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In all honesty, the man who’s door Sully stood outside was about the last man in the whole city he wanted to be talking to. Let alone standing within punching range. To be perfectly candid, if it were up to him, there’d be twenty blocks, a couple of sturdy walls, and a G and T between Sully and the man behind this door.
But honesty got you nowhere in a town like this- not for a man like Sully. Not in this profession.
He stood on that doorstep for what felt like hours; when he finally shook himself off of his train of thought long enough to notice stares from across the street, he wondered if anyone had actually called the fuzz on him. Wouldn’t that be funny? They finally got him, and it’s a loitering charge. His luck.
His hands felt so heavy. The door felt miles away, and yet it was too close- the man inside was too close. Sully shouldn’t be here. But where else could he go?
He breathed a heavy sigh and knocked.
~
As Sully sat at the bar, he watched a man accidentally drop a cough drop in his date’s drink. Cherry, probably; the bright red immediately began to bleed into the Sauvignon Blanc and tint it slightly pinker. The man panicked, his eyes darting to the bathroom door before he hurriedly reached his probably gross hands into her glass. He fumbled for a second, not quite getting a grip on it. He tipped the glass, going at it with a straw. Finally, his hands got a grasp, pulling it out and discreetly dropping the dripping, sticky glob into the purse of a woman passing by. And after that whole ordeal, the man still had the guts to grab another cough drop from his pocket and pop it into his mouth, before sheepishly smiling and waving at his date, now returning to his table.
Sully couldn’t help himself, he laughed at the man. It wasn’t like he had been hiding his staring. He noticed the woman next to him startle and then raise her eyebrow questioningly at his sudden burst of laughter.
“Just remembered a joke.” She didn’t care. Probably wasn’t listening. When was Laurie going to get here? “Something about a fish and a priest- it’d be too long to explain. Besides, you’d gotta understand the local weather patterns of Locarno, Switzerland. Not that I think you’re not traveled! No you seem. Worldly. But it’s just. Well you know.” What was he saying?
The woman nodded stiffly and got up to escape Sully’s rambling. When she saw that there were no other open seats except for the one on the other side of him, she awkwardly sat down, shifting her entire body to turn away from him.
His saving grace, the bell above the door chimed and in walked a very serious man. Sully sighed with relief; there was about a seventy five percent chance he didn’t show. He didn’t want to think what would’ve happened if Laurie Blake turned down his invitation to meet. Who he could be talking to instead.
“Mr. Brown, pleasure to see you.” He took a seat at the bar next to Sully, flagging down the bartender for a whiskey.
Sully turns to the man pouring the drink. “My tab,” he says, winking, badly. He raises his own gin and tonic to Laurie, who does not return the gesture. “You call me Mr. Brown when we’re at opposite ends of an interrogation room. Here, and now, it’s Sully.”
Laurie stiffened, taking a sip of his drink. His face twisted in disgust, but he took another sip, setting it down in front of him. “Mr. Brown, while I appreciate the drink, however-” He stopped, staring down at his drink with contempt. “-however underwhelming, we are here to discuss business.”
Sully laughed. “They train you boys well over there, don’t they? All business, I like it. Now, tell me, do you notice anything about that couple over there?” He pointed to cough drop man, now nervously smiling as he listened to his date tell some story with intense ferocity.
“With all due respect, I’m putting a lot on the line meeting with you today. I haven’t potentially sacrificed my position in order to play games with you, Mr. Brown.”
“Don’t worry so much, Laurie, no more respect due. We’re friends now!” Something in Laurie’s face betrayed that he knew it wasn’t true. “Come on, use that police training. I love watching what you guys do up close.” He laughed again. “When it isn’t being used on me, I guess.”
Laurie sighed, taking another sip of his shit whiskey. “First date, probably. She’s been talking for a bit, he hasn’t gotten a word in edgewise. Probably likes her quite a bit. Look, I really don’t see-”
“Could you tell that he’s keeping a secret from her?”
“What?”
“Oh yeah. Big one. Potentially first date ruining. Stuck his fingers in her wine.”
