Title: Hellbent
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Brittany/Santana (mentions of Quinn/Rachel)
Spoilers: none
Summary: The Lopez family business is a dangerous one.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Fox and Ryan Murphy. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this work of fiction.
Note: This is based on a picture linked in my profile.
Santana Lopez has always been bad.
This is a simple fact about her. Everyone knows it, and that's the way she likes it. It was ingrained in her for as long as she can remember by her father. The Lopez family is infamous for all the right reasons – or wrong, depending on whom one asks – and Santana was hand-picked to continue the family business.
And when the family business is crime, being bad is a necessity. She handled her first knife at age seven, and then moved on to guns two years later. She is a crack shot and one of the best knife fighters in the city. She made a name for herself even before she took over from her father. She is respected, but even more importantly, she is feared.
And right now she's bored out of her mind.
Sitting back in her leather chair, she tips back and slowly lifts her feet to rest crossed on the edge of her desk. The man standing on the other side of the desk watches her legs, wide-eyed and eager. She rolls her eyes at his complete lack of subtlety.
"Lesson number one, jackass. Don't leer at the boss." Santana smirks when the man's eyes snap up to meet hers and his face pales. "You're only here because our fathers were friends once upon a time. That is the single favour you'll be getting from me. They tell me that you can lock-pick with the best. You have one chance to make it into my good books, do you understand me?"
He nods rapidly, fingers nervously fiddling with his hat. "No problem, boss. I won't let you down."
"Good. Now, I'm going to place you with Puck's team, he'll show you the ropes." The man's eyes widen as he realize that he'll be answering to Noah Puckerman, a lieutenant of the Lopez family famous for his quick temper and violent tendencies. Those are Santana's favourite qualities about Puck when they don't irritate the shit out of her.
She drops her feet back to the floor and leans forward, placing her elbows on the desk and staring at the man thoughtfully. He twitches nervously. She reaches for her glasses and slips them on before picking up a fountain pen. She writes a quick note on a piece of her stationary and hands it to him. "Go to the entrance and give this to the doorman, he'll tell you what to do after that." He reaches forward to grab it and Santana can see the sweat on his upper lip. "Calm down, Hudson. You're in Lopez territory now."
Somehow, she doesn't think he finds that terribly reassuring. But that's his problem, not hers. "Get out." He backs out of the room quickly and she has to stifle a laugh when he nearly bows as he closes the door.
She slides her glasses off and places one of the arms between her teeth, biting it thoughtfully. "What do you think, Brit?"
A hidden door opens beside her liquor cabinet and a blonde walks out. She has a knife in her hand and she's carefully cleaning her nails. Santana loves it when Brittany plays with a blade.
"He could be the new mole. Tina hasn't found anything in his background check yet, but give her more time." Brittany walks over to the chair in front of Santana's desk and slumps into it. "Hi." She smiles and Santana suddenly remembers why no one ever believes that Brittany works for her. The woman looks like she belongs in a fairy tale.
"Hi, B. How was L.A.?" Santana can't help the smirk that appears when Brittany rolls her eyes and lets out an exasperated breath.
"Fabray's new girl, Rachel something-or-other, is, um, interesting. You'd hate her." Santana is lightly surprised by this, as Quinn has always had excellent taste in the past. She had dated Santana once, after all.
"Well, I look forward to meeting her then. Pissing off Quinn is always fun and there hasn't been a gang war in far too long." Brittany laughs at that and tucks her knife back into its sheath along her thigh. Santana looks at it longingly. It really is a beautiful knife, but Brittany never lets her use it.
"Tell Puck to keep a close eye on the Hudson kid, I don't want any of Schuester's men infiltrating my people. Maybe remind him of what happened to St. James. That should keep him on the straight and narrow." Santana demands complete loyalty, and if she doesn't get it, bad things happen; people often die.
Brittany nods before tilting her head to the side. "Are you busy today?"
She pulls her leather-bound notebook toward her and flips through it until she gets to the current date. There's a negotiation with a new gun runner that she is supposed to attend in two hours, but it's a relatively open day for her. "No, what do you have in mind."
Brittany's cocky smirk tells her all she needs to know.
Puck can handle the new gun runner by himself; Santana Lopez has far more pressing business to attend to.