——Sammy——

|Contracts:

-A new contract is now active.

Vincent signed... not that the possibility of death has ever stopped him before.

"Dammit, he actually signed?" Sean said, his eyes looking at the notification his phone received. "I'm really stuck with him now?" His complaints veiled as questions continued as I tuned him out. Despite my focus directed at my phone, I could feel his worried gaze watching me as his whining carried on. 

Not wanting to hear it anymore, I spoke, "It'll be fine. At least that's what Vincent will say." I scrolled through the sea of comments as Sean paced about the kitchen. 

"Oh god, what's his definition of fine?" His footsteps raced about the tiled floor. Occasionally, his body would enter the periphery of my vision as I wrote replies. On his third passing by, he stopped before me and my eyes darted up from my phone. "Seriously, what does he see as fine?" My phone pinged, drawing my focus away from him.

One of my tier three subs, better not ignore them.

"Uh, hello?" As my keys clicked and clacked, a nervous whine escaped Sean. He waved his hand in front of my face. "I was talking to you!" Sean's attempts to get my attention continued to play out as I sent the reply.

I let out a sigh, my eyes locked with his. "Whatever you're currently thinking falls well below the reality of it." With his question addressed, he went towards the living room.

Vincent, where are you? Samara told me she'd have you ready to come get this guy. Come to think of it, the one that should be with me is missing as well. I pray he's less anxious.

A buzz sounded from the front door and refused to stop as it grated on our ears. Whoever was out there refused to let go of the buzzer. I raised my head from the screen and watched as Sean passed by the opening in the kitchen to the entrance hallway.

"Okay!" Sean said, as the noise stopped, another buzz went off from outside the condo.

"Nico, where have you been? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago!" Sean took a step back when he came into view of the opening.

"Sean, just relax," a burly hand clamped down onto his shoulder and shook him lightly. "You're freaking yourself out. It's gonna be fine." His voice was calm, but his word choice had only panicked Sean further.

"Nico, I don't even know what that is right now!" Sean threw the hands off his shoulders then made his way into the kitchen. "Besides, you get the emotionally dead one!" His hand pointed to me when the larger man stood in the doorway. His amber eyes narrowed at me. 

He closed the gap between us as he towered over me. "Is this the one that messed with Cassie?" Nico's eyes took on a yellow hue, his powerful arms flexed as he balled his fists. Nico planted a hand on my shoulder. I rolled my eyes at his intimidation tactic and watched him, unfazed and unimpressed. His anger peaked as he leaned inwards. The unfettered strands of his long, tied back hair swayed to the side as he leaned forward, leaving our faces inches apart.

Do I need to crate him?

"Nico, it's not-" Nico's hand rose from my shoulder when he held a finger up to Sean. His head turned and as he looked away, I returned my focus to my screen.

"I got this, just relax." A growl escaped him when his gaze returned to me.

Maybe I should stop this idiot before the contract makes him drop dead.

"That's Vincent. I'm the guy that'll be with you today." I said, keeping my eyes focused on the screen. 

The answer made him stop. "Oh..." He stood awkwardly in place. "Sorry about that." Realizing his proximity to me he took a step back and reached for the side of his neck. "So yeah, I'm Nico... what was your name again?"

"Sammy," my answer given I pulled up my texts with Vincent.

|Sammy:

-You almost here?

As I waited, I observed the two brothers, Sean, the nervous wreck who seemed petite next to his towering, hulking brother, Nico.

"So what's with the buzz cut?" Nico grabbed the top of Sean's head and turned him to the left. "Sean, it does not work for you." With his advice given, Nico let go of him and ran his hands through copper brown hair and fixed his bun. Sean scowled back at Nico for invading his personal space yet again.

Were these two really the best options they had to work with us?

With his defined arms raised and showing off his herculean physique. His t-shirt did little to hide the contours of his body. He gave a smug grin. "Ladies love dudes with long hair, and there are plenty of dudes into it too, for Colton. I still don't get why he buzzed his hair off, too." Sean shook his head. "What? I just told him he might want to trim a little off with how he was looking ragged and next thing I know, he's shaved it all off." With each question, Sean grew more annoyed. "You get any since you did this?" He ran his hand over Sean's head again when he moved away and stood beside me.

"So, when can we expect Vincent?" Sean asked as I watched the dots move on my screen when the answer to Sean's question appeared. 

|Vincent:

-Making my way through the basement so about 20 seconds!

"He'll be at the door in a moment." I watched as the two heard something and glanced towards the kitchen entryway. I listened when the faint sound of approaching footsteps grew louder. 

A wicked smile formed on Nico's face. "Time to get some payback for Cassie." 

He passed by Sean, who spoke in a hurry. "Nico, don't put him through a wall! The contract says we can't hurt either of them!" 

Nico snickered at Sean's concern. "I'm just gonna talk to him." Sean let out a groan from Nico's claim. The front door opened. "Hey, you Vincent?" he asked,

"Yup, that's me. You must be Nico, right?" Vincent said. He made his way into the kitchen, then glanced at Sean. "Hey, contract buddy, how are ya?" Before Sean could answer, Nico stood behind Vincent when similar to Sean and I, he planted his hand on Vincent's shoulder. The veins bulged in his hand as his grip tightened on him.

"So about my sister, my sweet little sister, who just wanted to protect you from the ghost." His eyes again took on a yellow hue. 

Vincent's smile had a slight twitch before he spoke. "Righttt, about that. Well, you see, it's just a job hazard of being around and me and I protected her the entire time we were in my condo." 

Nico's hand tightened on him. "You had my sister alone with you in your place, and you expect me to believe nothing happened?" I watched as the gears turned in Vincent's head.

Nico's not bright. Let's see how he talks his way through this.

