Gambling Time: Chapter Two
The familiar buzzing of the alarm chimed away. Reaching over to turn it off proved to be slightly more difficult due to the extra body in the bed. Opening my eyes revealed Penny half-wrapped around me, cutting me off from the nightstand. Not so much as a twitch to show she heard, much less cared, that the alarm was going off.
And the Cuddles Bandit strikes again.
Shaking my head, I reached over her and turned off the alarm. Getting out of the bed proved to be just as much an endeavor as I remembered. While Penny slept like the dead, she had hands like a swamp snake trying to hold on to it's next meal. Always wandering, reaching, or grabbing, and anything that moved, got squeezed.
Took a bit to get my pillow in place and for her arms to grab it, instead of me. Decoys were a valid – and sometimes the only viable - tactic. Once Penny had something that wasn't going anywhere, she stilled, a soft contented sigh escaping as she settled back in. My freedom assured, I quickly adjusted the blanket to make sure she was fully covered before grabbing my running clothes and heading to the bathroom. The early morning chills following me like a stalker.
I could still smell last night's dinner in the air when I looked over the railing. Sam and Katie were in the couch bed. The armchair was folded out and looked like it had been made for someone, presumably Penny, to sleep on. Seeing some of the escaped clothes from the occupants of the couch bed, and considering where the armchair was, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together on why I had a night time visitor.
Sam's stereo was even still playing one of the CD's he made for me. Low but familiar spirited Jazz and Blues from live recordings taken from Frenchmen Street filled the air, mingling with last nights dinner. Danny and Lillian left before it got too late, not being the night owls we were, but eventually even I was done. Not so for them. I wasn't very sure when they called it a night, but hopefully Sam and Katie didn't keep Danny and Lillian up too late. This wasn't one of our old flophouses where this kind of thing was typical.
Last night's dinner and late night probably sounded like a madhouse to the neighbors, but no one called us in and Danny didn't come get me to make them stop afterward, so maybe everything was fine. Resolving to deal it, if there was something to deal with, later I attended to my morning necessities while the letting the hot water warm up.
No stranger to a full schedule, I mentally went over everything, sorting it all and putting it all into usable perspective while adjusting for unexpected additions. Especially considering today was supposed to be my first actual day of high school. Or, school period.
I'd gotten back my testing results in the mail. Unsurprisingly, math was decent, I assumed since they've put me in mainline classes to finish the year. History and English as well; although I had an extra remedial course late in the day. Amusingly, I pretty much flunked all the sciences. No practical value in knowing the composition of cells, or who contributed to this or that discovery. It hadn't been something I'd ever needed to learn and it showed in the testing.
If nothing else, the next few weeks should be interesting, but really, the only part I was looking forward to was… admittedly Dennis. Okay, he was a bit naive of how things worked. His humor tended more to the sarcastic side and he had questionable taste in friends. The less said about his current career path, the better.
But for all of that, Dennis was nice easygoing company. So far it seemed he was withholding any judgments and actually wanted to know me. Not Gambit, but Renée. Granted there wasn't much, if any, difference, and before I met him, I'd probably have said there wasn't any. What differences existed, were subtle, and something I was only now seeing myself. Dennis had even gone well beyond the mark. How he got his hands on Annette's earring I lost in that fiasco, I had no idea, but getting it back when I'd written it off as a lost cause meant quite a lot.
Then again, Dennis was partly responsible for my current situation…
Finishing tying up my shoelaces, I shook those circular thoughts off. Unless it involved a heist, I never was one for long term planning anyway. Still, it was a safe bet I had at least one enemy in this city now. Be nice to know who it actually was. Then again, maybe he'd forget about it. Just chalked it up to the cost of doing business.
Right. I needed to find out who this guy was and why he wanted Dinah. Preferably before I ended up with another Two Mauls situation.
Exiting fully attired for my morning, I stopped at the base of the stairs.
"Sam?" I whispered.
"Thought I'd join you."
"You want to go running?" I asked trying not to laugh. "The guy who complained every time we had to exercise in preparation for a job?"
"You usually wait until I'm hung over whenever you decide to pull something," Sam said, rolling his eyes. "From what you've said this city doesn't have a place that matches the view of the River, but hey, you like it here. That has to count for something. Danny said you run there and back now."
"Yeah," I said, shrugging.
"Sounds like that's going to be our new stomping ground."
"The players here treat it like neutral ground," I explained. "Hands off. Bad for business."
"Makes sense. Bourbon and Frenchmen St. were treated similarly. Can't mess much with the tourists, I get it, but that didn't stop us from hanging out there."
"Let's see how things go in the next week before we start setting up, eh?"
"You're the boss."
"It's not like that, Sam. The situation in Brockton Bay, not to mention my own, isn't exactly stable," I said, heading for the back door. "And don't call me boss."
"Sure, Boss," he said casually opening and then holding the door for me.
This time I rolled my eyes, but didn't correct him again. Instead I stepped through the door. Sam joined me in our pre run calisthenics before we headed in tandem down the street.
Having plenty of time, and rightly assuming Sam hadn't kept up with his own exercise routine, I set a steady light jog. Our path meandered through Danny's neighborhood, a small section of downtown, keeping east for the most part until finally reaching the Boardwalk.
