Mad Men

“Well, what do you think?” Brandon’s voice carried through the car, the windows up and the cool air conditioning creating an oasis in the hot Pittsburgh summer sun. James’ lips pursed as he considered what was 10 yards in front of him. It was hot pink and polished to a blinding shine. The sleek car looked like something of Barbie’s and James had no problem admitting it to Brandon over the Bluetooth.

“It’s the DA’s daughter’s car. She’s totaled one already, so I know daddy will buy her another one.” Brandon laughed even as he spoke. “I think my sister in Cincinnati will love it.”

James glanced around the parking lot, thinking at any moment, a young blonde with a matching pink outfit and a little dog would hurry towards the car and drive away.

“I think she’ll love it.” James finally answered, not having a problem with stealing this car for apparently selfish reasons. It hadn’t taken long for him to realize Power Play was almost as much a criminal organization as it was a group of guys committing crimes for completely personal reasons.

Hot wiring the little thing was easy, and James abandoned his own ride in the lot for the time to get the Barbie car to the gang’s lot under headquarters. He stripped the ignition and pulled the cylinder out, pocketing it to take upstairs so keys could be made, but forgot all about that when he entered the lobby.

“Hey Geno!” James’ new friend pushed up from the front desk where he’d been laughing with Engelland and Matt and hurried over to him.

“Nealsy! You come with today.”

Half an hour later, Geno, James, Kris, and Flower were making their way over the Pittsburgh skyline after boarding a helicopter and taking off just outside of the city limits. At first, James had been too afraid to even look outside, but after teasing from the other guys, he settled in and could not take his eyes off of the amazing view.

The beat of the helicopter wings was the only sound that high up, and the view stole James’ breath. He’d never thought of Pittsburgh as beautiful, the bowl shape and the factories all making it a city with character and grit, but not beauty. But from the sky, James couldn’t believe it was the same place. The evening sun reflected off of the buildings and the water, the colors bright and alive. It looked so small.

“Wow,” James breathed out. Geno smiled proudly next to him.

Kris and Flower were in the back, pulling, to James’ shock and fear, huge guns out of the duffle bags they’d brought along. They laughed at the look on his face.

“You didn’t think we came up here just for fun, right? All work and no play, James!” Marc Andre laughed maniacally as he began rooting the guns to the floor and doors of the helicopter.

“Don’t worry,” Kris assured James. “We’re just checking some of these out the only place we can without getting caught; eight thousand feet!” he laughed for a moment before they began arguing in French over the position of the largest gun. Geno nudged James’ arm, a large pair of headphones in his hands.

“You might want put on.”

Ten minutes later, outside of the city limits, they did the job of muffling the screaming and laughing and gunfire from the back of the helicopter, and James had a moment of surrealness, the view, friends, and the fact that he was in a helicopter being flown and shot out of causing a near out of body experience. The warm summer evening had a cool breeze that high in the air, and James failed to remember a time he’d felt the way he did in that moment; he had no worries, nothing bothering him or lingering in the back of his mind like a ticking clock. He was completely at ease, and completely content.

xxxxxxx

James and Lisa sat squeezed together on the plush leather recliner, looking like a little island in their giant living room that was no longer new, but appeared to be still due to the lack of furniture. The huge flatscreen TV played on the wall in front of them, but their attention was on each other and making up for having spent next to no time together in quite a while.

James had wanted two things when he got home; to tell Lisa all about how beautiful Pittsburgh looked from the sky, to show her pictures and convince her to come with him on a helicopter trip sometime, and to make love to his wife who he’d been away from sexually for far too long. Since he couldn’t do the first part without an explanation he couldn’t give her, he had to settle for the physical stuff.

Lisa kept both hands on the side of James’ face as she kissed him like she wouldn’t get the chance to again. His hands moved from their resting place on her hips to toss his glasses aside as she knocked them askew on his face. After he did, he grabbed her left hand and ran her fingers through his own. The kiss broke for a moment and he took the time to glance down, confirming what he thought he’d already felt.

“Why are you still wearing this one?”

Lisa pulled her hand away from his to join her other and started undoing buttons. “What?” She had no clue what he was talking about and made no effort to keep her mouth off of his.

James gently pushed her back on his lap, breaking their kiss and playing with the belt loops on her jean shorts in the process.

“Why don’t you take this ring off and wear the one I bought you last month? It’s bigger and it’s what you deserve.”

Lisa stilled her hands at the bottom of his shirt while she caught her breath and finally met his eyes. Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

“Because you didn’t put that ring on my finger when we were married three years ago.” She stated the fact obviously, completely baffled as to why James would think she would take her wedding ring off for what he apparently considered a replacement. He simply pulled her back towards him on his lap. Lisa, unwilling to let the awkward moment kill the mood, gladly kissed him again, squirming around enough to make them both forget it. They lasted only a few more minutes in the living room before moving upstairs to their bedroom and reconvening on the soft sheets. Lisa tossed her tank top aside and pushed James’ shirt off of his shoulders. The butterflies in her stomach felt like they were going to beat their way out with the way James looked at her. She missed him, and apparently, he’d missed her too. But just as he reached for her, the sound of his generic ringtone rang through the room.

