This fandom needs some serious diversity.


Something very wrong was going on, and I was about to get to the bottom of it.

For the past few months, my girlfriend had been coming home at ungodly hours of the night. I know for a fact that she gets off work at nine, but she's been making a habit of coming home way past midnight and trying to sneak into the room without waking me, even though I stay up waiting for her.

I'd been trying to tell myself that there must a very viable reason for Jade to come home so late. I'd been racking my brain, trying to find excuses for the way she answered all my concerned questions with some bogus response like "Um, the gym." And through all that, I'd formulated this very heartbreaking realization about what must be going on, and I sat pondering it on the kitchen table early that morning, waiting for Jade, because she hadn't come home at all last night.

I've come to the conclusion that when Jade says "The gym" she really means A Guy Named Jim Who I Am Sleeping With Behind Your Back. There's no other explanation! She leaves for work at three in the afternoon on the dot and doesn't come back for like twelve hours straight. And when she finally gets home, she's all rumpled and exhausted and sometimes (!) she's even grinning like crazy, like she just had the best time while I was, you know, sitting up all night worrying about her.

And I had finally decided to confront her about it. It's been weeks—months!—of this type of behavior, and I needed answers. If she really was seeing someone else, the least she could do was come clean, or I don't know, be less obvious about it. And yes, it did kill me to think that there was some other guy out there (goddamn it Jim, if I ever find you, I'll kill you) who makes her happy and rumpled, but frankly leaving me in the dark and treating me like some pining housewife was just not the way to go!

And if she really was seeing someone else, well I'm sure we could always work through it, right? Maybe that asshole had something I don't have (like, uhm, a job maybe?) but I could get a job! I was trying really hard to land an acting gig, but I would give it all up if Jade wanted someone who was more financially stable, I would, for her—

I heard the lock of the front door click into place and I stood up. I raised myself to my full height and fisted my hands on my hips, trying to look disapproving. I'm really bad at being mad at her, you see. Any other guy would have confronted his girlfriend a lot sooner had he thought she was cheating, but I just kept my mouth shut, hoping she'd give me an explanation or something—

"Hey," she muttered shuffling in. My angry expression dissolved almost immediately at the sight of her. She looked completely worn-out, her hair was mussed and she was practically dragging her feet. It looked like she hadn't slept all night. The possible reasoning for this made my sympathy vanish, and brought real anger forward.

"We have to talk." I demanded, and to my surprise, Jade stared at me for a second, searching my face before sighing heavily and nodding.

"Yeah, I guess we do." She murmured, leading the way into the living room.

I swallowed hard before following her.

"Jade," I started once I entered; she was standing on the rug next to the couch but she hadn't sat down yet. She started toeing off her (very expensive, my god) heels before crossing her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows at me.

I took a deep breath. This needed to be mature and rational and level-headed, so that if she had to choose, she would choose me.

"I KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN CHEATING ON ME, JADE WEST AND IT'S NOT RIGHT. I DESERVE BETTER. I WILL NOT PUT UP WITH THIS KIND OF SHENANIGANS; I THOUGHT WE LOVED EACH OTHER. HAS THE LAST YEAR OF OUR LIVES BEEN JUST A LIE TO YOU."

"What?" she hissed wide-eyed, all the exhaustion in her face draining away. She looked genuinely shocked, but humph, I wouldn't fall for her act.

"Yes," I said, trying to regain some calmness and dignity, "I know, the signs are all there. You always smell like smoke, Jade, come on! You really want a smoker in your life? I can't…I don't want to play games with you, this relationship means something to me—"

"Oh my god Beck, shut up."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before doing what she said. The thing is, she's looking kind of angry and I've always been a bit scared of her wrath the (very few) times it's been directed at me.

"I am not cheating on you. How the hell could you think that? God, I'm like living in your shitty apartment, and I've never lived with a guy before! I come home to you every night—"

"Well not last night!" I pointed out angrily, but also a bit relived that maybe I'd been wrong about the whole gym/Jim thing, "You never tell me where you've been and you come home so late and the smoke Jade, the smoke. What am I supposed to think?"

"Well not that I'm cheating!" she screeched, glaring hard at me and stepping closer, but I wasn't going to back down.

"Well what then?" I yelled back, stepping closer as well.

"I've just been busy at work!"

"Work! I know for a fact that you haven't had a case in weeks! God, Jade would you stop fucking lying to me already!"

