Gambit shut the door behind him as he walked inside.
"Thanks for meeting with me," Joey said.
"Uncle Remy!" squealed two year old Marissa, scrabling over to him. "Twick?"
Gambit chuckled and held out his empty hand. Then he closed it, twisted it around in a circle and when he opened it again a small toy (but not too small) was sitting in his palm. Marissa giggled and reached for it.
"What do you say?" Joey put in.
"T'ank oo Uncle Remy!"
"No problem kiddo," Gambit replied and ruffled her hair before standing up.
"Run along now, Rissy," Joey smiled. "Uncle Remy any I have some work we need to do."
" 'Kay!"
Marissa went back to play with her new toy, and Gambit followed Joey into the next room.
"Still sucking up to the boss' daughter I see," she teased him.
"Old habits die hard?" Gambit joked.
Joey grinned at him.
"Lights are about to go out," she said.
"Dey -" Gambit began just as the light turned out, "are?"
Joey chuckled and pulled at his arm. She needn't have, as Gambit could see pretty well in what most people would have considered to be "pitch black", and had no problems seeing the hidden door open, let along Joey guiding him through. As the door closed behind them, the lighting returned to normal.
"Paranoid much?" Gambit mused as they walked down the short corridor.
"After that blackmailing attempt I'm not taking chances."
"I stand corrected. Not paranoia."
"I thought you might," Joey said dryly.
At the end of short corridor was another door, which Joey unlocked, and the two stepped inside a surprisingly large office.
"Welcome to my nerve centre," Joey said broadly. "Congratulations Gambit, you're one of only five people, myself included, who know this place exists."
"Honoured dat yo' woul' trust me dat much, cherie," Gambit replied.
Joey shrugged.
"Well, I'm already trusting you with my biggest secret. What's a few more?"
Gambit chuckled.
"If I recall correctly, trust wasn't want yo' wanted from me at da time."
"That worked out real well as I recall," Joey replied, walking over to one of the tables. "Okay, this map, is Dad's empire. The red is what he left to me, the green is Andy and the blue is Donny."
"And the lines between properties?"
"Supply lines. Blue arrows on a green line means Donny's business supplies Andy's."
"Ahh I get da idea," Gambit nodded as he studied the map. "I heard dat Johnny's will had been complicated, but I had no idea it was this complicated."
"Yeah," Joey nodded. "Well, he wanted to give us incentive to work together. Well, we can all see how well that worked."
She started to move to another table, then paused and looked at Gambit in the eye.
"I'm glad that... I'm glad that you chose to back me, Remy," she said softly. "I mean, I know that you didn't to begin with because you knew what Dad wanted, and I appreciate that. But it's... it been hard, y'know? I don't know, maybe I have been paranoid, but I feel like there are so few people I can trust, and I can't do this alone. Most of Dad's closest associates went with Andy or Donny and..."
Gambit touched her shoulder.
"Dat's because dey were foolish, cherie. Dey t'inks dey are throwin' in their lot with whoever's strongest," he gave her a mischevious grin. "I have a suspicion day are all going to get a very rude shock."
Joey chuckled and indicated the map on the table behind them.
"I hope so. See, that's the current standings. Green properties with a blue band around them, or vice versa are properties that Donny and Andy are currently fighting over. Yellow properties are once that have been bought by third parties and any property with a red band are ones I'm in the process of acquring."
Gambit's eyes widened considerably as he looked over the map.
"Joey... have you really reacquired dis much of yo' father's empire?"
Joey grinned smugly.
"Yep. Did I shock you too?"
"I had a feelin' cherie, but not dis much. Not in only, what is it? Less dan six months?"
"Yep."
"Yo' act fast."
Joey shrugged.
"Andy and Donny have made things easy for me. Actually, Dad did. Our inheritances where very intricate, because so many of his properties relied on others. They're fighting their little war but cutting off supply lines to each other - amongst other things, but as a result the productivity is suffering. They need alternate suppliers - or customers - and if they can't find them, well, that makes 'em deadwood. Besides, they're spending that much money on... other aspects of this stupid war that they're pretty much have to sell out in order to continue funding things."
"Hence all the yellow properties."
"Yeah, I've been buying some of them off the third parties almost as soon as they buy 'em," Joey said smugly. "Others I have my people posing as third parties acquire the properties on my behalf."
"If yo' brothers ever see this, I t'ink dey'll crap 'emselves."
"If my brothers ever see this, I'll wonder how they got in here."
Gambit laughed.
"Anyway, as much fun as it is to gloat," Joey grinned. "I actually have a job for you that I wanted to give you somewhere I could be sure there were no prying eyes or ears."
"Yes?"
Joey pointed on the map to one of Donny's properties and pulled out a smaller one.
"I need you to cause some damage for me. Nothing irreparable, just expensive. The more expensive it is, the more likely Donny'll sell out to me."
Gambit nodded as he inspected the map of the property in question.
"Donny will, of course, blame Andy, but unless he pays up for repairs this place is definitely going to be deadwood. With any luck I'll get it cheap," Joey chuckled.
"And den yo'll havta pay fo' repairs," Gambit teased.
"Fortunately for me, Dad and I already planned for this eventuallity."
"Oh?"
Joey hesitated briefly, then gave a little shrug.
"Some may have called Dad naive, the way he split everything up in the vain hope that we might actually work together, but they would be wrong. I know for a fact that Dad seriously considered leaving everything to me, lock, stock and barrel, and maybe in a few years he might have changed his will to do exactly that but... as you yourself have observed, I'm not considered the 'strong' one, and Dad thought that I might not have enough time to consolidate my inheritance before the trouble started. So instead... he gave me an extra account. If in the unlikely event we actually managed to work together, after five years I was to split up them money between the three of us. If not the money was to go towards me putting his empire back together."
There was a determined glint in Joey's eyes that reminded Gambit distinctly of Johnny.
"Well, by da looks of t'ings, yo' doin' him proud cherie,"
"Thanks," Joey said softly. "Look, Gambit, give it a couple of weeks before you go in. If anyone is spying on this place I don't want them connecting this meeting with the sabotage at Donny's place. Sooner or later they're going to figure out what I'm doing, and right now I'm really into delaying the inevitable."
"Sounds like a plan."
"I thought so. Okay, well, dinner then?"
"Sure," Gambit replied as they departed. "Where's Harry?"
"Probably at a strip club somewhere."
"Yo' let your fiance get away wit' dat?" he teased as they departed the secret room.
"He's doing it to annoy me," Joey clarified, as they stepped into darkness while the hideen door opened and closed. "Personally, I think he just hates the fact that I control the money."
Gambit laughed.
"Oh... and Gambit? No matter how much Marissa begs, no tricks at the dinning table. Especially ones involving explosions."