Later on that morning…
After doing an early morning rum run with Ivy, and with little to no trouble, Rocky had came back to the Little Daisy Café, not expecting his cousin to be there already. Ivy was excited to see her fiance when he come around back to help with the unloading of the crates. Zib, and some of the bandmates had also came out to assist with the unloading also. As expected, Rocky let Freckle talk with Ivy while he, Zib, and the others unloading the truck. Viktor, at this point, was nowhere to be seen. The brown tabby guessed that the red furred Slovakian was with Mitzi May.
And… that's the last of the load. Rocky thought as he and Zib carried away the last crate.
After unloading the truck, and down the cellar and the storage area, Rocky told Zib that he would be upstairs in the Little Daisy Café if he needed anything. As the tabby walked up the stairs, and out through the secret entrance of the Lackadaisy speakeasy, he thought of how far the Lackadaisy Club had come; even after the mysterious death of their leader, Atlas May. These days, however, their former ally/now turned rival, the Marigold Club, seemed to recently have had stopped any and all attempts at stopping the Lackadaisy Club from slowly regaining their social status as a speakeasy. And it did not help with the fact that one of their own, who had previously worked with them, had defected from the Lackadaisy to the Marigold. Rocky guessed that the Marigold Room had problems of their own, hence the reason there were no further attacks or threats from them. Once upstairs, and into the restaurant, Rocky looked over to see if anyone was around. Luckily, business hours had not started yet, so the young tomcat thought that everyone might have been upstairs in Mitzi's office room. Headed towards the second floor of the Little Daisy Café, Rocky paused in his steps before he climbed the stairs to Miss May's office. Hearing voices from up the stairs, Rocky resumed walking them, knowing that his calculations were correct.
By the time Mitzi May gave her employees the monthly report on how well the Lackadaisy Club was doing, Rocky grew rather bored. Once she was done, the brown tabby was ecstatic to race down the stairs, and as he was, a voice stopped him midway.
"Stop! You don't run down stairs!"
Rocky about went tumbling down the stairs, luckily however, the young tomcat was blessed enough to put a hand on the railing just in time to keep himself from falling. Slowly turning himself around, Rocky looked up and realized that the person on the top of the stairs was none other than Viktor. He was about to quickly apologize for the inconvenience when the Slovakian tom waved for Rocky to come back up the stairs. Like a scared little kid, the tabby slowly began his ascent back up the stairs.
"A little faster, not going to harm you," Viktor told him. "Miss M has something to tell you."
Rocky had just approached the final step when Viktor stepped aside, allowing the lean cat to re-enter Mitzi's office area. Once inside the familiar place, the red furred Slovakian shut the door, and the last Rocky saw was his cousin Freckle helping the burly cat down the stairs. After familiarizing himself with being called back into the office a second time, Rocky sat himself down on the chair facing Miss M's desk.
"Rocky. You're probably wonderin' why I called you back in here, am I right?"
At this point, Rocky took a deep breath, hoping that his employer would not berate him.
"Yes ma'am," he replied rather quietly.
Mitzi looked Rocky dead in the eye, as if she hoped that the young rumrunner would pay close attention to what she had to say next.
"Listen sweetheart, you're thinking that you're here to get reprimanded for what happened last night with the truck. Ivy took full responsibility for that incident. The reason I called you back was because… well, because, hon…"
The older woman dressed in purple glanced away from Rocky for a moment, leaving the younger of the two to guess what she had to say next. After a few more seconds, Mitzi finally spoke up again.
"Thing is, Rocky… a close friend of mine, who so happens to be an informant under my protégé, contacted me while you, your cousin, and Ivy were out last night meeting Ol' Mister Wilhelm in Ferguson, this contact told me that there might be a guest stopping by here this mornin'."
"Okay… what does this got to do with last night?" Rocky asked.
"Nothing at all, just listen to me, alright?" Mitzi said.
All Rocky could do was raise his eyebrows at this point.
"'Nothing at all'? Wilhelm betrayed us at the last second; nearly killed my cousin; grazed both Miss Pepper and I on the arm with a blade; and if it hadn't been for Freckle putting a hollow end in his foot, both her and I wouldn't be alive right now-"
"That's not what I'm talking about, but I will change the subject to that if you don't quit interrupting me," Mitzi told Rocky.
The brown tabby quickly shut his mouth, looking away from Mitzi for a moment. After a few moments of deafening silence, Mitzi began where she left off before her employee interrupted her.
"Anyhow, like I was saying before, there's this guest who's stopping by the café this morning. And the thing is…"
Mitzi looked away from Rocky again. And this time, when she did, Rocky noticed a single tear roll down the right side of her face.
"Miss M? Are y' okay?" Rocky asked.
Mitzi quickly wiped the tear from her face.
"What I was going to say was that this guest claims to have known you when you were out west a few years back."
She then pulled out of her pocket what looked like a white colored poker chip coin with a black colored edge all around the outer rim of the coin. Mitzi then handed it over to Rocky, who at that moment, looked rather nervous. His eyes looked watery, as if he was ready to cry.
