Jack left the table again to stand at the bar, looking back to the table over his shoulder and seeing her laughing with Boots and Mush, Racetrack even, cigar smoke dancing around their heads. Her cheeks were rosy and she was more relaxed now. She had a braid in one hand, her fingers running along it, and she used it to point at Race now, her smile teasing as her sharp eyes nailed him on the spot. Race was undoubtedly telling her another story from the Newsie days, fudging the facts.
"You're the one who's full of shit," she said as she giggled. The guys boomed with laughter.
Spot shrugged away from the booth and came to lean on the bar next to Jack.
"Suspicions confirmed?" he asked in a low voice as he nodded at Connor, signaling for another beer.
It was almost eleven and the pub was still bursting with patrons. Jack watched Connor work the bar, running up and down and slinging drinks, cool as a cat.
"Yeah," Jack murmured. "We might have a shadow."
Jack looked over Spot's shoulder at Tiffany again, seeing her occupied with the guys, and picked up his beer as Connor put Spot's down. "C'mon."
Spot followed him along the backs of people sitting on barstools to the other side of the room. Jack passed the restrooms and the entrance to the small pub kitchen and opened a door between them, which led to the back patio.
It was a small fenced-in brick patio with tables and chairs scattered around, lights strung between the fencing...and a secret entrance Connor had told the guys about.
They went to the far left corner, below the window of the kitchen. There were a few people shivering in the cold to have a smoke, and Connor's eighteen year old little brother Michael was running around collecting empty pint glasses.
Jack nodded at the boy, "'ey Mikey, what's up?"
"'ey Jack," Mikey smiled as he hauled a full bus tub of pint glasses over his shoulder. "Hiya, Spot."
"'ey kid," Spot said warmly back.
"Need anythin'?" Mikey asked as he and Spot bumped fists.
"Keep an eye on Jack's girl?" Spot asked smoothly, smiling at Jack's eye roll.
Mikey smiled sneakily, "oh yeah? The beauty you came in with?"
Jack grunted, "beat it, Mikey."
They laughed, and Mikey disappeared to the kitchen.
Spot looked around before he took out a joint, lit it, and handed it to Jack. Shortly after he took a puff, the fence panel behind him moved to the side.
Jack stepped aside nonchalantly and held the panel as Snoddy stepped through. His eyes were bright and eager as he tried to catch his breath; he'd been running up and down the street, keeping to the shadows of the neighborhood.
Jack let the panel slide back into place, and the other bar guests on the patio put out their cigs and went inside.
"What ya know?" Spot asked once they were alone. Voices and laughter from the kitchen were muffled by the window behind them.
"A guy's been sittin' for a bit in an unmarked Dodge Charger, a few cars down on the right, parked in front of the liquor store," Snoddy said in a low voice, the three of them standing close but relaxed. "License plate is TRF 592."
"'s tha same car I saw earlier," Jack said darkly as he passed Snoddy the joint.
Spot had his phone out, his eyebrows furrowed as he typed out a text. "I'll run the plate."
"Cop?" Snoddy asked.
"Maybe. But probably a private hire," Spot said, the scowl still on his face.
"Mind keepin' an eye on things?" Jack asked after a minute.
"'course, Jack," Snoddy said. "Send Bum to find me."
Jack sighed hard, the air clouding around him in the chilly air. "I don't wanna jump the gun or nothin', but -"
"Don't want tha gun jumpin' you," Spot said with steely eyes.
Jack dragged a hand over his face, thoroughly irritated. He couldn't be mad at her, not like before...he just wanted to know why she was mixed up with these guys in the first place.
"Can't believe they're tailin' her," Snoddy said bitterly.
"They know she's with him," Spot tilted his head towards Jack.
"Which 's why they can't see her leavin' with us," Jack said, thinking. "If she's up for throwin' them off a little."
"Don't wanna create more trouble for her," Snoddy said low, not wanting to give Jack the thought.
"Let 'em keep their tabs," Spot said...but after a moment the confidence left his eyes. "...I'll jus' pull the car 'round an' get her out through the fence."
"How romantic," Snoddy said humorlessly as he handed off the joint.
"She'll hafta climb," Jack huffed, thinking about their apartment building; the backdoor was permanently locked to keep people from sneaking into the building and robbing tenants. The fire escape was the only way in, if you had someone drop the ladder to the street.
"Somethin' tells me she'll be up for it," Spot said.
"Me an' the guys will leave through the front, so they sees me goin' in the apartment without her," Jack took a drag, exhaled his frustration. "I'll meet her on the fire escape."
"And the place is clean as a whistle, Jackie Boy," Spot said as he put the joint out on the bottom of his pint glass. "I personally made sure of it. Am I good or what?"
"Don't let ya head get any bigger," Snoddy said. He flinched at Spot's advance, and Spot hit him twice in the arm. "I'll be around," Snoddy said before he pushed the panel aside and went back into the alley.
Jack and Spot stepped back inside, the laughter and loud voices engulfing them again, and Tiffany came around the corner at the same moment, smiling big when her gaze landed on Jack.
