Accidental Villainy 29 (Patreon)

I was glad that I had made a new friend — even though I had ulterior motives — because the second night at the bar was much emptier. 

That didn’t surprise me. The last night, every nearby gang sent an agent to check whether the rumors about an out-of-town villain were real. Now that it was resolved, they didn’t want to suddenly crowd the place, not wanting to give the impression that they were my allies. Especially not before they could get an understanding of my particulars. 

Also, with a thousand charged for each glass, my place was … not exactly cheap. 

I still had a few customers, ones that belonged to the larger organizations, willing to pay that money to keep an eye on things, but I only had one or two customers at the bar. 

It was why I was happy about having Emily’s number. I couldn’t interact with Tara while we had customers, not without breaking the mystique around her powers and personality — the only thing that was keeping me safe under the circumstances — so texting Emily turned out to be a good way to kill time. 

And, not just because I managed to convince her to share several photos with me. 

The more I teased her, the more I started to realize she was a secret exhibitionist, though, ironically, she was too shy to actually indulge that in her own. I might not even realized that detail if it wasn’t for my power-feeding details of the pictures she repeatedly shared from the special app that deleted the photos immediately. 

Without my power, I wouldn’t even realize that she was completely naked, let alone the extent of her arousal. 

I was glad to discover her secret for another reason as well. Reveling in a desire that she had been suppressing for a long while was a euphoric feeling, one that awakened a lot of positive impressions. And, all the while, I continued messaging, making sure to link her crush with me … the constant photos allowed me to maintain control over her mood. 

I didn’t message constantly, but deliberately paced it in a way that kept her mood up … but just with a hint of insecurity maintained. 

No need to make her feel too secure in our budding, warped relationship. 

Only when I managed to establish a sense of dependency, I admitted that my real job was being a bartender in a shady bar. Did I want to admit that, no, but the risk of her discovering that on her own was much higher? 

So, I mentioned my job, and talked a bit about it, just enough to give the impression that I had to work on it without going into so much detail, creating a nice excuse that I could explain in different ways in the future, as the situation required. 

And, she was too hyped on her own personal discovery to question it for long, too distracted by the thrill of sharing her sexy photos.

Occasionally, I could see an even more intense blush in some of the photos she shared, along with a hint of defeat. It was subtle, but my power was enough to catch it easily, suggesting that there were several, far naughtier photos she had taken in the process, but she lacked the courage to send them to me. 

I couldn’t wait until she broke that. 

I had been expecting it to be the end, but then, the door opened, and a man walked in, one that raised my hackles just by looking at him. He was … dangerous. He was giving out very little. I was about to use my power in overdrive, but at the last second, I decided to put an alternative trick first. 

‘Hey, you’re good with tech, right?’ I asked. 

‘Well, you can say that,’ she wrote back quickly, and I could easily imagine her chuckling in amusement, considering her power. 

‘Can I ask you a favor?’ I wrote. 

‘Do you need me to repair your computer?’ she wrote, followed by a bunch of emojis. 

’No, I have a tough customer in the bar that the boss wants me to impress. Can you help me by doing a quick social media check and give me an idea about him. Knowing about his likes and dislikes might help a lot,’ I said, and sent his picture. I didn’t take the photo directly but used one from the security feed. 

What I had been asking wasn’t exactly hard. Anyone could do a search … given they had several minutes. 

But, Emily’s response came almost instantly. ’Sure,’ she said, and twenty seconds later, a small file arrived on my phone. Too fast, suggesting that she had forgotten to hide her capabilities. 

‘Wow, you must have some kind of program on your computer for social media research. Is it job-related, or should I be afraid?’ I wrote, followed by several emojis to convey I had been teasing her. 

I didn’t want her to even suspect that I knew about her power, not yet. 

‘Job-related,’ she wrote back immediately, happy to jump into the opportunity. 

‘Why don’t you share a few photos wearing your work shirt then … and maybe nothing else,’ I wrote, pushing the discussion away from her tech achievement for two reasons. For one, I didn’t want us to focus on that. More importantly, she didn’t want me focusing on her blunder either, meaning she was incentivized to distract me…

Excellent. 

While she disappeared for a moment, no doubt to change her outfit, I quickly went through the dossier she put together … my eyes widening with each page. I didn’t expect much. Maybe a name and a little about his past, but instead, I had a full breakdown, education history, favorite restaurants, childhood pet, and even his online gaming account, most of it under nicknames, not easily connected. 

Emily really went the distance. 

The information was amazing … though, even more incredibly, there was no scrap of private information. Every account, every photo, every little detail was perfectly legal to have. I didn’t even want to imagine what Emily might have collected if she had a few more minutes. 

And, the guild was using her as a mere receptionist. 

It was criminal. 

Of course, I might understand why they didn’t care much about her achievement, as most of the information she had collected was rough, some wrong, some outdated. Sifting through such information was not easy … well, wouldn’t have been easy if it wasn’t for my power. 

What she had sent me was the literal perfect feed for my power, giving me a lot of hints to follow and confirm through his physical appearance. 

Emily had limited the information to public, safe topics, probably unaware that, even information like places of employment gave me a dangerous line of bread to follow, one that might allow me to identify which organization he was working for by digging deeper by his favorite cafe and his place of employment…

Maybe even asking Emily to help … once she trusted me more. 

For now, I focused on mixing the perfect drink for my drink, a surprisingly sweet martini variant that would have been thrown out by any other customer. Yet, his eyes widened the moment he sipped it, first by delight … soon turning into panic, his mind no doubt questioning just how much I knew about him to afford to show off like this. 

A bluff that still worked … but I had no doubt that, sooner or later, it would stop working. I needed a backup plan. 

Luckily, that backup plan had arrived at me in the form of a busty blonde with an exhibitionist streak. When I returned to the bar, her photo was waiting for me. A full-length photo, taken from high up to hide her ass — a modest choice considering she followed my order and wore nothing but her shirt. 

The real show was her cleavage. She had kept only the top two buttons open, which might have looked modest in another woman, with more modest proportions. However, without a bra, her bust was straining her shirt excellently, and the high angle enhanced the cleavage even more. 

Enough to make my mouth water in excitement. 

I wrote back several compliments, but I didn’t ask for more pictures, aware that I was already pushing my luck even with the assistance of my power. It was just the first night of our meeting, after all, and I didn’t want her panicking. 

Half an hour later, I sent her the picture of two hundred dollars, which surprised her until I explained to her that, it was the amazing ‘tip’ I received, because the information she provided was very helpful, which followed a flurry of discussion until I managed to convince her that she should take a hundred as payment for her services, that she deserved it. 

Of course, that was far less than her work deserved, but I couldn’t reasonably give her more without explaining the truth of my business. She ultimately accepted it … and promised to research other ‘customers’ for the same fee. 

Just like that, I had a researcher. 

An unexpected development, and a risky one as well considering her place of employment. 

But certainly useful.