That seemed to shut her up. I never cussed at her, never. That was more of her thing. Still though, I was shaking with anger. She just kept lying and lying and expecting me to trust her. How could we have a relationship like that? Built up on deception and subterfuge and really awesome sex?

"I have been busy at work." She answered quietly after a long moment. Her voice was hoarse from how loud she's been screaming.

She sunk down to the floor, resting her back against the couch and sighing loudly. "I've just been doing a different kind of work."

My bones suddenly felt icy. I gulped, abruptly afraid of what she was going to say next and sat down next to her. I poked her on the knee until she looked up at me.

"What?" I asked softly, "You mean like…prostitution?"

She stared at me completely blank for a moment as my heart hammered against my chest. She blinked twice and then reared her hand back and slapped me across the face.

"NO!" she screamed, "I'M JUST IN THE MOB, OKAY?"

"What?" I asked, not even feeling the stinging on my cheek anymore. I was so shocked I couldn't process her words. What did she mean the mob? With the hardcore tattoos and bandanas? Like gunfights and shanking's and violent initiation ceremonies where they beat you to a bloody pulp and declare you a permanent part of their brotherhood?

"You're thinking of gangsters, idiot." She said and I looked up surprised, realizing I'd been saying my thoughts aloud.

"Wait…so," I was still in shock, my head was reeling and I guess she took pity on me because she exhaled loudly and scooted closer, looking at me with gentler eyes.

"The mob is a secret society. It's not like a gang, because gangs are messy, gangs get caught. The mafia is built around the idea of organized crime, it's much larger scale than any kind of gang, and it has its own government. It's why I got to work in nice dresses instead of, you know, bandanas."

I shook my head, still not completely understanding.

"Wait, you're in the mafia? Like, the illegal kind? But you're a chick! And you're so hot!"

Jade pulled a face and rolled her eyes, looking away from me.

"Yes," she muttered, "The illegal kind. And it makes no difference whether you're a guy or a girl."

"Do you like…do you have a gun?" I whispered the last part.

She bit her lip as if debating whether or not to tell me before she turned her face to look at the wall. She gave a very tiny up-down motion with her head. Oh my god, my girlfriend has a gun! All those times I made her mad!

I was quiet for a long time. Like, a really long time, as I digested all of this. And I guess it was a little too long for Jade though, because she turned to me suddenly and said in a desperate voice,

"Look, I never thought I would tell you, okay? I could have lived my whole life pretending I was normal. I didn't want…I never wanted you to know."

"Come on," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and getting frustrated, "You couldn't have kept it to yourself forever. I would have figured it out eventually."

She shot me a level look, eyes cool and half-lidded, "I've been AWOL for the past three months," she pointed out, "And you never suspected anything."

I opened my mouth to fire back that I did suspect something, I thought she was cheating on me, but due to the outcome of our most recent conversation on that same topic, I had a funny feeling it wouldn't go over too well, so I smartly snapped my mouth shut again.

Jade started grumbling, picking absentmindedly at the threads on my rug and glancing tensely from me to the floor again.

"I didn't want to tell you," she said in a soft murmur, "But freaking Tori said it was only matter of time before you followed me like an idiot and got yourself killed. It was better to come clean, she said." Jade looked at me then and worried her bottom lip between her teeth, "Or you know, breakup with you or whatever."

"Tori?" I asked, putting my hand over hers before she could rip the carpet to shreds, "Is that like a friend from work?"

She stared at me for a second in disbelief before extracting her hand from my grip and burying her head in it, frustrated.

"Yes, Beck," she answered, way too sarcastically if you ask me, "A friend from work. Sometimes, at the end of a really long shift we like to get happy hour drinks together and, you know, sing karaoke and shit." She raised her head to meet my eyes. She was mocking me, I could tell, but her eyes were clouded and upset and she didn't seem to be enjoying it the way she usually does.

"God, okay," I said frowning, "You don't have to be so mean about it."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Right," she said through clenched teeth, "You're totally right. I should be nicer about it. I really should, since there are so many nice things to say about the fucking mafia!"

"Hey," I said, getting angry now, "How would I know how this works? The most experience I have with this stuff is from what I saw in that movie The Godfather. Three hours ago, I was sure you were cheating on me with some other guy, and now I find out that actually, you aren't. Actually, the reason you come home so late and get so jumpy when I ask you questions is because you've been out all night getting into gunfights in deserted alleyways! So yeah, I think asking you to be a little nicer about isn't too out of the question!"