"Hiding from me, Jack?" she asked playfully, her cheeks rosy.
His brain still wasn't used to the image of her smiling like that at him, and definitely wasn't used to her approaching him so comfortably. She smelled like whiskey.
"Nev'ah," he said.
"I'll be back," Spot said as he left Jack's side. "I'll go fill in the knuckleheads."
Jack's grin didn't touch his eyes, and Tiffany's smile fell as she read him. The way her sea bright eyes read him so easily gave him chills.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
Jack weighed his question for a moment. "Does the club have ya followed often?"
Understanding poured over her face and her body became rigid in its wake, her expression dark - a darkness that had been lurking beneath the surface ever since she'd gotten that text in the car…
Now she stayed perfectly still in front of him, as if the smallest movement would call someone's attention from across the room through the crowd.
He pulled her to the right behind a partition wall that led to the bathrooms, and watched Mikey walk by with more glasses - his eyes were wide as he spotted Jack but kept walking fast to the kitchen.
Jack looked back to Tiffany and waited for her answer...she was trying hard to hide her panic, but her eyes were cold as they met his.
"They've never been so...attentive before," she said, her gaze touched with guilt as she looked him over. "Jack...I'll call a cab and leave separately. I don't want you guys getting in -"
In the shadow of the hall he leaned forward to stop her lips with his, stopping the fear he heard in her voice.
He felt her surprise as she froze for a moment, and his tongue grazed her lower lip before he broke away to watch her eyes open.
"Said you were all mine tonight," he said. "Right?"
The blush that bloomed over her cheeks made him grin...and she fought her smiling lips as she leaned back against the wall, watching him carefully. She was separating herself from him deliberately. He could see she was caught - just as Spot said - between doing what she felt was right, and being with him.
But after a moment, a long moment...the guilt began to leave her slowly, and her shoulders relaxed a little. Her voice was husky, "So...you have a plan?"
"Yeah. But it involves some climbing."
"A perfect precursor for the movie," she said cheekily.
She was good at masking her fear alright... But he was pleased she wanted to stay.
He checked around the corner and saw the guys moving through the crowd around the bar. "Let's just say we're pros at leavin' out the back."
"Especially in a pinch," Boots said, seeming to appear at Jack's elbow. "Specs is comin' with me, see if our shadow follows. I'll pick up Snoddy and Bumlets when the coast is clear."
Jack nodded, and Boots turned with Specs to go back through the crowded pub tables to the front door, shouting good night to Connor.
"Got everything?" Jack asked as he turned back to Tiffany.
"I just need my...oh, thanks, Mush," she smiled sweetly as she took her purse from Mush's outstretched hand.
"I texted Honey, told her you're with us," Mush said as he checked his phone.
"Then she knows I'm good," she said with a wink. Mush couldn't help but smile back.
The cold air stung their cheeks as they went out the back door. Tiffany pulled her sweater tighter. Mush and Racetrack followed behind her and Jack, their voices falling once they stepped on to the patio. Car horns and sirens blared down the street a few blocks away.
"Spot will bring ya 'round back," Jack said low to her. "I'll meet ya on the fire escape."
"Knock knock," Spot's voice came from the side fence. "Hurry up!"
Racetrack found the loose board and held it to the side. He smiled broadly when he saw Spot's townie on the other side in the alley. "What service… Your chariot, my lady."
She took his hand and stepped through, and Jack watched until she was in the car. Racetrack put the board back into place and turned back to them with raised eyebrows, huffing a cloud of breath into the cold air.
"Kinda like old times, huh? Jus', ya know, minus the car."
They rolled their eyes. Mush pulled Race's hat down over his face.
They strolled through the bar to the front door, waved good night to Conner and Mikey, and stepped back out into the cold on the street, the street lamps illuminating everything but in between the buildings around them.
Jack resisted looking down the street as they crossed to their apartment, hands in pockets, cracking jokes. He was sure the rat was watching them, and Jack felt the group exhale once they made it inside and through the door to the stairwell.
"Alright, so far so good," Racetrack said encouragingly as they all began up the stairwell.
"I don't care how much money you'd pay me," Mush said darkly, their steps echoing up the walls. "I'm never tailing anybody. Ya want to know what someone's doin'? Ya do ya dirty work yourself."
"Or jus' leave 'em the fuck alone," Jack finished.
"Ain't that easy when it's your money you're tailin' - OW!"
Racetrack stopped a moment to glare at Mush, who'd been stepping in time with him and had hit him upside the head.
"Some sensitivity here, huh?" Mush said as they both went back to climbing stairs.
"I jus' wanna know why," Jack said as he stopped on the landing of the third floor and turned to look down at them. He dropped his voice, "There's somethin' personal, she won't say a word about it... an' I think it's the reason she's in this mess ta begin with."
"Let's jus' get her in here first, huh?" Racetrack said as he crossed to their apartment and pulled his keys out of his pocket. He muttered to the door, "We need ta chill the fuck out and watch a movie."
