Mad Men

The week after the bar run in was back to business as usual, Power Play running around and getting ready for their important job that had Brandon stressing in a way that James had never seen him. He had changed the plans multiple times, forcing everyone to review and run through procedure again and again. Combined with his on and off phone calls with the Pittsburgh PD, James hadn’t had a chance to get time alone with Brandon. He figured another week until things calmed down wouldn’t hurt, so he too went about business as usual.

James was in an old Thunderbird with the top down cruising through the city, the midday traffic slow enough to let his mind wander. Brandon had worked with him on getting four different cars for the run, which was unusual, but he figured it was just because of the enormity of the job. He was currently on the 3rd vehicle, which supposedly going to provide a distraction, if one became necessary. James was instructed to park it in the back lot of the newspaper building; close enough if it was needed but far enough that it wouldn’t be suspicious if it was just left there.

It was only when James turned the car on Fifth that he realized how close he was to Lisa’s office; it only took him a second to decide on a change of plans.

The Bird slotted effortlessly into one of the overnight spots. James waited for a line of uniformed kids on a field trip to pass before he got out of the car and casually started walking. He wasn’t sure where to go then; Brandon was running around with his head cut off and he had much of Power Play doing the same. Tomorrow was big, that much was obvious. But James also noticed that he was perusing downtown right near Lisa’s office. He’d done his work. What would it hurt to take 45 minutes for lunch?

Lisa was surprised to see James sitting in her computer chair when she rounded the corner into her cubicle. So much so that her heart immediately fell into her stomach with worry.

“What’s wrong?” She walked towards him slowly, setting her manila folders on her cluttered desk.

“Nothing’s wrong. Unless you already ate lunch.” James smiled. That was a pretty good line. Lisa was so taken aback it took her smile a few moments to catch up to the current events.

“I haven’t. I can take my break now, if you want?”

They didn’t go very far; to be honest, James was worried that one of the guys would see him out, not doing anything. He hadn’t thought of that before. Lisa insisted on Subway, so they went to the closest one and James made them eat at the innermost table of the restaurant.

“I’m glad you came today and not tomorrow. The last of the paper files are being digitalized tomorrow and the entire company is treating it like a New Years’ party; there’s no way I’d be able to leave and eat with you.”

For a moment, a thought flittered through James’ mind. It was so fast it was gone before he’d even realized what it was.

“I’m sure it’ll go by smoothly, plus, think of all the paper you won’t have to look at.”

Lisa nodded as she took a bite from her sub. It was quiet for a few seconds before he spoke again.

“So...” James rubbed the back of his neck. “I know you just met my coworkers, and I haven’t been there that long, and it’s been really, really good there, but… I think I’m gonna put in my 2 weeks notice soon.”

Lisa’s eyes went wide as she tried to gauge if her husband was serious. Slowly, she nodded and swallowed down her food.

“Okay. I mean, it’s your choice James. As long as you’re happy,” Lisa nodded faster and smiled, putting her hand over James’ on the table, “I’m happy. We’ll figure everything else out as it happens.”
James let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. After tomorrow, he’d tell Brandon he needed out.

xxxxxxx

The next day started less chaotic than James had envisioned, but it didn’t take long to escalate. He woke up like usual, seeing Lisa off to work before heading in himself. Headquarters was definitely buzzing; it seemed like everyone was there and fine tuning details. Brandon had different guys running back and forth from his office with tools, wires, tablets, and gloves. To James’ horror, he even spotted Flower and Kris strapping what was most definitely handguns onto their chests. He quickly knocked on Brandon’s office door and entered before a greeting.

“James, I was just gonna call for you.” Brandon procured a key ring from his jacket pocket and tossed it over his desk. “We’ve got a tip from the PD; apparently, Penalty Kill’s been sniffing around downtown. They tried to send them back to Philly, but they’re sneaky little rats. Anyway, I need you to bus across the river and get to PNC. There’s an armored truck in the parking garage. Hurry and drive it back over here. Hopefully it will deter those idiots from botching this job.”

James eyed the keys in his hand, not questioning how they’d got their hands on the police truck, but feeling uneasy for some reason. He attributed it to nerves over such a big job and nodded his head.
“Where do I park it?”

Brandon leaned over his desk, looking for a scrap of paper, “Across the street from the newspaper building on Fifth.”

James smiled unconsciously to himself. “That’s right by Lisa’s building,”

Brandon’s eyes stayed down but his writing hand slowed for a moment, as if he was thinking. He shook his head and finished the address, handing it to James across the desk.

“Leave now; I want them out of the way before we get there.”

