Chapter 16
When we returned to the bar, there were a few regulars scattered across the area with Ban, Diane and King working. Was it bad I've only been here a week and I already know these people were regulars? I didn't catch any sign that the other three Sins were here, they must have left late last night. I wondered how the test results came back.
"Hey!" Diane greeted us as soon as we walked in, shaking me out of my thoughts. "Where were you guys?"
"Meeting my sister for tea," I answered truthfully. Somewhere along the drive, I had forgotten my uneasiness.
Ban laughed heartily from behind the bar. "You gotta be shitting me! The boss went for tea? With you and your sister? Who even fuckin' gets together for tea nowadays?"
"Hawk apparently," Meliodas replied smoothly. "He stopped by this morning," he slipped casually into the conversation. The rest of the drive had been quiet between us, but he wasn't giving me any indication that he knew about my motives.
"Master chew your ass again?"
"Again?" I quizzed as I joined Meliodas at the bar. Ban placed two drinks out in front of us. "And Master?" Why the hell was Ban calling Hawk 'master'? Then again, I'm not entirely sure I wanted the answer.
"Yeah, said we aren't running a hotel, blah, blah, the usual." The blonde shook his head at the memory. "Guess him and his mom got back this morning."
"You probably should start asking them before we let people stay here," King commented dryly.
He sat on Meliodas' other side, his features pulled together in thought. Honestly, he looked like shit. Ban hadn't been kidding when he said the guy would have one hell of a hangover. Apparently none of them were too concerned with the patrons at the moment as Diane too joined us, standing behind King.
Meliodas rolled his eyes. "It's pretty much my place in every way but name."
For a moment, I caught myself wondering why that was the case. What could make a man like Meliodas become a criminal? Why have a bar if you couldn't even really call it your own? But I pushed that all from my head. The why didn't matter. Meliodas' backstory didn't matter.
"I know. I'm in the bookwork just as much as you are."
"And where else were we gunna keep Princess if not here?" Meliodas challenged.
A small frown formed on King's features. "I'm not saying it wasn't the best choice, because I agree with you, it was. Just that we did have other places she could have stayed."
"You and your safe houses," Ban groaned before taking a large drawn out drink. "Those things are more trouble than they're worth I tell ya."
The Sin of Sloth shot a scowl at the white haired man. "You say that now, but if things ever go south, you'll thank me."
"Doubtful."
"It's not so bad," Diane came to her boyfriend's defense. "We'd be stupid not to have them."
"You only say that cause you never have to check up on them," Ban argued with a scowl.
I pondered over the possibility of their supposed safehouses. Diane was right of course. Given how much the Sins were involved in the inner workings of this town, not having a place to go when shit hit the fan would be suicide. Maybe that's where Ban and King disappear to all the time.
A small smirk danced across Diane's lips. "And you're an idiot if you believe that King and I haven't visited a few of those places."
"Diane!" King exasperated, his face red. "We're getting off topic here!"
"Actually, this is a much better turn of the conversation than you trying to lecture me, King," Meliodas grinned crookedly at the ginger haired man. The Sin of Sloth sunk lower into his seat, mumbling something under his breath. "What were ya saying, Di?"
Diane giggled, only getting the chance to form a sly smile before King spoke up again.
"I-I only meant that we should be more careful. Especially now." His amber eyes flickered to mine for a second, surprising me.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from retorting. He's being rightfully cautious, I convinced myself.
"Even better reason to just keep her right here, dontcha think?" Meliodas smiled at the man. His teasing tone was gone. Like he didn't blame King at all for questioning his judgement. A curious thing, considering Meliodas was supposed to be the leader. "Don't need to expose it all right away."
"You're right… Sorry for bringing it up."
"Don't be. It's good that we're all on the same page. I appreciate your insight King, you know that I do." Meliodas placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Something about Meliodas statement had me wondering more on just what part the ginger haired man played. He's not the right hand man. No, that title fell to Ban. So just where did King fit that he could so easily judge his boss' choices? From what I'd seen, Meliodas wasn't exactly commanding, but he didn't seem like the type of man who'd let someone question his authority. Not on something like this, at least.
