Valentino closed the case full of money shut with a smile. Everything looked good to him. Standing up from his large chair he extended his hand out above his desk, and a black paw grasped it firmly and shook.
"Pleasure doing business with you Vixen," Valentino said.
The man he addressed was an anthropomorphic red fox new to his territory. He had an interest in running a club of his own and Valentino, sensing an opportunity for another revenue stream, wanted to fund that interest. He even had a perfect location all set for him but it was sorely lacking in the entertainment department. Lucky for Vixen, Valentino had a couple ladies in his employ that weren't making him as much money as they used to. He was more than willing to give all of it to him, for a price.
When Vixen came to the meet he showed up in a full black suit, with the top unbuttoned to show the red button-up underneath. The hand he shook held a few large rings, each embedded with precious gemstones of different variety. In his other hand he held a black cane with a rounded gold top, and wore gold chains around his neck. It was clear the moment he walked in he liked to flaunt his wealth, not that it impressed Valentino.
Another thing he picked up from him was how much he cared about his looks. Throughout the whole deal a hand would come up occasionally to stroke the fur on his head, or make sure there was nothing in his teeth. A bit unprofessional, but it wasn't like he was looking to become partners with the guy. This was a simple transaction. Vixen gets the women and the club, and Valentino gets the money plus a cut of the revenue.
A clean smile spread across Vixen's face, "To do business with an overlord such as yourself sir? The pleasure is all mine."
He knew how to be respectful too. All "sirs" whenever he responded to him. Not that it was surprising to Valentino. Clawing his way into this position demanded respect from everyone around him. They knew the consequences if they gave anything less.
Vixen eventually pulled his hand away, then put his arms around his new employees. He gave them a sly smile and they returned it with giggles and smirks. Valentino took this moment to address the women one last time.
"Ladies, make sure you give Vixen here your best. Treat him no different than you would treat me, got it?"
"Of course Mr. Valentino!" They said enthusiastically.
Vixen gave him one more nod, signifying that he appreciated his generosity. Valentino similarly nodded back, and then he finally turned around with the women and led them out of the office space. He watched his back as he left the room, not taking a seat until the door closed shut behind him. He took another look at the case in front of him, smirking while he instinctively pulled open a drawer and reached for a cigar. But his hand stopped short, a vague feeling gave him pause.
He couldn't put his finger on why, but the whole deal felt too easy. Simple exchanges like this happen all the time in the living world and in Hell, he had done quite a few himself. Yet something about Vixen didn't feel right. He couldn't say what for sure, but it was enough for him to push back the drawer and reach for the intercom sitting on his desk instead.
The intercom was linked to all the radios in the club, giving him an easy connection to all his employees. Pushing a button, he leaned to the mic and said, "Lollipop can you come to my office? Thanks baby."
A minute after he made the request a smaller, scantily-clad sinner walked into the room. Her skin was a light red, making most believe at first-glance that she was hellborn, and she was dressed in a strapless black tube top with panties to match. While she did a lot of work on the floor like most who worked for Valentino, she also helped manage financials. It was for that reason why he called her in here.
"Thanks for dropping in sweetheart," Valentino said, then nodded at the case. "I'd like you to count through this case and make sure $250,000 is in here. I recently closed a deal with someone and I want to make sure they didn't come up short."
He wasn't lying when he said that. Despite his doubts he was still mostly confident all the money was there. Because nobody was dumb enough to rob Valentino, especially right in front of his face.
Lollipop flashed him a smile, replying in a light voice, "Sure thing boss!"
She took the case off the desk and walked over to the luxurious red sofa situated nearby; plopping the case on the table in front of it, she opened it then sat down and started sifting through the contents. Valentino reached back to the drawer he closed earlier and retrieved a cigar from within. Lighting it, he watched her meticulously go through each bill, occasionally puffing smoke out of his mouth.
Thirty minutes passed by like this, until Lollipop turned her eyes back to the case and she froze, her hand hovering over the leather container. Valentino caught this and he immediately knew something was wrong.
"What is it baby?"