All through our run, I pointed out various points of interest I'd discovered. Keeping pace with me, Sam would nod, joke, and more often offer his opinion, asked for or not. But that was Sam, and nothing new there. In a lot of ways, it was nice how easy this was. Familiar; even if the buildings and general sights around us were so vastly different than what we were used to.
At this time in the morning, the Boardwalk was practically deserted. The only presence, other than ourselves, came from either start of day deliveries or the infamous boardwalk security as went about their patrols.
"You're holding up well."
"Guy has to stay in shape to run with you," Sam chuckled, not even out of breath despite the distance we just ran. "Hope your beau knows this and gives me a better run than Shane did."
"I don't suppose I can bribe you to not do that?"
"Not a chance," he grunted.
"Dennis isn't like Shane," I said. Sam's expression was as set as his earlier words. "Or Marcus for that matter."
"We'll see."
"Sam," I sighed.
Instead of replying, he turned to me; a look in his eyes I hadn't seen since just after we left the Rats. That dark time before we found Sister Mary and the Orphanage. When it was just the two of us trying to somehow feed and care for those who believed there was a better way to live than servicing the Rat King.
"Katie seems like a good woman, chéri," I said softly.
"Yeah…"
Allowing a smirk to form, I used his hesitation to add, "I'm glad she decided to keep you. Maybe she'll have better luck training you than I had."
"Doubtful, ma chère," Sam returned. "But hey, we live in a world of super powers, so anything's possible, no?"
"Unfortunately, this is very true," I answered fondly. "You don't have to always look out for me, Sam. Especially now that you and Katie are getting serious."
"Katie knows the score."
I nodded at what wasn't said. "No scores up here, Sam. Especially if you plan to work with Danny. He runs an honest business."
"Fifty large in the wall says differently," he said, smirking.
"I'm not working with Danny," I pointed out, not bothering to question how he figured out how much I had, much less where. "And I doubt the previous owners will miss it."
Sam turned to me, blank faced.
"Much."
"Right," he chuckled. "Just sayin', for someone working the legit angle, you have a lot of loot."
"A girl has to eat," I returned not denying the accusation.
"True story, and better well fed, than hungry."
"Don't know about your hunger, but how about something to drink. Coffee?"
"Sure. There a place to get a cup around here?"
"Yeah. Jason makes a killing selling to boardwalk security and the delivery drivers."
"Sounds like a smart guy. How's his coffee?"
"It's not bad actually."
Leading the way it didn't take long to get to James's stand. Like usual the older man was happily doing what he did every morning. His stall wasn't much, a well supplied and decorated stall but the what made the stall memorable was man running it.
An older man, James's expression was as pleasant as his stall was festive. The man himself moved about doing the work of four people. All with a smile that typically never faded. At least until he looked up at his first customers of the day.
When his eyes locked onto mine, his smile faded almost as quickly as his eyes widened. Ignoring his reaction I said, "Bonjour. Two coffee's please."
"Ye-ye-of course…"
Paying for our drinks, I walked over to the railing overlooking the water some distance from the vendor. Leaning next to me, Sam asked, "Reactions are goin' to get worse you know."
"For a while," I said. After taking a sip, I continued. "Until they get used to me."
"Yeah? And what about Arcadia?" he asked.
"What about it?"
"You really think those spoiled rich kids are just going to roll with it? You don't think they're going to try something?"
"What can they do?" I asked rhetorically. "I'm officially out and registered. It's all perfectly legal and besides, it's not like the Protectorate didn't already know who I was and what I looked like."
"Still…"
"It was only a matter of time before they connected the dots."
"...I guess."
"I doubt I could have pulled off the double life anyways," I confessed, taking a sip. "Not once I started showing up places in armor. Believe it or not but I'll have more freedom to operate this way..."
"If you say so."
"...and the look on Glory Girls face when I show up today should be priceless."
"And now we come to the real reason why you did all this," Sam laughed.
"It...was a contributing factor," I chuckled. My phone chiming intruded on our levity.
"I know that look," Sam chuckled. "What's next?"
"There is no next," I answered. "You're supposed to be going legit. Working for Danny. Second chances, no?"
"You need a foremen," Sam stated.
"It doesn't have to be you, Sam," I lowly pointed out. For a moment, he looked insulted before I continued. "I've heard of a couple of people that I can probably work with for that kind of thing. This is your chance to go straight."
"Maybe, but you're going to need someone, so it might as well be me. Besides, no reason we can't have some fun on the side, right?"
"We'll see," I said, looking at the phone still in my hands, and the message on the screen.
"So, what's up?"
"A couple of locals want to meet," I answered. "Might be a job offer. What I know of them, it probably is a job offer. I imagine they're always in need of something."
"When?"
"Now, if I can."
"Sudden," Sam grumbled. "Trap?"
"I wouldn't think so," I replied. "They didn't seem the type, but then again, everyone has a price."
"True enough," Sam nodded. "Not going to know different unless we go."
Taking a moment to think about it, I shook my head. "They don't know you, I'll go alone. Just in case it's a real offer."
"Seriously?"
"No need to sour one of the few contacts I've made."
"And if it is a trap?" Sam asked, looking very concerned.
Smirking, I patted the side of Sam's worried face as I passed. "You know better than most that Gambit can take care of herself."