"See, that wasn't so bad, was it, Cass?" Jorge grinned. "We're real nice people when you get to know us. Ain't we, Gabe?"
"I-I-I guess so. Y-yeah, I guess so," she replied, still suffering from all the little nervous tics and twitches in her face muscles that had plagued her throughout the night.
Jorge nudged Gabe. "Hey, we shoulda let her in on that game of cards, yeah? Let her gamble for her freedom or some shit. Sure, that wouldn'ta went over well today, but it would've been a real riot."
For fun, Jorge had decided to carry Cass as if they were newlyweds once they had left the safehouse. But now that they had reached The Golden Path, he decided to put her back down on her own two feet. Looked a little less conspicuous that way. Kept her close, but allowed her to walk of her own accord.
"Ah, you're tellin' me, mate," Jorge swept his hand in a grand gesture from his left to his right. "All this shit here, far too rich for my blood. I'd probably just gamble one of these big fuckin' houses away if I owned one. Talk about a high-stakes game, am I right?"
Jorge nodded when Gabe brought up the highlight of the morning: payday. "No worries, there. Boss man'll do the talkin'. Get us all the coin for a job well done."
* * * * *
Sharon watched Jorge, Gabe, and an unknown female elf approach. She eyed Jorge with some lingering contempt—she still had a bone to pick with him about Siro.
"Happy to see you too, love," said Jorge. His mask was down around his neck, exposing the burned half of his face and the grin he bared.
Sharon said nothing. Instead, shifted her glance to Gabe. "Hey, I'm sorry about yesterday. That incident with the big guard. Really. That whole situation was a mess and...well...thanks for doing what you did. Charles told me all about it this morning. You really came through for us."
She extended her hand in greeting. "Sharon Gordon. It's nice to properly meet you, Gabe."
Not too long after the group was assembled outside the gate, the front door of the estate opened. Far away, a man in clearly noble attire exited the building, and started down the path toward the gate.
"Here he comes," Charles said.
The man stopped about a quarter of the way to the gate. Yelled something at one of the servants trimming a bush by the walkway. The distance made it hard to make out what exactly he was saying, but the servant stood up straight and then bowed her head deeply, apologetically. But the man didn't relent. With another curt yell, he slapped the servant hard enough to knock her over onto the walkway. The crisp report of the slap traveled far enough to reach Charles' ears, same with the rest of the group. The man stepped over her fallen body, and continued all the way to the gate.
Two nearby servants immediately dropped what they were doing and opened the large metal double doors of the gate for him. The noble man stopped. He had a sharp face—almost elven in appearance—impeccably groomed blonde hair, and disdainful eyes. He stood with his head slightly tilted back, such that he looked down his nose at those before him.
"Earnhardt," Charles said.
Earnhardt glanced at everyone's hands. Pronounced his words with venom in his voice. "Failure, I presume, seeing that you have no shipment."
Charles stepped forward. Reached into his pocket. "There was no shipment. Only this. Delivered by this courier that we have here."
Charles handed Earnhardt the letter procured from yesterday's heist. Earnhardt read it aloud, "'
Monarch rises from the Abyss.' Well, I can hardly imagine a more colossal waste of Mr. Winters' time and resources than this fruitless letter."
"The courier," Charles pointed back at Cass, who flinched and stumbled back into Jorge and Gabe, "may know something about this. Something valuable."
Earnhardt visibly considered it. "Hmm. Very well. Take her down to the hole. Interrogate her. Torture her if necessary." Cass shrieked. "If Mr. Deegan has some manner of secret weapon or ace up his sleeve, then we need to know what it is before Mr. Winters makes any power plays. We will need to discover who or what this 'Monarch' is."
Earnhardt flicked his hand dismissively at the rest of the group behind Charles. "Have them take care of the interrogation. Come with me, Charles. I'll procure your payments for yesterday's job. Also, I'm expecting a very important message to arrive within the hour, and I want to discuss it with you when it gets here."
With that, Earnhardt turned on his heels and started back toward the estate.
Charles sighed quietly. He wished the old lieutenant was still around. Working with Earnhardt was...taxing, to say the least.
He turned. Looked to Sharon. "Alright, Sharon, I need you to take the lead on this. Use Jorge, Gabe if he's up to it, but get the job done. You heard Earnhardt. Don't let me down on this."
Sharon nodded. "I won't."
"Good." And Charles caught up with Earnhardt and followed him toward the estate.
Sharon looked to Jorge and Gabe. Explicitly avoided eye contact with Cass. Motioned her head in the general direction of 'the hole', the entrance to which were the cellar doors around the side of the estate. "Let's go."
She started toward the cellar doors, cutting across the lawn to do so.
Jorge clamped both his hands onto Cass' shoulders, nearly making her jump out of her skin. "Alright, time to take a trip down to the hole. You're gonna love it down there. Well, on second thought, maybe you won't."
He started after Sharon, forcefully guiding Cass along.
"Come on, Gabe," he said. "Might earn a nice bonus if you can get Cass here to spill the beans."