“He- what?”
“No no not like that, it was- never mind it’s not important. But do you think she’s realized his eyes keep darting away from her face? That his hands have nervously worked that napkin into a crumpled mess? That her white wine is looking a bit more rose then when she got it?”
“Explain your point, Mr. Brown-”
“I told you to call me Sully.”
“Explain your point, Sullivan, or I’ll consider this meeting nothing more than a free drink and a waste of time.” His eyes shifted, something sparking in his eyes. “Maybe an interesting story to tell my boss around the water cooler tomorrow.”
Sully couldn’t help the way his face darkened at that. He really tried, really tried to keep it steady, not show Laurie that that had affected him, but he’d already had two drinks before he’d even showed up. “No no, no need to bring Blampied into this over a little game. No, what my point was-” He took another drink from his gin and tonic, drowning the last of it before waving the bartender over for another. “My point is, everyone has secrets. Sometimes they’re stupid, sometimes they’re big. You now have a big secret.”
Laurie looked at him, unimpressed. “That’s it?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s it.” Sully laughed again. “One thing they don’t tell you is you gotta be a good actor when you go into this business. Helpful, with all the secrets and such. Though, you strike me more as a no-nonsense, gun to the stomach guy.”
“I can bluff when I need. You should see me in poker.” The first smile Sully saw on Laurie’s face: small, and very quickly replaced by another disgusted grimace as he took a final swig of whiskey.
“Yeah? You any good?”
“No, terrible at the cards bit. Too risk averse. But you’d never know that playing with me.”
“Ah, I have the opposite problem. You know, you’ll probably make a better criminal than me. Maybe we should switch professions.”
“I don’t think the force would want you.”
“No. No, probably not.” He thought for a second. “Do you know of a woman named Tilly Steele?”
“Of course. Runs a couple clubs down Southside, doesn’t she?”
“Couple, yeah. You boys know everything, don’t you?”
Laurie shook his head. “Hardly. But it is hard not to have heard of Miss Steele.”
“Right.”
Another dry smile, one that just barely reaches his eyes. “Happen to know you two were both up for the same promotion. That the boss chose you instead.”
Sully grinned. “What can I say, I’m a charmer. No, there’s no hard feelings there. Tilly’s a peach.”
Laurie squinted slightly, before turning to watch the bartender pour a vodka cran minus the cran for a probably too drunk bachelorette. “I’m sure.”
“I think you should meet Tilly. Lovely woman. I want you to go round to The Backelit Lounge. Tills is always there Sunday nights, counting the weeks earnings- she’s a bit micro-managey, you’ll learn to love her. Just stop by, introduce yourself, and tell them Sully sent you. They’ll send you right in.” Laurie didn’t have to know that someone, probably multiple someones, from a rival gang would probably be watching who enters. That him being seen talking with Tilly, and in The Backelit of all places, would signal to just about anyone with half a brain that Laurie was part of the organization now. He’d find out sooner or later that some secrets aren’t meant to be kept for long.
Laurie nodded. “Anything I should say to her in particular?”
“Well, don’t tell her the weird bump on her cheek is getting bigger. Other than that, you’ll be fine.” He chuckled a bit before slamming his hands on his knees. “Right. Productive first meeting! You should be getting some info about assignments sent from some unknown number within the next few weeks. But until then, let me be the first to welcome you to the team.”
~
Rosie Nichols was an intimidating woman, when she wanted to be. Years of experience in the business, countless run-ins with the law, and an obscenely profitable empire to run: she couldn’t afford not to be. But the thing about Rosie that Sully knew, probably better than most in their little organization, was that most of the time, Rosie Nichols didn’t feel the need to be intimidating.
“Sully? Sully! Come here, we’re in the kitchen!”
Stepping through thoroughly familiar halls at this point, Sully could hear the faint sound of thwacking, followed by a muffled scream. But he turned away from that sound, moving into the kitchen to find Rosie, sitting on the counter island, eating out of a take-out box. A large, burly woman that Sully vaguely recognized stood at the far door, watching the two coldly. Sully nodded to her, not expecting a response. He didn’t get one.