If it were a two months ago, James would have ignored his phone without consideration otherwise. This time, Lisa had to scramble to grab his arm as he jumped away from her to grab it.

“Let it go.” She didn’t bother hiding the equal parts sexual and real frustration in her voice, pulling him back towards her and placing James’ hand on her bare chest with her own in hopes of keeping his attention. It didn’t work, and he pulled away from her.

“Let me just see who it is.” He picked his cell up quickly, distracted by the late phone call and curious to see what the business was. James wasn’t surprised to see the name on the caller ID and answered without looking back at Lisa. She huffed and threw herself flat back onto the bed.

Her side of the conversation was limited. A greeting by James, signifying that he obviously knew the caller. An eagerness in his voice with words like ‘okay’, and ‘how long?’. Lisa stared at the ceiling and was not surprised when she felt her breath catch in her throat and the stinging in her eyes. She didn’t hide that either when James ended his phone call.

“I’m really sorry, I have to go into the office. A big deal is having complications, they need me to go in.” Lisa felt his weight leave the bed and she grabbed her tank top from beside her without looking. “I’ll probably be back late tomorrow night. It’s a really big deal-“

“Are you cheating on me, James?” Lisa was only able to get that sentence out before she really started crying, tears wracking her body. She covered her face with her shirt, terrified of what she might here and not wanting to see her husband’s face when he said it.

James immediately stopped rebuttoning his shirt and nearly choked hearing her words. He was even more surprised that she was crying. His mind went to mush as he tried to think about what could have given her that idea, and he pulled her arms away from her face and sat next to her, trying to console her.

“Lisa, no, I love you, what would ever make you say that?!” James had never seen his wife this vulnerable, this upset. He was confused and felt helpless as his assurances didn’t seem to calm her down at all. “Lisa, baby, please talk to me.”

Lisa risked a glance at his face, and was only slightly relieved that James, who was never a good actor, looked completely taken aback by her question. She took a few deep breaths before speaking again.

“You’re making me say that, James,” She sniffled and pushed herself up to sitting. “You’re never here anymore; not during the day, night, weekends. And when you are, it’s short or cut off, like tonight.” She felt her body heat up as her emotions went from sad and scared to angry and annoyed. “For ‘work’ apparently, but I don’t know when that became more important than me! Than me and you!”

“Lisa, it really is work, I swear on my life I would never cheat on you. And it’s not more important than us, but fuck, if it wasn’t for this job we wouldn’t have all of this! I did this for us, for you! I thought having all of this was important to you! Is there something else missing?! Just tell me what it is and I’ll get it for you!”

Lisa rolled her eyes as she stood up from the bed and yanked her tank top back over her head.

“I don’t want more stuff, James.” The last of her tears had dried as she grabbed her purse and phone off of the dresser and slipped shoes on. “I want my husband back.”

xxxxxxx

James tried hard to push Lisa’s words and broken voice from his head as he sat in the conference room and waiting with everyone else for Brandon’s arrival, but couldn’t manage. It could have been his lack of sleep or the strange and unfamiliar feeling of knowing that Lisa was mad at him and not being right there with her. Overall, he found it wasn’t easy to kick the vision of the love of his life so upset, and apparently, because of him. James couldn’t deny his non-presence at home lately, nor could he deny that he’d spent all of that time with Power Play. To make matters worse, it was a complete secret from Lisa, and he felt he had to keep it that way, Rationally, James knew he couldn’t forever without consequences, but he wasn’t thinking very rationally at the point. Like being a white collar criminal had taught him, he was looking only to the immediate future, and no farther.

When Brandon entered the room a minute later, the look of intensity on his face was one James hadn’t seen before. It was a mix of excitement and serious determination, and he wasted no time tossing files on the desk and beginning to go on about what had them all there in the middle of the night.

“This is a big one boys, I’m talking international big. We got a day to get to Germany, get the goods, and get back, alright? So you all need to be awake and studying the blueprints and the information on the airplane.” He loosened his tie and finally broke a smile. “This is a direct request from the big man, so nothing goes wrong here. The Feds shipped 18 million dollars of investment overseas during dinnertime to a group set to use the money for a new set of unnecessary American patriot propaganda. The money is to be in our hands and back in the country by tomorrow.”

The guys murmured in excitement; apparently, the prospect of leaving the country on their mysterious boss’ plans was just as rare as James felt it to be. They all began flipping through the paperwork, rustling through belongings to get ready to go. James leaned over to Matt who was next to him.

