the light catches the eye but shadows have (moretosay) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-01-06 20:39:00 |
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Parker and Briar
1/6 10PM
Atlantic City bar
PG-13 Warnings for mention of human trafficking and murder
Completed |
Briar liked Atlantic City. It reminded her a bit of New York, except not as nice obviously. Not that she went back to her home city very often, she still had mixed feelings about it even if she did have a few caches there just in case.All the same, every New Yorker was born with an inherent dislike of New Jersey, even nearly two centuries ago. Some things are consistent. It was certainly a nice balance to Summerview though. A born city girl, she needed to get her fix, and she definitely didn’t do business at home. You don’t shit where you sleep. Don’t steal too close to home, don’t fuck your coworkers, and don’t borrow money from family. Wisdom to live by. So when one of her contacts that sent her work in one form or another gave her a call about an assassin type needing a very particular type of tracking spell to take down someone he knew she had been eyeballing for awhile, she had been more than happy for an excuse to slink out of Summerview for a night or two. So she got a rinky dink little motel for the duration, telling him to arrange a setup at one of her favorite out of the way but somehow still chaotic at times biker bars and embraced her real face for a spell. It was nice, and she didn’t get to do it as often now that she was living as Maeve most the time. A slightly faded leather jacket with blue jeans and thick riding boots meant she didn’t stick out too much, even her skin tone wasn’t that strange here, and that was a nice touch. The times were ever changing, and sometimes they changed for the better. Sometimes. Briar slinked into the bar and ordered a pint of beer just ten minutes before her meeting time, taking a table where she could watch the door and propping her feet up on the chair across from her. There was a green beanie on her head that was distinct though, the thing that this Ivaylo would be using to find her. The name wasn’t unfamiliar to her, even if she wasn’t in the exact same business that Briar was. They tended to hear about people who completed jobs with flying colors still, though she was fairly new to the game. Though in her defense, it was hard to measure up to folk like Briar who had been doing this for a good minute now, or even the man who had set this up who had been doing this dance in some form or another since the Europeans thought the world was flat. Parker Woodward lived in Summerview, owned a floral boutique there, had friends there. Parker Woodward was the beta to the Faoladh pack and thought pretty friendly when it came to her customers. Loved when it came to her pack. She was the epitome of everyday living when it came to the supernatural world. A simple young woman who lived a simple life that loved her mate with everything she had. Ivaylo was something altogether different. A strong woman who took mercenary jobs, burglary jobs (always rarities that couldn't be found elsewhere, and always without casualties), assassinations... The assassination jobs were always taken with great care. Never anyone who didn't deserve it. Ivaylo did her homework on a target before she took a job. Unless the targets were unsavory types that the world would be better off without, she turned down the job and usually threatened the person who asked her to do it pretty hard so they'd think twice next time. Her target in this case was a child smuggler. A magical child smuggler. Even if he'd just been a regular old child smuggler, she'd have taken the job. Children were her weakness, even if she didn't want any of her own. Someone who used them for trafficking of any kind were people that needed to be removed from the gene pool... and she was more than happy to do it. The only problem with that was this guy was a slippery type. She'd say he was like an eel, but that would be insulting to the creatures. Luckily, someone pointed her in the direction of someone who could assist her with a tracking spell that would make her job incredibly easier... and Ivaylo wanted to take this asshole out as quickly as possible so that he didn't have time to nick more children. Dressed in a black on black outfit topped with her favorite leather jacket, the brunette stepped into the biker bar and immediately began to case the place. She was looking for someone in a green beanie. Someone who would be able to help with this tracking spell, help with taking out the puss bucket that was her target efficiently. It didn't take her long to spot the beanie... the person in it wasn’t what she expected, but then again, most people didn’t expect her either. It was something to her advantage. Being unexpected. Sliding into the seat with her back against the wall, Ivaylo glanced at the other woman. “You have what I need, I take it?” Briar tipped her pint of Flat Tire as she considered the woman who walked in the bar. You know, she had always had a feeling that there was more to Parker than a simple Wolf, wife and Florist, but when she did a cursory look into it nothing remarkable had come up. Which only meant that she was good at hiding her tracks, and that matched up with Ivaylo, at least from what she had heard. Briar certainly respect that. A search for Maeve Naga showed that the nastiest thing in her history was dropping out of community college and a divorce, hence the reason for her odd name. A search for Briar, on the other hand, brought up nothing at all. If her life was going to be forgotten, at least her other Selves would be interesting. Anyway one of the worst flags on a fake identities is them having nothing other than a name and a social. Parker hid her trail well, and even the air that Briar could so often smell out in a room like she did security systems. Trouble she had pegged Parker as, dangerous as a possible fling — but all the more possible fun because of it — though she hadn’t gone so far as Assassin. Good on her. Young, but a professional. “Aye. You have my coin?” Cash was mundane, and even limited in its use, but for this job she wasn't asking for something more complicated. Nothing to make Ivaylo think she could hunt him down without this, because if it could be done easily, someone else would have done it before. The man had been in this dangerous business for a good while because he was good at it, and even better, gifted at not being found. Briar had placed bets on this job with a friend as soon as this call had come in, and now she would probably up her ante. Ivaylo had no problems with the coin. It was easy to set the bills down on the table, but she didn't know the people in this place. Hell, she didn't really know the person in front of her. There was a familiarity, but she couldn't quite place it. Instead, she passed the other woman a package underneath the table. The package had everything that the other woman asked for, plus a few extra to keep her interested should she be needed in any future jobs Ivaylo executed. It paid to have