Chocolate #2, Amaretto #6, Vinegar #1
Story: Blaze Mob Family
Title: A Lesson in Respect
Prompts: Chocolate #2: jealousy/rivalry, Amaretto #6: cry wolf, Vinegar #1: keep out of reach of children
Rating: R for violence and language
Characters: Firebird Blaze, Paul Robinson, Tommy “The Angel” Adams, Tucker Nielson, Spits Nielson
Summary: Shortly after Just Another Day at the Office. Truthfully, I only wrote this piece because I wanted to write more Paul, but it turned out so much longer than I expected because Tucker rode Paul’s coattails back into the story. XD And this is a much more ruthless Firebird than I’ve written in awhile. She’s not a bitch, she’s Boss Bitch.
Angel stood guard outside the dockside warehouse, puffing on a cigarette to pass the time. As soon as he saw the boss’ black car, he stomped out his cigarette and ran over to open the back door. But Paul was already there. He clasped Tommy on the arm and gently nudged him out of the way.
“Better let me,” Paul said softly so Firebird couldn’t hear the exchange. “She’s not too happy about this.”
Tommy’s mouth went dry at that. “Right,” he gulped and stepped back a couple steps while he wished to hell that he wasn’t the only one standing here now.
Paul handed Firebird out of the car and Tommy immediately realized why she was so upset. She wasn’t dressed in her usual business suit but much more casually in a dark green sweaterdress, white leggings, and brown boots. She’d been visiting one of the Blazes. It couldn’t have been Edan, he had soccer practice now, and Tommy thanked his lucky stars at that. It must have been Papa B or Nicky’s wife. That meant it was only the second worst thing Tommy could have called her away from, not the first. The first would have been if she’d been with Edan. People died then.
“Angel,” Firebird said in a voice that didn’t betray any of the irritation that Paul had alluded to. Tommy had never met a person so capable of hiding their emotions as the Boss was. “Why am I here?”
Tommy licked his lips and decided to just be out with it. Sometimes she was kinder if they didn’t pussyfoot around. “It’s the new associates, the gang of kid thieves. The punks won’t cooperate with us. The leader says he only wants to deal with you.”
“Why didn’t you make them cooperate?”
Tommy looked away from Firebird’s piercing gaze but had to glance back a second later. You didn’t look away from her for long. That was like looking away from a hungry lioness that had its sights set on you. “Well...they’re just little kids. The boys and I didn’t feel right about beating on kids.”
Firebird reached up one hand and held Tommy’s cheek as she said, “That’s an admirable trait, Angel,” she patted his cheek once, and then again a bit harder. “One the surface, at least. But what I just heard you say was that you’ll only follow my orders up to a point. Did I hear you correctly?”
Tommy’s eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and fear. He hadn’t thought about it that way. “No, Boss! Me and the boys would do anything you said. No questions asked.”
Firebird patted his cheek again, just this side of a slap. Tommy winced but didn’t even think about moving away. “Then tell me Angel, when I order my men to go and explain to my newest acquisition the terms of their debt, and my men don’t do what I tell them to because they’re a bunch of bleeding hearts that can’t strong-arm a couple juvenile delinquents, what am I supposed to think?”
Tommy licked his lips again. “We didn’t mean it like that Boss. Not at all. They just weren’t acting right. Their leader was mouthing off. They got no respect for the Family. I swear we didn’t mean to disrespect you.”
“Hmm.” When Firebird hit him this time, there was no mistaking it as a pat on the cheek. The sharp slap of flesh hitting flesh rang out in the street. Tommy’s head swung to the right some from the force, but he immediately brought it back to face her and her hand again. “I am not happy about this,” Firebird patted his cheek softly then pulled her hand back. “However, the blame isn’t entirely yours. It appears my new associates need to be taught a lesson in respect.”
Firebird motioned to the warehouse. “If you would, please, Angel.”