I shook my head of those thoughts too. It didn't do me any good to think like that. If Meliodas' backstory didn't matter, King's sure as hell didn't either. None of them did.
"You're right too. In a different situation, a safe house would have been better." The blonde spoke again.
"I'm right here," I grumbled, annoyed. My patience for being talked about like I wasn't even in the room, finally reaching its limit.
"Drink up, Princess," Ban insisted, pushing my mug closer - intent on stealing my attention away from the conversation at hand. "You seem a bit tense," he gave me a crooked grin and I scowled.
Of course I'm tense! I wanted to hiss at the man. I'd been here for a week now and despite what we found the previous night, that we had yet to discuss, I'm still no closer to solving this case. I had way more questions than answers.
I eyed him and the drink respectively, "It's not even noon yet." I said, pushing the mug back toward him, refusing to let them cloud my judgment any further, "Besides, don't we have something more important to be doing?" I emphasized the word while shooting a pointed glare at Meliodas.
Ban snorted, taking my rejected mug and throwing it back like it was water, "A mug a day keeps the doc away!"
What a moron...
"I'm fairly certain that catchphrase is actually going to be the death of you." I spat back dryly, earning a couple of chuckles.
Diane abandoned King at his seat in favor of coming to wrap an arm around my shoulder, "Well aren't you salty this morning." She teased with a grin, her arms wrapping around me and pulling me close to her. "All that excitement yesterday leave you in a bad mood?"
I'm reminded yet again of our… escapades… the night before. The party, the kiss, the break in, the fire, the explosion, Merlin, Escanor… and to top it off I just knowingly introduced a wanted criminal to my lawyer sister. Bad mood was an understatement. Perhaps they were going to be the death of me.
I rolled my eyes, attempting to sink lower - possibly out of existence, but found myself only buried deeper into Diane's floral-perfumed embrace, "Can we just please take a look at those files you found?" I muttered in desperation. I'm begging. Truly, I am a broken spirit at this point.
Meliodas gave a long hum at my side, just to piss me off, I'm sure, "Di, you got things?" he asked finally, and the brunette chirped a happy, "Yep!" before releasing me and going to speak with the customers, asking for refills and taking more orders.
"Alright," Meliodas downed the rest of his mug, "Then I guess it's time to get back to work." His smile was back on me, and it reminded me of that tender expression he'd given me in the car. Was he humoring me now? He'd given in so easily…
"Count me out," Ban quipped from behind the counter.
"Staying to help Diane?" Meliodas teased with a small smirk. "That's sweet of you."
Ban snorted. "As if. You know how much I hate the information shit you guys muddle through." He did make a similar comment last night when I wanted to look over everything after Diane and King went to bed.
"Yeah, yeah," Meliodas chuckled.
"I'll come," King sighed getting up from his seat.
"You don't have a choice."
The ginger rolled his eyes just as Diane came back to the bar. She placed a kiss to his cheek. "That's what you get for being smart," she teased with an affectionate smile. "Two specials Ban."
The cook grumbled his annoyance but got up to go to the kitchen anyway. Diane was back conversing with customers and King was already leading the way to the back room I was in two days prior. I quickly make to follow him, Meliodas right at my side. Not a word was spoken between us as the blonde shut the door behind him. King punched the button on the phone and the secret door opened.
"Well," the ginger started as he plopped down in the chair in front of the old laptop. His eyes locked with Meliodas before settling on me. "What do you wanna know?"
I blinked, caught off guard by the forwardness of his question. "Uh, everything?" I voiced cautiously. This had to be yet another trick. But it seemed unlikely coming from King.
"Everything is a bit much," he replied simply. The Sin of Sloth dug into a drawer of the desk, while motioning for me to take a seat.
My eyes found Meliodas, a secret smile playing at his lips as he just observed. He too gestured at the empty chair at the table. I found myself apprehensive but took the chair anyway.
"This," King held up a folder and then handed it to me as he joined me at the table. "Is just what we found last night. We'll start here."
"Start?" I couldn't help but voice. I guess I was expecting to start from the beginning. But I suppose that would give away the sin's involvement in all of this. A topic none of them seemed keen on shining too bright a light on.
