Author's Note: Hello there, everyone! My apologies for taking so long to get this one out, I've had a rather tough week or so between a few unfortunate family issues (one of my pets died, among other things), and school. Once April is over though, I should be able to post more frequently, as my semester will have ended. Thank you all again for reading, and for understanding!
Please enjoy!
"What cha workin' on, Boss?"
"Christ, Shaundi," the Boss hurriedly slammed his laptop shut, and started shoving all of the papers and books filled with post-its into drawers and under weapons and maps, "how many times have I told you to knock if my door's closed?"
"I knocked like five times, man, you just weren't listening." a lazy grin crept onto her face as she spoke, and she sauntered towards the Boss as he went back to his item shifting. Twirling a dread around one of her fingers, she eyeballed the rearrangements being made, setting a hand on the tan man's shoulder as she did. For a guy everyone thought had his ass delivered extra crispy to the pearly gates, she noted, his skin was actually pretty smooth.
"Still didn't answer my question, Boss. You working on some secret project?"
"Yeah, something like that," he answered quickly, "you got news for me?"
"I do," Shaundi replied. Her hand crept across his shoulders, and she gave a playful laugh when his broad back hunched at its journey to his other shoulder, "and you got an answer you don't wanna share. C'mon, lighten up. You embarrassed by trying to be book smart instead of just street smart or something?"
"What do you mean 'trying' to?" the Boss huffed under his breath. Shaundi gave another laugh, her wrists jangling as she gave his shoulder a light squeeze. Leaning over, she watched the freckles on his face pop out against the red on his cheeks as his eyes wandered from his desk to her busty figure, betraying him long enough Shaundi could swipe one of the thick papers off the desk. Grinning broadly and stepping back as the Boss scrambled out of his seat, Shaundi quickly read over the title of the paper.
"'Modern Branding and the Shift in the Worth and Perception of the Body'? You write this, Boss?"
"Give it back, now." He lunged for her. Shaundi laughed him off, moving deceptively fast for living in a constant daze of smoke, folding the paper over once and jamming it into her cleavage as she dodged him. Whipping around, the Boss reached out to snatch his paper back, only to let his arm fall back limply at the sight of where it was being held hostage.
"Shaundi, quick fuckin' around! Give that back and tell me what you're here for!"
"I'm taking that as a yes," Shaundi teased, "and I was just gonna say that I got some intel that there's gonna be some sort of frat bash week going down at the university at the end of the month and that it may be a good idea to get some of your boys to play vendors for any events they got going down." The Boss's shoulders slumped slightly, and he looked Shaundi right in her glazed gaze.
"Really, that was it?"
"What, would you rather have not known and let the Sons of Samedi run the show there instead?"
"Hell no." the Boss replied with a scoff. He took two steps closer, and Shaundi took a half-step back. He glanced back down at her chest, and reddened further as the stoner cockily puffed her chest out for him, daring him to go over and pluck his paper out from between her breasts.
"I'll get a few guys on it, see if we can't cut some deals with Freckle Bitch's or Apollo's to get our guys and our product into their tents if they're going to be having vendors. I'm trying to work on something that needs to be done by tomorrow now, so could you give me back that essay and we drop this?"
"Aw, and just pretend like I don't know the big bad Boss is a nerd now?"
"I am not a nerd, but yes, now give it."
Shaundi tilted her head and gave a thoughtful hum, sizing up the freckled man. Sure, his scowl was pretty mean at the moment, but it was hard to take him seriously when he was turning more red than tan and wearing nothing but mismatching plaid pajama pants and a faded gold and purple muscle tank.
"I'll trade ya." She finally offered.
"I don't have any light bulbs not being used if that's what you want." He growled back. Shaundi laughed him off.
"Please, I got plenty back at my usual crib," she teased, "I'll give this back and let you go back to your nerd shit if you tell me your name."
"My... name?"
"Mhmmm," Shaundi purred, "don't worry, I won't tell all the others if it's something dorky like Wilfred or Theodore."
