Hack | 54
"Bye, Spinelli."
Sonny tousled his hair as he slung his bag over his shoulder, waving Max away when he tried to take it from him. Spinelli grunted in reply, immediately reaching up to fix his hair, and grunted again when Jason smacked him – too hard – on the back.
"Later."
He pursed his lips together wistfully. "Goodbye, Stone Cold. The Jackal will miss your-"
"We'll call you as soon as we touch down," Sonny promised, kissing Elizabeth on the cheek when she threw her arms around his neck. "Do whatever Ritchie tells you, and we'll see you in a week."
She let her hand trail down his arm as Sonny reluctantly pulled away. Max kept checking his watch, concerned that they were a few minutes off schedule, but he was the only one that particularly cared. Sonny and Jason had been invited down to Costa Rica to stay at the home of a former associate that lived in self-imposed exile down there to discuss a business proposition, one that Sonny was apparently keen on accepting.
Elizabeth rose on her toes when Jason kissed her, his large hand settling in the small of her back to pull her even closer, and the two were unmindful of the faces Spinelli made at them. "See you later," he murmured when he finally pulled away. "Stay safe."
"We will," Elizabeth promised. "Go, go, you'll be late. Have fun, you two."
Sonny waved over his shoulder as Jason grunted sardonically. Social calls – even business meetings – in other countries just weren't his thing. He liked getting things done close to home, close to the home turf. Leaving for even a few days now made him jumpy and uncomfortable, whereas before, with only him and Sonny, he would have thought nothing of it. Even as he was leaving, he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder one last time at Spinelli and Elizabeth and hope they'd both be safe and sound when he returned.
~*~*~*~*~*~
.: Penthouse 2 :.
Spinelli had stepped up his job search. His goal was to have a solid lead by the time Stone Cold and Mister Corinthos Sir returned home. That way, when they were getting settled back in and taking care of local business matters that cropped up while they were out of the country, he'd go unnoticed as he went out for interviews and by the time they were fully settled, he could inform them that he would no longer be mooching off their generosity.
Yes, sir, the Jackal was going to make his own way in this world. Maybe. Kind of. God, he hoped.
He sighed again and blinked at the online application he'd been filling out for the past half hour. Normally he could zip through forms like these, but this one was taking forever. Probably because he just didn't want to fill it out.
The Dragon, god damn her to the bowels of Hell, had no similar worries or frustration. As it was, she was sprawled out on Mister Corinthos Sir's green couch with a magazine and her mp3 player, not a care in the world. She had just given herself a manicure and so her toes were separated by those stupid rubber things and she was wearing her pajamas with her hair wrapped up in a towel, some sort of deep conditioning treatment she hadn't been able to shut up about.
She was going to live in this bullet-proof palace for the rest of her life. She was going to grow up here, she was going to marry Stone Cold, and she was going to raise her children here, not leaving once if she didn't feel like it.
And why not? She'd earned it. She was the one hand-picked by Mister Corinthos Sir to join his world, be a part of his life this way. Of course, it had come about because of a terrible accident, but Mister Corinthos Sir was still the one who came to her in the hospital and took her in when she needed him, just like Stone Cold found Spinelli and took him under his wing when he needed him. It wasn't the Dragon's fault that she won out in everything.
…It was just so easy to be angry with her for it, though.
He could see the top of her head moving back and forth to the rhythm of whatever song she was listening to.
"Do I attract you? Do I repulse you with my queasy smile?"
"Oh, you repulse me for other reasons, Dragon, if you had any idea…"
"Am I too dirty? Am I too flirty?"
"Well, we wouldn't really be in this situation if you hadn't been all flirty with Stone Cold, who certainly never would have fallen for you otherwise…"
"Do I like what you like?"
"I changed some of the things I liked because you liked them, too. I changed them on principle, so there."
"Yeah, I could be wholesome."
"I don't think so…"
"I could be loathsome."
"There it is!"
"I guess I'm a little bit shy."
"Being shy has never been your problem, Dragon. You've got many of them, but being shy isn't one."
"Why don't you like me?"
"Do you have twenty minutes?"
"Why don't you like me without making me try?"
Spinelli slammed his pen down onto the table. "You're not the one trying! You've never been the one trying! It's always been me! You just waltz around because you own the damn place and you know Mister Corinthos will never say anything to you because he loves you like he spawned you, and Stone Cold won't say anything to you because you're sleeping with him and that's fine because it's what works for you, and hey, creative problem solving, I get that, but honestly, why do you have to be so good at all the things I'm good at? Can't you leave anything for me? Just anything? Just one thing that meant I could stick around and-"
Elizabeth took her ear buds out of her ear and turned around. "Sorry, nerd, did you say something?"
His lips settled into a tight line. "No. Leave me alone."
She shot him a strange look but turned around, slipping her ear buds back into place. "I try to be like Grace Kelly…but all her looks were too sad. So I tried a little Freddie – I've gone identity maaaaaad!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
.: Penthouse 2 :.