Racetrack opened the door and Mush and Jack followed him inside, Mush's hand on Jack's shoulder.
Tiffany kept her face turned and angled down, away from the window as Spot took a long detour. He turned right, right, left, right again, and in her peripheral she saw the blurs of color of the art outside. But she didn't look at them.
"Told ya this wasn't Jack's first rodeo," Spot had said when he'd pulled away from the pub.
"It is with these guys," she responded darkly.
Spot didn't say anything, his eyes guarded and peeled in the rearview, and they rode in silence as her mind wandered and worried.
"Fuck," Spot muttered as he came to a stop at a railroad crossing, the bells and red lights of the crossbar flashing and sounding like an alarm as it lowered in front of the car.
She scanned the scene outside instinctively before looking back to the rearview mirror. His eyes were bright and narrow as he rested his elbow on the door, thinking. His gaze flashed to each mirror of the car in a pattern, but he didn't look panicked - just annoyed.
Her mind kept turning over the same question, the one she'd been wanting to ask… she fought the urge to fidget with her braids.
"You knew her too," she said quietly into the darkness of the car. "Didn't you?"
Those bright sharp eyes cut to her coldly in the mirror, and watched her carefully for a long moment.
She'd wanted to ask him for a while, sensing the history beneath the guys' tight bond, how close they all were with Jack. She got the feeling they had been close with her too, whoever she had been...before they lost her.
She didn't look away as they watched each other in the mirror, the train approaching from the left to circle around to the industrial park to their right. The place was dark and deserted.
Spot didn't break eye contact either. She almost felt as if she'd committed a taboo by the darkness that veiled his face.
"Yes." His voice was tight. "I knew her."
The train clanged and rolled noisily as it passed them. He looked uncomfortable, spooked.
"Did she work in a club too?" she asked emotionlessly. But her heart pounded achingly in her chest - the thought of the woman Jack had been with. "Jack said...she did similar work."
Spot's hand was tense on the wheel, his eyes fixed on her. He didn't say anything.
Tiffany wondered if Jack saw her as a second chance - a chance to save her when he couldn't before... she wondered what she had been like, what she looked like. If he had loved her.
"He feels responsible for what happened to her," she said sadly. "Doesn't he?"
Spot's voice was fast, hard and challenging: "How many girls have been taken from The Black Diamond?"
She inhaled sharply - the question was like a slap, a gunshot, a dark secret she wasn't expecting to be exposed right here.
"Too many, right?"
She didn't say anything. Heat climbed up her face - anger, surprise.
The crossbar began to lift ahead of them but the car didn't move.
"An' you girls are tryin' to put a stop to it," Spot stated as he turned around in the seat to look at her dead on. "Aren't ya?"
She glared resentfully at him for a long moment. "What has Jade told you?"
"Her lips are sealed. When it comes to work, anyway," humor touched his eyes for a moment but his bitterness came back swiftly. "A blind man can see that you are the top pick, their prize girl. Why else would they have you tailed on a Monday night? But the real question is…"
She fumed in the seat, his beautiful sharp blue eyes pinning her like a mouse caught by a cat.
"...why haven't they made a move on you yet?"
They stared at each other for a long time, both trying to read the other, thinking.
"Upping the bet prolongs the inevitable," she said at last in a low voice. "But they'll fold before I do."
"Careful, love," he said gently, his expression softening as he turned back to the wheel. She saw the hurt in his reflection in the mirror. "Can't cheat a cheater."
They rode in silence again until the car stopped finally at the back of the guys' apartment building. She felt guilty again, these guys going to these lengths to keep her safe...when she was more concerned about their safety instead.
Spot opened her car door and she stood, their eyes meeting.
"He already knows," he said, his voice low and serious. "So don't try ta play underhanded. That'll only piss him off."
"Girls' lives are at risk," she said low and fast, her eyes glancing over his shoulder down the alleyway. "I can't risk exposure...for several reasons."
"Trust me," he said darkly. "We get it... you'll always have a place here, if ya want it."
They both looked up, hearing clamoring above them; a window opened on the third floor, and Jack emerged, his figure moving down the zigzag fire escape.
Tiffany looked back to Spot and saw a softness in his expression.
"Deja Vu," he mumbled to himself as he watched Jack.
She kissed his cheek, and he looked back to her in surprise.
Talking with Spot felt like making a deal - an unspoken agreement between them both: he was giving her space to tell Jack on her own terms...and she knew he wouldn't hold it against her.
Spot cleared his throat and stepped away from her to catch the ladder - Tiffany looked up and saw Jack waiting, his hair loose around his handsome face in the breeze.
Tiffany slipped off her boots and socks and put them in her purse before pulling herself up the wrungs, the metal cold on her feet. Spot raised the ladder and followed behind her.
"Cold as shit out here," he grumbled below.
"We've known worse," Jack said as he climbed back up to the third floor. He sat in the window and held his hand out to her, his fingers warm in hers as she climbed inside.
Her feet hit the floor and she met his eyes, nervous that he would see right through her.
But he smirked at her instead. "Welcome to our place."