"It ain't, but I'm still not gonna tell you."
"Then I'm not going to give this back to you." She teased. She pressed down on the folded paper, and sank it deeper into her cleavage until she felt it hitting the wire of her bra. The Boss sank his shoulders lower and rolled his eyes. She was probably high, he convinced himself, and wouldn't remember anyways - it was more the fact he had to swallow his pride to get it back that made this difficult, considering he didn't want to risk damaging his document by yanking it out from its raunchy spot.
"It's Ken, all right?"
Shaundi blinked, and kept quiet. The Boss sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly looking very interested in the dirty poem made by the word magnets on his fridge left there by other visiting Saints.
"Ken? You mean like Barbie's boyfriend?" she finally asked.
"No, as in Ken Profit," the Boss replied. Shaundi laughed, and he pressed on, "there, now you know, now cough it up." Shaundi's laughter faded to a soft giggle, and she sashayed closer, slowly pulling out his folded essay from between her breasts. She held it out and Ken took it with a grumpy look on his face, flipping through it. It smelled like cheap perfume and pricey weed.
"Ken Profit? Y'know, with a last name like that Ken ain't all that bad," Shaundi mused, "you could probably pull something like Johnny and just be called 'Gat' by the others-"
"Or, I could just keep being called Boss, which is exactly what I plan on doing," he shot back. Shaundi moved out of his way as he went back to his desk and sat down. Her smile faded as he smoothed his paper down, and she stepped back over to the Boss as he started pulling all of his books and papers back from where he had banished them, opening up his laptop once again to reveal the report in progress he had been working on. He added in a more levelheaded tone, "I'll get on business once I'm done with this. Get Pierce to go ahead and start trying to get into contact with any businesses who might be part of the week if he's not busy, and some of the newer Saints to go do some recon and get more info on the frats and what events in it the Sons of Samedi might be trying to get in on."
"Got it," Shaundi said. There was a heavy pause that followed, broken apart only by the sounds of Ken setting up his study area and Shaundi sighing heavily. Digging into her pockets, she took out a small case and her lighter, taking out a neatly rolled blunt from the case as she spoke, "you want one, Ken? You really need to unwind some."
"Maybe when I'm not trying to write something," he replied, "and don't call me that."
"Aw, okay Mister Profit." the Boss made such a face at that when he turned around in his chair to look at her that Shaundi couldn't help but snicker as she lit her joint.
"'Mister Profit' was my old man, Shaund," he corrected, surprising Shaundi with her own nickname, "just leave it at Boss, all right?"
"Bo-ring, but if it'll make you happy," Shaundi pouted. She took a drag from her joint, but the Boss didn't turn around to try and get back to work just yet. Exhaling the smoke, she asked, "just so you know though, I'm totally still gonna call you Ken - like, not when we're in front of the crew or anything, but at least when it's just us." The Boss raised a brow, and Shaundi took another hit.
"That can't be healthy just goin' by your job title all the time, ya know? Like, you're more than just the guy who runs the Saints, man."
"Oh, now that's debatable," the Boss snorted. Shaundi was barely buzzed but even if she was totally high she would've been able to see the sad look in those heavily gold flecked eyes - more gold flecked with brown, really - and how crooked his smile appeared. At her silence, he added, "you know, when you're in a coma, you can hear things. Don't remember everything said, but... recall the gist of it. All that time I was out, not a damn person called me by my name. I heard my prison number, I heard 'Boss of the 3rd Street Saints', shit I remember hearing 'bastard' and 'motherfucker' for obvious reasons, but... never my real name. I probably wouldn't have ever remembered it myself if I hadn't nicked my medical records before breaking out I hadn't heard it in so damn long." Shaundi frowned, taking a longer drag than she had intended as she listened.
"You bothered to remember, though." She finally said. The Boss looked at her past the smoke cloud drifting from her lips, and straightened out his smile a little more. Shaundi smiled back at him easily, and started heading for the door.
"And I'm going to remember, too." Shaundi teased. Ken gave a snort of a laugh, and turned back to his work.
