⚜️

"I hope all of you had fun," I say, while stretching my back muscles. Never thought a few rolls of satin and lace could be that heavy.

The whole time we were in the city, I was treated like a peasant. And in reality I'm her fucking boss. Well, partner might be a better term, but one thing's for sure, I'm not an inferior.

It was like one of those movies where the diva rich wife is walking around town wearing a white dress, a black hat, a black pair of Gucci heels and jewel-encrusted Ray Bans on her head, holding a teeny tiny purse full of credit cards with an unbelievably high limit, while her servants walk behind her, carrying bags labelled Louis Vuitton, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and all and colourful stripped boxes of hats.

Except, Ariadne was wearing a white t-shirt and denim jeans, with a red scarf and her Doc Martins, and I was carrying huge-ass plastic bags with familiar labels like Walmart, Target, Louisa's Discount Cloth Emporium and...an X-rated name I'd rather not say out loud.

Don't ask me why I was dragged into a...fornication store. The only explanation I got was that the weirdo, who I made the mistake of hiring, wanted those latex fabric thingies which dominatrixes prefer to wear.

Oh the horrors I saw in that store, they are going to haunt my nightmares. I almost called my mother to ask her to ship me some holy water.

Ariadne on the other hand, had been casually browsing the shelves as if she was at a fucking grocery store.

Oh what would I have given to go to that Science Museum with Mon instead.

Alby cuts through my thoughts, "I got some VIP tickets to a show of Hamilton on Broadway. They are supposed to be pretty expensive!"

Monqiue gasps, "No way! They are the price of diamonds and are almost always sold out."

Cassie smiles that sinister smile that I have come to be terrified of, "Oh well he was one of the 'higher-ups', so he had a few tickets to give out."

What kind of a con could they have run to get Broadway tickets? And what's up with the dude? Why would he just randomly carry those pricey tickets around. One slip from the jacket and could make any passerby either entertained or a few grand richer by selling them.

I narrow my eyes at Alby, "You know we're not headed to New York anytime soon, right?"

Alby gives me a cheery smile, "Of course. I'm just planning to sell them on eBay."

"You'll get a shit ton of money off of them," Minnie comments, examining her nails.

I turn to Kai and Yuri, "What about you guys? Found the best cheesesteak?"

Yuri shrugs, "We got bored after eating the first one so we went on the hunt for the best corndogs instead."

Expected.

Rey begins drumming her fingers on the table, "So, did you find the best ones?"

Kai shrugs, "I don't know about best, but we did eat these phenomenal mozzarella dogs in this cute street near the Love Park place. We met up with Dora and Minnie there."

Minnie sighs, "Oh yes those things were delicious. Dhara joined us later as well."

Dhara laughs a little, "Oh Kai kept dropping crumbs in the Park and we had this horde of crows around, waiting to eat those. And there was this huge fountain and all these couples were sitting around being all lovey. It was adorable." Her Indian accent is so cute sometimes.

Okay so all of them had a great time while I suffered carrying plastic Walmart bags. That's fucking fantastic.

"There was going to be a movie screening later, but most of us just wanted to come back and rest," Yuri says, "Though I did do some serious skateboarding tricks in the rink. Those boys didn't know who they were challenging."

Pandora rolls her eyes, "Yes Yuri was being an absolute show-off and there were people applauding and stuff yada yada yada," Her face unusually lights up, I'm scared, "This girl in the park was freaking out about her botched make-up because her date was about to show up. I fixed everything for her and she was so happy!"

I smile at little surprised at Dora, "That's great."

I thought her work always came with a price. Maybe she turned a new leaf!

"The girl was happy until Pandora asked her if she was free to be dead any time soon," Minnie interrupts my thoughts of Pandora finally becoming a warm fire of the hearth rather than a thunderstorm.

"What?"

"I need a model to try new zombie makeup styles on. And I thought she owed me," Pandora explains with a scowl.

