A Rogue's Tale

The Trouble With Assassins: Part 1

Chapter Six: The Trouble with Assassins

The next morning Rogue woke up early. She had a strange feeling that someone else was in her room the night before, because there was a strange scent in the air of old spice and cigarettes that wasn't there before she drifted off to sleep. For some strange reason she had a craving for one, which didn't make sense because she didn't even smoke. She shrugged it off as paranoia and grabbed her bag to search for a change of clothes. She dug through it and noticed something funny about the cash box she had gotten from Tara. The lid was little crooked, and when it came to money, she was very meticulous about keeping it safe and in perfect order. She opened it quickly thinking that maybe someone tried to rob her and counted the money. There should have been a little over $1200, but when she counted it there was over $1500.

How the hell did that happen? She wondered.

Maybe she had miscounted, so she counted it again, three different times but got the same amount. She put the money back and grabbed her clothes and headed for the bathroom. She quickly took a shower but soon felt the pangs of hunger and was anxious to get some breakfast.

She changed her clothes, dried her hair and put it up in a ponytail, then put her jacket on and reached into her pocket for her room key, pulling it out along with her necklace which was damaged the night before in the fight with Julien. Damn him, she thought to herself. She studied it for a moment and found that it was mostly intact, only the clasp was broken. She would find some way to fix it, but it was funny to her that a worthless piece of metal would mean so much.

She put it back in her pocket and picked up her bag and walked out the door and made sure the door was securely locked before she left. She walked down to the lobby to find a young woman sitting at the desk. This was a girl that she hadn't seen before, but she approached her in hopes off getting some information.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Rogue said as the young woman looked up. "Do you know where ah can get a good breakfast?"

"Sure, there's a diner down the street," she said with a perky smile on her face. "Just take a left and keep walking. It's called Mercy's Diner. The woman who runs it is really nice."

"Thank ya," Rogue said before taking off.

Moments after she left, a man came into the lobby from a back room marked private. "Who was that who just left?"

"Just one of the guests, Lucas," the girl said.

"Tilly, ah gotta know who it was," Lucas said, looking anxious.

"Just the girl in the room at the end of the hall, had a strange white streak in her hair."

"She say where she was goin'?" Lucas asked with a look of desperation on his face.

"Just breakfast," Tilly said, tossing her dark red hair over her shoulders. A few of her tight curls fell back into her face, so she tucked them back. "I sent her to Mercy's. The poor girl looked starved."

"Thanks, Tilly, that's all I needed to know," he said, taking out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his brow.

Lucas disappeared back into the room he came out of. There was a gray metal desk with a mountain of papers and an old rotary phone. He picked it up and dialed.

The phone rang about five or six times before someone answered. "Dis better be good," a deep male voice said into the phone.

"Remy, it's Lucas," he said.

"What you want at dis hour?" Remy snapped.

"You said ta let ya know when that girl leaves, right?"

"She check out?" Remy asked.

"No, just out ta breakfast. Tilly sent her to Mercy's. Ah know ya know where dat is, right?"

"'Course I do," Remy said.

"What you gonna do?" Lucas asked.

"Don't worry 'bout it," he said in a low voice. "Dis is my personal business, Lucas, and t'anks for callin'."

Lucas hung up the phone and stared at his mountain of work. He sat down at his desk and sighed in frustration. Damn, Remy LeBeau, he thought to himself. He had no time to play babysitter to Remy's latest conquest, but he also knew what that boy could do to him. He shuttered at the thought.

Outside the door Tilly was listening carefully. She heard every word Lucas said. She knew the party on the other end's name was Remy, but seeing that she only got half of the conversation she wasn't sure why Lucas was telling him where the girl went.

She quietly walked back over to the desk and picked up the phone and dialed. Slowly, the red curls, pale green eyes along with the thin firm teenage human body slowly faded away, and in her place stood a blue-skinned woman with yellow eyes.

She waited for someone to pick up the other end. "Irene," she stated.

"Yes, Raven," the woman on the other end said.

"I found her," the blue-skinned woman said.

"Will you bring her home?" Irene asked.

"No, not yet," Raven said. "First, I have to contact someone, an old friend. I'll call you soon when I know what I'm going to do."

"Be careful, Raven," Irene said. "She's fragile, and if you reveal yourself too soon, she just might run again."

"Don't worry, Irene, I have no intention of losing her again."

Raven hung up the phone and dialed another number. After barely one ring a man picked up. "Jean-Luc," she said sharply into the phone.

"Who's this?" he barked into the phone.

"Don't play dumb with me," Raven said. "You know who it is and we have trouble. It seems your boy is up to something."

"Henri?" Jean-Luc questioned.

"No, the other one," Raven said. "I'm not going to allow him to corrupt my daughter."

"What's Remy done now?" Jean-Luc asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but you better keep him under control."

"I can't control dat boy any more den you can control dat daughter a yours. Don't you remember de reasons we kept dose two apart?"

"Yes, and it's going to stay that way," Raven said. "Irene's vision spells disaster if those two are allowed to stay together. So, what do you intend to do about it?"

"Don' worry, Raven. I'll handle it," Jean-Luc said and then abruptly hung up the phone.

She scowled at his rudeness but placed the phone down on the receiver slowly and reverted back into her disguise as Tilly. Her first instinct was to go after Rogue, but she would be patient. She would wait for the girl to come to her, so she sat back in her chair and pondered the thought.

Then Lucas came out of his office again. "Tilly, ah need to go out for a while. I'll be back later."

"Whatever," she said, while filing her nails. She got up from her chair as Lucas left the hotel. A plan was forming in her mind, and she didn't trust Jean-Luc to help her. She would get her daughter back, even if she had to wipe out the entire Thieves' Guild to do it.

To Be Continued...