Without any further ado, Tommy led Firebird and Paul into the warehouse that served as the new headquarters for the Nielson gang. He opened the side door and let Firebird in first. Paul slapped Tommy on the arm in sympathetic camaraderie then followed his boss inside. Paul was a soldier like Tommy and the majority of the boys, but he was inherently different seeing as how he was Firebird’s main bodyguard. He bore witness to every transgression the Boss addressed, saw all the punishments, all the praises. If Paul wasn’t such a stand-up guy, then he wouldn’t have been nearly as well liked by the rest of the boys. As it was, though, he was just as much one of them as any of the other boys, and, if when they were all partying together they happened to feel a small line of separation between them and him, everyone agreed to ignore it.
Firebird took stock of the situation in one swift glance. Seven of her men stood on one side of the warehouse and the Nielson gang stood on the other. Tucker Nielson was lounging quite comfortably on the secondhand couch they had put in at some point; looking the picture of youthful arrogance.
Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She appreciated a certain amount of arrogance in her associates, it made them more interesting to work with, but when her associates didn’t temper it with respect, then there were problems.
All of her men jumped to attention when they saw her. Tucker saw her too, and flung his arms out in welcome. “Look boys! The Lady Boss finally comes to pay us a visit!”
The Nielson gang, two dozen boys that were all under the drinking age, laughed and catcalled, mock greeting her. The Blaze men stiffened and a couple of them made motions towards their guns. Obviously they’d been dealing with this group of idiotic children for too long and their patience had worn thin. Blaze soldiers, as a rule, weren’t exactly kid-friendly.
Firebird’s eyebrow rose up but she kept her voice mild, “Good afternoon.”
Firebird crossed the distance between her men and Tucker’s gang. Her men fell into step behind her, spreading themselves out enough that they’d have room to shoot should Firebird give them the word.
Their movements didn’t go unnoticed. A few of the children grasped their crowbars, the gang’s weapon of choice, and the laughter died quickly. Tucker was a study of casualness, though, with his arms thrown over the back of the couch. He smirked at her and waited for her to make the first move.
She had no problem with that. On occasions like these, having the first move was preferable. “I understand that you’ve been causing my men problems. They told me that you said you were only willing to deal with me.”
“That’s right,” Tucker smirked. “I don’t see why I should have to deal with your pee-ons when you’re the one I made the deal with.”
Firebird’s lips quirked up and she let out a soft little laugh. “I don’t know what’s more pathetic: your completely unjustified arrogance or the fact that you don’t even realize that I’m the last person you want to deal with.”
The children didn’t like that. They shifted, grumbling, and readjusted their grips on the crowbars.
Tucker’s smirk turned brittle but Firebird continued before he could make a smart remark. “I delegate my business affairs to my men for your benefit, not mine. They are kinder to the Family associates than I ever could be.” She looked at her men then, “Almost too kind.”
The men shifted uncomfortably and Tommy flushed, making the red handprint on his face glow brighter.
“But, unfortunately for you,” she said, turning back to Tucker Nielson’s gang. “I’m already here, so you’re going to get exactly what you wanted.”
Firebird stepped forwards, bypassing Tucker altogether and going to the right of the couch. She stopped in front of a boy on the cusp of manhood. He had multiple piercings in his face that seemed to have pinned on a permanent defiant glare.
“You are?” Firebird asked.
The boys lip pulled up in a sneer. “Spits.”
“Great,” Paul muttered under his breath behind Firebird.
Firebird’s lip quirked upwards in amusement but she remained focused on her victim. “You have the same cowlick as my dear friend, Tucker. Would you by chance be related to him, Spits?”
Spits somehow managed to sneer even more. “He’s my brother.”
“How interesting,” Firebird said.
Tucker shot up from the couch. “What the fuck are you talking to him for, sweetheart? I’m the boss here, not Spits.”
“No, Tucker,” Firebird corrected. “I am the boss here.” She looked at Spitz. “You are aware that your brother made a deal with me?”
Spits nodded.
“And do you know what the deal was?”
He shrugged. “You wouldn’t kill us if we worked for you.”
“That’s half of it,” Firebird said. “I’m also paying for all the damages you’ve caused in the shops that I’m paid to protect. You’re working for me to pay off the debt that you’ve incurred with me because of that. The not killing you part is just me being nice.”
“Yeah, what the fuck ever,” Spits snapped, rolling his eyes to complete the childish comeback.
Firebird chose to ignore it. For now. She continued, “You all owe me a great deal of money. Until you pay me back all of it, plus interest, you are mine to control. In essence, I own every last one of you.”
