"This is not going to be good," Bayley said to Becky. They were jogging into the Helmsley mansion, not far behind Ronda, who had looked like she was ready to beat someone to death the whole way back from their meeting with Zelina Vega at Almas Autos.
Bayley could understand why Ronda was angry. Learning that her father was going to sit down across a table with the man responsible for her abduction and sexual assault was bound to be galling, even more so when she learned it from someone outside of the family. But Bayley knew that a hot temper like Ronda's wasn't a good thing in this line of work. She had been able to tell that Vega hadn't been impressed with what she had seen either.
"Where's my dad?" Ronda demanded of Trish Stratus, who happened to be walking across the entrance hallway when the trio entered the mansion.
"They're having a meeting," Trish said, thereby giving the dining room as the location. "Are you okay? I mean, what's wrong?" She didn't get an answer. Ronda had stormed off towards the dining room, with Bayley and Becky in tow.
Reaching the dining room, Ronda shoved the door open with such anger that she might as well have kicked it in. Becky put her arm in front of Bayley in a gesture that suggested it wasn't a good idea for them to follow Ronda any further. The inner sanctum was not a place they would be welcomed. In any event, they didn't need to be in the room to hear the conversation through the open doorway. They would have had half a chance of hearing it outside on the driveway, such was the volume with which Ronda launched into her father.
"You're going to break bread with fucking Reigns?" Ronda yelled furiously, charging towards her father's seat at the head of the table. All of the men in the room had jumped to their feet the moment the door had flown open.
"Ronda, calm down. This is not the time or place. I don't know what you've been told..."
"Nothing! That's what I've been told by you!" Ronda shouted, standing only a couple of feet from him. "I just had to find out from that fucking wet back bitch Vega that you're going to sit down with Reigns! After what he had done to me, you're going to walk into a room and talk to him? Share a drink with him? Maybe have a few laughs?" By the time she finished, her face had gone bright red in anger.
"Leave us," Hunter ordered his men, keeping his tone calm.
Owens, Orton, Joe and the rest of the senior Helmsley men got up and left the room in a quick and orderly fashion without a word. Last to leave, Owens closed the door and looked at Becky and Bayley, who were awkwardly standing near the doorway. "You're not supposed to be here. Go up to your room," he ordered them, speaking to them like they were servants.
Not liking being spoken to in that manner, Becky looked at Bayley before going anywhere. Bayley simply looked scared, and set off towards the stairs as she had been told.
"Are you deaf?" Owens asked Becky.
"No, sir," Becky said, just about keeping her tone in check. She turned and followed after Bayley, with Owens glaring after them.
Inside the dining room, Ronda's temper was still boiling. "Now they're gone, tell me what the fuck is going on," she insisted.
"Ronda, I need you to calm down," Hunter said evenly. "I'm as angry with Reigns as you are. Angrier, in fact."
"Doesn't fucking seem like it," she said combatively, albeit with some of the volume taken out of her voice.
"Sit down, and I'll level with you about exactly what the plan is."
Scowling, Ronda did as he said, sitting down in what was usually Kevin Owens' seat.
Hunter took his seat at the head of the table again, and let out a deep breath. "You want Reigns dead, and rightly so. So do I. So do all of the guys, and so does your mom. He crossed a line that no one gets to cross, and he's going to pay for it with his life."
"So why am I hearing from Zelina fucking Vega that you're going to some bullshit sit down with him and make some ridiculous compensation demands, or whatever she called it?"
"Because, honey, I'm looking at the big picture. You're very headstrong, and that can be dangerous in a delicate situation like this. We want the same result, but it's about how to get there without getting our men killed in the process. You were in the meeting when we discussed the basics of the plan. You know we can't just launch an assault on the Reigns' mansion, we have to play it smart. That's why I've bought Vega's assistance. She's going to help us with an ambush, and her men are going to wipe out Reigns and his entire crew."
"I remember what was said in the meeting," Ronda said icily. "I'm waiting to hear why you're going to sit down with the piece of shit."
"Take a moment to think about it, honey. Imagine you were Reigns. What would you be expecting right now?"
Ronda closed her eyes for a second, trying to calm down. "I would expect Helmsley to come for me," she said.
"Exactly. So when we do come for him, we don't want him to be expecting it. If he is, it's not going to work. That's why I'm going to sit down with him. I'm going to make the case that I don't want to get into a war that will see a lot of casualties on both sides, but if I have to, I will. I'll say that it can be avoided, but he is responsible for what happened to you, and that carries a heavy price. I want two million dollars. Failing that, we go to war."
"And you think he'll go for that?" Ronda said doubtfully.
"I think he will. He'll know he has to pay some penalty for what he did. He tried to ransom you, and it backfired. Now instead of me paying him, he has to pay me. Setting emotion aside, as tough as that obviously is for me to do, that's how business works."
"Let's say he pays up. What do we do then?" Ronda wanted to know.