"Whatever you say, Shaund. Don't you think it'd be weird that you'd be the only person calling me that, though?"
"Eh, only as weird as you want to make it."
"Bastard," Shaundi muttered to herself, "didn't even tell me his full name."
It was three days since she helped the Boss clean house at the casino, and the bottle of pills her blue-skinned Boss offered her that day was nearly empty. They did what they promised to do though, the pain in her back almost completely wiped away since she started taking them with breakfast and dinner. Her back was healing nicely as well - a bit faster than she expected even, given, the size of the bruise. The rest of the crew was also in various stages of repair, but on the whole things were soon going back to normal as if they hadn't staged an incredible stand against two rival groups swarming outside one of their strongholds.
Shaundi fiddled with the bottle in her hands, letting her thoughts drift in and out of memories past. Shit, she had totally forgotten about that, but then again with how stoned she constantly was back then, it wasn't exactly a big surprise. She felt a little bad about not having kept her word on calling him by his name more, though she had a sneaking suspicion that was just how he liked it. The lieutenant pondered the possibility of trying to pick it up again, getting out of bed and cracking open the bottle.
"Ken Profit." Shaundi said it softly to herself, and made a face down at the two pills still left in her bottle. It sounded so foreign from her lips, felt so bizarre on her tongue. Frowning, she took her bottle out into the kitchen and waved lazily at the other Saints milling around the main part of the penthouse. Could always just hold it over his head, Shaundi thought to herself, or maybe just auction the info off to the highest bidder in the crew next time he pisses me off. I'm sure Pierce would pay decently and spread it like wildfire. She smiled to herself about that, imagining what the Boss's face would look like if he walked into HQ to everyone calling him by his first name. Not exactly a commonplace way to exact revenge, but the Boss wasn't exactly a commonplace sort of man.
Drinking down the last two pills with a tall glass of ice water, Shaundi dug out an unmarked Chinese take-out box from the fridge (people rarely ever felt like cooking after big brawls, so the local food places could usually expect a good week of business) and put it into the microwave. Punching in two minutes into the microwave timer and hitting go, Shaundi stifled a yawn and skimmed through her emails. She maybe got two bites into her pilfered teriyaki chicken lo mein and three sentences into her reply to a business email regarding the new I Wanna Sleep With Shaundi promo posters when her phone buzzed to life. Raising a brow, Shaundi saw the caller ID and finished chewing a piece of chicken before answering.
"Hey, Kinzie, what's up?"
"Hey Shaundi, not much," Kinzie replied, "listen, I got an idea about You-Know-Who that may help us find out more about his You-Know-What's." Shaundi stopped twirling the saucy noodles around her fork.
"Wait, wh- Kinzie, I thought we already knew about his-"
"I mean his other You-Know-What's! The ones that can help us find out about how he got those those You-Know-What's!" Shaundi rolled her eyes.
"I suppose you can't just tell me straight while we're on the phone, can you?"
"Oh, because I'd totally risk him finding out before we started doing more planning that may or may not have to do with his tech - look, just get over here when you can, okay?"
"Okay, I'll see you in a bit." Hanging up, Shaundi set down her cell phone on the counter, and stared down into the carton.
"Well, fuck."
After finishing her dinner and hurriedly wrapping up her email, Shaundi was on the move. She cruised down to the docks while the sun slid down the horizon, shining an orange light on the underbellies of the looming purple clouds and inking what of the sky wasn't taken over by the approaching storm a coral pink. Pulling her car into the parking lot near the warehouse, Shaundi was surprised to see that Kinzie's garage door was left half-open.
"Oh, shit." Shaundi hissed to herself, and quickly - but as quietly as her heels on concrete would permit - headed inside. Stalking straight to Kinzie's Inner Sanctum, she peered around the corner of the room, only to give herself away with an aggravated sigh.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
"It's nice to know my help will be appreciated, Shaundi." Oleg replied coolly, nodding to her politely from his seat as Shaundi stepped into the room, glaring daggers at Kinzie. The tech expert frowned back at the brunette, sliding her chair ever so slightly closer to both Oleg and her main computer station.
