Fox watched Artemis from where she lay on the bed, she did enjoy watching the girl as she went through her daily exercises. The muscles moving in tandem with one another, the light sheen of sweat it was generally enough to put her in the mood again. It definitely made forcing the teenager to live in her apartment more bearable.
Artemis had been more than good since her punishment had ended. She certainly hadn't been caught lying, she went where she said she was going to go, she did everything that she was going to do. It was as if Artemis had finally accepted the role she was given, even in the bedroom the girl was considerably more active now, as if she was desperate to please her. Fox sighed perhaps it was time to reinstate her, Stewart was making a right mess of everything and he was costing her money.
She had underestimated how much she needed Artemis by her side, the girl's observations were invaluable. She shouldn't have gone after the family, the police were trying to find the killers and that had pissed off the people at the top. It wasn't as if Artemis hadn't had plenty of opportunities to kill her, she did know where all the weapons were.
"Artie," Fox said simply, watching as the girl stopped mid push-up and turned her head, to look at her. Fox placed her hand on the pistol that she kept in the night stand and looked at it before tossing it to the girl. Artemis twisted her body, keeping one arm firmly on the ground as she caught the weapon. There was a tense moment and Fox watched Artemis's face carefully, the pistol didn't have a heat sink in it, it was useless.
Artemis stared at the gun for a moment before holstering it as best as she could, pushing herself off with one hand before standing up and grabbing the towel that was on the ground, and turning to face Fox giving her an expectant look, as she wondered what her next set of orders were. It wasn't as simple as just killing Fox, she needed to send a message while not showing her hand to Fox. A simple job would make sure that the Reds would think twice about coming after her, she needed to make just enough of a statement that wouldn't have them hunting her for the rest of her life.
"Stewart has made a mess of things which costs me money. The VKs are trying to move in on our territory, and we're currently losing ground and the war is getting bloody, too many innocent people are getting killed. End the fight, and I'll consider your little transgressions completely forgiven."
Artemis grinned, it was her first true smile in a long time, "Thank you," she said with a smile pausing for a moment and looked at the gun. "Stewart will not let go without a fight—"
"Do with him as you will, the boy has more than outlived his usefulness," Fox said writing him off. "Just get it done you have till the end of the week," Fox watched curiously as Artemis climbed back onto the bed and she smirked, this was another added bonus of Artemis accepting her role, she generally showed her gratitude with sex. It was a shame that she didn't have time for it this morning as she placed her hand on Artemis's lips, keeping the girl at bay. "I have a business meeting to attend to, get this done and then you can show me your gratitude later."
Artemis nodded into the hand and immediately eased up, watching Fox as she got up and went to go shower. She didn't react till she heard the shower start up and stuck out her tongue a look of disgust crossed her face, suddenly glad that she didn't have to feed Fox's delusions. Even though she was grateful, the older woman had unintentionally given her a late Christmas present. She personally doubted that he was going to fight back if she walked into the room but she had been surprised before. The boy had ambition in spades, and he was a bully.
Artemis slowly got off the bed and pulled her hair into a loose pony-tail, she would shower later once the job was done. This was her chance to get her own space back. It was becoming abundantly clear that she needed her own space where Fox couldn't watch her twenty-four seven. Grabbing her jacket she opened the drawer and pulled out a spare heat sink slipping it into the pistol. She eyed the shower, it would be incredibly easy to just walk in there and start shooting but she'd be dead before the day was over if she killed Fox, at least that was if they were being merciful. If they weren't she'd have a session with Victor lined up for her and if that were the case the Alliance would never want her after he was done with her, if she lived through it that is. So her only hope was to actually pull off what Beauregard had attempted nearly four years ago, his plan had been sound he just hesitated. There wouldn't be any of that anymore.
With a grunt she holstered her weapon and grabbed a baggy shirt slipping it on before she left Fox's apartment, inhaling the cold air, and turned her attention to the situation at hand, she had a job to do and at least there were VKs to take out any excess aggression on, and Stewart, there was always poor old Stewart.
