The next morning…
8:13 AM.
A loud buzz hums through the room, slowly pulling Jake from his sleep.
He fumbles for the source, eyes still closed.
Leave me alone…
It continues to buzz.
He forces his eyes open.
The phone sits above his head, vibrating against the cushion.
He tilts his chin up and reaches for it.
Incoming call: Tyler.
He shoots up.
Oh shit.
He flips it open without thinking.
"Finally, damn. You know I don't like being kept waiting. Tell me you're close."
Jake rubs his eyes.
"Close? Uh… where exactly am I supposed to be right now?"
"Your phone not working? I sent the message last night."
"Uh… must've missed it, my bad."
"Whatever, just get to HQ now. You've got ten minutes."
He ends the call.
Wait. Shit.
Why'd I pick up the damn phone?
I'll just go see what he wants… then we're done.
He rolls off the couch.
He holds his head and looks down at the mess from last night.
"Gross…"
He shuffles out of the apartment.
Seconds later, he tears down the street on his motorcycle.
He pulls up to a towering glass high-rise, its mirrored surface catching the morning light.
He kills the engine as he rolls to a stop.
He tosses his helmet onto the bike and hurries to the front door.
A doorman steps in, pulling the door open as Jake approaches.
"Congratulations, sir. A monumental day… indeed."
"Uh… yeah, sure." He hurries inside.
The hell was that about?
He shakes it off and heads through the lobby toward the elevator.
He presses the up button and waits.
*Ding*
The elevator doors slide open and he steps inside.
He steps up to the panel and presses thirty-seven.
An error tone sounds.
"This damn thing…"
He enters a four-digit code beneath the panel, then presses the button again.
A different tone sounds, and the elevator starts moving.
What could he possibly want?
Another meeting to stroke his ego?
*Ding*
The doors open.
"Floor eleven."
A man in a suit steps in and presses a button.
He stands beside Jake.
"Morning."
Jake nods, shifting slightly to put space between them.
"You heading up too?"
"Mhm."
"So, what do you do?"
Jake doesn't respond, he just shoots the man an annoyed look.
The man takes a step away.
"Looks like this is my floor."
He reaches over and quickly presses the nearest floor.
*Ding*
"Floor seventeen."
The man hurries out.
Jake rubs his brow.
The doors close, and the elevator moves up.
*Ding*
"Floor nineteen."
Two men in suits step into the doorway. They glance at Jake, then step back out.
"Tch."
He leans in and rapidly presses the door-close button.
The doors slide shut.
God, I miss the warehouse.
Music hums in the background as he watches the floor numbers climb.
*Ding*
"Floor twenty-three."
A woman in office attire steps in, holding a coffee and a stack of folders.
She presses a button, then moves to the back corner.
The doors close.
She glances at Jake out of the corner of her eye, then looks forward again. She slowly brings a hand to her nose.
Jake lifts his shirt and takes a quick sniff.
That's fair.
The floor numbers keep climbing.
*Ding*
"Floor twenty-nine."
A man pushes a mail cart in.
"Could you hit forty-one for me?" He nods at Jake.
Jake presses the button, irritated.
The mail guy taps his cart to the dull music.
He turns to the woman in the corner.
"Long day already, huh?"
"It's only eight-thirty."
"Yeah…"
He turns away and resumes tapping his cart.
The elevator dings again.
"Floor thirty-two."
The woman walks out.
The doors close behind her.
The numbers start to climb again.
Stairs it is from now on.
*Ding*
"Floor thirty-seven."
Finally.
Jake steps out of the elevator, letting out a deep breath.
"Good morning sir, Boss is waiting for you in the main room."
A woman in business suit sits behind a reception desk.
"Thanks, D."
He pushes down the hall and reaches a glass-lined conference room.
Men in suits linger around a long table, coffee cups and half-eaten sandwiches scattered across it. Others work at desks throughout the room. One man quietly counts cash.
"I'm telling you, the Knicks aren't doing shit this year," one man says, his feet kicked up on the desk.
"You willing to bet on it?" Another man across from him cuts in.
"Oh yeah? How much we talking?"
Jake pushes the door open and steps inside.
"Ay, look who it is. Mr. Big Shot," the man with his feet up calls out.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't be coy. Everyone, get off your asses and congratulate the man."
Some of the guys get up and go around shaking Jake's hand, offering their congratulations.
"What the hell's going on today? Is this some kind of joke?"
Two younger guys step up to Jake.
"Congrats, Jake." One of them steps up, offering his hand.
"Kind of bummed you're not going to be running with us anymore."
The other one chimes in. "Who's gonna save our asses when things go south now?"
"What is everyone—"
The door flies open and Slim steps through, a few years older, an even harder edge to him.
Everyone jumps to their feet as fear spreads across their faces.
"Boss's office now."
He stands in the doorway, holding it open.
Jake looks around the room.
"The hell are you all doing?"
"You've kept him waiting all morning. Let's go."
"Alright, relax I'm coming."
Jake moves past Slim, who holds the door open, his expression tight.
"When the hell have you ever held the door for me?"
"Cut the act. I know exactly what this is."
"What's the matter with you? Someone shit in your cereal this morning?"
"Just because you're technically above me now… what, you want me to say it?"
"If this is some joke, it's not landing. Like at all."
"Just save it. I'm not in the mood."
Slim approaches the door and pulls it open. He waits, nodding for Jake to enter, jaw tight.
"You're being mad weird, man."
