Chapter Three: Facing Boss

Getting out of bed this morning was not something I was entirely excited about. I had to face Boss today and tell him what had happened last night. I knew that he would be glad I wasn't dead, but he would no doubt have some sort of obnoxious discipline awaiting me. I kept myself in tip-top physical shape for my job, and I turned on my television to put in a workout DVD. I usually worked out four times a week, splitting my workouts between both cardio and strength training. I needed to be able to run far and hard as well as take people out when the job called for it. My apartment wasn't very big in terms of ample workout space, so I often just did the stretching part of my routine at home and hit the gym for the other part.

There are some days when I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't started down this life of crime, and if I had been the typical girl who wanted to be popular, who cared about her grades and looking good in the eyes of society. My conclusion was always the same, which was that my life would have been boring as fuck. I had always enjoyed thrills of any kind, and it just so happened that nothing beat the thrill that came with illegal activity. Before I met Rafael, I was always a daredevil, so it's not like he changed me in that sense, but he definitely amplified my tendencies. The first time we went into a gas station and shoplifted food, I got so excited when we successfully walked out the door with two bags of chips and two sodas. We had walked back to his house that day, munching on our stolen goodies. His dad was at work, as usual, and his mom had barely even noticed we were gone. To be honest, I think she'd killed most of her brain cells from the meth she kept taking, since she barely talked and her eyes always looked empty. There was nobody home in her head, and it left Rafael and I time to get away with anything and everything.

When I finished stretching and doing a bunch of things that got my heart rate and energy level up enough to start my day, I shut off the television and got ready. I was a bit nervous to go to work today because of what happened last night. I had no doubts that the client probably called to complain to Boss about me. I wasn't perfect of course, no one was, but I had never screwed up this badly before, so I didn't know what Boss was going to do. I hoped it wasn't anything too terrible. I looked at the time, realizing I was going to be cutting it close to catching the bus I needed, so I headed downstairs and raced to the bus stop that was across the street from my building. Luckily, just as I got there, I saw the headlights of the bus approaching. The last thing I needed was to be late in addition to me fucking up last night. Granted, Boss might have thought I got killed last night, but I somehow figured he had more faith in me than that.

The place we met at was a large concrete building. I think it had once been a factory of some kind, and in stereotypical criminal fashion, when it became abandoned, Boss had it remodeled to suit our needs. He placed the entrance of the building in between the walls of the garage and the side of the building so it wouldn't be easy to find. In fact, even though it faced the street, it didn't look much like the front entrance of anything. This street faced away from the brunt of the city, anyway, so it was very inconspicuous. I pondered whether I should tell Boss about Rafael, knowing full well that Boss hated secrets, but not sure about how much he would care that Rafael was alive. On the one hand, I was sure Boss would like having his two best workers together again, but on the other, he and I had gotten used to me being either with another person on our team, or me being out on my own.

I unlocked the door using the copy of the special keycard Boss gave to all of us, then locked the door behind me. Our headquarters wasn't fancy by any means, but it suited our needs. When you walked in the front door, there was a table for us to discuss plans and heists, and a garage that held the truck we used when we were casing a joint.

Turning right from the front door, there were two more rooms, the first being a small interrogation room with lots of torture tools, and the second being Boss' office. I gulped hard as I made my way towards it, passing the three cells we had in our headquarters. Usually they were for people we captured from rival groups, but occasionally, if one of us pissed Boss off enough, he'd throw us in there for a few hours to give us something to think about. I approached the door... and knocked.

"Ye-aah!?"

Walking into Boss' office timidly, I positioned myself in front of his desk, nervously holding my fingers against my palms and placing one of my feet on top of the other one. I was even more uncomfortable because Boss didn't have any other chairs in his office besides the one he was sitting in, and boy was it effective in causing one to feel like they were going to throw up.

"Well, well. Elysium. You're not dead. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Boss was young, well built, and kind of smoldering, but holy fuck, was he intimidating when he needed to be. I found myself unable to talk as his green eyes stared me down, burning a hole into my core, feeling like he was going to light me on fire if I blinked wrong.

"I- fu- I'm- sor- ugh, I know I fucked up. I'm sorry."

"This is why you work for me. I tell you terms that you should stick to when you go for the drop. You're not supposed to just go off and say shit you think might be better because then they fucking chase you down the streets of Bridgeport at 2 fucking am. Naive, Elysium. I thought you were ready for this level of deal, but it doesn't look like you are."

Dammit. I had a feeling he was going to say I wasn't ready. Ugh, but I was. I had wanted so much to be one of the people on the team who made deals for Boss. They got paid more, and this was the first one I had screwed up, but it had only been the second job of this kind I had gone on.

"Please Boss, I can do this, just give me another chance. I did the first one flawlessly!"

"No can do, sweet-cheeks. You can't fuck up your second job and expect me to let you continue. You need to learn more. However, you managed to run away from those thugs, you didn't get arrested, and nothing got traced back to me, so all in all, I'm not that mad at you. You may think you're the shit, but you're still a noob, Elysium. I like you, so I'm still going to let you go out on today's job, but you're being demoted to Decoy."

"Ugh, no, not Decoy! I hate Decoy... it's so boring."

"Tough luck, babe. You're lucky I ain't throwing your ass in the cells for the rest of your shift. I can do that instead if you don't shut your trap and accept my generosity. I know you like the thrill, and that's what makes you such a valuable asset to me, but you got to continue to prove yourself."

As much as I disliked being Decoy, which was basically the person who caused a distraction while the others did more important things, I nodded my head, knowing Boss was actually being generous. He could throw me in the cells all day, and that would be even more boring. If I was able to go out, which he was letting me, then at least I would be contributing to the mission. After I accepted, Boss told me to go change into my outfit, and meet the rest of the team at the briefing table. I wondered who he wanted me to be today. We always wore different clothes on a job than the ones we wore to work because it was harder to track us if we switched outfits constantly.

I went upstairs to the locker where the outfits were kept, and found ones labelled Elysium, which was my last name. It was a pair of blue jeans, a woman's football jersey, and a pair of blue jogging shoes. I quickly put them on, then got a short briefing from the team. My part was, as I figured, super easy. I was supposed to pretend I was a new student who was lost on the university campus, and bump into our mark, who was a balding, middle aged, heavyweight man that usually wore a really ugly plaid shirt and was one of the last people in the world to still carry a briefcase. Since I was only Decoy, I didn't get any more information than that, which was all I needed to know, according to Boss.

I sighed as I walked into the garage to get in the truck with the rest of the team, trying to suck up my bittersweet feelings. I needed to just be okay with it. Boss was right, getting to go out was better than the alternative. With how hard I worked, I knew I would get promoted in a matter of no time. As I climbed into the truck, I realized that I had forgotten to tell Boss about Rafael. Oh well, waiting another day couldn't hurt, right?

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Author's Note: Natalia never actually got demoted in game. In the first two chapters, I hadn't yet had her join the Criminal Career because I had just placed her in town and she was "arriving home." Her progress now is Level 1 Decoy.