"For a few months, nothing. We let the dust settle." Before Ronda blew her top again, Hunter held up a hand to tell her to shut up and listen. "We let the dust settle. We let Reigns think that he got off relatively lightly by paying me two million dollars. He fucked up and was able to pay his way out of the hole. But of course we know differently. When we decide the time is right, we set up a meet with him. Maybe we want to discuss laundering some money. That meet is where the ambush goes down, and we get our payback for what that piece of shit did to you. Now, are we on the same page on this?"
Clenching her fists, Ronda resigned herself to the fact that what she was hearing made sense. This was why her dad was the boss. He could think things through and see long term. He sometimes didn't arrive at a destination quickly, but he did get there. "Fine," she said with a sigh. "But you promise me you kill Reigns yourself, since you already said you won't let me be a part of it."
"I promise," Hunter said. He stood up and held out his arms for an embrace, which Ronda got up and accepted. "I love you, sweetheart. I know you want swift justice, but this is the right way to handle it."
"I see that," Ronda admitted. "I love you, dad."
They stood in each other's arms for a minute or so, and it helped to finally calm Ronda down properly. "So, if we're going to wait a couple of months or whatever to deal with Reigns, what am I doing in the meantime?" she asked after they parted. "You said you would give me more responsibility, and you seem intent on having Bayley and Becky work for me."
"You're going to take over supervising the meth lab," Hunter announced. "As for those two, I've been thinking about what we can do with them. They were making a living breaking and entering, but that's not a skill that we need often, if at all. With that discounted, intelligence seems to be the strength they bring to the table. Bayley is supposedly exceptional with computers."
"What does knowing about computers have to do with the meth lab?" Ronda asked, showing contempt for their new recruits.
"Not much. But my point is they're smart people. We can make use of that. Right now we only have Bischoff who can cook meth that meets the Helmsley quality standard. If something happened to him, we'd be in trouble. It's a problem I've had on my mind for a while now, and I've now decided how we solve that problem."
"You want me to have Bischoff teach those two how to cook Helmsley meth?" Ronda figured out.
"Exactly. And you're going to keep a close eye on them the whole time. I trust you can do that?"
Ronda could hardly argue with him. She had asked for more responsibility, and she was getting it. "Yes, I can do that. It might take me some time to not want to ruin those two every time I set my eyes on them, but I'll get there."
"Then that's decided," Hunter said, all business. "Before you… arrived," he chose to say diplomatically, "we had just reached a decision that I'm going to reach out to Reigns personally. He's obviously not going to accept an invite to come to a meeting anywhere in Helmsley territory, so I'll have a word with Sonya Deville. She can sort out a meeting at the police station. It's been done before."
"Safe, neutral ground for both parties," Ronda said, nodding.
Sonya Deville was the local sheriff, and was not averse to taking money from Helmsley for certain favours, or for turning a blind eye to things. It seemed beyond likely to Hunter that she did the same with Reigns and Vega too. Deville's priority, apart from lining her own pockets, was to keep the peace in her jurisdiction, which was why he felt sure she would help with the meeting, given the circumstances.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Hunter said, taking out his phone. He called the number he had for Reigns' home, and was soon connected to the man himself via whatever underling had answered the call.
"Hunter," Reigns said when he came on the line. There was no particular emotion in his voice.
"I think we need to talk, Roman, don't you?"
"Talk," Reigns said as if he needed to see how he felt about the word. "I found one of my men murdered."
"Yes, you did. That would be the man who held my daughter captive and sexually assaulted her at your orders," Hunter growled, coming close to losing his cool despite how important it was not to.
"Sexually… I ordered no such thing," Reigns said. The distaste in his voice actually made Hunter believe him. "Actually, I specifically said that no harm was to come to her unless I gave the order, and I did not give that order."
"The crazy thing is that I believe you," Hunter said. "But whether you ordered it or not, it happened, and you're responsible for it. The man who did it is dead, but he was your man. It was you who sent Ronda to that house instead of back here to me. I was tempted, as I'm sure you can understand, to launch an all-out war on you the moment I rescued her and found out what had happened, but frankly I don't think that's a good idea. There would be a bloodbath, and whichever side was left standing would be decimated."
"So what ae you proposing?" Reigns asked.
"I propose we talk about what you can do to make this right. I know you're not going to come here, and I have no intention of coming to you, so I suggest having Deville let us meet at that police station."
Reigns considered it for a moment before reaching a decision. "Alright. Set it up and have her call me with a time."
Hunter heard the phone being put down, then the call ended. "Just hearing his voice made me want to strangle him with my bare hands," he growled to Ronda.
"I wish I could watch you do it, trust me," she replied. "But you kept your cool well. Let's just hope the rest of the plan works out the way you laid it out, and before long he really will pay for what he did."
A/N: It's been a while since this one got an update, so welcome back!
Next time, Bayley and Becky find out about the job they've been given, and Hunter and Roman have their face to face. What do you think the girls will make of their assignment? And how will the meeting of the two bosses go?