Mad Men

“Not all the guys are here right now, but I’ll introduce you to the ones who are. You’ll meet the rest some other time.”

Brandon had surprised James by calling him only minutes after he’d dropped the car at Arsenal Park. Everything went according to plan, and the other business Brandon and the rest of Power Play was attending to had been swift and successful. The purple Ferrari was nowhere to be seen. Instead, James was picked up in a sleek black Camaro that made the ride through Downtown Pittsburgh seem more luxurious than he could have ever imagined. He was still running on the high of his actions, the thrill of the illegal and the adrenaline of knowing he’d just stolen a car, and apparently gotten away with it. James had felt the exhilaration before, but this time was different. This time involved only him, no one else.

The Power Play headquarters looked just like every other office building in downtown Pittsburgh. It blended in with its large glass front, dark gray accenting, and multiple floor design. The only difference was, there was no sign or business name outside. James only knew they had arrived when Brandon pulled the car into one of the rare reserved parking spaces and slid out of the car.

James wasn’t sure what to expect when meeting “the guys”. Paul had said in the diner something about clean cut guys doing this kind of work hard to find, so he assumed, like the building, they would blend in easily with the rest of Pittsburgh. The inside of headquarters was immaculate; a large, open lobby with minimal furniture that made it look like a government office. A tall dark desk was situated directly across from the doors, with an elevator on one side and a hallway turning off from the other.

Matt Niskanen and another dark haired man sat behind it. Matt perked up as soon as Brandon and James entered through the glass doors.

“Hey,” James’ nerves were calmed at the sight of another familiar face. “James, this is Deryk Engelland. Deryk, this is James.”

“James is our new mechanic.” Brandon spoke up. “Matt works under Deryk.”

James took a moment to examine Deryk as he leaned over the desk to shake his hand. His dark hair was cut short and one of his eyes was recovering with a faint black and purple bruise.

“Hey.”

“I’m taking James around and then we’ll be in my office if anything comes up.”

Matt and Deryk nodded as Brandon led James down the hallway to the left. There were doors on both sides with large glass windows accompanying them, although most of the blinds were closed. Brandon walked past them without a glance, but James looked in each one. Apparently, everyone was collected somewhere else.

They took a left, then another, and, after walking up a small ramp, Brandon stopped and unlocked a door. Inside was the busiest space James had seen yet. The room was huge, with tables spread throughout. Music was floating in the background of the chatter. There were stacks of money, jewelry, a pyramid of gold with large stacks of paper next to it. Big framed paintings were laying out and resting against the wall. Machines and computers were silent at desks. Five men were lounging around, having stripped of their suit jackets and ties and playing with a deck of cards. They turned to the door and shouted their greeting.

“Gentleman.” Brandon shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over a chair. James felt the five pairs of eyes on him, but the gazes were nothing but curious. Brandon led him to the group and shook a few hands. “Guys, this is James Neal.” He turned his attention from them. “James, this is Beau, Robert, Marc-Andre, Kris, and Brooks. You’ll pick up on the nicknames later.” A chorus of ‘heys’ rang out. James took his glasses off and put on his best confident face.

“It’s James first day on the job, so I’m just showing him around. Where’s Geno?”

The young blonde man James thought was Beau spoke up as he laid three cards in front of him. “He said he was going to Russia for the weekend. Something about his helicopter.” Marc-Andre snickered next to him.

James hurried to get a last look at all of the chaos in the room before Brandon turned him around and they walked back down the ramp.

“Wow, uh, there was a lot of stuff in there…” James tugged at his tie and tried to wrap his head around everything he’d just seen. Brandon simply laughed.

“Yes, there is. You’ll be more involved soon. We’ll get the guys together for something.” Brandon slipped barged into a door down the hallway and flipped on the lights. “You ever been to Cheeks?”

James stopped at the doorway while Brandon opened the blinds and flopped into the chair behind the desk. It was apparently his office.

“Uh, you mean the strip club?” He tried to hide the awkwardness in his voice.