"You know I didn't mean it like that, Oleg- well, actually, I did mean it like that. Kinzie, what part of 'under wraps' have you not gotten about this whole thing?"
"Well it's not as though I leaked his records to the whole damn gang," Kinzie retorted, "and if we want to learn much else about this mysterious weirdo dealing bio-altering drugs to the Boss, we're gonna need help. And trust me, Oleg is going to be a good guy to bring onto the team, especially with his... er, experience with that sorta thing, for lack of a better phrase."
"It's all right, Kinzie," the Russian reassured her, "though I must clarify that I was never quite in our boss's position, as I was mainly kept to be replicated, not to be tampered with." Shaundi scowled, and crossed her arms over her chest. Kinzie had a point; Oleg was a good guy from what she knew, even if she mainly only ever saw him with Pierce or the Boss. Still, he wasn't exactly as familiar as she was with the Boss (and neither was Kinzie, really, but she was sort of considered a last-resort anyhow) and it felt so... not right to be letting the word spread.
"So, now that I know we're making a Boss-busting crew," Shaundi commented, shooting a rather pointed look to Kinzie, "should I assume you also took the liberties of telling him what the hell's been going on with the Boss already, Kinzie?"
"Well, just the basics," Kinzie huffed back. Oleg reached over and offered her a consoling pat on her knee before she added, "you know, that he's been dealing in some weird drugs and mutating himself, but I thought it might be better for you to tell him about how you found out and all. Maybe it'd help with what we have planned." Oh, great, so he knew the worst of it already, it seems - still, Shaundi's blood was at a steady simmer right now at the fact Kinzie not only had the audacity to ask another Saint for help behind her back, but to straight up tell him some of the damning secrets they were unearthing without her approval.
"I asked the Boss about his skin, he lied and said it was paint and I called bullshit," Shaundi finally began to explain with a sigh, sitting herself on one of the stacks of documents piled high from the ground, "so he took me out onto the docks a bit further out from here and told me to pick one of the Upgrade items from his phone, but ended up getting himself some weird one about Health. Some asshole then speaks up and says they got the Boss an extra gift with their purchase and peaced out, and it turned out that the voice was just coming from a two-way radio placed next to a little box. Then the Boss stuck himself with the needles, and... yeah, that's about it.
I tossed one of the needles out into the ocean because he told me to," Shaundi added, "and I probably would've chucked the Health one too if I weren't so damn concerned about what the Hell he's been doing to himself. He told me to just try and forget and keep it on the down low, after all." Another well placed pointed stare at Kinzie was soon interrupted by Oleg.
"If you don't mind me asking," Oleg asked, "the Boss has probably informed you to keep many other illegal items he's done secrets before: what is it about this one that has you so riled up?" Shaundi bristled, though the giant had a point: as far as crimes, at least this one technically only effected himself. Was she just being selfish, delving into his personal life for his sake without him even wanting her to because she thought she knew better? Shaundi made to speak, but faltered, looking down at her phone.
"I..." she began. She traced the password onto her phone thoughtlessly, and stared blankly at the floral background on her phone. "I just don't think what he's doing is right. Shit, I know he hasn't done something 'good' in years, but he's not even human colored anymore and he expects me not to worry about it. And when I saw him put that Vampire serum in and buckle over, I just... there's no way that what he's doing is safe. We already lost Johnny, and I know if the Saints lost the Boss again, it'd be... it'd-"
"You know," Oleg interjected delicately, "there is nothing wrong with just admitting you care for the Boss and you're worried." Shaundi whipped her head up to look at him, and frowned at the slow, understanding smile that crept onto the Russian's face as red crept onto her cheeks. Kinzie gave a soft, childish "ooohhh", which caused Shaundi to turn her attention to the other woman.
