Alice nodded with ill-disguised pride.

"Good. I don't want to hear any of this "You leave, I'll be fine" crap again. I'm a fighter. Just like you."

She walked up to the big guy currently passed out on the ground as she spoke.

Alice had begun to shift the big guy's clothes and I was at a loss for what to think. She was lifting his shirt, peeking into his collar, and in general searching his skin.

"What are you doing?"

Was she appreciating the big man's muscles? Was she odd in the same fashion her mother seemed to be? Alice didn't even look up as she answered.

"I'm looking for tattoos. If they are part of a gang or merc crew they will have one at least. Don't you want to know who they are or who sent them?"

I felt a little embarrassed at my earlier thought. Alice was one step ahead of me and thinking of our next move. Alice didn't seem to find what she was looking for and looked up to me.

"Help me get him on his stomach."

Walking over and using my foot, I flipped the man over. Instead of letting Alice continue the search, I bent down and did it myself.

Pulling his shirt up to his neck, a large image of a hand of playing cards on his right shoulder was revealed. It was gripped in one skeletal hand and had flames licking up the edges of the cards. The 5 cards gripped in the hand were a royal flush of spades.

I watched Alice's face while she looked at the image and saw multiple different emotions. Some of which I couldn't identify. The two I could identify were confusion that slowly transformed into anger.

Just as I was about to ask what was wrong, she spoke stiffly.

"We should go."

Confused, was a good word to use to explain my current feelings. Didn't we have to stay and deal with the repercussions of what just happened? I sort of knew brawls were not seriously punished, but this was a little more than a simple brawl. Multiple men lay severely injured on the ground.

When the security forces arrived they would ask questions and investigate, wouldn't they? As much as outside tales of Anarchy city had painted it as a lawless place, the real situation was that the city was more lawful than most.

If a group of rats puts each other in the morgue by beating the crap out of each other, not much would be done about it back in grey rock city. I didn't think it would be so easy here. Considering these men's claims at being pilots, it could only be more complicated.

The cameras would be rolled back and these men would be questioned. We couldn't just slink away, could we?

Alice noticed my confusion and exhaled slowly.

"It's fine. Let's go. I'll explain later."

Accepting her mollification, I nodded and followed Alice as she began to walk. Her steps were rigid and she seemed angry. With no understanding of why she was suddenly so moody, I kept silent and let her think. I did some thinking of my own as we walked.

Eventually, I noticed we didn't appear to be going back to the inn.

"Alice, where are we going?"

Alice suddenly stopped in her tracks. She ran her fingers through her hair and snorted a short huff of air.

"I'm not sure. I just don't want to go home right now."

I was at a loss for words. What the hell is going on? Before I could ask any more questions Alice started walking again.

We walked for about 20 minutes. Alice seemed to be just wandering in any direction her feet took her. Her expressions ranged from angry at times to dejected and a wide variety of other emotions. I followed a half step behind her and kept silent.

Eventually, her tablet began to ring with a cute tone. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. She scowled and I heard a beep with negative connotations. Before she stuffed the tablet back into her bag, it rang again.

She paused for a moment and then answered in a clipped tone.

"What."

She waited and the caller seemed to speak for a while.

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

Another pause.

"Are you done? Good. Now I'm going to speak... Did you really think I wouldn't recognize them? Shut up! I'm not a stupid little girl. I don't know what exactly you thought this would accomplish, but you messed up this time."

The caller seemed to go silent.

"Here's what you're going to do. You are going to make some calls. You're going to fix the mess YOU made. When I come back with Caleb tomorrow, you will have an apology ready and waiting for the both of us."

The other side began to talk. Alice listened for a bit then spoke over the caller.

"Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes. Do you think I'm an idiot?! Just do as I say or I won't even be coming back tomorrow."

More words from the caller who I was beginning to be sure was her father.

"You don't have to worry about what Caleb and I will be doing or where we will be going. That's none of your concern."

With that said, she ended the call with a frustrated and dejected sigh. She looked to me for a moment and then lowered her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

I kinda knew what she was talking about. The phone call had been the puzzle piece that finally fell into place. The only people I had really interacted with since coming here were Rose, Alice, and Nicholas.

So, who would send men to rough me up? Who, that I had interacted with, would have the connections to do that. Who would have a reason to do it. Alice's conversation over the phone had been confirmation of my suspicions.

Alice had put the pieces together with shockingly little evidence or info to go on.

"It's not your fault. Your dad is just overly protective."

She crossed her arms and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She waved one hand and spoke.

