"Well, little one. You've perked our interest and got many of us to come over here today. I just hope you won't disappoint us."

One of the women stood out more than the others who had shown up. Laz couldn't help but look her over at least once, despite the fact that he had Leona on one side of him and Ruby on the other. This women spoke with a heavy eastern European accent, had blonde hair and was wearing what could only be described as designer sungla.s.ses. Her tight, black skirt barely came to a few inches above her knees while the business jacket over the white blouse gave one the feeling that she had just been called out from a company board room.

Laz couldn't get a read on her face as to her mood but noticing Ruby smile as the woman spoke to her put his mind at ease, if only somewhat. Although Laz's spirit sense was strong, it could only view the physical things of a person along with a general sort of color scale. The color scale his vision showed differed person to person, but the colors usually meant the same thing. From what Laz could see from the aura of this tall, exotic woman, she was a born killer through and through. However, there was still far more than that to her, things which Laz couldn't make out. The one important note was that she was very dangerous.

"Lady Mathilda, thank you for coming!" Ruby responded with a slight bow. From what Laz could see, Ruby seemed to respect this woman quite a bit.

"But of course. After all, you've said this would be a profitable endeavor. And all we've to do is move some goods?"

"Yes. We've already cleared out the infestation from this rat hole. So now it just needs some clean up work," Ruby replied in turn.

This whole thing started when they tried to decide what to do with the place after they were done. Laz's vote was the burn the whole place to the ground and let it go up in ashes while Ruby had a more professional approach. After all, there was basically a whole lot of money to be made with the goods stashed inside the warehouse and their newly founded organization needed the funds. She wasn't going to ask at first since this entire escapade had been conducted by Laz and the hard work done by him as well. She didn't exactly feel ent.i.tled to anything from it. She was already going to get her split of the money from the safe so she was rather happy just about that, so she didn't want to ask for more. This changed though once Laz brought out his idea about torching the place. It was only then that she realized that he didn't have the crew or the means to swallow a meal that big, hence he just went with the simplest choice available. Knowing this, she couldn't help but stop him since doing so was basically just burning his own hard earned money. Therefore, she made him a proposition.

"80-20."

"Come again?" Laz asked.

"Let Black Rose handle the the clean up work including selling the goods and then you take a cut from whatever ends up being profit," Ruby purposed.

"Uhh..." Laz hadn't expected that Ruby's group could do something like this as well and therefore had no real opinion on it. In his moment of uncertainty, he ended up looking over at Leona.

"I'm... good with whatever?" Leona was even more unsure than Laz and was unable to offer any advice.

"Ok, how about 70-30? That way, each of us can get 10 percent," Laz suggested, causing both Leona and Ruby's eyes to light up. After a moment of feeling touched though, Ruby put a stopper on his line of thought.

"It's fine if you want to share it with Leona, but since I am a part of the group, I can't take a share of the profits and then take the benefits offered by bringing in the business. It wouldn't be fair," Ruby explained.

"Alright. Uh... Well, let's stick with the 80-20 then and half of it can go to Leona. She and her family could probably really use the money right?" Laz said, looking at Leona who had started to tear up again. In fact, all of this seemed far to good to be true. She already knew that she was getting a share of the cash they found which when divided out was going to be almost 80 thousand. But now, without hesitation, Laz was going to even share this with her? This was far more money than she had ever dreamed of making at this stage in her life. How could she not be touched?

Even Ruby couldn't help but get the feels from this. She was going to take the money that they had found since it was a liquid resource and didn't require anything going though the group. She already felt like this was more than enough. But then when Laz suggested without hesitation to share the rest with her, how she she not be moved by this gesture. For Laz it may have been a simple thing. But for a girl like her who had struggled to survive most of her life and therefore had dealt with the lowest sc.u.m of the earth, she couldn't help but view him even more affectionately.

Needless to say, she had to turn him down.

"Excellent. And this is the person who you made the deal with?" Lady Mathilda asked, looking at Laz. Seeing how close Ruby appeared to be with Laz, a hesitation appeared in her eyes.

Lady Mathilda was Ruby's sponsor and teacher and had been the one to bring her into the Black Rose when she had found that Yumi was creating the group. Yumi had made a lot of companions in the few years that she was active, Lady Mathilda being one of them. Mathilda was actually her first name, but due to some strange events, people began referring to her as Lady and the t.i.tle just stuck. She had met Yumi on a job years ago when Yumi had just become active and to the slightly older Lady Mathilda, Yumi was basically a young prodigy. The two had kept in touch in the years after they had completed their respective jobs. Although she had disappeared for a bit of time, when Yumi had finally contacted Lady Mathilda again and mused about starting their own group with a few others as a group, Lady Mathilda liked the sound of it. She had always thought about working for herself in a group she could trust as opposed to constantly putting herself at risk by working with others she didn't trust so this was the perfect offer for her. Yumi also had a few others she recommended for heads of the group, people that Lady Mathilda knew as well and all of the women contacted had agreed. Everyone had the feeling that things were changing in the world and now, more than ever, they needed a strong base. All of the heads had brought along their respective students as well, forming the beginnings of the group. They had voted unanimously to have Yumi lead.

