Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.

Genuine happiness circulated through Fleur's entire body.

She was enraptured to be speaking to Kenny Russo, who seemed to be a charismatic and intelligent guy. Fleur could appreciate that. It was refreshing especially when most of the guys in her area back home in Los Angeles were full of sh*t. Oops. Fleur shook her head and snapped back to her conversation with Kenny. Fleur had asked him a question about his family, specifically about his members and whether he liked the current position he was in. She could never imagine herself in his shoes, not because of what he's been through, but because Fleur was never the leader type.

She was better listening to orders and being, well.. A loyal member. Fleur raised her head, looked up and saw that they weren't too far from the motel now. Their conversation continued to escalate and she was engaged. But Fleur swore that she just saw a male figure hiding behind a wall up ahead. She brushed it off and furrowed her eyebrows. Kenny probably noticed her discomfort. Fleur kept on walking, ears still paying attention to what Kenny was saying. Her grip on her purse was a little harder as they approached the brick wall.  

"Um, Kenny.. I think.." All of a sudden a shadowy figure intercepted their path  and came charging at the pair with a knife in his right hand. Fleur went into instant fighting mode. It had been a while since she trained in martial arts, but maybe she could use what she learnt and put it to the test. In the few split seconds that she had before the man went even closer, she wondered to herself - is this what I trained for? To fight off lunatics like this guy? 

It was clear as crystal that he was set on stealing what was inside of her purse, but Fleur had other ideas.

Fleur turned her eyes into slits as she suddenly pulled out the roundhouse kick move to his face. Her leg moved around in a semicircular motion as she striked him  in his face with her foot. She turned her head quickly to Kenny, wondering what he was up to next. The attacker winced in pain and held his head in his hands which gave Fleur and Kenny time to figure out their next moves. Fleur tensed her muscles as she then ran behind the man, pulling his arms back, signalling to Kenny to take the lead and finish him off.  The man was groaning as he received karma. As this was happening, Fleur was amazed at this guy's stupidity.

Seriously, what was he thinking?

Plus, Fleur was strapped with a gun to her tight - that's if.. worse comes to worst. She wouldn't want to pull it out and cause a scene. Especially when it's this late at night. There were people sleeping in the surrounding buildings. It would be an inconsiderate and unprofessional move. Nimble thinkers like Fleur know that she would have to deal with this quietly and quickly. Luckily Kenny seemed to get the idea and he too was pulling some never before seen fighting moves. She was impressed and almost trapped herself in a trance, but she realized that she was still holding onto the man so she tried to maintain her focus. Fleur shared a glance with Kenny. She was going to follow his next action. He for sure had more experience with putting bodies away than her. Fleur knew she was still a newbie at this. And she knew that she needed to up her game since getting mugged was a usual thing in the streets.

"He's almost out. Where should we finish him off?" Fleur asked Kenny. She was breathing hard as she was on an adrenaline rush. It's like Fleur completely forgot that she basically kicked him in the face because her face turned into a worried expression. She couldn't believe that she did it. She thought it was going to be the other way around: Her getting kicked in the face instead. Fleur was grateful that Kenny was with her. There was a dark alleyway in between the two buildings that they were standing beside so Fleur gestured her head towards that direction.
 

"Maybe over there. It's dark and no one would be able to notice. We can just dump him there by the trash cans."

She shrugged while still trying to hold her grasp on the man. He was on the verge of passing out, but he was still trying to put up a fight. Fleur slapped his forehead with her hand aggressively.

"You stupid stupid man, you shouldn't have come for me. Now how does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine?" She starts to drag his body closer to the alleyway. No one can hear him from here. Fleur nodded to Kenny. The man was destined to receive a few more beatings to the face. Final touches, that's all. Fleur slapped his face cheek to confirm. "Yep, he's out." She took the chance to search his pockets. None in the left. Then she rummaged in the right pocket, her hand digging deeper before she found a bunch of business cards. One of them stuck out to her. 