Ah there she is. I was actually worried.

"You creeped the hell out of that girl," Kai comments.

"You are not making us into zombies on any job whatsoever," I inform Dora, in case she forgets, "Why bother try zombie makeup?"

"Prosthetic makeup is an ocean of possibilities. I should at least be able to explore a lagoon worth of it," Pandora simply says and I have no reply to that.

Ariadne thinks it's a good opportunity to speak up, "I got some amazing black latex fabric. Oh the corsets and skirts I can make with these!"

Elara tilts her head, "Where did you get them from?"

"Oh from this sex shop downtown," Ariadne replies, as casually as can be.

I expected someone to spit their drink out, and I am not disappointed. It is Cassandra who spits out the tea she had been drinking. The one which I had brewed for her.

Minnie bursts out laughing, "You dragged Leesh into a sex store?!"

Yes, laugh at my misery. Soon almost everyone but Ariadne and Blaise is laughing loudly.

I turn to Blaise, trying to tune out the rapturous laughter around, "I hope you have some good stuff for me."

Yuri makes a sound resembling the croaking of a frog, "I knew she smoked crack."

Don't injure your driver you need her, don't injure your driver you need her limbs intact...

"I have a bunch of clips, but I'll give you the gist with everyone around. Basically, they are trying to piece evidence they found, trying to put together every guests identity. They have already found out that there were three guests and two guards with cloudy security clearance."

Cassandra wipes the tea spill on her hoodie with a paper napkin, "Damn, didn't expect PPD to work that fast."

I cross my arms together, "The Interpol is also in on this now."

Minnie's eyes widen a fraction, "Hold up, the Interpol?!"

I give her an apologetic look for keeping this information to myself, "Yeah, they sent a guy at the joint yesterday. I had Kai plant a microphone on him. Speaking of," I turn to Blaise again, "Cut off the connection soon and make it as untraceable as possible. We can't risk being found because of a telephone connection to a microphone on the bottom of someone's shoe."

Blaise lips tug upwards slightly "Don't worry. If they try to trace the connection, they'll end up in a small countryside north of Wyoming."

I'm so proud of her at times.

"What else do you think they've found?" I ask Blaise.

"They know we cut into the platform and hollowed it, but by the sound of it, they were having a really hard time placing together the pieces trying to find out how we took the statue in open sight and the very short time period."

Kai whistles, "Thank me later cuz."

Mon laughs, "Hey I need to be thanked for the platform."

"Yes yes, thanks to all of you," Minnie shuts them up, "Continue, Blaise."

"They looked around in the vents, but thankfully we didn't leave prints."

"Yeah, so who is thanking me for that?" Ariadne demands.

I roll my eyes, "This is not some thank you party. Can you stop interrupting her?"

Blaise gives me a look of gratitude and I nod at her in response, "Anyways, our guy was sounding frustrated as hell that they couldn't figure out who did it or how it was done. So it's all good for now."

Now, just one more thing I need to know.

"Ellie, I hope you got a good price for our statue."

Elara grins at me widely as Rey produces a duffle bag in front of me, "Nine hundred and fifty grand in cash baby," Rey says in a casual tone.

"Mine hundred and fifty?!" I gasp, "That's more than the estimated price."

"Aha four grand extra for me, life's a beach," Yuri places her feet on the table, and then Minnie pushes them off with her hand.

Elara grins at me, "I learnt a few tricks from Cassie and Allie."

"I'm gonna need a thank you for that later," Cassandra says.

"No funny business? Did they give off any kind of suspicious vibes? You didn't use your real identity did you?"

Elara laughs loudly, "Alicia you need to calm down," she says, in her now less heavy French accent, "We checked everything, don't you worry."

I sigh of relief escapes my lips and they then spread into a smile, "I guess this calls for a celebration."

A huge grin spreads on Rey's face, "Brisket time?"