“No, the makeup parlor. Yes the strip club! And for future reference James, it’s a Gentleman’s Club. I happen to be in with the owner, and he lets us get the VIP room whenever we want!” Brandon’s smile was wide as he situated his own tie around his neck and motioned for James to sit in the seat across from the desk.

“I haven’t been. I mean… I have a wife.”

Brandon tossed his hands up and smiled wider. “Great! So do I! Maybe they can get together sometime!”

James couldn’t stop the smile that cracked his face.

“Okay… Well, anyway, I, uh, enjoyed myself today. I mean, I like it here. And I think I want to stay. And quit my job.”

Brandon’s smile changed to a smirk as he settled back in his seat.

“Good. Do it ASAP because we could use you on our next trip. I’ll be in contact, of course. And I’ll let you know about going out. For right now though, you probably want to go talk to your wife, eh?”

James swallowed and nodded. He did need to talk to Lisa. Of course, he was beyond excited to tell her he was about to be rolling in cash. Not so excited to say why.

“It’s probably best that you, uh, stretch the truth, James. Unless she has a bad boy fetish.” Brandon must have seen the hesitation on James’ face. Lie. To Lisa. His wife, who had never uttered anything but the truth to him. But Brandon knew best, he supposed. It would be okay. When, or if, James ever told Lisa the truth, she wouldn’t care by then. How could she, when he would have made them both so happy?

xxxxxxx

“James, where did you get that suit?!” Lisa had walked out of the hallway when James called from the front door, the excitement in his voice causing her to hurry, her mouth dropping open when she saw the fancy tailored suit gracing her husband. He met her halfway and grabbed her arms, smashing their mouths together before pulling her into a hug that nearly lifted her off of the ground.

“I got a new job. Brandon, the Ferrari guy, he wasn’t a dead end. He got me a job, a really nice, high paying job. Matt Niskanen works there, you remember, from the office?” James rambled off all of his cover-ups quickly, hoping to confuse Lisa enough that she just accepted the good news without question.

“James, oh my God! How did this happen? When? I thought you said he was hopeless?!” Lisa couldn’t help but be beaming at James’ happiness.

“I was wrong, babe, he and Matt got me the job! It’s just downtown, and my paycheck is huge, you’re not going to believe it Lisa.” James continued to babble until Lisa’s kiss shut him up. He breathed a sigh of relief as she tugged him down the hall and towards their bedroom, overwhelmingly happy that she’d not only believed him, but that she was so happy.

xxxxxxx

It had been two weeks since James had quit his boring desk job. Two weeks since he’d first met the guys at Power Play. Already he had brought home a few months’ worth of his old paycheck. He found himself spending all day and most of his evenings at headquarters. Even when there was no job to be done, the guys were too much fun to avoid. He’d avoided Brandon’s “Gentleman’s Club” affair for the time being, but did find himself out around the town with his new coworkers. Being with them gave James new life. Women flocked to them; to him. They oozed class and money, the sex appeal falling right in place. Of course, James wasn’t interested in the girls, but something Matt had said to him the day in the car garage stuck; there were no negatives to having beautiful women stroke your ego.
James had already made quick work of buying two new cars for him and Lisa, and surrounding her with expensive designer clothing and jewelry and a new flat screen tv. He’d been so busy on the weekends with Power Play, it seemed like he hadn’t actually spent time with her in a while, but she believed hen he said that he was just busy going through training. Of course, that wasn’t a complete lie.

James was currently walking into a multi-corporation office building, along with Brandon, Deryk, Beau, Robert, Brooks, and Kris. Their suit jackets were hiding all kinds of different tools and objects designed to get the job done, which Brandon had described to him as a joint hacking/robbery mission. James had nothing concealed on his own person, since he was simply tagging along to get a taste of the real deal.

Deryk walked into the building first, quite ahead of the rest of the group. He approached the secretary at her desk as the rest of the men watched from a pillar in the lobby.

“Hey beautiful.” Someone in the group snorted back laughter and Brandon rolled his eyes.

