Reluctantly, the two of you have to put the rest of your date on hold for a while. After getting your check from the waitress and paying for your food, you and Loona start driving back to the I.M.P. building.

As much as you would've loved your date with Loona to continue, things are clearly pretty serious with the whole Shane and Valentino situation.

You remember that earlier, Millie said that the client's voice didn't sound like Valentino's over the phone. But with the way everything seems to be connecting together, you can't realistically see the client being anyone else.

Unless... the client is a henchman of sorts, and his supposed "boss" is actually Valentino?

Val wouldn't have a boss himself, right? He'd definitely be the one in charge of his own nightclubs, so this makes a bit more sense to you.

Unfortunately, you have literally no evidence to prove that either scenario is correct. This is all entirely speculation, on your part.

God. This whole thing is hard to wrap your head around.

Maybe it would be better if you just took Shane back to the human world, and forget about all this bullshi-

"Hey. Are you okay, babe?" you hear Loona ask.

You take your eyes off the road for a moment and look back at her. "Honestly? Not really."

She softly smiles, and places her hand on your shoulder to give you support. "I'm here for you. What's the problem?"

"It's just... this whole 'Valentino' thing." you reply. "I've never even met the guy, and suddenly I've got myself sucked into working for him."

"But you're not working for him, (Y/N)." she assures you. "Millie didn't call the client back yet, so technically, we haven't even accepted the job!"

"But we're still holding his target hostage, so either way we've gotten ourselves involved in all this shit." you mutter.

"True, but the client wanted us to kill him, not capture him. And Shane's still alive and well!"

She gives you a soft peck on the cheek before saying "Everything will be okay, hon."

The fact that Loona can be so angry and confrontational to some people, but so kind and comforting to you kind of blows your mind.

You smile back at her. "Thanks, Loona. It's just that... I really didn't think there would be so much 'back and forth' with this job."

You pause for a moment to properly gather your thoughts. "I figured working for I.M.P. would be just 'Go here, kill this person, and get paid'. None of this 'snooping around and getting information' crap."

"Honestly, it's usually like that. We're hired to take care of someone, and we do it. That's it. I guess Dad just noticed how concerned we were about this job, so he wanted to investigate."

You chuckle. "So, I guess I just got 'lucky' with this one..."

She laughs along with you and says. "But hey, at least your first mission will be a memorable one!"

"For better or worse..." you sarcastically mutter.

——————————————————

When you and Loona make it back to the I.M.P. building, you can immediately see Millie standing just outside the front door, waving you over.

"Guys, where have you been!? Shane hasn't said a word since he woke up!" she exclaims.

"We were just taking a lunch break." you reply. "Didn't think he'd wake back up so quickly!"

Millie walks through the front door, and you follow her inside, making sure to hold the door open for your girlfriend behind you.

Loona gives you a little, knowing smile as she walks past you. You smile back at her, before fully stepping inside the building.

You think that you'll probably keep your relationship with her on the downlow for now. At least until this whole Valentino problem is finally fixed.

But, that's not to say little affectionate acts like this won't likely happen in the future.

"Literally, the only thing we got him to say was that he wanted to speak to you guys. And ONLY you guys, for some reason." Millie says.

"Yeah, Blitzo did say he was acting like a quote 'fucking cultist', unquote." you reply.

"I've never interrogated a person with this much resistance, in my life! No matter what we did to him, he'd stay silent. Really weird!"

"You guys didn't actually hurt him or anything though, right?" Loona asks her.

"Well, Blitzo did threaten to murder his entire family if he didn't cooperate with us. But still, nothing!"

"Sounds like a guy with nothing to lose." Loona says.

The idea of needing to interrogate or potentially torture someone really unsettles you. But at least he wasn't hurt, physically anyway.

And since you and Loona are here, hopefully he'll be willing to open up.

Millie leads you to the closed wooden door of Moxxie's office, and she stops walking.

"He's in here." she says, her earlier chipper demeanor completely gone. "We restrained him the best that we could, but still. Be careful."

She opens the door for you, and you slowly step inside the office, with Loona following close behind.

