Chapter 15
The two police officers sat there with blank looks on their faces, wondering if that really just happened. They had been chasing after Angelus O'Connor for some time but lately Angelus had been on the low-down, they figured with the arrival of the blonde in his life, that was standing in front of them at that moment, and were now mostly focused on Riley Finn. At the moment, it seemed like Riley was trying to out-do Angelus so he was making three times as much noise as Angelus ever had.
Faith slid over in the booth to make room for Buffy to sit, she guessed that they were going to be talking for a while. She hesitantly took the seat and took a big sigh. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this. She took a much needed deep breath and braced herself for whatever it was that they were going to ask her to do.
"Listen Buffy, Angelus is involved- well not involved, is the leader of the local Irish mob here in Sunnydale. What he does is, he goes around city to city in the US and he poses as a guy in some profession and hangs out there until we catch up with him again."
"Okay, well, why don't you just track him down by his name? I mean how many Angelus O'Connor's are there?" she asked dumbly.
Spike looked at Faith to see if they should tell her, and sadly Faith nodded.
Spike leaned forward toward Buffy and said as best he could, "He changes his last name from city to city. In Chicago, he was Angelus Roarke. In New York City, he was Angel O'Brian. He doesn't stay there long. The longest was New York City and that was for two months. He's been in Sunnydale for the past five."
"So, what's the deal?" she waned to know. She didn't want to rush them, but it's not like Angelus wouldn't calling soon.
"Look, right now, Angelus' record is nothing compared to Riley Finn's. Finn is our main subject. He's the one we've been watching all along. If you can get Angelus and bring him in, we can interrogate him about Finn." Faith surmised.
She was lost. Why did they need to interrogate Angelus about Riley? There was some piece of the puzzle missing and she was going to find out what it was.
"Why do you need Angelus for that?" she asked them bluntly.
Spike cleared his throat and realized that this girl really had no clue about what was going on around her for the past two and a half months. Angelus totally kept her in the dark. Not that he wasn't surprised or thought differently. When he was involved with Dru a few years back, he didn't want to tell her about his job. It was too dangerous. Moving back to the topic at hand though.
"Look, Buff, Angelus and Riley used to be the best of friends. There was no war going on between the two families until about five months ago."
"What happened five months ago?" Buffy asked them.
"Darla Mackenzie happened. Angelus was dating her, and Riley Finn got jealous. He was in love with her. You can imagine what happens when two guys, who are best friends, fall in love with the same woman."
"A threesome?" she joked.
"Darla was murdered one night. The police investigated the murder and at that point the only person who we could find who would commit the murder was Angelus. Well it turns out that there were several reliable witnesses that said that they saw Angelus in this club, watching you on the night of her murder."
At that startling piece of information, Buffy found her eyes growing bigger by the moment.
"Your boss, Gunn was one of them. We have reasonable doubt that Riley Finn murdered Darla, but we have no evidence. We believe that Angelus has that evidence on him." Spike informed her.
"Why would Angelus do that?" She asked them fully not understanding why Angelus was hiding that kind of information.
Spike and Faith glanced at each other for a moment and then back at Buffy. "We believe that Angelus is keeping it as insurance you might say. We figured that Angelus is keeping the evidence against Finn in return for Finn's freedom and your safety. We know what happened that night at the apartment building."
She blinked a few times, letting it all sink into her system. Angelus? A mob boss? She could see it. The moodiness, the darkness, the kinkiness- the women were all pointing to the facts. It wasn't that big of a stretch for her to see. That still didn't mean that it freaked her out to a degree though.
"So what is it that you want me to do?" she got down to it.
"We want you to wear a wire. We want you to get Angelus in a position where he admits that he has evidence against Finn and we'll take him in. With his help and cooperation, we have can make a deal with him. We want Finn behind bars faster then you can say Doublemeat Palace." Faith told Buffy the plan. She took a few breaths and then sadly looked down at the dirty floor of the club.
With slight tears in her eyes, she barely whispered, "I'll do it,"
No sooner had the words left her mouth that her phone rang. She knew it was him, and as much as she didn't want to talk to him, she knew that she had to. If she didn't he would suspect something was up and she couldn't let him know.
"Hello?" she answered her phone.
"Where are you at baby?" he asked a bit groggily. She could picture him rolling around on the sheets, stretching out sideways and relaxing himself as he said that.
"I just went for a jog. I'll be home soon," she told him quickly and as nonchalantly as possible.
"Okay, well I'll see ya soon. Bye," he said.
"Bye," she replied as she hung up the phone and really knew that it was over between them. What she was about to do would forever be between them if they managed to work it out and so would his fidelity issues. Those are two things that you just don't forget or move on from.
She closed the top of the phone and looked at the couple beside her and saw how much they really liked and enjoyed each other's company. Shit, they even looked in love. She gave them a small smile and nodded when they told her that they would have it all set up right now, and they were at the back apartment of their building if anything went wrong.
They got up from the table and made it out to their van as quickly and quietly as possible without someone thinking they looked conspicuous. Ten minutes later, Buffy was all set up and she was on her way back home. She thanked the lord that she didn't live far.
She worked up a sweat jogging to their apartment to let him believe that she had been jogging as she had told him on the phone. She made her way up the stairs and to their apartment door. She opened it and willed the tears not to come pouring down her face as she was about to commit the ultimate betrayal.
She walked inside the apartment and no sooner had she opened up the door then he had pushed her back up against it, slamming it shut with her body and staring at her like she was about to be a piece of meat thrown to the lions.
"Oh shit," she murmured.
TBC…