Things in Pittsburgh seemed normal throughout the city. James parked the armored truck without issues. He looked around the area, wishing he knew what he was supposed to keep an eye out for; did Penalty Kill wear suits too? Would they be roaming around, or watching from a distance? Would they see him park and know it was a set up? James decided it was best to just leave the area and get into one of the strategically parked getaway cars, just in case.

He expected a call from Brandon within the half hour, the go-to message that the job was done, that everything went according to plan, to meet back at Headquarters. While he waited, he let himself fantasize about telling Brandon he was leaving Power Play; could he do that? Would Brandon let him go? Could he? His fantasy was not exactly a good one as he considered how far in he really was. After everything, he realized he was damn lucky that he wasn’t dead.

The half hour passed, but it took an hour before James, lost in his thoughts, noticed the huge delay. He grabbed his cell, making sure he hadn’t missed the call; he hadn’t. He didn’t want to panic, but it wasn’t supposed to take this long. He double checked the clock; definitely late. He was about to text one of the guys when his phone started ringing in his hand.

James’ brows furrowed at the sight on the screen. It wasn’t Brandon calling him. It was Brooks.

“Hello?”

“James, where are you?”

Brooks’ voice was winded and the words came quickly. James could hear his hurried breathing and it worried him.

“I’m with the SUV on Allies. Wh..Where are you guys?”

“Um,” Brooks said something to someone with him, and James could understand it. “You need to get to headquarters.”

“What happened? Did something go wrong?” James started sweating, and held the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he wiped his palms on his pants and started the car.

“Um,” Another pause. “Yeah, you just need to get back to headquarters.” Brooks hesitance to speak was terrifying. James heard clear voices of other guys in the background, one of them shouting something that started a fit of yelling from someone else. Brooks’ voice flooded back through the phone one more time before he hung up.

“Hurry.”

xxxxxxxx

By the time he parked, James had decided the worst. Someone died. It would be just like Fight Club. They would lay his body on the table for everyone to see and started chanting his name. He wondered who it was. Brandon, since it was Brooks that called him? No, probably Marc or Kris, they were the ones with the guns. But it could be anyone. They were all sloppy. There was no way the police would help them cover this up. They’d destroy Power Play. Even if he got away free, it would be gone. Not necessarily a bad thing.

James jogged across the street and reached for the big silver door handle, but before he could pull, the door swung open. In the confusion, James was tugged inside surrounded, and spoken to so quickly he couldn’t figure out what was going on. But he heard key words. Words that got progressively worse. Words like ‘Penalty Kill’, ‘sabotage’, ‘Allen Insurance’, ‘Your wife’, ‘accident’. He grabbed the sleeve of the closest person to him.

“Stop, stop stop stop. Everyone just shut up and one person tell me what’s going on.” The room got quiet, and he got a glimpse at the faces around him. If he thought he was worried before, it was nothing compared to the silent panic raging inside of him then. It was the kind you get when a family member calls you and asks you where you are, then tells you that they have bad news about so and so. The kind where you already know someone you love is probably dead but you refuse to jump to the obvious conclusion.

“What happened.” It wasn’t a question. Brandon came from down the hallway at that moment, and the group of men parted for him. He was disheveled, dark blonde hair sticking up, suit jacket and tie gone, blood on his collar, one side of his face beat red.

“James, I-I… I don’t know where to start. Everything was fine. The plan was great. But when we got into the computers, Penalty Kill got in somehow, a-and they, they….” It was the first time James had seen Brandon at a loss for words.

James made the motion to swallow, but his mouth was dry and his throat was closed.

“Allen Insurance.”

“There was chaos- they found us, obviously, and security went nuts. It was a three way fight.” Brandon ignored James’ statement The workers were panicking. The guys wanted to fight. We had to do something.”

“What happened to Lisa.”

“Deryk wasn’t at dinner, he didn’t know… She didn’t listen to him, and h-he grabbed her. We didn’t mean to take anyone, but she saw me. She saw the guys she knew. We couldn’t leave her there, she’d already started screaming. We were just trying to get away from those fuck faces from Philly…”
Brandon tugged on James’ arm, pulling him forward and down the hall towards the offices. James somehow put 2-and-2 together. Lisa wasn’t dead. She was kidnapped. They kidnapped her. Power Play. His fucking coworkers kidnapped his wife!

“Is she okay?” James followed Brandon down the hallway, the rest of the guys following him. Brandon halted in front of his office.

“She’s pissed.”

xxxxxxx

Lisa was too confused to be upset. But that fact alone made her angry. More than angry. She was furious, seeing red, breathing hard enraged. She’d smacked one of them across the face the second they took the twist ties off of her wrist. One she recognized from dinner, just to make sure they knew that she knew. One was in the corner of the office now watching her with a guarded look. She didn’t recognize him, but that didn’t stop her from throwing everything off of the desk at him as soon as they were alone. That she hadn’t seen James anywhere was no comfort. Lisa could admit that she may have misidentified one of these guys as a coworker of his, but not all of them. They were all there. All except her husband.