"This guy works for someone I used to know." Fleur widened her eyes as she looked at Kenny in the eyes. "This wasn't a random attack. I was targeted. My boss has some personal issues with me... Let's go back to the motel. I'll tell you all about it."

Kenneth was glad that he met someone new. In his line of work, you normally met people by working with them, sometimes you part ways and sometimes you create a bond for life. But that wasn't the case with Fleur. Kenny met her in his bar in Philly in a very unexpected way, they talked a bit then she asked him to walk with her towards her motel room, he agreed. It was getting late and the bar was located somewhere in the periphery of South Philly, a dangerous place to take a walk alone in the middle of the night.

The talk was going smooth, maybe because of all the alcohol Kenny drank earlier, it really helps him to communicate better. He was talking about his members and his crew, how they operated, without giving too much information, obviously. He felt in his gut that he could trust Fleur but in the mafia you don't just go saying family business to outsiders. But he was sure to tell about how he became a street boss, tell all about his members and friends, the usual stuff.

As they continued walking Kenny could notice some discomfort in Fleur, he was going to ask if there was something bothering her then all of a sudden, some dude just jumps out of the shadows and stops their pleasant chat. Kenny just stood in place, staring the attacker down, waiting for him to get closer. He was ready to get in front of Fleur and disarm the attacker, as he was about to make his move and beat the guy up, Fleur did some ninja shit that Kenny couldn't believe it. He looked at her, then looked at the guy and had an confused expression on his face. He couldn't see a fighter on Fleur before - shame on him, she was a better fighter then he is. Kenny looked as Fleur walking behind the stunned attacker and grabbed him, he walked slowly towards the guy and delivered some punches to his stomach. After that he raised his hand and held his chin with violence, to see if he knew who it was. Kenny never seen that man before, so he just shoved his face to the side, the man looked almost knocked out.

Fleur nodded her head towards a dark alleyway and Kenny understood what she wanted to do, as she dragged the man with her, Kenny followed. He was still putting up a fight, so Fleur stopped and Kenny delivered some more punches to his face, breaking his nose and knocking him out. Kenny watched as Fleur rummaged through the attackers pocket. She found something that it wasn't right.

"Targeted?" Kenny said with a worried voice. That is never good because people will never stop until they get what they want. "Alright, just give me a minute."

Kenny grabs the attacker by the collar of his shirt and drags him deeper into the dark until they are engulfed by shadows. He lets loose of the man and gets by his side. He sits the man up then heads behind him. Kenny gets down on his knees and places his elbows on the man's shoulder and places both hands on his head. Seemed like the man was waking up so Kenny strengthen his grasp on the man's head. With a quick move, Kenny snapped the attacker's neck, killing him.

"There we go." Kenny gets up, rubbing his hands together, he gives one last kick on the man, just for the fun. He walks back to Fleur who is there waiting for him. He nods at her to let her know that the man is dealt with. She starts walking towards the motel and Kenny follows her.

KennyRusso warned kiddo about the streets here and how they are .and explained how theres alot of trouble in them and keep my guard up,and never flash any cash around ,Since I'm a lil lad I agreed to be and explained I would keep a good lookout and thanks him for the advice.

As Fleur started to walk with Kenny to her motel room, she first tried to calm her ragged breathing. She was in shock and maybe a little scared. How did he even find her here? As far as she knew, she cut all ties with her former boss and tried to travel as far from him as she could, which is Paris. So it's all just a little fishy. Maybe he hired someone to  find her? That is possible, but still... This was creepy in so many ways. Why did Fleur's former boss still hold a grudge from what happened years ago? She didn't want to leave Kenny hanging so she started to ramble on about the past, and hopefully he was okay with it.

Fleur had no problem with sharing this with him because she had already put her trust in him. Some people would say it was too early for that, or that she was naive, but in truth she could tell when someone was trustworthy or not. Kenny has no disingenuous vibe about him. Without even thinking, Fleur grabbed onto Kenny's hand, looking ahead into the unknown before she began to speak.