"Not like that, asshole," she hissed, "but yeah, that's what it boils down to, doesn't it?" Oleg nodded his approval, and gently nudged Kinzie closer to her computers. Kinzie got the message, and other than her obnoxiously coy smirk, got to pulling up something on her computer monitors.
"I think all of us are concerned for him as well," Oleg offered, "and that is why I want to help. Do not worry, I will not be spilling any of the secrets discussed here, which is presumably also why you have not informed Pierce already of this knowledge." Shaundi gave a sheepish nod of her head in agreement. Poor Pierce, she knew how much he hated being kept out of the loop, and while usually she liked teasing him about it, in regards to the current topic she felt kinda bad about it. He's known the Boss as long as she did after all, and even if they all had their disagreements and teased each other Pierce was one of the closest things she had left to family that gave a damn about her. Still, there was no way in hell she'd be risking Pierce accidentally leaking their still-formulating plans to the Boss: no way, not yet, not when they weren't even fully made.
"Good," Shaundi approved, "so, when Kinzie called, she said she might have an idea?" Oleg nodded.
"We do," he explained, "but it will be risky. You both discussed it briefly when exploring the Upgrade app before, and I believe we may actually have a chance to attempt it, given a good plan. You remember discussing the possibility of meeting the dealer, yes?"
"Yeah, Kinzie said if we did anything from here it might notify the Boss."
"But if we went onto their phone, it may not," Oleg added with a confirming nod, "if we obtain possession of his phone for a little while, Kinzie may be able to manually put in a false additional account or directly transfer information to her computer. If she does that, it may reduce the risks of the app catching us again long enough that we can deduce at least what all the other Upgrades do or possibly even be able to predict where they meet the Boss to deliver the Upgrades."
"All right, sounds good," Shaundi agreed, "other than the fact that it'd involve us somehow getting the Boss's phone, which he basically has attached to his hip at all times. How would we get it?" Kinzie and Oleg both looked at her, and Shaundi felt the Chinese food in her stomach churn.
"Ohhh no. No no no," the lieutenant gave a laugh of disbelief, "you're not putting that on me. This is your idea."
"It is," Oleg pointed out, "but you are the closest of us to him, plus it would be less risky if you did it than if he found out either of us were in on it."
"Unless you want us bringing Viola into this to seduce his pants off or Angel to wrestle it from his grip, it's pretty much on you," Kinzie added, "we did our part in making the plan, didn't we? We'll also do the transferring parts. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes tops when you get it, the worst part would just be figuring out how to get it back to him." Gripping her phone tightly, Shaundi clenched her jaw and looked from Kinzie to Oleg to the screens, where various programs looked like they were booting up. She made to give in, offering a defeated sigh, but a voice echoed from the other room that made her blood run cold.
"Just who are we getting back at, now?" the Boss asked, his footsteps nearing as Kinzie and Shaundi exchanged panicked stares, the brunette furiously gesturing to Kinzie's monitors as Kinzie whispered a rushed "I know" and started typing furiously.
"Oh, hello Boss," Oleg greeted, looking over at the blue skinned man as he stepped into Kinzie's Inner Sanctum, "what's up?"
"Not much," Ken replied easily, setting down a box of Mexican food on one of Kinzie's desks, "hey, Kinzie, got you some chow while I was out. I got you some too, Shaund, though I was expecting to be getting it to you a bit later." Shaundi rolled her eyes at his deviously accusatory grin, knowing better than thinking it was all playfulness in that smile. She wouldn't just show up to Kinzie's place unprovoked, after all, and for once Shaundi cursed her lack of sisterly bonds with the other woman as they would be really convenient right about now.
"Thanks, Boss," Kinzie replied, rolling her chair over to the box and opening it up. She picked up one of the boxes inside and opened it up, giving a little delighted noise at the sight of the gooey nachos within, adding, "ooh, looks good! These from that Mexican place in Yearwood?"
"They are," he confirmed, "now, what was this about getting back? What's the problem?" Kinzie conveniently stuffed a chip into her mouth. Oleg and Shaundi exchanged glances, and Shaundi finally spoke.
