Chapter 63 - Improv

"You're affiliated with Moonlight Now. That's more praise than any Alpha this side if the continent could boast about. How many people do you think can call me up like this?"

I took another breath.

"Do you understand?" he asked.

"I do"

"Good"

"What exactly did you have in mind for this job?" I asked.

"That's classified at this time"

"What?!"

"We need to understand your pack's strengths and competence before we can begin negotiations." clarified Vincent.

"My word isn't enough?" I asked, half-hoping, but knew what his response would be.

"Afraid not, little pup. I need to see for myself" It wasn't out of the ordinary, well, at least for humans. Employers would usually keep new employees on a probation period lasting for months before full-term employment, and others would issue paid trial tests to examine the skill level of their new hires. But we were in a whole different territory now concerning Werewolf normalises.

"I think I'll need to get back to you" I replied.

"Don't take too long. Offer's off the table by the weekend" Weekend? It was Thursday that day.

"What?"

"By that time, I would've allocated some resources to handle the problem myself. Make sense?"

"Ok. OK. Yeah. I'll be sure to get back to you ASAP" I pleaded.

"Alrighty, then"

Somehow, it felt like he was winking.

"See you when I see you"

"Bye, Vincent," I said, with as much feminine gratification as I could muster.

The phone beeped, and I stood outside by myself, my chin hunched over my left hand, thinking. After wandering a few paces left and forward, I approached inside, before kicking against something fleshy. I looked down to see the estate agent, still unconscious in the fetal position. But somehow, she had started to stir. From my kick? Her eyelids fluttered slowly, but they soon opened. Shit.

I had no time to flee back into the house. I stepped back, watching her come to. She put her hands on the ground to support her stance and looked around in confusion. I rushed in to make it all look natural.

"Don't get up too quickly now" I advised.

"Ugh," she started "Where am I?"

"Did you forget already? Geez, I'm sorry" I consoled.

She gave me a puzzled look. "You. I was talking to you just a few minutes ago, wasn't I?"

I turned serious. Was she able to catch a glimpse of my actions during those last few seconds when I knocked her out? If so, there would be a problem.

"Yeah, we were talking," I said, trying to sound non-descript and fishing for everything she knew first.

"Arrgh. Why does my neck hurt so Much?" she winced massaging the back of her nape, where I had struck.

"Sorry about that. You were walking, and uh, hit your head at the back of that column, by the porch." I pointed to a long wooden column that wouldn't have caused even anything close to that kind of pain.

"Damn. How fast was I going?" she asked me.

"Well, you were pretty excited"

"Excited? About what? I don't remember"

My brain whirled to come up with something reasonable."After talking with the residents" I answered.

"WHAT?"

I nodded. "You don't remember. You and one of the residents, a dark woman, were discussing the payment terms on the estate."

"I definitely don't remember that! When was this?" she asked, eyes alert.

"Immediately before I called up my people at the Fire Department, the door opened, and one of the residents stepped out. She claimed we were disturbing her peace and quiet" I lied. "And she also claimed that she had rightful ownership of the property, considering that it had belonged to her great-aunt and she had no living relatives besides her. You don't remember any of it?"

"No," said the agent, straining her eyebrows. "But it all sounds like a crock of shit."

I nodded. "That's exactly what you said to her. And even threatened to call the police. " The agent smiled. Seemed like I was depicting her character quite authentically.

"And then what happened?" she asked.

"I had to step in, of course. You made your point pretty damn aggressively, but the resident wasn't too stubborn. She asked for how much to buy it outrightly."

The agent shot up at the possible mention of price. "And. Did I tell her a number?"

I nodded.

"How much did I say?" she asked me.

"A million dollars " I replied.

"Oh great."

It looked like my idea to inflate the price was paying off. She had initially told me 800,000 dollars of course, but knowing the estate industry and how some of them operate, she was sure to raise that even more during negotiations.

"And?" She spurred me on to continue my work of fiction.

"She said she needed time" I replied.

"Bullshit" replied the agent, looking around the house. "How much time? She's obviously stalling"

You have no idea. "Till the end of the month," I replied.

"No chance in hell" she spat.

And now, it was time for a little finesse. "But, you agreed to it then," I said.

"What?! No way" she replied.

I shook my head. "She said 3 months initially, but you said something about 'Bullshit'"

She nodded. I continued: "And she eventually got it down to a month. You seemed alright with that"

"I mean - Are you sure? That doesn't sound like me" doubted the agent.

"But that's what happened. In fact, you were so excited after she shut the door, that you banged the back of your head by the wooden post. I've been dialling 911, but it seems the cell service out here is pretty appalling." I said. "We can still knock and verify from the resident though"

The agent looked at me, and then back at the house, and I knew she was considering strongly to oblige, but soon left it alone. I, on the other hand, was anxious.

"No, no. That's a good uptick in the home price if she buys. A very big if though. I just gotta find a way to explain everything back to everyone at the office. And my neck-" she winced.

"You should really get that checked out. You took a pretty nasty hit" I advised.

"Thank you - Uhm? Naomi?"

I nodded.

"Thank you, Naomi" she replied, walking back down the road. She wiggled a little here and there but soon stabilised her gait. I waited for her to drop out of sight before I knocked on the front door again.