"Look," she said, firing up as well. She stood and I did too, standing a few feet away from each other. "If you want to breakup with me, just freaking say it, okay? Don't make me feel bad for not sugarcoating my screwed-up life for you! It's not like I ever wanted you to know—"

"Hey," I said, moving closer, "Who said anything about breaking up? I don't want to break up. Do you?"

She gaped for a few seconds; such an unusual look on her, before she snapped her mouth closed and composed herself again. "You don't want to breakup?" she narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down suspiciously, "Even after knowing what I am and…and what I do?"

"Well," I started softly, inching a little closer and threading my fingers through hers, "I don't know what you do, not exactly. But as for who you are Jade, I've always loved that. Even when I was sure you were seeing someone else, I…it made me so upset because I knew how much I loved you, and it sucked to think that you didn't love me as much. I wasn't even really mad that you were cheating, I was mad at myself for not doing anything about it. So yeah I still want to be with you, of course I do."

I smiled down at her but she didn't look too convinced. She pulled me down to the couch with her and looked away again.

"There are some things I'll never be able to tell you," She confessed in a whisper almost, closing her eyes briefly before opening them again, "It's a lot like living a double life, Beck. Would you be able to do that? To just not know where I've been or what I've been up to? I could disappear for weeks at a time without giving you any notice and then come back again like nothing ever happened. Do you really want that?"

I swallowed, looking away from her. I didn't want that, not really. It sounded terrible not to know, the past few months had been hard enough and back then I'd just thought she'd gotten bored of me. Now I knew that she would be in danger, when she came home late there was always a possibility that she'd be a bloody mess, or that she wouldn't come home at all. But what was my other option? Being without her? Breaking up and lying in bed all alone without her in my life at all, wondering where she was or what she was doing and not even being able to check if she got home okay? Wasn't that worse?

I looked at her again only to see that she was staring steadily at the wall across the room. Her eyebrows were drawn together and she didn't look angry or pissed or anything really, except maybe a bit sad.

I took her face in my hands and turned it to look at me.

"Not knowing," I said in a whisper, searching her deeply blue eyes, "Would hurt me a lot. But…but being without you, Jade, breaking up would kill me. I'd rather be—"

"Shut up," she murmured, cutting me off and climbing onto my lap. She then proceeded to like, eat my face off. Not that I'm complaining or anything, cause that girl has got a talented tongue, let me tell you, but I sort of thought we were having an important conversation there. So after a few minutes (alright, half an hour, shut up) of very intense making out, I managed to extract myself from her.

"Okay," I said trying to catch my breath, but she just attached her mouth (my god, her mouth) to my neck and started scarping her teeth there.

"Jade!" I said, grabbing her by the upper arms and trying to hold her off. Yes I am aware that preventing my unlawfully hot (mobster!) girlfriend from trying to have sex with me was seriously costing me my Man Card somewhere, but honestly, this was slightly more important than all that.

"What?" She asked all whiny and adorable and flushed pink. I smiled at her and shifted slightly so that she was positioned more comfortably on my lap and placed my hands on the dips in her waist.

"I just…I have a few more questions, okay?"

"No, not okay." Jade grumbled leaning away from me. "Why can't we just forget all this and have sex?"

"Because you're in the mafia! God, all this time—wait, how long exactly? I mean," I backtracked, trying to be sensitive, "Can you tell me?"

She gave me a searching look before climbing off my lap (boo) and settling down beside me.

"Since I was nineteen." She said in a small voice. God, seven years, my girlfriend's been in the mob for seven years

"How'd you get into it?" I asked in a hushed voice. She gave me a dry look.

"Because I was an idiot." She answered darkly.

I wanted to ask more on that, but I had a feeling she wasn't too keen to talk about it.

"Aren't you worried about the police?" I asked, quite worried about the matter of her ending up in jail myself. She snorted and looked at me like I was stupid.

"Beck, we own the police."

God, my girlfriend owns the police

Suddenly another thought came over me and I looked at her seriously. "Isn't it really dangerous, though Jade? Don't you get into bad situations sometimes? And…and that smoke I keep smelling…that's gun powder?"

She sighed loudly and looked down to her lap for a long minute. "I'm trained," she answered eventually, "I'm one of the best there is so you don't have to worry."

Don't have to worry, she says! My girlfriend comes home at all hours of the night reeking of gunpowder and I'm just not supposed to worry!

