Prologue
Some people waited for 5 o’clock to declare it ‘happy hour’ and others dismissed the vindication altogether and called it ‘5 o’clock somewhere’. While both aspects couldn’t be more agreed to on a reasonable note... Why did happy time have to be an hour when it could be an entire day?
“You know that saying about money?” She twisted the single lock of hair that fell into her line of sight while she sat on a pillow on the floor with her back against the wall.
The burly, 6ft and a half tall man stood from across her with his hands held in a protective stance in front of him shook his head and cleared his throat. “There’s a lot of quotes about money.”
Teagan’s dark eyes raised as she dropped hold of the strand of hair and raised a single eyebrow at him. “How many quotes could I possibly be talking about at once, Ned?”
This time, Ned didn’t say anything and instead looked down, but she just sighed. “Like I was saying, you know that quote about money?” Her eyes lifted from beneath her dark lashes but still, he was silent, so she continued. “That quote that goes ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’.”
Ned grunted.
“Right well, have you heard the one that goes ‘whoever said money can’t buy happiness, didn’t know where to shop’?”
Ned grunted. Again.
“Shopping is one thing but you need to know what to buy.” A rattling sound echoed loudly and in the short, dimly-lit hallway they were in, a door opened and a light shone from inside the room connected. Teagan pushed to her feet, dusted herself off and led the way to that room with Ned following, which came to be a garage that a car was driving into.
She tucked her hair back from her face and stood there as two men climbed out of the car, one tall with a buzzed bleach haircut and glowing, light brown skin while the other was shorter with ink-black hair and an olive tone to his complexion.
They were in some sort of argument about stained Italian loafers one of them believed shouldn’t have existed in the first place. “I knew you were always jaundiced of my babies.” The dark-haired man complained as the two rounded the matte black Ford Mustang to the trunk which they paused to unlock before opening it to reveal four leather duffel bags.
“You see that? That right there is your problem. Who the hell uses ‘jaundiced’ in an everyday sentence and wears loafers?” Retorted the man with the buzzed cut and Teagan exchanged a look with the tight-lipped Ned who was trying not to laugh and failing miserably.
“You’re too stupid to understand anything and that is your problem.”
“Gentlemen.” Teagan’s voice cut through the silence of their sudden stare down just from the single word and everyone stood up straight, almost at attention.
“Birdie. We didn’t see you there.” The man with the buzz cut flashed her a smile, which would have had anybody charmed but her flattery didn’t raise even an inch at the expression. Instead, her eyes dropped to the bags they held and a silent message passed between them all as they handed them over to her, regardless of the weight of all four bags.
“Rush, don’t call Lazlo’s shoes stupid and Lazlo, don’t entertain him if he does. You’re grown men, you should know better than that.” She clicked her tongue and shook her head with disapproval as she effortlessly hiked two bags onto each of her shoulders. “Truth is, your shoes are stupid.”
The shorter man didn’t even look surprised, just extremely offended as he threw his arms up in disdain which made Rush chuckle but his smile dropped quickly as the retreating woman threw over her shoulder, “But... so are yours, Rush.”
“Ha!” Lazlo smacked his friend’s head upside, satisfied with the outcome of the conversation as he strolled after Teagan and Ned into the main part of the building they were in.
“Shut up, loafers.” Rush scoffed but went along as well, ignoring the curious eyes that followed after the group of four, making sure not to linger on the leading female.
Teagan passed two separate lounges with the softest looking grey sofas and flat-screen TVs almost as long and tall as the stone walls they were mounted on. Men and women littered the surfaces of the seats, some sprawled out on bean bag chairs or on the floor.
Even inside, the rooms were dimly-lit with strategically placed light bulbs that created a sombre, almost eerie atmosphere, but nobody seemed bothered --- even conversing and battling on the game systems set up.
Finally going down another hallway, this time to a brighter room, she stopped at a long, eighteen-chair dining room table filled with other discarded bags and briefcases which she just pushed aside so she could set the four she held down. “Pick up is coming tomorrow morning to get taken to the cleaners.” Lazlo leaned forward with his hands on the table and gave an excited crooked grin.
