After a quick tour of Vegas that consisted of Arianna pointing at buildings and giving a quick need-to-know on them, the group found themselves seated in a large booth at The Strip's famous restaurant; That Place.
"Sorry, but the name is really stupid." Cass muttered as she folded her arms behind her head and leaned back in the booth. "But they have good food?"
"Yeah, the food is amazing. I can't believe you haven't heard of this place." Arianna spoke.
The redhead shrugged. "I try to avoid talking to people about places I've never been. I don't want to hear about how great a place is and how I'm missing out on it."
The blonde grimaced at the redhead and turned to look at her sister. "So?"
The courier was so absorbed in picking apart a napkin, her head snapped up at the sound of her sister's voice. Her eyebrows rose in question.
Arianna gave her sister a funny look. "Give us the rundown on your conversation with Mr. House?"
"Oh. Y-yeah." Natalya set the pieces of destroyed napkin down and drummed her fingers on the table. "Well he wants me to get the platinum chip for him." The group sat in silence, waiting for the courier to continue. She stopped drumming her fingers.
When nothing more was said, Boone spoke. "And?"
"And," the courier began, lowering her voice, "Honestly, I'm not sure I want to give it to him."
Mixed responses came from everyone, but mostly confusion because no one really knew what the platinum chip was.
A waitress came by to get everyone's orders, relieving some tension in the air. Natalya gave her order and then pondered her next words to the group. She felt unsure of her decision to keep the platinum chip and she didn't want the others to notice her staggering confidence.
"So what exactly is the platinum chip all about?" Arianna questioned after the waitress walked away.
"I'm not sure. Mr. House said he'd explain it after I got the chip from Benny," Natalya explained, "But if I was nearly killed over delivering it, then it must be pretty important." The group sat in silence again.
"Maybe," Arcade began, "We can figure out a way to infiltrate Benny at The Tops and get some information. You want revenge, anyway, so we could kill two birds with one stone."
The courier nodded. It was a thought that had already crossed her mind. Sure, when she imagined confronting Benny the fantasy usually ended with her killing him. But he knew more than she did about this chip and, well, about Vegas in general. The group would have to come up with a well thought up plan to getting Benny to fess up.
"We just need to figure out how to get Benny to talk." Stranger said as if he were reading Natalya's mind. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it up.
Natalya tapped her fingers on the table as she struggled to think of an idea. She may be considered the leader of the group, but she certainly didn't enjoy coming up with new ideas. She wasn't stupid by any means, it's just that her head was still sensitive from being shot.
"Sex." Cass blurted out and received odd looks from the others. The redhead leaned forward, "All men like Benny have one thing on their minds."
"Money." Veronica stated and stared at the redhead. Cass opened her mouth to object, but Veronica had a very good point. "Benny can be with any woman he wants," Veronica continued, "He's the owner of a casino, after all. I think he'd value money more. And, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we definitely don't have enough caps to try and buy information from him."
"I think you're both wrong." Boone said, shaking his head. "Benny wants power."
Cass slammed a hand down on the table. "Didn't you hear what she said? He has power; he's the owner of-"
"He doesn't want to be just the owner of a casino; he wants to own all of Vegas." Boone cut the redhead off to explain.
"That's why he was took the platinum chip. It's got to have something to do with controlling Vegas. I mean, why else would a person attempt murder over a chip?" Arianna theorized.
Natalya stared at the table as everything slowly clicked. The courier's blood began to boil as she played with idea that maybe Mr. House knew all this time that Benny, and possibly others, would be going after her. This also explained why Mr. House didn't give her answers when she asked about the platinum chip; if he gave her too much information and she personally wanted to run Vegas, she could keep the chip for herself.
Needless to say, this was only strengthening her notion to not return to chip to Mr. House.
Natalya glanced up and noticed the waitress bringing the group their food. She wasn't even hungry. She was pissed and even though she didn't know Mr. House personally, she felt betrayed. Who has the audacity to hire someone for such a dangerous job and then on the off chance that they aren't murdered as expected, still demand that they complete the delivery?
"Eat. You need your strength." Boone told Natalya and slid her plate closer to her. The courier looked down at her plate and paled.
"Ah, better not eat right now. Bathroom!" Arianna exclaimed as she took a step on the table and jumped over, ignoring Cass' protests. She grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her to the nearby bathroom, where the courier proceeded to empty her stomach in a toilet.
"That was close. What the heck is going on? Now is really not the time to get the flu." The blonde rubbed her sister's back.
Natalya flushed the toilet and wiped the back of her hand on her nose. "I guess it's just my anger." The courier sat on the ground next to the toilet and looked at her concerned sister. "Why me?" The blonde could only give a half hearted shrug in response, obviously not knowing exactly what her sister was questioning.
The courier continued, "It looked like it was a normal job. The pay wasn't much different from any other package I've delivered. It's not like I was being greedy by taking this job and now karma is biting me in the ass for it. Do you know how many times I've stayed silent because I can't recall a memory or even something as simple as a word. A fucking word, Ria. Who else my age, that is of sound mind, struggles to remember words?" Natalya let out a bitter laugh as she rubbed her neck. "This situation is going to stick with me for the rest of my life. I'll never forget it. Every time I struggle to have a normal conversation, I'll remember it's all because of this."
The blonde bit her lip, obviously holding back. The courier raised a brow at her sister and motioned for her to speak. Arianna took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm just happy you're alive. I know you're struggling; I could tell when we met you in Goodsprings. Things happen in our lives that change us forever and we've just got to make the best of it."
Natalya's expression softened at her sister's words. She was exactly right. She knew this to be true because Arianna was speaking from her own experience. Before the courier could speak, the blonde spoke. "I'm assuming that we won't be helping Mr. House with the platinum chip."
"Hell no." The courier didn't miss a beat. Arianna held out her hand to help her sister up. "Thank you Ria. I'm sorry I was mopey. Just needed a reality check, I guess." Arianna gave her sister a small nod before the courier spoke again. "I want to go catch Benny off guard and get information from him."
"You've got a plan." It wasn't a question, but a statement. The blonde could tell by the look in her sister's eyes.
"Yes and I'm really going to need your help." Natalya stated, giving her sister a serious look.
"As long as it doesn't involve anything too kinky, I'm down." The blonde made a face after she realized how twisted her choice of words sounded. But it made her sister laugh, so she smiled in response. "Come on," Arianna began and put an arm around her sister's shoulders, "Let's get back to the others before they worry that we escaped out of a window and ran off."
AN: wow, hello. long time now see. so I'm quite horrified that I haven't updated this story for a year. that's been waay too long. I'm definitely going to get back in the swing of posting a chapter a month. I can't believe I let it get this far behind, but at the same time I've been really busy this last year that it's just flown by.
I'm not going to be posting titles to the chapters anymore. believe it or not, it was an agonizing process that took a lot of research to figure out which casino game term best related to a chapter. sorry if this upsets anyone! :(
as usual, leave comments, ideas, or suggestions. xoxo!