They didn’t like that. Spits sneered. “Bullshit. You don’t own nobody.”
“On the contrary,” Firebird replied. “I own a great many people. You are just my newest acquisitions. I own you and everything you own. Including all of those wonderfully versatile crowbars that you lot are so fond of.”
Firebird held out her hand and looked the boy dead in the eyes. “Give me my crowbar, Spits.”
Spits glared at her and tightened his grip on the crowbar. Firebird raised an eyebrow, wordlessly challenging him to test her authority. He looked to the right where Tucker was standing, vibrating with angry energy, then back to Firebird. His glare turned positively evil as he snapped, “Whatever you say, boss.”
Spits pulled back his arm and brought it down swiftly straight at Firebird’s hand with enough force to make the crowbar break every bone in her palm. Paul’s hand flew out and grabbed the crowbar. He twisted the crowbar out of Spits’ grasp then grabbed the boy with his free hand by the neck and lifted him clean off the ground before bodily throwing him across the room. Paul was on Spits before he could slide more than a couple feet across the cold cement. He set his boot on Spits’ neck and pressed down until he was just short of breaking his hyoid bone.
Unaccustomed to such abrupt violence, the Nielson gang was slower to react than the Blaze men. The children yelled their indignation and moved forward as one but Firebird’s men had already drawn their guns and had them pointed at the kids, halting their progress. Tucker screamed his brother’s name and ran towards him. Tommy Adams and another Blaze man caught him and held him back, controlling his wild struggling with little trouble.
The whole scene happened in a matter of seconds. Firebird waited patiently for the Nielson gang to quiet down until it was only Tucker cursing and struggling wildly. Spits didn’t dare move or try to get away from Paul, too terrified to do something that would make Paul deliver the death blow that was already so near.
She clipped her way over to Paul. He held out the crowbar to her, which she took. She paused when she saw a thin trickle of blood dripping down Paul’s hand, her eyebrows drawing together in consternation
“It’s nothing,” Paul said, opening his fist to show her the two thin scratches he’d gotten when he’d caught the end of the crowbar.
Firebird’s brow smoothed out when she saw the limited damage. She shook her head a little. “These Nielson boys aren’t very kind to your hands.”
Paul smirked and looked down at Spits. “Fuckin’ kids play.”
“Indeed,” Firebird smirked too. She turned back and went over to Tucker, who showed no signs of calming down anytime soon.
“I’ll fuckin kill you!” he shouted at Paul.
“Tucker. Hush!” Firebird said loudly.
“Screw you, Blaze! Screw all of you! I’ll kill every last one of you! Get away from Spits, you asshole!”
Firebird looked over at Tommy. “Shut him up.”
“Right, Boss,” Tommy said. The other man holding Tucker readjusted his grip so Tommy could let go long enough to punch him hard in the diaphragm. The air flew out of Tucker with a loud whoosh, leaving him gasping for air.
“Bitch!” Tucker gasped at her.
Firebird lifted his chin with the end of the crowbar. “No, Tucker. You’re the bitch. My bitch, to be exact.”
Tucker jerked his head to the side. “Fu-ck you.”
Tommy hit Tucker in the chest again, and Tucker’s legs gave out. The soldiers caught him and propped him up.
Firebird stuck the crowbar under his chin again. “Even if I allowed my property to speak to me like that, you’re certainly in no position to be throwing insults. For Spits’ sake, don’t do it again.”
She waited a long moment for Tucker to say something to compound his sins but he was too out of breath and too smart to try anything when his brother was in such a compromising position. When she was satisfied that she’d finally silenced that smart mouth of his, Firebird stepped away from Tucker to address the whole gang.
“As I was telling our dear Spits, I own all of you. That’s not up for discussion.”
She walked down the line of boys, all glaring at her with a mixture of hate and fear. But they weren’t talking shit and they were listening to every word, so she was making progress.
“You will find that I can be a very generous owner. I take good care of everything and everyone I own. I gave you a new hideout, I’ll give you better weapons and train you all how to be proper criminals, not child thieves. I’ll smooth out any wrinkles that are causing you problems in your life, and I will allow you to keep a very generous cut of the profits that you earn for me. I never give my acquisitions that behave properly any reason to complain about their treatment.”
