Rose was waiting outside Tommy's trailer when he finally stumbled home. He meandered along the dirt track unsteadily his eyes struggling to focus. Above him the lights strung up between the trailers were giant blurry globes. He staggered to a stop when he saw her. Her pretty mouth pinched and her eyes hard. He remember when Rose's face was open, when the only lines she created around her mouth and eyes were from laughing and smiling. He hadn't been any sort of boyfriend for Rose but he wondered why she'd chosen Colin after that. Colin who meant well but was a shitty husband and a lazy father. He'd taken advantage of Roses desperate need to be loved, to belong and be useful to the cause. Tommy didn't love Rose but he didn't think she deserved what she got.

"Rose." he grinned at her.

She stood up pulling the patchwork blanket over her shoulders. Her breaths came out as puffs between them. "Where's Colin?"

"I'm fine darlin' thanks for asking, and yerself?"

Rose didn't smile "Have you seen him?"

"No." He shook his head.

A look of frustrated concern crossed her features. Tommy wanted to reach out and smooth the lines out on her forehead but he was very careful not to touch Rose. It wasn't over for her, not really. She'd made that clear plenty of times. Sometimes Tommy looked at his niece and nephew and wondered what his life would be like if they were his own. Would she be happy? Would he be happy? Would their parents have been happy? It would have been easy with Rose but he'd never been a fan of easy. If he'd been into doing what was easy rather than what he wanted he never would have known a love like he did, the heart stopping mind maddening passion that tied him up and turned him upside down. He felt a stab of longing right in the centre of his chest. He thought about the woman in the red coat and imagined her with hair the colour of a warm deep sunset, with eyes that glittered emerald even in the dark. He took a deep breath as if he could still smell the honey and milk of her skin.

"He said he'd gone to see you." she pulled at the blanket as it slipped off her shoulders. "Are you sure you didn't see him?"

Tommy rocked forwards and backwards on his heels for a moment trying to think about how long Rose would continue to question him and what words would be the right ones to get her to hurry up and leave so he could fall face down in his tiny uncomfortable bed. He missed the soft fresh sheets in expensive hotels.

"Oh fucking hell Tommy how much have you had to drink?" she stepped down the stairs and leant forward to sniff him. "You stink."

"Always a pleasure Rose." he grumbled pushing past her to get to his front door. Screw placating her he needed to sleep.

"Tommy please! He's been gone for hours and he was-"

"What? High? Yeah I noticed." the plastic caravan door bounced off the stay peg without catching and swung back to hit Tommy on the arm. He grunted.

"Oh so now you have seen him!" she snapped.

"Oh for fucks sake Rose!" Tommy whirled around on her his expression menacing. "I haven't seen him for ages. He'll be back when he's back."

"He's your brother!"

"He's your husband!"

"And we all know how much that means around here don't we?" she was breathing so hard her chest was heaving up and down. The blanket had slipped down off her shoulders exposing the names of her children tattooed across the rise of her left breast. Tommy glanced at them then quickly away hoping she hadn't noticed. "Tommy please." she sounded small, quickly too tired of fighting about Colin. They were always fighting about Colin. "I'm worried about him."

Tommy reached out to put the blanket back on Roses shoulders, covering up her chest and pulling it tightly closed around her. "You're always worried about Colin." he replied wearily. "Do you think he ever worries about you?"

The shutter behind her eyes rolled down, the watery blues icing over. Tommy was much more comfortable around this Rose. "Fuck you Tommy."

"Yeah fuck me." rolling his eyes he walked back to the trailer. "He'll be back eventually."

"And what am I supposed to do until then?"

"Wait." he snapped closing the door behind him shutting out the cold air of the outside and letting the cold air inside embrace him. The trailer was the same as it always was, neat and tidy and...empty. The perfect reflection of how he felt inside. There were a couple of mugs in the sink and some tea bags making stains on the draining board. The cupboard doors had fallen off and he still hadn't gotten round to repairing them, mostly he'd been sleeping and thinking about smoking. He touched the nearly full packet of cigarettes in his back pocket, took them out and threw them in the sink. One of the mugs, full of dirty water, fell over and soaked them through. In the morning when he could think in straight lines he would be pissed about that but until then he tripped down the narrow walkway, past the busted bathroom door and onto the uncomfortable box bed.

Banging. It was the banging that woke him in the morning, or at least he hoped it was morning because if it wasn't the visitor was going to get a knuckle sandwich. Tommy rolled over, the cold air pricking at his skin waking him up better than the noise rocking his home. By the time he'd rolled out of bed the banging had stopped. The packet of cigarettes were soaking in the sink but Tommy couldn't muster up the energy to be annoyed about it. Instead he stuck the kettle on, threw the cigarettes out the window and made a cup of tea.

"Tommy!"

He dropped the mug in the sink, the handle cracking and bouncing back out onto the floor. "Jesus fucking Christ!" he exclaimed.

"Did I scare ya?" Colin grinned mischievously taking Tommy back to the years when the worst thing they had to worry about was his father's meaty palms and whose turn it was to pinch penny sweets from the post office. Now the post office was closed and any pinching they did was for goods with a value much greater than a penny.

"What are ya doin' lurking about for?" he barked frowning down at the mess in the sink. Was that his favourite mug? Did he have a favourite mug?

