Amy was just staring at her big brother, while Gary’s eyes were desperately darting around the room for any way out of the situation he was currently in. The two people he had wanted to keep away from all the gang stuff had voluntarily come to seek him out.
Part of him knew that even if he might avoid talking about things today, if they had taken this much initiative they would come and ask him again. However, what was the right thing to do? What was the correct thing. These questions were often on Gary’s minds these days. His usual gut instinct approach just wasn’t working. As such, the high schooler just sighed, and met his little sister’s eyes.
Happy to see that Gary stopped flinching around, Amy finally told him the reason she had come here today.
“Gary, what exactly happened to those guys at the Kobe Karaoke Club, after Stacy and I left. What exactly are you doing at this place… and what were you doing today that you ignored all my calls?”
The teenage girl was straightforward and direct with her question, even though it took a lot of her to ask him these things after everything Gary had done for them. The questions themselves, though, made Tom gasp for air. It was at that moment that he realised that Amy didn’t seem to know anything about Gary being a Werewolf… fortunately, he hadn’t revealed anything about that to her.
As his best friend, Tom was now also very curious to learn the answers to the last two questions. Perhaps learning more about this place, and the people Gary had started to associate with would answer his own questions.
——
After talking to Miss Degrace, Tom and Amy had to make a decision. In the end, the two of them refrained questioning her any further about Gary. Instead, the teenage girl told Tom about Stacy having been found dead, and how much of a strange coincidence all of this was. It reminded Tom of how he felt when he found out that the grey colour gang no longer existed,
Having done some slight research of his own, Tom had a slight guess. He suspected his best friend to be gathering Westbridge’s delinquents and those from other schools to deal with the other troublemaker groups. As a Werewolf, Gary would naturally make an excellent fighter.
While Tom hadn’t been wrong, he had been thinking too small scale, something that wasn’t surprising given his lack of awareness about Slough’s gang structure. The short-haired teenager had no clue that the grey colour gang were connected to a bigger gang who controlled the whole town.
“Didn’t I tell you already?” Gary scratched the head of his back. “After I saw you made it out, I just ran out of that place and slammed the door. As you have probably seen, this is just a normal pool club, and I’m sorry that I didn’t check my ph-.” Gary started to trail off, as he could see Amy walk past him. Tom soon followed to the door, opening it for her, and Amy looked back at her brother.
“Fine, if that’s what you want me to believe, then I won’t bother you any more about it. … I just want you to know that whatever you do, you’ll always be my brother. If you need help, or it gets too much, I’ll be there to help you.”
With the door shut, Tom soon went to follow after her.
“Don’t worry, Gary, I'll make sure she gets home safe.”
Gary didn't quite get what had just happened, but at least it didn't seem like Amy was angry or upset with him. He would have completely understood if she was, but even while seemingly knowing that he had not been honest with her, the overall result didn’t turn out as bad as he had feared.
Heading down to the basement of the pool’s place, Gary went to change his clothes. It was one of the places where he would keep a spare change of clothes. He was more than happy to change into his trusty hoodie. However, before he went down he noticed that White was still following him.
“Ah, I’ll take care of her for you Gary. Come here sweaty, why don’t you follow me.”
Gary thought that maybe White wouldn’t listen to the girl, but in the end, she decided to head on over.
Finally out of his bloody clothes, he noticed that Kai was busy in a sort of makeshift office. He had no idea when exactly his upperclassman had managed to find the time to set it up. On top of that, it looked like there was also an adult man by his side, one that was wearing a fancy blue suit, with a briefcase next to him.
He was quite well-built, though in the wrong areas. His dirty blonde hair was neat and kept up, giving him a professional look. However, when looking at this man, something was telling Gary to run a mile away, yet not because he feared the adult’s fighting abilities. No, he had another dangerous air around him.
‘Is he a member of the Underdogs? No, Kai wouldn't bring them here.’ Gary wondered what was giving off that bad feeling.
Seeing that his friend had survived his ‘ordeal’, Kai gave him a smile and waved him over.
“Gary, let me introduce you to Mr Volkun Vala, lawyer for the Pincers, though he’ll now help us out. Olivia had already sent him my details, and he's going to help us go through all the paperwork.” The blonde teenager explained.
Volkun looked at Gary and gave him a wink.
“Not just that, kiddo, if you ever need anything, and I mean ANYTHING, I’ll deal with it. You get in trouble, need someone to clean up your mess for you, no problem, just give your boss a call, and I’ll deal with it.”
After this introduction, Gary understood his apprehension towards Volkun. The guy was an underworld lawyer. One that was not only familiar with the loopholes in the legal system, but also the type to know the right people to pay before a case would ever go to court, or if needed bribe the jury.
The underworld didn't just work with a few corrupt people, which was what was wrong. Money could truly solve anyone's problems.
“Hey.” Kai interrupted Volkun. “You should be a bit more polite, the person you are talking to right now IS the leader of the Howlers.”
Hearing this, the adult started to chuckle, thinking it was some type of joke, but seeing the look on Kai's face, he cleared his throat. These days the lawyer was rarely surprised, but right now, he just didn't understand, how a bunch of teenagers could bring down Olivia Pearl’s gang and make her hand everything over.
“Hey, I'm going to call it a night… I think I need some rest. Also, I might need another uniform. If possible, a little bigger.” Gary told Kai, while ignoring the adult looking over him.
“Don't worry. “ Kai smiled. “I’ll be ordering a lot of them. Soon Burnham street will be full of our gang colours, and I’ll order plenty of spares, so you don't have to worry too much. After all, we should have the funds for that. You let me deal with the paperwork, Olivia's accountant will be coming over soon as well.”
It was a good thing that the Howlers had taken over a well established gang rather than having to build up everything on their own. That hadn’t originally been part of Kai's plan. In fact, thanks to Gary being more than he had ever anticipated, they were actually years ahead of his initial plan.
Now, they could use all the assets and everything the Pincers already had in place. On top of that, Olivia, who had set up everything before, was happy to do it all.
‘I have a feeling this is something to do with your powers, Gary… I’m dying to know more about that… but I can’t exactly ask you to reveal all your secrets while I still keep my own… Anyway, I should just finish everything here first.’ Kai thought.
Sitting back down, the teenager continued to go through the papers together with the lawyer. He realised that among them, there weren’t just deeds to the establishments, shops, and the gang accounts, but there was also a special type of list in that vault.
‘The Pincers had a lot of spare cash lying around and were making some big profits. If we go through with what Gary had planned, we will still be able to make money and have a good bit to spare. Gary was right, these people are sick… they were just obsessed with making more. It's hard to believe that this still is not enough for the auction, though.
‘Still, the best thing is this.’
On a separate piece of paper, there was a list of VIP customers that they served quite frequently at night. Some of them were those from the higher tier cities. However, there was a big surprise there, some clients were members from the Rising Dragon.
‘Why did she keep such a list? Was it some type of blackmail on the others, or perhaps the Pincers had bigger plans in the future to use this information. If they spread anything about the Tier-2 cities, the whole of Slough would probably end up annihilated. … why am I overthinking things? I can just ask Olivia herself later.’
Kai continued to go through the papers, just in case there were other things he would ask the Lady Boss. Maybe there was something that they could use to help their current position. He had already found those that could help him in the future but not right now until.
“Clove? Isn’t that… ho, seems like things are getting very interesting.’