This chapter is kind of short with little action. I guess you could call it a filler chapter. Sorry :/
Nerves
Chapter Four - My Boss's Problems
Bonnie laid in her bed, breathing evenly, eyes shut. She was enjoying her day off by sleeping in and resting throughout the day. She still planned on working out but not until she got a few extra hours of sleep. That was, until she was ambushed by Simba.
"Oof," she let out as her cat jumped on her stomach. "Simba, get off of me." She gently pushed the cat off before turning onto her stomach and giving him a playful glare. "You silly cat, what are you up to?" Bonnie patted him on his head before he jumped down to the floor and began meowing. "What do you want?" she whined, stuffing her face into her pillow. "I'm resting, cat. Can't you see?" she paused with a laugh. "Oh right, you can't."
A jingle from her phone caught her attention and she reached over to her nightstand to pick it up. She looked at the caller I.D. and frowned when she saw "Boss" flashing at her. She flipped the phone open.
"Hello?"
"We've got a problem."
Bonnie sat up. "What?"
"Gambol is dead."
Bonnie's eyes bugged. "What? How can Gambol be dead? We just saw him like two days ago."
"Apparently, the Joker got to him."
Bonnie scoffed. "I guess he didn't like the pretty price Gambol put on his head."
"There's more."
Bonnie sighed in frustration. Of course there was more.
"Lau was caught."
She groaned. "No, tell me you're lying."
"The Batman got him. Looks like the Joker was right. Now, get to headquarters fast. We need to talk."
That was the last place Bonnie wanted to be. It was supposed to be her day off.
"We are talking."
"In person."
She sighed. "Okay, I'm on my way.
Getting out of bed was the hardest thing she had to do. It was almost too comfortable to leave. But her boss was calling. She crawled out of the warm bed and dragged herself to the closet to change clothes. After pulling on some appropriate wear she pulled back her curly hair into a bushy ponytail and made her way to the living room with Simba trailing behind her. Bonnie slipped on her sneakers, grabbed her bag, and walked to the front door. However, she tripped over her cat, who ran off with a yowl and hiss. Landing on the tough carpeting with an "oof", she looked around to gather her bearings. She wasn't expecting to trip over her cat. She stood up. That's when she noticed a blood stain seeping through her jeans.
"Shit," she cursed.
Bonnie slipped into her bathroom and stripped off her jeans. Her knife had cut her when she fell and left a nice, long red line across her thigh. She groaned in frustration and grabbed a roll of bandages before quickly flushing out the wound with alcohol. She wrapped the bandages around her thigh several times before tying it off neatly. A great way to start the day that was supposed to be her day off.
Now, she was late.
Bonnie grabbed a taxi outside and instructed the driver to take her to a place near HQ. She paid the cabbie and after he left she continued the rest of the way on foot. Reaching the apartment building shortly after, she nodded to the guard who opened the door for her. There were already henchmen sitting and standing around in the living room by the time she entered. The Chechen sat, waiting for her and blew out a cloud of smoke from his cigar when he saw her.
"You're late," he puffed.
"I had a little problem."
He took notice of the blood stain with a raised eyebrow but said nothing of it. "Now, we need to discuss what is going to happen now that Lau is in jail."
"How did Lau get arrested?" asked one of the slower henchmen.
"Stupid, Batman got him, I already told you."
Rolling her eyes, Bonnie's patience already began to wane. "Continue, Boss."
"Our money is as good as gone now. They should be freezing our account and taking the money as we speak."
"What about Gambol?" asked another man.
"What about him?"
"He's dead right? What happened to his men and money?"
"Word has it that the Joker is now in charge of it," the Chechen explained.
"You mean he gained all that territory, money, and men in one fell swoop?" Bonnie asked.
"Yes, the guy is ruthless. I want everybody to be watching their backs to make sure he isn't there to stab it."
"So what do we do about the money?"
"Well we're only as good as the gold we got to back it up right?" pondered one of the men.
"What do you mean?" asked the Chechen.
"Maybe we should steal some gold and shit and keep it here. No banks."
"We're just gonna leave it out in the open?"
"No," Bonnie jumped in. "We can buy a safe. Keep it in the basement."
The Chechen thought about it for a moment. "We were doing mainly drug deals but now that our stocks are tied up in the Scarecrow, who also got arrested, we are low on money intake. Maybe we could go back to robbery."
"What would we rob?"
"Jewelry stores," Bonnie answered. "Maybe even Gambol's place. No one's there anymore right?"
"Sounds good, sounds good. Alright, we hit the jewelry stores and then Gambol's estate and stash the goods here," the Chechen clarified. "Everybody take lunch and we'll come up with a plan. Bonnie, we need to talk."
Bonnie jumped up and followed the Chechen upstairs to one of the bedrooms.
"I want you to lead the groups, wherever they go."
"You want me to be the leader?"
"You're the only one I trust to do the job right. We'll hit the store tonight and then Gambol's place later."
Bonnie nodded, accepting the responsibility. "Do I get choose the men?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever you think will get the job done good and fast."
"Trust me, I got this one in the bag."