“Just the man I wanted to see,” she slurped through a mouthful of tofu stir-fry, before setting it down and waving towards the empty box. The woman in the doorway moved to grab it, putting the remains in the fridge with all of the seriousness once might take a hit job with. Sully knew she probably had the experience. “Sorry, you caught me at lunch.”
Suddenly, a man stepped through the door, making his way towards where Rosie sat. Sully noticed a couple drops of blood on his sleeve, but otherwise, he was as neatly kept as the rest of the people who worked in this house. “Miss Nichols, maam, he is not speaking.” Sully giggled into his hand slightly at the name, and Rosie shot him a look before turning back towards the man.
“I expected as much. Have you dropped his wife’s name into conversation yet?”
“Yes, didn’t seem to have an effect.”
“Mmm. No loyalty these days. And the nail file?”
He held up a very bloodied nail file, shaking his head. “I can go harder, maam.”
Rosie thought for a second. “Yes, do that. But don’t make it seem like we’re too desperate.” Her face darkened, slightly. “But we are. We are, and it’s your head if we don’t get that location from you.” She clapped a hand over his shoulder, smiling. “You got this! I believe in you.”
He nodded stiffly before turning and scampering back towards his assignment. Sully watched him go with a smirk, laughing when he was finally out of the room. “Oh, Miss Nichols, maam, oh, maam, I can’t get him to tell me the drop point cause his wife doesn’t love him ohhh Miss Nichols.”
Rosie laughed into her hand, before trying and failing to school her face into a grimace. “That is not what he sounds like. Don’t make fun of my guys, I’ll have you whacked.”
“I don’t believe that.”
She smiled. “You should, I’ll do it.”
“Ohh Miss Nichols please, don’t hurt me!”
“I can make you really call me that, you know. Teach you some respect.”
“Oh I know.” And he did. They’d grown up together, climbed the ranks together, but that didn’t mean anything when deciding an heir. Rosie made a better candidate, or she put more than he did on her bribe, or she wasn’t seen at the bar with a then up and coming rookie cop one too many times. Sully wasn't too sure what the final deciding factor was. Doesn’t matter now. The cards were dealt the way they were. And now, even with all their history, even with the hope that Sully could trust her not to turn against him, he knew Rosie could do just about anything to him and get away with it. Better to laugh, and make her laugh, than be on the outside. “Did you want to talk business or is this just a social call?”
Her face lit up. “Oh yes! I wanted to know how that meeting with Laurie Blake went.”
“Good, it went really good. I’m sure he’ll be a valuable asset to the family, for as long as you’d like to keep him.”
“You don’t think he’s still loyal to the force?”
“No, I don’t think so. I know the type. He’s bored of the good guys, feels like he can’t get anywhere. He’s resentful. We can use that.”
She nodded, thinking. “Perfect. That’s great.” Sully couldn’t read her face. “And of course it will be noted that it was your initiative that brought him into the fold.”
Good. “No trouble at all. Anything for the family.”
“Right.” She suddenly jumped down from the counter, gesturing with her head for the woman at the door to step aside. Sully followed her into the living room, where a man sat, wrists bound and bloodied, blinking in and out of consciousness. Rosie’s eyes glazed over him as she sat on the couch, but Sully couldn’t help but stare at the blood oozing from his nose. He shook himself out of it, turning to Rosie as she spoke. “I didn’t just call you here to talk about Laurie. I want to talk about you.”
Sully straightened. “Okay? What about me?”
“How’s the work been making you feel?”
“I have a hard time thinking of what we do as work.” He smiled nervously. “Not exactly a nine to five, is it?”
“Mm.” Sully watched as she reached for a deck of cards sitting on the coffee table.
Before he could ask what they’d be playing, she began to lay out the cards in a particular order, only in front of Sully. The opening to a game of solitaire. After finishing placing the final stack of cards, she looked at him expectantly.