"It was years ago. I think my former boss is trying to get revenge. Um.. It's late and I don't want to keep you up for too long so I will just say the long story short. I exposed his cheating and gambling habits to his wife, because I believe what goes around comes around. And now I guess he's trying to release all his bottled up pain on me. So not cool.."

Fleur frowned, still holding onto Kenny's hand, but she tightened her grip. She felt so alone. And scared. Unfortunately she didn't have the same luxury as her other fellow family members. She was just a lousy associate, still trying to make it in the criminal world, and didn't have security guards to surround her whenever something bad happened. 

Fleur's heart was definitely beating faster than it should. She tried to convince herself that it was normal to feel this way. Scared, that is. Finally after a few quiet moments, she was standing in front of the entrance of the cheap motel. She pursed her lips together and faced Kenny. Truth be told, she didn't want this night to end. He made her feel safe somehow, which she was grateful for even if he might think that it was not that big of a deal. But Fleur was running on time, and time costs money.

"I have to go meet up with someone tomorrow, but it was nice knowing you... Kenny." She smiled and gave her hand to him for a handshake. There was a comfortable silence being shared between them, the night sky was perfectly still, and the moon was shining brightly over the pair.

Fleur sighed, looked down at her purse and opened it up to find her wallet. When she finally felt the familiar fabric of her money holder, she searched inside it.

"Hold on one second," she said as she pulled out a business card. Fleur passed it onto Kenny and nodded. "That's my, uhh.. Business card. I'm a dressmaker. That's the address of where I work. So even if you don't want to get a dress made for someone, come by whenever you're in Los Angeles." She felt relieved that she remembered to give her card to him otherwise there'd have been no way of further contact. Maybe in the future someone can invent a device that allows people to communicate quicker although she did hear about people beginning to experiment with wireless telephones. Fleur started to walk inside the motel building and just as she did she felt her eyelids wanting to drop. 

Like the sleepy girl she was, she waved to Kenny without another word and headed for her room. The night went well with Kenny except for the part where some guy attempted to mug her, but at last, here she was standing at the foot of her bed. She kicked off her heels, threw her purse on a nearby chair and even hummed herself to a slumber.

The next morning was a new adventure. Kenny was still fresh in her mind. And that mugging experience was definitely one for the books!

They finally arrived at her motel room, Kenny could notice that Fleur was a little uneasy. He wanted to give her some comfort, but he didn't knew how. As she grabbed his hand and started telling her story, Kenny looked at her, deeply in her eyes, paying full attention to what she was saying. Her grip on his hand tighten and he saw that she was scared, his heart nearly dropped down from his chest. He let go of her hand and slowly raised his towards her face. He gently placed his hand on her cheek then slowly caressed it. He smiled at her, to show that he was there for her. He felt the urge to do something to help her.

As she gives his hand to him saying her goodbyes, he doesn't know what to feel about that - he was worried to leave her alone in the motel, what if someone breaks into her room and tries to kill her? He thought about bringing her back to the bar, but he didn't wanted to push his luck; so he just nodded and shook her hand. As she started to rummage through her purse, Kenny started to look at her. The moon was shining right upon them. Her hair was looking beautiful but well.. Kenny wouldn't say that to her, so he smile as she handed him the business card.

"I will for sure pay you a visit, don't worry." He sends her a warm smile. She sends him one back then heads inside the room and closes the door. Kenny reaches his pockets and takes out a cigarette, he lights it then heads back to his bar. As he enters the establishment, he looks at his guard who is at the door. He had an idea.

"Hey." He said to the guard as he took a drag from his cigarette. "Go to the motel and keep a lookout at the room 13. Stay out of sight. If you see something fishy, someone trying to break into the apartment, you deal with it." The guard nods then heads off to do what he was ordered.

Kenny walks towards the backroom thinking about Fleur. He knows that sending someone to keep a lookout at her room is inappropriate but at least if something happens he knows that she will be safe. He walks towards the couch, grabs a bottle of whiskey that is in the table nearby, takes a long sip from it then sits on the couch and quickly fall asleep.