I opened my mouth to say something else but she just shook her head, focusing her eyes on me again.

"Look Beck, I don't like that I'm in it, but I'm in it for life. Plus I'm good at it, I'm really good at it, and some nights, when a job just goes off perfectly and without a hitch, it's like the most exhilarating thing I've ever felt and I can't go back to just having a normal life." She looked at me with mournful eyes, swallowing hard. "I can't."

"One more question." I said hoarsely.

Jade clenched her eyes shut for a second before opening them again and looking away from me.

"Okay," she said softly, "What?"

I took a steeling breath in; if I had the answer to this question I could sleep easier at night. Leaving Jade wasn't an option, if she thought it was impossible for her to go back to a normal life, she had no idea how impossible it would be for me to live a life without her. I was terrified for her, hated the idea that this was her "career" that any day with her could be my last, but there was very little I could do to change it. There was only acceptance, and I was just trying to get a good amount of it.

"Can I meet your work friends?"

Jade's head shot up, shocked. She stared at me unblinkingly for a few seconds before she tilted her head back and started laughing. Like, a lot.

"Oh my god," she said quite a while later, after she'd settled down a bit, "Yeah, god, okay. You can meet them if you want."

Score!

I watched her as she kept chuckling, shaking her head at me.

"God," she said, cuddling into my lap again, a sure sign that the worst was over and all we had to do now was move on from it, "I thought you were going to ask me how many people I've killed or something."

Wait.

"What?"


I was nervous.

And Jade could tell.

"Would you quit fidgeting? And fix your face; you look like you're about to have your period."

I shot her a dark look, wiping my sweaty hands on my pants. Easy for her to say—she was one of them! I was just her lowly, out-of-work, amateur actor boyfriend.

Oh my god, what if her mafia friends deem me unworthy to date Jade and shoot me, or something? Or what if they like, liquidate my assets?

Not that I have many, but still. I use to live in this RV back at my parent's house and I'd hate to lose that!

"Jade," I said, trying to keep up with her quick steps. She was wearing a short, fitted black dress and it flared to an end above her knees, giving me a lot to look at. "What if they think I suck?"

She looked back at me and shrugged easily, "Well then they'll be very good judges of character, won't they?"

"Jade," I stressed, I was nervous enough and her stupid long legs and witty insults weren't helping, "Could you at least slow down or something?"

"No. In case you haven't noticed, I always leave at the exact same time every day, and because of your incessant primping this morning, we're now running five minutes late."

"Five minutes," I mocked, rolling my eyes and ignoring her jab. I wasn't primping; I was just making sure my hair fell nicely. I'm trying to make an impression, okay? "Such a tragedy. God, who knew gangsters were so into promptness?"

She whirled around quickly, practically giving me whiplash, and baring her teeth at me.

"For the hundredth time Beck, we aren't gangsters, stop calling it that—there's a big difference. And you also need to stop mentioning it in public. As far as most people are considered, the mafia resides majorly in downtown Chicago and doesn't control most of their lives. We'd really like to keep it that way."

We stared at each other for a minute as I digested this piece of information. "So like, if I call one of your friends a gangster I'll get shot?"

She rolled her eyes. "They're not my friends, they're my team. And yeah, sure, you'll get shot. By me."

"Hey," I said only mildly offended as she hooked her fingers around my wrist and started walking again, "That was a super mean thing to say."

"Shut it," she answered back and I grumbled disconcertedly. We walked ahead in silence for a few more minutes before Jade came to an abrupt stop right in front a huge hotel.

"This is where we're meeting your friends?"

"Stop calling them that!" Jade hissed, releasing my wrist only to thread her fingers through mine. "And yeah," she muttered back as the doorman ushered us inside, "This is mainly where we meet before jobs."

"Here?" I asked in a whisper as she led me across the gigantic lobby and towards the elevators, "Not like in a warehouse or something?"

She shot me a dry look as the elevator doors dinged open and she stepped inside. "You watch too much TV."

Well actually, I didn't. But I think the basic assumption when you're dealing with mobsters is that they meet in warehouses, right? Cause that's where they're less likely to get caught! Although, I suppose if the mafia owns the police anyways, there's no one to really catch them…although come on, there has to be someone out there the mafia doesn't control, like maybe a division of detectives that focuses mainly on mob-related cases. Aw, but I hope not cause that means Jade would be more likely to get caught and I'd just hate that.