When he asked the question she jumped a little, as if she had forgotten he was in the room with her. Her eyes flicked back between him and the case, mouth opening and closing while she struggled to answer his question. Eventually, she swallowed and gave a somewhat vague response.
"The, the case is empty sir. I counted all the money."
Valentino shrugged, not seeing the issue in her statement. He spurred her into addressing the reaction she had earlier. "Alright, so what's the problem? How much was in there?"
Lollipop, not seeing any easy way of telling him this information, answered him more directly this time. "$125,000. All paid in stacks of one-hundred dollar bills. He only gave you half of what he owed."
She looked down at the table covered in cash as she said this, but she could feel Valentino's cold gaze piercing the side of her head. She knew he wasn't upset at her, so she shouldn't have any reason to be reacting this way. Yet she knew Valentino, and the rage he could get into when someone took anything from him.
Wood scraped on wood as Valentino pushed his chair back and got out of his seat. Smoke filtered around him while he walked around his desk and stepped closer to the smaller, shaking demon. Slowly, he took the cigar out of his mouth with two fingers.
"Thank you Lollipop," he said, dropping the pet names to call her by her stage name. "You can leave now. I'd like to have some privacy while I think about how to address the client about his miscalculation."
Lollipop looked up, noticing Valentino wasn't even looking at her, then she wordlessly got out of her seat and headed out of the office. Meanwhile, Valentino was lost in his own thoughts. $125,000. The number floated in his head. This wasn't a miscalculation, half of the money was missing. This was intentional. Vixen cheated him. Normally this transgression would make him fly into his usual rage, then he would send his men after him to kill him, but he held back this time.
If some nobody like Vixen was bold enough to do something like this in his own club, it was clear that people had forgotten who he was. Otherwise they would have told him a stunt like this would be the last bad mistake he would ever make. But, he had been making a habit recently to let other people do the dirty work. Perhaps this made some think he had gone soft. Make them think he could be fucked with. Valentino began to nod his head. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense; and the more he thanked Vixen for swindling him. Because now he had a reason to remind people who ran this town.
The cigar in his fingers burned down to a nub; turning he reached over to his desk and squashed it down onto the ashtray. Then he turned back and walked through the door leading out of his office. Normally he'd change into something more comfortable when taking on jobs himself, but he didn't see any need to in this case. His usual attire wouldn't hinder him in the least, and the weapons he carried on his person would be all he really needed. Yes, this wouldn't take him long.
And it didn't take him long at all.
In just one hour he had made his way to the club he gave Vixen, then killed every bodyguard he had working for him. The initial wave of security died with a few bullets from Valentino's custom pistol. And when that ran out of ammo, rather than waste time reloading, he resorted to his bare hands. That's where he got real creative. Claws sliced throats, bloody knuckles broke bones, and heeled boots smashed heads. They barely slowed him down. As time went on Valentino's coat slowly turned a darker shade of red, a color contributed by blood that wasn't his own.
By the time he was done with them, what few patrons the club had had long since cleared out, leaving him alone with a pile of bodies. The entertainers were nowhere to be seen, and that's when Valentino's eyes narrowed as he spotted the door to the back offices. With no one left to stop him he made his way inside. When he found the door to Vixen's office, he was greeted by the club's performers, with Vixen himself cowering behind them.
"Listen, listen, listen Valentino. Look I-I fucked up alright? You have made your point clear, but do you really want to kill these beautiful women to get to me?"
Valentino barely acknowledged what he said, simply growling, "Ladies, step aside."
"Yes Mr. Valentino," they all responded, taking places on either side of the room to give him a clear path to Vixen.
The fox looked confused at this, his head flipping left and right as he watched them walk away from him. "H-Hey! Where the fuck are you going? I'm your boss dammit!"
He opened his mouth to say more, but when he saw Valentino step closer to him his head snapped quickly back in his direction. Raising his hands, he tried to make another plea, "Alright! You want your money? I'll pay you back everything I owe, hell I'll pay you double. Triple! Just name your price, you don't have t-"
His words were immediately silenced with a hard punch from Valentino. He could feel blood enter his mouth from the force of the blow, and he fell onto his back with a shocked gasp.