If it had been anyone else, she would have probably let it slide, it was stupid to say no to Fox. She was still being punished for that particular transgression. But this wasn't anyone, it was Stewart. Everything he did was to curry favor with whoever was in charge, the boy most certainly had ambition. It wasn't a secret that he wanted to become a made-man with all the perks that it entailed but without the responsibility. It was a shame that he was a piss poor manipulative son of a bitch, and he lacked the subtly to actually play the game properly. Fox for the most part lacked it as well, but everyone was afraid of Fox and she did manage to get the job done for the most part.
As it stood, Artemis was sure that Stewart had watched one to many vids that contained gangsters and was using those vids as a template of sorts on how to behave. She had heard the conversations between Fox and Stewart while she had been under house arrest. It wasn't as if he was some innocent in all of this, he had sold Avery out and made it out to seem as if she was in some secret relationship with the girl. It didn't matter if some of it was true, he had known what the consequences were, everyone knew. Just like Artemis knew that he had hoped that Fox would kill her as well so he could take her position, he had either overestimated his worth or underestimated hers.
As for the VKs, the solution to that problem was simple. Kill them all or at least cull their numbers down so that they realized not to fuck with the Reds, all it required was working with Kenzie to get the addresses down. They could strike early tonight and well into the morning in coordinated attacks. It would be a bloody mess but it would at the very least give her an excuse to visit Kenzie, Fox wouldn't be happy but if the assault worked then she wouldn't be able to argue with the results.
Turning on her omni-tool she messaged the crew telling them to meet her in one of the safe houses in two hours, she needed to make a deal with the devil before she got what she wanted.
"What I'm hearing from you blow-up Barbie, is that you have a problem that your idiotic boss called and now you want my help in bailing her out. I am aware that the boss-man wants us to behave ourselves and cooperate, but Fox got us into this mess," Kenzie said as she eyed the teenager suspiciously. It wasn't every day that Artemis Shepard walked into her office, especially with the rumor mill surrounding Artemis's forced sabbatical.
"Blow-up Barbie?" Artemis echoed, tilting her head in confusion.
"Yes, Victor was boasting about how he fucked you and went on in great detail about what a great lay you were, while discussing how you were shamelessly throwing yourself at Fox," Kenzie said tapping her cigarette against the ash tray before bringing it to her lips as she went back to looking at the computer screens. She saw Artemis cringe in the reflection of one and smirked, "You didn't answer the question, why should I help you?"
Artemis felt the rage bubble to the surface for a moment at the mention of Victor's antics and exhaled slowly unclenching her fist rapidly. "Cause the VKs are costing nearly everyone money, and with the police breathing down our necks everyone is under fire. Let me take care of the VKs the job is a big one but I think I can get enough people to get the job finished by tonight if we manage to start or tomorrow night at the latest."
"I still don't see what's in this for me. I don't generally do business with whores. I hear you do really excellent head though and you do this thing with your tongue that is divine," Kenzie laughed at this spinning around in her chair to look at the teenager who looked disgusted.
"You want to find out?" Artemis asked with a cocky smirk.
Kenzie blinked and stared at the teenager, "Oh she did a number on you. Did you honestly think that she wouldn't find out that Avery was your first?"
If Artemis was shocked that Kenzie knew that piece of knowledge then she didn't let it show on her face. "She doesn't know," Artemis said blandly crossing her arms as she leaned back, smirking at the shocked look that crossed Kenzie's face. "I said no to her, when she told me to kill the kid. She slapped me, I slapped her back. I was punished."
Kenzie dropped the data pad on the desk, Avery had informed her of their tryst. Kenzie had merely put two and two together. "You lied to her."
"I was selective with the truth. Either way I would consider this a favor—"
Kenzie frowned staring at the kid in front of her, she was being open and honest with her. It was a dangerous game to put your trust in someone especially with all the backstabbing that went on. "If she doesn't think that you and Avery scissored each other, that's what lesbians do isn't it? Scissor each other? Anyway if she doesn't think you and Avery did that, then why did she kill Avery?"