He steps inside.
A spacious office space opens up, glass walls overlook the city skyline. Dark wood and steel furnishings fill the space. Tyler sits behind a large desk, facing the window.
He turns his chair to face Jake and Slim.
"Finally, come take a seat."
Jake and Slim take their seats in front of Tyler's desk.
"Jesus you look like shit, rough night?"
"You could say that."
"Well, let's get down to it."
Slim cuts in. "That's it?! He kept you waiting nearly an hour."
"Slim, calm down. This wasn't anything serious."
"But—"
"Slim."
Tyler shoots him a look that shuts him down.
"Good."
"Now, I know you might be a little confused, but the boys were getting restless, so I gave them the news first. I'm sure you heard from one of them. So we can skip all the mush."
"I'm a little lost. I just got here and everyone started congratulating me. What's all the celebration for?"
"Context clues, c'mon Jake."
Jake sits still, trying to piece it together.
"This is not a good first day." Tyler exhales, rubbing his brow.
"If I've got to spell it out for you… starting today, you'll be acting as my consigliere."
"Aren't consiglieres only for underbosses?"
"Correct."
"So…"
"God, Jake, the cogs are not turning today. The Brotherhood has made me an underboss and now I'm in need of a consigliere. And that is going to be you."
Jake sits there, stunned for a second.
"I uh…"
Underboss! This is good, right? Or bad? The operation is through, but this has to be enough to get it up and running again. Right?
"Jake? Hello?"
"Yeah, sorry. I just was letting it sink in."
"You don't seem too excited. No 'congratulations,' no 'thanks, I won't let you down.' You know Slim wanted this pretty bad. It was a tough call picking between the two of you, but I could always go with the next man up."
"Yeah—no, of course. This is great. Just a lot to take in. And congratulations, you earned it for sure."
Tyler nods, the words settle in nicely.
"Alright, now that's out of the way, let's get down to it. Things are going to look a little different around here. You're not running with the guys anymore. Slim's taking my position as captain, he'll still report to me. But—"
"—What am I supposed to be doing if I'm not with the guys?"
"If you'd let me finish… you're going to be acting as my advisor."
"I chose you over Slim because you've always kept us away from crashing into the rocks. Rocks that would destroy our entire operation and have us all behind bars."
"Yeah… funny how he's always the one always seeing the rocks."
"Slim, some people just have an affinity for this kind of thing, and that's what Jake has. I like the protectiveness, but Jake's done nothing but bring success to our operation."
"I'm just saying it's kind of susp—"
"Slim enough. We'll chat later, leave us."
"But I—"
"Now."
Slim pushes back from the table and leaves the room without a word.
"He'll come around eventually."
"You've been saying that for five years."
"Any day now."
Tyler shakes his head.
"Now, back to what I was saying. You won't be in the chain of command anymore, but your word will be my word. You'll have input on everything—our operations, deals, promotions, punishments, the whole nine."
"Haven't I already been doing that?"
"You have, but this is a whole different ball game. Now that I'm an underboss, our operation's grown tenfold. We're not just doing collections anymore, there's laundering, the market. We're going to be running it all."
"And there's no room for fuck-ups. So today's under the bridge, but from now on I need you close. Speaking of which, we're done with the phones."
He pulls something from the desk and sets a pager on the table.
"From here on out, everything's word of mouth, no more late nights out. I need you ready to go twenty-four/seven."
"When this beeps, you get your ass here. I don't care if it's two in the morning. Got it?"
Jake nods.
"So, what happened to the old boss?"
"He fucked up..."
Jake pauses for a beat.
"…Got it."
"Good. Now, your first task."
"All the underbosses decided it's best for the consiglieres to meet. The other two are very cautious, so they want to feel us out since we're the new guys."
"You've already met with them?!"
"Obviously they wouldn't give me this information over the phone. These guys are…"
This is huge. If we can ID these guys, we could bring this whole thing down.
Is this enough? Can I just bring him in and get the identities of the other two?
Jake slowly reaches beneath the desk for his piece.
I'd have to shoot my way out of here.
Damn it.
I'll have to find a better time.
He pulls his hand back to its original position.
"…so they'll set the where and when. Once I get the location, I'll let you know."
Tyler gets up and walks to the bookshelf.
He begins flipping through a book , his attention elsewhere.
"You've brought me nothing but good luck… I need you to keep it up. Keep us clear of the rocks."
"I'll do my best."
"Good." He closes the book and tosses it aside.
He walks to the window and looks out over the city.
"Man, we've really moved up these past five years. And we're still climbing."
"Who knows what I could've achieved with just Slim and the guys, but everything really changed once you came along…"
He stares at the city in silence… then, after a long moment, turns back around.
"Well, that's all I have for you. I'll page you when I have the location. Until then, go get cleaned up and get some sleep."
Jake picks up the pager, then stands.
"You got it boss."
"I told you, I hate it when you call me that."
Tyler holds his hand out and waits for Jake to say it.
"Thanks Tyler."
"There we go."
Fucking psycho.
Jake walks out of the room as Tyler turns back to look out over the city.
A different man holds the door open as Jake exits the building.
"Have a good day, sir!"
"Hey, what happened to the other guy who was out here earlier?"
"Not sure what you mean, sir."
"There was another… never mind. It's nothing. Thanks."
He walks to his bike.
Jake pulls out his phone and dials a number, lifting it to his ear.
"We need to talk."
A figure stands in the shadows, watching.