A/N: Okay I'd like to take some time to answer a question that has been sent to me repeatedly. Why italic print?... I know sometimes italic print is used to create flashbacks so why is it so constant?...Italic though?... So, what up with the italic?... Well, I hope your guy's question and annoyances will be fixed and answered after this chapter. I wasn't going to let the cat out of the bag way back when the questions started because I had a plan. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
It wasn't her idea to take out the head of operations that was for sure. Emma had no faith in any plan that meant she could be putting her guys in so much danger. She may be part of a mob based town but they were cute little puppies compared to the hounds they would be facing. It was Regina's plan, and hers alone, but that was something Emma would never admit to.
Regina had shown up at Emma's home the next day looking more put together than Emma could ever be after the events that took past the day before. She was perfect. Her hair was shiny and the glint in her eye was so bright Emma didn't even have to look directly at her to know it was there. This was Regina's forte; planning, undertaking, or overtaking as she put it. Emma was drooling by the time the woman bent over her coffee table to lay out different personal forms she had on every person they would have to get through to get to this infamous person. Emma made sure Regina's plans would work by inserting the men she thought would be able to handle each individual that the information provided for. Regina was so beautiful in all of her maniacal glory, and how her smirk would turn devious when she was really impressed with her own planning of strategies.
"Guys, we aren't getting anything out of this but some twisted version of a love story." Three men were standing huddled in a corner around a vending machine, speaking lowly about the person currently in interrogation.
"Look, man, we gotta get the confession out of them somehow. That's my job; get the confession and defend. Let's just ride the waves of useless information until we get what we want."
"No way, Ryder! You're totally into this aren't you?" One man yelled while flinging his hand in the man's direction, spilling some of the thick coffee mixture over the rim of his paper cup.
"I'm trying to get information. Now, I'm going to get back in there." The one called Ryder walked off angrily and slammed the outer door of the interrogation room on his way back in.
"Where were we?" He asked once he was settled again.
"They're over me rambling, huh?" The person under questioning at the other side of the table spoke evenly before they took a sip from their can of warm soda.
"It doesn't matter. On with your story."
The person nodded and licked their lips before starting again.
Regina and Emma both made the decision to start the next day on rested minds and bodies. It may have been in connection with the fact that after the last round of planning they had another round of something they would only ever call fucking.
The next day Emma called a meeting at her home and was only slightly nervous to let Regina's guys into the same room as her own. "No fighting among us, understood?"
A lot of grumbled yes's were given and that was enough for Emma to continue. "We have a problem that we are going to have to come together to solve. The man in the pub yesterday was the Robin Locksley. He can't be trusted and he is stealing business from us. So, I need two of you to follow him. And two more for each person we feel needs to be handled."
Everyone's eyes were alight with the challenge just as Emma hoped. "Who?" was followed by "I'll do it." Emma brought her hands up to quiet the soon to fights and turned to Regina for her to give out the first assignment.
Regina stepped forward and half of the room began to bicker about how they wouldn't take any orders from the bitch taking position. "I-"
"Hey!" Emma stood back up from her recently taken seat and took a menacing stance. "You may have had it easy before now, but this is not going to be easy and if I can't trust you to take orders from someone that I put in charge than you need to leave. Regina will be giving orders, along with me, from here until we fix the problems that were made. Her word is as final as mine. Understood?"
They all nodded in fear and turned to Regina who looked beyond pleased but nodded not to show it and began talking. "As I was saying, I believe we need our best on Robin because he will have the closes contact with who or what we need to find. When we find him we will find our head. When we have our head we need to cut it off." Regina looked around the room and stopped on August who was standing in the corner with his arm crossed, not liking where this was going. "We need to put our best trackers out. August, you will go."
August turned to Emma and she nodded softly before he nodded and rolled his shoulders. "Okay."
"And Ruby…" Regina finished with a drop of her shoulders.
Ruby jumped up like a dog seeing its owner for the first times in days. "Yeah?"
Emma took a deep breath and waited for Regina to give her the go ahead. Emma didn't expect Regina to actually listen to her when she offered the idea of putting Ruby on Robin's tail alongside August. She did though, and Emma could tell that she wasn't confident enough in her own decision to tell the girl her duties out loud. "Ruby, you'll be joining August."