"I tried the door but you wouldn't answer. Did you not hear me?"

"I thought it was in my head."

Colin laughed, "Long night?"

"Mmm and then when I got back guess who was waiting for me on the steps?"

His grin vanished, "Shite."

"Shite is right. Sort your crap out would ya?"

"She was asleep when I got in but she was gone this morning, kids too."

"Aye playgroup."

"Right playgroup." he replied faintly.

It was obvious he had no idea his children even went to playgroup let alone when. "Do you ever listen to her?"

"She's always chatting bollocks I just tune her out." he waved it away as though that wasn't as bad as it sounded.

"And she saw fit to give you two kids." Tommy shook his head in disbelief.

"I'd like to see you do a better job." Colin scowled. The words hung heavy between them both boys suddenly unable to look at one another. Problem was his brother knew Tommy could do a better job he just didn't want to. At a loss for what to say he looked down at the mess in the sink again. "Can I come in? It's so cold my nipples could cut glass."

The force of his laugh surprised him.

Any hope of forgetting last night was ruined when Colin slid into the bench seat and began to talk about the diamonds. Apparently just because Tommy thought it was the worst idea ever that didn't take it off the table.

"Look first of all it's Haus' apartment. All we need is the house layout and the codes to the alarm systems - of which we have both." Tommy must have looked surprised because Colin looked superior. "Do you have no faith in me brother? Do you think I would come to you with this without any plan?"

Tommy thought exactly that.

"Haus isn't an amateur he'll have an industrial safe. He's not keeping diamonds in a keypad wall one."

"Obviously." Colin snorted.

Tommy sat back and with a great heaving sigh asked, "Go on then who's on your crack team?"

He looked pleased to have the floor again. "Me and you, obviously. Wouldn't do this without my brainy older brother." the compliment was underwhelming. "Finn - driver and then there's a guy Eoin, one of the boys over from Antrim, he's good with safes."

"Good with safes? We're gonna need a lot better than good."

"Alright he's a genius I just didn't want to over sell it."

There was no way he could over sell something Tommy had no intention of buying.

"Come on Tommy it's a slightly quieter smash and grab and we've got the security codes and a buyer already lined up for the stones so by the time Haus finds the bollocks to tell his employer that he let himself get robbed anything incriminating will be long gone."

"How exactly did you secure this?"

"Christ Tommy your constantly underestimating me is going to hurt my feelings one day."

Tommy didn't find that as distressing as he should have. There hadn't always been this contempt for his younger brother. Once upon a time they'd been thick as thieves, after Shaun died Colin and Tommy had bonded together presenting a united front for their mother and providing stability and safety for the other. But over the past few years, the last one being the tipping point, Colin's zealousness had started to make him rash and unpredictable. In truth it scared Tommy. He was afraid of his brother, afraid for him. Who knew where this desperate yearning to prove himself was going to land them?

"What if Haus' employer finds out?"

"He won't." Colin replied confidently.

"How do you know."

"Got a guy on the inside." he said it so quickly and so casually that Tommy almost thought he'd misheard.

"And you're just telling me this now?"

In response Colin rolled his eyes. Tommy's disbelief rendered him speechless.

"Come on, Da's on board." that was hardly a ringing investment. If we can pull it of, when we pull it off, out cut will more than pay for the money we lost in Penrhose."

The words were as comforting as the thought of a root canal without anaesthesia.

"You're thinking too hard about this. Let me worry about all that, you just turn up with that mug of yours and be ready to make some money."

Tommy snorted. As if. This whole thing felt hinky but he couldn't tell if it was because they were missing a critical part of the puzzle or it was just nerves. He hadn't carried out a job in a long time. He'd been lying low, sulking in his caravan.

At length he admitted, "It feels rushed."

"Don't you want to do something Tommy?" his brother leant over the table his face so close Tommy could see the bags under his eyes from a heavy night.

Tommy didn't want anything lately, certainly not anything he could have. He wanted to not be in this trailer, in this shanty town they'd built on top of a derelict construction site. The land was tied up in planning applications and fund gathering and in the mean time some faceless foreman was letting them squat here for a pretty price. Sometimes the local kids would drive by real slow to gawk at the tinkers. Tommy caught them sneaking in once hoping to cop a look at some of the younger girls they had. He'd sent them off with stern words and a thick ear. They were sore about it shouting abuse over their shoulders as they ran away not knowing how lucky they were not to have encountered the girls' mothers. There was nothing worse than a pissed off Irish woman, especially ones with knives.

"Don't you want to do something more than skulk around here and look like someone pisses in your porridge every morning?"

Tommy swallowed the last of his tea. If he wasn't going to do this for himself he should at least do it for Colin. His brother was a fuck up, a shoot now ask questions later kind of guy and one of these days he was going to caught by the police and have to do real time. An optimistic person would hope it taught him a lesson in how to be cautious but Tommy knew it would only stoke the fire in his soul. Tommy owed it, not to Colin but to his mother to keep him out of trouble. He nodded ignoring Colin's triumphant little laugh. "We get in and we get out, no sodding about."

"Trust me brother. It's all going to be fine."

Tommy cringed but Colin was too busy clapping his hands together like a cartoon villain to notice.