"Like I said, there's a lot to go through," he gave me a small smile, head resting in his open palm. "We'll start with this since it's what you asked for."
"I don't care what we start with," I couldn't stomp down the irritation that I knew was laced into my voice if the men's matching expressions of mild surprise were anything to go off. "You guys said you would help. I want to know what you know." My patience was thin today.
Meliodas chuckled, hip resting against the desk as he shot the other man a grin. King sighed heavily. "I swear everyone only hears half of what I say," he grumbled under his breath, causing Meliodas to laugh again. "Just open the folder," King drew my attention back to the file in my hand.
A frown formed on my face at his comment but I did as he said. My jaw slacked at what I saw.
"What… what is this?" I began to finger through the collection of papers. My mind barely even able to process it.
There were sheets of data. Numbers, locations, more numbers - many of which were prefaced with dollar signs, company names, stocks, company stocks. Some of the rows had been highlighted, but that didn't help me make sense of any of it.
"A summary of what we found last night. Both from the warehouse and what you guys managed to get from the Mayor's computer," King explained, fingers drumming against the tabletop.
My brows furrowed and I glanced up from the evidence to glare at King. "A summary? You tampered with this already?"
His amber eyes stared blankly back at me. An unreadable expression on his features that I thought I would only ever see on Meliodas. The two men stared at each other before looking back at me.
And then they laughed.
"T-tampered?" King spoke through his chuckles.
Meliodas shook his head, taking over for the man. "We aren't the police, Princess. Everything we get isn't exactly by the book."
I flushed, embarrassed that I had said such a thing. Meliodas was right. They weren't the police. I should be working under the assumption that anything they gave me, King had, at the very least, looked through first.
"If there's anyone of us that you can trust here to get you the information you need to know about, it's him." He clasped a hand on King's shoulder. The ginger looked at him, obviously surprised by the statement. Meliodas grinned down at him and then added, "mostly because the rest of us don't wanna be bored with shifting through all this information."
King rolled his eyes, shrugging off the blonde's hand as he laughed sarcastically. "Oh, ha, ha. You got me boss. I just love going through all this crap when I'm hungover and sorting it out so it's easier for everyone else."
"I know, that's what makes you such a valuable member of the team." The leader of the Sins continued to beam at his comrade in crime.
"Ugh," he groaned, slumping against the table. "Why do I even stay here anymore?"
"Cause we're friends-"
"Debatable."
"- but mostly because of Diane," Meliodas finished with a crooked grin.
King flushed slightly as he straightened, but didn't contradict Meliodas' words. Instead, he looked back to me, all business. "Yes. This is a summary of what we found. I pulled the important data off the flash drive and put it in here along with pertinent sections of what we got from the warehouse. I do this every time we find something and this file," he tapped the folder on the table for emphasis, "is exactly what I'd give the boss before we'd bring it to everyone else."
Not once during King's explanation had he looked away from me, clearly trying to drive home the point that he did this all for the benefit of the team. Not me.
Oddly enough, I'm not at all offended by his words. Just the opposite actually. His clarification was… reassuring. I glanced down. If this is what he was going to give Meliodas anyway, then there's no reason from him to leave anything out. For the second time since walking in the bar, I felt hopeful. I was finally going to get somewhere.
"When did you even find the time to do this?" I asked him as I continued to page through the information. "Last I checked, everyone was still sleeping when we left."
I glanced up in time to see King settling back into his chair. He gave me another smile and I returned it, hoping to convey my thanks for his explanation. Meliodas wheeled over the chair from the desk and sat it on my side of the table.
"About an hour ago," the ginger answered. "Not nearly as much info as I thought there was going to be. Took me a half hour, numbers were spinning for a while there," he admitted with a disgruntled sigh. "Most of it was junk." He scrunched up his nose in disdain at the lack of data.
"Shit," Meliodas cursed, leaning closer to me to get a better eye at what King meant. I had to force myself to stay still and not shift at his sudden close proximity. Does this man have no sense of personal space?
"But, there's still so much here," I mumbled as I fingered through what they found. "How did it only take you half an hour to pick out what was important?" Throw in the fact that he's extremely hungover and I couldn't grasp how he was able to accomplish such a task in such a short amount of time.
