Scarlet Springs (Ari Levinson) AU - 18+

4

Ari

"They said they got something a couple of days ago- anything come through yet?" Sammy says to me on the phone later that evening. It doesn't surprise me that he's still up working at this ungodly hour. Me? I'd much prefer to clock out of five, but this job has never let me have the chance to. I guess I'm to blame for choosing it as my career path at least.

I sit back on the chair and prop my feet up on the desk. I knew I shouldn't have answered this damn call, but you can never be too careful. "Nothing yet". Is all I reply to him, just wanting to get this conversation over and done with. We just seem to be repeating ourselves (or at least he does) lately. 

"Ari - you do realise how big this could be for us? To be the ones tha-"

I interrupt him. "So you keep saying, and I know how much is at fucking stake. I got this place for us didn't I? And even then that wasn't exactly the easiest, so if you should be kissing anyone's ass? Then it's mine".

"I'll only kiss it when we see this through. When we're the ones to deliver. We have to be. We shouldn't fuck with people like this but when the reward is this big? We need to be the ones who get there before anyone else".

So he's been saying ever since we agreed to this. I run a hand back through my hair, already exhausted by all of this and yet we've barely got started. I knew I should've just gone solo when it came down to it. 

"Mhmm..." Is all I say as I light a cigarette and take a drag. "Look, when I get something? You'll obviously be the first to know".

Fact is that I already have just what we need, but he doesn't need to know that just yet, I have my own plan as opposed to his shitty one. It's just a case of biding my time. Time that we don't really have and is limited, but we can pull it off.

"This better be..."

"Fucking worth your investment" I drone. "So you keep on saying, and it will be. Even you said that we need to be the ones who get there before the others. And we will, ok?"

I hear a huff. "I'll keep in touch with my associates, one whiff of anything close then I'll call you".

"Goodnight Sammy" I roll my eyes in reply and put the phone down before he can say anything else. I can't wait until this shit is over.

This had been a stupid idea in the first place, but with what was on offer? It was too damn good to refuse.

Checking the time, I decide to close up for the night, knowing the current guests, won't need anything. One of them being Margot. She seemingly gave me the answer that I had wanted earlier. That she wanted to take up my offer of a job - and why not? There's perks for both of us, me especially.

I knew she wouldn't refuse. Just like I knew she didn't have a hope in hell of getting a ride outta here today. Her demeanour last night told me all I needed to know paired with the fact she's travelling with no end destination.

A runner. Or at least running. Why else would she be out here? Why would she be acting how she was last night? Why would she have no money?

All these questions and so little answers.

I have to get to know her. The real her. Employee background check if you wanna call it that. See what she's really about.

Her story.

After all, it will validate just what I'm looking for.

I sit myself back down at the desk and unlock the drawer beside me, pulling out everything Sammy brought me the other day and leafing through it.

"If I were a creep? You'd be handcuffed to my bed right now..." My earlier words to her filter back through my mind, including the look of intrigue on her face.

She had wanted it. I saw it in her eyes.

And I had meant every word.

Perhaps that would be the best way of getting to know her. Through the bedroom as well as a close working proximity. After all, I'm the boss, she's an employee now. But there's the matter of trust that it all boils down to.

What I really need to do though is to get her to trust me, and in order to do that I need to follow through with exactly what I had told myself earlier.

I need to know her, inside and out. Her story, what makes her tick, what sends her into the anxious little rabbit in headlights that she was last night.

The more I know. The beneficial it'll be. 

Pulling out the file I'm looking for, I stare at it for a few moments before I smirk to myself. Her face staring back at me with the bold word MISSING in big fat letters as well as all the details underneath - given to Sammy and other bounty hunters like us in order to get the job done swiftly. Should we be the lucky ones to have found her.

I recognised her from the moment she walked through the door. It wasn't hard not to considering she's been on our radar ever since her boyfriend enlisted the services of every damn bounty hunter from state to state. That and there's the fact she looks like a beauty queen. If she's trying to blend in then she never will. Not with her face. 

Her past was bound to catch up with her sometime, but I have to commend her for getting this far. Still, I can at least keep this vital piece of information from Sammy while I have some fun before I give her back. It'll be worth the fuck as well as the money that her boyfriend will give us for getting the job done.

"Time to find out exactly who you are little Miss Margot, and time to have a little bit of fun in the process". I say to her picture, before slipping it back inside of the file and locking it within the safety of my desk drawer.

After all, what she doesn't know won't kill her.

At least, not yet....