“Hm.” Teagan unzipped the first bag, disappointed to find stacked bundles of cash so she went through another --the same thing-- until finally, in the last bag lay a pile of velvet bags her fingers itched to look through. Her gaze glazed and between the three other men in the room, all she could see was the velvet, followed by the blinding thirty-lined diamond necklace she pulled out.
Rush exchanged a pleased look with Lazlo as they waited for her reaction but their expressions quickly turned into grimaces when she brought the necklace to her chest and hugged it.
“No.” Rush immediately told her but she shot him a look that would have made anybody cower, still, he scowled at her. “We did not work this hard for you to not turn it over, Birdie.”
“They’re literally cold.” She argued, eyebrows sinking down into a troubled frown. "They're diamonds, and they're cold. What's not to love?"
“We have a very beneficial client waiting to hear from us in twelve hours about his entire order.”
“Plans change.” Teagan shrugged simply, pushing the escaped lock of hair hanging in her vision away from her face as she gently returned the prized possession back into its pouch to see what was in all the other pretty velvet sacks. “Prepare for a transaction, I will exchange any price for one piece. In the meantime, the retrieved cash will go get washed. Ned?”
“Yes ma’am.” He responded quickly, grabbing the three duffel bags she quickly dismissed in her hunt for her prize. “One thing before I go?”
“Yes?”
“What do you buy with the money in order for it to bring you happiness?”
Teagan smiled, a concerning smile as she whispered, beckoning the burly security guard with the simple gesture of her finger. He leaned down to her average height and she took a moment before she whispered. “People.” The towering man swallowed hard, stepped back now tense at the shoulders and walked away without looking back.
“What did you just say to him?” Rush narrowed his eyes at the grinning woman who went back to going through the duffel bag full of diamonds.
“Say what to who?” The small group of three looked up when a dark-haired, pale-skinned man walked over while taking off a suit jacket which he draped over the back of the chair nearest to him and then rest his arms over it.
“Atlas, perfect timing. We have an appointment with my bed.” The newly joined addition to the group quirked an eyebrow and blinked, caught of guard though not surprised by her statement - but Teagan didn’t seem bothered as she gathered the first necklace she had opened back into her possesion.
“You want me to drop you off so you can go to sleep?”
“Is that not what I just said?” Her tone was serious, unwavering and all he could do was blink. Again.
“Where are your keys?”
Teagan sucked her teeth and told him she’d go fetch them in her office. “Birdie!” Lazlo called, stopping her mid-step and she looked at him expectantly as she tilted her head, her ponytail of medium-length hair falling over her shoulder. “Are we going to ignore the very reason why you’re going to get a hit put on you because you keep screwing over customers?”
She laughed.
Atlas blinked, almost in slow motion at her antics while Lazlo and Rush stared at her with concern. For themselves.
She kept laughing, until she stopped abruptly and said matter of factly. “I already have a hit put out on me. More than one. Why do you think I have Atlas?”
Was that a rhetorical question? Lazlo wondered.
“Isn’t that right, Atlas?”
“Right.” He agreed instantly, which satisfied her enough to continue on her short trip to her office. Once she was out of sight, he sighed, shaking his head but not daring to say anything in fear that she'd hear him.
“That girl is crazy.” Lazlo decided as he did every other day but Rush held back his laughter to pick up the bag of diamonds which he left with as told by Teagan moments prior just as she so happened to return, passing Atlas the keys and they too left Lazlo with a short goodbye before heading out to the garage.
“What’s the time?” She asked Atlas when they made it some ways down in the eight-car garage and to the Cadillac Escalade that he opened the back door for her.
“3 AM.”
“I am exhausted. We have the exchange with Sanchez at noon so make sure I’m not bothered until then.”
“Of course.”
“I’m telling you to keep those friends of yours in check.” Teagan climbed into the back while he slid in behind the wheel, both of them buckling their seatbelts. “The last thing I need is to wake up to the sound of Rush and Lazlo arguing.”
“Respectfully, since you are my boss.” Her eyes rolled. “They were your friends first.”
“Nothing about that was respectful.” After their short exchange, the rest of the drive was spent in silence, with Teagan staring out of the outer one-way tinted window as her thoughts replayed the day’s events, and before she knew it, her eyes were droopy, threatening to close but she knew the moment she was in bed, all the grogginess she felt would cease to exist.
She had a necklace to polish anyway and add to her collection.