“You don’t want to play a game together? Hand and foot, like old times?”
“Mm. No. You play, I’ll watch. Keep talking though. Anyone been giving you trouble lately?”
This was a trap, but Sully couldn’t figure out just how the pieces were laid out. He took the top three cards: an ace.
“Lucky first round.” She smiled at him. Definitely a trap. “Answer the question, Sully.”
Easy route, blame his problems on Dominic Allen. “Well, you know Dom’s always trying to give me a hard time. Always harping about some new issue he has with me. I think this week it's the Rivergate stuff, which if you think about it, wasn’t even really technically my fault in the first place.”
“Rivergate stuff?”
Shit. Fuck. She hadn’t heard? “You haven’t heard?”
“Let’s pretend I haven’t. Did something go wrong on the Rivergate job?”
Fuck. “Just. Heat of the moment stuff. Some security guard trying to play Superman, got himself in a bit of trouble with some of our guys. Words are said, shots are fired, and, well…” He trailed off as he flipped over a card in the third stack. Seven of clubs. He went to grab another three cards from the draw pile before Rosie smiled and moved the seven to the fourth row, atop the eight of diamonds. He should’ve seen that.
“You were the lead on that job, weren’t you? What were you doing during this… unfortunate accident?”
He knew exactly what he was doing. He was standing above a dropped police radio, trying not to lose his shit in the back alley behind a warehouse because some beat cop happened to mention Blampied. But he wasn’t about to tell her that. He could feel the bound man’s lidded, blood-caked eyes looking at him. Sully couldn’t tell which of them was in a worse spot right now. “I got caught up, there was a jammed door on the farside.”
He watched her expression to see if she bought the lie. It was frustrating, not quite being able to parse out the look on her face. Then, she smiled, which really could’ve been ten times better or a hundred times worse. “Well, then there’s nothing for it. He was disposed of properly?”
“Body disposed of, hooker framed. The standard.” He tried to smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Then you did your best, and that’s what matters.”
She watched intently as Sully drew the final three cards from his draw pile: a jack, with no place to put it. He had already cycled through the deck twice, desperately hoping anything he could play on would magically appear between the useless cards in his hands. He sighed, throwing the deck down on the table. “Damn. I’m beat.”
“Mm. Can’t win them all.”
Suddenly, the pair heard the door open. “Rosie? I know I’m early, is this a bad time? I can-” The voice stopped when he laid eyes on Sully, somehow frowning more than Sully even thought was possible. Why the fuck was Dom Allen here? “Hello Sullivan. I can see it is a bad time.”
Seriously, why was Dominic Allen here? “No no, come in. Sully was just leaving.” Were they close? “Right, Sully?” When did this happen?
Sully almost didn’t notice Rosie’s expectant glare, but Dom’s annoyed sigh shook him out of his train of thought. “Right. I should be going.”
He didn’t miss Dom’s mumble of, “Thank Christ,” but he elected to ignore it. He watched Rosie begin to pack away the lost game of solitaire; there was that five of hearts he needed, right underneath a solo three of hearts. His luck.
As he turned to leave, eyeing Dom’s unhidden look of pure contempt, he turned to glance at the man tied up. His eyes were completely shut now, his head bobbing up and down as he struggled to stay awake. He paused, thinking for a moment, before turning to Rosie.
“Hey, did I tell you that joke I heard at the bar?”
She met his gaze, her eyes saying something that Sully didn’t quite catch. “Tell me another time. I don’t know if I have a laugh for you right now.”
“Right.” He knew when he was being politely shooed away. Nice of Rosie to do it politely.
“Sullivan, I don’t particularly want to be seeing your face anymore.”
Sully nodded. “Bye to you too, Dom.”
With that, he closed the door behind him, but not before catching Rosie’s eye. Something like a dealer taking his last chip. Something like that.
~
The gun pointed at Sully's head was gonna miss him by a quarter of an inch. Shaky hands, a nervous falter, and the bullet would be heading straight for the crashing waves behind Sully. Probably the guy’s first time pointing a gun at someone as important as Sullivan Beau Brown. Did whoever hired him know that?