“Doesn’t he have any other lines?”

“Bortz, shut the fuck up.” Brooks pushed him backwards without even turning to face him. James was shocked that they all seemed so easygoing, besides the fact that they were about to strip this place. James felt like he might pass out.

It was only a minute before the woman was leading Deryk out of sight, and therefore clearing the lobby of any personnel. Brandon leaned back towards James.

“Bortz and Sunshine over here handled the security cameras last week. As long as everything goes according to plan, we’ll be outta here in 10 minutes.”

James nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck. He was feeling both nervous and in the way, but followed as the group spread out. Kris slung back towards the desk as he attached a silencer to the gun he pulled out of his jacket. James thought he remembered Brandon saying that they never killed anyone, but after getting to know Kris and Flower, he had no trouble believing that someone had at least been injured in their crazy firearm operation. This time though, he simply shot the pistol at the locked door behind the desk, efficiently opening it and allowing Beau and Robert to hurry inside. James watched from the side as Brandon followed Brooks down a hallway and into a room.

Although he’d assumed Brandon was the leader of Power Play, for obvious reasons, it became clear as time went on that Brooks was the veteran authority of the group, although not the head honcho. Apparently, the real president of operations wasn’t going to be seen walking around headquarters, and was rarely seen by anyone except Brandon and Brooks anyway. He was quite the mystery.

James looked anxiously from the entrance to the building and the hallway. He felt like he was in a dream, or watching a 3D movie. It was easy to believe when he was doing nothing but observing. There was no sound except a drilling noise and talking from the door behind the desk. Another silenced shot spit out after minute and was followed by curses and angry French. The people walking by outside were completely oblivious.

Brandon and Brooks walked out from the hallway swiftly, Brandon waving a flashdrive and smiling at James. Brooks walked behind the desk to join the others.

“Is that it?” James was baffled by the idea that his aspect of the job was something so obvious; cars, parts, stealing and hot wiring. Brandon had a disk of information and nothing else. The guys would probably come out of the room with money and bank slips.

Brandon patted his shoulder. “Let’s get out of here before the secretary gets tired of Deryk.” Sure enough the rest of the gang slipped out of the room and yanked the door shut, Robert leaning over the lock for a moment before standing up and briskly joining the others. They exited the building quickly, leaving Deryk behind and trying to be conspicuous but hurrying nonetheless. James’ heart was racing more than ever.

He was about to ask where they were headed when a dark van squealed to a stop at the curb in front of them.

“Just on time,” Brandon murmured as the doors flew open, sliding backwards to reveal sideways seats and two girls dressed like they were ready to go out for the night leaning towards the driver’s seat, petting the man’s biceps and giggling loudly. He turned in his seat and flipped his sunglasses off.

“Who the fuck is this?!” Brooks stood outside of the van as the rest of the group hurried in, Brandon pushing James in first and trying to keep from laughing.

“Joe, why are there fucking girls in here?!” Brooks’ face was fuming red as he jumped into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

“Relaaaax. These are just my two good friends, Candace and Beth. Say hi, girls.” They both giggled and said hello to the rest of the guys, who were all holding in laughter at this point. The driver turned around farther in his seat.

“You must be James. Joe Vitale, good to meet ya. We’ll have to talk sometime about cars, I have a thing for the fast ones. I actually have a vintage Corvette that I can only get to 120, maybe you could help me out-“

“DRIVE!” Brooks slapped the back of Joe’s head, forcing him forward in his seat. Laughter busted out in the van, the girls holding onto the seats as Joe sped away, the radio blaring some top 100 music with Brooks trying to lecture his men over top of the sound. Brandon nudged James as he looked off, lost in thought, and shoved a stack of wrapped hundred dollar bills in his hands.

“Here’s your commission for tagging along; don’t spend it all in one place.” Brandon winked and laughed as James stared gape-mouthed from his new friends to the cash in his hand. He knew exactly what he was going to do with it, and it was going to be spent in one place.