Shane is sitting in a metal chair against the wall, with much of his upper torso duct-taped to the chair. You can also see that there is a pair of handcuffs around his ankles as well.

The man is glaring daggers at you and Loona. His eyes are narrowed as he stares ahead, possibly contemplating any and all ways to murder you and escape.

If you didn't have the hellhound to back you up if things potentially go south, you'd be absolutely terrified right now.

"So... 'Larry'... nice to see you again..." he mutters in a deep, unnerving voice.

"We're here, Shane." you say to him. "You wanted to speak with us, and we're listening."

"Good." he replies. "And now that you're here, I can tell you both to 'go fuck yourselves' directly in your faces!"

Loona immediately loses her temper, running over to him and grabbing Shane by the throat.

"You talk to (Y/N) like that again, and I'm going to kick your ass so hard, you'll be coughing up shoe polish for a month!"

"Ooh, kinky..." he faintly says, his eyes 'seductively' lowering.

Loona growls, but lets go of the man's throat, leaving him to have violent coughing fit for a moment.

If Loona's going to be the 'bad cop' in this situation, you think that you might as well try being the 'good cop'.

"Like I told you earlier at the bar, Shane: I'm on your side here."

"Well, all the duct tape and handcuffs seems to prove otherwise!" he exclaims.

"That wasn't my call, so I apologize for that." you reply. "But regardless, I like your idea; saving all the people being abused by Valentino. Could you tell me a bit more about that?"

"Why the Hell would I do that?" he asks you back. "For all I know, you're gonna drive over to his fucking nightclub right now and tell him everything!"

"I've never met him in my life. And from what I've heard about Valentino, I don't want to, either. I honestly think it's kind of impressive, how you're willing to stand up against him like that, when seemingly no one else will. How do you do it?"

Shane doesn't respond. He silently looks to the floor for a moment and appears pensive, as if mentally debating whether or not he should open up to you.

"He's a bad man, and that much is obvious." you add. "But we need to know how you're able to free all the people he's hurting. We might be able to help you."

Shane remains silent, but his mind is clearly racing with countless thoughts and questions.

It appears your tactic may have worked.

After a moment, he gives a small nod and whispers "Okay..."

"I already told you most of it. Nellie and I use the book to teleport his abused victims out of Hell, so they can live new lives on Earth."

"Who's 'Nellie'?" Loona asks him.

"She was a... friend of mine. I lost contact with her while she was on a mission to rescue one of Val's escorts, a guy named Larry."

"And that's who I pretended to be when I first met Shane here." you clarify to Loona.

"That'd explain why he randomly called you that, earlier." she replies, blankly.

"Yeah." Shane says. "So, after I get them out of Hell, I meet with the victim and use a spell I created to disguise them as a human. And... that's pretty much it. Their old life as one of Val's 'employees' is finally over."

"And, as an added bonus, they have the opportunity to redeem themselves on Earth, so they can go to Heaven when they pass away. They'll never have to see Val ever again."

It all honestly seems like a pretty fool-proof plan. And it definitely gives Valentino a reason to want him dead.

"Unfortunately, I can't keep doing this forever," he says with a deep sigh. "It seems like for every person I save, Valentino hires even more to replace them. The guy's opening up more and more nightclubs all over Hell, and I honestly think eventually he might try taking over, one day."

He pauses, before asking "But what if... I hired you guys to take him out? That's your job, right?"

The closed wooden door behind you suddenly flies open, and Blitzo storms inside.

"We were hired to kill YOU!" he exclaims. "And the client's offering us a shit-ton of cash to do it!"

Shane sighs. "Well... clearly I'm still alive, so I'm guessing you probably didn't accept the job yet. Whatever your client is offering, I can double it! I have money."

"D-d-double it?" Blitzo stutters, barely able to comprehend what he just heard.

He slowly walks over to Shane's chair, and pulls out a large knife from his back pocket.

You shield your eyes, fearing for the worst.

You hear the knife slice into something, and Blitzo surprisingly says "You've got yourself a deal, Mr. Shane Harrison!"

You open your eyes, and see the human, now free from his duct-taped chair, happily shaking hands with the imp.

Well, so much for Blitzo not wanting anything to do with Valentino.