King shrugged. "Been doing this kinda stuff for a long time," he answered vaguely, not meeting my gaze. A peculiar thing given how intensely he'd stared at me moments ago to convince me he wasn't hiding any information.
"Like I said last night," Meliodas took the reigns of the conversation. "Each of us has something we're good at. King helps me with the bar's paperwork and is the, let's call him, the Accountant for the Sins."
King gave him a strange look, but Meliodas didn't even glance his way. His green eyes were on me, waiting for a reply.
"I thought that was Gowther?"
"Gowther's smarter sure, and Merlin is too," the blonde nodded as he pulled at the papers in the file. "But Gowther isn't here enough to go through things on a regular basis, plus he wouldn't be good at it. There's an, art, almost to putting the pieces together. Gowther doesn't do art. He could find the data, but he couldn't tell you the motives." Meliodas paused enough to chuckle at the thought. "Merlin, well she probably could manage just fine, but she doesn't have the background for it. And, as you know, she's a bit busy with other work."
I scowled at the reminder. The other work being her place within the precinct. Helping keep the Sins out of the fire and probably feeding them the information they needed that way. Unlike last night though, I didn't feel the sting of betrayal as sharply. I wasn't sure why. Did it have anything to do with Meliodas' sudden trust in me this morning that spurred it on? I'm not sure I even wanted to think on it.
"You've probably realized it already, but the only Sins here full time are myself, Ban, King and Diane," Meliodas hand grazed over mine to get a particular piece of paper.
I drew my own back quickly and ignored the quirked brow from King across the table. Again, the hand Meliodas had touched was the very same he had mended last night - the same he'd taken at my sister's house. I brought it to my lap and ran my thumb over the bandage. I'd nearly forgotten about it until now.
"Why is that?" I questioned, determined to pay no mind to the memories and how they twisted my stomach in knots.
"Ran out of room," Meliodas replied with a cheeky grin.
King snorted and I welcomed the distraction from the blonde next to me. "She knows that isn't true. You have her in one of the extra bedrooms." He shook his head. "Really, it's 'cause the four of us don't have anywhere else to go. Merlin and Escanor had lives long before this and will after its done. Gowther, well, he has his own kind of routines he likes to stick to."
I nibbled the inside of my cheek. I'd never really thought about it, but King was right. He had mentioned it last night in his drunken state; Escanor having a normal life, that part wasn't new to me, the thought of Merlin though… It shouldn't have caught me off guard. The woman was someone I saw on a fairly normal basis given our line of work, but the thought of her life being normal seemed so far fetched when I thought of her involvement with the Sins.
The other curious thing was his mention of after its done... did that mean the Sins had only come together for a certain purpose? Did they plan on disbanding?
Meliodas moving next to me distracted me as he leaned over the table and flicked King in the forehead. Apparently I wasn't the only one who realized just how much King had given away.
"Ow!" He cried hands flying up to the attacked skin. "What was that for, boss?!"
"Blabbermouth," the blonde responded cheerily.
"Princess isn't stupid," King scowled as he rubbed his forehead. "I'm sure she figured that out without me telling her." He then grumbled under his breath, "As if I didn't have enough of a headache already."
Meliodas shrugged, settling back into his chair. "Maybe, but you don't need to talk about the past, at all. Got it?"
The two stared at each other, a silent conversation that I couldn't hear, but tried to as I glanced back and forth between them.
Maybe King isn't such a loss to me after all.
"What do these numbers mean?" I asked quickly, pointing to the highlighted portions, attempting to distract them for once. The last thing I needed was for Meliodas to drill the idea of silence.
King leaned over to see the paper, "Those are the accounts of a company we've been keeping tabs on called Commandments. Essentially, they're a shell corporation; one that's growing rather fast, and we've found them on the payroll of a lot of very high-powered people. The Mayor included." He explained, tabbing through some of the pages and yanking one from my hands to place on top, pointing to a similarly highlighted segment on this page. I assumed he's pointing to this because it had to do with the Mayor's finances in some way.
"Alright? Shell corporations aren't illegal." I remarked, remembering my brief education in business law. The concept he was driving was not foreign to me, but I was not quite grasping what he was hinting at.