"Hey," I said suddenly worried, wanting to ask her about private detectives and warehouses, but I stopped short when I realized we were already standing right in front of two thick, oak doors. They were flanked on either side by these huge burly men in these awesome black three-piece suits.

"Is this it?" I asked, throat suddenly dry. I turned to look at Jade and I was surprised to find that she looked a bit nervous as well. She was biting her lower lip in any case, and I suddenly noticed her hand, still firmly enclosed in mine, was feeling a bit clammy.

"You okay?" I asked, pulling her slightly to the side so those giants near the door couldn't overhear—they seemed like the nosy type.

Jade took a deep breath in and nodded, tightening her hold on my hand.

"Just don't talk too much." She advised and before I even had the chance to be mildly offended, she was dragging me towards the doors and the giants were pulling them open and we were inside.

It looked like a living room I guess, just bigger and more ornate than I'd ever seen. The walls were like this muted gold color and there was a freaking crystal chandelier hanging high from the ceiling. I whistled lowly while taking it in, which I guess was tacky or something, cause Jade elbowed me hard in the ribs.

"Ouch," I looked down at her disapprovingly; ready to bring up the one-sided discussion we had a few weeks ago about how violence was never the answer, when two people entered through an open door on the far right.

"Hi!" beamed the girl in a squeaky little voice when she spotted us. She rushed over and looked from between me and Jade excitedly. Her hair was bright red and she was maybe five feet tall. Suddenly the whole mobster deal seemed a lot less impressive.

"That's Cat," Jade intoned, and I was still struck by the absolute harmlessness of her. She could be in the mafia? That little red thing?

"Don't let her appearance fool you," Jade said, and she was either a mind reader, or the shock showed on my face, "Cat is one of the best coverts we have." And when Cat giggled, pleased with the compliment, Jade rolled her eyes and turned to face me again. "No ever suspects redheads."

Which, you know, I'm sure isn't true, but I wasn't about to comment on it.

I held my hand out and smiled. "I'm Beck," I offered, and she shook it giddily.

"I know!" she squealed, and then turned her attention to the guy who had entered behind her. He was fairly tall and built, looked more like mafia material than Cat at least, and he was also wearing really awesome dark suit like those guys guarding the doors. I looked down at my button down and slacks, feeling inadequate. I really needed one of those.

"Andre," he said holding out his hand, and I nodded, shaking it. "So you're the guy that's got our Jade all rattled up."

I turned to her and smirked, releasing Andre's hand. "Rattled up?"

Jade hissed and glared at Andre, "Screw you,"

"Jade has told us so much about you! She talks about you all the time!" Cat interrupted, and by Jade's snort and derivative eye roll, I'd say Cat was exaggerating a little. But before I had the chance to even make a teasing opportunity out of the statement, a couple more people walked in from a different door on the opposite end of the room.

"Told you they'd be here already," the girl said to the skinny guy next to her. He had way too much hair on his head (and not in the good way—I would know) and dorky glasses. All his lame features barely mattered though, because he too was wearing a classy dark blazer, which I guessed was dress code for these mafia types.

"Tori," Jade spoke, pointing first at the brown-haired girl, and then at the guy, "Robbie."

"Hey," both of them said, but Jade was still talking.

"We're all aware of Robbie's very unimpressive appearance." She drawled, "He doesn't get much at face-value. It's why he's tactician."

"Hey!" Robbie said offended, "I do so have face-value! Don't I Tori?"

"Uhm," Tori smiled prettily and patted Robbie's shoulder consolingly, "Well you're the best tactician we've ever had."

She turned to me then and offered a slyer smile, holding her hand out.

"And you must be Beck. I have to say, I'm sort of surprised you're less tattooed."

"Erm,"

"Actually, yeah," Andre said from beside her, "Jade doesn't generally go for the pretty boy types."

"Shut up," Jade advised everyone, but their conversation got me thinking about something else I had wanted to ask Jade yesterday when she'd confessed.

"Actually I was wondering," I started, snapping everyone's attention back to me, "If it was okay for Jade to tell me? About your…um, type of work?"

The four of them shared these little smiles with each other before Tori looked at me again.

"Normally no," she answered, gesturing for us to sit down on the lavish sofas, "For example Cat's married and her husband has no idea."

