Belladonna

1.7 ] Poker Face

••●••

IT'S TIME NOW. I'm here in a suit, Vika in a waitresses uniform, Odyssey somewhere parked outside peering through a button. 

I managed to use my last name to sneak into a game with the famous Ian Dickens. He was happy to hear someone as supposedly rich as I am will be playing with him (little does he know my family cut me off the moment I left them). 

Vika rolled her eyes at my fancy talk. 

When Ian spots me he smiles a charming smile, "And you must be Elliot Dolce, yes?"

"That would be me." I return a calm smile. Originally I was going to use a fake name but...well, this works out better. And it's not like anyone knows Elliot Dolce still exists.

"Right this way then." He turns and then walks to what seems to be a private room, a portion of other men sitting around a table. 

"This kid looks young." An old, rough voiced man greets me. 

"Young and yet experience." I say before sitting down in the spare seat. 

"You'll need to be impressive if you want to sit with the big kids." He grins at me, a pair of gold and silver teeth in his smile. 

"I'm sure you'll find yourself impressed." I note calmly, inwardly thinking about his blood splattering against the wall. 

But no. We're in it for the long game. If someone dies so simply after Callum's death - that will only make everything more suspicious. We're trying to direct people away from the government not closer to it. 

"Oi. Put your right hand on the table if you can hear me."

I sigh at the sound of Odyssey's voice in my ear, but I casually rest my right hand on the table anyway. 

"Alright, great, just listen to me - and we should be able to win this. Vika's starting behind Ian but she'll walk around the others as well." 

Good to know, I almost say. 

We play for hours, all the way into the early morning. I allow Ian a single win in order to put him in a good mood - but take the rest of the victories in order to keep my in on him. 

Vika also didn't blow her cover. Which is nice. When one of them asked her if she would come home with them tonight, she lied about her hours and managed not to slap him across the face. Which...is a little surprising given her track record. 

"It was nice playing with you Elliot," Ian says before I leave, "Please. Come to our next game."

And with that we've departed. The mission was successful, our group has an in, and we're most likely to deal with this before anyone. The closer I get to Ian, the more ways I can make his death look like an accident - or perhaps blame it on someone else. 

Odyssey high fives me when I find her out back, Vika sneering at her raised hand and brushing by to hop into the van. 

"You did good Viks." Odyssey hums. 

"Yeah, we're lucky they were bimbos and didn't notice my circling." She huffs. 

"No, they're lucky you didn't punch them in the face." I correct. 

"What do you think Sasha is doing right now? I heard she's trying to work with the miracle girl." Odyssey asks. 

"They're probably sleeping," I shrug, knowing Ash, "Saying shit like they'll do it in the morning. Then again the new girl might work differently, but we'll see."

"Hey - Sasha can be dangerous when she wants. I mean don't forget that time she trapped that guy in an elevator by pulling his tie through the closed doors and choking him out." Vika notes. 

"Of course out of all Sasha's moments, the vulgar one is the one you remember." I sigh. 

"I like vulgar things." She shrugs. 

"You're a sociopath." Odyssey laughs. 

Vika rolls her eyes, "And you're an idiot. There. We're all things."

"What about me?" I ask. 

"You're the rich boy with an unrequited love for his best friend." Odyssey doesn't even look at me when saying the words, instead waving a hand in my face and proceeding to continue bickering with Vika. 

Unrequited wouldn't be the right word. That means no feelings are returned. Which, probably, is true. But I've never even asked. So nothing can be unrequited yet. 

Wait a minute. 

Not that I want to ask. Because it's not like that. I'm just pointing out the facts. The logistics. 

"Reign probably planned on blackmailing him." Vika ponders out loud when we're minutes away from arriving. 

"Blackmail? We know he's capable of more." I scoff.

"He'll probably kill one of us to get what he needs to solve this all as well." Odyssey grumbles. 

"You guys still butt hurt over that?" Vika groans. 

Odyssey and I fall into silence. 

"Something happened that we don't know about. Reign acted in response, maybe a bit dramatically, but then again, who cares. Then he left. Now he's back. It's none of our business. The two of you are acting like children." It's her turn to scoff. 

"Are you kidding me?" Odyssey actually laughs, "Jeremiah is fucking gone. And you don't think he'll do that to any of us?"

It's a bit of a sore spot to bring his name up. He used to be on Team X, and, well, because of Reign, now he's not. 

"Odyssey," Vika's voice is sweet and yet bitter, "Grow up. This is the world we live in. We did this to ourselves when we decided to work here."

••●••

Elliot and Odyssey bitching over Reign together:

- Juana.