Nine Billion Dollar Heist

*Co-authored with the superb Lives in Dreams and TRDancer*

Chapter 17: Pink Bunnies and Italian Assholes

Rule Ten: Only object to decisions if you are one hundred percent sure, this way mutiny and arguments are avoided.

JPOV

"Rule thirteen, Emmett," I shot back again.

"You've said that about a hundred times now, what I'm saying is that there is something up with that guy and I think he's a prick," Emmett whined. He was like a five year old who wasn't allowed chocolate.

All three of us – Emmett, Edward and I- fell into the soft leather chairs that were in the bar. We came down for some drinks, but instead we spent an hour repeating the same argument. It was beyond ridiculous; Emmett just wouldn't shut up about his suspicions about Felix. Even though I slightly agreed with some of them, it would be nice for him to just shut up.

Edward sighed before he started to speak. "It doesn't matter what you think, Emmett. The fact is we are working with Felix now. He seems to know too much about us and if we were to back out now it would only be a matter of time before we were exposed. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't really want people to know exactly what we do on these trips.

"So I suggest that if you don't want anyone to find out then you should just shut up and stop complaining. Cause if you don't then I swear I'll-"

"Okay, okay, okay! I get it, so if we're going to let him work with us then he'll need to know about our rules or something. But, preferably, we could just not work with him."

"Emmett, shut up about whether Felix is going to be working with us," I snapped at him almost glaring at him but he made an interesting point. "But Emmett's right, we have our own set of rules and Felix will have his own. So do we make it clear that we follow our rules or what?"

He had his look of great concentration on almost as if he was pondering the mysterious of life.

"Well I suppose that it will have to be our rules that we follow. Mostly because he is outnumbered and adapting to his rules could take up time that we don't have. But also, it allows us to be in control and lets us know if things are working out. "

"Oh, is that so? Well then, I guess what's coming next will be a shock to your system."

We all turned around to see our new acquaintance smiling almost evilly at us.

"Is that so, just in what way do you mean, Felix," Edward asked trying to stay cool and collective. Ha-ha, Edward cool and collective. You would have needed to been there the first time Edward tried to talk to Bella. Milk was involved. Lots of it.

"In the way that I remembered that I had forgot to lay down the rules for this job and came back to discuss them with you.

"Now I believe sitting here with a few drinks would be the best cover for us. Now what would you boys like? My treat."

'Boys' - could he be anymore demeaning here?

We just ordered the usual and Felix went up to the bar by himself, leaving the three of us alone. His first mistake. I looked around and the other two were thinking the exact same, we were going to be reminded at every possible moment that we were the underdogs here and he was the master. Although Emmett had an 'I told you so look' on his face.

When we were younger we had came up with the facial code. For each situation it changed. We had to use it so much that we had memorised every alternative there was. This time it was the 'we have to do something' and 'we can't let this go on any further'- referring to us as boys- look.

He came back with the drinks in perfect order of our seating on a try. He placed it on the table and I was sure I could see him slip something under it. But I wasn't 100 percent sure, so I stayed quiet. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself.

Felix picked up his glass and casually took a sip. The three of us however were actually trying to avoid drinking with Felix. He just had that whole aroma around him and he certainly had enough motives to drug us. This of course wouldn't be a first.

Felix just laughed once he noticed that neither of us was drinking. It wasn't a nervous one or an awkward one; it was more a fake, false one that made everyone look around –which we did. Even though it wasn't nervous, it made us nervous. He seemed to know every trick in the book and exactly what each action we did meant. It was starting to get spooky.

"Boys! We're in business together now; I'm not going to spike your drinks. Please just drink; they are just a friendly peace offering to decrease the friction between us. Besides this is how every professional settles a deal."

We glanced nervously at each other before picking up our glasses and taking a drink out of them. Mine tasted normal, but then again it tasted normal last time. We had no way to identify if our drinks had been tampered with, well, not until it was too late.

"So then Felix, you came to discuss the rules. Well then start. Since you seem to be a one man operation you will surely have less rules than us," Edward started off whilst Emmett and I stared at Felix trying to being intimidating, but it wasn't working for us.

"Don't let looks fool you, my friend," he muttered before quickly correcting himself. "That's my first rule, people are always deceiving each other and in this line of work we have to be careful with who we trust."

"We over course have that rule. I'm talking about sharing those rules that are unique to yourself. Ones that you follow that we will have to adapt to."

"Yes, of course, I was just making sure that you boys knew the basics. My most important rule and one that we all must abide is that we do not associate others in more than groups or two or less than groups of two. But our target also cannot know who all my associates are.

"Which means having to stage a break up of some sort on your end and also not mixing or looking at me within the Casino. Also we will have to meet in secluded areas where people cannot easily follow us. Aro already knows that you and your group are counters. Which means that it's more dangerous for each of you. I'll explain who we were going to overcome this later. But Aro is very protective of his money. He also likes to gain huge amounts of money too. His dealers are trained and know to let the total get up so high and let people win huge amounts of money draw them in- especially the counters- then they slip a card down from they're sleeve and more often than not it completely changes the count and then huge amounts of money are won back. Normally it is more money than he has given away."