Artemis frowned and there was a flash of guilt that crossed her face which was quickly replaced with a steely hardness in her eyes. "I told the truth to a degree, what killed Avery was her association with you. We both know how paranoid Fox is. We also know how people talk, people will talk about this meeting it will get back to Fox, but what I need from you is just the list."
Kenzie spun in her chair thinking, "So your solution is to distract them with sex, which worked by the way Victor can't stop talking about it. You've become sort of a joke by the way you really need to remedy that. None of your men take you seriously, Stewart has been making some rather crude remarks about you. And your endgame is to what? Kill Fox? It's blood in, blood out."
Artemis paused and looked at her suddenly uneasy, "Yes and I will spill blood, I just have no intention of spilling my own. As for the rest I have no idea what you're talking about. I am completely loyal to Fox," Kenzie arched a brow at her, she didn't believe that bullshit for a moment. "I am not suicidal and I have zero desire to become some sort of Kamikaze. So hypothetically, if I was going to do something then I would simply execute Beauregard's plan to perfection, but instead of getting several people in on it I'm going to trust one person and that is the person who knows everyone's dirty laundry. You want Fox gone and you want me gone, I get rid of her and then I walk away and you'll never hear from me again. Or you can tell Fox she'll come after me, we'll go at it till one or both of us is lying dead in a pool of blood."
"The latter sounds perfect to me," Kenzie said with a simple shrug.
"I'm sure it will but we both know that unlike you I have more than enough firepower to launch an all-out war with you, so even if you manage to survive it's going to take you ages to rebuild your business back up."
Kenzie stared at the teenager in front of her and smiled, she had really become the perfect blend between Fox and Beauregard. Whatever Fox had done to her had forced Artemis to get over whatever qualms she had with giving people another chance. While a war between the two parties would be entertaining to see, there was always the chance that Artemis wouldn't succeed and if Fox could take down the monster. If that tragedy occurred Fox would probably single-handedly destroy the Reds. "Fine, I'll keep your secret on one condition. You kill the bitch the moment you have a chance. Bo stayed his hand and refused to act, you need to promise me on his grave that you will actually shoot to kill her this time."
Artemis stuck out her hand, "I promise you I'm going to kill her, no monologue, just a single shot to the middle of her forehead." A quick death was merciful but she wasn't going to make the god awful mistake of letting Fox get away.
Kenzie stared at he offered hand and rolled her eyes turning back to her computers. "The list will be in your inbox in about half an hour. Do try not to get yourself killed at least not until after you kill Fox. Now get out of my office."
Artemis let her hand drop and quickly stuffed them into her pockets studying Kenzie one last time before turning on her heel and leaving Kenzie to tinker around with her computers. It was a risk, making a deal with Kenzie. She hadn't taken a side in the last civil war, preferring to remain above it all. It was safer to be neutral than to get involved with either side, though she probably did deal to both sides. Artemis grimaced, it felt as if she was in a high stakes game of Russian roulette, and that the only way to survive was to make that deal, knowing full well that at any time Kenzie could renege on their deal. The only thing she was counting on was the fact that Kenzie wanted Fox dead and in the gutter nearly as much as she did.
Well at least with that out of the way she would finally be able to deal with everyone else who was on her shit list. Starting with Stewart, then Victor, and finally Fox. Killing Stewart would barely be a blip on Fox's radar, but killing Victor would be difficult. If she waited until after Fox was dead there was a good chance that the man would be long gone. If she killed Victor first, Fox's paranoia would come back full force and she'd have her guard up at all times. The kill would be much more difficult than it had to be.
Artemis shrugged it off, she would deal with those two later but right now it was time to relieve Stewart of his membership to the Reds and begin to pay her way out of the gang that had raised her. Blood in, blood out, it just wasn't going to be her blood.