connections. It paid even better to have good connections. "I trust that's enough to satisfy?" “Aw, for little ol me?” Briar asked with a cheeky grin, like a friend who had just been given an unexpected early birthday present. And like a ornery thief. You know, six of one, half dozen of the other. She hummed as she took a look in the bag, just a glance, but that was all it took, at least paired with her knowledge of Parker. “That’ll work. “ Briar reached up around her neck and under her curls, undoing the necklace there with a deft hand. The chain was impossibly delicate, but offset by a soft, thin piece of leather winding around the entirety of it, and at the center was a crudely cut crystal wrapped in silver. An old fashioned tracker charm for sure, but easy to miss if one didn’t know what they were looking for, and they absorbed the layers of magic she had to throw at it the best. But her hand paused as she passed it over to Ivaylo, “Say, when Antoni gave you this job, did he know what you are?” It was showing a hand, perhaps, that she was so easily able to gleam it. Because most didn’t know, at least, from the rumors and talk she had heard about the latest player to shake up their little world. The grin that crossed Ivaylo's lips as she held out her hand for the crystal and listened to the question was a dangerous one. Did Antoni know what she was? There were, honestly, a lot of different things that could mean. And, while Ivaylo didn't know how this woman knew what she was, or possibly who, she had to hand it to her... she was brave. "I'm a very private person, ma'am. I tend to keep my secrets my own." It was a veiled threat, sure enough, but it was also an answer to her question. She'd rather not lose a connection as good as this one was likely to be (after all, a hard to find tracker for a hard to find man couldn't have been created easily), but she did have a pack to protect. A nephew to protect. Hell, she had her own skin and her mate's to protect and that was where things could get messy at the very least. "Since you have an idea, I'd appreciate it if you did the same." Oh, she really didn’t have time for any cheat beating or such things. Briar had seen it all before, by bigger and more vicious than Parker. No time no patience, maybe back in the 20’s when she slept un puppy piles after brawling in a speakeasy with the Chicago pack and spoke their language as easier as her own, took to it like she did fighting and drinking — but that was then and this was now. Now she just waved off what was clearly meant to be a warning, “The curse cannot possibly be your most dangerous secret, calm down.” Surely not, there were shadows in Parker’s eyes, twitches in her fingers, and an alertness to her gaze that said there was some baggage behind her that, frankly, Briar didn’t give a damn about. “I ask because he’s been known to have Wolf guards, I’m wondering if they’ll catch your scent while you’re disabling whatever is there for the outer security. You have a way of finding each other.” All the races did, she even had it a bit with the Fae. Like finds like, rumor has it that it had gotten stronger since the burning times, like a weird evolutionary tick. "It's not, but it's something that others don't know about me." How? That was the next question the other woman asked. And it was something that she kept close to her chest. No one needed to know that she tended to buy a potion from a witch to cover her own scent. It had taken a lot of time to find it, but when she had, she kept the witch in bank. It was worth it to keep that potion ready when she needed it. "I can take care of the guards, especially if they're wolves." The assurance wasn't made with a boistering claim or an attitude that spoke of being better than she was. I was delivered as more of a cold fact. Something she'd dealt with more than once. Something she wasn't going to have a problem with. "Any other information you have for me?" She figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. That it was smart to. Any information she could utilize in order to take out this sicko was important. Briar raised her hands as if to surrender, though that knowing smile had turned into one of faint amusement. Oh well, she had tried, if it went sideways, let no one say that she didn’t try. Not that anyone would, Parker’s part of this job wasn’t really her style. So she settled back into her seat and sipped at her beer, “Nope. Good luck.” Briar would definitely keep an ear to the ground to see how this turned out, maybe see if she could get a hold of the security tapes she had long assumed the sadistic fuck had at his various facilities to see what happened. Because of course she had made two tracking charms, and she wanted to see what happened. Unless she got bored. Or it was so unremarkable that no one in their sort of circles talked about it. The smile that crossed Ivaylo's features was genuine. She appreciated the thought, even if it didn't necessarily come from a place of concern. She planned on making this guy and his guards eat their guns. She had every intention of making them hurt. Kids were no laughing matter. Magical or otherwise. Anyone who had a hand in this one... they were going down and they were going down hard. Any who didn't end up dead were going to wish they were. "I appreciate it. The tracking spell is going to be helpful. Is there a way I can reach you in case I need something in the future?" It always paid to keep good connections available. And well, Ivaylo always paid to keep good connections available. It made her job a whole lot easier. This definitely settled that Maeve wasn’t going to be joining Parker and her mate in bed for a dalliance anytime soon (read: ever). Her scent was her weakness, while it was hidden here and at the pub by bar and city smells, in bed? That would fall away, and if Ivaylo was going to be contacting Briar again then it was only a matter of time before she caught that scent. Maeve and Parker’s interactions would have to be controlled more from here on out. She pulled a pen out of her pocket and grabbed a not wet coaster on the table, scribbling the main number she used as Briar that lead to an entirely separate and very modified phone than Maeve’s. The coaster was slid across the table to her, “Text me and I’ll call you for specifics.” Not that she really expected Ivaylo to text her with something dumb like hey got any poison for Sirens or whatever, but you never know. A coaster. That was certainly a nice touch. And convenient. Couldn't blame someone for being convenient. "10-4. I'll be in touch." Ivaylo didn't know whether it would be sooner or later, but it would be eventually she was sure. Certain things like this always came up and it was easier going directly to the source rather than going through a middle man. A lot more cost efficient too. Taking the coaster, she slipped it and the tracker into two separate pockets and stood. It was time to go. Overstaying one's welcome in a situation like this one was just asking for all kinds of trouble. Trouble might be Ivaylo's middle name, but that didn't mean she had to welcome it at every turn... |