“But,” she snapped, turning on them with a glare. The boys closest to her took a small step back then lifted their chins in defiance when they realized what they did. More progress. “I don’t reward bad children. You will behave. Respect for me is implied, I should never have to remind you. And if any of my men come around, you will obey them because they carry my instructions. Any Blaze man is superior to you in every possible way, and you will not act this way towards them again.”
Firebird set her crowbar at the closest Nielson boy’s throat. He swallowed and fidgeted, but didn’t move away. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-yeah,” he stuttered.
“Yes, boss,” Firebird corrected, pushing the crowbar into his throat harder.
“Yes, boss,” the boy repeated quickly.
Firebird’s eyes moved up to the older boy behind the one she held. “And you?”
“Yes, boss,” the boy muttered.
“Altogether now,” she said to all of them.
There was a chorus of ‘yes, boss’ from all of the boys. Firebird looked back at her current victim. His eyes were getting shinier by the second and she tsked. “Now, now. This is of your own doing. When you started knocking over shops in my city, you told me you were ready to play with the big kids. It’s time to put on your big boy pants and come out to play.”
Firebird pulled the crowbar away and the boy gasped in relief. She paid him no more mind, but went back to Tucker. He wasn’t breathing as hard now, he could probably talk but she was pleased to see he was keeping his mouth shut.
“You are their leader,” she said. “So it’s up to you to set a good example for the rest of them. If you don’t show me the proper amount of respect, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to hurt them, and I’ll start with Spits.”
Tucker’s glare was deadly. “I hate you.”
She shrugged. “I don’t care.”
“You will. I’ll make damn sure of it,” he swore violently.
Firebird smirked. “You’re certainly welcome to try. Just remember who’ll pay for your transgressions.” She cocked her head and turned around. “Speaking of Spits.”
She nodded at Paul, and he lifted his foot off of Spits’ neck then pulled him up by his arm until he was standing. Firebird stepped up to the bleeding boy. “Now, Spits. Whose crowbar is this?”
Spits lived up to his namesake and turned his head so he could spit out the blood that had pooled in his mouth as a product of him being thrown across a cement floor. “Yours,” he snapped.
“Very good.” Firebird held out the crowbar. Spits glanced up at Paul then back at her before he took it, holding it in front of him uncertainly.
“Let’s try this again.” Firebird held out her hand. “Give me my crowbar, Spits.”
Spits handed her back the crowbar, giving it back with exaggerated gentleness so as not to make Paul think he was going to do something stupid again.
“Thank you, Spits,” Firebird said. “That wasn’t too hard, was it?”
Spits was glaring like a demon from hell but he answered her question. “No.”
She nodded and handed the crowbar back to him. “You may keep my crowbar. For now. But if I should ask for it back, what are you going to do?”
“Give it to you.”
“Gently,” Firebird prompted.
“Gently,” Spits repeated.
“Good boy.” She looked him over. “You’ve got a great deal of potential, Spits. Now if you’d just get out of this rebellious phase of yours and do as I tell you, I can make you a very successful man.”
Spits glared but didn’t answer. She nodded back to the other boys. “Go join your friends, Spits.”
Spits hurried over to the other Nielson boys, who grabbed him and pushed him to the back so they could protect him should Firebird set her sights on him again.
But Firebird knew she’d pushed them as far as she could today. It was time to end this lesson; by and large she considered it a success. She turned back to address them all one last time. “Now, this is what’s going to happen. I’m going to leave and you all are going to thank your lucky stars that this was all that I did to you for disrespecting me. My men are going to follow my original instructions and outline the conditions of your debt. You all are going to listen carefully and do what they tell you to do when they tell you to do it. Do any of you have a problem with this plan?”
The Nielson gang avoided her eyes like the plague, all of them standing still and remaining silent.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Firebird said. She looked to Tucker and smirked a little. “Do you still wish to deal with me, Tucker?”
Tucker glared at her with all the hate he possessed. “Fuck no.”
Firebird tilted her head a little. “’Fuck no’ what?”
Tucker’s jaw clenched so hard it should have shattered his teeth. “Fuck no, boss.”