"Really?" I asked shocked, as Cat just nodded happily, like this was no big deal. "So then, why—"

"Well," Tori interrupted, looking at Jade, who was slouching heavily on the couch and muttering darkly under her breath, "Jade has the bad habit of overworking herself. She really likes being in the thick of the action, and normally it's not such a problem. But over the past few months, I assume since Jade started feeling guilty about keeping such a big secret from you, she's been getting…easily distracted. That's very dangerous for us, you see. I figured it would be smarter for her to just tell you the truth…or end it. I have to say, I was a bit surprised with the option she chose."

Well I have to say, I was a bit surprised at Tori. Why would she be surprised at the option Jade chose? Of course she'd choose me, she loves me! But what surprised me even more was that Jade had listened to Tori and did what she said—it just wasn't very like her.

A soft beep-beep interrupted the conversation, and everyone was suddenly alert. I had about a second to watch as Cat and Robbie stood up and walked out of the room, as Tori pulled her phone out of her pocket and put it to her ear before Jade gripped me by the shoulder and hastily pulled me up.

"We're leaving." She said at once, and started to drag me towards the doors we had entered from.

"Wait," Tori called, and expected Jade to just brush her off and keep walking, but she surprised me (again!) when she turned stiffly around to face her again. "It's just a drop," Tori said shrugging, "It'll take five minutes."

"I'm taking Beck home." Jade hissed back, and it was in such a scary voice I was legitimately worried when Tori didn't immediately back down.

"Take him after," she said flippantly, tossing her phone to Andre who caught it one handed, read the screen and pocketed it.

"I have to—"

"Jade," Tori said, narrowing her eyes, "You know as well as I do that you have to be there. They're early, I know that, they shouldn't have been here until seven, but what can we do? They're here now and it's just a simple drop. Beck can wait here."

"No," Jade hissed, suddenly vicious, "I'm not leaving him here. I'm taking him home, and I'll meet you there right after."

Tori was seeming to consider it. She looked from between me and Jade for a moment before focusing in on Jade and tilting her head to the side. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet, lofty.

"I'm a little surprised at you," Tori murmured, lifting her eyes away from Jade for a second and focusing on the rest of the team, walking swiftly and fluidly around us, preparing, "But fine. Meet us there. You have three minutes."

Jade nodded sharply once, grabbed my hand and started to pull when a new voice stopped us.

"Jade?" It was deep, masculine voice, soft and hard at the same time. It was posed like a question, but the amount of authority in it made me cringe, made me feel like we'd been caught doing something wrong. From the corner of my eye I saw Jade swallow hard before she released my hand and turned around again.

"Yes?" she asked stiffly, and I was surprised at the amount of respect her tone held.

He was a man in his late forties maybe, and I had no idea how long he'd been in the room, but he stood with one hand on Tori's shoulder as if he'd been there since we'd first walked in. He wasn't wearing a suit like the rest of the guys, and there was nothing very threatening about his relaxed stance, but he somehow had a menacing presence—something that told you he wasn't the type to mess with.

"Where are you going?" he asked in that same way, soft like a question, but hard like an order.

Jade shot me a desperate look from the corner of her eye before she completely composed her face. She was suddenly blank and indifferent, and she moved further away from me, crossing her arms over her chest.

I looked over at her, slightly hurt at the unusual abandonment as she answered.

"To the drop." She said softly, and the man nodded once, fixing his eyes on me for the first time.

"Get him some Kevlar," he said quietly to Tori, staring at me ominously. I fought not to look away from his piercing eyes, and the next thing I knew, Tori was in front of me, sliding a heavy bulk of padding over my head and giving me a grim look.

I craned my neck over Tori to look for Jade, who was studiously ignoring me. She had one leg propped on the coffee table and she lifted the hem of her dress slightly to fiddle with something on her upper thigh. I heard a click, then a snap before she placed her leg down again and smoothed the skirt out. She was standing next to Cat and they were huddled together, talking in hushed voices.

Jade wouldn't look at me.

"Sorry," Tori said softly from in front of me. I'd almost forgotten she was there, and as she tightened the strap of the bulletproof vest to my waist, she looked truly apologetic.

"It looks like you're coming with us.


This got away from me, it was supposed to be short and funny, but it turned into a monster so it's going to be a two-shot. I've got most of the second part planned out, and I've already started it, so hopefully it'll be up next week or sooner.

Also, A MOBSTER SAVED MY LIFE ONCE, GUYS. I mean, he saved me from being mugged-slash-raped, so it counts. It's what inspired this piece. Let me know what you think.

Cheers.