Kindness and Charisma

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

Pretty blue eyes wouldn't do much. "Tonight."

This time he wasn't just being greedy. Fencing a stolen piece of art wasn't just a game, it wasn't simple. Every minute that passed by, every single second that went on made the task all that more difficult. If they waited eight, even five hours until morning then things would likely start to get noticed. The Senator was in a heap of trouble, but most likely he'd be given house arrest, and once that happened...well he'd notice something was off quickly.

"I need to get the painting off-world." He told her simply. "The Alliance will crack down as soon as the theft is reported."

Considering how valuable that thing was they would want it found immediately.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

She huffed silky strands of hair away from her face and gave Wes a sharp look. She felt like she was about to have an emotional breakdown and the last person she wanted to see it was walking next her. She needed time to herself. And soon. Fingers tightened at her side. She didn't trust Wes exactly but she trusted him to know his job.

"Fine. Tonight." The ground seemed to buck beneath her feet and she stopped suddenly. She knew Wes enough to know he'd keep walking. And besides, he had stuff to get ready for the fence. She remained frozen on the edge of the street. "I'll see you soon," she managed in a hushed voice.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

He raised an eyebrow, glancing back at her for a few moments before he simply shrugged and replaced the cigarette between his lips. It wasn't that he didn't care, well no wait that was exactly it. Alexia didn't mean anything to him, she was just another customer as far as he was concerned. A very lucrative one that was about to make him a lot of money, but other than that?

Nope.

"Don't get caught." He reminded her, letting out another wisp of smoke before he tipped up his HUD-G's and once again began to walk towards his store. He would catch a cab on his way down of course, the walk would have taken him two and a half days to actually make.

Half of him still expected her to run, but if she did...well she'd wake up with a bounty on her head.

He'd make sure of that.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

She waited until he was far enough away before sinking down on the curb, trembling legs no longer holding their own. Hands cradled her head and her shoulders began to shake. Usually her emotions were kept firmly in check. But this job had cracked something in one of her masks. Pulling a comm from her pocket, she brought up a holo of her Da.

"Soon," she whispered. Then she sent off a message to Rasho the Hutt. He'd have part of her debt paid off soon. Wiping her face clean, she finally gathered herself. Wes was long gone. Standing, she walked with a little more resolution down the street. She'd go to her stash and pick up a few things and meet Wes back at his shop. Just as she promised. She didn't betray her own u less they were real #@$#@.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

When Alexia finally made her way to the shop she would find it much in the same state that she had found it on previous occasions. The only notable difference would be the fact that Wes' clothing were hanging off half a dozen different pieces of furniture.

His pants hung over a chair in the front, his coat over the counter, his button up shirt over a small table. Everything seemed to have been tossed somewhere as soon as Wes had stepped through the front door. It didn't mean he was naked of course, he had simply elected to don more comfortable clothing while he was at home. A shirt and an ordinary pair of jeans, designed by some company here on Coruscant. It was stolen of course, much of Wes' clothing was.

The forger had spent most of his time since coming back to the shop arranging for the painting to go off-world to a third party.

He had yet to find a buyer, but that wasn't really that big of an issue. Within a day or two he would have someone lined up, likely in the Outer Rim, where the Alliance had little to no reach. Perhaps even Nar Shaddaa. That would tickle him.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

Instead of in a formal ball gown or even rich, snooty-clothes, Wes would find Alexia in something more casual, much like himself as she entered through that front shop door. Hair was tied back into a simple ponytail. She wore a halter top amd dark-wash jeans with a pair of ruby-red flats. A small backpack clung around her shoulders.

No one would take a second glance at her.

Best of all? There was no evidence of the earlier emotional breakdown on her face and all those bruises were masked with concealer. Silky brow lofted at the state of his shop and with a start, she realized he might have someone over. Probably that woman who came to his rescue after being punched.

Eyes rolled. She cleared her throat and put a hand over her eyes just in case. "Hey. You alone back there?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

"Most of the time." Unsurprisingly he didn't actually get a lot of visitors to the shop, and that was sort of the point. The place was rundown, in a horrible location, and barely stood on it's own walls. No one wanted to go into a place like this, and that generally meant Wes only received customers of a certain...appeal. All part of why he had set up down here in the first place, it allowed the right sort of people to find him when they needed to.

Of course if the Alliance ever asked to see his tax books there would be some questions he had to answer, but in truth he wasn't all that worried about it. There were hundreds of thousands of these sort of shops all over Coruscant.

His was the least conspicuous. "Got something for me?"

He called to her as he screwed on the cap to a nearby paint can, his eyes darting away from the painting that sat on the esol in front of him.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

Hand peeled away from her eyes. "You know it," she wove around the aisles of junk. 'Antiques.' Unshouldering the painting canister, she held it out to Wes, letting her eyes flicker to the canvas he was working on.

Man definitely had his craft even if he would die of lung cancer.

"We all set?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

"Yep." He told her simply.

There wasn't really much else to this. "It'll take a few days."

For once he was being honest. Even if he had a buyer, he would need to set up a meeting, negotiate a price, and then actually get the painting to said buyer. All of that took time, and of course Wes hadn't actually found buyer yet so that would take even more time. She didn't need to know that though.

"You're welcome to stay here." He told her as he dabbed his paint brush, placing what she offered on a nearby table before returning to his work. "There's several rooms upstairs."

He glanced at her. "I know trust is thin in our business, and if you want to keep an eye on me I won't be offended."

His work was the one place Wes could be serious.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

Soft flesh was eclipsed by whites as she gnawed on her lower lip at his offer. Cerulean eyes darted around. It'd be risky. Either way. If she stayed somewhere else, he could definitely screw her over and keep all the money for himself. If she stayed here, there was a chance some of his contacts at the ball would stop by for business. She wanted to lay low - had to lay low for the next few weeks, until she got off this planet or moved to a new sector.

