MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

Chapter 99: A humble gambler

It was just after 1am when Josh finally strolled into Becky's apartment, carting with him a convenience store bomber of cheap whiskey rather than more wine. She was waiting impatiently on the couch when he arrived, clad in nothing but a sheer, silky red robe, her expression an intriguing mix of both annoyance and palpable intrigue at his late arrival.

As always, even her most immobile features seemed to hold the promise of imminent violence ready to be unleashed at any moment.

As Josh entered Becky's apartment, he couldn't help but notice the alluring sight before him. Becky sat on the couch, draped in a sheer, silky red robe that left little to the imagination. The expression on her face only added to her allure, giving her an air of danger that Josh found undeniably captivating.

"Hey, babe," Josh greeted with a smirk, his eyes lingering appreciatively on Becky's attire. "Nice robe. Planning on putting on a show for me tonight?"

Becky rolled her eyes, a hint of amusement dancing in her gaze. "Oh, please," she retorted, though there was a hint of a smirk playing at the corners of her lips. "Like you need any more encouragement."

She gestured towards the bottle of whiskey in Josh's hand, raising an eyebrow in question. "What's that? Thought we were sticking to wine tonight."

Josh chuckled, setting the bottle of whiskey on the coffee table before sinking into the couch beside Becky. "Well, I figured we could switch things up a bit," he said, flashing her a mischievous grin. "Besides, I thought you might appreciate something with a bit more of a kick."

Leaning back against the cushions, Josh reached into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive, holding it up for Becky to see. "And speaking of something with a kick, I've got gist and a little surprise for you," he added, his tone tinged with excitement as he pulled a drivw from his pocket.

Becky's interest was piqued as she leaned in closer, her eyes fixed on the flash drive. "What's this?" she asked, reaching out to take it from him.

"It's what you've been waiting for," Josh replied, a smirk playing on his lips. "Everything you need to take down Rose Shelly once and for all."

"Well? Don't keep me in suspense any longer than you already have, handsome.

What kind of tantalizing skinny did our grief-stricken little Tessa have for us regarding our new favorite undead public enemy?" Becky arched one sculpted, imperious eyebrow upwards expectantly as Josh made a show of shrugging out of his jacket and tossing it over the back of a nearby armchair in a languid, nonchalant gesture.

He scooped up the whiskey and scooted over towards where she was seated, setting the bottle down on the glass coffee table with a dull thunk of glass against glass. "I'd brace yourself if I were you, gorgeous. Because the dearly departed Mr. Morgan here is about to get us both very well-acquainted with the full, sordid scope of Rose Shelley's sprawling underground empire of vampire blood and sin."

For the next hour, Josh proceeded to recount virtually every salacious, painstakingly extracted detail from Tessa's drunken, grief-addled ramblings over the course of their evening together - from international blood bank heists to underground raves and nightclubs that were nothing more than camouflage for blood sucking vampires, all of it greased by Rose's undead powers and shadowy organizational ties.

Becky listened raptly the entire time, absently spinning a sharpened silver stake between her fingers as the full, unseemly scope of Rose Shelley's dark underworld secrets gradually came into focus piece by lurid piece.

"...So from the sound of it, this bloodsucking, violent bitch essentially has twisted tentacles reaching into every seedy underground operation you can possibly imagine," Josh concluded, letting the implications hang in the air between them.

"Extortion, drug trafficking, human slavery and organ harvesting, you name it - all propped up and enabled by her vampiric powers as well as the formidable organizational might of her undead criminal consortium."

Becky's expression was utterly stony and unreadable as she absorbed all of the night's new information, falling so deathly still and silent that Josh could actually hear the soft ticking of the antique wall clock in the living room.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity passed, she rose from the couch in one slow, lithe, and utterly languid motion before striding with predatory grace over to the apartment's small kitchenette.

She grabbed a highball glass from one of the open cabinets and the whiskey bottle, splashing a healthy few fingers' worth of the amber liquid into the glass, before tossing the entire pour back in one-go like it was nothing more than a thimbleful of ice water.

"Well, well, well..." Her voice was low, husky, nearly a rumbling purr of predatory satisfaction.

"It certainly sounds like our dear Miss Rose Shelley has been one incredibly naughty girl over the course of her endless undead lifetime, hasn't she?" Becky turned and fixed Josh with those mesmerizing eyes and cupid's bow lips curled in a slow, wicked smile that somehow managed to be both sultruous and vaguely threatening at the same time.

"Frankly, I couldn't possibly be more delighted to hear every lurid detail of her prolific transgressions, both ethical and legal, across all levels of underworld depravity."

Bracing her palms on the counter behind her, Becky leaned back slightly, the silky robe parting slightly to offer a teasing glimpse of her lithe, deceptively lethal form beneath as she continued in that same rumbling timbre.

"With everything you've so cunningly managed to bring to light tonight, there's more than enough scorching new ammunition to marshal an full-scale, extremist offensive to finally burn Rose Shelley's whole sordid empire of sin and vice to its rotten, bloody bedrock once and for all.

To make a grand, unmistakable example out of her in the most...extreme way imaginable as a warning to the rest of her foul undead ilk slithering around out there."

Josh couldn't help the wolfish grin of eager anticipation that split his own features at her ominous words. She was close enough now that he could taste the whiskey on her sweet breath as Becky stalked towards him with that same lethal, predatory grace, continuing in that same tone thick with dark promise.

"And you, my obedient little mole, are going to be granted a front row seat for every single sublime, agonizing moment of her undoing when the time finally comes for us to descent upon that vile succubus..."

Those final words seemed to hang and reverberate through Josh's very marrow like a death knell, hardwiring visceral dread and delirious, feverish anticipation in equal measure.

As Becky's lips finally crushed against his own in a blistering, whiskey-tinged kiss that tasted of smoke and potential violence, he felt certain his very soul had now been utterly bargained away to this beautiful woman's singular, haunting agenda of depravity.

The die had been irrevocably cast, and soon enough, he was bound to intimately discover the unspeakable depths of what unholy price he had so recklessly committed himself to pay.

All Josh could do was accept his new role as the willing pawn seduced into Becky's grand gambit of ultraviolence against the undead world, even if that meant betraying any last fleeting vestiges of loyalty he might have once held for those foolish enough to implicitly trust him.

Like the poor, doomed Tessa...