Eloquently Murdered

Six | Preparations

8:30

(Rewritten)

“What does he take me for? A fool?”

Vivienne entered the warehouse with a scowl on her face and kicked off her heels. “Just because has that as leverage he thinks I’ll bend over backwards for him!”

Harley gave her a sympathetic smile, “Well, it is true that whenever it comes to Ard-“

“Don’t say his name.”

“Whenever it comes to … him you tend to do things that you normally wouldn’t,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. Harley unpinned the straps of his overalls and took the file from her. “Well at least we’re prepared, right?” he asked her, leafing through the pages of profiles.

“That’s the only thing we’ve got going for us right now, and to think that the first one to get hit is one of my clients,” she groaned. “They’re going to think I’m getting stricter with payments.”

Harley shrugged, “That’s a hazard of being a Dealer, isn’t it?”

Vivienne rolled her eyes, and glanced over at the sound of someone descending the stairs.

“Oh, Joel, it’s you,” she sighed. “Have the others been mobilized?”

“Welcome back Chesterfel,” he said with a snide smile on his face.

She’d told him multiple times to stop with the useless and condescending formalities and yet it seemed it had grown into a rather annoying habit. Joel was indeed one of the greatest, she admitted, computer hackers she’d seen. It amazed her that he’d managed to keep such a talent hidden and under wraps for such a long time.

Harley glanced over his shoulder as he walked away, “I’m going to take a look at the new guy you told me about,” he told her. “Let’s see what kind of mechanic he is,” he laughed.

“Don’t be too hard on ‘im, Harley!” she called after him, before turning her attention back to Joel.

Joel raised a brow, “I still don’t get why you brought in the outsider,” he muttered. Vivienne folded her arms over her chest, wondering why he would be surprised. She’d brought in all of them despite their situations and appearances, why not this man? She’d seen a picture of him somewhere; in fact, a mechanic whose business had gone down the drain after the bank had put the building down for foreclosure because he’d been late on a couple of payments.

“Deal with it Joel, it’s how I am.”

Joel gestured to the back room where clients were often brought in for consultation. “Jinhie’s back there with Lae-Fon and a customer that’s rather fond of you.”

Vivienne raised her brow, “Really now?” she mused, “Could it be him?”

She made towards the back room without a final word to Joel.