It was only a few days....

"Is it secure and do you think anyone from tonight will be stopping by?"

She paused and pulled out her comm from her back jeans pocket. Rasho was already on her hide. He wouldn't be happy if it took over a few days.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

He chuckled. "No."

Wes highly doubted that anyone form the Estate even knew where this place was, and by that he didn't mean the shop, but this entire area of Coruscant.

"People like that don't come down here." He told her. "Maybe I'll have another customer, but they don't ask questions."

They knew better. "Most of them will just assume you're another fling."

Maybe that would hurt her feelings, but it was true.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

He was basically guaranteeing her a sense of anonymity. Lips pressed together. Pony-tail swished against her neck as her chin tilted down, studying that glowing screen of her comm. It wouldn't exactly be like they were living together. They didn't even have to see each other.

She'd still have her own space.

And the 'fling comment,' was rather, "Perfect," she swiped right on the comm and buried it back in her jeans. Who cared what people thought as long as they didn't ask questions? If that meant being viewed as the painter's next flavor of the week - she didn't care because she knew better. And he knew better.

Still, a part of her was overly cautious.

"I mean. I'll stay tonight and we'll see how it goes." Bag shifted on her shoulder. It was late. They'd both been up all night - one of them having an emotional reckoning. She naturally crashed at the end of most involved jobs because she was finally able to take off the mask and be herself and remember what that was like.

This one was no different, she just happened to NOT be alone. But she couldn't help the twitch at the corners of her lips. "Another fling? What, do you go through them about every week?"

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

"Just about." He commented flatly. "I don't think it's any surprise that the whole 'artist' thing draws women like crazy."

He rolled his eyes. "Show them a pretty picture, tell them you're sensitive to their needs, spend a bit of time between their knees and..."

Wes trailed off with a shrug.

It wasn't like he was trying to Impress Alexia or anything. They worked a job together, she knew exactly what type of person he was, not a good one. Wes was a criminal, scum, worse than half the men on Coruscant and more than willing to sell someone out for the right price. It was simply who he was, one might not have been able to blame him if they knew his history, but for all Alexia knew he was just the worst kind of person that loomed around in the galaxy.

Not that he cared.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

She chuckled and shook her head. "I wish I could say something to stand up for my sex but I've known women like that. And men." Bare shoulders shrugged. Usually she was the heartbreaker. Just had to happen in cons and since she mostly conned d-bags, she never felt remorse. She began to realize Wes was one and the same, except he didn't do it for cons. He just did it for temporary satisfaction.

Heartbreaker right here.

"Let me guess. You're the one that usually breaks it off?" She began wandering around the studio space. Not exactly being nosy but maybe a little.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

"Depends." He said in all honesty, surprising even himself. Wes often found himself lying when he didn't need to, it happened at such frequency that he didn't really even notice when he did it anymore. Telling the truth was much more shocking.

"Some just leave." A shrug pulled over his shoulders as he glanced towards the painting, a depiction of Alderaan. "Either returning to their husbands or going back to their fancier lives closer to the surface."

That happened quite often.

"Others need a push out the door." He shrugged again, apparently not terribly bothered.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

"Sounds like you're glad they go. Whether it's on their own or not," voice was a little distracted. Hand began sifting through a stack of finished paintings. All seemed to be replicas from what she could tell. There was one depicting the streets of Nar Shadda. Reminded her of when she was young and in the traveling circus. They'd stopped there for awhile. That's the first time she remembered her dad using her to con some rich folks.

A ghost of a smile played silently on her lips.

She held it up to the light in the shop, tilting her head to get a better view. Like the work she'd seen from Wes already, it was good. He certainly didn't need another component to gas up his pride. "Where did you say those rooms were? No need to get up. I can find them on my own."

She was a big girl, after all.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

He mused for a moment on the painting sitting in front of him.

"Up those stairs." He pointed towards what looked like the most rickety set of stairs in the entire galaxy, made of some kind of wood that had been trampled on a million times by a hundred different people and seemingly falling apart.

"To the left is my room." Wes didn't particularly care if she looked in there, she would find nothing save for some clothes, his bed, and a picture of him and his mother on the dresser. The only keepsake that he had of her. "The right is the bathroom and the door after that is the second bedroom."

Nothing was fancy of course, just the opposite, but it was enough.

For him at least.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

"Up there?" Voice didn't sound so sure. She'd been a trapeze artist, she could handle these stairs! Yes, yes she could. She gulped. Right. Don't show weakness in front of a fellow underworlder. Rule number one.

"If I break anything I still want my cut and if I die I have an address for my cut to go to," voice was dry as she began climbing up. Wood and floorboards creaked. It held her weight. Obviously since Wes was a lot bulkier than her. Soon enough her dark-haired form was out of sight.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Alexia Santiago"]

"Break something?" He frowned at her.

"There's nothing of real value here." He told her. "Well except that painting."

That was really the only thing worth any money.

Everything else had been cobbled together through some fakery or another. Oddly enough Wes didn't really like living with expensive things. He felt that somehow it cheapened him in a way, though he knew that was about as silly as it could get. "You'll be fine."

He waved her off.

 

[Alexia Santiago]

[member="Wes Spalding"]

Soon enough she'd snooped a bit in his room. It only made sense to do that and dropped her stuff in the guest room. Grabbing a set of pjs and finding a relatively clean towel, she closed herself in the refresher. She checked her comm again.

No more new messages from Rasho's lackeys. Good. A breath of hot air puffed from her lips as her shoulders relaxed. Fingers world through her hair, plucking the hair band out. There was an old fashioned tub in this refresher and she couldn't wait to use it. Perching on the edge of the tub, she began to run the water.