"We didn't even kiss, in fact, when she tried to kiss me. I shot that down, Sean saw it, he can confirm." Vincent locked eyes with Sean and gestured his head towards Nico. 

Nico's glowing yellow eyes went to Sean. "Yeah, he did."

Nico gave a nod to Sean. "So? You still used her."

Vincent's eyes darted to me before his next response. "I'm gonna apologize to her, it's just... It won't mean much if I say it while she's like that cause she'll instantly forgive me. Once she's back to normal, we'll know it'll be genuine if she forgives me."

That might work.

"Besides, you guys can tell if I'm lying, so did you hear any lies in all of that?" Nico and Sean shared a glance.

Nico's hand eased its grip on Vincent when he spoke. "I guess not, but if you think I'm the only one who wants to break you for what you did, wait till you meet Cora. She's scarier than me." A snicker left Nico when he released Vincent from his grasp. He turned to face the imposing werewolf. 

"Look, I know I can't change the past, but maybe saving you all from your current problem will make us even? What do you say?" Vincent held out his hand. "We got a deal? As a bonus, Cassie is permanently in the Friendzone with me." Nico reached out and shook his hand.

"Fine, but you better deliver." He said, as his grip tightened on Vincent before again letting him go. With his hands freed, Vincent made his way towards Sean as Nico ventured to me.

"So you're my contract buddy. What exactly do we need to do?" He watched me as I sent another reply out. 

Let's keep it simple.

"We just need to gather whatever information we can on Harold and work from there to lure him back here to eliminate. That may include bringing his partner here and also removing him from the equation."

With our two primary objectives laid out, Vincent spoke. "Hey actually, I got a better idea on that." With our full attention on Vincent, he continued. "So I think it would make more sense to set this guy up as getting betrayed by Harold, have him come here to leave his phone, then send him to the mill. I'll be exploring there and can ambush him once he gets there."

Makes sense. If his phone is here, then it won't track him going out into the woods. From there we just need Harold's phone and we can set up some fake text conversations to suit our cover up.

"Acknowledged," with my response, Sean's worry once again bubbled up.

"What are you gonna do?" He asked Vincent, who gave him a smile.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. It'll be fine-"

Sean yelled out and stopped Vincent. "Define fine!"

Vincent gave a nod. "Oh, that's easy. You're gonna witness a murder or two today, but don't worry, it's gonna be fine. It's not like you know them or anything." I rolled my eyes at his answer as Sean crossed his arms and gripped them.

Samara knew what she was doing when she left emotional and mental damages out of the contract. Vincent wouldn't last five minutes if they were stipulations.

"I told you, whatever you thought it was, would be an underestimation." With my piece said, I faced Nico. "So our job should take about thirty minutes. After that, I have a few errands and a live stream to run, so we got a pretty calm day."

He smiled at my answer. "Sounds good." Sean made a panicked noise as he moved towards us.

Sean began his desperate plea. "Can we please trade? It's not fair! Why do you get a calm day of exploring an old lady's condo, then sitting around while I have to go to the abandoned mill with this nutcase?" an exaggerated gasp escaped Vincent. 

"Sean, how could you say that? Here I am, all ready to give you the full experience of being around me and you just want to leave?" His eyes welled with tears as his voice filled with sorrow. Sean stood bewildered at the response. A few more seconds passed when Vincent's face twisted into a smile as he wiped away the tears. "I can cry on cue. It's a useful skill."

Sean is in over his head.

"Anyway," Vincent took off his backpack and unzipped a side pocket. "Sammy, you're gonna need this." He pulled his hand out of the backpack and revealed a pair of keys with a tag.

G. Müller, # 36

"You took them?" I was looking all over the place for those damn keys!" Vincent paid no mind to Sean's whining and tossed the keys my way. "Why did you even take them?" He paused when a thought hit his mind. "Did you steal anything else?" Sean watched Vincent intently.

This time, Vincent rolled his eyes. "Sean, no one told me I couldn't take them. Besides, Greta's couch was comfier than the floor of my condo." He said calmly.

Sean scoffed. "Why would anyone need to tell you that? Besides, Marissa made me and Cassie leave!" 

Vincent smirked at his defense. "You left me alone. Does that sound like a good idea?" Vincent raised his arms as he shrugged.

"I mean, not really." Nico said,  resulting in a glare from Sean.

"Nico!" Sean said when Vincent stepped between them

"See? The majority of the room agrees you messed up there, I mean Sammy might be a hard read, but I can tell he agrees with us." Sean's head pivoted between his brother and Vincent when he threw his hands up, then stormed out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"Contract buddy, wait!" Vincent followed after Sean when he stopped and stood at the back of the couch Sean had fled to. "So you ready for our fun day of exploring a mill where sixteen people burned alive?" Vincent's tone dripped with eager joy at his demented inquiry, while Sean remained silent. "There's def gonna be some ghosts there, I just know it!" He leaned over the back of the couch. "And! We get to find the perfect spot to hide some corpses!" 

Another groan escaped Sean. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" He asked as he slumped back on the couch, defeated.

"Oh, we'd be here all day if I went into that. Instead why don't we head out and I can show you how metal bats solve soooo many problems!" Vincent lifted himself off the back of the couch and turned on his heels to face Nico and I. "Ok, we're gonna head out so you two have fun!" Vincent made his way through the kitchen and to the front door. "C'mon Sean, we're going for a walk!" He said, his voice mockingly energetic.

Lovely, he's treating him like a dog now. 

A creak came from the living room, and Sean passed by the opening in the kitchen, his shoulders slumped as the door opened.

"Oh, hey Greta." Vincent leaned into the opening to the kitchen. "Greta's waiting for you two." With his parting message said the two left.

Right, let's get this over with.