“I don’t have a passport, ya know…”

Matt laughed. “Don’t worry, Air Geno flies international without identification.”

xxxxxxxx

The job was new and strange to James. Their cars were parked outside of a giant storage building, apparently home to the plane that still held the fresh 18 million dollars. There was no office building, no secretary for Deryk to seduce, no safes or computers to break into, and no hustling bustling crowd to blend into when the job was done. Everyone was present and accounted for, regular specialties thrown to the wayside for a group effort of getting in and getting out with no injuries. James remembered a time when Brandon told him they never killed anyone, and wondered how that could be true.

Orpik led the first group around the building, splitting up as Beau and Kris took out security cameras with little tools and a gun. The bunker had a large door for the plane to be guided through, and several small walking doors on the sides. Brandon motioned James forward, enlisting his help to pick through the variety of locks, the groups convening near the back of the left side.

With no sign of any other personnel, James couldn’t believe there would be anything inside, but sure enough, the door opened some minutes later to an unmarked airplane with the luggage hatch down.

“Bingo,” Brandon whispered, and Brooks led the group forward to the plane. James hung back, along with a few others who really couldn’t do much there, and took the time to look around and wander about the security of this place. There wasn’t a soul in sight. He considered the possibility that there was an entirely separate unit of Power Play; it wasn’t farfetched, considering their all powerful boss was hardly spoken of and never seen. James picture a gangster looking guy with an expensive suit and a hundred different little gangs all of the world’s biggest cities- Pittsburgh could be a small part of a big organization, making James an even smaller part. Yet somehow he fit right in and made things work.

He moved with the others on withdrawn actions as he was passed a bag of money to carry. They hurried back out into the dark night and crept through the space until they reached the cars that would take them back to Geno and his plane.

James attested his state to sleep deprivation, but found no relief as he shut his eyes on the flight home. Brooks and Brandon’s exclamations of a job well done with no issues and their promises of a fun time when they arrived back in Pittsburgh hardly registered in his mind. What did was a familiar accent that startled him from the aisle by his seat.

“Nealsy,” James’ eyes flew open. “Come see front.”

James, registering that Geno by the seats meant there was no one piloting the plane at the moment, jumped up and nearly pushed his friend back to the cockpit.

“Relax, I have autopilot.” Geno laughed the entire way.

Once in the front, the amount of different buttons and levers and gadgets and how anyone could possibly know how to manage them all baffled James. He sat in the copilot seat and was extra careful to not touch anything. Geno said nothing for several minutes, and James’ curiosity got the best of him.

“Geno, can I ask you something.”

He nodded to go ahead.

“Why are you in Power Play? I mean, how did you get here?”

Geno was quiet a moment before he answered.

“I love flying. I fly at home in Russia since I was a boy. But gangs home are not like American gangs. They don’t give me opportunity. So I leave my gang in Russia and go to Pittsburgh, where I know Boss is needing a pilot. He knows he need Geno to get his Power Play up and running to big power, so he get me planes, and I fly.”

James eagerly turned in his seat.

“You know the guy who started Power Play? The boss?”

Geno laughed like James was his little brother asking about trivial matters. “Of course I know boss. I best man at his wedding!”

“Who is it?! Is he in Pittsburgh?!” James wasn’t sure why he was so anxious to know about his boss’ boss. Perhaps it was his small identity crisis of how he belonged in everything, but he just had to know everything he could.

“You meet him sometime if he need you- maybe I bring you on next trip.” Geno offered the bit of information, and James felt like it was a drop of cold water to his parched mind. If he could just meet the boss, he could figure everything out. He didn’t exactly know what, but his exhausted mind seemed to think that would fix everything, including his fight with Lisa.

“What about Nealsy? How are you get into Power Play?”

“I needed the money.” James didn’t bother concealing his simple answer. He felt different from the other guys in that way; they all had wanted the power, the thrill of criminal life. James just wanted the luxury, and wasn’t afraid to share that with Geno, at least, and he accepted the short response.

“Now you have money. What keeps you?”

That simple broken question caused a lightbulb to flicker over James’ head. He had more than enough money, he’d already knew that. And he’d already thought about what it might be like to quit Power Play, to leave that life behind and move on. But that was a drunk thought. This one, though tired, was sober, and was planted by someone who knew what they were doing. Geno knew the boss, was around in the gangs beginnings. If he had an idea that James could just leave Power Play, maybe it was possible. Maybe getting out of the life unscathed and living freely wasn’t an impossibility.

“I-“ James could not think of an answer right away. “I guess I like the companionship.”

Geno laughed. “Nealsy not get enough from wife?”

Another lightbulb.

“Maybe she’s not getting enough from me…” James checked the time on his watch and calculated what time he would be home from the trip.

“Geno, I think you just solved all of my problems.”