Although Ruby wasn't Lady Mathilda's only student, she was the one she most favored. Ruby's life had lead her to a place where she had been sold out by those she trusted and abused by those she loved. Although she hadn't completely lost her humanity, she had developed a cold and viscous streak that was needed in their business, one that didn't need to be trained in her. It allowed her to grow at an amazing rate as an a.s.sa.s.sin. Now that she was seeing her with the strange man, Lady Mathilda couldn't help but want to put him in his place. It was obvious that although she had seen the photos of Laz that Yumi had sent everyone along with her recommendation to help him out whenever possible, Laz no longer looked the same as he did a year and a half ago. Due to this, Lady Mathilda did not know that Laz was someone valued by the head.

"Yes, he is. This is..." Before Ruby could even finish introducing Laz, Lady Mathilda had slid up close to him and had somehow dragged him away from both Leona and Ruby while grabbing his hand. This was actually an important skill involving precision and footwork, one that she was well trained with. It was a well needed skill to be able to separate a target from their group before striking.

"Mmm, I see. It seems my young Ruby has a bit of a relations.h.i.+p with you?" Lady Mathilda asked as she took a few more steps away, dragging Laz with her after having buried his arm in her ma.s.sive bosom. He didn't even know when she had unb.u.t.toned her jacket to allow her to do this since with the jacket on that would have been impossible.

"Oh? I thought we were just friends?" Laz asked back when he came back to his senses, something that was made hard to do thanks to the soft, jello like mounds that had captured his arm and yet still managed to rub against his body. Although Laz wasn't some cherry boy, he wasn't immune to a woman's charms either, especially a mature one.

"Really? Friends here normally give girls an earring along with another girl? How interesting. In many circles, that kind of thing means to show man's owners.h.i.+p of a girl," Lady Mathilda said with a strange expression.

"Owners.h.i.+p? Like a slave?"

"MMmm, you could call it that. So have you already dominated my little Ruby young man? Perhaps you would like a more wild target to try out?" Lady Mathilda had thought that this young man with the pale skin was some kind of play boy. Her training was quick to let her notice the earring that both Ruby and Leona shared, obviously given by this young man in front of her. Something like that was like a branding symbol, showing everyone that could see it that someone was your Dom. Of course, there were other things as well and this one only worked when two girls were together.

Of course, it could also mean something entirely different, hence why she decided to question him.

"Oh? Uh.. I..." Laz was at a loss since he didn't understand what she was getting on about. Seeing his fl.u.s.tered face, Lady Mathilda quickly realized that he wasn't that kind of person. Still, she decided to give him a bit of warning. She knew he must be someone of importance to get Ruby to help to a job for him and although she didn't know who the other girl was, it seemed like she wasn't weak either. If anything, this boy seemed like the weakest one here.

Not wanting to waste any more time with him, Lady Mathilda leaned in close while still gripping his hand and hid arm and whisper seductively into his ear,

"I see you've already conned one but she has nothing to do with me. But you stay away from my little Ruby, or I make you disappear. Understood?" After having said her piece, Lady Mathilda went to pull away, but noticed that the hand gripping hers had suddenly become like iron. Not only that, but even the arm she had previously captured felt like a steel rod that refused to move. When she had whispered into his ear, his face had been facing away from her from getting fl.u.s.tered so she couldn't see his face, but after trying to free herself several times, she finally looked up, only to notice that this kind and weak looking boy was glaring at her with blood red light coming form his eyes.

Even though she was experience and had trained in hiding her thoughts to a master like level, she couldn't help but let out a gasp in shock at the change in the young man next to her. Before she could react though, Ruby and Leona had stepped in with Leona grabbing his other arm while Ruby directly inserted herself next to Laz, reached up with both hands and set them affectionately on his cheeks, causing him to move his head to look at her smiling face.

"Relax, ok?" She said as Leona pulled him back. It was only now that Laz had felt like his body was tense for no reason. He shouldn't have lost his cool that quickly. Luckily, his body was still sensitive to words and touches from those close to him, allowing Ruby and Leona to quickly calm him down.

As he backed away from Lady Mathilda and his body relax, Leona reached over to hug him and rubbed his head. Laz didn't know why, but he seemed to relax fully now, feeling an embrace.

This had not been Leona's idea as it was a bit embarra.s.sing, but this was a recommendation that Ruby had made. While they had been working early to recover the bodies, she had mentioned to Leona that Laz seemed way too at ease. Although it might make him look cool, it was also unnatural for someone at his age to be so relaxed about killing people. Ruby guessed that he just bottling it up inside of him and that he might explode unexpectedly. In fact, it was likely he didn't even know he was doing it. If that happened and he did start to lose it, the best thing to do was to comfort him in any way possible. Knowing Lady Mathilda the way she did, it wasn't hard to guess that she had made the mistake of threatening Laz without knowing who he was. Something like that from an unknown person after having just gone through a bloodbath was enough to set anyone off.

She was quick to act and bring Leona with her as well.

Lady Mathilda was no longer surprised but instead was releasing a b.l.o.o.d.y sort of killing intent. She had felt like being frightened by him showed weakness, one that she would erase in blood. Before she had a chance to react though, Ruby was there.

"Wait. Wait... Lady Mathilda, this is Laz, Jade's Laz..." Ruby was quick to say while standing in front of her teacher.

"Jade's Laz?"

She finally put the pieces together that were missing and calmed herself down.

'She really does have good eyesight,' Lady Mathilda thought to herself.