"He's not a bad person. He's just stubborn and a little forceful. He thinks he knows what's best. He has always been like this. Then you add in my mother who is chaos incarnate... I just, I don't know what to do with them."

I felt bad for her. Her parents loved her, but they were both a handful. I had only known the husband and wife duo for a little over a day and they had me ready to run for cover. I couldn't imagine what Alice must have gone through growing up with such odd parents. It was also true, as she said, that her parents were generally good people. Even I, as a victim of their oddities, couldn't bring myself to hate them. Though, I was currently more than miffed with Nicholas. To an extreme degree.

"Those men, their tattoos mark them as Lucky Spade pilots. My father is old buddies with their leader. It's no coincidence that it just so happens to be them who came to give you trouble. I don't believe in coincidences like that."

She looked at my eyes as I nodded in agreement with her conclusion.

"I'm really sorry Caleb. I thought I had talked this out with him. I thought he wasn't going to stand in my way anymore. When I saw the tension between you two this morning, I chose to ignore it, and now you have been wrapped up in my problems."

I didn't want Alice to blame herself like this. I gestured to assuage her feelings and tried my best to say the proper words in this situation.

"It's not your fault. Besides, I can handle punks like that any day of the week. Barely even an inconvenience."

My over the top arrogant and funny expression and the way I thumbed my nose worked like a charm. Alice giggled and smiled before digging into her bag and offering me some tissues.

"Yeah yeah. You're a real tough guy. You might want to look in a mirror."

I took the tissues with a little confusion and at her urging put my hand up to my face. My mouth and chin had drying blood running down them. Remembering I had been punched straight in the nose during the fight, I guess my nose had bled and I didn't even notice.

I shyly smiled and wiped the blood away with the tissues.

"This is nothing. Just a little blood. That's all."

She reached forward and lightly thumped her fist against my chest. Right where the big ape of a man had walloped me good and left a large bruised area. I hissed out a breath in dull pain and Alice smiled.

"Yeah. Nothing at all. You took a few hefty punches. Did you know you are supposed to dodge them?"

I kept my unserious attitude and joked back.

"Really? I always felt that men should trade blow for blow. It's cooler that way. Maybe I should have strangled them from behind with a purse."

She stomped one foot cutely while shooting back at me.

"It's not a purse. It's a bag. And yeah, maybe you should have. At least I'm not all bruised up like you! Maybe I should teach you a few things about fighting."

I laughed and smiled.

"I can't be that bad. Look at how many I took care of. I believe the score speaks for itself, and it currently reads Alice 2, Caleb 5. Clear cut proof of my abilities."

She answered back with a mock haughty laugh of her own.

"2 to 5? Where did you get those numbers from? By my count, we are even. 4 to 4."

We had begun walking side by side again.

"4 to 4?! Now I have to question your counting skills. There weren't even 8 of them, to begin with!"

"That's because you are only counting the big guy once. Obviously, he is worth 2 points."

I snorted.

"Fine. But even if he counts as 2, that would only increase my lead. That makes it 2 for you 6 for me."

She took feigned offense at my words.

"So you are counting the big guy for yourself? I don't see it that way. His points belong to me."

"How so? I do remember being the one to knock him out."

She made a gesture like flicking away something dirty and scoffed.

"You seem to forget I'm the one who really took him down. Before I took care of him, you were planning on slugging it out with him. So 4 me, 4 you. That's the score."

She said it as if disagreeing with her further would be a mistake. She looked at me with one eyebrow arched as if to dare me to argue with her. As adorable as Alice was, she was no joke. Her actions during the scuffle before proved that.

"Arguing with a lady is uncouth. I'll have to step down and agree to disagree."

My smile must have told her I was enjoying this verbal sparring, as she rolled her eyes at me and gave another of her scoffs.

"You're being impossible. I'm not talking to you anymore."

I laughed and she did her best to ignore me as we walked randomly around the city. Most of the reason I was playing with her like this was to keep her mind off her parents. She was in a complicated situation. She was feeling depressed and caged by her father's actions.

As we walked a silence took over slowly and I could see Alice slipping into deep thought again. Her face was showing sadness and frustration. When we passed a road I recognized, I had an idea.

I tapped Alice on the shoulder as she looked down a few other streets and seemed to be choosing a direction.

"Do you have a plan?"

She showed a look of consternation and shook her head. I nodded and gestured for her to follow me.

"Come on. I have an idea."

Turning and starting to walk in what I thought was the right direction, Alice quickly followed from behind and asked questions which I avoided answering in any clear fashion.

"Don't worry. You will understand when we get there. Think of it as a surprise."