“You can put your arm down, I’m not planning on running.” Sully wasn’t sure he would. These new muscle types were always so stubborn about orders. To his surprise, the man looked around before dropping his hand, shaking it loose for a sec before checking one more time that his boss wasn’t coming down the pier. “Feels better, right? I used to hate gun pointing duty.”
The man stared at him. “You’re awfully chipper.”
Sully shrugged. “Just figured your arm might be sore. You’re, what, new guy, just hired? Sent to prove your worth, rustle up a rival gang member before your boss shows up, knocks a couple punches in me, and we all leave as miserable as we arrived.”
Something in the man’s face twists, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be worth something someday.” He jeered. “If you don’t die on this pier today. Casualties happen.” It’d been a while since Sully had had any contact with one of the other gangs in the city. He wanted to have his fun while he was here. Kind of embarrassing, to be jumped as easily as he was, but then Sully was never the most athletic. “Do you trust me to save you, if you fell into the water right now? Think I’d jump in after you?” The man looked away, but Sully delights in noticing him shift his footing to a less push-able stance. “Think your boss would?”
As if on cue, the pair heard a faint car door slam, and a procession of three or so guys began to walk down the pier in front of the person who was obviously Sully’s impromptu meeting for today. The man quickly raised his gun as Sully put on his best smile, trying to exude his best annoyingly cocky attitude, but his face dropped when he saw who walked towards him.
“Why all the fanfare, Tilly?” Sully tried to smile. He tried. “You know I love your company. Could’ve just called.”
“Not that kind of meeting I’m afraid, Sullivan.” She looked apologetic, and it made him even more sick to his stomach. He was the one with a gun in his face, what right did she have to look apologetic?
“And what kind of meeting is this?”
Something in her face shifted. “The kind where at the end of it, you’re not a part of the family anymore.”
“You don’t want that, do you?” She didn’t. She couldn’t.
She sighed, not meeting his eyes. “I do, actually.”
He shook his head. “No you don’t. Nothing has to happen, Tilly. We can both walk off this pier, pretend none of this ever happened. You know I can put on a good show.” He glanced at the man with the gun next to him. “If you’re worried about him blabbing, we’ve already discussed the very real possibility of him falling in the water.”
“What do you think is happening right now, Sully? Do you think either of us can stop this? That I’m not following orders?”
He grimaced, not looking at her. “Don’t act like you’re not having a bit of fun, Tills.” She cringed at the nickname. Good. “Can’t say I’m not a gambling man, so this doesn’t mean much, but I’d wager you quite like watching me squirm, don’t you?”
Her face twisted into a smile, her eyes somehow still sad even if the glint in them betrayed her. “Yeah, you know what, I do. I am having fun. ‘Water under the bridge,’ Laurie’d said you told him.”
“Laurie- you’ve been talking with him?”
“Well you’re the one who sent him my way. Thanks for that, by the way; he was only too happy to inform me of some major missteps you’ve taken recently.” Bastard. “You of all people shouldn’t be too trusting of a cop, Sullivan. We both know you have a history.”
Sully looked towards the waves, sort of wishing he could jump off this pier himself. “So what, you tattle to Rosie? That’s your master plan?”
“Nichols? No, one more step, give me a bit more credit.” She smiled. “Did you know Dom and I get together every Wednesday for poker?”
Of course. Easy route. “And never invite me? I thought we were friends, Tills.”
“We were, once.” She frowned and turned away. “Could count on Dom running to Nichols about you. He’s been trying to for ages, but apparently your stupid voice isn’t enough to get her to drop you.” Sully scoffed. “His words. But with the info passed on from Laurie, and maybe a couple of embellishments by yours truly, it was practically Nichols’ idea to call the dogs on you.”
“Rosie’s orders, huh?” This didn’t feel real. Was he drunk?