"Well, with the Deckers having so much of their shit online," she forced out, "I was figuring that they might have some hand in online- uh, online gambling rings."
"Online gambling," the Boss asked, looking at Shaundi with some confusion, "you mean like those online slot games you see grannies playing?"
"Grannies may be playing them," Oleg said, "but they may also be able to bet very real amounts of money online, at least put them into the games. Should the Deckers have their hands in any of these rings, they could still be generating large amounts of cash for themselves - and stealing it from us from the Three Count." In that moment, Shaundi could have probably given the large man a high five in how easily he slid into her lie. The gang leader's slight clench in his square jaw was enough to let Shaundi know he was buying into it, at the thought of those Decker dorks possibly stealing his things.
"All right, and if they are, then what can we do about it?"
"I figured Kinzie here might be able to figure out a way to determine if they were doing any online gambling schemes," Shaundi explained, "and then do... I dunno, some sorta nerd shit to stop it." The Boss nodded, and looked over to Kinzie, who was still filling her face with nacho cheese dripping chips.
"And do you know any nerd shit that could stop 'em, love?"
"Well, maybe," Kinzie finally said after she swallowed her food, "I only just got the request to do this like ten minutes ago though. If they do have anything online though, you bet I'll find 'em. And from there, I may be able to make an unstoppable algorithm and put it up against their games and take them to the cleaners, or maybe just find a way into their accounts where all the gambling cash the house sites earn goes, or-"
"So if it exists, destroying it is doable?"
"Of course." Kinzie grinned. The Boss nodded his approval, and picked up his large box of food.
"Good. Be sure to keep me posted. Good thinking, Shaundi."
"Thanks." Shaundi replied, smiling more at the fact that her lie went over better than she hoped. Oleg gently nudged her, and Shaundi glanced over at the massive man before looking back at the Boss, watching as he checked his phone. Summing up her courage, she spoke up.
"Hey Boss, after you go deliver that, you wanna go out on the town?" Ken blinked, and tilted his head at her.
"Sure, love. You got anything in mind?" Shaundi got up from her seat, and looked down at her phone to ignore Kinzie and Oleg staring at her back.
"Oh, not really. I can think of a few places we could swing by, though. I just figured it'd be a nice night to go out, especially since the new season of IWSWS is going to be starting soon." The Boss laughed, but moved so she could get past him before following after her.
"Well, I don't know about nice, but I'm always down for going out. See ya Oleg, later Kinzie."
"Bye!" Kinzie called. Oleg waved to their retreating figures before swiping one of Kinzie's nachoes.
"Have a good evening, you two!" He called. Shaundi couldn't help but feel like there was an unsaid "good luck" in that statement. Walking out to their cars, Shaundi headed to her car while Ken went to his, the purple Peacemaker parked right alongside her Torch. She caught a glimpse of several bags labeled with cacti dancing in sombreros in the passenger side of his car as he opened his door, a sight oddly relieving as it meant she'd probably have a bit more time to think about what the hell they were going to do and what she could do to get his phone from him during that time in such a way that she could have it back to him before he even noticed. I could always just ask him more details about this, she thought to herself before giving a quiet sigh, though I somehow doubt that would work out well. At least this way as long as he doesn't know, it shouldn't hurt him.
"Well shit, Shaundi," the Boss commented, whistling at the sound of thunder rolling above them, "so much for a 'nice night', eh?" Shaundi swore, and opened up her car door.
"So it seems. You want to just hang out at HQ for tonight then and do something tomorrow?"
"Eh, the rain doesn't bother me much," he answered with a shrug, "I figured it'd ruin your hair or whatever." Shaundi gave a scoff and slid into her car.
"Oh please, I'm not going to melt," she retorted, "besides, I got some spray for that back at HQ and my place. It won't really matter if we just go to the clubs downtown anyhow, seeing as most all of them are indoors."
"Fair enough," he replied, "so, we head to HQ, get ready, and go out and see what kind of trouble we can get into from there?" Shaundi exchanged mischievous grins with him.
"Deal."