She was confused but accepted my dodges to her questions in the end.

Eventually, after having to pause and think about what little of the city roads I knew, we came to the place I wanted. Alice spoke up in a questioning tone.

"This is the city mercenary and civilian hanger access entrance. What are we doing here?"

I could see the growing suspicion and delight in her eyes.

"Well. I need to check on my armor. It needs to be topped up with cores and I want to make sure no one has messed with it. Plus... you want to see it right?"

Her answering grin and the glittering light in her eyes was all the answer I needed.

-----------------------------------------------

POV Nicholas

I hung up the phone and felt defeated. I had called expecting my daughter to tell me that Caleb had just been bullied and beaten. Instead, my little angel had found out my association with the assailants. I tried to explain things to her, but she wasn't buying any of it.

Caleb must have ratted me out or the group John sent messed up and let their identity slip while kicking the crap out of Caleb.

Where the hell was she and Caleb going to be staying overnight? She wouldn't go and hook up with Caleb just to spite me, right? Caleb should be bruised and battered right now. Maybe she would feel bad for him. No, my baby girl is smarter than that. She will help him get some medical attention and book some rooms at an inn.

At least the little asshole Caleb would probably choose to leave of his own accord now. An ass beating tended to make people think twice about their actions. Even if my daughter was angry with me, the Caleb problem should be solved. I can appease Alice later.

I picked the phone back up and dialed Johns number. He would tell me what went wrong. He answered the phone up and didn't sound too pleased with me.

"You finally called. Do you know how much trouble you have created for me?! We are even now. No more calling me for favors. I should never have agreed to help you."

What the hell was John talking about? It's just some punk. What kind of trouble could have happened?

"What are you talking about John?"

He sounded absolutely pissed.

"You don't know?! It's already getting around the city by now. 7 of my guys got their shit pushed in by your darling little girl and her boyfriend. A young girl and boy just mopped the floor with my guys! My entire guild is going to be mocked for this! You always knew how to make trouble for me."

What the fuck?! Moped the floor? 7 men!

"What the hell are you talking about, John?"

"What I'm saying is pretty simple. Your daughter and her boy toy just put a bunch of my men in the fucking hospital! The boy with your daughter, in particular, was very heavy-handed. What am I supposed to do about this Nick?!"

Damn. I didn't have an answer for John.

"How bad is it?"

I could hear John sigh heavily over the line.

"It's pretty bad. A lot of broken bones. One of their jaws is being stapled and sewn together as we speak. They aren't happy. They aren't thugs. This isn't their job. We did you a favor and it blew up in our face."

Closing my eyes and rubbing my forehead, I began to mollify John. I offered to pay the medical fees and cover the costs of recovery and pay the 7 men some hush money. I even offered to make some connections for John and his crew to get some better contracts. At one point John started talking about pressing some sort of charges against Caleb and I had to persuade him it wasn't a good idea.

I didn't really care about Caleb one bit, but Alice would blame me entirely if Caleb suffered from this. Alice may even get dragged into it if some officials get involved. Eventually, John accepted the payoffs and demanded I arrange some great contracts for his crew.

Agreeing to his demands with a sigh, I hung up. I would be making a lot of phone calls tonight. The next phone call I made would be the hardest.

Rose would not be pleased with my actions. Not at all. She had warned me about interfering with Alice's desire to be a pilot. I was going to be in the dog house for a while.

I felt like part of this was her fault. If she hadn't brought Caleb over, this would not have happened. None of that would matter to Rose though and it really was a flimsy excuse.

We had an agreement to not be nosy about each other's "private" life. Something I was in full support of. I took advantage of the agreement to my satisfaction the same as Rose. I had never even entertained the idea of it being any other way. Rose was a free spirit and had not spent a second of her life pretending otherwise. It was part of what I loved about her.

However, did she really have to select such young and handsome men? It made me self conscious at times. Plus, she seemed to be able to attract many more "playmates" than I.

I dialed Rose's number and waited for her to pick up. While waiting I thought about Caleb and what John had told me about what happened.

7 fucking men. All trained pilots and Mercs. I had completely underestimated the young man. He was stronger than he looked. He would be a tougher opponent to handle than most of the flies that buzzed around my baby girl.

When Rose picked up the call I could hear from her voice that she didn't know anything yet. That was good. She would have to be told eventually. She would have to make sure the security forces didn't get involved in this and I was sure she would either be told by Alice or hear something through the grapevine anyway. This way, maybe I could lessen the blowback on me by telling her myself.

"So... honey bun, I kinda messed up a little."