“Oh yeah, don’t think about scampering back into her arms. In fact-” In one swift movement, she grabbed the gun pointed at Sully, aimed it at his legs, and pulled the trigger. Sully let out a yelp, crumpling to the ground. “I don’t want you scampering anywhere anytime soon.”
He stared down at the bullet wound, too stunned for his usual wit.
Tilly took a step towards him, kneeling down until she could reach out and grab his shoulder. “I am sorry, about all this.” She didn’t look sorry. “I have liked playing this game with you.” Her grip on his shoulder got tighter, painfully so. “But I like winning even more.”
With that, she stood, turning on her heel back towards the shore. All at once, like his head was dunked in the freezing water, the shock and pain subsided and a burning hot rage crashed into Sully, almost knocking him over. Not trusting himself to stand just yet, he sat, like a child throwing a tantrum, and yelled after her. “Tilly! Tills!! Tilly!! I will fucking kill you. TILLY!!!”
It’s not his proudest moment. Sully doesn’t enjoy losing his temper. But Tilly was long gone at this point; it’s just him, his bleeding leg, and the waves out here. So he just kept screaming.
~
“How I’ve waited for this day.” Christ, Dom could sound like a cartoon villain. Sully really shouldn’t have picked up the phone.
“I’m sure you have.”
“I’ve always known what a wriggling little imbecile you are, Sullivan. You may have had everyone fooled, Mr. Hollywood with his cheap fucking smile and bad jokes, but not me, never me.”
All Sully could bring himself to do is sigh. “I know, Dom. It’s not like you haven’t made that fact painfully obvious.”
On the other end of the phone, Sully hears something muffled, and an angry muttering of, “Careful with the fucking bags, idiot,” from Dom.
“What are you- are you on a job right now?”
Dom sputtered. “What? No, I’m getting groceries. I wouldn’t call you in the middle of a job. Unlike you, don’t get distracted by stupid fancies while working.”
Sully can’t help himself; the image of Dom, angrily shouting at him while browsing the fruit aisle was enough to make Sully laugh for the first time in a couple days.
“Don’t do that. Don’t laugh. You never take anything seriously, Sullivan. That’s what got you in this mess.”
“I thought you got me in this mess.” Sully couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice, but he knew Dom didn’t want the facade anyways. “Are you saying it was all me, that I get to take the credit? How gracious of you, Dom.”
“It wasn't all you, but it's not like you didn’t help. Really, all you’ll ever be remembered for is helping me to the top. That and your idiotic jokes.” He pauses, for a second, and Sully can hear what sounds like a car trunk slamming. “I guess I should thank you for that. I should, but I won’t.”
“The top feels like a stretch, don’t you think Dom? What’s more likely is you’ll get as good as I got: couple big wins, a middling position a couple of heads of hair from the top, and then a knife in the back when you inevitably piss off enough people with that prickly attitude of yours.” He laughed, dry. None of this was that funny. “Don’t think Rosie is ever letting you anywhere near the big stuff, now that she knows how eager you are to rat.”
Dom scoffed. “She should be used to it by now. After the way you ran off to your boyfriend in the force, I’m surprised she tells anyone anything. Especially you. At least all I did was tattle to her, not the chief of fucking police.
“He wasn’t the chief of police at the time.” He knew how stupid that sounded. He was floundering; thinking about Blampied did this to him. “And he wasn’t my boyfriend.”
“Aww. Was I not invited to the wedding?”
Sully ignored that. “That whole thing. It was different. I made a mistake, but I didn’t betray the family in the end. Didn’t matter if the cops were there, we got the job done.” He sighed, frustrated. “But you, I guess, have never fucking forgave me.”
“No, I hated you before that.” Right. Of course. “Found it hilarious the way Blampied was able to get in your head like that, make you spill. Almost sent him a birthday card that year, but I couldn’t figure out when to send it.
Without thinking, Sully muttered, “August 24th.”
Dom chuckled, and it made Sully sick to his stomach. “Of course. Maybe I’ll finally send it this year. He’ll be happy to hear you finally got what was coming to you.”
“I’m sure he knows. Or he’ll hear about it soon. Word gets around.”