Firebird patted Tucker’s cheek. “See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?”
Title: A Lesson in Respect
Prompts: Chocolate #2: jealousy/rivalry, Amaretto #6: cry wolf, Vinegar #1: keep out of reach of children
Rating: R for violence and language
Characters: Firebird Blaze, Paul Robinson, Tommy “The Angel” Adams, Tucker Nielson, Spits Nielson
Summary: Shortly after Just Another Day at the Office. Truthfully, I only wrote this piece because I wanted to write more Paul, but it turned out so much longer than I expected because Tucker rode Paul’s coattails back into the story. XD And this is a much more ruthless Firebird than I’ve written in awhile. She’s not a bitch, she’s Boss Bitch.
Angel stood guard outside the dockside warehouse, puffing on a cigarette to pass the time. As soon as he saw the boss’ black car, he stomped out his cigarette and ran over to open the back door. But Paul was already there. He clasped Tommy on the arm and gently nudged him out of the way.
“Better let me,” Paul said softly so Firebird couldn’t hear the exchange. “She’s not too happy about this.”
Tommy’s mouth went dry at that. “Right,” he gulped and stepped back a couple steps while he wished to hell that he wasn’t the only one standing here now.
Paul handed Firebird out of the car and Tommy immediately realized why she was so upset. She wasn’t dressed in her usual business suit but much more casually in a dark green sweaterdress, white leggings, and brown boots. She’d been visiting one of the Blazes. It couldn’t have been Edan, he had soccer practice now, and Tommy thanked his lucky stars at that. It must have been Papa B or Nicky’s wife. That meant it was only the second worst thing Tommy could have called her away from, not the first. The first would have been if she’d been with Edan. People died then.
“Angel,” Firebird said in a voice that didn’t betray any of the irritation that Paul had alluded to. Tommy had never met a person so capable of hiding their emotions as the Boss was. “Why am I here?”
Tommy licked his lips and decided to just be out with it. Sometimes she was kinder if they didn’t pussyfoot around. “It’s the new associates, the gang of kid thieves. The punks won’t cooperate with us. The leader says he only wants to deal with you.”
“Why didn’t you make them cooperate?”
Tommy looked away from Firebird’s piercing gaze but had to glance back a second later. You didn’t look away from her for long. That was like looking away from a hungry lioness that had its sights set on you. “Well...they’re just little kids. The boys and I didn’t feel right about beating on kids.”
Firebird reached up one hand and held Tommy’s cheek as she said, “That’s an admirable trait, Angel,” she patted his cheek once, and then again a bit harder. “One the surface, at least. But what I just heard you say was that you’ll only follow my orders up to a point. Did I hear you correctly?”
Tommy’s eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and fear. He hadn’t thought about it that way. “No, Boss! Me and the boys would do anything you said. No questions asked.”
Firebird patted his cheek again, just this side of a slap. Tommy winced but didn’t even think about moving away. “Then tell me Angel, when I order my men to go and explain to my newest acquisition the terms of their debt, and my men don’t do what I tell them to because they’re a bunch of bleeding hearts that can’t strong-arm a couple juvenile delinquents, what am I supposed to think?”
Tommy licked his lips again. “We didn’t mean it like that Boss. Not at all. They just weren’t acting right. Their leader was mouthing off. They got no respect for the Family. I swear we didn’t mean to disrespect you.”
“Hmm.” When Firebird hit him this time, there was no mistaking it as a pat on the cheek. The sharp slap of flesh hitting flesh rang out in the street. Tommy’s head swung to the right some from the force, but he immediately brought it back to face her and her hand again. “I am not happy about this,” Firebird patted his cheek softly then pulled her hand back. “However, the blame isn’t entirely yours. It appears my new associates need to be taught a lesson in respect.”
Firebird motioned to the warehouse. “If you would, please, Angel.”
Without any further ado, Tommy led Firebird and Paul into the warehouse that served as the new headquarters for the Nielson gang. He opened the side door and let Firebird in first. Paul slapped Tommy on the arm in sympathetic camaraderie then followed his boss inside. Paul was a soldier like Tommy and the majority of the boys, but he was inherently different seeing as how he was Firebird’s main bodyguard. He bore witness to every transgression the Boss addressed, saw all the punishments, all the praises. If Paul wasn’t such a stand-up guy, then he wouldn’t have been nearly as well liked by the rest of the boys. As it was, though, he was just as much one of them as any of the other boys, and, if when they were all partying together they happened to feel a small line of separation between them and him, everyone agreed to ignore it.