I laugh, "It's brisket time baby."

~

One thing I can admit with utmost pride is that I can grill a brisket that can put all the black dads of the States to shame. 

I smile to myself while placing the huge-ass cuts of beef on the barbecue while the others are busy setting up picnic tables, while Rey and Dhara excused themselves to lug the ice cooler from inside. Oh well Pandora is in her own world of setting up fairy lights, and if we care for our lives, we will like whatever arrangement she puts them in.

It is ironic how two criminal masterminds, two very skilled people of deception, a thief who can run faster than the speed of light, a driver who can drive at a speed twice the speed of light, two trained fighters, a technician who can blow up an entire city with the press of a button and a hacker who can expose all your dirty little secrets, are terrified of a fashion designer with questionable tastes and a very anti-social makeup artist.

Elara on the other hand...she just thinks of them as...human. What is wrong with that girl? 

The two of them are demonic masterminds who will take over the world soon. 

I knew the French put something weird in their tea.

I can totally imagine Pandora wearing a black robe with a huge-ass hood, tossing my body into the middle of a chalk pentagon with torches full of bright red flames, and sacrificing me to the Gods of clown makeup. Or James Charles. Or both. Brrr.

Speaking of, I carefully pick up a slice of pepperjack cheese and place it carefully on the burger meant for Ariadne. She only likes that kind of cheese. And she likes her hamburger over-cooked. Weird, but I have learnt not to question it, because I do not want to be sacrificed to the gods of fancy-dress competitions.

I reach out to take a spatula when a hand grabs my extended hand. Rey appears in my vision and she twirls me around while they are playing songs on the Bluetooth speakers. I hear Yuri badly belting out the lyrics.

I sing along as well, "I'VE GOT A FEELING! THAT TONIGHT'S GONNA BE A GOODNIGHT!"

Rey laughs before lowering me gracefully into a dip, and I laugh along as she twirls me away and I am now dancing with Minji.

The song has changed and Minji has a huge ass grin on her face as bobs her head while singing, "PARTY ROCK IS IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT! EVERYBODY JUST HAVE A GOOD TIME!"

I bob my head along, "WE GON MAKE YOU LOOSE TONIGHT, WE JUST WANNA SEE YOU-"

Yuri and Kai jump in between us and all four of us scream together, "SHAKE THAT!" and then all of us begin jumping wildly, cheering Alby on as she bursts into some very impressive shuffle-dancing.

My eyes shift to the table where Pandora and Blaise are sitting, far away from each other. Pandora is bobbing her head while painting on one of her silicon masks, while Blaise is watching us with a soft smile.

My world is shook witnessing that smile.

My mind is telling my brain cells, "YES WE HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE! EVERYONE CAPTURE THE SIGHT, FOR YOU MIGHT NEVER SEE IT AGAIN!"

Monique, thankfully, has taken my place at the grill and is flipping the burgers and turning over the brisket to its side, all the while lip syncing along to the music and shaking her hips a little.

Elara is dancing to another side with Cassandra, Ariadne and Dhara, and all four of them, thankfully, look like they are having the time of their lives.

I stop dancing, and move over to the grill again, take the spatula from my dear demo expert, and shove her gently towards everyone who is dancing under the fairy lights. She smiles and hands me a can of my favourite beer before running towards Kai, Yuri, Minnie, Aria, Allie and Dhara, grinning widely. 

I can't help but smile as I look over at all my children who I will most probably have to drag out of bed tomorrow morning because of the hangovers that they are going to have. Especially my most satanic child Rey. But I have come to realise that I would happily drag her one-fifty pound completely muscular ass from the air mattress at seven in the morning.

You'll be just fine, Alicia.

⚜️

Hey hey! I was gonna make it a double update but it took so much to edit this chapter alone, I'm too lazy to edit the other one cuz it's just as long :"(

Anyway, another backstory coming up in the next chappie, until then, cya!