“Yes. I probably shouldn’t even be talking to you. Never know who’s listening. Though I guess it’s not likely that anyone would suspect me to be willingly working with you.”
Something in Sully twisted, at that. “You know, I liked you. Still do. We could’ve been friends, if you didn’t hate everything about me.”
Dom laughed again, mean and bitter. “You’re too kind, Sullivan.” He could hear the smile in Dom’s voice. “Good luck with no one around to tell your jokes to.”
A click, and the line between them was silent. As Sully sat on his couch, an empty glass in hand, he thought about a man that he had tried not to think about in years- tried and failed, many, many times over.
Maybe it was time for a visit. For old times sake.
~
No one answered the door for a couple of minutes, and Sully’s stomach sank with the possibility that he’d gotten the wrong house somehow and he’d have to work up the courage to knock on a whole different door. He’d been to this house a million times in the old days; he was pretty sure it was still right, but it wasn’t like he’d visited much recently. Just as he was considering calling it a lost cause, he heard shuffling behind the door and the slow turn of the knob. No turning back now.
“Sully! What a surprise to see you here!” His face said otherwise; Sully had always hated that cocky smile of his. He especially hated it when he was at the receiving end.
Sully fixed his best cold stare. “Blampied.”
“Oh come now, Sullivan, don’t be that way. We’re old friends!” He watched something in his eyes shift, in what might have been amusement? Maybe anger? Since when could Sully not read his face? “You wouldn’t prefer it I called you Mr. Beau Brown, would you?”
“Well, no, first off because Beau is my middle name, not part of my last name.” Against his better judgement, he could feel himself falling back into their old stupid banter. It shouldn't be this easy, after all this time. “You're really the only one who ever called me that, anyhow.”
“Then don't call me Blampied, it's too stuffy. You sound like Laurie.” Without warning, he turned around and walked further into the house, the expectation being that Sully would continue after him. “How is he holding up? You know, don’t tell him I said this, but I miss seeing him around the bullpen sometimes. Hasn’t been coming into work much these days. Wonder why that is.”
Sully stared at his figure turning the corner, willing himself to slam the door, skip town, and do his best to forget Blampied and Tilly and the rest of them until one day he got drunk enough to feel an emotion and kill someone over it. Instead, he took the first step into this household in what felt like a lifetime and shut the door behind him. It hadn’t really changed, since everything. Books lined shelves along the wall, little trinkets scattered in between the novels and whatever else Sully wasn’t interested in studying right now. He noticed an unfinished game of chess on the coffee table, and immediately noted that black was one move away from checkmate. An instinct, one cultivated through many years, and hundreds of games, in this very room. Sully thought about telling him; probably shouldn’t, it’d probably annoy him.
“You know, the game’s almost solved,” he called to the kitchen.
“I do know, thank you.” He heard the man before he saw him, and was pleased to hear a hint of irritation in his voice. He then came into the living room from the kitchen, carrying two teas. “I was about to win but my opponent had to run. Just coincidence, I’m sure.”
Sully inspected the mugs, grabbing the darker liquid and taking a sip. Just slightly sweet; how he takes it still. The man across from him took a drink of his probably disgustingly sugary concoction and sat down with that damn smirk gracing his face once again. “So what do I owe the pleasure of meeting with one Mr. Sullivan Beau Brown?”
“Don’t play games with me, Mr. Blampied,” he said, matching his tone.
He frowned, shaking his head a bit. No, he didn’t frown, he pouted; everything he does is stupid and fake. “What did I say about calling me that? It makes me feel like you don’t care about me.” Sully’s eye twitched at that. “Anyhow, you know I don’t like playing games. I always tend to lose.”
Sully sighed; he was not in the mood for his attempts at wit. “You know why I’m here.”
“Yes, I guess I do know why you’ve come crawling back. But I kind of want to hear it from your own two lips.”
He should’ve been across town, drowning his sorrows at the end of a short pier. His sorrows should’ve been making friendly with the fish that live at the bottom of the ocean. Instead, his sorrows laid face up on the coffee table with their guts spilling out right in front of him. And Blampied was enjoying it.