"Ever played poker before?" Mitzi asked the brown tabby.
Rocky immediately hung his head and closed his eyes. "No, I haven't before."
Doing his best not to break down and cry, Rocky explained to Mitzi that when he was out west, he had formed a bond with two young men that had vowed to keep in touch with him when the brown tabby finally headed back to St Louis three years ago. At the end of telling his story, Mitzi patted Rocky's hand.
"And that's how I ended up with a poker chip. Something to remember them by," Rocky said, a single tear running down his face.
"They were the closest thing to brothers that I ever had. I hated the fact that others would poke fun at them all because of their racial heritage."
"Well sweetheart," Miss May started.
"The guest who's stopping by happens to be one of those two men. So be ready to meet with him when he gets here."
The woman then looked over at the clock.
"Oh my. He should be here any minute now. If I were you, you better get down the stairs."
Without wasting any more time, Rocky quickly jumped out of his seat and after thanking his employer, left the office and went down the stairs and back into the café.
Ivy had just made her fiance a sandwich when someone dressed in a black colored trench coat, and a black colored fedora walked in the restaurant and had quickly found himself an empty seat to sit down in. The black colored she-cat grew nervous when she went over to him to ask him what he wanted to eat for lunch. Ivy was surprised when she heard him speak to her, not expecting him to have quite a young voice. When she took his order, Ivy hurried to the other side of the register where Freckle eyed her. Getting out of his seat, the orange tabby followed his soon to be bride into the kitchen area, worried about her the moment he saw her rush into the kitchen.
"You okay Ivy?" The tabby asked his fiancee.
Ivy looked out of the kitchen for a moment before she answered Freckle's question.
"Not really, did you see the way he looked at me when I went to take his order?"
"Yeah, I did," Freckle replied.
"And this is why I wished Viktor didn't go fix up on the truck."
"You think he was trying to hit on me?" Ivy whispered.
The orange tabby glanced at his fiancee before looking out the kitchen.
"I don't know; but did I hear him correctly when he said that he supposedly knows my cousin?"
All Ivy could do was nod her head as she went to prepare their customer's order. Freckle told Ivy that he would be sitting back out at the bar table up front. Once he made it back, Freckle sat down in his seat and started eating his sandwich that Ivy made for him when all of a sudden, his estranged cousin came running down the stairs from Miss May's office humming. It was right then that Freckle noticed the guest in the black trench coat turn their gaze towards Rocky. Not knowing how to get his cousin's attention, Freckle got out of his seat and followed Rocky out the door as the brown tabby made a quick walk to his vehicle. That was when he noticed a rusty colored truck parked right behind his car. Rocky gasped when he heard his cousin's voice from behind him. Luckily, the rusted vehicle was already there, or he would have to make up an excuse to his cousin for gasping.
"Sheesh, Freckle, do you mind not scaring me like that again?" Rocky said, a little bit of laughter in his voice.
"Relax Rocky," Freckle replied.
"I came out here to tell you that you might need to stick with us for a bit before leaving, and do whatever you do doing the day."
Rocky looked back at the rusty colored vehicle, then eyed his cousin.
"About that; I seen him out of the corner of my eye when I came out here to put Miss M's check in the car."
"Then why do you sound fine with it?" The orange tabby asked.
Rocky sighed in an attempt not to break down crying again like he did back up in Mitzi's office a few minutes before.
"Because… if I'm correct, the person in there is someone that Miss M said was expecting me."
"A hitman?" Freckle asked.
"No," Rocky breathed out. "Not a hitman. More like, an old friend."
The brown tabby then put on his blue colored vest, and his orange colored 'R' lettered lucky tie, tucking it under his vest. After that, Rocky headed for the entrance into the restaurant, Freckle close behind.
"Where is he at cousin?" Rocky whispered.
"Far corner table booth," Freckle answered.
Once they were inside, the guest had removed his trench coat off of his body, only to reveal a yellow tabby colored cat with green eyes dressed up in a black colored vest and suit. As Rocky looked his direction, the brown tabby gasped, then placed a hand over his mouth, looking like he was about to cry all over again. Once he noticed Rocky looking his way, the yellow tabby removed himself from his seat, and stood up.
"Well, tsk tsk, Rickaby… long time no see."
Rocky closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, then he exhaled as he reopened them, a few tears escaping his eyes.
"B-Bollinger?" Rocky choked.
Whelp, things just got interesting, well for Rocky that is. Trust me, this is just the beginning of something big for everyone's favorite crazed rumrunner. And with that out of the way, this chapter just introduced to the audience Kai Bollinger. And there's more of where that came from, as it will be revealed in Chapter 5. Oh, and by the way, Kai Bollinger is one of my characters I came up with.
The part in this chapter where Ivy was surprised to hear that Bollinger has a young voice… well, I imagined his voice to be like that of Louis from the English dub of Beastars. Likewise, all original Lackadaisy characters from Butler's mind would have the same VAs as they did in the Pilot. Which means that Kai Bollinger would be voiced by Griffin Puatu in my mind.
Anyhow, with that out of my way…
God bless,
JalcoFox.