We just stood there and I was trying not to look shocked or childish. But hell, I was trying to keep my jaw from dropping and making me look like a giant fish.

"So then... how are we going to protect our safety?" Emmett was the only one who managed to talk. But even then it was slow and you could see him forming every word with his mouth.

Meanwhile Felix just smirked at us with those bent in 'not-so-innocent' eyes staring at us. Almost like he knew this would be our reaction – come to think about it, he probably did it to see our reaction.

"Ah, well, that's the simple part. Aro has a set limit for each night of how much each player is allowed to win before the money is not so gracefully returned. That limit changes every night and I'll be sure to tell you what that limit is.

"All you need to do is when you win maybe $100 or so underneath that limit is to leave the casino and you will remain safe."

"That seems simple enough. Now how will you get these limits to us?" Edward asked, after finally finding his voice to take command again.

"They'll turn up at the strangest time. But you will have the number; it is just putting two and two together. Simple enough for minds like yours, correct?"

"Of course it is, what you take us for," Emmett burst out, unable to control himself.

"Why I'm insinuating nothing, Mr. McCarty. All I'm asking if it you will e able to put two and two together or if I'll need to simplify the clues."

"Just ignore Emmett, Felix. Now we're going to adapt these rules into our own rules. We have man-"

"It's okay, Mr. Masen, I am well aware of all of your rules. All I ask is that you incorporate those two rules into your own. Oh, and also 50 percent of each nights winnings."

I think I actually spewed every liquid in my mouth at the time over the nearby wall.

"50 percent?! Are you kidding me? 10 percent is the maximum," Edward spat.

"My dear children, you'll need to raise that amount to have my services. Which will be very useful. Let's not forget about your little run in with the Security Guards. One word and they'll expose you. So I suggest you think fast before I retract my services."

The three of us were thinking hard – you could see them all concentrating- we had to think of an offer that would please Felix but also give us a reasonable amount each.

So I thought of dividing one hundred equally between us.... 14.2 percent. So if we rounded that up to 15 percent then we would get roughly just over 14 percent each.

Rule sixty-five, never accept any offers under fifteen percent, each.

But with the amount of money we were going to make surely we could have ignored that rule. If only we knew how accepting this would affect the entire heist.

"Fifteen percent Felix, take it or leave," I firmly stated.

"Ha, I'll settle for twenty percent. That's as low as I am going to go, now you take it or leave it."

"Fine, but if we find that your services are inadequate for one moment then we are going to withdraw," Edward stated whilst holding out a hand waiting for Felix to take it.

"Deal," Felix and Edward shake hands then he finished off his drink, "tomorrow we begin."

The deal was made. We were doomed then.

I sighed and took a drink as Felix left. I was beginning to agree with the others. There was something ... different about Felix. I remember that he had said that he wanted to be equal partners but that was, of course, a whole load of bullshit. I stayed quiet, mostly because I didn't want to be scrutinized by the rest of them and also because of rule ten.

Rule Ten: Only object to decisions if you are one hundred percent sure, this way mutiny and arguments are avoided.

"Right well I'm going back upstairs. Tomorrow is going to be hard, so you two better get up stairs soon," Edward commanded and left Emmett and I alone in the bar.

Emmett waited until Edward was out of ear shot before turning around and facing me. "You agree that he's a prick don't ya."

I sighed before answering, "I don't think he's a prick. I just think there's something different about him and for all I know this could just be a cover to stop us from getting close to him. Looks can be deceiving."

"Ha, yeah, Jasper, whatever you say. We've never made a mistake about who to trust. I don't want us to start now."

"Emmett, do you remember the pink bunny?"

"Hey! I didn't know that it was her milk! All I knew was that a pink bunny stole my milk. Besides that has nothing to do with trust."

"No, it doesn't but it shows that looks can be deceiving. That little girl thought you were handing her milk and you thought she was stealing your milk. Therefore looks can be deceiving."

"I was ten when that happened Jasper, things can change."

"Yeah, they can, but the moral of the story doesn't change."

"And what's that? Never trust pink bunnies?"

"Shut up doofas and go to bed."

"Whatever you say," he muttered whilst waving me off.

We finished our drinks and left the bar heading towards the lift. We had to sleep, because tomorrow was going to be hard. We had a lot to do, a lot to think about, a lot of brain power was going to be needed.

Wait, the tray.

We were nearly in the lift before I ran back and lifted the tray up. Underneath it there was a note. Folded up and was addressed to the 'Six Crew'.

Dear Six Crew,

Glad to see that you are observant enough to notice that I slip this note. Now let us see if you deceiver this clue and find out tomorrow night's winners limit.

Hawaiian.

Your friend, Felix.

What. The. Fuck?

Dreamer: Fuck I'm tired now. I know I said that I wouldn't be able to update and all that but the homework load was nothing this weekend and I was able to write.

So since I'm hungry and tired I'll let the other two speak.

Lennixx: Hey. What's up? Como esta? Another chapter down and done, and more to come.

TRD: ...there will be another update when I figure out what's going on.

I mean, I totally know what's happening, so the update will be coming very, very soon! :D