Firebird took stock of the situation in one swift glance. Seven of her men stood on one side of the warehouse and the Nielson gang stood on the other. Tucker Nielson was lounging quite comfortably on the secondhand couch they had put in at some point; looking the picture of youthful arrogance.
Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She appreciated a certain amount of arrogance in her associates, it made them more interesting to work with, but when her associates didn’t temper it with respect, then there were problems.
All of her men jumped to attention when they saw her. Tucker saw her too, and flung his arms out in welcome. “Look boys! The Lady Boss finally comes to pay us a visit!”
The Nielson gang, two dozen boys that were all under the drinking age, laughed and catcalled, mock greeting her. The Blaze men stiffened and a couple of them made motions towards their guns. Obviously they’d been dealing with this group of idiotic children for too long and their patience had worn thin. Blaze soldiers, as a rule, weren’t exactly kid-friendly.
Firebird’s eyebrow rose up but she kept her voice mild, “Good afternoon.”
Firebird crossed the distance between her men and Tucker’s gang. Her men fell into step behind her, spreading themselves out enough that they’d have room to shoot should Firebird give them the word.
Their movements didn’t go unnoticed. A few of the children grasped their crowbars, the gang’s weapon of choice, and the laughter died quickly. Tucker was a study of casualness, though, with his arms thrown over the back of the couch. He smirked at her and waited for her to make the first move.
She had no problem with that. On occasions like these, having the first move was preferable. “I understand that you’ve been causing my men problems. They told me that you said you were only willing to deal with me.”
“That’s right,” Tucker smirked. “I don’t see why I should have to deal with your pee-ons when you’re the one I made the deal with.”
Firebird’s lips quirked up and she let out a soft little laugh. “I don’t know what’s more pathetic: your completely unjustified arrogance or the fact that you don’t even realize that I’m the last person you want to deal with.”
The children didn’t like that. They shifted, grumbling, and readjusted their grips on the crowbars.
Tucker’s smirk turned brittle but Firebird continued before he could make a smart remark. “I delegate my business affairs to my men for your benefit, not mine. They are kinder to the Family associates than I ever could be.” She looked at her men then, “Almost too kind.”
The men shifted uncomfortably and Tommy flushed, making the red handprint on his face glow brighter.
“But, unfortunately for you,” she said, turning back to Tucker Nielson’s gang. “I’m already here, so you’re going to get exactly what you wanted.”
Firebird stepped forwards, bypassing Tucker altogether and going to the right of the couch. She stopped in front of a boy on the cusp of manhood. He had multiple piercings in his face that seemed to have pinned on a permanent defiant glare.
“You are?” Firebird asked.
The boys lip pulled up in a sneer. “Spits.”
“Great,” Paul muttered under his breath behind Firebird.
Firebird’s lip quirked upwards in amusement but she remained focused on her victim. “You have the same cowlick as my dear friend, Tucker. Would you by chance be related to him, Spits?”
Spits somehow managed to sneer even more. “He’s my brother.”
“How interesting,” Firebird said.
Tucker shot up from the couch. “What the fuck are you talking to him for, sweetheart? I’m the boss here, not Spits.”
“No, Tucker,” Firebird corrected. “I am the boss here.” She looked at Spitz. “You are aware that your brother made a deal with me?”
Spits nodded.
“And do you know what the deal was?”
He shrugged. “You wouldn’t kill us if we worked for you.”
“That’s half of it,” Firebird said. “I’m also paying for all the damages you’ve caused in the shops that I’m paid to protect. You’re working for me to pay off the debt that you’ve incurred with me because of that. The not killing you part is just me being nice.”
“Yeah, what the fuck ever,” Spits snapped, rolling his eyes to complete the childish comeback.
Firebird chose to ignore it. For now. She continued, “You all owe me a great deal of money. Until you pay me back all of it, plus interest, you are mine to control. In essence, I own every last one of you.”