Meliodas chuckled dryly at my side, his eyes glued to one of the sheets of paper. "This one is. It's a cover. A damned good one at that." That last statement came with a bit of a bite to it.
I looked down at the papers, trying to decipher for myself what seemed so obvious to them, "For what?"
"The criminal underworld." King said, like he was telling me a ghost story. Well… I suppose he was.
That didn't mean I believed it, though. "You're joking, right?"
"Not at all." Meliodas answered for him, sounding unusually serious for a change, "This company is making it easier for a lot of gangs, corrupt companies, and influential people to break the law under the guise of a legitimate business transaction."
I glanced back and forth between the two of them. Neither appeared to be lying. They actually believed that this company they were telling me about, Commandments, was being used to fund the worst kind of people. A frown worked its way onto my face as I tried, and failed, once again to figure out the papers before me. Business had never been one of my strong points.
"This is unbelievable," I found myself muttering.
"Did you think it would be all cut and dry, Princess?" Meliodas quirked a brow at me.
"... I was hoping…" I admitted with a heavy sigh.
My eyes shifted to the board, all the articles and red lines connecting them with people. This was a lot more complicated than I'd ever thought - and this was just where we were "starting". I walked up to the board, studying the picture of my target. The sting operation was just over a week ago and already it felt like it'd been a year.
"... how long did it take you guys to get this much information?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Longer than I want to admit," Meliodas answered vaguely, him and King sharing yet another meaningful look. Neither seemingly very happy with the fact.
I nibbled my lip, arms wrapping around myself. Just knowing how much was on the board, how much information, and time it had to take for them to get what they had. It was becoming all to clear the Sins knew way more than I could have ever dreamed of.
"This is going to take longer than a day to explain, isn't it?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.
"You got it," Meliodas told me with a wide grin.
I sighed again. "Then let's get back to work."
Dom: *Eye twitches as she types at break-neck speed, she looks like she hasn't slept in days and her desk is littered with stacked mugs and empty energy drink cans*
Luv: *cautiously pokes her head in the door, making a face at the mess* Um… Dom? You, uh, okay in here?
Dom: *Keeps typing, as she creepily turns her head to look at Luv* Fine. I'm fine. Working. Just work. All is Fine! Work is fine! *Laughs hysterically before stopping abruptly, turning back to the computer*
Luv: *clears throat* Uh, okay…. Well * carefully steps into the room, making sure she has an easy escape* Maybe you should… take a break? Or a nap?... *takes a whiff of the room*... Or a shower?
Dom: *All typing ceases, and everything is quiet before dom turns a glare on Luv* I'll have you know that I shower on a regular basis, thank you very… *catches whiff of something, before looking around bewildered* What day is it?
Luv: …. It's Friday...
Dom: *Eye twitches again, as she looks around the room* The actual fuck? I thought it was still TUESDAY! *Drops to knees* WHAT YEAR IS IT?!
Luv: *sighs heavily, treading through the mess to the window* If you'd open the curtains, maybe you'd notice the days passing better *throws open the blinds*
Dom: *Hisses at the sudden introduction of sunlight to the room* NOOOOOO! I'M MELTING! *Collapses dramatically on the floor, twitching for effect*
Luv: You're not melting. *rolls her eyes at Dom's overreaction* You're just tired. Let's just get through the preview and get you to bed.
Dom: … *Sits up after her award-winning performance* That's fair. Next time on Don't Trust Me: It's information overload for Elizabeth. She's finally getting up to speed on the information the sins have - but what she wasn't expecting was to learn a little more than she bargained for about a certain ginger-haired sin. Will she be able to stay detached, or will she start seeing the humanity beneath the crimes?
Luv: *starts dragging Dom out of the room* Okay, shower first, then food, then bed.
Dom: *Sighs heavily as she allows Luv to drag her out of the office* Man… All work and no play makes Dom a grumpy… and stinky dom...
Luv: And no one wants a grumpy dom. *looks to the readers* Trust me..
Dom: NO ONE…. *sinister overtones and lightning flashes*
Luv: *completely ignores the sudden change in atmosphere as she cheerily says* See ya guys next chapter!