Valentino glared at him as he coughed up blood, choosing this moment to mock him. "So now you want to pay. Now that you got no one else to hide behind you want to give me the money you should've paid to begin with."
Before Vixen could react he reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his suit, dragging him up off the floor until he was at eye-level. "You should've thought about that before you tried to fuck me!"
He punctuated his exclamation by slamming him back onto the floor. Vixen only had enough time to gasp again before Valentino descended on him. He was completely ruthless, previously bloodied fists made their marks again and again. Each punch sent blood spattering along the floor. Between each blow he continued his verbal assault as well.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice? Or did you think I wouldn't do anything about this? Let me guess, you hang around some pretty stupid people. People who say shit like, 'Valentino's a bitch. All he does is slap whores around. If you took money from him he wouldn't do shit.' Am I getting close? Just stop me when I'm right on the money. Because let's face it, if you were talking to literally anyone else, they'd kill you for me just because that's how much of an absolute dumbass you are."
Vixen didn't respond, or rather he couldn't, as Valentino's continuous punches forced him to remain silent. All he could do was lay there as Valentino wreaked havoc on his body. After some time, however, his punches began to slow. Then they stopped. He leaned over the broken animal, panting from exertion.
"Look at you," he breathed out, "why aren't you offering me money now? Go on, name a price. I dare you."
Vixen continued his silence, making some in the room believe he was dead, but the subtle rise and fall of his chest gave away that he was very much alive. Valentino knew this, so he continued to talk, feeling that he deserved a little break.
"You know, I just figured out what your problem actually is. You think money is the end-all-be-all in this world. You bought yourself a nice suit, a bunch of metal crap to sling around your body, and probably a car as well. Anything to make you seem more important than you actually are. And I'll admit it, you even had me fooled. That's why I gave you the club and the girls."
Valentino paused and looked around at the entertainers as he said this, then let out a small chuckle. "Although I only remember giving you two. Who else did you fuck over? Is that why you felt so confident short-handing me? You really are one dumb bastard."
He let another punch loose into Vixen's face, carrying a tooth with it, and eliciting a sob from the fox. Valentino rolled his eyes, "Oh shut up, you brought this on yourself. Now, where was I?" He snapped his fingers, "Right, money."
"As you probably learned, money can get you a lot of fancy shit, but it also makes you stupid. Surround yourself with expensive crap, armed men and hookers, and you start to believe you're actually worth a damn. That you can screw people without repercussions. But then someone like me comes knocking down your door, and suddenly you aren't as invincible as you thought you were. You want to know why it was so easy to get to you?"
He paused to glare down at Vixen, then answered his own question. "Because there's one thing money can never buy. Respect. Respect doesn't have a price tag. You have to earn that through sweat, muscle, and blood. Just have to be careful that blood isn't your own."
He smiled down cruelly at Vixen as he lay barely breathing. Reaching a hand down he grabbed him by the collar again, provoking a whining mumble that would sound like a plea of mercy if his mouth still worked. Instead of punching him again, he got close to his ear and whispered to him.
"And with respect, comes power. That's why your guards barely put up a fight, they practically let me walk in here. It's also why your girls listened to me. Just look at them now. Tell me who they're paying attention to."
Valentino saw his eyes move to either side of him, looking at the women on both sides of the room. Yet when he looked they didn't meet his gaze. He could tell, through eyes half-shut from bruising, that they weren't listening to him anymore.
Vixen forced his mouth to make an o-shape, a swollen tongue in his mouth trying to shape itself so he could answer his question. "Eeeeee-uuuuuu," was all he could muster. Thankfully, Valentino accepted it.
"That's right, me. That's what power gets you. I may not own all their souls, yet, but they can see who's really in charge here. And it sure as shit isn't the prick covered in his own blood and piss. It's the guy who made him that way; that's why I'm overlord, and you're just another sniveling prick that tried, and failed, to put one over on me."
He let go of Vixen's collar after he finished his sentence, his head hitting the floor with a thud. Valentino stood back up, taking a cigarette out from under his coat and lighting it as he put it to his mouth. Taking a deep inhale of the drug, he looked at Vixen for a few seconds then shrugged.