They didn’t like that. Spits sneered. “Bullshit. You don’t own nobody.”
“On the contrary,” Firebird replied. “I own a great many people. You are just my newest acquisitions. I own you and everything you own. Including all of those wonderfully versatile crowbars that you lot are so fond of.”
Firebird held out her hand and looked the boy dead in the eyes. “Give me my crowbar, Spits.”
Spits glared at her and tightened his grip on the crowbar. Firebird raised an eyebrow, wordlessly challenging him to test her authority. He looked to the right where Tucker was standing, vibrating with angry energy, then back to Firebird. His glare turned positively evil as he snapped, “Whatever you say, boss.”
Spits pulled back his arm and brought it down swiftly straight at Firebird’s hand with enough force to make the crowbar break every bone in her palm. Paul’s hand flew out and grabbed the crowbar. He twisted the crowbar out of Spits’ grasp then grabbed the boy with his free hand by the neck and lifted him clean off the ground before bodily throwing him across the room. Paul was on Spits before he could slide more than a couple feet across the cold cement. He set his boot on Spits’ neck and pressed down until he was just short of breaking his hyoid bone.
Unaccustomed to such abrupt violence, the Nielson gang was slower to react than the Blaze men. The children yelled their indignation and moved forward as one but Firebird’s men had already drawn their guns and had them pointed at the kids, halting their progress. Tucker screamed his brother’s name and ran towards him. Tommy Adams and another Blaze man caught him and held him back, controlling his wild struggling with little trouble.
The whole scene happened in a matter of seconds. Firebird waited patiently for the Nielson gang to quiet down until it was only Tucker cursing and struggling wildly. Spits didn’t dare move or try to get away from Paul, too terrified to do something that would make Paul deliver the death blow that was already so near.
She clipped her way over to Paul. He held out the crowbar to her, which she took. She paused when she saw a thin trickle of blood dripping down Paul’s hand, her eyebrows drawing together in consternation
“It’s nothing,” Paul said, opening his fist to show her the two thin scratches he’d gotten when he’d caught the end of the crowbar.
Firebird’s brow smoothed out when she saw the limited damage. She shook her head a little. “These Nielson boys aren’t very kind to your hands.”
Paul smirked and looked down at Spits. “Fuckin’ kids play.”
“Indeed,” Firebird smirked too. She turned back and went over to Tucker, who showed no signs of calming down anytime soon.
“I’ll fuckin kill you!” he shouted at Paul.
“Tucker. Hush!” Firebird said loudly.
“Screw you, Blaze! Screw all of you! I’ll kill every last one of you! Get away from Spits, you asshole!”
Firebird looked over at Tommy. “Shut him up.”
“Right, Boss,” Tommy said. The other man holding Tucker readjusted his grip so Tommy could let go long enough to punch him hard in the diaphragm. The air flew out of Tucker with a loud whoosh, leaving him gasping for air.
“Bitch!” Tucker gasped at her.
Firebird lifted his chin with the end of the crowbar. “No, Tucker. You’re the bitch. My bitch, to be exact.”
Tucker jerked his head to the side. “Fu-ck you.”
Tommy hit Tucker in the chest again, and Tucker’s legs gave out. The soldiers caught him and propped him up.
Firebird stuck the crowbar under his chin again. “Even if I allowed my property to speak to me like that, you’re certainly in no position to be throwing insults. For Spits’ sake, don’t do it again.”
She waited a long moment for Tucker to say something to compound his sins but he was too out of breath and too smart to try anything when his brother was in such a compromising position. When she was satisfied that she’d finally silenced that smart mouth of his, Firebird stepped away from Tucker to address the whole gang.
“As I was telling our dear Spits, I own all of you. That’s not up for discussion.”
She walked down the line of boys, all glaring at her with a mixture of hate and fear. But they weren’t talking shit and they were listening to every word, so she was making progress.
“You will find that I can be a very generous owner. I take good care of everything and everyone I own. I gave you a new hideout, I’ll give you better weapons and train you all how to be proper criminals, not child thieves. I’ll smooth out any wrinkles that are causing you problems in your life, and I will allow you to keep a very generous cut of the profits that you earn for me. I never give my acquisitions that behave properly any reason to complain about their treatment.”
