me a glass of my regular, Sage,” she says, the bartender nodding and pours her another drink, setting it closer to her than the one Vin gave her.
“I don’t know what your thought was, because you must take me for a fool.” She says still looking at the two drinks, but Vin doesn’t respond, he’s trying to edge away but Bones stops him with a headshake.
“I don’t know,” Vin starts again but she turns around fast and grabs him by the back of the neck hauling him closer to the bar and the drinks.
“Pretty boy thinks he can get one over on me, Bones,” she growls shoving Vin’s face toward the glasses, “one of these things is not like the other,” she says in a singsong voice.
Vin pales.
“Wonder what happens if he drinks the drink he bought? Bones, what’s your guess? GHB? Ecstasy? Ketamine?” she asks Bones, getting more and more angry as she talks.
I feel three bodies next to mine, and know that Giovani, Antonio, and Luca are going to get to watch the beast that will someday be our boss.
“My guess is GHB, man doesn’t look like he could get pussy any other way,” Bones says, his voice like a raging storm, body held tight wanting to spring into action. He’s ready to kill Vin if she would just let him, you can see it in his eyes.
“How-how,” Vin stammers, fear evident in his voice but he’s scared of the wrong player, he’s looking at Bones, when he’s eyes really should be on Priest.
“You must take me for a genuine idiot if I you think I can’t tell that this glass has been tainted. Sure, it smells like whiskey, but it’s cloudy, not the perfect crystal-clear amber. The bottom of the glass has a slight film settled at the bottom, and the scent, while close still has that odd chemical scent.” She pours the drugged glass over his head that’s bent to the bar, and I can see his body tense with anger and humiliation.
“So, what was it?” she asks conversationally, seemingly bored.
“You bitch, why would I tell you anything” he spits, still not understanding that the mountain of the man beside her isn’t his biggest threat, because he’s been trained to think that his only threat is from someone bigger than him.
She doesn’t even blink as she kicks his knee out from under him, making him buckle and in the process making him slam his chin on the semi wet bar with an audible crack.
“I can do this all night,” she says, still sounding slightly bored. I see Gio roll his shoulders, but I can’t read much from him. Luca on the other hand looks like he wants to worship the ground she walks on and Toni, he’s looking thoroughly impressed.
“Does she know who he is?” Gio says.
I shake my head, “Looks like they danced earlier before I spotted her, and she just thinks he’s some fucking creeper,” I tell him.
“So, what’s it gonna be? I keep doing this, and you eventually tell me, or you tell me, and we go from there.” She asks, now examining her nails.
Toni fights back a laugh.
“Should we enlighten her?” he asks once he gets his shit together.
“No, let her do her thing, let her set the example for the other families, show them how much they don’t mean anything to her.” Gio says, ever the strategist.
“Fuck you bi-”
She snatches an open bottle of liquor from behind the bar, and like lightning smashes the bottle over his head, liquid flowing down his already wet hair, down his face and to the floor, in a foul smell of cheap vodka.
He falls the rest of the way to the floor holding his head, writhing in pain. As a member of any of the local families he should be ashamed of himself, we don’t show weakness. He reeks of it, like it’s all he is, weak, and that weakness makes him do stupid shit. Like try to drug a gang girl in her own den.
She is quiet as he groans in pain, and I honestly begin to wonder if she’d needed my help in the DJ booth at all. The cold air around her gives off a vibe that she is exactly what Cobra taught her to be, maybe even more than he intended.
She shoves him over to his back, and before he can think about how vulnerable he is she steps over his public bone, the toe of her Timberlands pressing right against his tiny dick, and she starts to put her weight down.
Panic floods his eyes, and finally, he realizes he was worried about the wrong person this whole time. Bones is looking down at him with a smirk, obviously proud at how she handled the situation, and I see the bartender’s eyes flash with laughter.
“GHB! Fuck it was GHB!” Vin screams, his voice an octave or two higher than it should be.
“See, that wasn’t so hard was it? What were you hoping to happen? Are you a sick fuck like Bones thinks? Can’t get ass any other way than to take it?” she asks, her foot not leaving its position, but she’s lessened the pressure she was exerting.
“I was trying to capture you. I was sent,” Vin begins, and this is when Gio steps in.
“Priest,” he calls, and she looks up at him, eyebrow arched at his familiarity.
“I’m with Alex…” he says, sounding put out at having to sound lower than me, but then he nods at Vin, “He’s a part of what happened earlier.”
She looks at me, waiting, so I nod, and she turns her attention to Bones, and he bends down. She hides her mouth, not with her hands but behind her mane of curly hair, making it look natural that she was keeping whatever she’s saying to just them, but he just nods after a brief second and she looks back at me.
“This way.”
All of us follow her behind the bar, Bones stopping to collect Vin Russo as if he were trash to be taken out. We don’t say anything, just follow her through the back, past the bustling kitchen and out to the loading dock. Cobra is there, a grim look on his face when he looks at the state Vin is in, and he’s the first to speak.
“Did you have to go easy on him Priest?”
That pulls all of us enforces up short. That was her going easy? I hear a deep rumble and realize it’s Bone’s chuckling. He drops Vin unceremoniously in the waiting truck with the bar’s name on the side, and peeking in I can see the other two from the DJ booth tied in the back.