Ruby turned to Emma with wide eyes and back to Regina, noting the woman she had come so close to through the years had tears forming in her eyes. "Are you sure, boss?"
Regina let a small smile play at the corners of her mouth for the girl and nodded slowly. "Yes. You are one of my best, Ruby. You are going to be a fine tracker. August," The woman turned to the man in question with open eyes. "Don't let anything happen to my girl."
With that Regina turned to Emma and gave one final nod as she left the full room in her hands to be alone. Emma turned to the silent crowd who sat in awe of the uptight woman fraying in front of their eyes. She cleared her throat and jabbed her thumb in the direction of the door signaling August and Ruby to follow the woman out. "Ruby, August, get on with it. On the table there are four phones and two duffle bags with everything you'll need including a list of instructions. I expect to hear from you two tonight when you get to the hotel."
August let his arms drop from their crossed position over his chest and raised an arm towards the door for Ruby to exit first. When he got close enough to Emma she pulled him closer for a hand shake where their eyes connected and the message she sent him was loud and clear. Don't fuck this up.
Emma let go of the man and turned to everyone else. She pulled the files Regina had brought over out from under her seat's cushion and passed them out to everyone. "Here are your hits. Learn them, know them, and hate them because they will not be on our side if they decide not to agree to the terms we set. I don't care if they have a family of friends because we do too. Read and listen because I will be sending you out in groups to find these people and you will bring them back to me. Got it?"
They all gulped audibly before nodding and turning their heads down to read while Emma paced and gave out duffle bags to each chosen group. This was a war now; a war with ghost men. They just needed to find the missing key that made Regina, and apparently everybody else, become so unhinged with fear.
Regina could hear the stomping of heavy set men leaving the house and the banging and bashing of bags against thin walls as she sat stiffly staring into one of those walls in a guest bedroom she had found. She didn't tell Ruby goodbye because if the girl and August weren't successful then it wouldn't hurt as bad. It wouldn't hurt as bad when she had to carve another name into her family vault wall. She knew she was setting the girl free to do what she had been wanting to do but it wasn't what she wanted the girl to do. Ruby was only 19 and she had seen too much for a young woman her age. It may have been part of the reason Regina let her go. She had seen so much and went through more than a normal person had so, maybe, some part of Regina knew it was time. She didn't even know August but Emma had let him in on so many inside deals that she had no reason not to trust him. Ruby was ready, she knew it, but it didn't mean that she was ready.
She had appreciated the way Emma had stepped in for her when she felt like she was just going to send Ruby for a glass of water instead of an enemy underling. The woman seemed to know all of the right times to step on board and be what Regina couldn't. And Regina hoped Emma felt the same when Regina had given August the assignment when the blonde knew she wouldn't be able to. She still didn't have complete faith in their plans but if they could stick together like they had in that room, and against Robin, then at least they wouldn't go down without a memorable fight.
"Ryder, I'm getting nothing over here. It's just twisting and turning more and more. They are supposed to trust us." The woman spoke as she bent down to retrieve her dropped water bottle.
"Kathryn, they aren't supposed to trust anything. It's set in their minds not to trust us. We have something they want and they aren't going to stop until we give it to them." Ryder smoothed a hand down his stress crinkled forehead and listened to the woman on the line.
"What if we gave them a visit? Do you think that could work? We aren't getting anything out of them this way and we're their lawyers for god sake! We must have some pull somewhere to at least let them have a visit." Kathryn sighed again, losing faith in her ability to work with criminals anymore.
"I don't know, Kat. I'll try but I can't guarantee anything here. That's all we can do now. I know they're guilty; the stories are just too wild not to be true. We just have to try and get to them to let them know that they are making it harder on themselves and that we are only there to help." Ryder looked up and saw the lights above the interrogation room turn green meaning he could go back in. He saw the badged men leaving the room frazzled and angry looking which meant they got nothing. "Kat, I gotta g-"
"Yeah, me too, the belts are worn out so that means I'm back on." Kathryn didn't say bye and neither did Ryder when they hung up and went back into the rooms to try to get through to their clients again.
A/N: So, did this chapter give any hints as to why italics? I hope you liked it even if you didn't get my explanation for the italics in this chapter. Much of the love, guys. Review and let me know what you think.