. . .
The store was quiet and dark. Bonnie looked around, her ski mask already on, for anyone around. She already had someone working on the alarm system so that she and two others could tear the place apart without the worry of cops showing up. Bonnie waited for the guy to give her the word via the walkie-talkie.
"Blue, come in."
"Yeah, almost got it. Just a bit longer."
Bonnie sighed. "Hurry up Blue. We can't stand out here forever. Someone's bound to pass by."
Blue cursed. "Do you want me to do the job messy or do it right?"
"Do it right Blue or I'll kill you before the Chechen can. I'm not allowing any screw ups tonight."
Blue chuckled. "You mean like your little drug bust?"
Bonnie growled. "Just focus on your job before I decided to kill you even if you do do it right." She clicked off the walkie-talkie and waited for the code word.
"Blue Jay, we've got flight," came his response.
"About time," Bonnie muttered to herself. "Come on guys, let's hurry this up. We got time to catch up," she said to her two men.
They entered the store after breaking the lock and took out their bags. Bonnie quickly ran to rings first and broke the glass with a leather-covered elbow. She stashed the rings in her black bag before moving on to the other accessories. The two men were working just as fast as her, filling their bags up with the precious wear. After all the bags were filled, Bonnie waved them out of the store and they jumped in their SUV and the driver drove off. Blue grabbed one of the bags and opened it up with a whistle.
"Damn, we did good tonight."
Bonnie snatched the bag back, not trusting him with it. "Don't touch anything."
"What's our cut?"
She shrugged. "I don't know."
Blue laughed. "I bet you hope it's more than two percent."
Everyone knew about Bonnie's beginnings and often joked about her measly pay that now wouldn't even be able to afford her rent. She rolled her eyes but ignored them. They weren't worth her time.
The Chechen was pleased with their loot and hurriedly locked it away in the safe. He praised them with some cash and sent them on their way. Bonnie returned home exhausted and didn't even change out of her clothes when she hit her bed. She was out before Simba could even meow for food.
Knock, knock.
Bonnie opened her eyes and looked around. She was in her bed, still wearing the clothes from the night before.
Knock, knock.
Bonnie sighed and got out of bed. "Okay, okay," she called out. "I'm coming."
She opened her front door and immediately wished she had checked the peep hole first. Her boss stood on the outside.
"We go now."
"Go where exactly?"
"We have lunch with Maroni."
"Why?"
"To discuss what we do about problem."
Bonnie leaned against the door. "And the problem is?"
"Batman. Lau. Joker. Do you not listen?"
Sighing, Bonnie nodded. "Alright, give me a minute to change. I'll be down soon."
The Chechen left Bonnie to change and she quickly threw on a different pair of clothes. She was really getting tired of having to change all the time but ignored her impatience and left, accidentally forgetting to feed Simba, again.
The Chechen and Bonnie met Maroni at his favorite restaurant. He sat down with Maroni at a table for two while Bonnie took her seat with a couple of Maroni's men. They ordered food and watched the television news.
"We need to talk about our problems," Maroni started.
The Chechen nodded, digging into his food. "I put word out. We hire the clown. He was right. We have to fix real problem. Batman."
Bonnie listened to their conversation closely, not even paying attention to her food. The Chechen hadn't told her about hiring the Joker. This was the first she had heard about it.
The little bell at the door jingled and Bonnie looked to see who entered. Yep, she should have stayed in bed as she watched the man named Gordon approach them dangling a pair of handcuffs. He looked at the television set to see Harvey Dent giving an interview.
"Our boy looks good on the tube," he commented.
Maroni tossed down his napkin while the Chechen continued chomping on his food. "You sure you want to embarrass me in front of my friends, Lieutenant?"
Gordon stared at Maroni and simply said, "Don't worry, they're coming too."
A line of police officers entered the scene and grabbed both bosses and every single one of their men, including Bonnie. The police officer led her out of the restaurant, hands cuffed behind her back, and into the back of a police cruiser with two other men. She glared at the back of the seat in front of her. Why couldn't she have just stayed in bed?
. . .
"Eight hundred forty-nine counts racketeering, two hundred forty-six counts fraud, eighty-seven counts conspiracy murder. How do the defendants plead?"
Judge Surrillo looked around the room as it erupted into shouts of "not guilty"s. Bonnie stood by her boss, thoroughly annoyed. She knew that either way they would have gotten her eventually. But she would rather have stayed in bed a few extra hours instead of agreeing to do lunch. Still though, she wasn't too worried. The Chechen would make bail and surely get her out too. She seemed to be his favorite after all.
But even after all this, and knowing that she would make bail unlike more than half of the people there, she really was getting tired of the mob business and pondered the idea of getting out. If there even was a way out.
Special thanks to Songxbird, Molly, and Imogen-x0x for the lovely reviews. I really appreciate it! It's the highlight of my day! But does anyone else get nervous when opening up a review to read it? Because I'm always so afraid it's going to be a bad one. But I digress, I promise the Joker will show up in the next chapter. I know it's been slow getting there and I thank you for sticking it out with me. :D