Mr.Big Shot // Rio (Good Girls)

Prologue

"You robbed a grocery store without me?!"

"How was I supposed to know you wanted to come?"

Alexa sighed into the microphone of her phone, static crackling by her ear. Her hair ruffled in curls and tangled between her device and her face, overgrown black engulfing fading indigo. "Because I trust you know that I am always up for a bit of B&E."

"Yeah, well, you're in Florida! And I'm telling you now that, maybe, we still need some help?" Annie laughed anxiously on the other end of the line. "I'm hoping you're also up for some gang work."

"I'm sorry, what now?"

"Bye-bye! Cya soon! Please! And bring money!" she begged. The line clicked shut.

"Finally, something interesting!" Alexa muttered, grabbing her keys and rushing to the door. The suburbs of Michigan sure as hell wasn't Florida, but dealing with whatever Annie, Beth, and Ruby had gotten into was certainly more fun than Disneyland.

-

Alexa paced into the room, her watch hanging loosely between her index and middle finger. She halted a few feet from the counter, Beth's ever-present need for organization showing in the neat rows of gnome figurines placed on it. "Oh, good to see everyone's here," she purred, her dimples caressing the edges of her purple-painted lips. "Including the gnomes... I always thought you'd pick up gardening."

"Took you long enough," Beth grimaced opposite her at the table, her forehead crinkling in a familiar expression of unease. Her wide eyes kept flickering over to a hidden corner of the kitchen, and Alexa circled the kitchen island to see what- or who- she was staring at.

A man reclined against the cabinets, dressed for a funeral in folds of black denim and cotton. His defined features were posed in a permanent smirk as if the women in front of him amused him. The gun in his palm implied the contrary, his thumb grazing the side of the barrel with precarious ease. An eagle tattoo spread across his throat, the tips of the wings dancing just under the shadow of his jaw. An expensive-looking nose ring glimmered vaguely on his nose, just a speck next to his bedroom eyes which looked inverted in color, almost entirely absorbed by his dark pupils with a large glint of reflected white. Alexa was almost sure she could see her silhouette in them, a colorful figure consumed in boxy clothes.

"I knew I should have brought the silver one!" Alexa clicked her fingers, tutting in feigned irritation as she pulled a glimmering watch out of the pocket of her sweatshirt and dangling it in her palm, eyeing it with lips pouted in disappointment. "Although this one has diamonds- five carat- which is close enough in color to silver. I was quite adamant on the hue, they really do reflect color wonderfully, don't you think?"

She placed the watch on the table far too roughly for the expensive product, the grain of the birchwood reflecting in the face of the watch. The lanky figure approached with a swagger that reminded Alexa of a python, reaching out and grasping the jewelry with veined hands.

"I don't care, I'm not the one wearing it," he said, his sneer growing to a smug grin. "I do have a business to run, but maybe it'll grow on me," he hummed, clasping it around his wrist. Alexa couldn't help but eye it with exasperated regret, calling out to Beth.

"Yeah. Next time, let me in on the crime plans, okay?" She said, running her tongue over her teeth. "Not that I'm not enjoying this little chat, but I could've found you a store without gang connections so easily," she groaned. Passing her for the wine cabinet, she breathed a laugh at how the guns of the several guards and the mystery-leader raised with metallic clicks. "Jeez, just getting a drink! Want anything?"

The man slumped his forearms on the marble counter, tapping his fingers silently against it. "Nah," he said. "Not on the job."

Alexa frowned. "Well, if you change your mind, Elizabeth here keeps her store stocked generously." Beth scowled, looking down. "Not even a bourbon on the rocks?"

He shook his head, with less hesitation. "I only do that with business. And ours is done." He rubbed the back of his neck, brushing his close-cropped hair as his eyes dragged down her. He clicked his tongue at his goons, who cautiously stepped with him towards the back door.

"Yeah. Cya," she saluted mockingly. "Buh-bye. Enjoy the fake money, sorry we couldn't wash it for you." She poured herself a drink, barely reacting at how the man whipped around. She'd stolen the smirk from his face, reaching for another glass and slowly tipping the bottle against the rim. "Sure you don't want one now?"

He stalked forward, once again just surveying her. "Not your first rodeo, huh, sweetheart?"

"Oh, it is. I'm just good." She gestured towards the watch around his arm. "I figured it couldn't be drugs, since they do drug testing on employees there regularly. So either you were ballsy or had a nice printer," she explained casually, tapping the tip of her nose with the mouth of the bottle.

He chuckled doubtfully, clasping his hands behind his back. "Hey, stay in your lane, I'll stay in mine. Until then, try not to forget the ice in your bourbon on the rocks," he said, turning and leading his procession behind him away. "Pleasure doing business," He sneered. The door swung shut behind him. A gnome fell off the cliff's edge of manufactured marble towards its hardwood doom.

"Dude, that was, like, awesome!" Annie blurted after the door clicked shut. "When did you get so badass, and can I get some too?"

She laughed, rubbing her neck uncomfortably. "When? I've always had it, Annie Bananie!"

"Oh, ugh- all of it went away when you called me that," she feigned a gag. "Boomer calls me it now. If he wasn't my boss..." she sighed and punched her fist ominously.

"Hey, Alexa?" Beth cautiously quirked her head to the side. Her heels clicked, a sharp noise compared to the rubber scuffle of Alexa's sneakers.

"Yeah?"

"Why did he say 'until then'?" Alexa stayed quiet, stammering slightly. "Alexa," she repeated sternly.

"People like him say that to scare people like us." She shrugged, pushing a frizzled lock in front of her eyes. "Don't worry about it."

Beth nodded, the majority of her concern leaving her as she diverted her attention to collecting the pieces of the shattered gnome. Alexa noticed how her brows still pinched the skin between them and mimicked the motion.

"I gotcha, man. I can't let my dear friend's Bethie-boo get into trouble," she teased, Annie snorting behind her. A smile crept on the redhead's face, perfectly-applied red lipstick accentuating her cupid's bow.

"You do know I have four kids, right?" She propped her hand on her hip. "I can handle myself. Don't give me snark, young lady, or you're grounded."

"Can I at least get a snack? Or a car?" She laughed as she was shooed out of the kitchen into the front hall. "Maybe both?" The door slammed in her face, Ruby's laugh echoing from the other side.

The grin slipped off of her face a millisecond later, and now it was her turn to frown, fingernails digging into the skin of her palms. "Good talk," she murmured to herself, rolling up her sleeves to push down a gold watch equal in worth to the one she paid the gangbanger with, previously hidden under her baggy tie-dyed hoodie. Call it insurance, she had thought as she'd plucked it out of her bedside cabinet. Insurance looked damn good on her.

She didn't bother looking over her shoulder. She didn't have to check that someone was watching. Maybe someone wasn't, but she was never a good gambler, so she just chewed her lip, unclipped a pair of purple star-shaped sunglasses from the neck of her hoodie, and settled in an inconspicuous rental car. She cranked up the volume on the High School Musical 2 soundtrack, tilted the review mirror to accommodate her height, and drove away.

She didn't bother trying to shake the car tailing her.