Killing Me Softly (Kerry & Vincent texts, part 26)
Kerry: OMG babybear!! :D :D :D
Vincent: Ah, you found it? :)
K: holy shit vince
K: i can't believe you did this <3 <3 <3
K: how? where was she??
V: Sure, but you gotta promise me it stays between us, OK? Put my professional reputation on the line for this :P
V: Oh, right :) OK, so couple months back, just before we met, Padre called me in for a job: liberate one of Kerry Eurodyne's famous guitars from this absolute freakshow who was batshit obsessed with you
K: wait lemme guess
K: gaston fucking slayton!!
K: goddammit
K: i knew that scumfuck had something to do with it
K: shady bastard
V: Oh, you have no idea. Dude was completely out of his tree, was literally trying to find a black market ripper to make himself look EXACTLY like you. Full on psycho stuff.
K: no i knew about that
K: lawyer kept getting pings on my IP
K: happens all the time
K: thought they were nuts when they told me to copyright my face
K: turned out to be the best eddies i ever spent
V: Must be very weird being you sometimes :P
K: no shit :D
K: carry on
V: Well the gig paid good and I never imagined I'd actually meet you, so I took the contract. Figured some other lunatic fanboy wanted it for their own collection. Apartment was a whole ass Samurai shrine. Johnny showed mercy and helped me find the right thing, I wouldn't have known it from a hole in the wall
K: kinda surprised he didnt try to pass off some janky shit as mine just to haze u
V: Must've caught him on a good day :P
V: Anyway, don't usually have much idea who exactly I'm working for, kinda the whole point of fixers, but for some reason I was dying to know who booked this job. Crossed my mind it might be you. Staked out Padre's drop site, some random corpo pulls up, collects the axe, deltas. So I follow them... right back to an apartment one floor up from Gaston's
K: no fuckin way
K: his own neighbor was the client??
V: Wait, it gets wilder. Turns out the woman staying there was Gaston's ex input. Sara, real sweetheart. Told me he put her through all kinds of crazy controlling shit, wouldn't let her talk to her family, tried to take over her bank accounts, even went behind her back to try and legally change her name to Louise. So creepy. Eventually dumped her when she quit playing along, then hoofed her out on the street, and kept all her stuff! Bro was a weapons grade shitbag to this poor girl
K: god damn thats fucked up
K: i can believe it tho
K: fucker is fully cracked
K: surprised he managed to convince anyone to go out with him in the first place
K: spent a sickening amount of eddies tryin to climb up my asshole
V: Weren't tempted to let him? :P
K: fuck no ew
K: so not my type
K: real slimeball
K: serial killer vibes
K: people who idolize me like that always rub me up the wrong way but gaston is the fuckin pits on basically every level
K: whatever fuck that guy
K: i wanna know what happened to the girl
V: Right. So after all that, she'd had to beg a friendly neighbor to let her back in the building, ended up crashing with them while she got back on her feet. Then she started slowly klepping her shit back - every time Gaston went to work, she'd sneak down to his place, retrieve a few bits and pieces. Asked her why not take it all back in one go and she says, I shit you not, "because I want him to think he's slowly losing his mind" Even lifted some of his gear occasionally just to throw him off the scent
K: oh shut the front door
K: thats fuckin savage
K: love this chick :D
K: but why contract out for the axe if she was doin such a preem job stripping the place herself?
V: It was the centerpiece of his collection, didn't think she could get past the security in his studio on her own. She didn't even want it, just wanted to deprive him of it. Knew it was the only thing he cared about, saved up for months to pay for the job
K: haha knowing him that woulda really chapped his ass
K: good for her
V: Yeah, I was more than happy to help fuck him over. Woulda done it for free if I'd known how nasty he was beforehand. I may have dropped a tip to a choom at the NCPD about the impressive stash of illegal stims I found in his bathroom. If my guy comes good, that jackass will soon have a very boring decade or three to look forward to ;)
K: attaboy :D
K: so how'd the guitar end up back with you?
V: Oh, that's the best part! I'd almost forgotten all about this, what with everything else that's been going on, then Sara called me outta the blue a couple days ago. Said she finally got enough eddies together to skip town, asked if I wanted to take it off her hands since it was taking up space and she couldn't fence it herself
V: Didn't mention I happened to be dating the rightful owner now, but I said I'd do my best to get it back to you. Had to bite my tongue when she said I'd probably get a reward for returning it :D
K: HAH!
K: shes not wrong ;)
K: man thats fuckin wild
V: Yeah. Nice little karma loop, huh? :)
K: haha yeah
K: i love it baby
K: thank you so much xx
K: honestly never thought i'd see her again
K: actually had a guy lookin
K: wanted to bring her with us that day on the boat
K: glad it didnt work out that way tho
K: woulda sucked for her to go out like that after bein locked up with that creepshow all this time
V: Yeah, totally agreed. She deserves better!
K: this is nova actually
K: we're both connected to her now <3
K: god as if I didnt already owe u for all the gonk shit i made u do before we hooked up -.-
V: You didn't make me do a damn thing - you paid me, same as everyone else. Far as I'm concerned, we're square on all that. Besides, it was fun ;)
K: yeah it was :D
K: at least lemme give back what u paid her
V: Nah, we made a trade in the end. She needed a decent motor that'd get her as far as Montana, I happened to have a mint if slightly hot '73 Larimore that I needed to shift out of the city asap. Handover was first thing this morning, then I waved her off at the border. Honestly couldn't have worked out better :)
K: wow stars really aligned on this one huh
V: For real! Definitely feels a bit cosmic. Still not sure what made me chase up that job specifically, never did anything like that before. Padre would damn near skin me alive if he ever found out I tailed a client on a whim. Guess there was something irresistible about you even before our paths crossed :*
K: aww <3
K: admit it
K: u had posters of me in ur bedroom as a kid didnt u? :D
V: Hate to burst your bubble champ, but I'm a car guy, always have been. Nothing on my walls but wheels and chrome!
K: would it have killed u to lie to me? :P
K: well if u wont let me pay u
K: just know u have my undying gratitude <3
K: plus a lifetime supply of the best head this side of the sierras ;)
V: Like I wasn't already getting that :D
K: you know it :*
K: u should hear her ya know
K: the orphean i mean
K: she always had a unique twang
K: been workin on something that'll sound real preem on those strings
V: Oh damn, new material? Wild horses couldn't keep me away :D