"What do you want to have for dinner?"
"Whatever's in the fridge," Spinelli mumbled, scrolling through his missed calls to see if he'd gotten a call back from that research lab he'd applied at.
"There's nothing in the fridge."
"There's always something in the fridge."
"Um…not when there's no one around to cook it," Elizabeth snipped.
He glanced up at her. "Well…why don't you cook something?"
Her jaw dropped. "I'm not cooking something for you! After you've been a little bitch to me all week?!"
This time it was Spinelli's turn to be shocked. "Me? A little bitch to you? In what world?"
"This one!"
"Hardly!"
"Are you kidding?" she demanded, planting her hands on her hips. "You've been a total little bitch to me! Always whining, always sulking, always insulting me for no reason – normally I wouldn't care, but I didn't even do anything to you. I was even nice to you."
He had to admit, she had him there. Not that he'd tell her that.
"Whatever."
"Oh, that's your answer to everything. You're such a jerk."
"You're the jerk."
"Great comeback."
"I was mocking your comeback. That's why it worked."
"It didn't work."
"Your face doesn't work."
"My fist sure as hell does."
"Oh, I'd like to see you try."
She advanced on him and Spinelli quickly backed away. "Hey, hey! Mister Corinthos Sir's penthouse – neutral territory."
A wicked smile made her lips curl. "Your Mister Corinthos Sir isn't here. Or did you forget?"
A knock on the door interrupted what would have been sure to turn into an epic brawl, and Ritchie poked his head in. "Hey, guys. Thought I'd get you some dinner before I took off. Enjoy."
The two perked up when Ritchie came inside and set two boxes of Luna Mezzo Mare pizza on the dining table, along with an order of Spinelli's favorite breadsticks.
"I'm on assignment until tomorrow night, so don't call me or need me," he told them. "There are guards in the hall if you do need anything. They're lower level, so I added a couple extra. And try not to terrorize them."
"No promises," Elizabeth murmured, picking a cheese-covered tomato off one of the pizzas and popping it in her mouth, whole. "Thanks, Ritchie."
"Night, guys."
"If I get the soda, will you get the plates?"
"Orange, please," Spinelli replied, finally letting his guard down as Elizabeth moved away. He followed her into the kitchen and retrieved plates and napkins, then sat down as his computer as he waited for her.
While he waited, he checked his email, the secure one he'd set up when he joined the organization, just to see if he had anything. Spinelli was overjoyed when he saw what was waiting in the inbox.
"Dragon! Dragon!"
She came into the room and shot him an irritated look. "What?"
"Look!" He spun the laptop around to show her. "Stone Cold emailed me! Well, he emailed us. He knows how to use his secret email address now!"
Elizabeth squinted at the screen. "…Damn, he actually does. Nice. Send him back a link to porn or something."
Spinelli laughed and clicked away from the tab. "I should. What do you think they're doing down there? In Costa Rica, I mean?"
"Drinking. Playing cards. Smoking cigars. Visiting casinos and eating out at great restaurants. The usual."
"…When would they do business?"
"In between all that."
"Ahh." He clicked away on his keyboard as Elizabeth began to pull the squares of pizza out of the box, mindful of the stringy cheese, and set them on the plates. "I wonder if they got anything done. It would show up on the system if any transaction went through…"
"I can have your mushrooms, right?"
"Yes, please," he muttered, "hate that stuff. Okay, let's see…"
Elizabeth plucked all the mushrooms off his slices and deposited them on hers, then added a liberal dash of dried Italian herbs, crushed red peppers, and parmesan cheese to both. "Oops, forgot the ranch dressing. Be right back."
Spinelli was still typing away when she got back, making no move to touch his food, so she assumed this meant that he wanted some dressing, too. Elizabeth recapped the bottle and sat down at her place, biting into the first slice.
"God, I don't know why the other pizza places in town didn't just close up after Luna Mezzo Mare opened up," she got out around a mouthful of food. "Game over. Go home. Am I right?"
"Ermhmkhmpm…"
She rolled her eyes. "Charming, I'm sure."
"…That's not supposed to be there…"
"Sorry, I thought you wanted dressing, too. Because, clearly, it makes everything even better and all the cool people like it."
"…What…what's going on here? What is all this?"
"Oh, my God," she got out in exasperation. "Will you stop bawwing over your stupid anime messageboards? Just eat, nerd, it's getting cold."
"Not that," he muttered, his fingers flying furiously over the keys. "Can't eat now. The server's been breached, there's a leak and all of this is being downloaded to an external…oh, no. Oh, please, no."
The terror in his voice was enough to make Elizabeth get out of her seat and come up behind his, leaning down to read over his shoulder.
"What is it? What's going on?"
He turned slowly, his green eyes wide. "It's the Feds. I…I think they waited until Stone Cold and Mister Corinthos Sir were out of the country before they closed in."
