In every town they'd break her and pay
Guys like him were everywhere. They just wanted someone to fill there bed, and she didn't accept that kind of charity. She wasn't that kind of girl. Intimacy that lasted only one night...or even one minute...wasn't part of her plan, so she stayed away from all. At seventeen, she was the best marksman in the business, and she had no relationships to tie her down.
Plus, knowing Leinsherr, relationships would only give him leverage to make her do jobs without paying. Leinsherr was used to power. There was nothing worse than a tyrant that had full control. If he could find a way to keep Rogue under full control, then he would have conquered everything. As far as Rogue knew, she was the only wild card left. She worked for money, and once she had enough to pay off debts or keep herself afloat, she stayed off of marksmenship for a while.
She hesitated outside of the office building before entering. Just a bank, right? All for appearance, and not a very convincing one. Most knew that this was Leinsherr's area of town. If you made his list, this is where his goons would go first for instructions. If you were hunting for a list, this is the place you went to for it. Rogue walked past the desk and into an area that had a warning "under-construction" sign. The area here was dark and dank, hot because the air conditioning had been shut off. A lone elevator stood at the end of the hallway, with a sign that warned you of its broken prescence taped to the sliding doors. Rogue knew it wasn't broken. She slid a card out of her pocket and entered it into the slide through scanner next to the elevator doors. There was a small ding and the elevator opened. She pressed one of the only two buttons it contained...67th floor.
When the doors parted to let her go, the difference in the two floors was immeasurable. This was bordering on grandeur. Leinsherr couldn't help but show off, and since he had bought out all objective opposition...the press, the police, the courts...even if someone got up here by fluke, they wouldn't be able to act on their suspicions. A secretary filed papers in a bored manner. She was a sweet looking girl...what was she doing here? She probably didn't even know who she was working for. Leinsherr liked to hire secretaries that thought they were actually working for a bank.
The girl looked up and smiled when she saw Rogue. "Hey! You have an appointment?"
Rogue shook her head. "No, but he'll want to see me. Is he in a meeting?"
"Not at the moment. I can buzz you in if you'll give me your---miss, where are you going?" The secretary looked uneasy as she watched Rogue march toward Leinsherr's office. "You can't do that. I have to announce you first. Wait!" Rogue opened the door and walked in, seperating the secretary's voice from her ears as she closed the piece of wood again. Turning to face Leinsherr, she leaned against the door.
"Got a minute?"
"Since you cannot seem to understand how to knock first, Rogue, I suppose I will have to make a moment." The graying man replied, his icy grey eyes cutting through her in an instant. "Didn't we have a conversation about courtesy the last time?"
The intercom on his desk buzzed to life. "I'm sorry, sir, but I couldn't stop her--"
"It's quite alright, Katherine. We all seem to have trouble stopping her." Leinsherr sighed as he interrupted his secretary. "Make sure we are not interrupted for a few moments, Katherine."
"Yes, sir."
As the intercom went dead, Rogue shrugged. "If I was one for courtesy, I wouldn't be killing people for money."
Leinsherr leaned back in his chair, long thin fingers peaking together like a steeple as he smiled condescendingly at her. "Is that so? I suppose you've completed my last assignment. Why else would you be back here?"
An image of Hart's bloody corpse flooded her mind for a split second, but she shoved the thought from her mind. Like everything else that might bring back to life the conscience she had so long ago killed, she shoved it to the back of her mind to be burned later. "Hart's dead. No fingerprints left. I wiped the gun clean and put in his right hand. They'll think it was a suicide." She held up her gloved hands to indicate there was no room for mistakes in tagging someone else.
"Excellent." Leinsherr considered her for a few brief moment. "We had an agreed upon sum, did we not?"
"Five grand." She answered automatically. He raised an eyebrow. Now was the part where he tried to cheat her, and she had to haggle to get the money. Enough to pay her rent, fill her stomach, and put a little more in her stomach.
"I remember two grand, Rogue."
"It was five. Ah remember the agreement, Leinsherr." She answered in a soft growl.
"Tell you what. For you, I'll go to four." He slid the cash across the counter to her after counting it out, and she put it inside a purse she had brought with her. Anyone who dared steal from her was killed, almost instantly. She knew how to defend herself. Bayville wasn't a very big town, and her apartment was there, but she was in New York. New York was dangerous.