Strangely, she wasn’t afraid. They couldn’t kill her and they had to let her go eventually. They were panicked about having her in the first place, yelling about it in whatever van she was tossed into the back of, worrying about what she would do. Lisa didn’t know what she would do.

The blinds were all closed on the windows looking in, but she heard a group approaching and saw shadows in the hallway. Lisa jumped up from her chair and scared the guy in the corner doing so as the door flew open. In front was the man she’d slapped, a satisfying redness just beginning to fade. And behind him was the man she’d cherished and doted over and loved loyally. She didn’t bother to hide her hatred.

xxxxxxx

When Brandon opened the door, James didn’t know what he’d see. His beautiful wife upset, crying, tied to a chair, blindfolded, hurt, disheveled. But what he saw wasn’t something he expected. She jumped up from her seat, looking nearly normal besides the murderous look on her face.

“Lisa-“ James started forward, but Lisa charged towards him lightning fast. And she didn’t hesitate to smack him across the face. It stung like hell and sounded like a whip cracking.

“I hate you.” Lisa looked right into his eyes as she spoke through gritted teeth, Her eyes showing no compassion. Just anger and puddle of tears. Before James knew what to do, she ran past the group and down the hall. Joe made to go after her, but Brandon pulled him back.

“Don’t. Just let her go.”

“I can’t believe this happened…” James mumbled as he rubbed his sore cheek. He stared into the office, Brandon’s belongings strung and thrown around. On the center of the empty desk was a little ring.

xxxxxxx

James wanted to be mad at the guys. And he was, superficially. There had been an hour long yelling match after Lisa stormed out, full of accusations and ‘How could you do this!’s. He wore himself out fast. And then it was the tired, self-assault. It was his fault, really. He made his bed and he had to lie in it. He ruined everything the second he decided to lie to the one person who would never ever hurt him.

James called Lisa’s cell, called the house phone, but didn’t dare call her office. Once everyone had semi-calmed down, he’d gotten a much more detailed account of the afternoon. It wasn’t pretty. There was no answer on her part, not that he expected one, but he left messages, begged for forgiveness, cried, pleaded, made promises that he knew wouldn’t work. At the end of the day, with nowhere to go, he accepted Brandon’s offer to stay at his house. On the car ride over, James told him he wanted out. Brandon must have understood, but he didn’t say a word.

The next three days were the most miserable of his life. Power Play was ordered to stay low, do nothing, be seen nowhere. Lisa hadn’t budged and James was getting desperate.

“I’m going to the house. I know she has to be there, and she’ll have to talk to me. Or at least listen to me. I have to make her understand, Brandon, Lisa has to get it.”

“Man… bad idea. I know you want to make things right, but you can’t. She’s not gonna give. Not with you like this.” It hadn’t been easy for Brandon to see James the past few days. Personally, he was humiliated. He didn’t know failure, but he knew now he didn’t like it. The embarrassment was only worse because James was such a mess. It was no surprise that he wanted out, but Brandon couldn’t do anything. He just had to wait for his boss to make a move.

“Come in to Headquarters with me today. I’m gonna clean my office and stuff. It’s probably the last place you want to be right now but… Getting out will do you some good.”

James acted like he hadn’t heard him, but followed him out of the front door and into the sleek car anyway. Brandon got them out of the burbs and into the city just fine before he pulled the car into the underground. There was another already there, a large black Escalade with dark windows. James looked to Brandon, whose expression was unreadable. He patted James on the back as they walked up to go inside.

Headquarters was eerie. James had never seen it so quiet and vacant. He followed Brandon down the hallway and to his office slowly, imagining Lisa storming the opposite direction out of here, confused and alone and betrayed. He swallowed down his upset stomach.

When the pair approached Brandon’s office, they slowed. The blinds were still drawn but the door was wide open. Hesitantly, they walked to the entrance. Sitting behind Brandon’s cleaned desk were too men, dressed in matching black suits with ties and sunglasses and looking more like secret service officers than simple businessmen. They stood when James and Brandon entered the doorway.

“What can we do for you?” Brandon spoke first, but gave no indication that he knew the men. James was beyond feeling anything but numbness and didn’t care if these men were the FBI. But they removed their sunglasses and some feeling of relief washed over him. They had friendly eyes and one of them even smiled as he spoke.

“James Neal?”

“Yeah.”

“The Boss would like to see you.”