“But,” she snapped, turning on them with a glare. The boys closest to her took a small step back then lifted their chins in defiance when they realized what they did. More progress. “I don’t reward bad children. You will behave. Respect for me is implied, I should never have to remind you. And if any of my men come around, you will obey them because they carry my instructions. Any Blaze man is superior to you in every possible way, and you will not act this way towards them again.”
Firebird set her crowbar at the closest Nielson boy’s throat. He swallowed and fidgeted, but didn’t move away. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-yeah,” he stuttered.
“Yes, boss,” Firebird corrected, pushing the crowbar into his throat harder.
“Yes, boss,” the boy repeated quickly.
Firebird’s eyes moved up to the older boy behind the one she held. “And you?”
“Yes, boss,” the boy muttered.
“Altogether now,” she said to all of them.
There was a chorus of ‘yes, boss’ from all of the boys. Firebird looked back at her current victim. His eyes were getting shinier by the second and she tsked. “Now, now. This is of your own doing. When you started knocking over shops in my city, you told me you were ready to play with the big kids. It’s time to put on your big boy pants and come out to play.”
Firebird pulled the crowbar away and the boy gasped in relief. She paid him no more mind, but went back to Tucker. He wasn’t breathing as hard now, he could probably talk but she was pleased to see he was keeping his mouth shut.
“You are their leader,” she said. “So it’s up to you to set a good example for the rest of them. If you don’t show me the proper amount of respect, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to hurt them, and I’ll start with Spits.”
Tucker’s glare was deadly. “I hate you.”
She shrugged. “I don’t care.”
“You will. I’ll make damn sure of it,” he swore violently.
Firebird smirked. “You’re certainly welcome to try. Just remember who’ll pay for your transgressions.” She cocked her head and turned around. “Speaking of Spits.”
She nodded at Paul, and he lifted his foot off of Spits’ neck then pulled him up by his arm until he was standing. Firebird stepped up to the bleeding boy. “Now, Spits. Whose crowbar is this?”
Spits lived up to his namesake and turned his head so he could spit out the blood that had pooled in his mouth as a product of him being thrown across a cement floor. “Yours,” he snapped.
“Very good.” Firebird held out the crowbar. Spits glanced up at Paul then back at her before he took it, holding it in front of him uncertainly.
“Let’s try this again.” Firebird held out her hand. “Give me my crowbar, Spits.”
Spits handed her back the crowbar, giving it back with exaggerated gentleness so as not to make Paul think he was going to do something stupid again.
“Thank you, Spits,” Firebird said. “That wasn’t too hard, was it?”
Spits was glaring like a demon from hell but he answered her question. “No.”
She nodded and handed the crowbar back to him. “You may keep my crowbar. For now. But if I should ask for it back, what are you going to do?”
“Give it to you.”
“Gently,” Firebird prompted.
“Gently,” Spits repeated.
“Good boy.” She looked him over. “You’ve got a great deal of potential, Spits. Now if you’d just get out of this rebellious phase of yours and do as I tell you, I can make you a very successful man.”
Spits glared but didn’t answer. She nodded back to the other boys. “Go join your friends, Spits.”
Spits hurried over to the other Nielson boys, who grabbed him and pushed him to the back so they could protect him should Firebird set her sights on him again.
But Firebird knew she’d pushed them as far as she could today. It was time to end this lesson; by and large she considered it a success. She turned back to address them all one last time. “Now, this is what’s going to happen. I’m going to leave and you all are going to thank your lucky stars that this was all that I did to you for disrespecting me. My men are going to follow my original instructions and outline the conditions of your debt. You all are going to listen carefully and do what they tell you to do when they tell you to do it. Do any of you have a problem with this plan?”
The Nielson gang avoided her eyes like the plague, all of them standing still and remaining silent.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Firebird said. She looked to Tucker and smirked a little. “Do you still wish to deal with me, Tucker?”
Tucker glared at her with all the hate he possessed. “Fuck no.”
Firebird tilted her head a little. “’Fuck no’ what?”
Tucker’s jaw clenched so hard it should have shattered his teeth. “Fuck no, boss.”
Firebird patted Tucker’s cheek. “See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?”