"You know, Rogue, we'd love to have you on the team permanently."
"Not a chance, Leinsherr." She turned to leave, but at that moment the door opened and the guy who had offered to pay for her drink in the bar was standing in her way, with Katherine bobbing nervously behind him.
"He wouldn't listen to me, sir, he insisted on just barging in. I told him you were in a meeting, but--"
The guy turned to her. "Easy, cher. Mr. Leinsherr is understandin' enough." He turned to Leinsherr and grinned a lopsided, roguish smile, then turned to Rogue. "Hello, mon amie. We met before, I tink."
"Unfortunately." Rogue replied emotionlessly. She could hear Leinsherr's chair squeak as he sat up. The glare shot over her head and pierced the guy in front of her.
"LeBeau, you should learn how to follow instruction. I told you not to come back here unless you had what you took."
"Bu' I did follow de instructions, mon amie. I surely did."
So who was she, this girl? And where would I find her again? A slight smirk grazed my slightly tan features as I brused my longish reddish brown hair out of my eyes. It had taken me a while to find that stupid card Leinsherr made all of his debtors and employees carry around, just to get to his office. Didn't he realize that everyone...well, just about everyone...in the city knew what that bank held? And yet it was the most frequented bank in New York. Some things just didn't make sense. Like why you would do business with one of the devils servants.
Of course, I had sold my soul too, right?
I gave my usual charming ways to the girl at the front desk. Another poor sap for Leinsherr's purpose. She didn't look old enough to be doing this sort of thing, and she had the sort of innocence on her face that told me she would never do anything wrong. Wouldn't drink and drive, wouldn't smoke or drink underage, wouldn't go for a one night stand, wouldn't swear...why the goody-goodies?
Because they would never suspect. And if they did, and turned in Leinsherr, the police wouldn't do anything. I mean, why would you arrest one of your major patriots?
"Hi there, cher." I said, walking up to the desk. "Mr. Leinsherr gotta minute for ol' Remy?"
She smiled a slow, shy smile. "He's in a meeting.You'll have to wait just a minute."
"Won' take bu' a minute, what I got to show 'im, mon amie. Remy be back in a minute." Setting off toward his office, I heard her raising and getting out of her chair.
"No, you can't. He said no interruptions, and I'll get fired. Please, sir just wait a minute."
Too late. My mind was on too many things. I had an agenda. Pay Leinsherr, find the girl, give her her money, get a date.
As I opened the door, I realized two of my agenda items had just been crossed off the list. That same girl was facing me as I opened the door, her face going from shock to annoyance. The secretary was bouncing on her heels behind me, obviously trying to find a way to save her way of getting an income. "He wouldn't listen to me, sir, he insisted on just barging in. I told him you were in a meeting, but--"
At the rate she was going, she was going to have a heartattack from explaining so fast. Poor girl. I decided to put her at ease. "Easy, cher. Mr. Leinsherr is understandin' enough." Of course, he wasn't, but he would be to employees that he didn't want to know the truth. I turned back to the auburn haired girl that was glaring at me with bored gray eyes. It was kind of cute, how angry she looked. "Hello, mon amie. We met before, I tink."
"Unfortunately." She replied with such apathy and sarcasm that I was amazed both emotions could fit in the sentiment. She was not the only one glaring at me. Leinsherr looked ready to throttle me. "LeBeau, you should learn how to follow instruction. I told you not to come back her unless you had what you took."
"Bu' I did follow de instructions, mon amie. I surely did." I walked past the girl and extracted the bills. "Everythin' I owe ya."
He sighed and counted the money, then finding the amount satisfactory, dropped his forhead into his palm and sighed once more. "Rogue, LeBeau...get out of my office. And next time, knock."
Both of us obeyed automatically. The one Leinsherr had called Rogue refused to look at me as we got onto the elevator.
"Ya lef' your money, cher."
"Not mah money. Ah was payin' you back. Ah told you not to do me any favors."
"It wasn' a favor." I smirked, watching her expression, which was growing angrier by the moment. I continued to press my luck. I mean, Lady Luck had been with me all the rest of the time. "So what're ya doin' tonigh'?"
"Slitting you're throat, if you don't shut up." She growled and walked out of the elevator as the doors opened. I persued.
Hey, I was making progress.