"Are you sure that Aituro knows what he's doing?" Jeffrey asked, looking over at the AD as they watched Gus and Jack through the two-way mirror.

"I'm sure that he's working some sort of strategy…" the AD replied.

"They haven't said two words to each other in the last half an hour…"

"Just… Give him some more time…"

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Gus took another drink from his water bottle before setting it back down on the table. He noticed that Jack seemed to be staring at it in an odd sort of way. "Thirsty, Jack?" He asked, the first words he'd spoken in the last half-hour.

"Nope…" Jack said. "Just watching the way that your lips wrap around the top of the bottle. Just watching the way that your fingers move up and down over it… As if you were stroking it… Trying to bring the bottle to some sort of release… Just imagining… What if that wasn't a water bottle that you had your fingers wrapped around…"

"I meant what I said, you know? Neither one of us is going to be leaving this room…"

"Mmm hmm…" Jack mumbled. "You know if this is your way of breaking people then you need some serious practice…"

Gus had no reply to that. He sat silently for about another fifteen minutes before finally thinking up something to say. "You know…" he said. "I never really liked that kid…"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "What kid?" He asked.

"You know what kid…" Gus answered. "Always acting so damn cocky towards everyone. Thinking he's so much better than everyone else. Even hacked into my family's business accounts. If you ask me, he needed to be taken down a few pegs…"

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, well… I made sure that he was…"

"And why didn't you just kill Jeffrey when you had the chance?" Gus asked.

"I had every intention of doing so…" Jack replied. "But that big bald ape got there before I was finished…"

"Why didn't you just shoot him right there in the alleyway?"

"In front of Alex and…" Jack caught himself before he said too much. "Oh, I see what you're doing…" he said.

"I'm not doing anything…" Gus said. "I just wish that you'd finished what you'd set out to do. You'd a done the world a great service…"

"And what do you have against Jeffrey?" Jack asked. "You seem wronged…"

Gus lowered his voice to almost a whisper. Maybe Frank was good for an idea. "I thought…" Gus said. "That if I gave him what he wanted in the surveillance van, that he would want me… He made it seem like if I gave in to him… He'd want me instead of that cocky…" What had Jack called him? Oh, right… "Little bitch. But no… Of course not. I'm not good enough for Jeffrey O'Neil. Not for more than a fuck anyway…"

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The words hit Harley like a ton of bricks, as she'd entered the room just in time to hear them. She remembered her brother mumbling something about how close Gus and Jeffrey seemed, but she'd shrugged it off as just more of Frank's nonsensical ramblings. Her eyes were as wide as saucers when she finally spoke. "What did he just say?" She snapped, looking over at Jeffrey.

The look on her face was priceless. It made Jeffrey want to laugh, but he somehow managed to hold it in. "It's called strategy, Terrier…" he said, before turning his attention back to the conversation that was slowly unfolding in front of him.

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"At least he didn't string you along…" Jack said, noting that the detective seemed genuinely disconcerted over this. "Making you think that he loved you, even though he'd never actually said the words…"

"No…" Gus said. "I wasn't even good enough for that…"

"Because nobody's good enough for him…" Jack said. "'Cept for that little bitch…"

"But you took care of him, huh?" Gus said, forcing a chuckle.

"Oh yes I did…" Jack said.

"No regrets?" Gus asked.

"Only one…" Jack answered.

"Dare I ask?" Gus said, raising an eyebrow.

"I wish I would've finished the job… I mean, could you just picture Jeffrey if the little whore died and it was all his fault?" Jack said, before beginning to laugh, almost maniacally so.

Gus didn't find it funny at all, but he forced himself to laugh right along with him. Maybe he could catch him in a weak moment. "Really, I mean… You could've just shot Jeffrey in that alleyway. I'm sure that neither Alex or Brad would've minded much…"

"Yeah…" Jack said, his guard slipped for a second. "They would've just gone right on doing their business…"

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