"No... I'm an arms dealer. I like the feel of guns. The cold metal, every curve and every corner. I could describe every part of this revolver as I took it apart," Sebastian said. "I'd even bet I know exactly where the bullet is."
"Oh, really?" Vinny didn't believe a fucking word of it.
"Really." Sebastian pointed the revolver at his own forehead and pulled the trigger. Vinny held out his hand, but White didn't give him the gun. "I'm not finished."
"What?"
"I told you, I know where the bullet is," Sebastian repeated. "It isn't in the next chamber." He pulled the trigger. Vinny's face turned pale. "Or the next one." He pulled it again.
"Give me the gun."
"Why are you getting nervous?" Sebastian pulled the trigger again. That made four. "Want me to do it for you? Or are you going to fold?" he asked, pointing the gun at Vinny.
Vinny stared at him in complete shock.
"You're insane. You're a fucking lunatic," he said.
White could understand that reaction. Who the fuck would pull a trigger four times in a row? Only a madman, or someone who already knew where the bullet was.
"You haven't answered me," Sebastian reminded him.
"You! It was you, you fucking bitch!" Vinny screamed at Emma. Her eyes widened as she watched him point his golden gun at her. He pulled the trigger, and a gunshot rang through the room.
Sebastian White moved in front of her. At that very moment, he pulled his own trigger, sending a bullet straight between Vinny's eyes.
White gritted his teeth as the other bullet struck his shoulder.
"Are you all right?" he heard Emma ask.
'I just got shot,' White thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
"Yes," he whispered. "I won," he told Shaw. "I'm leaving now. Emma, you're coming with me." He pressed a hand against his shoulder. His body had already begun regenerating; the bullet worked its way out, and he caught it in his hand.
He kept the wound covered. He didn't want anyone to see what had happened.
"I'll have the money sent to your account, though I'll deduct a little for the... cleanup," Shaw said. "Vivian, count the chips." As Sebastian stepped out of the private room, Shaw indicated a young woman waiting outside. "This is Tessa. She'll take you out through the back entrance." Sebastian White looked at her.
Tessa, or Sage, was the mutant who could detect mutations in others. And she was the very same girl he'd mistaken for a gold digger at the roulette table. She was holding a ten-thousand-dollar chip, tossing it into the air and catching it.
She was the one he'd gotten his ability to sense mutants from. When Divine Copy worked passively, he couldn't feel himself copying anything.
"Thank you," Sebastian said to Shaw, if only to avoid seeming ungrateful. Getting on the bad side of a man like that was hardly a good idea.
"I hope we can do business together in the future, Sebastian White," Shaw told him.
His words sounded sinister.
And just like that, in a single day, he'd won almost thirty million dollars, an Omega-level mutant ability, and Sebastian Shaw's attention.
Tessa escorted them toward the exit. The reason for using the back entrance was simply to avoid alarming the casino's other guests. Even so, Sebastian kept his eyes open and his senses sharp in case an ambush was waiting.
There wasn't one. Apparently, Shaw wanted to get on his good side. Tessa left them when they reached the parking lot.
"Want me to drive?"
"No." Sebastian took his hand away from his shoulder and tossed her the bloodstained bullet. Emma caught it.
"Tell me something, Sebastian. Why did you take a bullet for me?" she asked.
'I need your ability, so I couldn't let you die in there,' Sebastian thought, trying to justify the way his body had moved on its own. He knew Emma had a secondary mutation that let her body turn into some kind of flexible diamond. But this Emma seemed young, and when he'd touched her, he hadn't even been given the option to copy that power.
"I bet thirty million on you. I wasn't about to let them kill you," he said as he started the engine.
'Is Domino still at my house?' he wondered.
So much had happened in a single day that he'd forgotten his bed was probably still covered in fluids from his session with Domino.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want to touch you all night," he answered sincerely.
He'd been touching her for an hour, but that wasn't enough to copy her ability permanently.
"Ha!" She let out an ugly little laugh. "That's all?" she asked, sounding a little sad.
"And a business arrangement," Sebastian added.
"What kind of arrangement? Are you going to use me to satisfy other men?"
"Huh?" Sebastian looked at her as if she'd said something stupid, then continued. "I want to start a company, but I don't have time to run it. I need someone who can."
He'd started thinking about it while playing poker.
He wanted to establish a company to manufacture his weapons. But between designing those weapons and building a company, he'd barely have time for anything else. Sebastian believed that if he was going to do something, he should do it right.
He could leave the company's affairs in Emma Frost's hands. With her abilities, she'd make an excellent CEO.
"You think I could do that?"
"Don't you?"
"I'm twenty."
"I'm twenty-two." He shrugged. "Besides, you've got that ability of yours," he reminded her.
Emma fell silent for a few seconds.
"You have it too, don't you...? Are you a mutant?"
"I don't have the X-gene," he replied.
"All right. Let's say I accept. What's in it for me?"
"A fucking company, for starters?" Sebastian shrugged.
"Would it be mine?"
"Ours." Sebastian honked at a car that ran a red light. "FUCKING MORON!" he shouted. The other driver stuck a hand out the window and gave him the middle finger.
"I'll... I'll only touch you tonight," Sebastian said, glancing sideways at her. His ears turned red.
"You were serious? You really want it that badly?" She shook her head in disappointment.
"Yes." He nodded.
"And afterward?"
"I'll never touch you again," he promised.
He felt like a complete asshole.
"I just want to be free," she confessed. "I don't want you interfering in my life, or trying to control me. I want... I want power. I want people to look at me and immediately think they can't mess with me. Starting that by sleeping with you isn't what I want, but do I have another choice?" She seemed reluctant.
From what Sebastian remembered, Emma had been at her lowest point while she was with Vinny, mentally dependent on him.
"I never said I was going to sleep with you." Sebastian shook his head.
"You didn't?"
"I said touch, not fuck." He shrugged.
"What part of me are you going to touch?"
"Your thighs felt nice."
"A company in exchange for letting you touch my thighs? Doesn't sound bad." She nodded.
'She's getting the wrong idea,' Sebastian thought, but he didn't know how to explain it. He could say, 'Hey, I need to touch you for hours to copy your ability,' but that wouldn't sound good.
It was the kind of explanation only Deadpool would accept.
Emma took his hand and placed it on her thigh. Sebastian almost collided with a guy who was driving too slowly. Emma turned her head to hide her laughter from him.
"I can see your face reflected in the window," Sebastian told her, giving her leg a squeeze as he pulled into his garage.
"What would have happened if I'd turned down your offer?"
"Nothing. I'd have touched you all night, and then you would've left."
"You have to say it explicitly: 'Touched you all night,'" she said with an amused smile.
"You want me to lie?" Sebastian asked as he opened the door. His garage connected directly to the house, so they wouldn't need to pass through the shop.
"Thank you for stopping that bullet," Emma said, changing the subject.
Sebastian stopped and looked at the blood staining his jacket. He'd been shot because he'd hesitated. When he'd pointed the revolver at Vinny, he could have fired immediately, but something had held him back.
'I should've shot sooner,' he thought before stepping into his house.
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