"That all said… money's still good. But if you thought that was all you needed you were never cut out for this line of work. I'll be taking my club back, the money you owe, and all these fine ladies here," he said with a sweeping gesture towards the others in the room. "As for you," he continued, placing a hand into his coat, "consider our deal terminated."
When he retracted his hand it carried a pistol different from the one he used to wipe out Vixen's entourage. This gun carried a sort of ethereal glow to it, basking the immediate surroundings in its light. It looked like it was made out of a shimmering silver, with wings carved along either side of the slide.
When Valentino pointed at Vixen's head the fox weakly raised a shaking paw, as if he was attempting to defend himself. But such efforts became pointless once Valentino pulled the trigger. An explosion rocked the room as the gun knocked back from firing a single bullet, and the hand fell silently back to the ground.
Valentino tucked the gun back into his coat with a self-assured smile. That should remind everyone what happens when they fuck with me, Valentino thought. That, and all the camera footage this place picked up. I'll have to make sure Voxy puts it on the right channels later.
He turned after his moment of thought and looked at the women in the room. Clearing his throat, he addressed them in a more professional manner, one that juxtaposed the condition of his attire and the room they were in.
"Ladies, I'm so sorry you had to witness that. But sometimes that's just the price of business. After all, how many of you have been cheated out of your hard-earned cash? People getting their sex for free and you can't do shit about it? Wouldn't you want to do to them what I just did to this gentleman here?" He asked, gesturing to the bloodied and broken corpse below him.
Although quite a few were still perturbed by the events they bore witness to, they all found themselves nodding their heads one by one. Hell is a cruel place, and they have all been victim to sinners and hellborn alike using their services for free. This would leave them going cold and hungry on more than one occasion. Valentino's smile grew wider, it was so easy to reach them. Now all he had to do was seal the deal.
Walking between them, he slowly made his way to the door. "Well, considering all of you are pretty much out of a job at the moment, I'd like to suggest you all come work for me. I can guarantee that you get the money and respect you're owed. Not to mention, I'm pretty big in the movie business. If you ever wanted to be a star, here's your chance. As for protection, well, you saw what I can do. No one will touch you without my say-so.
He paused at the door, his hand gripping the knob. "There are plenty of other benefits on top of all that, but I don't want to spend all night listing them. If anyone is having doubts over what I said, just ask the ones here who're already on my payroll. They'll tell you that you won't get anyone better than Valentino."
He swung the door open with a slight twist of his wrist, then took another long drag from his cigarette before throwing it down. "When you've made your decisions, all interested parties can find me in my limo outside. I won't hang around forever though, so don't spend too much time thinking about it." Chuckling darkly he left the door open before walking back through the club proper, passing by the bodies of those he killed until he exited the club entirely.
When he got back into his limo he told his driver to wait there for at least ten minutes. He didn't think it would take any longer than that for them to decide. After all, where else were they going to go? If their old bosses never came back for them after being cheated of their money he doubted they were soul-bound to them. Plus, with his sizeable reputation, who would turn him down?
As if to prove his point, not even five minutes later, the back door opened up again. The first two women to climb in were the ones he gave to Vixen. He greeted them with a nod of his head as they both took positions to each side of him on the seat. Immediately after them, the rest of the women that were in that room filtered in. Not one of them went unaccounted for. After another minute the entire back of the limousine was filled up, pleasing Valentino immensely.
A large grin swept across his face as he ordered the driver in front to take them back to the studios. The engine of the vehicle hummed to life and soon the buildings outside started to pass them by as they went back on the road. Valentino took another cigarette out of his coat and lit it, inhaling its contents then exhaling smoke back out into the cramped interior.
As the smoke filtered around them, the earlier meek and quiet women became more relaxed. They slowly opened up and started talking amongst themselves. As they unconsciously inhaled more of the drug they relaxed even further and slipped into each other's arms. Even the women next to Valentino were affected by this, feeling him up and kissing him along his neck, working their way up to his face. He didn't acknowledge them, simply laying back into his seat and letting them continue doing their own thing while the drug worked its way through their system. A single thought crossed his mind as they grew further away from the carnage he created.
It really was a pleasure doing business with you Vixen.