Sully grit his teeth, staring daggers into his tea before sighing. “I need your help, help taking down Tilly. And Dom, and the rest of them. Fuck it, I’d try my luck against Rosie right about now.”
“You need my help? Sullivan Beau Brown needs the help of little old me?”
“Save it, Blampied.” A frown, one Sully could only barely make himself enjoy. “We both know I wouldn’t be here if I had any other options.”
That something flickered in his eyes again. Sully didn’t like that he couldn’t quite tell what it was. “Yes, I guess we do.” He laughs, a hollow sound that lacks the life Sully knew it to once hold. “I don’t really see a way out of this for you. You’re a dead man walking; I shouldn’t even be seen talking to you.”
“I appreciate the risk you’re taking.”
“Well it helps that I have about as much respect for Rosie Nichols as it seems she has for you. But God, you’ve really gotten yourself in quite the situation, haven’t you?" That grin is back. “I overheard a buddy of mine down at the cafe who I didn’t even know knew your name talking about what went down. How do you fuck up that badly?”
Sully stiffened. “Now, listen-”
“Did you even do anything to Tilly? Or was she just so annoyed by your stupid voice that it didn’t matter the consequences?”
“No, I didn’t do any-”
“Rosie probably wanted you gone. She wouldn’t have allowed such a big move otherwise. Maybe Dom finally wormed his way into her ear. God knows he’s been trying for years. You know I’m still getting his email blasts about how much he hates you? Every Friday, just paragraphs of the nastiest stuff ever put to paper all about some guy he works with. Used to work with, I guess.”
“Now Dom might be a bit eccentric, but he does not-”
“You’re right he doesn’t. But might as well. You don’t need eyes or ears to know he hated you. You could just feel it, from blocks away.”
"You know I don’t appreciate-”
“You fucked it this time. Absolutely fucked it. And you’ve-”
“Adam!” A smile. A real, genuine smile, quickly replaced by that stupid grin. But not quick enough for Sully not to notice. Not quick enough for the knot in Sully’s stomach to not twist tighter.
“Not the first time you’ve fucked up before, either, is it.” And the fake smile was gone, now replaced by a wistful sadness. “Crawled your way out of that one, didn’t you, though.”
That’s not fair of him to say, and Sully is sure Adam knows it, too. “Don’t act like you didn’t betray me that night.”
A sigh. “I was just doing my job.”
“What, and I wasn’t?” Sully remembered the way Adam looked, the way his eyes dropped in horror, when Sully killed one of his men in front of him. Like he’d never imagined Sully killing anybody like that, like it was somehow a shock what business he was in. Sully had thought he’d been pretty fucking clear what he did for a living. Guess not. “I’m not the one who went behind their-” He can’t say it, even now. “-their friend’s back. I trusted you.”
Adam’s eyes simmering with a kind of anger Sully hadn’t seen in years. “Oh please. You only told me because you were drunk. That whole relationship was you going behind my back, sneaking off to your work and coming home to me.”
“You knew I was a criminal. It’s how we met.”
“I didn’t know the specifics. Never needed to. And I was okay with that. But then you told me. You made that mistake. I was just doing my job.”
Adam’s face, all those years ago, flashed through Sully’s mind again. His face as Sully made his escape, gun still warm and blood drying on his coat. Adam gave him the chance at cooperation, at a life on the same team. Sully ran. “And I was just doing mine.”
Adam sighed, staring into nothing for a second before turning to Sully with a start. “We’re both fucked.” He took a final sip of his tea before setting the mug down on the table. “I’ve been treading water for a while now, but the family’s just grown too strong. There’s not much room for an honest man in this city any longer.”
“We both know you’ve never been that honest. Good, maybe, but not honest.”
“Well, there’s not much room for good men either.” Adam smiled again, that real smile that makes Sully feel like taking a swan dive off the tallest building he can shamble to. “Welcome to the losing side, Sullivan. Fix it.”