"Darling, you don't know how many times I've heard that one before," Atropos said sweetly. She turned to lead the way through the back room, but glanced back over her shoulder as an afterthought. "Oh, and before any of you cocksuckers think of pulling anything tricky with my little sister, you should know that 'Chesis here is an excellent shot."
She wasn't bluffing, either. Long before the girls had settled in New York, they'd run a brothel out west during the California gold rush. And while the men of the Old West were rarely so bloodthirsty in their appetites as Eris' boys-- well, it was a rough life out on the gold fields, particularly for three unmarried women. They'd learned to adapt fast.
Atropos strode briskly through the small back room and up the narrow staircase that connected shop and living space. Lachesis followed at a slower pace, in part because she was moving backwards. Her eyes didn't move from the Phonoi, and the shotgun remained firmly trained on them.
Throughout this, Clotho stood perfectly still, acutely aware of Xeno's blade still pressing into the soft skin of her neck and barely daring to breathe. She was pinned awkwardly, Xeno's body behind her and the edge of the counter pressing into her hips from the front. Even without a knife to her throat, there was little place for her to go.
Her fingertips brushed the countertop, and by chance came to rest upon something metallic and irregularly-shaped, no doubt one of the items dislodged during her brief struggle to escape. Swallowing as hard as she dared, she closed her hand over the object. The shop was dark, unlit except for the moonlight, and the Phonoi's eyes were all on Lachesis and Atropos. With any luck, the Maiden's acquisition would go entirely unnoticed as their three attackers made to follow the Fates upstairs.