Paw Payment

Vinny had done it again; he had fallen for a trap set up for him by the cops. He knew it was too good to be true, he knew he should have listened to his gut feeling, but it was too late now, all he could do was curse at himself in the back of the cruiser as he was transported to the station to be booked. The boss was going to give him an earful for letting this happen again. At least that’s how things ended last time; a repeat mistake would most likely come with harsher punishment for sure. The young zebra gulped audibly as he watched the buildings go by as they pulled into the precinct. He was fucking screwed.

The cops that arrested him escorted him into the station to have him booked and threw him into a holding cell with the rest of the criminals the precinct had apprehended that day. He was uncuffed though, so that was a relief on his wrists. Luckily for the young striped equine, he wasn’t going to have to stay in holding for very long. Almost as soon as the cell door was closed behind him, three equine men dressed in dapper suits with black ties walked into the building and handed a piece of paper to one of the police officers near the holding cell. The officer took one look at the paper and ran off with it to the captain’s office. The three equine men turned to the holding cell and looked at the young zebra. They all had zero emotion on their faces and the sunglasses they had on covering their eyes didn’t help add any emotion but did add to the intimidation factor. Even without properly seeing their faces, little Vincent knew who they all were. From left to right, it was Johnny, Zach, and Carter. Three of the boss’ five lieutenants. Vinny gulped audibly when he saw them. If the boss had to send her lieutenants to come and scoop him out of the dirt, he knew he was in for it bad. He almost wanted to call out to the cops and ask to stay, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“Hey guys,” he said as he tugged on the collar of his shirt nervously from behind bars, where he was safe for now. “What’s up?” he desperately tried to break the tension that was building up. His cellmates in holding with him had gone completely silent, even they knew who these three were, maybe not by name, but there was absolutely no mistaking dapperly-dressed equine men for your typical businessmen, no-no. None of the three equine men responded to his attempt at small talk, they probably weren’t happy that their rookie had gotten himself into trouble again, in the same way, that he did so the last time, no less! Vincent gulped audibly and sweat beads began building up on his forehead.

A few moments later, the officer that the three men handed the note to, came running back to the holding cell and saluted the three men quickly before he turned to the cell door and fumbled around with the electronic keypad on the wall. Six beeps and a loud single chime of the door release alarm, the cop swung the holding cell door open and gestured his hand towards Vinny. “Send our apologies to her, we didn’t know he was one of yours.” The cop who had manhandled Vinny and overpowered him to toss him into the cell was now cowering sheepishly near the three men in suits, although neither of them had uttered a single word since they got here. Whatever was on that piece of paper from the boss had to have been alarming.

The young zebra gulped again before he slowly dragged his feet towards the three suited men that stood waiting for him outside the holding cell. Once he was out of the cell, the cop closed the door and it locked with a loud electric buzz. Johnny, Zach, and Carter looked the young zebra from head to toe before they turned around simultaneously. Zach gestured for the zebra to follow them and he did so obediently. Not hearing even a single syllable from the mouths of these men was more nerve-racking than if they started teasing him on how he “fucked up”.

He was royally screwed.

He followed the three suited men as they waltzed through the precinct without even the slightest reaction from any of the cops there. Vincent thought that some of them would at least look scared, or some rookie would be peeking his or her head about wondering what the hell was going on, but no, it was as if this was a regular thing, as if it was something they were already expecting. The boss must have had the entire department on her payroll. Thinking about that made Vincent gulp once again as he tried to keep his cool and follow the men as they pushed their way out the front door and walked out onto the street. Once they were on the street, two of the men got into a large black SUV with limo tinted windows that was parked right out front, while the other pulled open one of the back passenger doors and held it open for the zebra. He gestured his head for him to get in. He did as he was told, of course. He hopped into the fancy car and sat still as they drove away from the station.

No small talk happened during the car ride, and when the car finally came to a stop, they got out of the car. The black SUV had pulled into a dark warehouse, one of the many headquarters of the organization that Vincent was a foot soldier for. The legitimate name of the organization he was employed by was Marx Corporation; a privately-owned conglomerate in the luxurious consumer goods industry. At least that’s what the official description of the company that was provided in tax forms was. The warehouse was what you would expect, lots of crates, bubble wrap, and shipping pallets. There was a production line for packing, but nothing was turned on, not even the lights; the whole place was pitch black, save for the office area that overlooked the whole facility. There were a few lights on in there. Looking up at the elevated office, the zebra gulped audibly yet again and reluctantly followed the three men in black as they walked up the metallic stairs.

‘Clink, thunk, thunk,’ up the stairs they went.

‘Click,’ the door swung open and they all headed into the office.

When the door swung open, the three men walked in first and stood by the door to let the zebra look in through the doorway. He could see a leather office chair in the center of the room, the silhouette of two ears pointing out from a hat, an arm with a hand holding what looked to be a cigarette on a cigarette holder with small grey strings of smoke floating off of the end of it. It was the boss. In the flesh, or in this case, in the fur.

The boss brought the cigarette holder to her mouth and inhaled deeply. She held in the smoke and let it fill her lungs for a bit and slowly and smoothly spun her chair around to face the open doorway and the young zebra standing in it. She exhaled and let out a puff of smoke into the air before smiling.